Load up on laptops, and other tech stories you may have missed

March 12, 2025 2:39 PM

Now may be your best time to buy a new laptop, agentic AI as a cybersecurity threat, Bluevine partners with Xero on small-business banking, and seven other developments that happened in technology this past month and how they'll impact your clients and your firm.

1. Need a new laptop? Buy it now

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Tech manufacturer Acer recently announced its plans to increase laptop prices in the U.S. due to new tariffs imposed by President Trump. These tariffs — which include a 10% increase on imports from China— are expected to affect the cost of laptops significantly. Acer's CEO mentioned that prices could rise by about 10%, with some laptops potentially costing nearly $3,500. Other companies like Asus and Dell might follow suit. If you're in need of a new laptop, it might be a good idea to buy one soon before prices go up next month, according to reports. (Source: ZDNet)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: My primary laptop is starting to go on me and I've been putting off buying a replacement. Ten percent is a pretty big price increase. This will definitely speed me up. If you're thinking of replacing devices in your company this year, it may be a good idea to plan these purchases in advance of these tariffs taking effect as well.

2. Cybersecurity pros prepare for a new adversary: AI agents

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According to cybersecurity professionals, the next challenge they're facing are AI agents that can execute tasks autonomously. Agentic tools present both opportunities and risks. While they can enhance efficiency and productivity, they also introduce new vulnerabilities and threats. Cybersecurity experts are concerned that these AI agents could be used by cybercriminals to launch more sophisticated and scalable attacks. Mark Stockley of Malwarebytes — a firm that specializes in cybersecurity software — said "AI agents could scale up big-game ransomware attacks enormously, freeing cybercriminals from the scaling problems that currently hold them back." Robust governance, real-time monitoring, and human oversight are essential in managing these risks effectively. (Source: Fortune)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: I think we can agree that whatever advances in AI are used to provide "better" security over our data will be dwarfed by bad actors using the same AI tools to steal data and cause other problems. The introduction of agents into the workplace will certainly cause similar problems.

3. Google thinks you'll trust AI to change your passwords

Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg

Google Chrome is testing a new AI-powered feature called Automated Password Change. When Chrome detects that one of your saved passwords has been compromised, it will prompt you to change your password. Instead of doing it manually, Chrome's AI can automatically update the password for you. The new password is saved in Google's Password Manager and is encrypted for security. (Source: Windows Central)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: I love this. I really do. From a personal perspective we all know that our usernames and passwords are all over the dark web and have been compromised and most of us are too lazy to do anything about it. From a company perspective we know that our employees are (or are not) doing the same thing. Many of us have software that prompts our users to change their passwords every 60 or 90 days, which helps. But Google doing this would be an added layer of security. The big question though is: Do we trust Google? I think that ship has sailed … .

4. Bluevine partners with Xero

Bluevine — a banking platform for startups and small businesses — announced a partnership with small-business accounting platform Xero. This collaboration allows Bluevine customers to sync their banking data with Xero, providing greater efficiencies and growth opportunities. (Source: Morningstar)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: According to the two companies, accountants can securely access their clients' accounts through Bluevine's dashboard, making financial management easier. Bluevine Plus and Premier customers get a six-month free trial of Xero's software, while U.S.-based Xero customers get a three-month free trial of Bluevine's plans. This partnership aims to simplify financial management and provide a comprehensive solution for tracking expenses, analyzing performance, and managing cash flow.

5. Microsoft 365 losing free VPN feature

Microsoft announced that it will be "removing the VPN (Virtual Private Network) feature" from its Microsoft 365 subscription by the end of February 2025. The VPN — which was part of the Microsoft Defender app — provided privacy protection by encrypting data on public networks. However, Microsoft decided to remove it due to low usage and to reallocate resources to other areas that better align with customer needs. Other Defender features — such as identity theft protection and anti-malware protection — will continue to be available. (Source: The Verge)

Why this is important for your business: A VPN is critical for encrypting data particularly when using a public WiFi connection. But unfortunately, I've been struggling with VPNs when I travel. I've tried Express VPN, Pure VPN and Tunnel Bear. They work. They don't work. They load. They don't load. They've all caused problems with my Windows 11 Dell laptop. It's gotten so annoying that I'm just leaning more on my mobile hotspot instead of using a public hotel or airport WiFi connection over a VPN. Companies need to incorporate VPNs in their remote networking capabilities for their workers. For individuals, I'm not a fan of any of the ones I've tried.

