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Windows 10 Technical Preview feedback: what users want to change

Publié: octobre 10, 2014, 5:56pm CEST par Mark Wilson

Microsoft is encouraging people who have downloaded the Windows 10 Technical Preview to provide feedback on the embryonic operating system. The Start menu is something that users have been begging for, and changes to the Command Prompt have been a very long time coming, but just what do testers think of Windows 10 so far? There's still quite some time to go until Windows 10 is released giving Microsoft lots of opportunity to respond to user feedback. This is what Microsoft is all about these days after all.

With help from one of the readers of his Supersite for Windows, Paul Thurrott has pulled together a list of the top ten requests that have been received so far. The methodology may not be entirely scientific, but it does give an interesting insight into how Windows 10 has been received and what people would like to see changed.

The (frankly stupid) dedicated search and taskview buttons top the list of pet peeves. Actually, this is only true when the numbers relating to both buttons are combined, but as both are equally irritating, equally immovable, and equally unhideable, it makes sense to group them together. Next in line appears to come from the aesthetes. There is apparently a general feeling that having the Start menu simply pop into view is not good enough -- testers would prefer there to be an animation effect of some sort. There's a bit of a niggle that Windows 10 users are encouraged into using a Microsoft account rather than a local one, but as this is central to the idea of syncing Windows 10 between computers, requests to make local accounts "easier" to implement are likely to fall on deaf ears.

A reasonable proportion of people giving feedback have suggested that File Explorer should have tabs. This is something that crops up time and time again, and there are a number of third-party tools that can bring this feature to existing versions of Windows. This is not a new request, but it is one that Microsoft has managed to ignore for years. Will the company listen this time around? The inability to activate the Charms bar with the mouse -- something that is probably just a quirk of the preview -- comes in at number 5, followed by a request for a "beautiful boot screen".

Next up is another complaint about the Start menu, this time pointing out that it is not possible to select multiple tiles when the Ctrl key is held down. The mish-mash of desktop vs modern is raised at number 8. The existence of the Control Panel and PC Settings is causing frustration, with many people suggesting that Microsoft should finalize transitioning to the latter. Rounding off the top ten are two more cosmetic requests: that icons should be updated, and that virtual desktops should be able to have different background images.

What's interesting about this list is just how conservative it is (no mention of Cortana? Seriously?). Whether this is an indication that Windows users are not actually all that demanding, or that only a certain type of user is providing feedback is not clear. It seems that only a relatively small number of people have taken the step of giving feedback. Of course it is very early days for the preview at the moment and as time goes by, more and more users should start to try out the preview, and Microsoft may well find that it is inundated with feedback.

The question is, how will it respond?
SAP and Birst team up to deliver cloud analytics for the enterprise

Publié: octobre 10, 2014, 3:06pm CEST par Ian Barker

Enterprise software specialist SAP has announced a partnership with business intelligence company Birst to deliver faster analytics on the SAP HANA cloud platform.

The tie up will allow organizations to use a single cloud platform which can deliver instant analytics giving managers the ability to more quickly turn insight into action. It brings together SAP's next-generation cloud platform and Birst's comprehensive two-tier data architecture to provide instant access to business data.

"Driving better business execution and enabling each and every organization to become data-driven is only achievable when leaders come together to innovate and achieve something that solves real business problems, and that is exactly what Birst and SAP plan to do," says Brad Peters, chairman and chief product officer at Birst. "The real opportunity in BI lies in our ability to push data to the front lines, empowering every person to make every decision better. Together, SAP and Birst will give customers instant access to data and allow people to turn insight into action -- that's something today's businesses have been waiting for and we are thrilled to be delivering it".

The SAP HANA Cloud Platform is based on a breakthrough in-memory technology and offers an open platform for customers and developers to build, extend and run applications in the cloud.

Birst's patented analytics engine aims to build a user-ready data store in SAP HANA that can deliver visual discovery, dashboards and enterprise reports across a single business model, accelerated by SAP HANA. By combining the two this solution is designed to offer instant analytics across on-premise and cloud data sources from large-scale data source vendors.

