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Images2PDF converts your digital images to PDF files

Publié: mai 16, 2014, 8:41pm CEST par Mike Williams

Images2PDF is a simple tool for saving your chosen digital images to a PDF file. Yes, you’re right, there are plenty of ways to do this already, but the program has one or two touches which help it stand out from the crowd.

Images2PDF is a lightweight 1.66MB download, for instance, and there really isn’t anything more (this isn’t one of those tools which comes bundled with Ghostscript). It’s adware-free, too, always a plus with this type of application.

The program interface needs work. Its toolbar has tiny buttons with unintuitive icons, leaving us wondering what most of them did. Fortunately tooltips are available to offer some clues.

Click the Import button and Images2PDF can import your preferred JPG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, BMP and PCX files. This also gives you a chance to define your PDF’s default page size, background color and orientation. There’s an option to define page borders, and the program can even detect and exclude image duplicates.

Your chosen images then appear in a sidebar where you can tweak them individually, setting a new background color here, maybe changing the paper orientation there.

By default the images appear in alphabetical order. If this doesn’t suit your needs then you can drag and drop individual pictures to rearrange them. This isn’t quite as convenient as we’d like -- you can’t select a group of pictures and drag and drop them all at once -- but it’s good enough for most situations.

Images2PDF has a reasonable set of PDF export options. You’re able to set your document metadata (Title, Author, Subject, Keywords), and embed JPEGs without recompressing them, preserving image quality. Or, if you need to keep file sizes to a minimum, there are options to set JPEG quality, or just to compress your images by a target amount (50 percent, say).

Images2PDF also scores highly if you regularly need to combine images in the same way. You’re able to save your settings and customizations for easy re-use later, and the program also has a command line interface to help you automate the entire process.

Images2PDF has some minor issues. In particular, we would prefer a larger toolbar, buttons which used standard icons, and menu alternatives -- with keyboard shortcuts -- for all the key functions.

Still, this is all relatively trivial. Images2PDF is also lightweight, easy to use, allows you to customize each image page, and can be automated from the command line, and that’s enough to earn a thumbs up from us.
What are the best free Adobe Creative Cloud alternatives?

Publié: mai 16, 2014, 7:24pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

Adobe Creative Cloud went down for 24 hours earlier, which means that creative brains around the world were desperately struggling to complete jobs that require the comprehensive suite of services.

The good news is that there are plenty of free alternatives professionals can use to get by and below is an extensive rundown of each product.

The Best Free Photoshop CC Replacement -- GIMP

Feature-wise there is nothing free that comes closer to Adobe’s creation than the Gimp freeware solution. It is available across Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, and the most recent incarnation looks closer to Photoshop than ever before with a range of features that will have many users considering switching over for good.

For those that are slightly put off by the Gimp UI there is a Photoshop port that makes it look exactly the same and the new single-window mode makes it feel like a true replacement for Adobe’s product.

The Best Free Illustrator CC Replacement -- Inkscape

Vector-based graphics editing is Illustrator’s unique selling point (USP) and the good news is that there is another application in Inkscape that takes the selling out of the USP. The UI doesn’t have the wow factor of Adobe’s creation, however, Inkscape is a more than capable replacement and can perform all the import tasks of Illustrator and at a fraction of the cost.

It enables users to create everything from simple logo forms to complex graphics and its Gradient tool is comparable to Illustrator’s vaunted Gradient Mesh tool. Inkscape makes it simple to scale any drawings up or down and is really the only true, free alternative to Illustrator.

The Best Free InDesign CC Replacement -- Lucidpress

Alternatives to the newsroom favourite InDesign are slightly thinner on the ground than some of the elements of the Adobe Creative Cloud and one of the newest kids on the block, Lucidpress, is one of the best. Lucidpress looks and feels like a desktop publishing tool should and for anyone looking at using a tool on a casual basis it has a pick up and play factor that other tools, such as Scribus, don’t have.

It comes into its own where collaboration is concerned and using Google Drive it is easy to work with distributed teams and to adjust editing privileges easily. For those that want to extend the experience further, it also has paid options to offer that little bit more functionality and personalisation.

The Best Free Premiere Pro CC Replacement -- Lightworks

Premiere Pro has set quite the gold standard for video editing alongside the likes of Apple’s Final Cut Pro and the good news is that there are a couple of free offerings out there that can replicate the experience.

Lightworks, which is only available for Windows users, is the best of these and even though there is a professional version available, it still offers a lot of video editing options. Mac users can turn to the simple VideoLAN Movie Creator that offers very simple editing of videos but has nothing on the level of the tool kit that comes with Premiere Pro CC.

The Best Free Dreamweaver CC Replacement -- Microsoft Expression Web 4.0 [Free Version]

An all encompassing replacement for Dreamweaver’s what you see is what you get [WYSIWYG] product for making websites is extremely hard to locate and as such one of the best options out there is Microsoft Expression Web 4. The solution, which was previously a paid-for service, is no longer eligible for technical support, though still has the same features that have led many to compare it to Dreamweaver in the past.

It has full support for current web editing standards and the UI is clear enough that it will remind many of Dreamweaver. It pulls on the HTML5 standard, supports custom workspaces for graphics, and has extensive support for Silverlight.

The Best Free AfterEffects CC Replacement -- Blender

When it comes to post production video editing and special effects, Adobe already offers it on a shoe-string when compared to many other companies out there. This doesn’t mean that open source services haven’t sprung up in the mean time and the best of these to exist is Blender.

