Another week has gone by and its time, once again to go over the best stories we covered here on A&T Tech. We know everything is feeling weird right now, so we are working hard to cover the latest news for everyone and this is a nice round up of the week gone by of what stories I think were the best.
In the news this week, a lot of stuff happened but the contactless limit for cards was increased from £30 to £45, Google commented about the I/O conference this year and said an online version isn’t happening at all, Microsoft has seen a huge increase in usage on Teams and its cloud since the coronavirus has forced everyone to work from home, Apple accidentally leaked a reference to AirTags and finally, Jaguar Land Rover has lent 160 vehicles for the British Red Cross and NHS to use to help those in need affected by the coronavirus.
UK contactless limit has been increased
This week, the contactless payments limit for contactless cards was increased here in the UK, from £30 to £45. This should help reduce the need to use chip and pin for higher priced items which will might help reduce the spread of the coronavirus. Apple Pay and Google Pay are available and have been for nearly five years here in the UK and due to their secure nature, they allow payments of any amount. For more on Apple Pay and how it differs to contactless, read our ‘Tech Basics’ guide here.
Google I/O won’t happen at all this year
Google has announced that its annual developer conference, Google I/O won’t even take place online now, like Apple is planning to do with WWDC.
Microsoft has seen a huge increase in demand of its cloud services and Microsoft Teams
In the last couple of weeks, Microsoft has seen a huge surge in demand for its cloud service, Microsoft has also said that in the past month, the usage of Teams has grown by 775% in areas where more people are working from home and quarantine is in full force.
Apple accidentally referenced AirTags in a now removed support video
This week, Apple released a simple support video but in one of the shots, AirTags was referenced in the video. Pretty quickly, Apple removed the video. AirTags are rumoured to be a Tile like device which will be able to track items, such as keys, wallets and things people often lose.
Jaguar Land Rover has lent 160 vehicles to the British Red Cross and the NHS to help combat the coronavirus
To help the NHS and also the British Red Cross provide supplies, food and physical help for those unfortunately affected by the ongoing coronavirus – Jaguar Land Rover is temporarily lending one hundred and sixty brand new vehicles for deployment world-wide.