6. Musk debuts Grok-3 AI chatbot

Elon Musk

Nathan Laine/Bloomberg

Elon Musk's company xAI has launched Grok 3 — the company's "most advanced model yet," according to the website. Grok 3 is claimed to outperform rival AI models like OpenAI's GPT-4o, Google's Gemini, and DeepSeek's V3 in benchmarks for math, science, and coding. Increased Compute Power Grok 3 was developed with 10 times the compute power of its predecessor, Grok 2. New features include a "Think" button for more detailed reasoning and a new search feature called DeepSearch. Grok 3 is available to Premium+ subscribers on Musk's social platform, X, with a new subscription tier called SuperGrok offering early access to new features. (Source: Bloomberg)

Why this is important for your business: The chatbot race heats up! It's getting to the point where just using one chatbot isn't enough. I find myself leaning on ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. Why? Because I get different answers to the same question depending on the platform. Not that they're in conflict, but some are more detailed or informative. Grok is certainly a consideration too. My biggest concern is that Grok data is trained on data from X/Twitter. Should I be concerned by this? Probably not.

7. Monday.com announces AI Vision

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Project management platform Monday.com has announced its AI Vision for 2025, aiming to empower businesses to scale by embedding AI into its product suite. The strategy focuses on three pillars: AI Blocks, Product Power-ups, and the Digital Workforce. AI Blocks allow users to integrate AI into workflows without technical expertise, while Product Power-ups embed AI capabilities to tackle critical challenges like resource management and CRM data automation. Monday.com chief technology officer Daniel Lereya commented, "AI Vision is not just about adding new features; it's about reimagining how work gets done, unlocking infinite possibilities, and empowering businesses to scale like never before." (Source: Business Wire)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: My company sells CRM software and sometimes we compete with Monday.com. For companies looking for both a good project management and CRM solution, I think Monday.com offers much better options than even the products we implement. Monday.com has been growing in popularity and continues to invest in AI tools to make their platform even better. Hmm, maybe we should sell this too?

8. OpenAI launches AI tool for research

Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto/Photographer: Jakub Porzycki/Nur

OpenAI launched a new AI tool called Deep Research, designed to conduct multistep research on the internet for complex tasks. It uses a version of the upcoming OpenAI o3 model optimized for web browsing and data analysis. Users provide a prompt, and ChatGPT finds, analyzes and synthesizes several online sources (text, images, PDFs) to create a comprehensive report. Deep Research aims to accomplish in tens of minutes what would take a human many hours. The tool is still in its early stages and has some limitations — such as struggling with distinguishing authoritative information from rumors. (Source: Reuters)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: People all over X seem to be loving this. @Deedydas says: "Deep research generates ~10 page reports in ~15mins by scouring 100s of websites. This could replace a lot of human work." OpenAI says: "Give it a prompt and ChatGPT will find, analyze & synthesize hundreds of online sources to create a comprehensive report in tens of minutes vs what would take a human many hours." But the news may not be good for everyone: Sabrina Ortiz at ZDNET says there are at least 20 jobs it will replace.

9. What to know about DeepSeek AI

Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek — founded in 2023 by Liang Wenfeng — has fired up the tech world with capabilities that rival OpenAI and others. DeepSeek's success has been described as "upending AI" and has led to its chatbot app surpassing ChatGPT as the most-downloaded free app on the iOS App Store. The company has claimed it costs $5.6 million to train its V3 model — a small fraction of the costs in comparison to Google's Gemini for example. Some experts have surmised $5 million only reflects a portion of the actual total. DeepSeek's privacy policy has also raised concerns. Data that's collected and stored on "secured servers located in the People's Republic of China" — as the company states — include IP addresses, date of birth, and emails, among other sensitive information. (Source: ZDNet)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: First of all, everyone needs to calm down. DeepSeek's model may be challenging for Nvidia, but it opens up all sorts of great opportunities for other American startups and tech firms who will be copying what DeepSeek is doing (hmm … sound familiar?) and deploying in their own applications. It will make the cost of building AI applications much, much lower for smaller companies and it will speed up the rollout of AI tech across the enterprise world. Oh, and it could be good for the environment too. I don't think for one minute that U.S. businesses will be risking their data with a Chinese platform. But they'll be using the tech, for sure.

10. X's payments app to come later this year

Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., arrives at court during the SolarCity trial in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., on Tuesday, July 13, 2021. Musk was cool but combative as he testified in a Delaware courtroom that Tesla's more than $2 billion acquisition of SolarCity in 2016 wasn't a bailout of the struggling solar provider.

Samuel Corum/Bloomberg

X Money — X's new payments app — is set to launch later this year. The app will be a collaboration with Visa and will support peer-to-peer payments via users' debit cards. Users will also be able to transfer funds to their bank accounts and deposit money into an X Wallet, according to CEO Linda Yaccarino in an X post. This move is part of X's broader vision to become an "everything app" under Elon Musk's leadership as plans to expand the platform into the financial services field have been part of the company's ongoing strategy. (Source: Engadget)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: This is big news for small businesses. I'm all in on X. I've been using the platform both professionally and personally for years and I think it's significantly improved both in content, value and performance since Musk took over. I should lean into Grok more, I admit. But this payment app has the potential to be a standard tool that I use to get paid by clients. It depends on the ease of use, fees and any potential restrictions.