Gregarius » BetaNews.Com » décembre 15, 2014

BetaNews.Com (17 non lus)

Edward Snowden condemns Amazon's 'morally irresponsible' encryption policy -- users don't care

Publié: décembre 15, 2014, 8:19pm CET par Mark Wilson

In a near-perfect example of how there is always more than one way to look at things, Edward Snowden has very different views on Amazon than Amazon users do. On Friday, Snowden appeared -- as ever -- via video link at the surveillance symposium at the Cato Institute. He condemned Amazon's lack of encryption of customers' searches, referring to the practice as "morally irresponsible".

But Snowden's condemnation of Amazon comes at the same time as a study by Bizrate Insights which finds that more than 45 percent of online shoppers trust the site with their payment and personal information. So why the disparity?

As we know from the past twelve months, Edward Snowden is a man with more than a passing interest in privacy. His disdain for Amazon's attitude to encryption has been reported in -- of all places -- the Washington Post. This is interesting because, as pointed out in the article, Jeff Bezos is not only the founder and chief executive of Amazon, but also the owner of the Washington Post.

Snowden is concerned that Amazon goes to the effort of encrypting payments while failing to do the same for customer searches. This means, he says, that the reading and shopping habits of Amazon's customers are open to governmental snooping. While it's unlikely that the government is interested in which books you buy from Amazon, this is not really the point, and Snowden suggests that anyone from ISPs to network providers could see what you're looking for.

At the same time a survey of over 6,200 people carried out by Bizrate Insights showed that while more than three quarters of online shoppers are unhappy with the level of security offered by retailers, Amazon actually fared well in the trust rankings. The online giant found itself in third position, gaining the trust of 45.4 percent of people -- it fell behind PayPal (48.9 percent), and banks and credit unions (72 percent).

Hayley Silver, vice president of Bizrate Insights said:

Among these tech transactional titans, it is those that have low barriers for usage and that have put consumer protection in the forefront that have earned the greatest amount of trust.

Lower down the list, Apple was trusted by just 21.4 percent of those questioned, eBay by 18.7 percent, and Google a mere 12.9 percent.

Photo credit: Ken Wolter / Shutterstock
BT in talks to acquire EE for £12.5 billion

Publié: décembre 15, 2014, 7:33pm CET par Wayne Williams

There’s been plenty of speculation over the past few weeks as to which mobile provider British Telecom was sweetest on -- EE or O2 (its ex) -- but today we learn the object of BT’s affection is definitely the Deutsche Telekom and Orange S.A joint-venture, as the telecoms giant confirms that it has entered into "exclusive negotiations" to buy EE for £12.5 billion.

There’s a long, long way to go before the companies tie the knot, but if things go ahead, part of the purchase price will be paid in BT shares. Upon successful completion of the proposed transaction Deutsche Telekom stands to own a 12 percent stake in the company, and Orange would gain 4 percent.

"We firmly believe that convergence is the future of telecommunications in Europe. Customers want fixed-mobile converged services from a single provider. The proposed transaction with BT offers the chance to further develop our superbly positioned mobile business engagement in the UK and to take part in the outstanding opportunities of an integrated business model," said Thomas Dannenfeldt, Chairman of EE’s Board of Directors and CFO of Deutsche Telekom.

Commenting on the news, Dominic Baliszewski, telecoms expert at broadbandchoices.co.uk said, "BT has gone full circle with the acquisition of mobile network EE, having only left the mobile space 12 years ago when it sold BT Cellnet. The trend for providers to offer the full suite of home comms services (broadband, TV, mobile, landline) is showing no sign of slowing, but UK customers have not yet embraced quad-play as enthusiastically as in other European countries, such as Spain, where quad-play is hugely successful. UK customers largely view a mobile phone as a personal purchase rather than part of their household spend so a fundamental shift in perception is needed to make quad-play the norm.

"That being said, quad-play does have the potential to save customers a great deal of money and BT in particular has the infrastructure at its disposal to offer some truly compelling pricing alongside robust coverage (both from EE's best-in-market UK mobile coverage and BT’s 5 million Wi-Fi hotspots). Throw in some tasty freebies in a similar vein to the 'free BT Sport' offer of the previous 12 months and you have a tempting proposition. This is unlikely to be the only example of consolidation we see in telecoms over the next year or so, but it is important that customers are not dazzled by the marketing surrounding Quad-Play. Bundles are cheaper because providers want to avoid customer churn, but do stay focused on what you need from a mobile phone service: quality of coverage, network speed and a generous data allowance are all just as important as how much you actually pay.

"Should this deal go ahead, millions of people who are both EE mobile customers and BT broadband/TV customers already will effectively become triple or quad play BT customers without even blinking. If you find yourself in this situation, don’t feel rushed or pressured into signing up to a new contract. BT will likely offer some very attractive customer retention deals but it is always worth taking the time to compare and understand what you need versus what you want -- especially in an increasingly complicated market".
Lack of IT skills is hindering cloud and BYOD deployment

Publié: décembre 15, 2014, 7:33pm CET par David Curry

Utilizing the power of cloud technology and mobilizing the workforce are two key interests for most organizations, but several issues are currently affecting progress in the field.

In a survey conducted by NaviSite and Time Warner Cable on migration to the cloud and BYOD (bring your own device) support, several key points were brought up on the reasoning behind the slow progress.

