Gregarius » BetaNews.Com » août 15, 2012

BetaNews.Com (12 non lus)

Where do you discover new music?

Publié: août 15, 2012, 9:36pm CEST par Joe Wilcox
At 17, I hitchhiked with a friend from Maine to Boston, where was the regional Federal Communications Commission office. The agency heavily regulated radio, and I couldn't be a deejay without obtaining a Third Class license, which required a test and some math skills (yeah, just to spin vinyl). I flunked and thumbed rides a second time, passing the exam and getting a five-year license. My radio career started at college station WMEB.

Much has changed about music since the late 1970s, when punkers rebelled against their disco-loving Baby Boomer siblings. But surprisingly much is the same, too -- or so Nielsen's "Music 360" report reveals. Radio doesn't dominate music discovery like it once did (I partly blame canned broadcasts for taking the personality out of the airwaves), yet remains top source: 48 percent of people find out about new music from radio. Friend recommendations is distant second (10 percent) followed by YouTube (7 percent).

"While younger listeners opt for technologically advanced methods, traditional methods of discovery like radio and word-of-mouth continue to be strong drivers", David Bakula, Nielsen senior veep says. "With so many ways to purchase, consume and discover great new music, it’s no wonder that the consumer continues to access and enjoy music in greater numbers".

Radio's role as primary music source has changed for some music listeners. For example, 64 percent of teens listen to music on YouTube, followed by radio (56 percent) and iTunes (53 percent). CDs: 50 percent. iTunes as third isn't all that surprising. Apple unveiled the MP3 playing software in early 2001 and iTunes Music Store little more than two years later. Most teens grew up with iTunes, much like the previous generation did CDs and the one before vinyl.

But YouTube is still fairly new, comparatively. The service opened to the public in November 2005, but legal music services with reach, like VEVO, are fairly recent additions (late 2009). Confession: I listen to considerably more music on YouTube than radio, too. (But I discover more using Shazaam on my smartphone when shopping in stores or watching TV shows or movies.)

YouTube's music popularity says much about video's popularity among US Internet users. According to comScore, in June:
- 84.8 percent viewed at least one online video somewhere
- Google sites had 154.5 million unique video viewers
- Viewers spent an average 484.4 minutes watching videos on Google sites
- VEVO and Warner Music on YouTube had 71.2 million unique viewers, watching an average 73.6 minutes of videos
Google should really capitalize on YouTube's music popularity, even more than it does. The live events (Did you catch Lollapalooza?) are really good. Two days ago, Matthew Leske, Google's Hangouts on Air product manager, revealed the new Studio Mode, which allows stereo broadcasts. "Studio Mode optimizes your individual audio for music instead of conversation, and no else needs to change a thing", he explains.

Perhaps I'm too old school, but I'd like to see live veejay broadcasts from Google or YouTube partners like VEVO. There are music and artist channels that have some auto-programming but where's the personal touch? MTV launched with 5 veejays -- and, depending on gender preference, a generation of music consumers crooned for heartthrobs Mark Goodman and Martha Quinn. These days the network is more NMTV -- no music-video television.

Why shouldn't YouTube be a place for live music video broadcasts? Bring back the early MTV-days-like veejays, when there was much less overproduction and more feel of being in the studio, live, with them. Let people use social media to vote and share. Yes, some TV cable channels offer the latter. But social, music, video and the Internet better fit the YouTube generation.

Hey, I'm just saying.

Returning to Nielsen's survey, music is as mobile as ever, but changing:
Music player apps are most prevalent, followed by radio and music store apps.
- 54 percent have music player apps on their smartphones
- 47 percent have radio apps on their smartphones
- 26 percent have music store apps on their smartphones
Strangely, I rarely listen to music on my smartphone. As mentioned above, I frequently use it to discover new music.

And you? Where do you discover new music?

Photo Credit: Joe Wilcox
Windows 8 and Visual Studio 2012 RTMs launch for MSDN and TechNet subscribers

Publié: août 15, 2012, 8:10pm CEST par Tim Conneally

As expected, the Windows 8 and Visual Studio 2012 RTM builds were made available for download to Microsoft MSDN and TechNet subscribers Wednesday afternoon, giving developers early access to the "first final" build of Microsoft's flagship operating system and development environment.

