iOS 14 preview: We got an early look at the changes coming to your iPhone this fall - CNET

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iOS 14 preview: We got an early look at the changes coming to your iPhone this fall – CNET

Published

4 years ago

June 27, 2020

Harry Miller

iOS 14 brings a number of refinements large and small to iPhones, including the ability to pin widgets to your home screen and have picture-in-picture video.

Patrick Holland/CNET

On Monday, Apple launched iOS 14 at an online keynote for its annual Worldwide Developer Conference. The latest iPhone operating system includes new customizations for the home screen, picture-in-picture video, better widgets, a new Siri interface and App Library, a new way to organize your apps.

The final version of iOS 14 will be released in the fall alongside the heavily rumored iPhone 12. But I got my hands on the developer beta of iOS 14 and was able to try out many of the features including the Translation app, Back Tap, new group Messaging options and new Memoji customizations, which include the option to add a face mask.

This isn’t a review of the developer beta software. Rather it’s a hands-on preview of some of the significant features in iOS 14 and how they work.

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The iOS 14 home screen is the same, but also different

At first glance, an iPhone 11 running iOS 14 doesn’t appear to be any different. All of my apps are right where they were in iOS 13. But a simple swipe to the right reveals a page called the App Library, which organizes all my apps in one place.

It would be easy to compare the App Library to the Android app drawer. But Apple has put its own twist on things by grouping apps into categories. Twitter, Instagram and similar apps are grouped together under the Social category, for example.

The groups look like large app folders but there’s no need to open one up to get to an app. You simply tap the app and go. Groups with more than four apps, have mini app clusters. You can tap them to expand the cluster and then tap the app you want.

When you open the App Library search bar, an alphabetical list of all your apps appears. So between Siri, search, your home page and the options on the App Library page there’s now a bunch of ways to find and open your apps in iOS 14.

Widgets can be pinned to your home screen

With the announcement of iOS 14, Apple now has three forms of apps: There are apps, widgets based on those apps and App Clips. That last one I’ll talk about momentarily. In iOS 13, widgets showed up in the Today View page to the left of the home screen. But now you can pin widgets directly on your home screen. You simply long press on the screen, tap the plus button and the Widget Gallery pops up.

The Widget Gallery is a mix of suggested widgets as well as a list of apps that have a widget you can install. Obviously, since this is the developer version the only widgets are currently for Apple apps.

Each widget comes in three sizes: small, medium and large. Widgets have a fixed width that lines up with app columns on the home screen. So you can’t put one in the middle of your screen. Having widgets that are different sizes integrated among my apps makes the iPhone home screen look contemporary and compelling. And let’s acknowledge there is definitely a Windows Phone tile vibe going on, which isn’t a bad thing.

Widget stacks and the Smart Stack

Perhaps one of the coolest customizations on the home screen is a widget stack. You create one simply by dragging one widget on top of another that’s the same size. To view the widgets in a stack, you swipe up or down, which brings a different one to the top.

Who would have thought widgets could be so exciting in 2020? And before you comment, I know Android did widgets a long time ago. But it’s lazy to dismiss iOS 14 widgets simply as a copied feature, especially since Apple’s put its own spin on widgets with what’s called a Smart Stack.

ios-14-smart-stack — You can find the Smart Stack in the Widget Gallery and then pin it to your home screen like a widget.

Patrick Holland/CNET

iOS 14 creates a Smart Stack of widgets based on the apps you use the most and the time of day you use them. So if you use the Maps app regularly after work, that’s when that widget will be at the top of your Smart Stack. If you always check the weather in the morning, then that’s one the top when you wake up. Your iPhone curates your Smart Stack for you. I’m excited to see how this will work after I’ve spent more time with iOS 14.

I’m sure many people will never touch a widget or Smart Stack in their lives and will never be the wiser, which is why Apple’s implementation is savvy. In one sense, nothing’s changed on your home screen. But in another, so much is different.

