Gregarius » BetaNews.Com » avril 16, 2014

BetaNews.Com (17 non lus)

Google Camera goads iPhone

Publié: avril 16, 2014, 11:39pm CEST par Joe Wilcox

Android phones running stock or manufacturer-installed KitKat 4.4+ get a big photo-shooting upgrade today. Google Camera is now available from the Play store. The app replaces the standard shooter on Nexus devices and places a separate camera app on others. The headline feature: Lens Blur, which does exactly what the name indicates. You shoot the image, and then use the app to either blur the foreground or background. Photographers call the capability "bokeh", and it usually requires a specialized lens on dedicated hardware to produce well. The blurred effect is highly desirable for portraits. Can you say selfie?

Google does what Apple should -- use software development wits to add hardware smarts. This is exactly the kind of thing I would expect from the fruit-logo company first. But that's a number recently missing from the iOS crop. Google is by no means first to offer software blur, but in my testing delivers arguably the best effort. Hell, the new camera app even shames newfangled hardware mechanisms. HTC One M8 uses two lenses and feature UFocus to produce bokeh. In my testing, on The One and Nexus 7, blur is surprisingly comparable.

"Lens Blur replaces the need for a large optical system with algorithms that simulate a larger lens and aperture", Carlos Hernández, Google software engineer, explains. "Instead of capturing a single photo, you move the camera in an upward sweep to capture a whole series of frames. From these photos, Lens Blur uses computer vision algorithms to create a 3D model of the world, estimating the depth (distance) to every point in the scene".

This is the day you regret that handset running older Android. You're good with Nexus 5, Samsung Galaxy S5, or The One (that's carrier models, not just Google Play Edition) -- and get much more than just some blur. Photo Sphere is a big addition that Nexus users should know well but not many other-branded device owners. The feature allows you to shoot a 360-degree panorama.

But it's a day for iPhone regret, too. Mobile photography is important to Google, which tools -- ranging from Plus photos to shooting apps -- are unusually good. The search and information giant removes complexity while improving simplicity by way of features like Google+ Auto Awesome or Auto Enhance, which are fun and productive, respectively. Google fixes photos for you -- and with surprising intelligence.

Lens Blur is the kind of innovation that were Steve Jobs alive and announcing the feature, the tech press would be gaga proclaiming: "Apple does it again". Google is the doer, and without the big launch fanfare. When using a dSLR system, I would use a lens with large aperture to produce bokeh, narrowing depth-of-field. Typically this is something you set up before taking the photo.

"Lens Blur lets you change the point or level of focus after the photo is taken", Hernández explains. That's quite amazing. He continues: "You can choose to make any object come into focus simply by tapping on it in the image. By changing the depth-of-field slider, you can simulate different aperture sizes, to achieve bokeh effects ranging from subtle to surreal (e.g., tilt-shift). The new image is rendered instantly, allowing you to see your changes in real time".

What bugs me: I've got this HTC One M8 that uses hardware -- a duo-camera with two lenses -- to produce the kind of blur Google Camera accomplishes with software. I'd feel worse if still using iPhone 5s.

Photo Credit: Joe Wilcox (and Google Camera)
Google scanning and analyzing the numbers on your house -- strengthens reCAPTCHA

Publié: avril 16, 2014, 7:32pm CEST par Brian Fagioli

The greatest dream for many people is home and land ownership. House prices, at least in the USA, are extraordinarily expensive, putting this dream out of reach for many. For those that do achieve the dream, there are many hurdles that must be faced afterwards -- utility bills, property taxes and maintenance to name a few.

Well, homeowners have one more thing to worry about -- the visibility and legibility of their house numbers. You see, Google is now using a sophisticated algorithm to scan Street View data and detect those numbers. The end result is better accuracy in Google Maps, and a stronger reCAPTCHA.

"Have you ever wondered how Google Maps knows the exact location of your neighborhood coffee shop? Or of the hotel you’re staying at next month? Translating a street address to an exact location on a map is harder than it seems. To take on this challenge and make Google Maps even more useful, we've been working on a new system to help locate addresses even more accurately, using some of the technology from the Street View and reCAPTCHA teams", says Vinay Shet, Product Manager, reCAPTCHA.

Shet further explains, "this technology finds and reads street numbers in Street View, and correlates those numbers with existing addresses to pinpoint their exact location on Google Maps. We’ve described these findings in a scientific paper at the International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR). In this paper, we show that this system is able to accurately detect and read difficult numbers in Street View with 90% accuracy".