This round of releases focuses on getting developers the tools they need to get Windows 8 apps ready for sale when the OS goes commercially available on October 26. As such, the new Windows Store is a major focus of updates today.

This version of Visual Studio, for example, now incorporates Blend, the visual authoring toolkit so app developers can publish their XAML and HTML/CSS/JS apps more quickly and easily. The "final version" of the Windows Store is also expected to launch today, so developers can get their new Windows 8 applications working, listed, and ready to sell for launch.

For enterprise developers, or really anyone who's interested in getting Windows 8 Enterprise RTM before October 26 can download a 90-day evaluation copy today. Both 32-bit and 64-bit ISOs are available, and downloaders must register their copy and activate it with Microsoft-hosted activation and validation services.

We've got it right here on FileForum if you don't want to wait in traffic over on MSDN.
Samsung debuts Galaxy Note 10.1 for stylus users craving a full-sized tablet

Publié: août 15, 2012, 6:31pm CEST par Tim Conneally

Samsung on Wednesday officially unveiled its new Galaxy Note 10.1 to the United States. The device is an update to Samsung's part-phone-part-tablet Galaxy Note which debuted last year and was met with equal amounts of fascination and derision.

Unlike its 5.29 inch predecessor, this device will not be confused with a phone in any light because it has a full 10.1 inch (1280 x 780) LCD display like the Galaxy Tab family. It's equipped with a 1.4 GHz quad-core Exynos processor, 2GB of RAM, Android 4.0.4 (ICS), and has a 5 megapixel rear camera and 1.9 megapixel forward-facing camera. It comes in 16GB and 32GB variants and has a microSD slot for additional storage.

It is considered a "Note" and not a "Tab" primarily because it focuses on providing support for Samsung's S-Pen peripheral and related pen-enhanced software like S Memo, S Note, and My Story as well as third-party apps like Photoshop Touch and Kno Interactive Textbooks. Further, Samsung's build of Ice Cream Sandwich features a few major tweaks like split-screen multitasking, and pen-based app launching that shape the experience.

Though there are many Android-based tablets available today, there are comparatively few with advanced stylus capabilities, and even fewer running new builds of Android. HTC's Scribe digital stylus worked with both the 7" Flyer and 10" Jetstream tablets, and Lenovo's ThinkPad Android tablet also featured its own pen and apps; and with the exception of the original Galaxy Note, that's the extent of it. There are some outliers, like EFUN's NextBook Next5 tablet that incorporates the Apen digitizer and the Korea-only LG Optimus Vu, but it's still a very small playing field.

A Wi-Fi only device, the suggested retail price for the Galaxy Note 10.1 is $499 for the 16GB version, and $549 for the 32GB version and it will go up for sale on Thursday.
Laplink CEO: Windows 8 will ensure Microsoft's dominance in the enterprise

Publié: août 15, 2012, 6:25pm CEST par Wayne Williams

You can’t have failed to notice that Windows 8 is attracting a lot of negative press. Some commentators, such as myself, have said it will flop, others that it will be the new Vista.

But not everyone thinks the updated operating system is a disaster. Thomas Koll, CEO of Laplink, is actually pretty positive about Windows 8's chances, and took the time to sit down with me and share his views about that and other topics, including flat PC sales, Microsoft Surface and tablet adoption in the enterprise.

Could you please provide a bit of background on yourself for the benefit of the readers.

[TK] Sure. I’m a Microsoft alumnus from 1988 -- 2001. All of my positions at the company were in sales-related functions, including corporate sales, country manager Microsoft in Germany, corporate vice president at Microsoft in Redmond responsible for one of the five sales divisions.

I’ve been the CEO of Laplink since 2003. For over 25 years, Laplink has been a global leader in PC connectivity, helping more than 15-million PC and Mac users worldwide who migrate, transfer, synchronize, share and remotely access billions of files per week.