More information about the collaboration and how it will help enterprises to make more effective use of their business data is available on the Birst website.

Image Credit: Dmitriy Shironosov/Shutterstock
Chrome 39 Beta brings new developer features

Publié: octobre 10, 2014, 2:56pm CEST par Mike Williams

Google has released Google Chrome 39 Beta to the Beta channel with some major developer-oriented additions.

Web Animations support has been enhanced with a playback control. This supports methods like play(), pause(), and reverse(), as well as adding the ability to jump to a specific point in a timeline, greatly expanding its usefulness.

Chrome 39 now supports ECMAScript 6 Generators, special functions which create iterators that pause their execution after yielding a value, and resume again when they’re next invoked. All of which means they make life easier when developing asynchronous code, cutting down on design and debugging hassles.

There’s also early support for Web Manifests, a central file for storing metadata associated with a web application (name, display mode, orientation, opening URL, links to icons). A code sample is available now, but the specification is still just a draft so expect the low-level details to change soon.

Support for the Beacon API allows web pages to send data to a server without slowing down page navigation.

Finally, in another step towards high DPI support, scroll offsets (scrollTop, scrollLeft) now return high-precision fractional values.

Google Chrome 39 Beta is available now for Windows, Mac and Linux. The final release should be available in November, but of course if you need something stable then there’s always Chrome 38.
Best Windows 8 apps this week

Publié: octobre 10, 2014, 2:53pm CEST par Martin Brinkmann
One-hundred and two in a series. Two weeks to go and we have reached the two-year milestone.

Last week was rather slow in terms of new apps and games that found their way into store and this week continues the trend. The popular VLC Media Player app for Windows 8 was updated this week introducing support for Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. The developers resolved several crash issues on top of that which should improve the stability of the app significantly. Then again, still no sign of a Windows RT version.

Project Spark, which has been available as a limited beta version for some time, has been launched officially by Microsoft offering new content and a retail version. According to Microsoft, more than 70,000 game levels have been created in the beta period alone.

As always, if I missed an app or game that has been released this week that you believe is particularly good, let me know in the comments below or notify me via email instead.

Here is this week's selection of apps and games.

Red Stripe Deals

This week's selection of apps and games that have been discounted by at least 50 percent.
- Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+, a Pac-Man game for $4.99
- School Binder, a note taking and organization app for $0.99
- Mobu -- Financial Management, a finance app for $1.99
- Learning Games for Kids, an educational game for kids for $1.99
- WeatherFlow, a weather forecast app for $0.99
- Daddy Was a Thief, an action game for $0.99
App of the week

None this week

Other apps

Disney's Cars: Fast as Lighting

The official Cars game for Windows 8. It is a racing game in which you can pick a racer from 20 different characters including Lightning McQueen or Francesco Bernoulli.

Controls are rather basic for a racing game. You can touch or hold down the left-mouse button on the gas pedal to accelerate the car and use various touch-optimized gestures such as swiping up to complete stunts in the game.

One interesting feature of the game is the option to customize tracks and cars, for instance by adding roller coasters or rocky loops to tracks.

The game is a high quality game, featuring great graphics and quality voice acting.

Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter

Microsoft's Wireless Display Adapter is a new device that you can use to cast the screen of your laptop, tablet or smartphone to a monitor or HDTV.

It is different from Google's Chromecast in several aspects including that it does not require an Internet connection and that it does not restrict what can be shared.

The official application for the device offers customization options and firmware updates. You can use it to check if a new firmware has been released, and if that is the case, download it to your device to update the adapter.

Waterbox

The game requires an accelerometer and while you can start the game anyway, you cannot play it without one as it is essential.

You use the screen rotation to control rings in water that you need to get on the sticks placed in each level. To do so you use a pump to make the rings fly in the tank and tilt the screen to control the trajectory of the rings.

The game is fun to play and can become quite challenging in later stages.