In the survey, 89 percent of the 250 US and UK based business said they would be moving to a cloud service in the next 12 months. 68 percent said they do not have a BYOD policy currently active in the organization.

On cloud migration, 59 percent said the main concern was security, both through the migration process and once everything has been set up. The recent iCloud and Dropbox hacks have put doubts on the safety of cloud technology in the workplace.

94 percent said the main reason for cloud migration is to create a mobile workforce. Having a system based in the cloud allows for more devices to be utilized and allows workers to be based in remote areas.

The lack of BYOD policies comes from the poor IT skills in most organizations, company leaders are worried the deployment of a BYOD policy will confuse staff and potentially lead to less efficiency at work.

Moving to a new system can always bring issue, it is part of the reason outsourcing agencies have become so popular in the past ten years. Organizations will need to give staff extensive training, to keep efficiency high in the workplace.

Plenty of organizations are keen on employing a BYOD policy, especially with wearables becoming a new market for enterprise customers and mobile device usage continuing to rise.

With this in mind, tech companies are starting to offer more customizable services for mobile, taking the power of analytics and the cloud to deliver personal experiences for each company.

Photo Credit: bahri altay/Shutterstock

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.
Google collaborates with Akamai to improve Public DNS offering

Publié: décembre 15, 2014, 6:54pm CET par Brian Fagioli

Whenever I set up a new router, I always change the DNS settings to point to Google Public DNS. Why? I find the search-giant's solution to resolve addresses faster than my ISP. Heck, when I am connecting to someone else's network, I enable Google DNS in my device settings too.

According to Google its DNS solution handles a mind-boggling 400 billion responses per day. Today, the search giant announces that a recent collaboration with Akamai will improve the speed of accessing location-based Akamai hosted content.

"Recently the Google Public DNS team, in collaboration with Akamai, reached an important milestone: Google Public DNS now propagates client location information to Akamai nameservers. This effort significantly improves the accuracy of approximately 30 percent of the location-sensitive DNS responses returned by Google Public DNS. In other words, client requests to Akamai hosted content can be routed to closer servers with lower latency and greater data transfer throughput. Overall, Google Public DNS resolvers serve 400 billion responses per day and more than 50% of them are location-sensitive.", says Yunhong Gu, Tech Lead, Google Public DNS.

Gu further explains, "a group of DNS and content providers, including Google, proposed an approach to allow resolvers to forward the client’s subnet to CDN nameservers in an extension field in the DNS request. The subnet is a portion of the client’s IP address, truncated to preserve privacy. The approach is officially named edns-client-subnet or ECS. The Google-Akamai collaboration marks a significant milestone in our ongoing efforts to ensure DNS contributes to keeping the Internet fast. We encourage more CDNs to join us by supporting the ECS option".

Say what you want about Google, but the company is constantly working behind the scenes to improve the web for all. If you weren't using Google Public DNS before, this new partnership should definitely convince you to give it a go. To try it, click on the link here.

Photo Credit: Mny-Jhee / Shutterstock
Predictions: Top ten mobile trends for 2015

Publié: décembre 15, 2014, 6:46pm CET par Duncan Clark

It takes a brave man to make technology predictions in this day and age. Well, never one to shirk a challenge, I’ve been looking into my crystal ball, and with 2015 looming large, I’m putting my head above the parapet to make my top ten mobile predictions for the next 12 months.

Every year, competition in the smartphone space becomes more intense than ever. But we have reached a tipping point. Even the big guns, such as Samsung, are under massive pressure. All vendors will be looking for a killer new differentiator and this means things can (and probably will) get crazy. So, expect to see some wacky concepts making it to the front line of vendor’s product offerings.

1. Origami handsets

Ok, so, not quite, but foldable screens have been on the agenda of many mobile vendors for some time now. The main issue being that to date they have been truly awful in both design and execution. Yet, 2015 may well be the year when vendors (specifically those of the South Korean variety) go hard on foldable screens. Especially as phones are now getting to the size where people are weighing up the hassle of carrying a larger device versus the desire to have a large screen for web browsing. Solving the challenge of viewing experience versus portability could be a huge area of differentiation for many vendors. Could foldable screens be the feature that helps Samsung reverse its recent decline?

2. Bigger screens

The desire for larger screens will grow steadily through 2015. Every study conducted by Netbiscuits in the last 12 months has revealed a consistent conclusion: more people are using their devices primarily as an interface to access the web – and as a "phone" device second. So, the trend towards larger screens will march on throughout 2015.

Source: Netbiscuits Web Trends Report, Q3 2014

Phablets will emerge as the winning market area. This is great news for marketers. Phablets display higher conversion rates, which are much closer to those of tablets. Marketers will need to understand the context in which their users access mobile, not simply just the devices they are using. They will also need to consider what the emergence of this category means for expected bounce and conversion rate targets.

3. "Super" batteries

Batteries will be a huge focus as they become a key consideration for buyers. This will really hit home in the field of wearable tech. Watch out for announcements in 2015 about a "super battery". Google has been snapping up young scientist recruits gearing towards this, and other announcements suggest we are certainly getting closer to a big breakthrough. Nevertheless, it seems that science still has some way to go– and wireless charging is likely to take much longer still. So in the meantime, expect more novel ideas throughout 2015, such as telephone boxes being turned into charging points or smart luggage that powers your phone when you arrive at airports and so on.

All of this is great news for marketers though: customers are desperate to be online and want to be interacting all the time. Mobile traffic will continue its stampede of growth throughout 2015. If you were looking for justification for greater investment in mobile, this is it.