Anyone that downloads Blender should be prepared to learn all the in’s and out’s but once that’s done, it has pretty much everything that is required, is great for 3D and once mastered it will seem simple.

The Best Free Flash Builder Premium/Professional CC Replacement -- Stencyl/Synfig Studio/Flash Develop

One of the hardest replacements to be procured is one that does a good job of replicating Flash and the difficulty comes from the fact that Flash is an Adobe standard.

There are myriad of alternatives out there that replicate different parts of Flash and one of the best that we have come across is Stencyl, which is primarily used to create games. It is an extremely helpful tool that is very similar to how Flash works and there is no requirement to be able to code before using it.

When it comes to making 2D animations, Synfig Studio is the best free option and can do almost everything that Flash does. Flash Develop, meanwhile, is what you want if ActionScript programming is more your thing and is built especially for ActionScript alone.

The Best Free Acrobat XI Pro Replacement -- PDFescape

Replacing the extensive skill set of Acrobat for free is one of the harder tasks and the free services available are rather limited in what they can do, but should be more than enough during a short 24-hour outage. The best out there is the cloud-based PDFescape that allows up to 10 files of 10MB or 100 pages to be uploaded and then edited.

It offers support for basic annotation, very simple pages can be created from scratch and then text, art and data entry fields can be added. A premium version is available that up’s the ante to 100 larger files but it does cost $20 (£12) a month.

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.
Linux Mint 17 Cinnamon 'Qiana' reaches RC status -- download it now!

Publié: mai 16, 2014, 6:48pm CEST par Brian Fagioli
Linux Mint is a curious operating system. As great as it is, it is based on Ubuntu, which means Mint is always playing catch-up. This isn't necessarily bad for people who want stability, but for the bleeding-edgers, it can be a pain-point. In other words, the moment Ubuntu 14.04 was released, some Mint users began begging for an update. The Mint team can't really get going until Canonical releases its update first.

Keeping up with the Joneses aside, Linux Mint is a wonderful operating system -- particularly the Cinnamon variant. It is stable, pretty and easy to use. Today, the Mint team announces that version 17 of the OS reaches RC status.

The most impressive thing about the upcoming version 17 is that it is being labelled as Long Term Support, meaning it will have support until 2019. Again, not a big deal for people who love bleeding edge, but users that prefer stability should be in heaven for the next five years. They can install the OS and if it works well for them, stay on it until 2019. A reliable experience can be expected.

The Mint team lists the following places where changes were made:
By clicking on the above links, you can see a full list of changes under each category. While there are too many to mention, there are a few that stand out for me. First and foremost, Cinnamon will finally get HiDPI support. If you are using a high-end monitor or display, you should see crisper images and fonts -- blurriness, be gone!

Also notable is a big improvement to the wonderful Driver manager. It no longer requires an internet connection, as you can install drivers from the installation medium (the Mint DVD or USB drive). It is used as a temporary repository, and makes installing wireless drivers better. After all, if you don't have a wired internet connection, you cannot connect over Wi-Fi to install a wireless driver...you would need the driver first.

The Update Manager is better too. It is easy to become overwhelmed with a long list of updates. It can be hard to tell what each update is or what it is for. Mint has added a column that will tell you what type of update it is. You can now see what is a security update or a regular run-of-the-mill update.

If you want to give the RC a try, you can download it over torrent for 32-bit here or 64-bit here. Tell me how you like it in the comments.

Image Credit: 3DStyle/Shutterstock
Amazon UK celebrates 20 years of Oasis with Definitely Maybe tribute

Publié: mai 16, 2014, 5:48pm CEST par Alan Buckingham

Where would music be today without Rock 'n' Roll Star or Supersonic? If you are of a certain age, then you likely remember the debut of the classic Oasis album titled Definitely Maybe. It was a landmark moment that introduced Liam, Noel and their colleagues to the world.

Things have been on a bit of a rollercoaster since then, but today marks 20 years since that album hit stores.

To celebrate the occasion, Amazon UK has unveiled its version of the "way back machine" featuring the big Oasis release, along with what the music charts looked like back in 1994. Deacon Blue sat atop the list in those days, with Crash Test Dummies and Blur in hot pursuit of them.

Before you get too emotional over the nostalgia, wipe that tear away now from your eye and head to Amazon UK to relive your younger years, and dig out your 90's garb.

Image Credit: Christian Bertrand / Shutterstock
Best Windows 8 apps this week

Publié: mai 16, 2014, 5:38pm CEST par Martin Brinkmann
Eighty-first in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best new applications and games for Windows 8. Microsoft released a Windows Store update earlier this week that introduces several new or improved features.

Among the new features are an always visible toolbar at the top, collections, and additional information displayed next to apps on listing pages.

Collections group applications into themed listings that are curated by Microsoft. The first batch of collections includes essential games, students and scholars or the newsstand, for example.

The new toolbar displays links to categories, collections and charts directly, something that was only available via a right-click on the old store.

Information has been added to individual app listings as well. You can now see at a glance if you own an app, have it installed, if it is discounted and by how much, and whether it is a universal app that you can install on Windows 8 and Windows Phone devices.

Red Stripe Deals

Six applications and games are discounted by at least 50 percent each week.
1. Dragon's Lair, the classic arcade game for $4.99.
2. Zombies Can't Jump, an action game for free.
3. Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary for $14.99.
4. Boom Brigade 2, a strategy game for $1.49.
5. PuzzleTouch Prime, a puzzle game for $1.49.
6. Faarm Frenzy 2, a simulation game for $1.49.
App of the week

Microsoft Treasure Hunt

Treasure Hunt uses Minesweeper's core mechanics, that is detecting and avoiding mines on the board, and mixes it up with puzzle elements.