Diamond Blitz

This is not another match-3 game even though it may sound and look like one at first glance.

You need to create diamonds by connecting rectangles of the same color.

Rectangles can have up to four different colors and you are only allowed to connect them if their colors match.

That sounds easy at first but once you got some displayed on the map it becomes increasingly difficult to place new ones on it.

It is possible to move placed rectangles again if you are stuck or find a better location for one that yields more points.

You generate the most points by creating pure diamonds consisting of a central uni-colored rectangle and four matching side rectangles that match that color.

Secret of Olympus 2 ($3.49, free trial available)

Secret of Olympus 2 is a beautifully designed match-3 game that may not introduce new features to the game type but adds variants to it that set it apart from other games of its type.

You need to complete a task in each level to get to the next. This ranges from reaching a score threshold before the time runs out, through clearing all marked fields, to unlocking areas with keys.

Toca Town ($2.99, no free trial)

Explore six different locations in Toca Town and play with 21 different Toca Boca characters.

It is a game for children that features a kid-friendly interface and visuals, no third-party advertising or in-app purchases.

Super Paint

Super Paint is a finger painting application for Windows. It can be used with the mouse as well but it has been designed with touch-devices in mind.

The app is easy to use but offers lots of options to explore. If you look at the interface you will notice that it features lots of icons

Elakiddo Paint

This is an image coloring application for children. Pick an image of interest, birds, fish, animals and dinos are available, and select colors to add to the black and white image.
Symantec to follow HP and eBay and split in two

Publié: octobre 10, 2014, 2:40pm CEST par Mark Wilson

There must be something in the air at the moment -- everyone seems to be splitting up. eBay and PayPal decided that it would be better to go it alone, and then HP announced it would be splitting into consumer and enterprise companies. Symantec now reveals that it plans to divide into two independent companies, one focusing on security, and the other on storage.

President and CEO, Michael A. Brown, says that the two markets face their own sets of unique challenges and by splitting in two, each business will have the flexibility needed to respond accordingly.

It means that the storage and security arms of Symantec will be able to operate entirely independently of each other, each able to work with a simpler framework. The split could also mean that one or both of the newly formed businesses are more attractive to other companies who might be interested in a takeover bid.

Brown said: "As the security and storage industries continue to change at an accelerating pace, Symantec's security and IM businesses each face unique market opportunities and challenges. It has become clear that winning in both security and information management requires distinct strategies, focused investments and go-to market innovation. Separating Symantec into two, independent publicly traded companies will provide each business the flexibility and focus to drive growth and enhance shareholder value".

The security business is what Symantec is best known for, and in 2014 it brought in $4.2 billion for the company. The backup and storage side of the company -- or the Information Management Business as Symantec refers to it -- has not fared quite so well, but the hope will be that things will improve with the renewed focus. Once the restructuring is complete, Brown will remain in his position as president and CEO of Symantec, while the new information management business will be headed by John Gannon.

Photo credit: Gil C / Shutterstock
Flashback Friday: How two Stanford University whiz kids accidentally built Google

Publié: octobre 10, 2014, 2:31pm CEST par Aatif Sulleyman

Second in a series. Google is everywhere. It's behind the world's most popular mobile operating system and map, one of the most successful email services ever, and has even expanded into the finance, wearables and transport sectors. What's more, it probably still serves as your browser home page (or just a means of finding out whether you're connected to the Internet or not).

The still-relatively-young company has come a hell of a long way since its inception in the late 90s, and looks well capable of dominating each and every avenue it decides to enter. However, the company had very humble, and indeed slightly odd, beginnings.

Back in 1995, Sergey Brin and Larry Page met each other for the first time and, plainly, they didn't exactly get off on the right foot. At the time, Brin was a 21-year-old second-year student at Stanford University, showing prospective new first-years around the campus. Page was 22, and had just graduated from the University of Michigan. "I thought he was pretty obnoxious," Page said of Brin to Wired in 2005. "He had really strong opinions about things, and I guess I did, too".

