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BetaNews.Com (7 non lus)

Switching to Garamond could slash US government printing costs by almost a quarter

Publié: mars 31, 2014, 10:36pm CEST par Mark Wilson

A Pittsburgh teenager has worked out that the US government could slash millions from its costs by making a simple change to IT policy. Suvir Mirchandani's suggestion is laughably simple, but it is one that should hold water -- although I'll admit to not fully following through with the math to determine the precise levels of savings that could be achieved. Suvir proposes that a move away from the most commonly used fonts, such as Times New Roman, in favour of a lighter typeface such as Garamond could reduce the US government's printing costs by a colossal 24 percent.

There can be few printer owners who have not cursed the price of ink -- it is one of the costs of ownership that can creep up on the unsuspecting printer user. You might think that the paperless office was, if not here, well on its way to arriving. It's something that has been talked about for years now, and there has been a general move toward eliminating some paper versions of documents in favour of electronic copies. But there are still an unbelievable number of printed documents out there.

With a printing budget of $1.8 billion each year, any savings that could be made by the government could very easily mount up. Suvir had already managed to calculate that his school district's printing costs could be reduced by $21,000 each year, he was challenged to scale up his project to see how much could be saved by the federal government. The numbers are somewhat mindblowing. By doing nothing more than printing documents in Garamond, federal government could slash its costs by $136 million each year.

If this is not impressive enough, factor in state governments and the figure jumps to $370 million. There's potential to take things even further. If printer manufacturers switch focus to quantity rather than quality, printer owners could expect to get more documents per dollar of ink; in addition to using a lighter font, defaulting to draft mode rather than the highest quality print setting could cut costs even more.

But of course, there is also a change in user mindset needed. There are still huge numbers of people printing out emails and other documents when an on-screen version would suffice. Naturally, there are times when a hard copy is essential, but a faster move to digitization is needed. Suvir's work shows the financial savings are there to be made, and there are also environmental concerns to factor it.

So -- do your bit... switch to Garamond in draft mode!

Image Credit: komar_off / Shutterstock
Much ado about nothing -- Dropbox quells fears of file snooping on users

Publié: mars 31, 2014, 9:06pm CEST par Alan Buckingham

Throughout today I have watched, with a sort of detached fascination, the attention suddenly being heaped upon cloud storage service Dropbox. It is certainly not the sort of publicity a company wants, either. It also is unwarranted. The company, at least by some outlets, is being accused of policing users' personal files in a search for copyrighted material.

The fact is, this all came about based on a tweet from one lone user, who was simply mentioning a system that was already in place, and has been for some time. Darrell Whitelaw, the user at the center of this, was only asking a question, not accusing the service of anything.

"Wow. @dropbox DMCA takedown in personal folders . . . this is new to me", the tweet reads. Mr. Whitelaw has since followed up, multiple times, explaining what he intended, and has been contacted by Dropbox with an explanation.

The simple truth is much more mundane than some of the sensationalistic stories floating about today. BetaNews reached out to Dropbox for an official statement, and you can read the response we received, below.

"There have been some questions around how we handle copyright notices. We sometimes receive DMCA notices to remove links on copyright grounds. When we receive these, we process them according to the law and disable the identified link. We have an automated system that then prevents other users from sharing the identical material using another Dropbox link. This is done by comparing file hashes. We don’t look at the files in your private folders and are committed to keeping your stuff safe".

Your personally stored files, as far as we know, are not being scanned by the service. The only action being taken is to block shares of a file that matches one involved in a DMCA takedown notice. That file will not be removed from your cloud storage account either, just prevented from being shared. It's a simple solution and isn't even new.

With all of the recent news surrounding the NSA, hacked services and such -- not to mention the continuous concern about the DMCA -- it isn't a surprise this got so much attention. You can't always believe what you read on the Internet, though.