Great. Let’s start by talking about the PC market. Second-quarter PC shipments were poor. They're flat globally, and down somewhere between 5 and 10 percent in the United States. Why do you think this is, and what do you see happening in the future?

[TK] The PC market is weak for several reasons. The weak economy has negatively impacted consumer spending overall, which includes computers. But perhaps more importantly, many consumers are choosing to use their limited budgets to buy new and additional devices like smartphones or tablets. I think only a small percentage of consumers have actually replaced their PCs with a tablet (and even less with a phone), but they clearly are extending the life of their existing PCs and not replacing them.

The result is many PC purchases have been postponed; for consumers who do much of their "consuming" (email, Facebook, music, video) on non-PC devices, they can squeeze a few more months (or years) out of their computers. Extending the life of existing PCs, a weak economy, and spending on non-PC devices has combined to significantly slow sales.

But the PC is not dead. We may love our iPads, we may love our new phones, but we’ll keep a PC around. It’s just that we won’t replace it as frequently as in the past.

Windows 8 is dividing opinion with some people predicting the new OS will be the next Vista. What do you make of it?

[TK] It certainly will not be Vista. Vista was considered a technology problem. Big memory needs, incompatible with the existing applications, high expectations from users. Win8 addresses a different set of issues. It brings a consistent UI across form factors, is very focused on the consumer buyer, and retains compatibility with older applications.

There will definitely be a group of people not liking it, but I hear more and more positive comments. Due to the additional market it addresses, there will be very controversial discussions (like iPad vs. Win8UI), but these should not to be compared with the traditional Windows PC user community’s opinion.

What features do you like and dislike about the new OS?

[TK] I like the new style UI, faster integration with data sources, compatibility with Win7 apps. But I don’t like that the classic view is being reduced in functionality. There is no good reason to switch to a new apps start-up model (no Start menu).

Are there enough features for the business user? Will the new UI entice business users to switch? I think there is a risk that some users (and perhaps many businesses) will want to downgrade new PC purchases to Win7. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it will create negative publicity.

What do you think Microsoft needs to do to succeed with its Windows 8 launch in order to reclaim the ground the company has lost over the past decade?

[TK] The debate about the "lost decade" is a bit silly. Microsoft has made great improvements in the last 10 years. The enterprise market has grown very strongly, new markets like the Xbox conquered; new communication products like SharePoint are dominating…

Yes, Microsoft did not have the "usual" wins in the smartphone and tablet markets, which today dominate the "excitement factor" for many consumers, but these things can change quickly. Some years ago, everyone thought that netbooks running Linux were a major threat to Microsoft. But in the end, most Netbooks ran Windows.

Apple and Android did a great job of creating a new market, but don’t count Microsoft out yet. That being said, I do think Win8 needs to challenge these alternative operating systems. That won’t be easy.

But let’s not forget that we use a lot of Microsoft products on these non-Windows devices such as Exchange, Office, Skype, etc. With Skype alone, Microsoft has the potential to dominate the Internet calling/communication market.

For me, I think Win8 success will mean that Microsoft will be able to defend its enterprise dominance and get Win8 tablets as the default choice for corporate users. And, of course, the company will need to obtain some share of the existing premium tablet market for consumers. (I expect Apple will stay the premium market leader and Android the lower-cost choice). If Microsoft can do this while turning Surface into a hit, then that’s a pretty good outcome for the company.

Microsoft will remain a dominant ecosystem, but we will certainly see alternates become more and more available for consumers, like Apple and Google. However, these guys only play in the consumer space and they have no offerings for businesses or government, today. Microsoft must use Win8 to keep Apple and Google confined primarily to the consumer space.

Laplink has forecast there will be 125 million users of Windows 8 in the United States alone within 18 months of it being released, with a large proportion coming from consumers buying new hardware to take advantage of the OS’s capabilities. What’s this predication based on?

