Gregarius » BetaNews.Com » décembre 23, 2014

Konnichiwa, Mozilla! KDDI Fx0 is first-ever Firefox OS smartphone for Japan

Publié: décembre 23, 2014, 7:00pm CET par Brian Fagioli

fx0

Smartphones are in the hands, pockets and purses of many people nowadays, but the type of phone varies. In the real world, you see lots of iPhones and Android phones, but beyond that, not much else. Sure, people still use BlackBerrys, and every once in a while you might experience a Windows Phone sighting, but phones based on Apple and Google's mobile OSes are really the only two horses in the race.

Even rarer than seeing a Windows Phone in the wild, is seeing a Firefox OS handset, despite its availability in many countries. In the USA particularly, Firefox OS phones have been available online, but not in the typical outlets, like Best Buy or directly from carriers. Today, Mozilla announces the first-ever Firefox OS device for Japan, and it is beautiful. With that said, will citizens of the Land of the Rising Sun actually take notice?

"The Fx0 is the first Firefox OS smartphone that supports high speed 4G LTE data communication and is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon (TM) 400 processor. And it moves Firefox OS smartphones into a new stage with its detail to advanced functionality and design encompassing the openness of the Firefox OS and a futuristic feel achieved under the supervision of world famous designer, Tokujin Yoshioka", says KDDI.

Mozilla further explains, "Firefox OS unlocks the power of the Web as the platform and enables more devices and experiences to be connected to each other. We’re excited to work with partners like KDDI to create the Web of Things (WoT), which connects all types of devices using Web technology and enables many new innovative and custom experiences to be created across these connected devices, and this is just the first step".

japanesefos2

While I think the average Japanese consumer will be much happier with an alternative device, such as an iPhone or Android-based phone, they should still appreciate and investigate this new Fx0. The open web is important, and Mozilla is a champion of such, so we should all be rooting for the success of Firefox OS -- even if we do not use it. Not to mention, the physical design is downright sexy, regardless of operating system.

Basic specifications

Product name

Fx0

OS

Firefox OS 2.0

Manufacturer

LG Electronics Inc.

CPU

MSM8926 1.2GHz Quad core

Display

Approx. 4.7 inches/IPS

Camera

Main: Approx. 8 million pixels
Sub: Approx. 2.1 million pixels

Weight

Approx. 148g

Battery capacity

2,370mAh

Size

Approx. 70 (W)x139 (H)x10.5 (D) mm

Memory

Approx. 16GB (ROM)/Approx 1.5GB (RAM)

Continuous call time/standby time

Call time:	Approx. 1,010 minutes
Standby time:	Approx. 720 hours (LTE) Approx. 820 hours (3G)

Color

Gold

External memory

microSDXC (TM) (64GB max.

If you are in Japan, you can purchase the Fx0 starting on Christmas, December 25, but the price is not yet known.

BetaNews 2014 -- the top news stories, editorial and guides from the past year

Publié: décembre 23, 2014, 3:50pm CET par Wayne Williams

2014

It’s that time of the year again when news sites and search engines look back at the stories and events that shaped the year. The top stories on BetaNews are obviously going to be different -- mostly -- from the top stories on other sites because we focus on technology. So in other words don’t expect Kim Kardashian "breaking" the internet to appear anywhere in our list. Although that’s not to say she won’t make an appearance somewhere…

Because BetaNews offers a mix of content, we’ve put together three top 10 lists -- News, Opinion/Editorial, and Guides. With news, it's not necessarily the biggest stories of year that make the list, but rather the content that was viewed the most. All three lists are presented, as ever, in reverse order.

News

The leak of celebrity nudes actually lead to several top stories, including news that Reddit had banned Fappening subreddits and 4chan had introduced a DMCA policy. The similar Snappening leak also proved popular, sneaking in as our tenth top story. Oh, and yes Kim Kardashian was included in the Fappening leaked photos.

Guides

Guides for Windows 8.1 proved very popular, as you’d expect, and Windows XP users still clinging on to the aging OS jumped at the chance of prolonging its life with a sneaky workaround. A Windows 10 guide comes in at number 10, fittingly enough. It’s fair to say, there will be plenty of guides for the next version of Microsoft’s OS in 2015’s round up.

Opinion/Editorial

'Switching' stories proved very popular -- whether it was jumping from Google Apps to Office 365, moving from XP to Linux, or simply cutting the cord to cable and satellite, which suggests readers are always keen to find better alternatives to the products and services they currently use.

