Coffee Briefings are timely deliveries of the latest ITWC headlines, interviews, and podcasts. Today’s Coffee Briefing is delivered by IT World Canada’s editorial team!
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What’s new this week
Cisco Canada launches Fast Future Innovation Awards
Cisco Canada is helping combat the shortage of innovation amongst Canadian businesses with an awards program.
Cisco’s Country Digital Acceleration and Innovation Labs teams have teamed up to create an awards program, called The Fast Future Innovation Awards. This program will dedicate Cisco’s resources, expertise, and scale to help solve the current innovation challenges facing Canadian business organizations.
The program runs until November 15th, and the top submissions from each category will be awarded up to C$200,000 in funding, resources, and expertise to develop, prototype, or implement their idea.
Visa and Square announce solution for Canadian businesses to access funds faster
Visa and Square have announced the Canadian expansion of Square’s instant transfers, enabled by Visa Direct, a VisaNet processing capability helping transform money movement and enabling real-time funds delivery directly to financial accounts using eligible card credentials.
Square’s instant transfers let organizations access their funds faster than the next business day, typically the default for most Canadian businesses. With instant transfers, Square merchants can link an eligible debit card and start transferring funds right away to an external bank account.
About 44 per cent of Canadian small business owners said real-time access to cash flow was important in keeping their businesses afloat at the start of the pandemic. In addition, 85 per cent of small business respondents indicated they would switch to a new merchant acquirer who offered real-time payments.
“Cash flow management and more immediate access to funds is critical for small businesses to survive and thrive in a rapidly evolving payments ecosystem,” said Jim Filice, vice president and head of New Payments, Visa Canada. “Together with Square, we’re committed to supporting Canadian small businesses and helping to identify solutions that can benefit them by delivering fast, reliable and secure access to funds.”
Intuit opens new office in Toronto
Intuit has officially opened its new Canadian headquarters in Toronto. It is one of the many technology companies who have recently opened an office in the city, as Toronto climbs to the third spot in CBRE’s 2022 Tech Talent Rankings.
This new location will allow the company to connect and innovate with Toronto’s technology ecosystem while creating an environment that allows Intuit teams to collaborate and innovate for customers, Intuit said.
The office is exercising a hybrid work approach. Intuit expects most workers will come into the office an average of two to three days per week.
Top design elements at Intuit’s hybrid office include a library with quiet zones, project rooms, a range of collaborative spaces, as well as meditation and prayer rooms.
Twitter launches new video viewing experiences
Twitter is rolling out two updates for videos on its platform.
Immersive viewing and easy discovery will expand videos to full screen with a single click. This allows users to easily access a “full immersive viewing experience,” the company said. To activate the update, users just click on a video in the Twitter app.
The company said the immersive media viewer will be available in the coming days to people using Twitter in English on iOS.
Additionally, Twitter is introducing its newest addition to its Explore tab. With its new video carousel, users can find videos they might like alongside recommended tweets and trends. Twitter users can just open the Explore tab to discover some of the most popular videos being shared on the app.
The video carousel is currently available to people in select countries using Twitter in English on iOS and Android.
Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst announces this years Fellows of the inaugural Catalyst Fellowship Program
Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst, Toronto Metropolitan University’s (TMU) national centre for training, innovation, and collaboration in cybersecurity, has announced the inaugural cohort of Catalyst Fellows for the 2022 – 2023 academic year.
The cohort includes three TMU faculty members, Burcu Bulgurcu, Rasha Kashef, and Reza Samavi, as well as three industry professionals, A.J. Khan, Monika Freunek, and Jeff Schwartzentruber.
The new Fellows will propose cybersecurity protocols, research theoretical limits achievable security, and create new software applications, along with tools to help Canada advance in cybersecurity innovation.
They will work on their projects in conjunction with members of TMU and the Catalyst community, as well as interacting with students in the Catalyst’s Accelerated Cybersecurity Training Program. The Fellows will convene both remotely and in-person, with in-person meetings held at Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst’s headquarters in Brampton, Ont.
More to explore
Federal privacy commissioner silent on proposed new privacy act for businesses
Canada’s recently-appointed privacy commissioner is still not saying what he thinks of the government’s latest attempt to update the federal privacy law covering the business sector.
ATB Ventures introduces suite of digital identity products
ATB Ventures, the research arm of Alberta-based financial institution ATB Financial, has launched its suite of digital identity products: Oliu platform, Oliu Studio and a digital-credential wallet called Proof. The launch comes weeks after the federal government announced its National Digital Identity Program.
Microsoft report reveals new trends, productivity paranoia, in the hybrid work era
A new Microsoft Work Trend report revealed that shifts to hybrid work and increased workload are leading to productivity paranoia.
Listen to Interac’s hot new single to help with intentional spending
To encourage mindful spending this holiday season, interbank network Interac has released a playlist of soothing melodies, tuned to promote “intentional spending.”
Amid copyright fears, Getty Images bans AI-generated art
Getty Images has banned the sale of AI generative artwork created using image synthesis models like Stable Diffusion, DALL-E 2, and Midjourney through its service.
Cybersecurity webinar open for all Canadian federal public servants
Canadian federal government employees are being encouraged to attend a bilingual cybersecurity webinar next month.
Staying informed is a constant challenge. There’s so much to do, and so little time. But we have you covered. Grab a coffee and take five while you nibble on these tidbits.
Listen to the latest episode of Hashtag Trending
Google shuts down its translation service in mainland China, Tesla announces car deliveries in the third quarter, and Starlink promises to help emergency responders in Florida following Hurricane Ian.
Listen to the latest episode of Cyber Security Today
This episode reports on fixes for Exchange Server, the Comm100 support chat application, a survey of Canadian post-secondary students’ attitudes towards cybersecurity and more
Listen to the latest episode of Hashtag Tendances (Hosted by Direction Informatique)
If you live in Quebec, or prefer to consume the latest technology news in French, our sister publication Direction Informatique has you covered. Follow them on Twitter as well.