App Clips are basically mini apps for your iPhone

iOS 14 brings an entirely new way for you to interact with an app. It’s called App Clips and is aimed at apps that aren’t on your iPhone. Essentially, an App Clip is a mini app with limited functionality as determined by the app’s developer. The idea is you don’t have to take time or phone space to download an entire app and instead you can have a fast experience.

During the WWDC keynote, Apple showed off a customer signing up for a rewards club at a coffee shop via an App Clip. QR codes and NFC can trigger an App Clip. But you can also send them via a friend for ordering food, or find one for a business in Maps.

If developers widely adopt App Clips, it could help keep your iPhone decluttered and change your relationship with apps.

iOS 14 lets you hide app pages

If you have apps that you use infrequently but don’t want to delete, you can put them all onto a page and hide it. You still have access to the apps via search, Siri or the App Library, but they’re out of view.

In theory you could hide all your apps, fill your home screen with widget stacks and still be able to use your iPhone. I think I’m going to have to try that at some point.

Picture-in-picture comes to your iPhone

After being on the iPad for a number of years, the picture-in-picture video feature has arrived on the iPhone via iOS 14. To be honest, it’s more like picture-in-home-screen video, or picture-in-different-apps video. This works not only for videos but also FaceTime calls.

ios-14-pip-1 — You can collapse videos into a tiny player window and watch it while having access to everything on your iPhone.

Patrick Holland/CNET

I love being able to turn my FaceTime chat into a tiny window so I can access something else on my iPhone. It allows me to keep the conversation going without that blank screen showing up to people on the other end of the call. And you can pretty much move the mini FaceTime window anywhere you want.

Videos work similarly: If I’m watching a video in fullscreen via an app like Safari, I can swipe up to enter the app switcher view and then tap the home screen to minimize it. You can resize the video window and move it around accordingly. If you push it off to the side, the audio will keep playing without the picture.

Set a third-party browser or mail app as default

It wasn’t mentioned in the keynote, but at the bottom of the iOS 14 preview page on the Apple website is a small announcement for a feature many of us have yearned for: You can now choose system default apps from third parties.

iOS 14 will let you set a third-party app as your default internet browser or mail app. The catch here is that developers need to flag their app as a browser or mail app for it to work. In theory, this means you could use Chrome or Firefox as your default mobile browser or Gmail as your default email app. I’m excited to see this in action once developers have enabled their apps.

iOS 14 adds the Translate app to your iPhone

The new Translate app has a couple of modes. In the vertical position you can have it translate words and phrases as well as showing the definition of those words. When you rotate it into landscape, it enters conversation mode, allowing each speaker to have half the screen with their translation showing. You can even have the app show the translation in full screen or speak it for you.

ios-14-translate-app — The translate app works between 11 different languages.

Patrick Holland/CNET

Apple Maps gets cycling directions

Google Maps has had directions for bike routes for a while. But with iOS 14, Maps is adding cycling directions of its own. And there are some well-thought out options: You get elevations and warnings about streets or where you’ll need to walk your bike. You can also toggle options to avoid like stairs, hills and busy roads. Bike routes in Maps show locations such as bike repair shops and coffee shops along the way. At launch, cycling directions will only be available in a handful of cities.

ios-14-apple-maps-cycling — Maps now supports directions for cycling.

Patrick Holland/CNET

Green light means your camera is on

A useful feature in iOS 14 is an indicator light that lets you know if an app is using your camera or mic in the background. When your phone’s mic is on, an orange dot appears on the top right side of the screen. The dot shows up green when an app is using your camera, leaving zero doubt about what’s going on.

Trigger a shortcut by tapping on the back of your iPhone

There are a ton of new accessibility features, but one that stands out to me is Back Tap. In the Touch section of the Accessibility settings you can enable Back Tap, which lets you trigger an action or shortcut by double-tapping or triple-tapping the back of your iPhone. For example, I can double tap to bring up the Control Panel. And if I double tap again, the Control Panel goes away.