In other words, the system works so well, that distorted text reCAPTCHA has become essentially worthless. In theory, this improved algorithm in the wrong hands could lead to an increase in spam. However, Google says it has been relying less on distorted text lately, so there is no need to panic.

While there is nothing morally wrong with Google scanning and tracking house numbers, it does feel a bit creepy. However, the benefits far outweigh the creep-factor. Personally, I applaud Google for anything that strengthens reCAPTCHA or Google Maps accuracy. Hell, anything that gets the pizza delivery guy to my house faster is very much welcomed.

What do you think? Tell me in the comments.

Photo Credit: defotoberg/Shutterstock
Bluhell Firewall: a simple but effective ad-blocker for Firefox

Publié: avril 16, 2014, 7:32pm CEST par Mike Williams

Building the perfect ad-blocker is a complex business, not least because your users can have very different ideas on how it should work.

Some developers try to address this with layer after layer of features. You’ll be able to whitelist this, blacklist that, and add custom filters for just about everything else. Sounds great, until you have to spend an age learning how everything works, and start to notice how all these layers are slowing you down.

Bluhell Firewall for Firefox takes a different route, mostly by ignoring the problem entirely. There are no lists, no filters, no subscriptions -- no settings at all (other than an on/ off button, anyway).

Bluhell’s core code is just as straightforward, as it uses only five blocking rules. Apart from simplifying the add-on, it also greatly improves performance, as there are very few checks to make before any web resource can be displayed.

Don’t assume this means Bluhell Firewall is underpowered. The add-on’s rules are auto-generated from EasyList, so you can be sure they’re reliable; the developer says Bluhell blocks around 7,000 .com and .net domains, and the 5-star rating from other users suggests it’s doing a very good job.

Okay, it’s true, we would appreciate a little configurability in some areas. The ability to create a whitelist of trusted sites, say, would be welcome.

Bluhell Firewall does well at its core task, though, blocking ads without affecting performance, and that’s what counts for us.
Logitech Harmony Smart Keyboard now controls Amazon Fire TV

Publié: avril 16, 2014, 4:49pm CEST par Alan Buckingham

It's been a busy couple of weeks in the home theater market, with a few major releases, including the Roku streaming stick, but also Amazon's much anticipated Fire TV and the latest offering from Harmony. The Logitech-owned company offers a number of smart remotes, but now also has the Smart Keyboard, designed to control your home theater.

The introduction of Amazon's Android-based box seemed to offer a challenge, as the remote is Bluetooth, but Harmony has stepped up and made it work.

"Now Harmony Smart Keyboard customers can control their Amazon Fire TV by using the included USB receiver. It’s easy to add the device, just go to the Harmony App, add Fire TV as a device, and create the Harmony Activity", says Logitech.

The keyboard allows for universal searching across services, and also integrates with an app that is available for both Android and iOS. As for the voice search built into the Fire TV remote, the mobile apps can handle that for customers.

Fire TV retails for $99 from Amazon, while the Harmony Smart Keyboard will set you back $149 from Logitech.
EssentialPIM adds support for cloud sync, Pro users gain PGP encryption

Publié: avril 16, 2014, 4:48pm CEST par Nick Peers

Astonsoft has released EssentialPIM Free 5.8 and EssentialPIM Pro 5.8, major new versions of its personal information manager tool for Windows.

Also available in portable form as well as on Android and iOS, version 5.8’s headline feature is integration with the new EPIM Cloud feature, allowing data to be synced using the cloud.

The new EPIM Cloud feature, which keeps data in sync between any number of PCs and includes 1GB storage, comes as a 30-day trial for Free users. The service allows calendars, to-do lists, notes, contacts and passwords to all -- or selectively -- be synchronized via this account, which is subsequently synced to other PCs running the program.

Other new features applicable to both free and Pro versions include a new quick-print feature (simply right-click any item to evoke it) and the Password Generator’s ability to remember previously used settings.

Pro users gain support for PGP encryption, allowing them to encrypt and decrypt email correspondence in automatic mode. Users can also make specific items read-only, plus opt to automatically generate passwords for new password entries.

The Pro version also adds support for searching on To Do custom fields as part of wider improvements to the Advanced Search tool. Also added are extended calendar printing options.

The update, which includes a number of unspecified bug fixes, coincides with the release of EssentialPIM for Android 3.0.5, which extends the synchronization of Google Tasks across all devices and Android OS versions. Users also gain the ability to hide notes for calendar events on daily and weekly views to improve performance along with some minor bug fixes.