4. Wearables, wearables, wearables

The huge growth of wearable devices will mean an even closer integration of technology into our daily lives. People will become hugely selective about what streams of information they tune in to and out of as these hit their devices. Beyond fitness and health tracking, we will start to see fashion and technology lines begin to blur, as big brands see the importance of making wearable devices more aesthetically pleasing if they are to conquer the mainstream. Expect to see high-end fashion house, such as Gucci break into the wearables revolution.

5. Gestures

Wearables will also prompt growth in the gesture tech. There will be lots of claims throughout the year from companies (such as Aquifi) who will be saying that they want to put gesture tech absolutely everywhere. By the end of the year, we’ll be seeing gesture controlled technology being showcased not only in tablets and mobiles but also in items such as cars, televisions, household appliances and other common user interfaces.

6. Brand loyalty will disappear

People will use websites that work and that deliver content how they want it delivered. There’s huge opportunity here for smaller brands to provide great online, cross-channel, joined-up experiences. Google will help by positively ranking its search results more on user experience across different devices. It will help smaller organizations to differentiate. It will disrupt the old guard of brands that fail to keep up with the pace of change and that are leap-frogged by more agile competitors.

7. Even MORE video

People will consume more video content than ever. Cisco’s Visual Networking Index shows that mobile video traffic already exceeds 50 per cent of mobile data traffic. Marketing will move to visual storytelling. This will be a challenge to get right on mobile, especially given the sheer range of devices and screen sizes that are out there. Animation and video is far trickier to get right than static image and text. As new websites are launched in tune with these shifts in marketing practices, it will be vital for marketers to monitor their impact on site performance and conversion.

8. Privacy will die

People’s expectations of their mobile web experience will be higher than ever. With new technologies, such as contactless payment, becoming more widely accepted, convenience will triumph privacy concerns. More people will share more data than ever before. This will include location and other personal information.

They will share this in return for a great experience. Organizations must be ready to integrate these extra (and quite frankly huge) streams of data into marketing and other business processes.

9. Mobile Big Data needs human intuition as well as hard numbers

More data means increased analytics benchmarking techniques are needed. Data scientists should focus greater effort on testing hypotheses, setting sensible benchmark levels against these and building algorithms to provide automatic feedback alerts, instead of relying only on people to interpret data streams manually. Unlocking the value of data is a huge opportunity for all in 2015. There will be some great success stories to come from organizations that nail this during 2015.

10. Nothing will really change

By the end of 2015, people will still be reading paper books, playing vinyl records, writing in physical notebooks, and paying for things with cash. The digital world exists as an essential overlay to the physical world, but not an outright replacement. Brands that blend experiences across these worlds together (without the user even being consciously aware) will be the brands that win throughout 2015.

Duncan Clark is head of global research at Netbiscuits

Photo credit: Poznyakov/Shutterstock

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.
New performance testing tool brings added speed and flexibility

Publié: décembre 15, 2014, 5:02pm CET par Ian Barker

With increasing pressure to produce new apps to meet customer demand, testing is vital as problems can lead to the loss of customers and revenue.

Yet the test process can often prove a bottleneck as the tools involved are cumbersome and can struggle to cope with modern complex apps and sites.

Website and app performance testing pioneer Appvance aims to streamline the process with the launch of Appvance PerformanceCloud 2 (APC2), the next generation of its flagship testing platform.

Its advanced feature set allows for test teams to develop complex and comprehensive testing scenarios. It also allows the re-purposing of functional tests to data-driven performance tests all with detailed simulated user controls. Test scripting with APC2 has been found in independent benchmarks to be up to 20x faster than other tools.

"The performance testing market has seen far too many over-hyped tools touting incomplete solutions that only address protocol-level issues and offer limited results that don't provide the beginning-to-end insight that professional testers need," says Srikar Achanta, Applications Engineering Manager at Appvance. "APC2 is the first platform to offer serious testers the comprehensive breadth of features required to drive website and app performance on a day-in, day-out basis. APC2's beginning-to-end testing platform in the first technology to properly address the user experience level (UX), giving testers the most realistic test scenarios possible to mimic real-world user behaviors at scale and identifying client side code issues before launch".

APC2 offers a wide range of features including advanced analytics to identify performance issues, improved cloud support giving testers a wider array of Amazon Web Services instances for load generation, and offering new capabilities for IBM SoftLayer cloud.

Testers can gauge response times over simulated 3G, 4G, LTE or Wi-Fi network bandwidths. There's also support for deeper testing of Java-based applications. For testers of large-scale, enterprise-grade apps and websites, APC2 allows test scenarios to be created in hours, instead of days or weeks, enabling performance issues to be located quickly with little or no coding necessary.

You can find more information and request a free trial on the Appvance website.

Image Credit: alphaspirit / Shutterstock
Content caching: Why the CTO is the CMO's new best friend

Publié: décembre 15, 2014, 5:00pm CET par David Henzel

Digital media content plays an important role in today's mobile, social, and web environments for global enterprises. The enterprise that delivers quality content the fastest wins the lion’s share of business. The enterprise that delivers digital content the slowest gets left in the dust.

Because content quality is now determined by substance and delivery speed, a strong connection must exist between two leaders in the company -- the CMO and CTO.

The CMO is responsible for how digital content is perceived while the CTO is responsible for how it’s delivered. If the perceived value is high and the speed of delivery is poor, the overall experience is poor. Essentially, how well digital content performs is largely dependent on how quickly it’s delivered.