You can select from over two dozen actions and shortcuts to be triggered with Back Tap like taking screenshots, or bringing up the magnifier.

Sound Recognition can alert you to alarms and animals

Another compelling Accessibility feature is called Sound Recognition. It can alert you if your iPhone detects specific sounds, such as a fire or smoke alarm, or an animal. You select which sound you want to be notified about and when your iPhone detects one of those sounds, it will notify you with an on-screen alert.

ios-14-sound-recognition — Sound Recognition helps people with impaired hearing know what’s going on around them.

Patrick Holland/CNET

Messages get Memoji face masks and new group thread mentions

If you’re big on group threads, iOS 14 makes them even more manageable. You can mention a specific person in a thread and only alert that person. You can also pin conversations to the top of the app.

There are a bunch of customizations, including new hair and headwear styles for Memoji, as well as the ability to add a face mask.

Phone calls and Siri get small

Instead of an incoming call taking up your entire screen before you answer it, it will now show up as a banner notification across the top. You tap to answer or swipe it away.

Siri, which had a similar bad habit of taking over your entire screen, now appears as an animated orb at the bottom.

Another iOS 14 beta is on the way

A public beta version of iOS 14 will launch in July. iOS 14 will run on the same iPhones that are supported in iOS 13 — specifically, the iPhone 6S and newer.

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Google Pixel 9 series detailed with new Samsung Exynos Modem 5400 as Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL and Pixel 9 Pro Fold – Notebookcheck.net

Published

7 hours ago

April 16, 2024

Harry Miller

While Wojciechowska stresses that ‘Pixel 9 Pro Fold’ may not be the final name for ‘comet’, ‘it is what Google is using at the moment’ within ‘software built for Google’s 2024 devices’. The same leaker reports that these devices will feature a new modem, albeit one still produced by Samsung’s Exynos division. Reportedly, Google has settled on the Exynos Modem 5400, a 3GPP Release 17 5G modem that will run alongside the Tensor G4 chipset.

In theory, the Exynos Modem 5400 should furnish the Pixel 9 series with satellite connectivity, although Samsung does not mention this in its press release. At any rate, Wojciechowska hints that this modem will also underpin a next-generation Pixel Tablet with 5G connectivity codenamed ‘clementine’. For now, all Pixel 9 series smartphones are expected to land in autumn 2024. In the meantime, Google will release the Pixel 8a in four colours, including a striking new green option.

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Java News Roundup: JobRunr 7.0, Introducing the Commonhaus Foundation, Payara Platform, Devnexus – InfoQ.com

Published

17 hours ago

April 15, 2024

Harry Miller

This week’s Java roundup for April 8th, 2024 features news highlighting: JobRunr 7.0; introducing the Commonhaus Foundation; the April 2024 edition of Payara Platform; JEP 473, Stream Gatherers (Second Preview), and JEP 469, Vector API (Eighth Incubator), Proposed to Target for JDK 23; and Devnexus 2024.

OpenJDK

Less than a week after having been declared a candidate, JEP 473, Stream Gatherers (Second Preview), has been promoted from Candidate to Proposed to Target for JDK 23. This JEP proposes a second round of preview from the previous round, namely: JEP 461, Stream Gatherers (Preview), delivered in JDK 22. This will allow additional time for feedback and more experience with this feature with no user-facing changes over JEP 461. This feature was designed to enhance the Stream API to support custom intermediate operations that will “allow stream pipelines to transform data in ways that are not easily achievable with the existing built-in intermediate operations.” More details on this JEP may be found in the original design document and this InfoQ news story. The review is expected to conclude on April 16, 2024.

