2022 – Page 5 of 5 – Direction Forward

macOS 12.3 will impact cloud storage, including Dropbox and OneDrive

The upcoming macOS update for Monterey – 12.3 – will introduce changes for cloud storage providers. Both Dropbox and Microsoft have announced that their platforms are impacted.

Dropbox is working to resolve this and will be releasing a compatible beta version in March. To receive this beta update as soon as possible, you can opt in for early releases: Sign in to ‘dropbox.com’ – Click on your profile picture in the top-right corner – click ‘Settings’ – under ‘Preferences’ in the ‘General’ tab, toggle on ‘Early releases’. For further information, please see Dropbox’s help article here.

Microsoft has also been working on a new version of OneDrive that is “more integrated with macOS” and “will have long-term support from Apple”. This appears to be available now as an installer and via the App Store, however many users are reporting bugs with the first release of this new version. For further information, please see Microsoft’s help article here.

Currently we recommend not updating to macOS 12.3 if you use Dropbox and/or OneDrive.

If your Mac has already been upgraded to macOS Monterey version 12.3, you may find that some applications have trouble opening files which are set to be stored online and downloaded on demand (e.g. online-file, files on demand, etc). If this occurs, please try double-clicking on the file via the Finder on your mac PC to force it to download first before being opened in the relevant application.

iCloud is natively supported by macOS and is not affected. Google Drive and Box have not made any announcements regarding this issue.

We are pleased to present the holding site for You Okay, Nurse?.

You Okay, Nurse? is a new charity supporting nurses’ mental health and wellbeing. We have the pleasure of working with their parent organisation, You Okay, Doc?, focusing on improving the mental health of doctors. You Okay, Doc? have since expanded with the You Okay, Nurse? initiative, facilitating psychology-led peer support groups.

The holding site showcases the date of the support groups, directing users to sign up for these via Zoom Webinars. There is also a registration form for those wishing to hear more about the further services and events coming in 2022. Registrations here are integrated with Mailchimp for ease, automatically adding the contact details to the You Okay, Nurse? CRM.

The holding site is based on the static site principle – so it was quick to create, it loads quickly, and easy to navigate. Sponsors and social media are also shown without overcrowding the page or user.

As with all our sites, the site is also fully responsive across devices and screen sizes, and has integrated Google Analytics to monitor traffic and user behaviour.

Visit the holding site here: youokaynurse.org.uk

Adobe releases the free, Creative Cloud Express

Adobe have released their new Creative Cloud Express service, as a competitor to other web-based design editors such as Canva and Figma.

Adobe is known for its suite of professional creative software including Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, InDesign, Premiere, and XD. This new offering is a re-working of their previous service, Adobe Spark (which was geared more towards social media content creation), and seems to be focused on consumer users. Those who plan to use such software on occasion without wanting to learn complex interfaces – or paying the higher cost for the full software suite (Creative Cloud starts from circa £50 per month).

Canva and Figma are online design services which include various tools and collaboration options. For all three, basic features are included with a free tier, with more advanced options available on paid plans. Adobe is offering ‘Free’ and ‘Premium’ at £10.10 per month / £101.15 per year (inc VAT).

The paid plan includes more images and templates to use, alongside the ability to export a project and other useful features such as access to stock images as part of Adobe Stock and over 20,000 fonts via Adobe Fonts.

Creative Cloud Express is Adobe’s new freemium product – designed for students, small business owners, and those using for a hobby or learning purposes. Instead of a collection of applications, users can access the service online via a web browser, via mobile companion apps (iOS and Android), and there is a Windows application available. Design features include editing photos, trim videos, creating GIFs, and creating social media content.

Check out Creative Cloud Express for free or benefit from a 3-month free trial of the paid plan for a limited time.

BlackBerry phones have stopped working today

Today, 4 January 2022, support has stopped for all BlackBerry devices running BlackBerry’s own operating system (including OS versions 10, 7.1, and earlier).

BlackBerry handsets which do not run on Android are no longer able to use data, send text messages, access the internet or make calls.

BlackBerry originally announced this back in September 2020. The impact of this switch-off is largely reduced, as most users have now moved on from BlackBerry phones. BlackBerry now focus on providing security software and services to enterprises and governments around the world. The company moved away from producing handsets in 2016, and instead licensed its brand to phone manufacturers including TCL and OnwardMobility.

BlackBerry devices were popularised in the late 1990s and early 2000s, mainly due to the physical keyboard which made texting and emailing easier, as well as BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) which was a forebear of social media apps such as WhatsApp.

When Apple launched their first iPhone with touchscreen and no keyboard in 2007, this style of handset quickly took over market share. Followed by various manufacturers such as LG and Samsung producing multiple varying devices using Google’s Android operating system. BlackBerry devices and its operating system were left behind.