The main task of the game is to reach the level exit which is blocked by blocks and walls in the beginning.

Traps may be under blocks and if you remove the wrong one, you will lose one of your hearts.

Blocks can be marked as trapped, just like in Minesweeper, so that you can avoid them.

Tools like pickaxes, keys or dynamite aid you in your escape, and since you are a treasure hunter, it is also advisable to pick up gold, gems and other treasures on the map as well.

Other apps

Currency Tracker

Use the app to track as many currencies as you want and check prices against the Euro, Dollar or Rubel.

The app features a currency converter that you can use, and supports live tiles which means that you can display rates directly on Windows 8's Start screen.

The app caches information locally.

Maleficent Free Fall

Disney's Frozen Free Fall is a popular game on Windows Store and the newly released Maleficent Free Fall offers a similar experience.

The game is divided into levels that you need to complete to proceed. One or multiple tasks are given to you when you play a level, for instance to reach a certain score, break chain tiles or light up the board.

You will only proceed to the next stage if you manage to complete all tasks before your moves run out.

Magic plays a big role in the game. It provides you with options to turn the tide, for instance by adding extra moves to a level or removing gems from it, that you cannot possibly reach or clear in time.

King's Bounty: Legions

King's Bounty is a turn-based strategy game. You take control of an army, fight bandits, reinforce or hire troops, upgrade them, and equip your character with new items that you find along the way or create in the workshop.

Battles play out on a extra maps where each unit can act once per turn. Actions include attacking enemy units, moving and then attacking, or casting spells.

Faster units act first, and since your player character can intervene with magic spells, it is often beneficial to have the fastest unit on the field as you can use magic on enemy troops or your own before the enemy can.

The game is a lighter spin-off of the PC games series. It is not possible to move around freely on the map, but it is possible to fight other human players and create a clan with friends. The game is free to play and makes heavy use of in-game purchases.

Array

Array is a logic puzzle game in which you need to replicate an arrangement of numbered tiles.

A click on a field adds a number one tile to it and increases the number of each adjacent field by one but only up to four. If a tile is placed adjacent to a number four tile the four changes to a one again.

Issuu

Browse magazines and catalogs after you have created an account or signed in using Facebook, Google Plus or LinkedIn.

According to the app's description, it offers contents created by more than 1.5 million publishers around the globe who are making more than 15 million publications available for free.

Topics covered include technology, science, fashion, sports or photography. The app features a search that you can use to find magazines of interest, staff picks, categories, and a recent listing. All magazines are made available as scans.

Skip-Bo ($2.99)

Play the popular card game against the computer on Windows 8. The game features three difficulty levels and nine different opponents that you can play against.

The goal of the game is to get rid of all of your deck cards, and to do so, you have to play cards in sequential order.

While that sounds easy, it is not because the next deck card is visible to everyone else which usually means that the other players will do whatever they can to block you from playing that card.

Cozi Family Organizer

Manage the day of every family member with the help of the app. You need to create an account first before you can get started, but once you have signed in to the app, you can add events, contacts, to-do lists, shopping information or journal entries to the application.

Other options that it provides include a birthday tracker, options to set reminders to never miss important events or appointments again, and a messaging system that family members can use to communicate with each other.
Best iOS apps this week

Publié: mai 16, 2014, 3:36pm CEST par Wayne Williams

Nineteenth in a series. iTunes was updated to version 11.2 this week. As my colleague Brian Fagioli reports, it's not the most exciting release with most changes relating to improvements to podcasts. It also fixes an annoying issue whereby iTunes could become unresponsive when updating Genius.

New and updated releases this week include an iOS port of classic indie PC game Thomas Was Alone, the official app of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, a social network app that wants to be like a party, an arcade shooter, and a new app from FourSquare. RockMyRun has been updated too, and can now automatically adjust the speed of the music you're listening to so it matches how fast (or slow) you're running. There's a great travel app featured this week too.

As always, if I miss an app that you think should definitely have been included, let me know in the comments below, or drop me an email.

Here is my selection for this week.

Paid App of the Week

Thomas Was Alone ($8.99)

The classic indie PC platform game is now available for iPad. If you haven’t played it, I can definitely recommend it. You play as Thomas, a curious rectangle, and must guide him through 100 levels, avoiding gaps and hazards and encountering other characters. It’s the narration (voiced by Danny Wallace) that really makes the game.

The description, that it’s a "minimalist game about friendship and jumping" is spot on.

Free App of the Week

9/11 Museum Audio Guide

No one will ever forget the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Ahead of its public opening on May 21, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum has released an iOS app with themed audio tours featuring stories from the day and the recovery at Ground Zero. The Witnessing History Tour, narrated by Robert De Niro, is particularly poignant. There’s a Discovering History Tour too, which is aimed at children aged 8-11.

Other Apps

FireChat

"Could social networks be like parties?" That’s the question posed by this app which lets you create "firechats" -- live, anonymous group discussions based on your interests. You can switch between chats (as you would if at a party) and each firechat can include just a handful of people or ten thousand simultaneous users.

Firechats work even if no connection to the Internet or cellular phone coverage is available.

Vimeo

The latest build of the Vimeo app has a new look and feel, with a more lightweight design. You can get quick access to videos, feed, likes, and Watch Later queue, and view and edit video information quickly. Playback is much faster too.

