It's approaching a year since Apple announced that it would release its first wireless charger to go along with the first iPhones that could be wirelessly charged.

" [Disclosure: Microsoft and Lenovo are both clients of the author.]

I'-™m fascinated with the Always Connected PC concept largely because it tries to meet the need that the iPad initially identified, and Apple has largely failed to address.

Microsoft has been hovering around this idea for some time, with Windows RT being the first failed attempt, crippled by a unique version of Windows that just ran Office and a few other things reasonably well."  Then they brought out Continuum, a fascinating modular concept with the Windows Phone at its heart. But sadly, the Windows Phone was failing in market and Microsoft and its partners couldn'-™t get to a viable offering in time to save their phone.

Windows 7 customers should be on the lookout for a couple of, uh, challenges this month, as the Win10 1803 trail of tears continues and Win10 1709 finally looks pretty solid.

The Win7/Server 2008R2 network card bugs continue

First, the good news. If you installed last month'-™s Win7/Server 2008R2 patches and your network connections didn'-™t go kablooey, you'-™re almost undoubtedly OK to proceed with this month'-™s patches.

On the other hand, if you'-™ve been waiting to install patches on your Win7 or Server 2008R2 machine, you need to be aware of a bug that Microsoft has acknowledged. It was introduced by a patch back in March, according to the KB articles, and hasn'-™t been fixed yet:

Something interesting happened when T-Mobile and Sprint filed their intention to merge with the FCC. They said a merger would strengthen them and let them compete head to head with competitors like AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless. But wait. I thought they already were successfully competing. So, are they, or aren'-™t they?

The truth is somewhere in the blurry middle. Over the last five years, both T-Mobile and Sprint have gone through major changes. Five years ago, both of them were smaller and insignificant competitors in the wireless industry.

CEO John Legere saved T-Mobile

Then John Legere was brought in as CEO of T-Mobile and things started to change. When he stepped in, the company was crashing and burning. It missed the changeover from 2G to 3G and they were suffering because of that judgement call.

Apple'-™s Maps service is hugely important. Location and knowledge about different locations is a secret sauce that binds so many future IoT product development plans together, from news app to ride sharing and tomorrow'-™s road transport. In a recent interview with TechCrunch, Apple'-™s vice presidnet of services, Eddy Cue," promised the following improvements to Maps beginning in iOS 12.

Apple Maps in iOS 12: What to expect

'-'The best map app in the world'-"

Apple hopes to make Maps the '-'best'-" mapping app in the world, Cue promised.

Your smartphone is about to get smarter, thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). And that has huge implications for enterprise support for mobility.(Insider Story)

This large organization has two kinds of workstations, reports a pilot fish there: the regular ones, and high-security workstations that, if they go down, people can die.

"Our contractor rolled out a change, possibly two changes, that broke the ability to log in to the high-security ones," fish says. "Customers are screaming. To make matters worse, the help desk is so backed up on other failed upgrades that the average time to answer is measured in hours instead of minutes as required by the contract.

"When customers are in the help desk phone queue, after 30 minutes a recorded message tells them they can send an email instead of waiting. Now the email queue is over 30 days long.

There'-™s a version of the internet that'-™s superior to the internet you'-™re probably using.

Call it the Super Internet.

The Super Internet is faster, more powerful, more secure and more private, and it offers modular features on popular websites that most people don'-™t have access to.

I believe millions of people, thousands of businesses and hundreds of enterprises would profit massively from having access to the Super Internet.

But they don'-™t have access, because they don'-™t know it exists.

That'-™s why I'-™m writing this column '-” to tell you that the Super Internet does exist, and also how to gain access.

The Super Internet exists right now. But understanding it requires a contextual understanding of the past and the future.

Trying to find the right app for any given area on Android is a lot like trying to order dinner at a restaurant with way too many options on the menu. How can you possibly find the right choice in such a crowded lineup? With the Google Play Store now boasting somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 gazillion titles (last I checked), it's no simple task to figure out which apps rise above the rest and provide the best possible experiences.