Photo Credit: Brian A Jackson/Shutterstock
LaCie Fuel expands iPad capacity by 2TB

Publié: mars 31, 2014, 7:16pm CEST par Wayne Williams

Whatever size tablet you opt for, there’s a good chance you’ll fill the available space in no time at all. Apps, photos, and HD movies all consume a sizable amount of space, forcing you to manage your storage wisely.

If you own an iPhone or iPad you can boost your device’s available capacity with an LaCie Fuel 2.5 inch wireless drive. The LaCie Fuel offers wireless streaming to up to five devices without an internet connection, and Airplay compatibility for mirroring content on a larger screen. It can also create its own Wi-Fi network and act as a hotspot when connected to the internet via Wi-Fi.

Of course it's the size of the drive that really matters, and Seagate Technology has announced it is set to double the available maximum capacity from 1TB to 2TB, providing users with more than enough space to store over 1,000 HD movies.

The 2TB LaCie Fuel can be preordered through LaCie for $249.99 (USA only) and will be available globally in April.
Make sense of 'unknown devices' with Hardware Identify

Publié: mars 31, 2014, 7:09pm CEST par Mike Williams

Utilities developer Tweaking.com has announced the availability of Hardware Identify, a tool which attempts to list the various devices on your PC -- even if Device Manager (or other system information tools) currently show them as "unknown".

Download, unzip and launch the program, and within a few seconds it displays a table listing all your hardware. Details include the device name, manufacturer, error code (if there’s currently a problem), class (USB, System, Port, Mouse and so on), driver version and hardware IDs. Clicking any column header sorts the list by that field.

The table can be filtered in various ways. For example, click in the list box at the bottom left of the window, select "List hardware with no drivers installed" and click "Show Hardware" to see those devices.

If you still can’t figure out what a particular device is, right-clicking it and selecting "Lookup Selected Device in Database" might help.

And there’s also a right-click option to search Google for drivers, using either the device name or hardware ID (the cryptic USB\VID_8087&PID_8008&REV_0005|USB\VID_8087&PID_8008 – type string).

As usual with this kind of tool, you shouldn’t expect too much. We tried to "lookup selected drive in database" and were regularly pointed at three, four, maybe five devices, with no clue which was the right one.

There were also some small but irritating bugs (the program allows you to spend an age resizing each table column, but then restores the defaults if you resize the Hardware Identify window).

The program is only at version 1.0, though, and with an automated mechanism in place for users to "improve the database", Hardware Identify should only get better from here.
Backupify expands cloud support

Publié: mars 31, 2014, 3:06pm CEST par Ian Barker

Moving data to the cloud and running software as a service can make businesses complacent about backup as they feel their data is already safe with their provider.

However, a recent report by Forrester warns that organizations relying on cloud services may be at risk, "SaaS is an increasingly popular method of deploying new services, but many organizations don't realize that they could be at risk of losing critical data. Many SaaS providers will not restore lost data for users or will only do so for an exorbitant fee".

Leading backup provider Backupify already supports Google Apps, Salesforce.com, PipelineDeals, and Smartsheet. It's using World Backup Day to announce that in 2014 it's set to add 13 other cloud services to its platform by the year end. Slated for release this year are cloud-to-cloud backup solutions for Box, Dropbox, Netsuite, GitHub, Zendesk, Concur, ServiceNow, JIRA, Workday, Asana, Egnyte, Office 365 and Basecamp.

The company also has a set of open APIs allowing developers to create backups for other cloud applications quickly and easily.

"We know companies are rapidly moving to the cloud and migrating critical company information into cloud applications," says Rob May, CEO of Backupify. "With that exponential growth, customers are increasingly thinking less in terms of any one single application -- they want a 'single pane of glass' in order to more efficiently and effectively protect all their data across a growing number of different applications. We’re responding to our customer’s needs by taking a more integrated approach to managing their data".

Backupify will allow companies to log in to a single platform to backup and manage the data they store across multiple SaaS applications.

You can get more information, sign up for a free trial and download the full Forrester report on the Backupify website.