Page enrolled a short while later and chose to base his dissertation on the World Wide Web; specifically on how the various pages of the Internet are interlinked. He called the project 'BackRub', and his first task was to build an effective web crawler to get things moving along.

Brin, a math prodigy who had never quite settled on a single assignment, was drawn to Page's project and decided to get involved. "I talked to lots of research groups and this was the most exciting project," he said of his move.

The duo then successfully managed to develop an algorithm -- named 'PageRank' -- that was able to analyze backlinks and thus rank webpages by importance and popularity. All they had to do was feed the system a URL and wait for it to return a list of webpages, with the most important featured at the top. It was only then that they realized what they had created: an Internet search engine that was even more accurate than AltaVista.

In August 1996, Page and Brin released the first version of their newly-created tool to Stanford University students and it was an instant hit. Without enough money to purchase computing resources that would enable them to maintain the rapidly-expanding system, they borrowed bits and pieces from various Stanford computer departments, and turned Page's dorm room into their own lab. Brin's bedroom became an office.

Astonishingly, by autumn 1996, BackRub had grown to such an extent that it frequently brought down Stanford University's Internet connection. The powers that were didn't come down hard on the boys though.

Despite their successes, Page and Brin were initially unwilling to start up their own business. The former's father, a professor, passed away during Page's first year at Stanford, and he reportedly intended to complete his PhD in his honor. Brin, by his own admission, was also reluctant to leave the safety of Stanford.

"Look, if this Google thing pans out, then great. If not, you can return to graduate school and finish your thesis," is what his adviser told him, according to Brin, to which he apparently replied, "Yeah, okay, why not? I'll just give it a try".

Somewhat frustratingly, the story of how the company got its name isn't particularly clear. Google's website simply says that it is "a play on the word 'googol', a mathematical term for the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros," and "reflects Larry and Sergey's mission to organize a seemingly infinite amount of information on the web".

The googol link is unmissable. However, whether Page or Brin came up with 'Google' is debatable. It has been suggested that, while searching for an unregistered domain, a friend of Page spelled 'googol' incorrectly, and Page like the result. The story alleging that the company's first investor, Andy Bechtolsheim, misspelt 'googol' on a substantial check is also in circulation.

The rest, as they say, is history. The google.com domain was eventually registered on 15 September 1997, the company picked up its first employee (Craig Silverstein) in September 1998 and filed its first patent a year later. After a couple of stints at a garage -- textbook startup -- in Menlo Park and an office complex in Palo Alto, the company finally settled down in Mountain View in 2003 and has remained there ever since.

Google is now worth an estimated $107.43 billion. Well done lads.

You can read about how Microsoft began here.

Image credits: Bilan, meltyBuzz

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.
Is it the end of the line for the password?

Publié: octobre 10, 2014, 1:15pm CEST par Ian Barker

In an era of increasing security threats the password is often the weakest link that allows attackers a way into a system posing as a legitimate user.

A new infographic from security company Ping Identity looks at the problem of poor passwords and how in the future they may give way to more sophisticated forms of authentication.

Whether they're obtained by keylogging or through social engineering, 40 percent of the entire internet population has been a victim of stolen passwords at some point. The graphic shows that despite the fact over 90 percent of passwords are vulnerable to hacking, 54 percent of Americans trust systems that rely on passwords alone.

It also reveals the top 10 silly places where people store their passwords, including writing them on the keyboard in permanent marker and attaching them to the screen on a sticky note.

More secure alternatives to simple passwords include password managers that can create long and complex logins. In addition biometrics such as fingerprint and facial recognition are likely to become more common. Behavioral patterns are a possible measure too, using gyroscopic identification of the device's movement, as well as device-based authentication linking the computer with a mobile device to verify identity.

You can see the full infographic below.