Similarly, JEP 469, Vector API (Eighth Incubator), has been promoted from Candidate to Proposed to Target for JDK 23. This JEP incorporates enhancements in response to feedback from the previous seven rounds of incubation: JEP 460, Vector API (Seventh Incubator), delivered in JDK 22; JEP 448, Vector API (Sixth Incubator), delivered in JDK 21; JEP 438, Vector API (Fifth Incubator), delivered in JDK 20; JEP 426, Vector API (Fourth Incubator), delivered in JDK 19; JEP 417, Vector API (Third Incubator), delivered in JDK 18; JEP 414, Vector API (Second Incubator), delivered in JDK 17; and JEP 338, Vector API (Incubator), delivered as an incubator module in JDK 16. Originally slated to be a re-incubation by reusing the original Incubator status, it was decided to keep enumerating. The Vector API will continue to incubate until the necessary features of Project Valhalla become available as preview features. At that time, the Vector API team will adapt the Vector API and its implementation to use them, and will promote the Vector API from Incubation to Preview. The review is expected to conclude on April 16, 2024.

JEP 475, Late Barrier Expansion for G1, has been promoted from its JEP Draft to Candidate status. This JEP proposes to simplify the implementation of the G1 garbage collector’s barriers, which record information about application memory accesses, by shifting their expansion from early in the C2 JIT’s compilation pipeline to later. The goal is to reduce the execution time of C2 when using the G1 collector.

JDK 23

Build 18 of the JDK 23 early-access builds was made available this past week featuring updates from Build 17 that include fixes for various issues. Further details on this release may be found in the release notes.

Spring Framework

The first milestone release of Spring Framework 6.2.0 delivers bug fixes, improvements in documentation, dependency upgrades and numerous new features such as: replace use of the deprecated Jakarta Expression Language ELContext class in favor of the Jakarta Pages VariableResolver interface in the JspPropertyAccessor; an improved DefaultMessageListenerContainer class to support first-class virtual threads; and the addition of configuration and exposure of the Java DataSource interface to the LocalEntityManagerFactoryBean class. More details on this release may be found in the release notes.

Similarly, versions 6.1.6, 6.0.19 and 5.3.34 of Spring Framework have been released to primarily address CVE-2024-22262, Spring Framework URL Parsing with Host Validation (3rd report), a vulnerability in which applications that use the UriComponentsBuilder class to parse an externally provided URL and perform validation checks on the host of the parsed URL, may be vulnerable to an open redirect attack or a server-side-request forgery attack if the URL is used after passing validation checks. This CVE is the same as CVE-2024-22259 and CVE-2024-22243, but with different input. New features include: log column types that aren’t supported by the database driver in the getResultSetValue() method defined in the JdbcUtils class; avoid cloning an empty array of instances of the Annotation interface in the TypeDescriptor class; and consistent support for generic FactoryBean type matching when using the getBeanProvider() method defined in the DefaultListableBeanFactory class. More details on these releases may be found in the release notes for version 6.1.6, version 6.0.19 and version 5.3.34.

The first release candidate of Spring Data 2024.0.0 provides new features: support for value expressions for improved in expressions in entity- and property-related annotations that aligns with Spring Framework @Value annotation; and compatibility with the new MongoDB 5.0 driver containing a deprecated API that has now been removed. There were also upgrades to sub-projects such as: Spring Data Commons 3.3.0-RC1; Spring Data MongoDB 4.3.0-RC1; Spring Data Elasticsearch 5.3.0-RC1; and Spring Data Neo4j 7.3.0-RC1. More details on this release may be found in the release notes.

Similarly, versions 2023.1.5 and 2023.0.11 of Spring Data have been released providing bug fixes and respective dependency upgrades to sub-projects such as: Spring Data Commons 3.2.5 and 3.1.11; Spring Data MongoDB 4.2.5 and 4.1.11; Spring Data Elasticsearch 5.2.5 and 5.1.11; and Spring Data Neo4j 7.2.5 and 7.1.11. These versions may also be consumed by the upcoming releases of Spring Boot 3.2.5 and 3.1.11, respectively.

Versions 2.3.0-RC1, 2.2.2 and 2.1.5 of Spring HATEOAS have been released to primarily upgrade to the latest releases of Spring Framework that address the aforementioned CVE-2024-22262 along with dependency upgrades to Project Reactor 2023.0.5 and Lombok 1.18.32. More details on these releases may be found in the release notes for version 2.3.0-RC1, version 2.2.2 and version 2.1.5.