So that was our top stories for the year. What tech news/launches were 2014 highlights for you?

Photo credit: marekuliasz/Shutterstock

BetaNews 2014 -- the top news stories, editorials and guides from the past year

Publié: décembre 23, 2014, 3:50pm CET par Wayne Williams

2014

It’s that time of the year again when news sites and search engines look back at the stories and events that shaped the year. The top stories on BetaNews are obviously going to be different -- mostly -- from the top stories on other sites because we focus on technology. So in other words don’t expect Kim Kardashian "breaking" the internet to appear anywhere in our list. Although that’s not to say she won’t make an appearance somewhere…

Because BetaNews offers a mix of content, we’ve put together three top 10 lists -- News, Opinion/Editorial, and Guides. With news, it's not necessarily the biggest stories of year that make the list, but rather the content that was viewed the most. All three lists are presented, as ever, in reverse order.

News

The leak of celebrity nudes actually lead to several top stories, including news that Reddit had banned Fappening subreddits and 4chan had introduced a DMCA policy. The similar Snappening leak also proved popular, sneaking in as our tenth top story. Oh, and yes Kim Kardashian was included in the Fappening leaked photos.

Guides

Guides for Windows 8.1 proved very popular, as you’d expect, and Windows XP users still clinging on to the aging OS jumped at the chance of prolonging its life with a sneaky workaround. A Windows 10 guide comes in at number 10, fittingly enough. It’s fair to say, there will be plenty of guides for the next version of Microsoft’s OS in 2015’s round up.

Opinion/Editorial

'Switching' stories proved very popular -- whether it was jumping from Google Apps to Office 365, moving from XP to Linux, or simply cutting the cord to cable and satellite, which suggests readers are always keen to find better alternatives to the products and services they currently use.

So that was our top stories for the year. What tech news/launches were 2014 highlights for you?

Photo credit: marekuliasz/Shutterstock

Santa boards a flight to hand out Windows tablets to all

Publié: décembre 23, 2014, 3:36pm CET par Alan Buckingham

2352.Santaflight1_thumb_2B457C46

It's that time of the year when our thoughts turn towards a large man in a red suit. Despite his jolly nature, he still manages to sometimes terrify small children, as he did mine. However, the prospect of gifts generally gets them over the hump, and perhaps it's what worked on a recent flight between London and Boston.

The people who boarded the recent Virgin Atlantic flight were treated to a visit from the jolly old man, but more importantly, he had gifts in hand.

"As they boarded the flight, adults and children alike were handed a brand new 8-inch quad-core Windows 8.1 tablet, fully loaded with a number of apps and games, however the most important piece of the pre-installed software was the portal to a 'Festive Flight' section", says Microsoft's Andrew Robertson.

"Having boarded the 787 mid-flight, Santa walked around the cabin, posing for photos with elated children (and a few excitable adults!) and wishing all on board a very Merry Christmas".

The "Festive Flight" app allowed passengers to track the progress of their travel, as well as send messages to Santa, who had "exited" to his sleigh.

This was all put together by Microsoft and Virgin Atlantic. It likely made quite an impression, especially for the children on board the flight. You can check out the video below to experience this adventure for yourself.

Apple's year-end is about security

Publié: décembre 23, 2014, 3:27pm CET par Mihaita Bamburic

Hidden security threat

When it comes to security, Apple can and should do better. It is one of the biggest offenders, after all, making quite a few serious mistakes in this area. One of its most-important services, namely iCloud, has been instrumental in this year's celebrity photo leaks scandal, better known as The Fappening. And, more recently, a weakness in its OS X deployment software for iOS apps has exposed hundreds of thousands of iPads and iPhones to the WireLurker malware. And these are just two examples. Unsurprisingly, as the year draws to an end, security remains a talking point in Apple's case.

Let's start with the good news, first. Apple has pushed an update for OS X 10.10 Yosemite, 10.9.5 Mavericks, and 10.8.5 Mountain Lion, seemingly for the first time, to quickly fix a critical vulnerability discovered in NTP (Network Time Protocol), a protocol which is widely used to synchronize device clocks with dedicated servers. Normally, OS X updates are not applied automatically, but this one is apparently so critical that it is.