[TK] Win8 will be shipped by all OEMs. Automatically it will be as successful as Win7 unless the PC market crashes. If 350-million PCs are shipped in the next 12 months, then it will be easy to reach those numbers. I would think that this number is conservative for 18 months given that there likely will be an increase because of availability in different form factors than in the past, as well as the proliferation of non-PC devices as WinRT tablets.

What’s your view on tablets? Will they totally replace laptops and/or desktops in the future?

[TK] No, definitely not, but the form factors will morph somewhat. Is Surface a tablet or a PC? Yes. Is a WinRT a PC? Might not be. However, the tablet (with keyboard) might replace a certain percentage of PCs that have been used for "consumption" (email, web browsing, limited text input). I think tablets and phones are like microwave ovens -- very convenient, very easy, but every home still has a conventional oven.

What do you think about Surface?

[TK] It looks like a good tablet (with a keyboard). Microsoft has to transform itself into a company with a hardware division, which should not be the biggest problem, as it has done so for Xbox and peripherals in the past. But if Surface can scale, it will be a major transition for Microsoft. If that happens, we can expect a major reorganization to follow.

Laplink has said it envisions significant enterprise adoption of Windows 8 tablets, but will businesses really want to spend a fortune on new technology? Surely maximizing their existing hardware makes greater sense?

[TK] Businesses will spend on new technology if there’s a positive ROI attached. Already, tablets are coming into the enterprise -- mostly iPads. Today, 50 percent of business desktops are still on XP, but almost all will soon move to Win7 or Win8. A normal adoption cycle to Win8 will start in about 18 months, but it will be far easier (and cheaper) to manage a Win7/8 environment than a Win7/iOS environment. Tablets in the enterprise are a given, and because Win8 tablets will have a better ROI than iOS, Microsoft has a great chance to get significant adoption of Win8 tablets.

And finally, do you see Windows 8 as being a good or a bad thing for your business?

[TK] I believe a good thing. We will see expanded interest in PCMover (again, our view is that the PC is not dead) and also our sync products, which are needed to keep your data in sync between all your devices (including PCs).
EASEUS ToDo Backup 5 Free supports Windows 8

Publié: août 15, 2012, 5:38pm CEST par Nick Peers

Chinese software developer EASEUS has updated its ToDo Backup software range to version 5. All versions, including EASEUS ToDo Backup 5 Free, gain Windows 8 compatibility, a tweaked user interface, support for large hard drives and the ability to specify file types for backup.

Paid-for versions of EASEUS’s all-encompassing backup and restore tool, including EASEUS Todo Backup Workstation 5.0, also benefit from new backup options involving Windows 7 Libraries and Outlook.

Version 5.0 adds full Windows 8 compatibility to its roster, plus now supports hard drives that are larger than 2TB. It also further tweaks the user interface that was radically revamped in the previous 4.5 release.

Of most interest to those using the free edition is a new feature allowing users to specify file types for backing up in selected folders, to rapidly speed up the partial selection of folder contents. The user must click the drop-down arrow next to File to access the feature. Several templates -- including Document, Email and Financial -- are provided, or the user can specify their own collections.

Those using a paid-for version of the program gain an additional two features: support for backing up (and restoration of) Windows 7 Libraries with a single click, plus quick and easy Outlook backup and restore.

EASEUS Todo Backup 5 Free is a free-for-personal-use download for PCs running Windows 2000 or later. EASEUS Todo Backup Workstation 5.0 is also available as a trial download, with the full version costing $39.

Photo Credit: Jakub Pavlinec/Shutterstock
Silent Runners uses VBScript to reveal Windows start-up programs

Publié: août 15, 2012, 5:34pm CEST par Mike Williams

If you’d like to find out which programs load along with Windows on your PC then Autoruns is a great place to start: it’s small, portable and produces a very detailed report, yet remains very easy to use.

Silent Runners is an interesting alternative, though. It also itemises your Browser Helper Objects, shell extensions, “shell execute” hooks, context menu handlers, print monitors, autoplay handlers and more. And it tries to highlight entries which look suspicious. But the key difference is that the program comes in the form of a VBScript, so you can see how it works, and perhaps tweak the code to suit your needs.