Sergi Almar, Java and Spring Software Engineer and Spring I/O organizer, has introduced the Spring Builders initiative, an environment for Spring Framework developers to learn, present their Spring-related work, and connect with other Spring developers.

Payara

Payara has released their April 2024 edition of the Payara Platform that includes Community Edition 6.2024.4 and Enterprise Edition 6.13.0. Both editions feature a security fix for CVE-2023-4043, a vulnerability in which parsing JSON from untrusted sources would allow attackers to exploit the built-in support for parsing numbers with large scale to exploit the number of edge cases where the input text of a number can lead to much larger processing time than one would expect.

There were also a number of component upgrades and a resolution to a NullPointerException using profiled settings with MicroProfile Config. More details on these releases may be found in the release notes for Community Edition 6.2024.4 and Enterprise Edition 6.13.0.

Open Liberty

IBM has released version 24.0.0.4-beta of Open Liberty featuring: support for JDK 22 and an updated preview of Jakarta Data that includes the recent 1.0.0-M3 release in which the static metamodel was introduced. This allows for more type-safe usage, and the ability to define repository find methods with the @Find annotation.

Micronaut

The Micronaut Foundation has released version 4.3.8 of the Micronaut Framework featuring Micronaut Core 4.3.14, bug fixes, improvements in documentation, and updates to modules: Micronaut Security and Micronaut SQL Libraries. Further details on this release may be found in the release notes.

Quarkus

Quarkus 3.9.3, the second maintenance release (3.9.0 was skipped), features notable fixes such as: the inability to access any of the static resources defined in an application using REST and servlets with a custom implementation of the Jakarta RESTful Web Services ExceptionMapper interface; and routing for the index.html file fails with a HTTP status code 404 for directories. More details on this release may be found in the changelog.

Helidon

The release of Helidon 4.0.7 provides notable changes such as: a disabled instance of the OidcFeature class no longer throws a NullPointerException; properly return Optional.empty() for a current span if there is no current OpenTelemetry span; and avoid using replicated default values for lists when creating from the corresponding builder pattern or instances. More details on this release may be found in the release notes.

WildFly

The first beta release of WildFly 32 features bug fixes, component upgrades and improvements such as: integrate the Open Worldwide Application Security Project (OWASP) dependency check plugin into the WildFly build; mark as optional or remove references to the deprecated Jakarta Annotations @ManagedBean annotation; and the removal of some outdated Quickstart examples. More details on this release may be found in the release notes.

Apache Software Foundation

The first milestone release of Apache TomEE 10.0.0 delivers bug fixes, dependency upgrades and new features: a MicroProfile OpenAPI Reader example; and improved logging when failing to load a class. There was also a resolution to CVE-2023-35116, a vulnerability in Jackson Databind 2.15.2 and below such that an attacker can craft an object that uses cyclic dependencies that may result in a denial of service. More details on this release may be found in the release notes.

Micrometer

Version 1.13.0-RC1 of Micrometer Metrics ships with dependency upgrades and new features such as: allow for customizing Prometheus properties via the PrometheusConfig interface; announce that configuration for an instance of the OtlpMeterRegistry class has been found at startup; and a new constructor containing a logger name for the WarnThenDebugLogger class for metadata discrepancy logging. More details on this release may be found in the release notes.

Similarly, versions 1.12.5 and 1.11.11 of Micrometer Metrics 1.12.5 provide dependency upgrades and new features such as: use the same description for the same meter name in Log4j2Metrics class; and deprecate the DefaultUriMapper and PoolingHttpClientConnectionManagerMetricsBinder classes in httpcomponents package as they seem to have been missed when deprecating other classes in the same package. More details on these releases may be found in the version 1.12.5 and version 1.11.11.