Photo Credit: JMiks/Shutterstock
Sony Xperia Z3v launches at Verizon

Publié: octobre 10, 2014, 1:13pm CEST par Mihaita Bamburic

For a well-known and longstanding smartphone manufacturer, Sony has an unusual strategy in the US. Its presence is limited, and few of its devices make it in the country officially. And when they do, they are about to be superseded. Proof is Xperia Z2. Unveiled at CES 2014 in January, it went on sale shortly after, but only made it to the US in late-July. Its successor, Xperia Z3, was announced at IFA 2014, early last month, and went on sale just weeks later.

However, Xperia Z3 must be the smartphone that breaks the pattern for Sony, and finally show us that the Japanese maker can get its US strategy right, as it will soon be available at two of the largest mobile operators in the country. Yes, while it is still a hot device! After T-Mobile, Verizon was just revealed to also carry Xperia Z3, albeit in a slightly tweaked version called Xperia Z3v. Here are the details.

Xperia Z3v will be available at Verizon two weeks from now, starting October 23. It will be sold through both the mobile operator's online and brick and mortar stores, for a price of $199.99 on a two-year contract. Basically, it will cost as much as rival flagships like Apple iPhone 6, HTC One (M8) and Samsung Galaxy S5, at Verizon.

To sweeten the deal, those who purchase Xperia Z3v "can also get $200 off a Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet". The off-contract price of the slate at Verizon is $599.99, while on a two-year contract it costs $499.99. Post-discount, it would run you $399.99 or $299.99, respectively. It is a good deal, if you are also set on getting Xperia Z2 Tablet from Verizon, but do not mind that the smaller Xperia Z3 Tablet is already on its way.

Alongside Xperia Z3v, Verizon will carry a bunch of accessories that are designed to play well with the device: SmartWatch 3 (Android Wear-based smartwatch which costs $249.99), CPW5 Wireless Portable Power Supply (Qi-based portable charger which costs $59.99), DualShock 4 Wireless Controller, and GCM10 Game Control Mount (the last two are meant to turn Xperia Z3v into a PlayStation 4 remote controller; they cost $59.99 and $39.99, respectively).

On top of what the standard model offers, Xperia Z3v adds Qi wireless charging and more internal storage (32 GB instead of 16 GB). It retains the microSD card slot. For the other hardware specifications, read our coverage of Xperia Z3.

Sony Xperia Z3 Compact: Small and perfectly formed [Review]

Publié: octobre 10, 2014, 11:57am CEST par Sandra Vogel

sony-xperia-z3-compact-review-thumb_contentfullwidth

There's a trend these days for handset makers to stick everything but the kitchen sink in their flagship phones and make those phones large, then make their smaller phones a bit less feature rich. This can backfire. We've previously reported about 'mini' versions of handsets not selling as well as the full-fat ones.

Sony doesn't do that. The Xperia Z1 Compact was a small version of a full-fat handset, and the Xperia Z3 Compact is the 4.6in companion to the full-blown 5.2in Xperia Z3. In case you are wondering, there wasn't a Z2 Compact.

The front and back of this phone are both made from tempered glass. The back is the design feature I like least. It does help the Xperia Z3 Compact stand out from the crowd, and it is tough, but it is also very slippy in the hands. If you are a butterfingers like me that could be a worry. It is also, like the front, prone to fingerprints. I was forever cleaning it.

Sandwiched in between the two glass slabs, the edges of the phone are made from a semi-translucent material. The four corners have a buffer which should help protect the handset if it does slip through your fingers.

The back isn't removable. This is a Sony trademark that helps the Xperia Z3 Compact achieve its waterproofing credentials. It is compliant with IP65 and IP68 -- if you keep the side panels closed it'll take immersion in 1.5m of fresh water for up to 30 minutes, according to Sony.

There are two of those side panels -- both on the left edge. One is marked microSD and as well as catering for removable memory it protects the microUSB charge connector. The other panel is not marked, but you need to lift this to insert your nano-SIM. The headset port, on the top edge, doesn't need a cover as it is sealed internally.