To try Silent Runners, download its zip file, extract the contents and run Silent Runners.vbs. If you can, anyway: a long history of abuse by malware means VBS files tend to make security software nervous. Silent Runners isn’t dangerous in any way, but if you have problems running the script then the author’s FAQ page has some useful advice.

Assuming you can launch Silent Runners, though, it’s straightforward to use. Just click “Yes” in the opening dialog to skip the “supplementary test” (a potentially lengthy test which doesn’t add much), and a minute or two later a plain text report file will appear detailing all the startup programs the script has found.

This report can be lengthy, as it covers all the usual startup entry points (and quite a few of the unusual ones, too -- this page has the full list).

Because Silent Runners isn’t trying to squeeze its data into a GUI, each individual entry can be very thorough. The first entry in the “Windows Portable Device AutoPlay Handlers” section looked like this on our test PC, for instance:

iTunesBurnCDOnArrival\
Provider = iTunes
InvokeProgID = iTunes.BurnCD
InvokeVerb = burn
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Classes\iTunes.BurnCD\shell\burn\command\(Default) = “C:\Program Files (x86)\iTunes\iTunes.exe” /AutoPlayBurn “%L” [Apple Inc.]

And the script even tries to highlight suspect entries at common malware launch points by adding a marker – “<<!>>” – to the beginning of the relevant lines. Although this didn’t seem to useful on our test PC, as it just picked out several safe and entirely legitimate programs.

If you have some VBScript knowledge, though, you don’t have to live with this kind of problem. If you’re unhappy with some feature of the program, just edit the script and change it, or strip it out entirely. And then add some features of your own: new tests for the report, perhaps? Maybe generate an HTML file for a better-looking report?

Silent Runners plainly isn’t the best choice for the average PC user, then: running its script can be difficult, and browsing the plain text reports isn’t much fun, either.

It is a powerful tool which offers plenty of configuration possibilities, though, so if you need something more than the regular startup program list then Silent Runners deserves a closer look.

Photo Credit: Kruglov_Orda/Shutterstock
RealPlayer for Android exits beta

Publié: août 15, 2012, 5:24pm CEST par Mark Wilson

Remember RealPlayer? The media player that was once, quite some time ago, one of the go-to media players for online media disappeared into relative obscurity, shouldered out of the limelight by the likes of Silverlight and HTML5 video. For desktop platforms, RealPlayer has all but vanished, but it is trying to make headway into the mobile market. RealPlayer for Android is out of beta and officially released.

Rather than just audio and video, RealPlayer for Android can also be used to play slideshows of photos, but movies and music are really where it’s all at. There is support for playlists so you can create mood music for every occasion and access it with ease. Aside from RealVideo and RealAudio, support for which can be added through and in-app purchase, the app can playback any file that is supported by your phone or tablet.

The interface is neatly set out and a handy widget is available so you can control media playback from the home screen; you can also control playback when your device is locked. RealNetworks’ online focus means that a variety of sharing options should come as no surprise; in addition to sharing through your favorite social network, there is also support for lastFM scrobbling so you can let others know what you are listening to.

The app does suffer a little from trying to be a jack of all trades -- it does a reasonably good job of acting as a music player, a video player and a photo viewer, but it does not excel in any of these areas and there are better apps available for each of these tasks. That said, if you are someone who abandoned RealPlayer some time ago, this might be the time to give the name a second chance as this mobile app is a different beast to the desktop tool of days gone by.

You can find out more and download a free copy of the app by paying a visit to the RealPlayer for Android review page.
Click fraudster eliminates bots, sends advertisers bogus bills

Publié: août 15, 2012, 4:57pm CEST par Robert X. Cringely

While click fraud and identity theft are probably the most common forms of larceny on the Internet, I just heard of a company that sets a whole new standard of bad, lying to advertisers about, well, everything.

Click fraud is when a website either clicks on its own ads to increase revenue, gets someone else to click on them with no intention of buying or works with botnets to generate millions of illegal clicks. I wrote a few months ago how longtime YouTubers were suffering income drops as Google algorithmically eliminated their botnet clicks. But click fraud requires a third-party ad network to work. What I am writing about here is something completely different.