For instance, 40 percent of people abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load. And consumers are as quick to abandon slow-loading web pages as they are slow-loading videos, games, and audio. For this reason, enterprises are investing in more technology to ensure perceived quality isn’t ruined by slow delivery.

Gartner predicts that by 2017, CMOs will be spending more on technology than the traditional IT department. This is because enterprise business leaders are challenged to manage the explosion of digital media content globally.

Now, CTOs are being called upon by the CMO to champion agile technology solutions like content caching that can quickly scale to support new product launches and accelerate media-rich content worldwide. This is a tremendous opportunity for the CTO to be a key player in driving critical business initiatives for the enterprise.

Think Globally and Act Locally

For a content-driven company to succeed, the CTO and CMO need to collaborate on the shared needs of the enterprise’s digital strategy. Large enterprises have an ever-increasing inventory of digital media and web content that needs to be distributed across several media outlets in multiple time zones around the globe.

The CTO can be a true partner of the business in architecting a content caching solution that smartly distributes the company’s online content in key local geographies where marketing forecasts anticipate demand. Combined with dynamic content tracking and reporting, the CTO can provide real-time content performance data to the CMO and make recommendations to maximize the enterprises’ profit.

The 'Need for Speed' Drives Revenue

Sales from e-commerce sites that are content-driven are forecast to increase nearly 20percent to reach $1.47 trillion. It’s also well known that consumers have a very low threshold for waiting to access web content (as mentioned earlier). The proliferation of content portals, feature-rich media, access devices, and a global audience has challenged enterprise networks to keep pace.

Often, content acceleration is best achieved through the use of a content delivery network (CDN). CDNs efficiently cache web content at the edge of a global network that is closest to the customer, thus offering maximum speed in accessing content. The use of a CDN accelerates company websites to grow revenue and transact business from any device worldwide.

The New Digital Consumer is Mobile

According to Demand Gen Report’s 2014 Content Preferences Survey, more than 85percent of B2B buyers agree that mobile-optimized website content is a requirement. It’s also no secret that the majority of buyers use mobile phones to access business-related content. With the proliferation of mobile website usage and shifts in content consumption preferences, many marketers have begun revamping their content marketing efforts and experimenting with their mobile content.

ESPN is the most recent major brand to undertake a major redesign, officially launching its new mobile-optimized website in Spring 2015 in celebration of ESPN’s 20th anniversary. Expanding its shareable and relatable content will be the main aim of the move, and it’s success will depend on content quality and delivery speed. ESPN recognizes this and is one of thousands of enterprises that rely on content caching and CDNs.

Content + Caching = Cash

The explosion of media-rich content is forcing technologists and marketers to collaborate on delivering an accelerated online experience for enterprise customers. Today, an enterprise digital content marketing strategy is what connects CTOs and CMOs to drive online revenue.

All this results in a simple equation, ready to adorn office walls in poster form and hug the chests of CMOs and CTOs alike.

Content (CMO) + Caching (CTO) = Cash ($$)

Photo credit: Basar / Shutterstock

David Henzel is Co-Founder and VP of Marketing at MaxCDN, a next-gen content delivery network. Originally from Wiesbaden, Germany, David moved to Los Angeles in 2009 after selling his e-commerce business and joining the MaxCDN team. His passions include marketing, e-commerce, startups, personal development and web speed.
Skype Translator preview breaks down the language barrier

Publié: décembre 15, 2014, 3:51pm CET par Mark Wilson

Microsoft has shown more interest in Skype in recent years, including making it far more web-friendly, and introducing a business-centric version in place of Lync. The latest move is designed to break down more barriers, making it easier for people in different countries to communicate with each other, regardless of the language they speak.

Skype Translator preview is the first step towards making language irrelevant. Rather than relying on interpreters, users can communicate through Skype and translations will be automatically performed. English and Spanish are supported as spoken languages, but there is support for more than 40 written languages as well.

If you need to communicate with people in another country, there's now no need to learn each other's language as Skype can do the hard work for you. Near-instantaneous translation is available whether you are conducting a voice or a text chat, making this a tool that will be of great interest to business users.

Introducing the new Skype feature, Microsoft says:

Skype Translator is a great example of the benefit of Microsoft’s investment in research. We’ve invested in speech recognition, automatic translation and machine learning technologies for more than a decade, and now they’re emerging as important components in this more personal computing era. Skype Translator is the most recent and visible example. Skype Translator relies on machine learning, which means that the more the technology is used, the smarter it gets. We are starting with English and Spanish, and as more people use the Skype Translator preview with these languages, the quality will continually improve.

As we have become used to with the new Microsoft, the company is looking for feedback, and the preview phase will help to improve the accuracy of translations -- there's a little guide to how the recognition and translation process works available here.

Microsoft has already given school children a chance to try out Skype Translator, and the video below shows how they got on while demonstrating the capabilities of the software.

If you're interested in taking part in the program, you can sign up for the Skype Translator Preview.

Photo credit: hobbit / Shutterstock
Enhanced Aerospike speeds up big data deployment

Publié: décembre 15, 2014, 3:44pm CET par Ian Barker

Businesses are keen to harness the benefits of big data, but traditional database solutions are often confined by their design, making them hard to scale.

Aerospike which claims to be the world's fastest database has unveiled new features and enhancements to its product to improve performance, streamline deployment and breed a new generation of real-time, context-driven applications.