JoyJoy ($1.99)

A twin-stick shooter from Radiangames, this offers some great old school arcade fun. Originally released on Xbox Live Indie Games a few years ago, the aim is to blast your way through wave after wave of attacks.

There are 24 unique waves and six intense challenges. You can upgrade your weapons, ship’s speed, armor, and special attack.

Swarm by Foursquare

This new app from Foursquare provides a quick way to keep up and meet up with your friends. With Swarm, you can easily see who’s out nearby and who wants to hang out later.

You can share what you’re doing, check in somewhere, and message nearby friends with suggestions of fun things to do.

RockMyRun

Offers in-app purchases.

This running app, which I’ve covered in depth before here, offers a large collection of mixes from various DJs, covering a wide range of genres -- 80s, 90s, Rock, House, Pop, Hip-Hop, Dubstep, Christian Rock, Oldies, and so on. The app is free, but upgrading to premium gives you access to longer mixes, and additional features.

The latest version of the app adds a MatchMe feature which detects the speed you’re running at, and syncs the beat of the music to your stride.

Apple’s App of the Week

KAYAK PRO

Apple’s free app this week is a travel tool. If you’re thinking of booking a holiday, or just going away for a few days, KAYAK PRO can help you find the cheapest flights, hotels and car hire options. You can track your flight status and manage your trip itinerary too.
Microsoft openly offered cloud data to the NSA

Publié: mai 16, 2014, 3:30pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

Microsoft’s cooperation with the NSA and FBI on the controversial Prism program has been laid bare in a new book written by an American journalist who brought it to public attention in the first place.

Glenn Greenwald, the American journalist who worked extensively with Edward Snowden, wrote in a new book that Microsoft’s cloud services allowed the National Security Agency [NSA] to collect data from a range of its different cloud options.

"Beginning on 7 March 2013, Prism now collects Microsoft SkyDrive data as part of Prism's standard Store Communications collection package for a tasked FISA Amendments Act Section 702 [FAA702] selector,” stated a slide released by Greenwald, according to Cloud Pro.

It is detailed in Greenwald’s new book, No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA and the Surveillance State, and goes on to hint that Microsoft was implicit in the NSA data collecting process.

"This success is the result of the FBI working for many months with Microsoft to get this tasking and collection solution established," the document stated.

Part of the reason that it was able to do this was down to the FISA Amendment Act of 2008 that legalized NSA Internet surveillance and allowed warrantless wiretapping by the NSA and related agencies.

"This means that analysts will no longer have to make a special request to SSO for this. This new capability will result in a much more complete and timely collection response from SSO for our enterprise customers," the documents added.

Other sabotage methods employed by the NSA and outlined in Greenwald’s book include the supply-chain interdiction, which meant intercepting various communications products in order to carry out covert surveillance. This included routers and servers made by Cisco and involved implanting beacons before the products were repackaged and shipped out to customers across the world.

"While American companies were being warned away from supposedly untrustworthy Chinese routers, foreign organizations would have been well advised to beware of American-made ones," Greenwald said.

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.
Going after market share, Axosoft makes its bug-tracker virtually free

Publié: mai 16, 2014, 3:12pm CEST par Mihaita Bamburic

Cost is often a powerful driver in the battle for market domination. Expensive products while, arguably, extremely capable for the money, may account for a smaller piece of the pie as opposed to free, powerful alternatives which often take the lion's share. For buyers, especially those with tight budgets, diminishing spendings to maximize profits comes naturally, so they tend to favor the latter. The way to go, to capture more market share, is not to compete on the same pricing level, but to make things cheaper so they appeal to more potential customers.

This is the path that Arizona-based software company Axosoft has taken with its bug tracker. Previously costing $70 per user per year, it can now be purchased for a mere $1 per year, no matter the number of users. It is basically free. "We know, it's pretty hard to believe, but we've decided to go after market share which is why we are doing this", says Axosoft CEO Hamid Shojaee.

In the bug tracker landscape, Axosoft's offering goes up against Atlassian's Jira (which starts at $10 per user per month for the on-demand package, and $10 for the starter one), Bugzilla (free), Fog Creek's FogBugz (which starts at $18 per month) and other such tools.

The $1 Axosoft asks for the bug tracker is actually meant as "barrier to entry" so Axosoft can ensure it will not "get millions of junk accounts using up a bunch of resources". The little revenue the company gets from the bug tracker is "kept separate", according to Shojaee, as the money goes into the Axosoft Startup Grant, a scholarship designed for software startups.

I asked if the price will increase, once the market share reaches the anticipated level. "We have no plans to increase the price of the Bug Tracker", says Shojaee. "Essentially, we expect it to remain free ($1)".

Shojaee tells me this pricing change will have a negative impact on Axosoft's short-term revenues. But the expectation is that through a rise in the market share of its bug tracker the remaining products in its portfolio will get a boost from the increased exposure the company gets, making way for more sales. "The revenue opportunity for us is if dev teams are impressed by Axosoft Bug Tracker enough to add one of our other products, such as Axosoft Scrum, HelpDesk or Wiki".

It is a risky strategy, but one which Shojaee is confident in, aided by the claim that Axosoft is already a "profitable company" and its suite is used by leading tech companies such as Intel and Cisco as well as others like Disney and Nike. In the scrum software landscape, Axosoft Scrum is touted to lead the pack as the best-selling offering. We will have to wait and see if the new pricing strategy can skyrocket its bug tracker into a similar position.
6.4 million UK adults have never been on the Internet

Publié: mai 16, 2014, 12:35pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

Just 13 percent of the UK’s population has never used the Internet before as the amount fell below the seven million.