This is a vulnerability for which publicly-available exploits exist. And it can be exploited remotely, which makes patching it an even more pressing matter. It can lead to malicious code being executed with NTP-level privileges, in case you are wondering.

The vulnerability, discovered by Google and detailed by the US government on December 19, is not Apple's own doing, but it affects millions of Macs, judging by the operating systems which Apple wants patched. The short amount of time it has taken Apple to come up with a fix is, quite frankly, a good sign, hopefully for things to come as well.

It is also a good sign that Apple is looking to get ahead of the problem, before it becomes one -- there are no known exploits at this stage, according to Apple spokesperson Bill Evans. What's more, the patch is applied without having to restart, which makes it extremely effective and convenient to apply.

Now, let's move on to the bad news. Apple devices equipped with Thunderbolt ports are susceptible to a bootkit infection, that can be performed by a so-called "evil-maid" using an available Thunderbolt port. It modifies the EFI firmware, is said to be resistant to removal, and can spread by infecting other Thunderbolt devices.

Because the EFI firmware is not overwritten when the operating system is reinstalled, nor is it user-accessible, any modifications that the bootkit makes will be preserved. The bootkit is able to achieve such results by circumventing cryptographic signature checks, using a Thunderbolt Option ROM, in Apple's EFI firmware update routines.

Trammell Hudson, the person who uncovered this problem with Apple's EFI, alleges that the only way to restore the stock firmware is by using a hardware in-system-programming device. What's more, the bootkit can be designed so it can only be replaced with a private key, enforced by a possible attacker; Apple's public RSA key that the firmware uses can be replaced. You can read more about how it works by hitting the link in the paragraph above.

Of course, installing such a bootkit hinges on having physical access to a Mac and reusing infected Thunderbolt devices. That's not much of a stretch if we consider work environments, or shared Macs. However, the leveraged Thunderbolt Option ROM vulnerability, which is instrumental to the bootkit's success, can be fixed, according to Hudson. That said, it has remained unpatched for two years, but "the larger issue of Apple's EFI firmware security and secure booting with no trusted hardware is more difficult to fix", adds Hudson.

Is Apple ending 2014 on a high note or not? It's a glass half-full/half-empty type of situation, after all. Personally, I see patching the NTP vulnerability as being more important, at least until 2015 comes along, than a bootkit infection with a "maybe" label next to it.

Image Credit: Brian A Jackson / Shutterstock

HoneyView adds BPG support

Publié: décembre 23, 2014, 3:11pm CET par Mike Williams

HoneyView

Bandisoft has updated its free image viewer HoneyView with support for Fabrice Bellard’s new BPG image format.

BPG (Better Portable Graphics) is an efficient compressed graphics format which can deliver much smaller file sizes than JPG, while also supporting extra features like transparency.

HoneyView 5.08 can convert just about any graphics format to BPG -- WebP, PSD, RAWs and more -- and this worked well for us, typically producing files around half the size of the JPEG equivalent, with no noticeable loss in image quality.

The program also acts as a capable BPG viewer, at least as far as we can tell (there aren’t enough other BPG creators around to run any serious tests).

Elsewhere, there’s new support for viewing GIF comment blocks, as well as the ability to preview a TIFF file within Windows Explorer.

BPG support is the clear highlight here. As hardly anything else can handle the format, it’s mostly of theoretical interest only, but if you’d like to test the new technology for yourself then HoneyView 5.08 is worth the download.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas 2024

Publié: décembre 23, 2014, 1:45pm CET par Ian Barker

Christmas robot

You send a command from your smartphone and your house automatically decorates itself with a holographic Christmas tree complete with decorations and a suitably conifer-like smell.

Sound like science fiction? Maybe, but this is among the predictions by the authors of a new book that looks at how technology is changing our lives and how we do business.

Here are some more of their views on what Christmas might look like in ten years time. As customization capabilities become more sophisticated we'll see more and more things like clothes and shoes being tailor made for the individual. And it could be the end of sending your Christmas gifts through the post. Affordable 3D printing means simply emailing a code to someone so they can create their own present at home.

3D printing will also lead to a new cottage industry of designers simply selling the code needed to print out their products rather than doing their own manufacturing. The authors also predict the growth of a 'sharing economy' which will reduce the number of products we own as we share more details online via Facebook and Twitter. For example, cars or power tools will become shared items, used when and where needed.