EssentialPIM 5.8 Free and EssentialPIM Free Portable 5.8 are available for free download for PCs running Windows 2000 or later. EssentialPIM 5.8 Pro is also available as a free trial download – the full version costs $39.95 for a year’s worth of updates or $79.95 for unlimited updates for life. Also available are EssentialPIM for Android 3.0.5 and EssentialPIM for iOS 2.7.9.
Getac launches rugged Windows tablet for mobile workers

Publié: avril 16, 2014, 3:29pm CEST par Ian Barker

With tablets becoming more common in the workplace, the problem with normal models is they're not robust enough to cope with the demands of utility workers and field service operatives.

We saw Dell address this market a few weeks ago with a tough convertible system and now rugged systems specialist Getac is launching a new Windows 8 tablet specifically aimed at mobile field workers.

The Getac T800 has an 8.1-inch screen, is 24mm thick and weighs 0.88Kg. It uses a quad-core Intel N3530 2.16GHz processor and is designed to offer the toughness needed for mobile use without sacrificing power and performance. It has MIL-STD 810G and IP65 ratings, meaning the device can handle shock, drops and vibration to military grades while also being sealed against dust and water.

In addition it uses Getac's unique SnapBack expansion system which lets users add expansions to the T800 such as an extra battery, increasing the operational use to greater than 16 hours, or a 2-in-1 RFID and Smart Card Reader. The screen uses Lumibond, Getac's proprietary technology, that offers excellent touch control and sunlight readability without placing too much drain on the battery.

The T800 also provides a wide range of connectivity options. It can be configured with 4G LTE cellular data with an auto tunable 8-band antenna capable of quickly switching between bands. It also includes the latest 802.11ac Wi-Fi for data transfer speeds up to three times faster than 802.11n products. An optional SiRFstarIV GPS offers double search capacity, faster location positioning and improved accuracy.

Peter Molyneux, President of Getac UK says, "The T800 gives the best performance of any fully rugged Windows 8 tablet in the market today. Our customers have given us tremendous feedback on the T800's thin and light design, while offering high levels of integration and field performance. We always target to give our customers the latest in fully rugged computer technology with no compromise on performance, and again we feel confident we have achieved this in the T800".

You can find more information on the T800 on the Getac website.
FilExile deletes files or folders that Explorer won’t touch

Publié: avril 16, 2014, 3:26pm CEST par Mike Williams

Deleting files from Windows Explorer is usually very easy. Select your target, tap "Del", click the "Yes, I really mean it" button and the object disappears forever. (Or is sent to the Recycle Bin, anyway.)

Sometimes you’ll get an "in use" error, though, usually because the file is locked by Windows or the system. It’s best to find out why -- the file could be important -- but if all else fails, a specialist tool like Unlocker can help you to delete it anyway.

You might alternatively be warned that there’s a problem with the file name: it’s too long, "invalid", or something similar. This kind of issue will defeat even Unlocker-type programs, but fortunately FilExile is here to help.

The program downloads and installs quickly, and presents the user with a very basic interface. There’s a "Browse" button to select the offending file/ folder, or a "Target" box where you can specify it manually. Either way, click "Delete" when you’re done and the file should disappear forever.

This worked well in our first tests, correctly removing files with invalid names. It can’t delete locked files, however, so you’ll still need a copy of Unlocker.

Explore the menus and you’ll find one or two extras, particularly in the Options dialog. For instance, it can add an extension to Explorer, allowing you to delete files or folders from the right-click menu (Settings > Options > Advanced). There’s also a multi-threading option to speed up the deletion process.

The program even supports a command line interface for automated wiping, and this can additionally delete all the folders and files specified in a "job" file.

While more flexibility is always a good thing, we’re not quite sure how valuable these features will really be. If you regularly need this kind of batch delete option then you should probably investigate why your system is producing all these invalid files in the first place.

FilExile is an easy-to-use tool which can help you get rid of stubborn files and folders, though, and you should probably keep a copy around for emergency use.
Don’t waste another $6 million on your financial close -- Automate for better accuracy and efficiency

Publié: avril 16, 2014, 3:16pm CEST par Peter Minck

Every member of the finance department knows the importance -- and the effort it takes -- to perform the monthly, quarterly and year-end close in order to create corporate financial statements. The tabulation and documentation demand complete accuracy and coordination between all the moving parts of an enterprise.

For large organizations, it's a tremendous process challenge just to consolidate information from so many geographic locations, departments and corporate silos in a relatively short period of time.

How Do You Close?