As usual Sony has made its power button an aluminum circle sitting on the right edge. This really stands out against the colored chassis (black in my case though white, red and a fantastic turquoise blue are also available). Also on the right edge are a camera shortcut button and volume rocker. I don't really like the dock connector that is on the left edge because it disrupts the tidy lines, but this is pretty much a standard feature on Sony handsets. The optional dock holds your phone in widescreen mode while charging.

I've already noted that the Xperia Z3 Compact has a 4.6in screen. While the upper and lower screen bezels are quite deep, the tall left and right ones are narrow, so that the handset width is about as slight as it could be. In fact, this phone is the same size as the 4.3in Xperia Z1 Compact, though a little slimmer and lighter.

The resolution of 1,280 x 720 pixels does not break any new ground -- in fact it matches that of the Xperia Z1 Compact, and the result is that its 319ppi is slightly lower than 342ppi of the earlier phone. But Sony throws a lot of tech at the screen.

Sony says the Xperia Z3 Compact has its brightest ever display. Then there's Sony's Triluminos technology which gives good color depth while X-Reality helps optimize contrast and sharpness. There's a new addition to Sony's screen technology too – Live Color LED is part of the Triluminos system and is another tweaker for color intensity. You can turn off X-Reality or switch into Super-vivid mode which really makes colors stand out. You can also set the white balance using red, green and blue sliders.

Xperia Z3 1

While I found the screen too small for comfortable video viewing the quality is undeniably very good. Sound quality is disappointing through the twin speakers that sit on the front of the phone, and their positioning means you can easily cover them with fingers when gaming in widescreen mode. Use high quality headphones, though, and sound quality is very good.

Technically there's not much to grumble about here -- the Snapdragon 801 quad-core CPU runs at 2.5GHz, and with 2GB of RAM speed was not an issue for me during testing. Video ran smoothly, and the camera fires up from lockdown via the side button almost instantly. With a second tap of that side button to grab a shot I reckon this is the fastest quick-fire camera I have seen.

Xperia Z3 2

The main camera shoots to 20.7 megapixels -- the same as the predecessor handset -- and there are plenty of features to fiddle around with. Still, it is annoying that Sony's Superior Auto mode for taking photos restricts the max resolution to 8 megapixels. Video mode has a fair few tweaks too -- including the ability to capture 4k video.

There's 16GB of built-in storage, with 11.57GB free out of the box and you can add up to 128GB more via microSD.

Battery life is impressive. There are various power saving modes including Stamina and Ultra Stamina as well as a special low battery mode and a system which only turns Wi-Fi on when you are near a saved network. Stamina mode allows you to decide which apps can be active and which aren't, so you can personalize things to your liking. Alongside the power management modes, I am a big fan of the way the battery life indicator on the notification bar tells you what percentage of power remains.

Sony has skinned Android 4.4.4 with its now familiar overlay, and as usual crams the Xperia Z3 Compact with apps. Some – though not all – are from Sony's own stable, including Music Unlimited, the PlayStation app, Sony Select for apps and games, the Xperia Lounge, Lifelog for use with the Sony SmartBand, and What's New to tell you about Sony's latest apps and content. A newcomer to the Sony stable is the ability, due to launch in November, to use the Xperia Z3 Compact as a wireless display for the PlayStation 4.

Verdict

The biggest fans of the Xperia Z3 Compact are likely to be those who are already Sony fans, but you can ignore all the Sony tie-ins and still get a lot from this handset. The camera is easy to use and has lots of customizability, the screen is great for everything from looking at photos and web pages to watching movies and YouTube, there's lots of power and battery life is excellent. I'd have liked to see the screen resolution taken up a notch, but overall this is a pleasingly powerful hand-friendly phone.