The latest release of the open-source, flash-optimized, in-memory, NoSQL database brings new clients, easier installation and deployment, storage and performance improvements, enterprise security enhancements and Hadoop integration. Aerospike's speed, scale and simplicity make it possible for organizations of all sizes to innovate with new applications that drive improvements, and enable bottom-line savings.

"Big data is big context, and organizations looking to harness the power of real-time context to personalize the user experience for millions of consumers across billions of devices have a small window of opportunity for success," says Monica Pal, CMO of Aerospike. "Aerospike's next-generation, NoSQL database is poised to lead the way as startups and enterprises alike choose its technology as the context store and system of engagement for consumer-facing applications. With Aerospike, companies can turn insights into action, reach consumers with the right message right now and scale with the best price to performance ratio, making it a no-brainer for today’s disruptors".

Unlike first-generation NoSQL databases and traditional in-memory technologies, Aerospike is self-managing and scales on a handful of servers instead of hundreds. Enhancements include more flexible development with upgrades for popular clients and a beta Ruby client. Deployment is simplifies with Docker containers and Click-to-Deploy on the Google Cloud Platform.

Storage and performance are improved with features like a new disk write cache and hot-swap SSD capability. Role-based authentication and authorization improve security and control. Enhanced Hadoop integration includes a patented Indexed MapReduce capability so Hadoop jobs can operate on a targeted subset of data within Aerospike.

The latest version is available now and you can find out more on the Aerospike website.

Image credit: David Gaylor /Shutterstock
What to expect in the next Windows 10 build

Publié: décembre 15, 2014, 2:32pm CET par Wayne Williams

Microsoft plans to launch the next build of Windows 10 in January, and we’ll start to see some focus on the consumer side of things. The company is holding an event at its Redmond campus on January 21 to talk about the "next chapter" of the OS.

But while the tech giant isn’t releasing any new builds for a few weeks at least, there have been several leaks on the internet that reveal what we can expect to see when it does. Here’s what coming to a PC near you soon.

Build 9901 has made its way onto the internet and sports a number of big changes, including Cortana, Microsoft's personal assistant, running on the desktop. This is a feature we know is coming (even if not everyone wants it), and is available on the taskbar by default, although you can switch back to just the search button, or remove both search and Cortana from the taskbar entirely.

Cortana isn’t fully functional in the leaked build (you can speak to her but she won't listen), but it is clearly going to work very much as it does on Windows Phone and provide suggestions, ideas, reminders, alerts and so on.

The Settings app is getting a makeover and it looks as if Microsoft wants Settings to replace the Control Panel as the place to go to make changes to the OS. Go to the Windows Update section of the Control Panel, for example, and you’ll see a message that says:

This UI is deprecated. To get updates go to Settings -> Update and recovery -> Windows Update

Settings is also no longer available in Charms but built into apps and available through the Start menu.

Other new or changed apps in 9901 include Camera, Contact Support, Getting Started, Alarms, and Calculator. With Contact Support you’ll be able to speak to someone at Microsoft, and although this feature doesn’t do much at the moment (unsurprisingly there’s currently no one standing by to take your call), it looks as if it will be similar to Amazon’s Mayday.

There are new Photos and Windows Store apps (the latter has a more polished interface and music, movies and TV shows are shown next to apps) and the Xbox app has been updated as well with a brand new interface.

As you might expect, most of the changes aren’t massively different, but we’re seeing design overhauls and general UI improvements across the board. There are new animations in the TaskView switcher, for example.

Should you choose to install the leaked build yourself (and we'd only recommend you do this in a virtual environment using the likes of VirtualBox -- instructions here), be warned you won't be able to receive future updates directly as part of the Windows Insider program, although you will be able to update Windows 10 to future builds using ISOs. Once you're on an official release, you'll get updates once more.

I'm a big fan of what Microsoft is doing with Windows 10, and the latest changes show, for me at least, the company is continuing to head in the right direction. What are your thoughts on Windows 10 so far?
Nokia's HERE responsible for Baidu's maps outside of China

Publié: décembre 15, 2014, 2:19pm CET par Mihaita Bamburic

Detailing a partnership that was made public today, Finnish company Nokia revealed that its HERE division will provide maps to Chinese Internet services provider Baidu to use outside of its home market.

Normally, such an announcement would hardly garner any attention. However, it makes Baidu the first Chinese company that will offer location-based services to Chinese residents who are traveling abroad. That's a big deal. And Nokia is at the center of it.

"Every day, millions of people count on HERE to explore the world and discover new places whether at home or on the go", says HERE SVP and head of sales Bruno Bourguet. "Together with Baidu, a new customer for us, we want to help the growing number of Chinese tourists get the most from their travels".

Based on information provided by Nokia, last year there were 97 million Chinese foreign travelers, and their overseas spending totaled $102 million. By the end of the year, the last figure is expected to double.

Baidu simply wants to continue to be part of their digital lifestyle, as they leave the country -- normally such customers would have to rely on foreign providers, like Google, as those were the only ones capable of offering them location-based services outside of China.

So what is HERE able to offer? Well, its maps cover 200 countries across the globe, and its turn-by-turn navigation feature is available in 118 countries. Needless to say, the most likely targets for Chinese travelers are well covered.