Figures released by the Office for National Statistics as part of its Internet Access Quarterly Update explained that in Q1 2014 6.4 million adults are still yet to use the Internet, which is a drop of 659,000 since Q1 2013

"Internet use is linked to various socio-economic and demographic characteristics, such as age, sex, disability, geographical location and weekly earnings. For example, those who are less likely to have used the Internet include both the elderly and disabled adults," the release explained.

The same survey reports that 44.6 million adults across the UK used the Internet in Q1 2014, which represents 87 percent of the adults living in the UK and it was up by 1.1 million compared to Q1 2013.

When split across age demographics the survey showed that 99 percent of 16 to 24 year olds had used the Internet at some point whereas just 37 percent of those over the age of 75 have taken the plunge.

Men are more likely to use the Internet than women with a ratio of 89 percent to 85 percent and geographically London had the highest number of users with 90 percent of residents using the Internet. Northern Ireland, in comparison, had the lowest number with just 79 percent going online.

Another recent survey from Ofcom revealed that older Internet users are on the rise thanks to the growth experienced by the tablet market that is more accessible to those over the age of 65. It has led to the number of older people using the Internet to rise by a quarter over the past year and as tablet numbers increase the amount of older Internet users will also increase further.

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.
Sony unveils Cyber-shot DSC RX100 III with EVF, fast zoom in tow

Publié: mai 16, 2014, 11:54am CEST par Mihaita Bamburic

For quite a lot of people taking a photograph simply means pointing the camera at the subject followed by a quick press of the shutter button to take the picture. It is a concept best known as point and shoot, due to the simplicity of the actions. There are lots of cameras that cater to the needs of this audience, ranging from cheap devices that can be found in supermarkets (the I-need-a-camera-right-away type) to high-end compacts. The main difference between the two extremes is image quality (build quality, support and others are also better in the latter).

Sony's RX100 is renowned as one of the best high-end compact camera lines, appreciated even by some professionals (the RAW format support being one of the main reasons why). The latest member in the family, the new Cyber-shot DSC RX100 III, takes things further by adding an electronic viewfinder (EVF) and a fast zoom lens (F1.8 at its widest end -- 24 mm equivalent -- to F2.8 on the short telephoto side -- 70 mm equivalent), compared to its older brethren.

While EVFs are not exactly out of this world, the RX100 III's EVF is a bit more special than most as it neither sits on top of the camera nor is it offered as an attachable piece. It is a pop-up unit, which can be triggered through a toggle mounted on the side of the RX 100 III. Personally, I prefer to shoot like this over using the back LCD. The EVF offers 100 percent coverage, like the most-expensive DSLRs, and a magnification ratio of 0.59.

Speaking of the LCD, it is a 3-inch unit with 1.2M dots that can tilt upwards by up to 180 degrees. Sony says this angle is good for "self-portraits" (at least it is not using the word "selfies"). It can also go downwards by 45 degrees, which will help with more difficult compositions.

The RX100 III features a 1-inch 21 MP sensor (13.2 by 8.8 mm) of which only 20 MP are used, a Bionz X processor (that is found in the high-end A7 full-frame mirrorless line), 25 focus points, an ISO range of 125 to 12,800, optical image stabilization (which should help reduce blurry photos), RAW and JPEG support, an autofocus assist lamp, 1/2000s maximum shutter speed, built-in flash, 10 FPS burst rate, 1080p video recording at 60 FPS and 720p video recording and 120 FPS, clean HDMI out, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n and a battery rated at 320 shots.

The RX100 III measures 101.6 x 58.1 x 41 mm and weighs 290 grams (with battery and Memory Stick Duo card), which makes it quite pocketable. It will be available, starting in June, for $800.
Mixed messages from the personal and entry level storage market

Publié: mai 16, 2014, 11:46am CEST par Ian Barker

In the first quarter of 2014 the worldwide market for personal and entry-level storage declined by 6.9 percent, according to IDC's storage tracker.

It's not all bad news though, the entry-level segment which targets mainly home office and small business users experienced 14 percent growth compared to the same quarter last year.

Liz Conner, Research Manager Storage Systems at IDC says, "The personal and entry-level storage market finished the first quarter of 2014 with 18.9 million units shipped. While shipments declined compared to the first quarter of 2013, this decrease is not an indication of market weakness but rather an unfavorable comparison with the unusually high shipments seen in 2013 in the aftermath of the HDD shortage and subsequent recovery".

She puts the growth in entry-level devices down to, "Increased vendor offerings, continued inclusion of enterprise level storage features, improved customer understanding/marketing, and average selling prices that more closely align with personal storage than enterprise storage all contributed to growth in this segment".

Single bay storage devices remain the most popular choice with 97.2 percent of units shipped in the first quarter. Two-bay units are in decline though and most of the growth in the entry-level sector has come from units with four bays or more.

Physically smaller drives continue to be more popular too with 3.5-inch drives losing ground to the more portable 2.5-inch format. When it comes to capacity 1TB devices captured 56.1 percent market share in the 2.5-inch segment. For the entry-level market, capacity ranges are more varied due to multiple bays and vendors' ability to partially populate devices. However, 4TB devices hold the most market share with 25.1 percent of units shipped.

USB remains the most common interface across the PELS market though Ethernet is the preferred choice for entry level business use with a 93.8 percent market share. Thunderbolt continues to gain ground with 25.1 percent year-on-year shipment growth, though it starts from a small base.

More information about IDCs tracker research is available on the company's website.