I have an old friend who works in the private equity world where companies are bought and sold for millions. He was about to do exactly that with a prominent web media site (buying it for low nine figures) when due diligence revealed the amazing news that the company was completely fudging its ad numbers.

It was too good to be true.

This can only happen for sites that sell their own ads but this particular site was just sending invoices to advertisers for amounts that were consistently 10 or more times what the advertisers would have paid on the basis of real -- not fake -- clicks.

It’s click fraud without the clicks, since all the complexity of clicks and bots is eliminated in favor of just sending a bogus bill.

I wonder how common this is? Have you heard of this happening or has it happened where you work or used to work?

There is apparently no standardized ad auditing capability on the Internet so scams of this sort are actually easy to do. And advertisers often lean into it by often preferring not to know precisely how effective are their ads.

Take my money, please.

Now here’s the strangest part: having discovered this blatant fraud my friend walked away from the deal but did nothing to bust the offending web site. His lawyer advised that because he signed a non-disclosure agreement with the crooks my friend might be legally liable if he turned them in to the authorities. It is his intention, though, to bust them just as soon as the NDA expire -- in three years.

Yes, I know the name of the website, but if I tell then again my friend is liable. So my lips, too, are sealed.

Until then I suppose advertisers will be soaked for more millions. That is unless the website owners can find a really stupid buyer.

Reprinted with permission

Photo Credit: Robynrg/Shutterstock
4G LTE BlackBerry PlayBook -- only for die-hard RIM fans?

Publié: août 15, 2012, 4:33pm CEST par Mihaita Bamburic

Even if I may not come across as a Research in Motion fan, I actually like the Canadian smartphone manufacturer more than you'd think. RIM is the underdog in the smartphone race and after I wrote the article on the new 4G LTE BlackBerry PlayBook I thought to myself "yeah, this is nice; I'd actually have one over a Nexus 7". The specs pointed to a very capable 7-inch tablet that is better than typical, run-of-the-mill, BlackBerry PlayBook in almost every single way. What's not to love about a new, strong entry on the market? Well…

I didn't expect to like the tablet, since I didn't expect it to be launched in the first place, given the financial context being most unfavorable in a long time for RIM. The 4G LTE BlackBerry PlayBook is a miracle in its own way, being released at a time when RIM shares plummeted harder than a Tic-Tac falling from a skyscraper. Then I saw the price: CAD549.95, in Canada, at Bell, Rogers and Telus; I'm still left wondering: "What are they thinking?" That's about $554 for the folks south of the Canadian border. Since both the Canadian and United States BlackBerry shops have the same prices for the PlayBook, it's fair to assume the 4G LTE BlackBerry Playbook will too.

The 32GB BlackBerry Playbook, the unpretentious RIM tablet, normally sells for $249 but it's discounted now to $229 in Canada and United States. An easy subtraction shows a $220-225 difference depending on currency (higher for US Dollar) and that could be reasonable if it was a wonder tablet, except it's not. That $550 for a 7-inch tablet is simply absurd when a 16GB Nexus 7 sells for less than half its price. Is the RIM 4G LTE BlackBerry PlayBook two times better than the 16GB Nexus 7? Take the LTE connectivity out and the hardware differences between the two do not favor RIM's tablet, except it has more storage. Are BlackBerry OS + 16GB of extra storage worth around $300 on top of the 16GB Nexus 7 price? It's not, at least for me anyway.

It's double the price of its most obvious competitor, but it's also $30 more than the 16GB Wi-Fi + 3G iPad 2 in the United States and the same price as the 16GB Wi-Fi + 3G iPad 2 in Canada. Between the two, I'd say more people will go for the iPad, despite it not having 4G LTE connectivity. I'm wondering if the guys who decided upon the price looked at other tablets on the market before setting the target on $550. Where I'm standing, it looks like an overpriced 7-inch tablet that's neck and neck on price with the iPad 2 and probably a bit less expensive than Microsoft Surface with Windows RT.