Baidu's first foreign endeavor will be in neighboring Taiwan, but other markets will follow. There, the Chinese Internet services provider will offer desktop and mobile maps services, the latter of which will be available on Android and iOS.
Working remotely? Always ensure your data gets onto the network

Publié: décembre 15, 2014, 2:18pm CET par Eileen Rainsberry

Can you keep data safe while on the go? You know your company network is a safe storage option. So why isn’t your data in there? When was the last time you went a week without reading about a new data breach? It has become an almost daily occurrence in the media and has brought compliance and regulation to the forefront of many modern businesses.

A good way to guarantee critical business data remains secure and accessible is to ensure it is stored on the company network -- but changes in the way we work mean that very little business data is now being kept on the network. As more employees at SMEs start to work remotely -- either at home or on the go -- so too is the business’s data being stored in a wide range of places such as inboxes, phones, tablets, PCs and laptops. When data is kept in these places as opposed to the company network, some major problems are set to arise…

IP at risk

It is now normal for an organization’s intellectual property (IP) to be worth far more than physical property. Criminals are now more likely to steal card data than carry out a bank robbery, for example.

Yet despite this, companies still tend to store this critical IP in the cloud -- and while some cloud storage providers can offer good levels of storage, it is still very likely that a breach will occur.

A lack of backup

Storing your data on the company network means it is kept in a safe and reliable data center. However, if data is stored on a laptop or an email attachment, it can easily be deleted and is not backed up -- meaning that the data can certainly be lost.

Are you compliant?

Nowadays it is common that companies are required to track data access by law which can be done by use of a corporate data center. However, if the data is not stored on the network, compliance is impossible -- your organization will never be compliant if its data is stored on an employee’s own iPad.

Loss of devices

Imagine a colleague loses an iPhone on the way to an important meeting, having downloaded a highly confidential presentation onto the device to read beforehand.

Some security-savvy employees may have installed remote wipe software or encrypted their devices for scenarios such as this -- however, although this may reduce the chances of confidential information being seen by the wrong person, it fundamentally won’t get the data back to the organization.

I’m not here to tell you mobility is a bad thing -- quite the opposite. Employees can work much more effectively and from wherever is convenient. However, what is becoming clear is that whatever size the organization, it is data that is most valuable nowadays, not a company’s physical items.

This means it is vital to ensure your data gets onto the network, no matter what device you are using.

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.
37 percent of young people have sent naked photos of themselves, often to total strangers

Publié: décembre 15, 2014, 12:46pm CET par Wayne Williams
UK-based anti-bullying charity Ditch the Label has published its annual study into how people aged 13-25 are currently engaging with (and abusing) smartphone technology. The Wireless Report (2014) reveals worrying details on the increase in the number of cyberbullying cases which includes death and physical assault threats, and exposure of information, including sharing of naked photos without the subject’s permission.

The report, which was compiled from the results of a survey advertised as being about smartphone apps (without mention of bullying, abuse or sexting) reveals some striking statistics.
- 62 percent of young people have been sent nasty private messages on a smartphone app based social network.
- 52 percent of young people who have received abuse have never reported it because they didn’t think it serious enough.
- 24 percent of young people who have sent a naked photo of themselves have had it shared without their consent.
The top apps used by cyberbullies are Grindr, Kik, and Skype. As you would expect after receiving abuse, most of the victims felt less confident and a large portion tried to change something about themselves. One in four even turned to self-harm.

As to the relationships with the bullies, 25 percent of abuse came from people the victims didn’t know, 21 percent came from people they only knew online, and 21 percent came from anonymous users. Only 18 percent of abuse was from people the victims knew in the real world.

With regards to sexting, 37 percent of respondents had sent a naked photo, with 49 percent of those seeing it as "harmless fun" and 16 percent because "it’s the normal thing to do". 14 percent said it was to "get someone to notice me" and 13 percent said they felt "pressured into doing it". Most (63 percent) sent the pictures to a boyfriend or girlfriend, although 24 percent sent them to someone they’d only met online and 19 percent sent them to someone they’d met through an app (and, in both cases, could be a sexual predator).

It’s an interesting report, even if the sample size is rather small (the data set used for analysis was based on 962 respondents), and well worth a read, especially if you have school-aged children.

Do you know any young people who have been cyberbullied?

Photo credit: Olena Zaskochenko / Shutterstock
CIO jobs at risk as mobile computing weakens data governance

Publié: décembre 15, 2014, 12:42pm CET par Ian Barker

The shift to mobile computing has led to some major changes for enterprises, not least in how the security and confidentiality of data is governed.

A new report, commissioned by data protection specialist Druva from Forrester Consulting, surveyed 205 IT and legal professionals in enterprises in the US and UK. It suggests that 20 percent of CIOs could lose their jobs in 2016 for failing to implement information governance.

Forrester’s analysis revealed rising recognition of the role that mobile computing is playing in weakening existing governance infrastructures. 44 percent of survey participants believe that endpoint data remains at risk despite security and governance controls already in place. The top three challenges are seen as proliferation of file shares (45 percent), lack of coordinated governance (42 percent) and mobile devices (41 percent).

"With the rise of the mobile workforce, organizations must establish strategies to govern not only corporate and employee-owned mobile devices, but also the multiple channels that are now required to make data available anywhere on any device. The increase in complexity is staggering," says Chandar Venkataraman, Chief Product Officer at Druva. "As these findings indicate, technology solutions are going to become increasingly important in identifying, preserving and collecting content from end user devices for all aspects of governance, including compliance and eDiscovery".