Versions 1.3.0-RC1, 1.2.5 and 1.1.12 of Micrometer Tracing provide dependency upgrades to version 1.13.0-RC1, 1.12.5 and 1.11.11 of Micrometer Metrics. More details on these releases may be found in the release notes for version 1.3.0-RC1, version 1.2.5 and version 1.1.12

Project Reactor

The first milestone release of Project Reactor 2024.0.0 provides dependency upgrades to reactor-core 3.7.0-M1 and reactor-netty 1.2.0-M1. There was also a realignment to version 2024.0.0-M1 with the reactor-kafka 1.4.0-M1, reactor-pool 1.1.0-M1, reactor-addons 3.6.0-M1 and reactor-kotlin-extensions 1.3.0-M1 artifacts that remain unchanged. More details on this release may be found in the changelog.

Next, Project Reactor 2023.0.5, the fifth maintenance release, provides dependency upgrades to reactor-core 3.6.5 and reactor-netty 1.1.18. There was also a realignment to version 2023.0.5 with the reactor-kafka 1.3.23, reactor-pool 1.0.5, reactor-addons 3.5.1 and reactor-kotlin-extensions 1.2.2 artifacts that remain unchanged. More details on this release may be found in the changelog.

Next, Project Reactor 2022.0.18, the eighteenth maintenance release, provides dependency upgrades to reactor-core 3.5.16 and reactor-netty 1.1.18. There was also a realignment to version 2022.0.18 with the reactor-kafka 1.3.23, reactor-pool 1.0.5, reactor-addons 3.5.1 and reactor-kotlin-extensions 1.2.2 artifacts that remain unchanged. Further details on this release may be found in the changelog.

And finally, the release of Project Reactor 2020.0.43, codenamed Europium-SR43, provides dependency upgrades to reactor-core 3.4.37 and reactor-netty 1.0.44. There was also a realignment to version 2020.0.43 with the reactor-kafka 1.3.23, reactor-pool 0.2.12, reactor-addons 3.4.10, reactor-kotlin-extensions 1.1.10 and reactor-rabbitmq 1.5.6 artifacts that remain unchanged. More details on this release may be found in the changelog.

Hibernate

The second release candidate of Hibernate ORM 6.5.0 delivers bug fixes and improvements such as: improved use of Java time objects and timezone offsets that are now directly marshaled through the JDBC driver as defined by JDBC 4.2; a new layout to configure the format in which query results are stored in the query cache; and support for a Java record to be used as a parameter in the Jakarta Persistence @IdClass annotation. This release also provides a technical preview of the new Jakarta Data specification based on the Hibernate annotation processor.

Versions 7.1.1.Final, 7.0.1.Final and 6.2.4.Final of Hibernate Search, all maintenance releases, ship with dependency upgrades and notable changes such as: update potentially misleading error message about the minimum Elasticsearch version required for vector search capabilities; a resolution to possible issues with mass indexing when an ORM discriminator multi-tenancy is in use; and correct supported Java version discrepancies in the reference documentation. More details on this release may be found in the release notes.

The Hibernate team has also announced that it has joined the Commonhaus Foundation, a new foundation described below.

JobRunr

After two release candidates, version 7.0 of JobRunr, a utility to perform background processing in Java, has been released to the Java community. New functionality and improvements include: built-in support for virtual threads that are enabled by default when using JDK 21; the InMemoryStorageProvider class now allows for a poll interval as small as 200ms that is useful for testing; and the ability to configure the shutdown period of BackgroundJobServer class. Breaking changes include: the delete(String id) method in the JobScheduler class has been renamed to deleteRecurringJob(String id); and updates to the StorageProvider interface and the Page and PageRequest classes that include new features. More details on this release may be found in the release notes. InfoQ will follow up with a more detailed news story.

Infinispan

Infinispan 15.0.1.Final, the first maintenance release, provide notable changes such as: avoid a server shutdown upon an error with Infinispan Insights; and a resolution to the SoftIndexFileStore API pointing to a non-existent data location upon clearing the index; and. More details on this release may be found in the changelog.