RIM stock traded for $7.17 per share at the time of writing the article on the announcement of the 4G LTE BlackBerry Playbook and from the looks of it the news of a new product isn't going to miraculously improve their market cap.

And it actually didn't do squat for the smartphone veteran. On August 2, when the story was published, RIM stock sold for $6.95 per share at closing time, worse than earlier during the day when I wrote it. On August 7, rumors of a partnership between RIM and Samsung surfaced and, coincidentally or not, the stock market rewarded RIM, which share price reached $8.34 on Monday. It's $7.44 in early trading today.

Simply put, RIM launched a new product, gaining little short-term benefit but when a rumor appeared of a possible partnership with Samsung the stock prices have suddenly improved. I'd venture a guess and say that the news of the 4G LTE BlackBerry PlayBook came like an alien landing in a deserted area: no one was there to see it, so it didn't make any difference.

So to answer my two questions from my previous article on the RIM 4G LTE BlackBerry PlayBook, I'd have to answer with "No" on both counts; it didn't influence stock prices, not for the better that is and I can only assume based on pricing that the sales of the Google Nexus 7 will not be disturbed by it.

Now, I'm not a pessimist by nature; I was actually optimistic about when RIM announced the new tablet, hoping that the underdog would fight off the bigger players. But when a sky-high price is added to the equation, the hardware and software combination don't shine even half as bright as almost two weeks ago. I still like the underdog, but I don't agree with its ways.

Now that the price has been set, who is interested in buying it? Not me.
The cloud is still the safest place to be for small-to-medium businesses

Publié: août 15, 2012, 3:35pm CEST par Wayne Williams
Cloud security has been a hot topic in the news lately. While most of the hacks reported in the press have affect consumers and popular free services, there’s no question that some businesses will be concerned, in the light of all these negative reports, about just how safe their off-site data actually is. It’s one thing for an individual like Mat Honan to lose his digital identity, but if a business loses the data it has stored in the cloud (or worse still, if it should fall into the wrong hands), that can have truly catastrophic consequences, both in terms of monetary loss and damage to reputation.

The perceived risk of cloud storage might have some small-and-medium businesses rethinking their strategy and looking to return to the old days of just backing up locally. But doing so could actually put company data at far greater risk. If the firm’s servers fail as a result of a cyberattack or a natural disaster, it’s going to be much harder to affect a speedy recovery.

While handling data management in-house might seem like a possible cash-saving solution, it can actually work out to be far more expensive in the long run. For starters, there’s the wages of the on-site staff that will need to be employed to ensure the smooth running of everything, including keeping on top of the security standards and regulations. Giving the task to an existing employee, in addition to their day to day duties, will just increase the risk of important updates not being applied in a timely fashion. It’s a worrying fact, according to Verizon’s 2012 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), that 96 percent of hacked businesses surveyed were not compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) when they were attacked, and 92 percent of all breaches were identified by third parties, typically weeks or even months after the event.

The truth is, despite the recent scare stories, dedicated cloud storage still offers the best solution for most businesses. Cloud providers are typically less attractive to hackers because they invest far more in security than the average SMB could ever afford. They’ll also offer physical security at their storage sites, to prevent someone breaking in and making off with the data the old fashioned way (according to Verizon’s DBIR, 10 percent of all recorded breaches was down to a lack of physical security).

