There are many people doing interesting work around the world. Here’s a selection of the interesting ideas I have come across this week. Find yourself a coffee or tea, pull out your digital reading device of choice, and go exploring.

• Microsoft Teams Update for November (Anne Michels) … “Since we started to work on Microsoft Teams, our mission hasn’t changed – to create a hub for teamwork that provides people with a single place to communicate and collaborate with others so that teams can achieve more.” New capabilities for Microsoft Teams during October and November: PowerShell management, new usage reports, UK data residency option, new group chat functionalities, improved settings and notifications, and more. More


• Alexa for Business (Jordan Crook) … “The interface is evolving. What has long been dominated by screens of all shapes and sizes is now being encroached upon by the voice. And while many companies are building voice interfaces — Apple with Siri, Google with Assistant, and Microsoft with Cortana — none are quite as dominant as Amazon has been with Alexa. At the AWS reinvent conference, Amazon announced Alexa for Business (as CNBC first reported). The new platform will let companies build out their own skills and integrations for both practical and business use cases.” More


• Flying in the Lawyers from Texas (Tanza Loudenback) … “Rent and home prices in the Bay Area are so high that one Houston-based law firm is using an alternative to hiring expensive local talent: a private jet. Patterson and Sheridan, an intellectual-property law firm headquartered in Houston, bought a nine-seat plane to shuttle its patent lawyers to clients in the Bay Area once a month.” More


• They Know (Steve Jennings) … An ode to the dark side of social media, ending with “They know more about you than you know about yourself.” More


• Dual-Screen Wallpaper (TwelveSouth) … A collection of photos for your computer wallpaper; you can get dual-screen versions too. More