NEWS

TIPS AND NEWS – SUMMER 2026

It’s a mad tech world out there. Staying calm about the news is getting harder by the day. If you’re not working at the coal face of software development, hardware or IT management, things are a little calmer, but what happens in the top echelons of tech governance over the next few months could affect our futures, via the world economy, and trust in our political/regulatory systems. Despite that rather jaw-dropping news, here is a slightly more pedestrian look at tech, tips and AI news:

Security

Phishing and phone scams continue to abound and catch people out, here’s a section on how to spot a phishing scam:

A phishing email or text message is designed to trick you into revealing passwords, banking details, or personal information.

Watch out for:

Unexpected emails asking you to verify an account.
Messages creating urgency (eg. “Your account will be suspended today!”)
Links that do not match the official website.
Poor spelling or unusual grammar.
Requests for passwords or payment details
Emails claiming to be from a large organization sent from a random gmail/outlook email address

Remember: Banks, HMRC, Microsoft and Apple will never ask for your password by email. They will also never contact you by phone claiming to help you out of the blue.

Learn more:

https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/guidance/spotting-scam-emails

Source: UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)

iOS

Making Mobile Calls from an iPad

If you have an iPhone and iPad signed into the same Apple ID, you can make and receive phone calls on your iPad as well as your phone. To set it up:

On your iPhone, go to Settings > Phone > Calls on Other Devices.
Turn on Allow Calls on Other Devices.
Enable your iPad in the list of devices.

You can then make voice calls directly from Contacts, FaceTime or Safari on your iPad.

Source: Apple Support

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/ipad/ipad997d84a2/ipados

Internet Browsers/Security

Clearing the Internet Cache in Edge and Chrome

If websites aren’t displaying correctly, you’re suffering annoying pop-up ads or you simply wish to delete all the cookies currently stored in your browser that accumulate over time, clearing your browser cache will clear them out and often solve annoying issues with pop-ups, incorrect, out-of-date, or slow web pages. Here’s how:

Start Microsoft Edge or Chrome as used
Press Ctrl+Shift+Delete.
Select Cached images and files. Include Cookies and Other Site Data and Browsing History as required.
Choose a time period from the drop down list (I use All Time to ensure they all go)
Click Clear Now / Delete Data.

Sources: https://support.microsoft.com/microsoft-edge

https://support.google.com/chrome

AI – Useful, Dangerous, or both?

The latest AI models and agents can write software, analyse documents and automate tasks at incredible speed. While this brings many benefits, security experts are concerned about misuse.

Could New AI Models Create Security Risks?

Potential risks include:

More convincing phishing emails, text, phone, and social media scams.
Faster creation of malicious software.
Automated cyber-attacks.
Fake images, videos and voice recordings that are harder to spot

Staying safe online with this increasing threat is challenging, but there is masses of advice out there – do read and view as much as you can, and keep yourselves up to date.

Trusted Sources for Staying Safe Online:

For independent advice and the latest scam warnings, visit:

NCSC (National Cyber Security Centre)
Action Fraud (note the recent organization and website name change)
Get Safe Online
Which? Scam Alerts
Age UK Online Safety Advice

These organisations provide free, reliable advice specifically for UK internet users.

Popular AI Tools and What They Do Best

If you’re happy to try AI models out, they can be extremely useful, saving time and making light of complex computer tasks. If you do feel like trying them out, or widening your AI skills base, here’s some advice on which tools to use (this week!!, next week it will probably be different). If you use Google for search, you’re likely already using Gemini, if you use Word or Excel, you’ve probably dipped a toe into using Copilot to check, verify or create work for you. These are the obvious ones, but I include a few more to try here:

ChatGPT – general-purpose assistance.
Claude (by Anthropic) – writing and document analysis.
Microsoft Copilot – Microsoft 365 integration.
Google Gemini – Google Workspace and Android.
Perplexity – research with sources.
Zapier Agents – workflow automation.

Sources:

ChatGPT Agent: https://chatgpt.com/features/agent

Claude: https://claude.ai

Microsoft Copilot: https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-copilot

Google Gemini: https://genimi.google.com

Perplexity: https://www.perplexity.ai

Zapier Agents: https://zapier.com/agents

Agentic Tools

Agentic tools are different to standard generative AI models. They can carry out multi-step tasks, as directed by you, in spoken or written instructions, without any programming knowledge. Learning how to instruct them is more complex than learning how to instruct an LLM to carry out a specific task as they are designed to complete multi-step tasks across different software apps and data sources. To do this they must have access to the working and/or personal data stored on your device or cloud service. This raises questions of privacy and trust. Businesses are early adopters, with plenty of guardrails and security systems built in by specialist IT teams. As the services are new and are untested by the general public, I have stayed away from them thus far, but if privacy isn’t an issue for you and you’re happy to try them out here are a few to consider:

ChatGPT Agent — useful for online tasks while keeping the user in control.
Microsoft Copilot Studio — useful for business workflows and internal assistants.
Zapier Agents — useful for automating tasks across apps such as email, calendars and spreadsheets.
Claude platform — strong for analysing, planning and working through complex written tasks, examining multiple documents and automating workflows.

The Cost of AI

The cash cost of using standard generative tools (Gemini, Claude, Chat GPT, Copilot etc) ranges from free for basic, light use, to around £20/month for unlimited use and access to the newer/more sophisticated versions. Microsoft 365 subscribers will have noticed the hike in annual price that occurred from Autumn last year. That’s because the cost of using Copilot is included for those with a family or personal Microsoft 365 subscription (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-copilot/copilot-in-microsoft-365-personal-family-and-premium) More advanced agentic tools range from £20-£50/month up to hundreds of thousands of pounds per month for business use.

The cost to society and the environment is another issue, currently playing out in real time. Some aspect of it is in the news most days. Opinions vary.

If you’ve managed to get this far through the newsletter, well done!! Take your mind off all the above and enjoy the Summer, Men’s Test Match, T20 Womens World Cup, Men’s Football World Cup and Wimbledon! I hope to see you soon.

Kindest tech regards

Cathryn

Disclaimer: Copyright HMS Training 2025. Facts and prices published in this newsletter are time sensitive and may go out of date. The content is based on my personal research and opinion.