Of course, it’s important for businesses to identify the right provider for their needs, and you really do get what you pay for when it comes to cloud storage. Choose a cheap solution from someone without a proven track record, and there’s the risk they might not be up to the task (or worse still could go bust). If you have a company that’s considering moving your data to the cloud, Verizon Business, which offers a suite of cost effective enterprise-class cloud services, suggests asking the following questions of any potential provider before giving them your business:
- Do they have tight physical security, such as 24x7 human guards and biometric screening, to positively identify visitors, as well as video cameras for facility monitoring?
- Where will your data be stored? Will your provider use its own secure facility or farm out processing and storage functions to a third party?
- Can they verify that all software patches, anti-virus signatures, anti-malware, and security policies are up to date and applied consistently?
- Do they have cloud-specific firewalls for virtual machines to prevent intrusions?
- What are the company’s backup practices, and do they replicate data and application infrastructure across multiple sites?
- Is a complete restoration possible, and if so, how long will it take?
- Does their data center have uninterruptible power supplies, climate control, and fire prevention and suppression?
- Data in the cloud is typically in a shared environment, resulting in files from multiple companies residing on the same servers. Does the provider offer strong isolation and compartmentalization at every layer of the multi-tenant architecture to protect against unauthorized access?
- Do they offer tested encryption methods for file transfers, support for customer pre-encrypted file storage, and strong authentication?
- Does the provider comply with standards designed to control access by the people who manage your data?
- And finally, if you foresee specialized requirements not met by shared resources, can the provider offer additional protections through dedicated systems and private IP networking options, such as application log monitoring, virtual private networks, and migration strategies and services?
All good questions, and ones that any competent cloud provider should be able to answer with ease. If they can’t, or the answers seem vague or uninformed, walk away. Your company’s data is too valuable to risk.

Photo Credit: Jirsak/Shutterstock
Mountain Growl gets more from OS X 10.8 notifications

Publié: août 15, 2012, 2:15pm CEST par Mark Wilson

Growl is an excellent notification system for OS X that makes it easy to keep an eye on the status of a range of different applications without the need to switch between apps. But there is one problem, particularly for anyone who is keen to jump on the latest version of OS X -- there is currently no support for Mountain Lion and its new Notification Center. Mountain Growl can help here.

The Notification Center is in line with the same feature that is found in iOS and is the latest in a series of changes to OS X that blurs the lines between the mobile and desktop versions of Apple’s operating system. If you have been a Growl user, you’ll have noticed that when you upgraded to Mountain Lion that you have to endure Growl notifications alongside those from the Notification Center.

Once you have Mountain Growl installed, this is no longer the case. This free app can be used to push Growl notifications to the Notification Center so that they will appear with all of your other notifications. This unification plugs the gaps until a fully Mountain Lion compatible version of Growl is released.

All of this works well, but there is one slight drawback. All of the notifications are generated are sent by Growl itself, so this is the icon you will see next to individual entries in the Notification Center, this is a minor quibble, however, and Mountain Growl is well worth a look.

You can find out more and download a free copy of the app by paying a visit to the Mountain Growl review page.
If Windows is wonky, .NET Version Detector can help

Publié: août 15, 2012, 12:34pm CEST par Mike Williams

Many programs require that you have the correct version of the .NET Framework installed before they’ll work. And so it’s important to understand which versions of .NET are installed on a system before you start installing new software.

Microsoft haven’t provided any straightforward way of finding this out, unfortunately, but that doesn’t have to be a problem: the .NET Version Detector provides everything you need.

The program is convenient to use, coming in the form of a single, portable executable. It’s small at only 774KB, and is a native application, so doesn’t require .NET itself.

The Version Detector’s interface is a little confusing, though, mostly because it tries to display too much information all at once. We were expecting a simple list box with one line per .NET version installed; instead there are panels, and buttons, and a list, and a text box, and menus.

But once you understand what’s happening this isn’t really a problem. Check the panels to the left, and any .NET versions displayed in white text are installed; those with greyed out text aren’t. Or you can scroll down the text box at the bottom of the program for a simple list.

And those buttons over on the left actually represent download links; the green should grab a copy of the relevant framework version, while the purple ought to download the appropriate software development kit, if you need it.

We say “should” download, because the links don’t always work. We clicked the download button for .NET 4.5, for instance, and just got a “not found” error at the Microsoft site: oops.

Microsoft have presumably just moved the file, though. And the links themselves are server-based, so this isn’t an issue with the program itself; as soon as the author notices the problem and updates things, all will be well, without you having to download anything further.

The .NET Version Detector has a few issues, then, in particular its overly cluttered interface. But its small size, portability and (mostly working) .NET download links mean the program still provides a convenient way to understand and update your PC’s .NET configuration.