Image Credit: Lightspring / Shutterstock
World Backup Day 2014 -- Do you know where your files are?

Publié: mars 31, 2014, 2:36pm CEST par Alan Buckingham

Backing up files is one those New Year’s resolutions/good intention things that we all think about, but often don’t get around to doing. Despite the multitude of options available, it never ceases to amaze me every time I hear someone lament lost Word docs, photos or the like.

It's precisely that sort of disaster which World Backup Day 2014 aims to help users avoid. To drive the point home, the website cites some statistics -- 30 percent of people have never backed up their files, 113 phones are lost or stolen every minute, 29-percent of disasters are caused by accidents and one out of every ten computers is infected with a virus.

To combat these problems, the site asks everyone to take its pledge -- "I solemnly swear to backup my important documents and precious memories on March 31st". This pledge can also be shared via both Facebook and Twitter -- sadly there have been only 822 people counted as of this writing.

The site also offers tips on local and cloud backup, covering multiple platforms and services. While a second copy is a great start, having three is best. Such things as fire and theft can wipe out original and local copies, so consider an external drive or NAS, plus a cloud service like CrashPlan or Carbon, both of which will backup files in the background automatically.

Image Credit: Marynchenko Oleksandr/ Shutterstock
Manage music on your mobiles, tablets and PC for free with KiwiG PhonTunes

Publié: mars 31, 2014, 2:32pm CEST par Nick Peers

Shunting music files between PC, Apple and Android is nothing new, but it can be a fiddly process if done manually, or expensive if you try to find a suitable third-party app to do the hard work for you. With the release of KiwiG PhonTunes 2.5, you can now enjoy quick and easy music transfer -- including directly between Android and Apple -- for free.

Version 2.5 has just been launched with a completely redesigned user interface, support for local music management and a built-in music player.

KiwiG PhonTunes is simple enough to use -- you will need iTunes 11 or later if you’re using it in conjunction with an iPad, iPhone or iPod, but as of version 2.5, support for local music management means Android users no longer need iTunes at all if Apple devices aren’t in the mix.

The program aims to be as simple as possible to use, although a measure of acclimatisation is required. Fire it up and you’ll see the program window split into three panes: on the left is a list of local folders on your PC -- initially these will consist of your iTunes library (if present) and a dedicated folder. To add more, click the menu button in the top right and choose Sync Music Directories to add more.

The middle pane contains the currently selected item or sub-item, such as an iTunes playlist. Tracks are displayed in what appears to be a random order, and sadly you can’t quickly sort them by using the field headers at the top of the pane. You can, at least, use the search box to filter the results further.

The right-hand pane gives you access to the iTunes folder on your Apple device, or Music folders on your Android device, with each device represented by a small tab on the far right. This pane is collapsible.

Moving individual or selected tracks between device and PC is simple using the To PC and To Device buttons. You can also transfer directly between devices using the tiny button to the right of the search device icon. You can only transfer to a playlist, but PhonTunes has the controls you need (right-click Device Music) to create, edit and rename playlists.

You can also bring up individual track properties via the right-click button and perform some metadata editing too. Another handy tool is a duplicates finder, which lets you quickly track down (and subsequently manage) duplicate tracks on each device. A built-in music player also allows you to listen to individual tracks, but only those stored on your PC, plus build up a local playlist within the program itself.

There is, of course, room for improvement. Only Apple-friendly formats are support, freezing out Microsoft’s WMA music files, and Android compatibility isn’t guaranteed across all devices -- we had no problems with a tablet running Android 2.3 for example, but our Sony Xperia Tipo running Android 4.0.4 was too glitchy for practical use. Nevertheless, KiwiG PhonTunes has already shown itself to be an incredibly capable tool for managing and transferring music between PC, iOS and Android.

KiwiG PhonTunes 2.5 is available now as a freeware download for PCs running Windows XP or later. iTunes 11 or later is also required if connecting an iPod, iPad or iPhone.