Image Credit: Be Good/Shutterstock
Google already receiving 'right to be forgotten' link removal requests

Publié: mai 16, 2014, 10:27am CEST par Darren Allan

A ruling by the EU Court of Justice earlier this week has caused considerable controversy, and that's likely to be fueled by the news of the people who have tried to jump on the "right to be forgotten" bandwagon following the judgment.

This whole affair began when a Spanish man noticed that Google search results of his name brought up newspaper articles about the repossession of his house due to debts back in the nineties. He argued that this was old news now, and "irrelevant", and that Google should remove those links from being publicly viewable in its results because they were effectively an infringement of his privacy rights. The EU court agreed.

And now, immediately after the ruling, folks are coming forward to try and get links to what they consider outdated material concerning themselves removed from Google results -- but the nature of these people is bound to cause further controversy.

One is a man convicted of possessing images of child abuse, who wants links to pages that detail his conviction removed, according to the BBC -- and another a politician who's standing for re-election, and wants articles about his (presumably dodgy) behavior when he was last in office to be "forgotten". The BBC also mentions a doctor who has had negative reviews from patients, and wants those to be stripped from Google results.

And those are just the requests we know about, of course. There are bound to be many more.

Google is currently said to be investigating the implications of this EU ruling which it called "disappointing".

It has previously argued that this sort of thing represents censorship of the Internet, a point which the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, certainly agrees with.

Wales called the judgement "astonishing" and said it was "one of the most wide-sweeping Internet censorship rulings that I've ever seen". Wales expects the ruling won't stand for long, and with this sort of fuel to the fire, we're betting he's right.

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.
How to list the contents of a folder in Windows

Publié: mai 16, 2014, 10:10am CEST par Mike Williams

If you’re troubleshooting a PC problem, maybe trying to help someone else, then it can sometimes be useful to list the files in a folder. Explorer still can’t do this. But, no problem -- you’ve plenty of other options.

File Lister is perhaps as basic a solution as you’ll see. Specify a folder, check "Preserve file structure", click "List Files", and the program displays your folders and files in an indented list.

You’re then able to save this output as a file, or copy it to the clipboard (click in the text box, press Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C).

File Lister’s output is poorly formatted, but it does have one advantage: the folder structure is drawn with regular printable characters, so should be preserved no matter how it’s sent to anyone else.

Snap2HTML looks sort-of similar -- you choose a starting folder, click a button and wait as your system is scanned -- but the results are far more sophisticated.

This time, instead of a static list, you get an interactive HTML page which looks and feels much like Explorer: browse your folders on the left, the files they contain appear on the right, along with their size and "Last Modified" date.

Amazingly, there’s even a search page where you can enter part of a file or folder name, and see any matches. Yet this is all held in a self-contained HTML file, and you can just email it to whoever needs the information.

If you’re happier with a simple list, then an old DOS favourite, the TREE command, can help. Open a command line and enter this (replace "public" with your own user name if it’s more interesting).

tree /f "c:\users\public\documents" | clip

This runs the tree command, which displays a mock graphic view of your path’s subfolders. The /f switch adds the file names as well, and the "| clip" sends its output to the clipboard. Paste it into Notepad and take a look.

If you don’t need to see the folder structure, but want a lot of detail on the files themselves, then the DIR command makes a better choice.

dir /s "c:\users\public\documents" | clip

This lists the contents of the specified folder. The /s switch tells it to list subfolders, and once again we’re using CLIP.EXE to send our output to the clipboard.

Using the command prompt is a little inconvenient, of course, but you can always launch it as a part of the same command. Press Win+R to open the run box, and enter cmd /c followed by your command:

cmd /c tree /f “c:\users\public\documents” | clip

Better still, if you regularly need to list the contents of a specific folder then you can run this form of command from a shortcut, too.
Did the NSA help kill UWB?

Publié: mai 16, 2014, 10:05am CEST par Robert X. Cringely

Revisionist history is looking back at past events in light of more recent information. What really happened? And no recent source of information has been more important when it comes to revising the history of digital communications than former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden. Today I’m really curious about the impact of the NSA on the troubled history of Ultra Wide Band (UWB) communication.

I stumbled on this topic with the help of a reader who pointed me at a story and then a paper about advances in secure communication. Scientists at the University of Massachusetts came up with a method of optical communication that they could mathematically prove to be immune to snooping or even detection up to a certain bit rate. To an eavesdropper who didn’t know what to listen for or when to listen for it the communication just looks like noise.

"Who knew that people were actually thinking about replacing IP communications?" asked my reader. "This paper is interesting in that point-to-point communications uses Layer-1 for the entire signal. I had been thinking Layer-2, but here is secure Layer-1 communications".

But it looked a lot like Ultra Wide Band to me.

Many readers won’t remember, but UWB was a big story about 12 years ago. I wrote a couple of columns on the subject back then and it looked very promising. The venture capital community thought so too, putting about $1 billion into a number of UWB startups, all of which to my knowledge eventually failed. But why did they fail?

UWB would not have replaced IP communications in that senders and receivers might still have used IP addresses to identify themselves if they chose to do so, but it promised to replace nearly all of the machinery inside big chunks of Internet, bringing secure multi-gigabit wireless communications to LANs and WANs alike.

The UWB startup that got the most press back then was called Time Domain and the name says a lot about how the technology worked. Rather than using specific frequencies UWB transmitted on all frequencies at the same time. The key was knowing when and where in the frequency band to expect a bit to appear. Two parties with synchronized clocks and codebooks could agree that at 10 nanoseconds after the hour at a certain frequency or range of frequencies a bit would appear if one was intended. The presence of that signal at that time and place was a 1 and the absence was a 0. But if you didn’t know when to listen where -- if you weren’t a part of the conversation -- it all looked just like noise.