Recently Redwood conducted a study of 56 large companies in the Global 1000 who use SAP at the core of their enterprise. The research spanned a variety of industries including financial services, oil and gas production, technology, telecommunications and utilities. The goal of the study was to find out how these organizations meet the perpetual challenges of the financial close.

We examined every step in their close processes, and the results were surprising. There was remarkable similarity across various industries in different geographies -- in the amount of manual effort put into financial close processes. In fact, all of the companies surveyed still depend on many manual tasks throughout the financial close, even when core processes are supported by a robust ERP and high-quality IT infrastructure.

Most companies perform a period-end close on a monthly basis. This, in turn, supports the quarterly and yearly financial closes for compliance reporting (e.g. 10-Qs and Form 10Ks). With each close, large companies must bring together a wide range of sales, expense and balance sheet data from a number of separate legal entities. Of course, the bigger the company, the more divisions or separate legal entities they have to cope with.

The finance department is quite literally accountable for discovering and correcting or explaining any variances that may be found. The tabulation involved in coordinating all of these pieces of data from different legal entities requires a high degree of accuracy and full documentation of every step. With the repetitive nature of this work, you might think that the close process would be supported by large-scale automation. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case.

Room for Improvement

Our research examined the documented closing processes at each organization, and matched those processes against what was actually done. From this we gained deep insight into what really happens in the financial close. We could see how much each company followed their own documentation, and what steps relied on customization or sheer human effort. The variations we measured showed great room for improvement.

Like many other back-office functions, the financial close has yet to be fully automated -- even in the biggest companies. Instead of automation, what we saw was large-scale manual effort throughout. Companies with an average number of 83 legal entities dedicate an astonishing 8,300 full personnel days every year to support the close process. Overall we found that, typically, 82 percent of financial close activities are completely manual, which substantially increases the risk of human error, not to mention cost. More disturbingly, we also uncovered that up to 23 percent of financial close steps that are formally documented may never actually be executed.

Higher Efficiency with Lower Risk

For larger corporations, the research highlights an area where the finance team can improve efficiency and realign staff from repetitive production tasks to strategic analysis. All of this can be accomplished with process automation.

When we examined the repetitive manual tasks common to these large companies, we discovered that 70 percent of these activities could be eliminated through automation. With this single step in support of their SAP enterprise, larger companies could save an average of US$6.48 million every year. At the same time, these companies could also refocus their finance teams toward more value-added work such as variance and trend analysis instead of tedious levels of manual tabulation and checking.

Period-end closing reports are some of the most important sources of information a company has. All CFOs need trustworthy numbers and require time to analyze financial data. They need to know why sales went up or expenses went down. Internal reports are vital to decision support at every level of the business. Meanwhile, external financial close reports support market strength and shareholder confidence. Our research shows that it's time for large corporations to take a serious look at their financial close processes. It's time to end the risky manual tasks in the financial close and automate for efficiency, accuracy and reliability.

Image Credit: Vadim Georgiev/Shutterstock

Peter Minck, Vice President, Business Solutions, Redwood Software, heads Redwood's North American Financial Close Automation team. Before joining Redwood, Minck held executive financial management positions at Automatic Data Processing, The Rockefeller Group, Goldman Sachs and Cohn Consulting Group, among others. With more than 25 years of experience in financial consulting and financial management in the areas of financial reporting, period-end close and financial system design, Minck has led many of the largest and most successful global organizations to transform their financial close with intelligent automation.
Stickeez boosts ad revenue for mobile developers

Publié: avril 16, 2014, 3:03pm CEST par Ian Barker

In-app adverts provide a useful revenue stream for developers, allowing them to monetize what would otherwise be free products.

With Gartner predicting that over 94 percent of app downloads will be free by 2017, revenue from in-app ads is likely to become even more critical in the future.

Israel-based digital platform specialist ironSource has announced that in the two months since its launch in February of this year Stickeez, which uses the company's mobileCore native ad format, has boosted developer ad revenues by 20 percent.

Unlike other mobile advertising systems, Stickeez provides developers with a non-aggressive, ad delivery system that can integrate seamlessly with the look and feel of their app. It presents users with an engaging animation that displays mobileCore offers or other apps available to download once clicked.

"In today's predominantly free app market, developers need to find creative ways to monetize their product, but they also have to protect their user's in-app experience," says Itay Riemer, General Manager, mobileCore at ironSource. "Stickeez offers developers a highly-effective means of generating revenue without compromising on user experience".

Developers can choose images from a Stickeez gallery or incorporate their own characters. Currently mobileCore creates custom branded Stickeez for advertisers to promote specific apps, this customization capability will soon be rolled out for every developer using the format. Because it uses the existing mobileCore Developers Panel it also offers maximum flexibility.