For elderly members of the family it might be possible to get a robot companion able to emotionally connect with its owner and play a comprehensive role as a friend and helper.

Because we'll know much more about our friends and family thanks to social media it will be possible to create gift giving algorithms to ensure everyone gets the right present with no risk of someone else buying them the same thing.

As physical products become less valuable their attractiveness as gifts will decline. It will therefore become more common to give services as gifts, things like meals in restaurants or activity days.

If you want to read more about this sort of stuff including predictions for many areas of life, not just Christmas, the book is called iDisrupted by John Straw and Michael Baxter and is available now via Amazon.

Image Credit: Kirill_M / Shutterstock

Icecream PDF Converter extracts text to DOC, ODT, RTF

Publié: décembre 23, 2014, 1:28pm CET par Mike Williams

PDF Convert

Utilities developer Icecream Apps has released Icecream PDF Converter 1.3, extending the program with new text extraction tools.

The program can now extract the text from one or more PDFs, saving it in DOC, ODT, RTF and TXT formats.

(The previous build had an option to save text as HTML. That never worked for us, at all, but it seems to be functional in this release.)

Our first impressions, based on very minimal testing, are mixed. PDF Converter successfully extracted the text from some of our PDFs, even if they’re image-based, thanks to a bundled copy of the open source OCR engine Tesseract. It’s not simply plain text, either: we ran a PDF to DOC conversion and our destination file had correctly bolded headings.

This didn’t quite work as we expected with mixed documents, though – mostly text, with some pictures. The program extracted the text correctly in our test files, but then displayed a sentence or two of binary garbage where the images used to be. That’s not the OCR engine’s fault – the images had no text to extract – but PDF Converter needs a smarter way to handle this situation, perhaps an option to ignore images when you’re only interested in document text.

Fortunately there’s still a lot to like here, with Icecream PDF Converter able to convert PDFs to many image formats, as well as create PDFs from Office documents, images, eBooks and more. It’s also entirely adware-free – unusual for this type of application – and safe to try out, if you’d like to see how it works for you.

North Korea's internet disrupted -- is this the start of a cyber war?

Publié: décembre 23, 2014, 11:03am CET par Ian Barker

Cyber war

North Korea experienced a complete internet outage for several hours last night before links were restored early this morning.

With the North Koreans at the center of the political storm over the Sony hack could this be some form of revenge attack?

Whether or not you believe that the Koreans were behind the Sony episode -- and some security experts like Graham Cluley are sceptical -- the timing of this attack is interesting. It also comes just a day after the leaking of information from South Korea’s nuclear power operator.

There are therefore potentially two sources that would like to make some form of response. Plus North Korea's internet is delivered via China. The Beijing regime has become increasingly frustrated by the rogue state's behavior, so could the Chinese be sending a message?

On the other hand, is this nothing more than hackers carrying out a DDoS attack? "According to public reports, North Korea’s total bandwidth is 2.5 gigabits per second, with a single Internet Service Provider STAR-KP, and a single IP range consisting of 1024 addresses. We routinely see attacks of 10 to 20 gigabits against our commercial clients, with those of 100 gigabits per second no longer uncommon," says Ofer Gayer, security researcher at Incapsula. "Even if North Korea had ten times their publicly reported bandwidth, bringing down their connection to the Internet would not be difficult from a resource or technical standpoint".

By relying on a single service provider and a limited range of IP address North Korea has left itself particularly vulnerable to attack.

At the moment we just don't have enough information to know who is behind this outage -- DDoS attacks are notoriously hard to trace anyway.

In the meantime feel free to discuss your conspiracy theories below.

Photo credit: Thomas Reichhart/Shutterstock

Microsoft's year-end sale delivers big savings on PCs, tablets, and more

Publié: décembre 23, 2014, 10:35am CET par Wayne Williams

Santa

If you’re thinking of treating yourself to a new PC or a Windows tablet, then Microsoft has some special deals that might be of interest. Its end of year sale offers some decent savings on PCs and tablets from the likes of Lenovo, Acer, HP and ASUS.

You can also pick up the HP Stream 7 Signature Edition Tablet for just $99, which is even more of a bargain than it first seems as it comes with Office 365 Personal, which by itself is worth $69.99.

