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Microtechs has been serving the Mill Valley area since 2007, providing IT Support such as technical helpdesk support, computer support, and consulting to small and medium-sized businesses.

Breaking Down the Smart Chips Available for Docs and Sheets

Breaking Down the Smart Chips Available for Docs and Sheets

You might recall our blog last week on smart chips, a term used to describe some fun and useful Google Docs inserts. Today, we want to take a closer look at these smart chips and what you can do with them in Google Docs and Sheets.

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What Can Humans Learn About Robots from the Works of Isaac Asimov?

What Can Humans Learn About Robots from the Works of Isaac Asimov?

Are you familiar with the works of Isaac Asimov? The author wrote a short story called “Runaround” in 1942, and it introduced the idea of the Three Laws of Robotics, or laws that all of the robots in his Robots series must follow. This stranger-than-reality concept is being used today by Google, which has announced a set of safeguards partially inspired by these three laws to help it control future AI-powered machines.

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You’d Be Surprised What Can Be an Unsafe Google Search

You’d Be Surprised What Can Be an Unsafe Google Search

The Internet is pretty awesome. Unfortunately as much as it provides individuals and businesses, alike, it poses significant risks. Today, we thought we would discuss a security issue that not many people consider, Google searches, and how they can lead to cybersecurity problems. 

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AI Fuels the Technology to Make Traffic Lights More Environmentally Friendly

AI Fuels the Technology to Make Traffic Lights More Environmentally Friendly

AI might feel like a technology perfectly at home in the world of science fiction, but the truth is that most of its uses are not nearly as interesting or fun. Take, for example, Operation Green Light, an initiative from Google that aims to better society through examining AI for traffic control and its impact on the environment.

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Enhanced Safe Browsing in Gmail Might Not Be the Solution You’re Hoping For

Enhanced Safe Browsing in Gmail Might Not Be the Solution You’re Hoping For

Have you tried using Enhanced Safe Browsing in your Google Chrome browser? This feature has been a part of the browser since 2019, and it was implemented with the intention of preventing phishing attacks. This feature was also recently added to Gmail. Here’s how you enable it, as well as why it might not be the solution you’re hoping for.

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Did You Know? Google Pays Billions to Maintain Default Search Rights on Apple Products

Did You Know? Google Pays Billions to Maintain Default Search Rights on Apple Products

Google is one of the world’s biggest technology companies, but have you ever wondered how exactly it manages to maintain its iron grip on the search engine market? It’s especially curious when you consider that there are other major technology companies out there that might want a piece of the pie, like Apple, yet choose not to. Well, it turns out there is a very good reason for that, and as you might suspect, large amounts of money are involved.

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Will Your Business Use Google’s New Custom Building Blocks Feature?

Will Your Business Use Google’s New Custom Building Blocks Feature?

Google is always striving to improve its Workspace platform, the business-driven productivity suite for companies. One new tool that could change the way organizations operate is custom building blocks, which add a whole new layer of depth… for schools and businesses, anyway.

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Gmail and Google Calendar Add Client-Side Encryption

Gmail and Google Calendar Add Client-Side Encryption

Google is rolling out client-side encryption to Gmail and Calendar, which will allow users to create meeting events as well as send and receive emails that have been encrypted before being sent to Google servers. Client-side encryption will be available to organizations with Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Standard, and Education Plus plans. All other types of Google Workspace accounts and personal Gmail accounts will not get client-side encryption.

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Explaining the Work Profile Feature in Android

Explaining the Work Profile Feature in Android

Most people use their smartphones more than any other computing tool, and businesses must adapt to these trends if they want their employees to be as productive as possible. Businesses can capitalize on their employees’ smartphone use if they are strategic in their implementation of mobile device tools and strategies—including work profiles on Android devices.

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Get Control Over Your Battery with Google Chrome’s Battery Usage

Get Control Over Your Battery with Google Chrome’s Battery Usage

Google Chrome is a known battery killer, at least in the traditional sense. Since so many people use Chrome for their browsing needs, Google decided to release a new feature in Chrome 108 called Energy Saver. What does this feature do and why is it important to know about?