Piranha

The release of Piranha 24.4.0 delivers notable changes such as: the addition of coreprofile start, coreprofile run and coreprofile stop commands to the Piranha CLI; a rebrand of Payara Uber, the wrapper that will allow developers to run everything in a JAR file, to Payara Fin; and expose the --https-keystore-file and --https-keystore-password parameters to the Maven plugin. Further details on this release may be found in their documentation and issue tracker.

JDKUpdater

Versions 14.0.39+63 and 14.0.39+61 of JDKUpdater, a new utility that provides developers the ability to keep track of updates related to builds of OpenJDK and GraalVM. Introduced in mid-March by Gerrit Grunwald, principal engineer at Azul, these releases include updates such as: initial support of a download feature that enables developers to download JDKs from different vendors; change the menu bar icon to SVG format which will allow an automatic switch of colors depending on the text color of the menu bar; and move the switches for SDKMAN!, JBang, Homebrew and Nix to separate screen settings. More details on this release may be found in the release notes.

JReleaser

April 10, 2024 marked the third anniversary of JReleaser, a release automation tool for Java and non-Java projects with the goal to simplify creating releases and publishing artifacts to multiple package managers while providing customizable options. Created by Andres Almiray, Senior Principal Product Manager at Oracle, this anniversary was celebrated with the announcement that JReleaser has joined the Commonhaus Foundation, a new foundation described below.

Apache Software Foundation

Versions 5.0.0-alpha-8 and 4.0.21 of Apache Groovy feature bug fixes, dependency upgrades and improvements such as: support for JDK 23; and a new meta instance of the Closure abstract class to enhance SQL metadata access for the five variants of the execute method. More details on these releases may be found in the release notes for version 5.0.0-alpha-8 and version 4.0.21.

JHipster

The release of JHipster 8.3.0 provides bug fixes, dependency upgrades to Spring Boot 3.2.4 and Gradle 8.7, and notable changes such as: a replacement of the jhipster-dependencies in favor of Spring Boot’s dependency management; experimental support for Spring Cloud Gateway MVC; and an improvement in Spring context caching during tests. More details on this release may be found in the release notes.

JetBrains Ktor

JetBrains has released version 2.3.10 of Ktor, the asynchronous framework for creating microservices and web applications, that include improvements and fixes such as: a resolution to inconsistent behavior of Netty that return null or an empty string for query parameters without values; support for IPv6 addresses in the NettyConnectionPoint and CIOConnectionPoint classes; and support for the ZIP64 format to overcome limitation of 65535 entries. More details on this release may be found in the changelog.

Commonhaus Foundation

The Commonhaus Foundation, a new non-profit organization dedicated to the sustainability of open source libraries and frameworks, was introduced to the Java community this past week to provide succession planning and fiscal support for self-governing open-source projects.

Their mission is to:

Empower a diverse community of developers, contributors, and users to create, maintain, and evolve open source libraries and frameworks, ensuring long-term growth and stability through shared stewardship and community collaboration.

Founders, Erin Schnabel, Distinguished Engineer at Red Hat, Ken Finnigan, OpenTelemetry Architect at Lumigo, and Cesar Saavedra, Senior Technical Marketing Manager at GitLab, will serve as Chair, Board Member and Treasurer, respectively.

Open source projects having already joined Commonhaus at its launch include Hibernate, Jackson, OpenRewrite, JBang, JReleaser, and Morphia.

Devnexus

The 20th edition of Devnexus 2024, held at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia, this past week, featured speakers from the Java community who delivered workshops and talks on topics such as: Jakarta EE, Java Platform, Core Java, Architecture, Cloud Infrastructure and Security.

Devnexus, hosted by the Atlanta Java Users Group (AJUG), has a history that dates back to 2004 when the conference was originally called DevCon. The Devnexus name was introduced in 2010.