There was a San Diego startup called PulseLINK that came up with the idea to try UWB not only through the air but also over wires. They reasoned that RF traveled through copper as well as it traveled through air. So they injected their UWB signal into the local cable TV system (without permission of course) just to see what would happen. Could they establish point-to-point and point-to-multipoint communications as an Over-The-Top network on the local cable plant? It worked. They created a gigabit network atop established cable infrastructure without the cable company even noticing it was happening.

One fascinating aspect of the PulseLINK test was that UWB, which is an electrical signal, was able to propagate throughout the Cox cable plant even though sections of the Cox network used optical signaling. They went from electrons to photons back to electrons again and the fact that was even possible came down to the fact that it was CATV, not IP. Had the cable system been IP-based every electrical to optical conversion point would have involved capturing packets, fixing them as needed, then retransmitting them, which would have foiled UWB. But in the rotgut world of cable there were no packets -- just an analog signal carrying digital and analog data alike which was block converted from one medium to another and back. So the UWB data was converted and retransmitted throughout the cable plant as noise.

UWB was controversial and there were many RF engineers who opposed it, arguing that it would hurt standard communications and even take down the GPS system.

But UWB had many other people excited not only because it promised huge bandwidth increases but because it would enable communication with places previously unreachable, like submarines deep underwater. It offered not only wireless communication with miners underground but could support a type of radar to identify where underground the miners were located in case of an accident. UWB was similarly going to revolutionize communication among firefighters showing where they were inside burning buildings. The same, of course, could be done for soldiers in battle.

And all of this would have been essentially immune to eavesdropping. No man in the middle.

So what happened? The FCC was asked to approve UWB and did so, but with extreme power limitations, turning what would have been a WAN into not even a LAN but a PAN -- a Personal Area Network -- with a range of 10 meters or less. UWB, which had been intended to compete with every networking technology ended up a competitor only with Bluetooth. And with its vastly higher computational complexity UWB couldn’t economically compete with Bluetooth, and so all the UWB startups died.

Or did they?

The FCC decision was a shock to all involved, especially to the VCs who had ponied-up those hundreds of millions of dollars. Yet nobody protested much, no bills were offered in Congress pushing the FCC to change its mind. Just move along people, nothing to see here.

The FCC said in its 2002 rule that they would revisit UWB but never really did.

The FCC’s argument was that successful UWB communication would have raised the noise threshold for other kinds of RF communication. This is true. But I never saw any studies showing that it would have kept anyone from listening successful to Top-40 radio. The pulses were so short as to be undetectable by legacy equipment. It always seemed to me the FCC rationale was too thin, that they killed UWB too easily. But what did I know?

The better question today, I think, is what did Edward Snowden know? Given what we now know of the NSA’s broad interference in the networking business they would have opposed a new technology that would have defeated all their snooping work to date. Of course the NSA hated UWB. And the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency would have loved it. Here was the possibility of a truly private global channel if they could keep it to themselves.

This is all just speculation on my part, but Snowden got me thinking. Did the NSA help the FCC to kill UWB? That’s exactly the kind of idea that would have appealed to the second Bush Administration. Did the US intelligence and defense communities pick up UWB to advance their own secret communication capabilities while silencing any VC outrage by covering some of their losses?

That’s what I would have done were I Dick Cheney.

Image Credit: Elena Schweitzer/Shutterstock
Microsoft creates cross-platform app that runs on Windows and Firefox OS

Publié: mai 16, 2014, 2:44am CEST par Brian Fagioli

Cross-platform apps are wonderful. Having the ability to create an app and have it run on multiple operating systems is ideal for developers. After all, it increases the audience for their work. Ultimately, for a paid app, this equates to more money. More money is good, right? Right.

However, it is not typical for the owner of the operating system to help developers move apps to other platforms. Exclusivity of an app can drive sales of the platform. In other words, if all apps ran on all platforms, the platform really would not matter to consumers. With that said, Microsoft does something shocking, as it shows off how easy it is to create one app using WinJS that runs on Windows 8.1, Windows Phone 8.1 and FireFox OS. Are pigs flying?

"Starting with Windows Phone 8.1, it is now possible to use the Windows Runtime to build apps that can target each form factor in the family of Windows devices. Using the universal Windows app project templates, you can now create one app where your business logic can be surfaced up through a user experience relevant to the device. This unified approach to app development means that your app has the potential to reach not just Windows phones and tablets, but Windows laptops and workstations as well", says Doris Chen.

Chen further explains, "with the open sourcing of WinJS, it might be interesting to see if we can build an app that runs across phone, Windows and another platform such as Firefox OS. Martin Beeby did an interesting demo on building a JavaScript app and see how far we can take it".

Whoa, whoa, whoa, stop the clock! Microsoft using WinJS to create a Javascript App that will run on Firefox OS? This is huge. For one, it gains the company major geek credibility for making WinJS open-source in the first place. But Microsoft creating an app for Firefox OS? That's turning the cool-factor up to eleven.

As you can see in the below video, the developer, Martin Beeby, creates a relatively rudimentary app for accessing Flickr on Windows and Windows Phone 8.1. However, it is extremely impressive to see that same app run on Firefox OS with almost no effort. While it is doubtful that Microsoft will become a full-fledged Firefox OS developer, this demo shows how awesome WinJS really is.