"ironSource has always been committed to solving problems and providing solutions for software developers -- whatever platform they are working on," says Tomer Bar Zeev, CEO and Co-Founder. "Both Stickeez, and mobileCore in general, are designed to empower the developer to monetize more effectively so they can focus on the thing they do best -- developing great products".

For more information on Stickeez visit the mobileCore website.

Image Credit: Sergey Nivens / Shutterstock
BitTorrent joins forces with Netgear, brings Sync to NAS

Publié: avril 16, 2014, 2:53pm CEST par Alan Buckingham

BitTorrent has been busily updating its Sync ever since the service first debuted. The organization bills this as having no cloud involved, describing it as "being more private and secure than the public cloud".

Now BitTorrent is joining forces with Netgear for the first NAS integration of its Sync program. "NetGear is our first partner to launch a native BitTorrent Sync app, which can be accessed from the ReadyNAS Add Ons page today", says Erik Pounds.

The app is coming to both home models, including ReadyNAS 102 and 104, as well as business-grade boxes such as the 312, 314, 316, 516 and 716X. Enterpise is also not left out, with availability on the 2120, 3220 and 4220.

"Now with native NAS support, BitTorrent Sync is always on, storing data so it is accessible to you whenever and wherever. This is a great solution for personal use, including smartphone to NAS backup. And it enables secure and private collaboration for remote teams, NAS to NAS (or NAS to other machine) replication and many other applications", says BitTorrent’s Kevin Fu.

BitTorrent promises that integration with other hardware makers will be announced in the near future, but no hint of timeframe or manufacturers is being given.
Mobile kingpins embark in fight against smartphone theft

Publié: avril 16, 2014, 2:40pm CEST par Mihaita Bamburic

Even though technology has advanced tremendously in recent times, smartphone theft or loss continues to be an area which has received little attention from the big players in the industry. And, it is not difficult to see why, as they stand to profit from people's misfortune or mistakes.

While we can track smartphones and delete any personal data remotely, most handsets do not have a kill switch, which means the people who stole or found a handset may be able to use it freely. However, that is set to change, as CTIA has revealed top players in the mobile industry have, finally, decided to fight on behalf of consumers, by employing countermeasures.

The companies that have signed this agreement are Apple, Asurion, AT&T, Google, HTC, Huawei, Motorola, Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular and Verizon. They have vowed to include "a baseline anti-theft tool", for free, in smartphones that will be offered for sale, at retail, starting July 2015.

The tool can be either pre-installed or readily available to download. And the four largest mobile operators in US will not stand in the way. This is good news, as the agreement covers Android, iOS and Windows Phone smartphones, which make up more than 90 percent of the US market.

The anti-theft tool gives users the ability to erase personal data remotely, will limit functionality solely to emergency calls (and, if the user chooses, specific numbers), prevent the smartphone from being reactivated without the user's consent (which probably kicks in after the data is erased, like Apple does with the iPhone 5s), and, finally, allow users who have initiated the process, to regain control after recovering their smartphones.

Some of these features resemble what Apple is doing with the iPhone 5s. There is no word yet on whether this tool will be available outside of US, come launch time. But, there is no reason, at least in the case of mobile operator-unlocked smartphones, why it should not be offered.

Photo Credit: Les Scholz/Shutterstock
How to slipstream Windows 8.1 Update into a custom installation ISO

Publié: avril 16, 2014, 2:12pm CEST par Wayne Williams
Microsoft’s tiled operating system is best viewed as a work in progress. The tech giant made major changes from Windows 8 to 8.1, and has just released the mandatory Update, which adds tweaks and new features aimed primarily at keyboard and mouse users.

The downside of these changes is that if you ever have to reinstall Windows you’ll need to update your computer with the Update and other security patches and so on afterwards. Fortunately, you can create a new, more up to date installer by slipstreaming (integrating) the Update with the original disc files.

To slipstream the Update into Microsoft’s new OS, you’ll need a Windows 8.1 ISO file and a copy of WinReducer 8.1. You’ll also need to install some additional tools. These are:
- 7-Zip
- ImageX and Oscdimg
- Resource Hacker
- SetACL (you need the EXE version)
Copy the executables from the programs you downloaded (7z.dll, 7z.exe, imagex.exe, oscdimg.exe, ResHacker.exe, and SetACL.exe) to the WinReducer81\HOME\SOFTWARE folder. It’s a lot of messing around to be honest, but you only have to do it once.