The conference also featured on-site live interviews with speakers interested in participating. Entitled DevOps Speakeasy and Build Propulsion Lab, these interviews were facilitated by employees representing JFrog and Gradle, respectively. An example interview that has already been published, Brian Demers, Developer Advocate at Gradle, interviewed Matt Brown, Solutions Architect at Endor Labs. InfoQ will follow up with a more detailed news story.

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Top 7 benefits of managed IT service provider

Published

18 hours ago

April 15, 2024

Harry Miller

Whether you are a business executive or a competent IT pro, managed services can ease your job by helping you to concentrate on important tasks. Key benefits of managed IT include the expertise of the whole IT team, commitment, and industry knowledge that are aimed at your core business.

All these advantages help you focus on the core competencies of your business, whereas a managed IT service provider can assist you with complex and time-consuming tasks such as:

Cloud computing
Datacenter solutions
End-user support
Cyber security, asset management, and computer systems
Disaster recovery planning

It seems like a lot is taken off your plate, right? Believe it or not, you could get all these and more with the right IT service provider. Continue reading to learn more about its benefits and what you need to know before hiring one.

Managed IT services: What to consider before hiring one

If this is your first time hiring or outsourcing IT support in Canada, for instance, you might be wondering about costs, security, convenience, and many other relevant aspects. If so, you’re not alone, and it’s perfectly understandable to feel hesitant about it. After all, having access to competitive IT support can significantly influence your business’s growth.

So, what must you know before hiring IT experts to help you take care of your business? See the quick list below to get a better idea:

Experience and expertise: Look for IT support with experience in your industry or have worked with businesses of similar size and complexity. They must have expertise in the specific technologies and systems your company uses.
Scope of services: Determine if they provide the services you need, such as help desk support, network management, cybersecurity, and cloud services. Understand the terms of their SLAs, including response times, resolution times, and uptime guarantees.
Costs: Understand their pricing model and what is included in their fees. Consider both upfront costs and long-term expenses. Evaluate if the cost aligns with the value and level of service provided.
Scalability and flexibility: Consider if they can scale their services to meet your company’s growth. Look for flexibility in their service offerings, allowing you to customize services based on your changing needs.

Eventually, reliable managed IT service provider will boost your business competitiveness and efficiency. Shifting towards a trustworthy IT service provider will provide you extra benefits, like:

Control over OPEX costs

Investment in IT infrastructure and systems can be expensive. It will require upfront, which will make operating expenses tough as your company grows. When choosing an outsourced managed IT service, these expenditures are combined into a fixed, single OPEX cost. Because a managed IT service provider usually works with fixed monthly charges, things like maintenance, repairs, and breakdowns are computed into your operating budget without breaking your bank.

Avoid operational and sunk costs

Working with an in-house team requires adequate sunk costs like monthly salaries, office upkeep, benefits, and insurance. Also, it consumes both money and time to train employees to let them learn about your current processes and systems. By outsourcing IT initiatives to an expert, you can decrease huge capital expenses that are otherwise spent on in-house IT management systems. Together with reducing your capital expenses, managed IT service can also decrease your IT related costs. For example, managed services can save your expenses on:

Licensing
Consulting
Emergency repairs
Training
Also, you benefit from decreased labor rates

· Experience and expertise

Your outsourced managed IT service provider has required certifications, qualifications, expertise, and training specific to your field. Your service provider will provide you access to the best administrators with special skill sets. Also, you will have access to the latest technology, which can be executed smoothly and rapidly.

Quick response time

These days, business operations can’t be delayed by downtime or technical issues. Particularly during peak traffic hours, having 24/7 support is essential to ensure high productivity. In this way, support service will always be available to you no matter whether it’s day or night, weekday, weekend, or holiday.

· Cyber security support

A managed IT service provider who complies with PCI will help decrease risks relating to the use of credit card, client’s data, and any sensitive information. Your service provider will apply security strategies to make sure your business complies with security standards.

Quick time to market

Cloud computing by IT management will bring high-speed outcomes, eliminating IT inefficiencies. It means quick time to the market and high productivity.