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• It'll soon be easier than ever to set up online meetings on Microsoft Outlook

  Sorting out your daily meeting schedule using Microsoft Outlook should soon be a lot more straightforward thanks to a new update.

  Microsoft's email service is adding third-party support for its Meetings feature, meaning the likes of Zoom, Google Meet and Cisco Webex should now work smoothly with Outlook.

  "This update will add support for users of third-party online meeting providers to make their meetings online by default, or to select their preferred online meeting provider if they use multiple providers," noted the entry in the Microsoft 365 roadmap.

  Meetings on Outlook

  Previously, the scheduling had only been available to users of Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business - both of which are obviously owned by the same company.

  This had led to issues if users were trying to schedule meetings using a non-Microsoft offering - issues which hopefully now should be consigned to the past.

  The update is still in development, with Microsoft currently aiming to roll it out by March 2022. The good news is that all Microsoft 365 users should be able to benefit from the upgrade, which will be available across iOS, Android, Mac, Web and Windows desktop.

  The news is the latest in what seems a constant stream of updates from Microsoft for its online collaboration and video conferencing offerings, as the global switch to hybrid working shows little sign of slowing down.

  Recently, the company revealed it would be taking video meetings into a whole new virtual dimension with the launch of Mesh for Microsoft Teams. This new platform combines the mixed-reality capabilities of Microsoft Mesh and the productivity tools of Microsoft Teams to enable new experiences through the introduction of personalized avatars and spaces where users can connect and have shared immersive 3D experiences.

  Microsoft also recently announced Loop, a new productivity tool for Microsoft 365 that will make it easier for teams to think, plan and create together, combining a powerful and flexible canvas with portable components that move freely and stay in sync across the software giant's apps. 

  Here's the best free office software around today

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• The best Dell XPS 13 and 15 deals and prices for September 2020

  The most lucrative deals on Dell’s super premium XPS 13 and XPS 15 laptops

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• Windows 10 bug that’s dropping frame rates hasn’t been fixed after all

  Glitch that slows down games just won’t die, sadly, as reports are still coming in from affected users even after the fix.

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• Twitter down: social media website and app aren't working - again

  It feels like every other week that the internet breaks - you've guessed it (from the headline), Twitter is down.

  The social media giant is unavailable to loads of users - trying to access the web page brings up the message "Something went wrong. Try reloading.", and the app won't refresh with newer tweets.

  Reports on downdetector.co.uk jumped up into the thousands within minutes of the outage - it's worth pointing out that, while the reports also rose on downdetector.com (in the US), they didn't rise by nearly as much.

  It sounds like a limited issue, as lots of TechRadar team members haven't had an issue. Saying that the sheer number of Downdetector reports shows that something is up.

  Not only is the main Twitter feed down, but other Twitter sites are down too, like its Help site.

  We just wanted to post a funny joke, and now we've discovered that Twitter isn't working. We're investigating.

  Judging by reports from Downdetector and TechRadar's US team, the outage is affecting far fewer people in the US than in the UK - it seems mainly a British problem. Well, we can add that to the list after Freddos costing more, Magnums getting smaller and the whole cost of living thing.

  In the UK, DownDetector reports more than 4,000 reports in the last few minutes. That's a huge number given how many we normally see - even for the major outages that affect multiple websites, we usually see one or two thousand reports.

  This outage has come less than six weeks after the last Twitter outage.

  That was a smaller one, as the main Twitter feed would load, but Tweets wouldn't - so you could see them, but not click on them or interact with them. 

  Now, you can't see anything - it's radio silence.

  Usually when there's an internet outage, people turn to Twitter to look for answers. That's... a little harder now.

  We looked at Facebook, but Twitter itself hasn't posted there for several months. Last time it did, it was a screenshot of a Tweet about cats. What is this, 2007?

  Facebook is a bit more community-focused though, so it's harder to see what people in the wider world are saying.

  Reddit to the rescue though:

  is_twitter_down_for_anyone_else_in_uk from r/Twitter

  There's no official comment, but there are people from around the world commenting to say that Reddit isn't working for them.

  Unfortunately, because Reddit's support and news room sites are all hosted by the media giant itself, they're not working either.

  We're seeing a growing number of reports of outages from the US, but TechRadar's team based there hasn't seen anything.

  It's likely that a server in Europe is at fault, which is why it's so much more of an issue for our UK readers than our US ones.

  But we're waiting to find out from Twitter to see what's going on.

  

  Reports are well over 4,000 at the moment.

  For context, the baseline is 3. That's a big difference.

  Oh wait - Twitter is back! (for me at least)

  This suggests the end of the outage could be here - just in time for you to return to work after your lunch break. What bad luck.

  DownDetector reports for Twitter problems are finally going down - it looks like the outage could really be over.

  It's not a steep plummet of reports, which suggests some people are still finding problems with their desktop site or phone app, but this at least tells us that the initial problem is being solved.

  We've been looking to see if Twitter itself has commented on the outage - so far we can't see anything from any of its official accounts.

  Saying that, it's got about a billion of its own accounts for different regions, aspects of the site and more, so it's very possible that one of them has posted, and we just haven't found it yet.

  Well, this was a short outage - down and up again within the course of an hour.

  We'd prefer internet outages not to happen at all, but if they've got to happen, we like them when they're just gone for a short while like now.

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