WinReducer will automatically detect when you have the required tools installed. There will be green "on" lights next to each item in the Software Detection section.

Close the configuration window and the main WinReducer window will open. Click the Start button, then click on ISO and navigate to your downloaded Windows 8.1 ISO and wait for the extraction to complete.

During this stage you may see a message stating "You are trying to use an unsupported Windows Upgrade DVD!". If you do, then you won’t be able to progress with that ISO. You’ll either need to use a different ISO, or use the installation files from a Windows 8.1 disc (in WinReducer go to Start, Folder, navigate to the folder that contains the extracted files, and then click Mount). Unfortunately the official ISO from Microsoft, which you can download by following the instructions here, won’t work.

Assuming the ISO you’re using processed fine, click Mount. With that done, click on System and select the WinReducer Updates Tool. Choose your version of Windows (x86 or x64), then click on the Update button. Check the box next to "Updates (Update 1) (6)" then click the Download button.

When the updates have been downloaded, exit the tool, then fill in the path to the updates in the box: WinReducer81\WORK\INTEGRATE\UPDATES\x86 (32-bit Windows) or WinReducer81\WORK\INTEGRATE\UPDATES\x64 (64-bit Windows).

Click Finish, then click Apply and wait. Finally, choose to save the file as an ISO and click Save. You can write the finished image to disc, or turn it into a bootable USB flash drive by following Mihaita’s instructions here.
Defraggler adds Quick Optimize feature for SSD drives, disk performance graphs

Publié: avril 16, 2014, 2:10pm CEST par Nick Peers

Piriform has released Defraggler 2.18 and Defraggler Portable 2.18, minor updates to its Windows freeware defrag tool.

Version 2.18 builds on the previous release by adding additional functionality to the recently introduced Statistics tab as well as implementing a new Quick Optimize feature for sold-state storage drives.

The previous release of Defraggler introduced the Statistics tab where users can view information about recent analysis and defrag operations. Version 4.18 adds new Disk Performance graphs -- users can click Benchmark All Drives and get a bar chart comparing the performance of each drive.

Also new in Defraggler 4.18 is a new Quick Optimize option for SSD drives to accompany the Optimize option. The Optimize feature uses a zero-filling technique on empty drive space to improve write performance on SSD drives and versions of Windows (specifically XP) that don’t support the TRIM command.

The new release also adds the ability to view information for different drives when an operation is in progress. There’s also the promised of an improved loading time for the Health tab when viewing a drive as well as better detection of files with no extensions in the File List tab.

Pro users gain a new scriptable /UPDATE parameter for implementing background updates, while the update is rounded off with the usual collection of unspecified minor GUI tweaks and bug fixes.

Defraggler 2.18 and Defraggler Portable 2.18 are both available now as a freeware downloads for PCs running Windows XP or later.
Toshiba offers 4K in new Satellite P55t laptop

Publié: avril 16, 2014, 1:33pm CEST par Mihaita Bamburic

The displays of mid-range and high-end laptops have reached a point when distinguishing pixels is no longer easy. We can thank high resolutions for that. Nowadays, even small laptops can tote 1080p, and some offer even more than that. Manufacturers can start focusing on other aspects, as any improvements in this area are purely incremental. And, there is only so much the human eye can see, after all. (But, we can all enjoy battery life improvements, for instance.)

Toshiba has not yet given up on competing in the specs race though, as it just unveiled a new laptop, called Satellite P55t, sporting a display resolution of 3840 by 2160, commonly referred to as 4K. The new offering has a price to match the prowess of its 15.6-inch screen, as it costs $1,499 when it goes on sale later this month, on April 22. That is not cheap by any stretch of the imagination.

A 15.6-inch screen -- IPS in this case -- combined with 4K equates to a density of 282 pixels per inch. For a laptop users will look at from a considerable distance, that is impressive (and, perhaps, more than enough).

Inside, Toshiba employs a quad-core Intel Core i7 processor (Haswell generation) and an AMD Radeon R9 M265X graphics card, with 2 GB of GDDR5 RAM, to handle the load. Users can have the Satellite P55t with 1 TB of storage and as much as 16 GB of RAM. There are also four USB 3.0 ports, an SD card reader that support UHS-II cards (known to be far and few between, yet very fast), Wi-Fi 802.11 ac, HDMI and, optionally, a rewritable Blu-Ray drive. It all hints that this laptop is not aimed at the average Joe.