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Tip of the Week: Add Dropdown Menus to Your Excel Spreadsheets

Tip of the Week: Add Dropdown Menus to Your Excel Spreadsheets

If you know how to use functions and various other features that Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets have to offer, then you can take your skills one step further than most. One such feature is the use of dropdown menus within cells. Let’s discuss how you can use them to your benefit in both Excel and Sheets.

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Tip of the Week: Create a Calendar Event in Google

Tip of the Week: Create a Calendar Event in Google

How often do you receive requests for meetings or other time-sensitive reminders through your email inbox, only to forget that you signed up for them weeks or months later? Sometimes it can be easier to just add an event to your calendar right from your email inbox. Let’s go over how you can add an event reminder to your Google Calendar right from your Gmail inbox so you never miss an important date or deadline again.

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A Quick Look at Google Workspace

A Quick Look at Google Workspace

There are a ton of productivity suites out there, and we’ve all heard of the most common one, Microsoft Office. Still, there are other solutions out there, one of which is Google Workspace. What does Google Workspace offer, and what differentiates it from its competition? Let’s take a closer look and see if we can find the answer to this question.

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Handy Shortcuts in Google Chat

Handy Shortcuts in Google Chat

Google Chat—the successor to Hangouts—offers a TON of features to its users, more so than most users probably realize. For instance, there are a lot of features buried under keyboard shortcuts. Let’s go over some of these shortcuts and what you can use them for in Google Chat.

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Can Zero-Day Threats Actually Make Chrome More Secure?

Can Zero-Day Threats Actually Make Chrome More Secure?

Google Chrome is a widely used and popular web browser, and because of its popularity, it is a common target for hackers. A recent study showcases how there are more zero-day threats being discovered for Google Chrome, but don’t despair; it might not be a bad thing for your favorite web browser. Instead, it could signify exactly the opposite.

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Users of Cloud Services are Under Attack

Users of Cloud Services are Under Attack

Certain methods used by hackers are more effective than others, and it’s largely in part due to these methods working around and subverting popular security measures. They might take on the look of a legitimate email or web source, like social media, in an attempt to convince the user that it is indeed a message they can trust. The latest in this type of hacking attack includes Google Docs.

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Tip of the Week: How (and Why) to Find Your IMEI on Android

Tip of the Week: How (and Why) to Find Your IMEI on Android

Wouldn’t it be nice if you had an easy way to track your device even if it were lost or stolen? Thankfully, this feature exists to an extent for Android devices in the form of the IMEI, or international mobile equipment identity number. If you know this number, you could potentially help mitigate the issues that losing a device can present.

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Tip of the Week: Using Google Drive to Collaborate

Tip of the Week: Using Google Drive to Collaborate

At this point, the term “collaboration” has fully transitioned from an intriguing operational ideal, to an overhyped buzzword, to a legitimately essential consideration for any modern business to embrace. As such, it makes sense that there are so many collaboration-geared applications available today, with so many options to pursue this collaboration baked into each.

Let’s consider the many, many collaborative capabilities that are available in Google Drive—a tool that is used by many businesses today.

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Will Google Revolutionize Internet Privacy?

Will Google Revolutionize Internet Privacy?

Your privacy on the Internet matters, even if you don’t think you have anything to hide. Over the last few years, this has become more and more evident as we watch tech giants profit off of understanding the people who use their services. Facebook, Amazon, and Google are among them. Google in particular has made some recent policy changes that are worth understanding.

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Tip of the Week: Keeping Tabs on Your Chrome Browser Tabs

Tip of the Week: Keeping Tabs on Your Chrome Browser Tabs

If you’re a user of Google Chrome, there are probably a few browser tabs that you frequently have open. Here, we wanted to go into a few tips to help you get the utmost use out of these tabs, highlighting a few neat features Chrome offers.

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