Strangely, Firefox is embracing closed-source, as Microsoft dabbles in open-source. What is this, Bizarro World?

Image Credit: Tyler Olson/Shutterstock
Epson announces support for Android KitKat native printing

Publié: mai 16, 2014, 1:32am CEST par Brian Fagioli

Many people think that printers are a dying technology. Well, to a certain degree those people are slightly right, but mostly wrong. As time marches on and smartphones become more ubiquitous, a need to print lessens. For instance, people are displaying airline boarding passes on their smartphones rather than print it. Me? I still print. For something like a boarding pass, I have too much anxiety that a glitch or dead battery would impede my travels. Just yesterday, I bought concert tickets and printed them -- the venue requires it.

So, as much as people want to declare the printer dead, they are wrong. We still do not have paperless offices in the enterprise, and that was expected a decade ago. It's not happening anytime soon. With that said, Android now offers native printing in KitKat and Epson is pledging its support, with over 60 compatible devices.

"We applaud Google's introduction of Android Printing as a huge milestone that makes mobile printing easier for both users and app developers. That's why Epson is proud to embrace Android Printing with support for both new and legacy printers as far back as 2008. Now with just a few taps, KitKat users can print to Epson printers from a number of pre-installed Google apps today with the promise of print support from a whole new generation of apps available on Google Play", Patrick Chen, product manager of mobile connectivity, Epson America, Inc.

Chen further explains, "Android Printing allows print manufacturers like Epson to create its own 'print service'. Our print service is called the 'Epson Print Enabler' and allows you to print to Epson printers as far back as 2008. Check online to see a list of supported printer models. You can download and install the Epson Print Enabler from Google Play and turn it on using the following steps".

As you can see, it is very easy to enable -- literally, 1,2,3. While green hippies will decry an increase in printing and the loss of trees, this is still very cool. The best thing, Epson is supporting printer models going all the way back to 2008. The company could have been greedy and tried to get users to upgrade, but instead chose loyalty over dollars -- appreciated.

To see a full list of compatible printers, click here and scroll down to "Android Printing Compatibility".
Apple releases OS X Mavericks 10.9.3 and iTunes 11.2

Publié: mai 16, 2014, 12:46am CEST par Brian Fagioli
There is no shortage of quality operating systems out there. Between Ubuntu 14.04, Chrome OS, Windows 8.1 Update and OS X, you can't make a bad choice. Most modern operating systems are pretty great. Personally, I utilize all of the previously mentioned OSes on a regular basis. However, I have been spending most of my time between Windows and OS X.

No, I don't own a Mac, but I did build a Hackintosh. This is just a normal PC that runs Apple's OS. This allows me to get great performance and customize my machine, while still enjoying the benefits of OS X. Today, after a period of open beta-testing, the final version of Mavericks 10.9.3 is gifted to existing Mavericks users. Is it worth the upgrade?

Well, it is free and it is better than 10.9.2, so... yes, obviously. However, what is new in the fruit-logo company's OS update? Apple lists the following:
- Improves 4K display support on Mac Pro (Late 2013) and MacBook Pro with 15-inch Retina Display (Late 2013)
- Adds the ability to sync contacts and calendars between a Mac and iOS device using a USB connection
- Improves the reliability of VPN connections using IPsec
- Resolves an issue that prevented Font Book from installing PostScript Type 1 fonts
- Improves reliability of copying, editing and inspecting permissions of files on an SMB file server
- Improves reliability of network home directories
- Improves stability when installing configuration profiles
- Improves login speed for users in Active Directory groups
- Includes Safari 7.0.3
Unfortunately, these improvements are rather boring. From a user-perspective, there is really no obvious change, other than 4K support. This is very significant for those that own the pricey monitors, but that isn't many people. However, if you do have one, scaling has finally been fixed, so everything is not super-tiny -- your eyes will be happy!

Also updated is iTunes, which increases to version 11.2. This release is a bit underwhelming, focusing mostly on improvements to podcasts. However, iTunes is arguably pretty darn good already -- not much is needed. Well, maybe until the rumored Beats acquisition takes place. Hopefully the streaming service will be integrated into a future version at that time.

Image Credit: Jason Winter/Shutterstock
Yahoo debuts Movies, a digital magazine for cinema enthusiasts

Publié: mai 16, 2014, 12:34am CEST par Alan Buckingham

Regardless if you are interested in the latest Marvel superhero movie, the scary new horror flick or an indie film that was raved about at Sundance, you'll want current news on the films. Now Yahoo, which has been in overhaul mode of late, is stepping up to try and provide that information to the cinema crowd.

Today the search company unveils its Yahoo Movies. Unlike the Netflix competitor that name may imply, this is a digital magazine aimed at bringing news to the enthusiasts. "Whether you’re heading out to the theater or looking for something to stream at home, our writers will guide you to the must-see films, both new releases and lost classics", says Yahoo's Josh Wolk.

The magazine plans features articles from movie critics, interviews with actors and actresses, sneak previews of the next potential blockbuster and even live stream events from big premiers.

"If you like movies with giant explosions, intimate love stories, superheroes, subtitles, banter, bawling, or all of the above—we’ve got your ticket. And there’s more to come. So grab a popcorn bucket (treat yourself to the extra large with butter; you deserve it!), lean back, and enjoy the new Yahoo Movies", Wolk concludes.

To get in on this endeavor from Yahoo, you can head to the new Movies page and check it out. It is free to browse stories, listings and all of the other information that is contained there.