The Satellite P55t may not the most beautiful laptop you have ever seen, but it does come with a backlit keyboard, that is very useful and, at the same time, looks cool at night, and a brushed aluminum finish. From the information we have on it, it does not seem to offer a touchscreen. It will likely ship with Windows 8.1 Update come availability time.
Big Data is the new Artificial Intelligence

Publié: avril 16, 2014, 9:47am CEST par Robert X. Cringely

This is the first of a couple columns about a growing trend in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it is likely to be integrated in our culture. Computerworld ran an interesting overview article on the subject yesterday that got me thinking not only about where this technology is going but how it is likely to affect us not just as a people. but as individuals. How is AI likely to affect me? The answer is scary.

Today we consider the general case and tomorrow the very specific.

The failure of Artificial Intelligence. Back in the 1980s there was a popular field called Artificial Intelligence, the major idea of which was to figure out how experts do what they do, reduce those tasks to a set of rules, then program computers with those rules, effectively replacing the experts. The goal was to teach computers to diagnose disease, translate languages, to even figure out what we wanted but didn’t know ourselves.

It didn’t work.

Artificial Intelligence or AI, as it was called, absorbed hundreds of millions of Silicon Valley VC dollars before being declared a failure. Though it wasn’t clear at the time, the problem with AI was we just didn’t have enough computer processing power at the right price to accomplish those ambitious goals. But thanks to Map Reduce and the cloud we have more than enough computing power to do AI today.

The human speed bump. It’s ironic that a key idea behind AI was to give language to computers yet much of Google’s success has been from effectively taking language away from computers -- human language that is. The XML and SQL data standards that underly almost all web content are not used at Google where they realized that making human-readable data structures made no sense when it was computers -- and not humans -- that would be doing the communicating. It’s through the elimination of human readability, then, that much progress has been made in machine learning.

You see in today’s version of Artificial Intelligence we don’t need to teach our computers to perform human tasks: they teach themselves.

Google Translate, for example, can be used online for free by anyone to translate text back and forth between more than 70 languages. This statistical translator uses billions of word sequences mapped in two or more languages. This in English means that in French. There are no parts of speech, no subjects or verbs, no grammar at all. The system just figures it out. And that means there’s no need for theory. It works, but we can’t say exactly why because the whole process is data driven. Over time Google Translate will get better and better, translating based on what are called correlative algorithms -- rules that never leave the machine and are too complex for humans to even understand.

Google Brain. At Google they have something called Google Vision that currently has 16000 microprocessors equivalent to about a tenth of our brain’s visual cortex. It specializes in computer vision and was trained exactly the same way as Google Translate, through massive numbers of examples -- in this case still images (BILLIONS of still images) taken from YouTube videos. Google Vision looked at images for 72 straight hours and essentially taught itself to see twice as well as any other computer on Earth. Give it an image and it will find another one like it. Tell it that the image is a cat and it will be able to recognize cats. Remember this took three days. How long does it take a newborn baby to recognize cats?

This is exactly how IBM’s Watson computer came to win at Jeopardy, just by crunching old episode questions: there was no underlying theory.

Let’s take this another step or two. There have been data-driven studies of MRIs taken of the active brains of convicted felons. This is not in any way different from the Google Vision example except we’re solving for something different -- recidivism, the likelihood that a criminal will break the law again and return to prison after release. Again without any underlying theory Google Vision seems to be able to differentiate between the brain MRIs of felons likely to repeat and those unlikely to repeat. Sounds a bit like that Tom Cruise movie Minority Report, eh? This has a huge imputed cost savings to society, but it still has the scary aspect of no underlying theory: it works because it works.

Scientists then looked at brain MRIs of people while they are viewing those billions of YouTube frames. Crunch a big enough data set of images and their resultant MRIs and the computer can eventually predict from the MRI what the subject is looking at. That’s reading minds and again we don’t know how.

Advance science by eliminating the scientists. What do scientists do? They theorize. Big Data in certain cases makes theory either unnecessary or simply impossible. The 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for example, was awarded to a trio of biologists who did all their research on deriving algorithms to explain the chemistry of enzymes using computers. No enzymes were killed in the winning of this prize.

Algorithms are currently improving at twice the rate of Moore’s Law.

What’s changing is the emergence of a new Information Technology workflow that goes from the traditional:

1) new hardware enables new software

2) new software is written to do new jobs enabled by the new hardware

3) Moore’s Law brings hardware costs down over time and new software is consumerized.

4) rinse repeat

To the next generation:

1) Massive parallelism allows new algorithms to be organically derived

2) new algorithms are deployed on consumer hardware

3) Moore’s Law is effectively accelerated though at some peril (we don’t understand our algorithms)

4) rinse repeat

What’s key here are the new derive-deploy steps and moving beyond what has always been required for a significant technology leap -- a new computing platform. What’s after mobile, people ask? This is after mobile. What will it look like? Nobody knows and it may not matter.