That's why I decided to step in and help. I've been covering Android from the start and have seen more than my fair share of incredible and not so incredible apps. From interface design to practical value, I know what to look for and how to separate the ordinary from the extraordinary. And taking the time to truly explore the full menu of options and find the cream of the crop is quite literally my job.

LogMeIn has updated its GoToMeeting video and audio conference platform with new features that include a text chat function, AI transcription service and integration with Amazon'-™s Alexa voice assistant.

LogMeIn '-” which also owns cloud meetings tool join.me '-” acquired GoTo products from Citrix for $1.8 billion in 2016. This immediately positioned the vendor as one of the largest video and web conferencing players, with millions of customers worldwide.

A range of features announced this week are aimed at enhancing the GoToMeeting platform as it faces competition from large tech firms with web conferencing capabilities, such as Google (Hangouts Chat), Amazon (Chime), Cisco (Webex) and Microsoft (Skype for Business/Teams), as well as smaller players including BlueJeans and Zoom.

I guess most of us who watched the news from Apple'-™s WWDC developer'-™s conference know lots about the bigger features in macOS Mojave, but I thought it might be fun to dig out some of the lesser-known changes.

Safari Favicons

I don'-™t really understand why it took all this time for Safari to show you favicons. Now it does '-" but not by default. To enable it, open Safari>Preferences>Tabs" and check the Show website icons in tabs item.

SMS verification

If you have your iPhone Messages synced to your Mac, Mojave will detect when a website or service sends in an SMS verification and can automatically place it in the correct place on your Mac to make it easier to use. Apple really wants you to use dual-factor security.

The IT landscape today feels like the Wild West as IT managers play '-'cops and robbers'-" to chase down and neutralize an ever increasing number of problems. Technologists are mired in an array of high-tech challenges'-”balancing security with accessibility, integrating legacy and new technologies, and understanding data, to name a few'-”while under pressure to constantly innovate. But with the speed of technology and business today, what happens when IT teams fall behind? The answer? '-'Shadow IT.'-"

TechTarget defines shadow IT as '-'hardware or software within an enterprise that is not supported by the organization'-™s central IT department.'-" The concept emerged more than a decade ago as companies began to acquire more technology (as well as foreign, unsanctioned software) to power their business. IT admins moved quickly to rein in unknown products, and for a time, largely re-established control.

Database pilot fish is about to leave work when a co-worker catches him as he's walking out of his cubicle.

"He says that he and another colleague found an issue with a table that's not inserting unique IDs -- the primary key -- for records." says fish. "And it's a table I remodeled a few years back."

That means it's probably fish's fault if there's an issue. But fish is also intrigued by the problem -- after all, it's unlikely that SQL Server would fail completely by inserting the same IDs.

So they go to the co-worker's desk, where SQL Server Management Studio is on his screen, showing a table containing about 150 records. Sure enough, toward the end of the table is a bunch of records all showing an ID of 1 instead of a unique ID.

Traveling can be a massive hassle, with plenty of room for inconvenience and error. But while there's not much you can do about the late departures, the surly gate attendants, or the smelly fellas somehow always seated right next to you, there are ways you can make your next business trip a little less unpleasant '-” all thanks to that handy little gadget in your pocket.

Android's travel app selection has really taken off over the past few years, and the Google Play Store now boasts an impressive array of genuinely useful titles for the traveling professional. After putting numerous standout candidates to the test, these are the apps I'd recommend stowing on your smartphone and keeping at arm's reach whenever your work next has you hitting the road or flying the (allegedly) friendly skies.

Slack users were unable to access the team chat tool for several hours on Wednesday, after '-'connectivity issues'-" knocked the app offline.

Although service resumed later that day, it caused a disruption for users who rely on the application for communication and collaboration within the workplace. Problems were reported by users in the U.S. and the U.K., with many venting frustrations on Twitter.

Keaton Fox from Houston tweeted, '-'breaking: as Slack outage continues, thousands of workers are forced to actually speak to others in the office.'-" In Palo Alto, Calif., Chris Mutchler chimed in, '-'Slack is down. How is that ChatOps strategy working for you now?'-"