The results show that 89 percent of respondents plan to invest more in information governance programs, with 44 percent expecting increases of between 10 and 20 percent. Some 53 percent expect to centralize information governance to ensure that content on end user devices is protected and managed.

Using eDiscovery is expected to increase with 84-85 percent expecting to use technology to facilitate governance and eDiscovery on end user devices.

You can see a summary of the findings in infographic form below and the full report is available to download from the Druva website.

Image Credit: Sergey Nivens / Shutterstock
ISOBuster adds support for large drives with 64-bit sector addressing

Publié: décembre 15, 2014, 11:52am CET par Nick Peers

Smart Projects has released ISOBuster 3.5, a major new version of its shareware data recovery tool. Although the program now supports recovery from a variety of different drives, it’s still renowned for its ability to recover data from optical drives including CD, DVD and Blu-ray.

Version 3.5’s headline new feature is support for 64-bit sector addressing. This enables it to correctly support, display and extract data from any partition, file, folder or file system that resides above the 2TB boundary on large drives.

The move to 64-bit sector addressing also comes with performance benefits, Smart Projects claiming the program now uses less memory when accessing most objects. Also speeded up is the process of saving and updated managed images, while retaining backwards compatibility.

Advanced users also gain the ability to load a generic image file -- such as ISO -- with specific properties from the command line using the new /PROP switch.

In a nod to its roots, version 3.5 also adds support for extracting CD segments as WAV audio files.

Program improvements include better guesswork being employed when attempting to determine the size of an El Torito boot image on CD or DVD when the information is missing from the disc’s data structure. Users also gain the ability to right-click a boot image and search for a matching file to determine that image’s size properties.

ISOBuster 3.5 also promises improvements when attempting to recover data from CD-i discs where audio and data is combined into a single track.

The program also includes numerous other tweaks, fixes and improvements, particularly when recovering data from image files or optical discs.

Most of this new functionality is restricted to paid-for versions of the software only -- Smart Projects provides a comparison table highlighting the differences in functionality between Free, Personal ($39.95) and Professional & Business ($59.95) editions.

ISOBuster 3.5 is a free feature-restricted shareware download for PCs running Windows 2000 up to -- and including -- Windows 8.1.
Lenovo Edge 15: A great laptop, just in time for Christmas [Review]

Publié: décembre 15, 2014, 9:35am CET par Brian Fagioli
If you need a laptop, there are generally two routes you can go -- desktop replacement or desktop companion. In other words, a svelte 11 inch laptop is cute and light, but hardly something you would want to use full-time. Such a small screen can be tedious for doing a lot of work. Sure, you can connect it to a larger monitor for enhanced productivity, but that is an additional purchase, and requires a dedicated work area in the home. What about those of us that want a machine that can be used comfortably anywhere -- including a kitchen table -- with a large screen and full keyboard? Not everyone is just surfing the web on their laptops as the Chromebook crowd would have you think. Some of us need an honest-to-goodness desktop replacement for getting work done.

Luckily, this demographic is not ignored, and good ol' fashioned laptops still exist, even if they don't get the same "oohs" and "ahs" as their tiny cousins. I became quite intrigued by the Lenovo Edge 15, because first of all, it is Lenovo -- a durable and dependable brand. More importantly though, it has a 15 inch screen, and a full keyboard...including a number pad! The fact that it is a 2-in-1 partial-convertible, is just icing on the cake. While everything looked good on paper, the question became, did the real-world experience match up? With a desire to find this out on my own, I obtained one for review.

Specs
- 4th Gen Intel Core i5-4210U processor
- 6GB DDR3L memory
- 15.6 inch 1920 x 1080 LED-backlit high-definition 10-point multitouch-screen IPS display
- Western Digital Blue 1TB Serial ATA hard drive (5400 rpm)
- Intel HD Graphics 4400
- Built-in high-definition 720p webcam
- Multiformat media reader
- 1 USB 3.0 port and 2 USB 2.0 ports
- Built-in high-speed wireless LAN (802.11ac)
- Bluetooth 4.0 interface
- Built-in Gigabit Ethernet LAN
- Weighs 5 lbs. and measures just 0.8 inch thin
- Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-bit
Impressions

Upon removing the laptop from the box, I immediately noticed the weight -- 5 pounds is significant. I also noticed the cold temperature. What do I mean by this? The body is aluminum, rather than plastic! There is nothing wrong with plastic per se, but metal lends to a premium feeling.

Speaking of premium, the hinge is rather stiff -- in a good way -- meaning it feels durable. There is nothing worse that a chintzy hinge on a laptop, that ends up getting loose. Here, the display stays secure, with minimal shake when using the touch screen. Each time you open the laptop, you get a reassurance that it should last a long time.

While the Edge 15 cannot turn into a tablet, it is touch screen, and the hinge allows the screen to rotate 300 degrees. This means you can position the laptop with the keyboard facing downwards, and the display facing you. Why would you want this? It allows better immersion when watching a film, or showing a presentation.

The keyboard is one of the most important aspects of any laptop, and the Edge 15 does not disappoint. Keys are well spaced and surprise, surprise, back-lit too! The model I am testing is only $699, and at that price, manufacturers do not always include this awesome feature. It makes typing at night a breeze, and best of all, it can be turned off with a function key. If you want to conserve battery, or minimize light in a room, function + space bar turns it on and off.