Good Points

Powerful
Impressive battery life
Vibrant screen
Fast and easy to use camera

Bad Points

Screen could use more pixels
Sony app bloat

Specifications

Manufacturer and Model	Sony Xperia Z3 Compact
Network	4G
Processor	2.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801
Ram	2GB
Memory	16GB (11.57GB accessible)
Memory expansion	microSD
Display	4.6in, 1,280 x 720 pixels, 319ppi
Main camera	20.7 megapixel
Front camera	2.2 megapixel
NFC	Yes
Wi-Fi	Yes
GPS	Yes
FM radio	Yes
Battery	2,600 mAh
Size	64.9 x 8.6 x 127mm (WxDxH)
Weight	129g
OS	Android 4.4.4

To stop data theft, pull the plug

Publié: octobre 10, 2014, 8:43am CEST par Robert X. Cringely

Back in the 1980s, when I was the networking editor at InfoWorld, one of my jobs was to write profiles of corporate networks. One of those profiles was of the Adolph Coors Brewing Company of Golden, Colorado, now known as Molson Coors Brewing. I visited the company’s one brewery at the time, interviewed the head of IT and the top network guy, then asked for a copy of the very impressive network map they had on the wall.

"Sorry, we can’t give you that," they said. "It’s private".

"But we always print a map of the company network," I explained.

"Fine, then make one up".

And so I invented my own map for the Coors network.

There’s a lesson here, trust me.

Back then there was no commercial Internet. The Coors network, like every other corporate computer network, was built from leased data lines connecting the brewery with sales offices and distribution centers in every state except Indiana at the time. Such networks were expensive to build and the people who ran them were quite proud.

Today we just find a local Internet Service Provider (ISP) and connect to the Internet, a much simpler thing. If we want secure communications we build Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) that encrypt the data before sending it across the public Internet and decrypt it at the other end. We do this because it is easy and because it is cheap.

IT used to cost a lot more than it does today and cheap Internet service helps make that possible.

Cheap Internet service also made possible every major corporate security breach including the big retail hacks and data theft at Target and Home Depot as well as the big JP Morgan Chase hack revealed just last week that compromised the banking information of at least 89 million customers.

How cheap is IT, really, if it compromises customer data? Not cheap at all.

Last year’s Target hack alone cost the company more than $1 billion, estimated Forrester Research. The comparably-sized Home Depot hack will probably cost about the same. JP Morgan Chase is likely to face even higher costs.

Here’s the simple truth: it makes no sense, none, nada, for a bank to send financial transactions over the public Internet. It makes no sense for a bank or any other company to build gateways between their private networks and the public Internet. If a company PC connects to both the corporate network and the Internet, then the corporate network is vulnerable.

At Target and Home Depot the point-of-sale (cash register) systems were compromised, customer data was gathered and sent back to the bad guys via Internet. Had there been no Internet connection the bad guys could never have received their stolen data.

Taking a bank or retail network back to circa 1989 would go a long way toward ending the current rash of data breaches. It would be expensive, sure, but not as expensive as losing all the money that Target and others have recently done.

This is the simple answer, yet few companies seem to be doing it. The reason for that, I believe, is that professional IT management in the old sense no longer exists at most companies. And public companies especially are so trained to cut IT costs that they’ll continue to do so even as their outfits lose billions to hackers. Besides, those losses tend to be charged to other divisions, not IT.

Back at Coors they loved that I designed my own incorrect network map because it would be that much harder for an outsider to gain access to their network and steal data. IT people thought about such things even then. Until we re-learn this lesson there will always be network hacks.

Some corporate and government data simply doesn’t belong on the Internet. Why is that so hard to understand?
How many times a day does the average person check their phone? 221, apparently

Publié: octobre 10, 2014, 8:40am CEST par Darren Allan

A new piece of research has looked into the amount of times that British smartphone users check their handset and carry out a task on it every day -- and the answer is 221 times, on average. Which begs the question: how many times a does a true smartphone addict check their device?

At any rate, the survey of 2,000 UK smartphone users, courtesy of Tecmark, found that most folks first look at their phone at 7:30 in the morning, to check emails and then the Facebook app (no surprise there). Early morning tasks which are still carried out in bed by many are reading recent news updates, and looking at the weather forecast -- as well as sending a couple of texts.

Online banking and checking train times are also popular tasks for earlier in the day.

