Quick one for anyone whose business email or diary lives in iCloud. So the @icloud.com or @me.com addresses, or the Calendar on your iPhone. Until now ChatGPT could only plug into Gmail and Google Calendar. As of yesterday, OpenAI has added iCloud Mail and iCloud Calendar too. It's on every plan, free included, on web, desktop and iPhone. In plain English: you can ask ChatGPT "find that quote I sent the plumber in September" or "what's on Thursday, and can you move the 2pm to Friday?" and it goes and does it in your real inbox and calendar. It can draft replies too. Where I'd use it: - Catching up on the inbox after a busy day out of the office - Digging out an old email when you can't remember the exact wording - Quick diary changes without jumping between apps A few things to know. You set it up in ChatGPT under Settings > Plugins, and you'll need an Apple "app-specific password" (a separate password Apple creates for you, not your normal one). It only sees iCloud, not any Gmail or Outlook accounts you've added to your iPhone. And it can send emails, so I'd check anything it writes before it goes out. My take: if iCloud is where your admin lives, it's worth 10 minutes to try. Start with the safe stuff like searching and summarising, then hand over more once you trust it. Source: https://www.macrumors.com/2026/10/27/chatgpt-icloud-mail-calendar-plugin/ Has anyone connected it yet? What's the first email or calendar job you'd hand over to it? Try it, then come back and share how it went.

Be honest. How many of you know you "should" be posting short videos, but editing one eats a whole afternoon? This caught my eye. Last Friday CapCut announced a plugin that brings its video editor into ChatGPT. The idea is pretty simple. You describe the video you want, or upload your own clips. CapCut puts together a rough first cut right inside ChatGPT. Then you just tell it what to change. "Hold that shot longer." "Make the captions easier to read." "Keep the music quiet under my voice." When it's close, you open it in CapCut's web editor to finish it off and post. For a small business, I can see it being handy for turning phone clips from a job or event into a 30-second reel. Or a quick before-and-after or product demo without learning editing software. Or cutting one longer video into a few short ones for different platforms. Now the "wait and see" bit. CapCut says it's coming "in the coming months". No word yet on pricing or which ChatGPT plans you'll need. And a first cut is still a first cut. You'll want to check it actually sounds and looks like you. My takeaway: if video is the job you keep pushing to next week, keep an eye on this one. In the meantime, you can already ask ChatGPT to plan and script a short video for you today. Learn it now, so you're ready to implement when this lands. What's one video you'd make for your business if editing took 10 minutes instead of 2 hours? Source: https://www.capcut.com/newsroom/capcut-world-la

If your business website runs on WordPress (loads of them do), this one's worth two minutes of your Monday. Last Tuesday (21 Oct) the PHP team pushed out emergency security fixes. PHP is the behind-the-scenes language that runs most websites, WordPress included. Two serious holes were found, partly by security researchers at OpenAI and others. Left unpatched, they could let someone run code on your web server without ever logging in. The AI angle is the bit I keep thinking about. AI is getting really good at finding bugs. That helps the good guys, but attackers have the same tools. So "I'll update when I get round to it" is getting riskier. What to actually do: - In WordPress, go to Tools > Site Health > Info > Server and check your PHP version. Patched versions are 8.5.12, 8.4.27, 8.3.36 or 8.2.35 (or newer). - Not sure, or not on WordPress? Message your web host or web person: "Have you patched PHP for the 21 October security release?" Most decent hosts are already on it. - On PHP 8.1 or older? That doesn't get fixes any more, o ask about upgrading. You don't need to update WordPress itself for this. It's the server underneath. Honest caveat: when the US cyber agency CISA put out its alert, no successful attacks had been seen yet, and many hosts patch this automatically. But it's a five-minute check against a potentially very bad week. Learn what your site runs on, implement the check, ask your host if you're unsure, and share what you find here. Source (WordPress.org): https://wordpress.org/news/2026/10/critical-php-security-release/ Who hosts your website, and did they tell you about this, or did you have to go looking?

You know the drill. You ask an AI tool for a quick promo graphic. It looks great. Then the text is gibberish, or you need to change the price, and you can't. Back to square one. Canva just launched its own image model, called Craft. It's live now for all Canva users worldwide, inside Dream Lab (it's in the left-hand menu). What's different? It plans the layout first, like what goes where and what the text says, and then makes the image. Canva says that means readable text and things placed where you asked. You can also turn the result into editable layers with Magic Layers. So you can change a heading or a price without starting again. Where I'd try it first: - Your weekly offer post for Instagram or Facebook, in the right size straight away - A simple flyer or menu where the words actually need to be right - Quick "we're hiring" or product graphics, without paying a designer for every small job A bit of caution. It's day one, and the "best in class" rankings are Canva's own claims. Test it on your real stuff before you rely on it, and always double-check spelling on anything going to print. Some bits, like connecting it to AI assistants, are still "coming soon". My takeaway: if you already use Canva, there's no new app to learn. Pick one graphic you make every week and try it in Craft today. Learn, implement, then come back and share what happened. Source: Canva's announcement https://www.canva.com/newsroom/news/canva-craft/ What's one graphic you make over and over that you'd hand to this first?