Typing on the keyboard is a dream, as I am able to type fast and without typos. While Lenovo's key design with rounded buttons seems odd at first, it should not negatively impact your typing. Actually, I find that if anything, it may even help.

The trackpad can sometimes be finicky (and frustrating), but overall works as expected. Using two-fingers to right-click doesn't always work, despite my making it so in the settings. For best results, I found using the bottom right corner for right-clicking to be optimal. If you are using the Edge 15 as a full-on desktop replacement, you may want to invest in a mouse; something I would recommend on all such machines. I have been using the newest Microsoft Arc Bluetooth mouse with great success.

The 15.6 inch display is big and bright, and despite being "only" 1080p, looks wonderful. Whether you are watching movies from Netflix or YouTube, your eyes will be very satisfied. Unfortunately, you cannot watch DVD or Blu-ray movies, as this laptop does not come with an optical drive. This is understandable, as optical drives are falling out of favor with consumers, and adds bulk to a laptop's design. If you do need an optical drive, I suggest pairing the Edge 15 with a USB variant, like this one:

Battery life is really good, lasting many hours on a single charge. The 4-cell battery is perfectly acceptable and gives confidence to get work done without being tethered to a wall outlet. The power button is located on the right side, and while small, I haven't had issue with locating it by feel alone.

Where the Edge 15 does fall flat, however, is in the audio department. The speakers are bottom-mounted (when using in laptop mode), and while passable for movies, are rather tinny for music. Worst of all, when using the laptop in bed, my blanket muffled the sound. True, from a cooling perspective, I probably shouldn't use a laptop on a blanket or pillow, but I'll be the decision-maker there. For music lovers, I would suggest investing in a small Bluetooth speaker, like the UE Mini BOOM, or getting some headphones.

The other disappointment is the 5400RPM hard drive. An SSD would make the machine so much faster, but at the same time, many consumers are looking for storage space for their files. A 1TB SSD would be impossible at this price point, and many consumers would probably dislike having a small 120GB SSD, despite speed benefits. From a cost/storage perspective, I understand Lenovo's decision. With that said, as someone who typically uses Windows with an SSD, the performance hit from the HDD is noticeable, but not a deal-breaker. You may find the HDD to be totally fine, though.

I decided to see how easy it is to upgrade the Edge 15. I removed all of the screws from the bottom of the laptop, and the bottom panel easily popped-off. As you can see above, the ability to upgrade is phenomenal. I was floored at how easy it is to access the battery, HDD, RAM and wireless card. For now, the 6GB of memory, (a 2GB and 4GB module) and Intel wireless card are perfectly fine for me. However, I did want to try adding an SSD.

I removed the 4 screws that held the 1TB HDD cage (bottom left of photo) in place, and then replaced it with an extremely modest SanDisk 30GB SSD. Why so small? Well, I figured that since I was replacing the drive, I should test a Linux-based operating system -- which typically does not require much storage -- on the Edge 15 too. For my testing, I downloaded Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon.

Installing Linux Mint from a USB flash drive was very simple -- after painlessly changing the appropriate BIOS settings -- and I was up and running in no time. Since the Edge 15 uses an Intel CPU, graphics and wireless card, no proprietary drivers were needed; everything worked out of the box. Best of all, as expected, the SSD was much faster than the HDD it replaced; as you can see above. This is a superb Linux machine!

Conclusion

A Best Buy exclusive, the Lenovo Edge 15 is a great value at $699. The hardware feels premium, and the performance is great. The upgrade capability is impressive, and will allow you to improve specs as you need. Heck, you can easily increase the memory to 16GB (2x 8GB) for around $150.

Whether running Windows or Linux, the experience is top-notch. Only the speakers really disappoint, and that can be remedied with a Bluetooth speaker or headphones. If you need to buy a desktop replacement for yourself, or to give to someone as a Christmas gift, this is an excellent choice and I recommend it.
GCHQ spy agency releases code-breaking app on Android

Publié: décembre 15, 2014, 9:15am CET par David Curry

The UK’s history of cryptography is fascinating, with famous cryptanalysts like Alan Turing, Dillwyn Knox, and W. T. Tutte deciphering different code machines used in World War I and II.

To celebrate the achievements of the past and reinvigorate students on cryptography, the GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) has released a code-breaking app on Android, named Cryptoy. An iOS version is set to see a 2015 release.

Cryptoy currently focused on four methods of encryption: Shift, Substitution, Vigenère and Enigma. The app makes it especially hard at higher levels, testing students who have the ability to crack code.

The GCHQ is interested in finding the next batch of code-breakers for the future. It is unclear how the GCHQ will get in contact with the potential candidates, or how the GCHQ will be able to identify actual codebreakers from cheaters.

This is not the first time the GCHQ has used public routes to employ new code-breakers, the Daily Telegraph ran a cryptic crossword and those who solved it received a chance to work at the GCHQ.

Encryption has moved from a wartime function designed to hide messages, to a way for Internet services to provide security against surveillance. This has blackened the GCHQ’s reputation when it comes to codebreaking, and now the next generation will most likely be cracking Facebook or Apple code.

New encryption techniques are on the rise, as more people worry about who is reading their private messages. Apple and Google recently announced new encryption on mobile devices, set to stop the FBI from accessing the devices without a warrant.

Terrorist organizations still use some encryption techniques when messaging, but some have been caught chatting on Facebook about potential attacks. The attack on UK soldier Lee Rigby was reportedly planned on Facebook a year beforehand the incident.

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