The survey noted that the average smartphone owner uses their device for three hours and sixteen minutes per day -- which is quite a staggering figure when you add that up over the week. Indeed it's almost a full 24 hour day, and well over a day when sleeping time is taken into account.

Many of those surveyed confessed that they picked up and used their phone without even realizing -- indeed two-thirds of respondents said they found themselves firing up and browsing through Facebook without even thinking about it.

Four in ten folks admitted that they'd feel "lost" without their phone.

It's certainly the primary gadget in people's lives now, with the desktop or laptop computer only being used for 140 tasks per day on average, over a third less than the smartphone.

Richard Heyes, Managing Director for Tecmark, commented: "More than 1,500 times a week is a lot of times to pick up a small gadget like a mobile phone and demonstrates perfectly just how ingrained in our daily lives our smartphones have become. For most of us, it's now second nature. And certainly we're not surprised to see this huge reliance on our handheld devices. But many people may not realize just how many times a day they check their phone or carry out a simple task on it".

He added: "It's so much easier checking your phone for Facebook updates rather than waiting for a desktop or laptop computer to load -- we don't have that much time in the mornings".

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.
Skype for Mac 7.0 and Skype for Windows 7.0 Preview sport radical new look

Publié: octobre 10, 2014, 7:47am CEST par Nick Peers

Microsoft has released Skype for Mac 7.0 and Skype for Windows 7.0 Beta, unveiling a major redesign of its Skype desktop client in the process.

Version 7.0’s new design mirrors closely that found on Skype’s mobile platforms, and is designed to provide users with a more unified experience across all devices they use it on.

The most visible change is that photos now appear inline as large thumbnails as soon as they’ve been sent. The Windows version also increases the spacing between contacts and chats, and offers message previews for unread chats to make following multiple conversations simpler.

Users should also notice that certain file types -- specifically Office documents and PDF files -- are now displayed using file icons to make them simpler to pick out when scrolling through a chat history.

Skype also introduces a new dual-paned view that allows users to continue using the IM feature while engaged in a voice or video call, making it easier to share photos and other files during the call. Mac users can access this view via a single click.

Finally, the group video chat feature -- recently made available for free to all Skype users -- has also been redesigned to make it easier to use.

Skype for Mac 7.0 and Skype for Windows 7.0 Beta are both available now as freeware downloads. Also available are Skype for iPhone, Skype for iPad, Skype for Android and Skype for Windows 8.
Google's new Hangouts Chrome app delivers the chat experience we've been waiting for

Publié: octobre 10, 2014, 2:06am CEST par Dilraj Singh

I recently vented my frustration at Hangouts and Google, but today I am extremely elated. Google has released a true Chrome desktop application for Chrome. It runs outside your browser, and you get a pin-able icon in your app drawer so you are not forced to open up Chrome.

But most of this could be handled by the Hangouts extension they had previously, so what's the difference? This one doesn't suck. It actually takes advantage of being outside of the browser and has a great workflow.

The new desktop app is based on the experience of circles, not unlike Facebook's chat heads on mobile. If you start a new chat or receive a message, a new circle appears to house the conversation, complete with an indicator for number of unread messages. Check out Google's video below to see a run through.

Google got the little things right this time. The circles occupy very little space, which is important as they stay above all your other windows -- but are still easily accessible. A chat bubble that appears next to the circle when you receive a message, giving you an opportunity to view the message for a moment. Hovering over a circle also gives you a preview of the last message. The actual Hangouts chat window that opens up when you click a circle goes away right when you click on anything else on your desktop. The new Google Hangouts Chrome app is there when you want it, but blends into the background for when you don’t.

There are little annoyances. For example, the message indicator stops at '2+.' I have no idea if I got three messages to read, or 35. I can't put the chat bubble in the top right corner. The chat window 'action buttons' to minimize, close, or pop out don’t make much sense now that is part of a new interface. But little things like these are forgiven on the first version of a project -- I do expect them to get fixed eventually so hopefully Google does not set its sights on a brand new Hangouts project in the meantime.

You can download it here.