In 10 years Moore’s Law will increase processor power by 128X. By throwing more processor cores at problems and leveraging the rapid pace of algorithm development we ought to increase that by another 128X for a total of 16,384X. Remember Google Vision is currently the equivalent of 0.1 visual cortex. Now multiply that by 16,384X to get 1,638 visual cortex equivalents. That’s where this is heading.

A decade from now computer vision will be seeing things we can’t even understand, like dogs sniffing cancer today.

We’ve both hit a wall in our ability to generate appropriate theories and found in Big Data a hack to keep improving. The only problem is we no longer understand why things work. How long from there to when we completely lose control?

That’s coming around 2029, according to Ray Kurzweil, when we’ll reach the technological singularity.

That’s the year the noted futurist says $1000 will be able to buy enough computing power to match 10,000 human brains. For the price of a PC, says Ray, we’ll be able to harness more computational power than we can even understand or even describe. A supercomputer in every garage.

Matched with equally fast networks this could mean your computer -- or whatever the device is called -- could search in its entirety in real time every word ever written to answer literally any question. No leaving stones unturned.

Nowhere to hide. Apply this in a world where every electric device is a networked sensor feeding the network and we’ll have not only incredibly effective fire alarms, we’re also likely to have lost all personal privacy.

Those who predict the future tend to overestimate change in the short term and underestimate change in the long term. The Desk Set from 1957 with Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy envisioned mainframe-based automation eliminating human staffers in a TV network research department. That has happened to some extent, though it took another 50 years and people are still involved. But the greater technological threat wasn’t to the research department but to the TV network itself. Will there even be television networks in 2029? Will there even be television?

Nobody knows.
Freeplane: a versatile brainstorming tool

Publié: avril 16, 2014, 9:40am CEST par Mike Williams

Whether you need to understand a problem, complete a task, or just generally get organized, mind mapping can probably help. Not least because it’s so easy.

Start with the central issue; note down any related ideas, and begin to arrange and order them. You’ll quickly come up with a structure which helps you better understand the issue.

You can do all this on paper, or whiteboard, of course, but turning to a computer, and the open source Freeplane, gives you much more scope.

The program -- a redesigned and extended version of FreeMind -- can be used to build regular, static mind maps. Although a little baffling at first, the core steps are simple. Start with a blank map; press Ins to add a node; customize it with an image, text, or icon; repeat the process to add other nodes, then link and organize them as you like.

Freeplane goes further, though. This starts with smart tools to help you build better maps. So for instance conditional styling allows the program to automatically give nodes your preferred look and feel according to their hierarchical level in the map, as well as their content.

That content can be very active. You can hide information within a node, present it on demand or automatically, organize it in folding branches, and use hyperlinks everywhere to help users navigate.

Built-in calendar and reminder tools help you manage anything from simple to-do lists to entire projects.

There’s DES encryption of individual nodes or the entire map. The program can be extended with scripts and some interesting addons. And once you’ve finished, the map may be shared as an image, an HTML page, via Flash and more.

Perhaps the best indication of Freeplane’s versatility is that its help file and tutorials are also Freeplane documents.

Making all this happen isn’t always easy: Freeplane’s interface is occasionally quirky, and there’s a lot to learn. The program has many interesting features, though, and if you need something more than the usual static mind map diagrams then we’d give it a try.
Roku search rolls out to Android, iOS apps

Publié: avril 16, 2014, 4:49am CEST par Alan Buckingham

Roku is one of the primary reasons that people feel empowered these days to make the move away from cable and satellite. Now the company has enhanced its offerings for the 1,500 channels of video and music already available, making it easier to find what you want.

"Starting today and over the next week a software update will roll out to Roku 3 players so customers can also use Roku Search via the Roku mobile app for Android and iOS mobile devices", says Roku’s Matthew Anderson.

The search does not just locate a show by title, but allows customers to scour the device via lots of terms, including actor name and director, as well. It also pings many sources such as "Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, Crackle, Vudu, Redbox Instant by Verizon, Popcornflix, Blockbuster On Demand, HBO GO, M-GO and SnagFilms".

Results can be clicked and all of the affiliated TV shows and movies will be displayed, regardless of which service each is located on.

While Roku didn't say this, it is perhaps a shot at Amazon's new Fire TV, which only searches Prime for content. The market continues to heat up, and the competition is good for consumers.