Other deals in the sale include $200 off the price of the Lenovo Flex 2 15 Signature Edition 2 in 1 PC (now $499), $50 off the ASUS VivoTab 8 M81C-B1-MSBK Signature Edition Tablet (now $149), which also comes with Office 365 Personal, and $200 off the cost of the ASUS Transformer Book Flip TP300LA Signature Edition Laptop (now $599).

You can also get $350 off the price of the Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga i7 256GB Signature Edition 2 in 1 PC (now $1299), and $300 off a Razer Blade 256GB Signature Edition Gaming Laptop (now $2,099)

Browse the full range of year-end offers here.

Have you picked up any bargains recently?

Photo Credit: A and N photography / Shutterstock

Samsung planning a mobile payments service to take on Apple Pay

Publié: décembre 23, 2014, 10:05am CET par Barclay Ballard

LoopPay-mobile-payments

Sources indicate that Samsung is lining up its own mobile payments service to launch next year.

ReCode reports that the South Korean firm is in discussions with a payments startup called LoopPay to develop a system that doesn’t require retailers to install any additional hardware.

Apple Pay, which launched earlier this year, and Google Wallet both require extra NFC equipment in order to work in stores.

LoopPay enables consumers to make purchases using either a key fob, electronic card or a specially-designed smartphone case in conjunction with already existing card machines. The company uses its own Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technology to enable transactions to take place safely without the need to swipe a payment card.

A prototype of LoopPay’s payment system has reportedly been developed for use on Samsung smartphones and is believed to utilize the fingerprint identification technology included in the firm’s latest Galaxy release. Apple Pay also uses a similar process to secure its transactions.

LoopPay also plans additional security measures in the future, including the implementation of a process known as tokenization. This would substitute a consumer’s information with a unique placeholder, meaning that a retailer never receives or stores a user’s payment data.

Samsung’s platform would largely mimic a traditional card swipe, which could greatly increase the service’s popularity by ensuring it works in as many locations as possible.

The partnership would also provide a major boost to LoopPay, giving the Burlington, Massachusetts-based startup some mainstream credibility and massively increasing its userbase.

Both LoopPay and Samsung have refused to comment on the speculation and the latest rumors indicate that a collaboration between the two firms is far from being finalized.

Windows and Linux are the same thing

Publié: décembre 23, 2014, 3:25am CET par Brian Fagioli

LinuxWindows

Want to know a secret? Linux-based operating systems and Windows are the same thing -- crazy right? I know! I was shocked to learn this myself, but it is true. They are both a means to run software, called programs. Sure, the types of programs available for each are not identical, but they could be. You see, if developers wanted to, they could write their software for both operating systems. Sadly, Linux has a very small user share in the home, so it is not always financially possible to do so.

Still though, they are the same thing. Well, the same thing to some people at least, admittedly not all. One particular type of software is available for both Windows and Linux-based operating systems, making them the same thing for some -- the web browser. Yes, many home users utilize web browsers, like Chrome and Firefox, for all of their computing needs, so in this sense, Windows and Linux are simply a means for running a web browser, and it doesn't matter which OS they choose.

I use Windows 8.1 and Linux Mint 17.1 a lot nowadays, to do things like write, surf the web, check twitter and other web-based things. Sometimes I boot into Windows, sometimes Mint, but who cares which? I am just going to Chrome anyway. It's all the same thing.

Now, I'm sure many people are yelling at their screens, calling me a moron for a multitude of reasons. For one, it is not really a new idea; Chrome OS (which is Linux!) exists because of this browser-only phenomenon. More importantly though, people should be calling me a moron because not everyone lives in the browser.

Wait, you mean there are people that do careers other than tech-writing? If you read the writings of the average such writer, you would think there is no other field than journalism. This is silly, as the world turns thanks to people that certainly aren't tech writers -- janitors, soldiers, garbage men, doctors, analysts, programmers, graphic artists -- you get the idea. For these people, a Chromebook probably will not do, and a Linux-based operating system probably won't either.

For business, all the good software runs on Windows, right? Yes, actually. So, wait; Windows and Linux are not the same thing? Hell no. Not even close. Linux-based operating system cannot run business essentials like Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop, not to mention the tons of specialized software for various focuses.

So what I am trying to say is, Windows and Linux are the same thing, while also not being the same thing. It depends on who you are and what you do -- a paradox, if you will.

Who are you and what do you do? Tell me in the comments.

Photo Credit: Pressmaster / Shutterstock

Amazon is holding a digital Christmas sale for apps, videos and more

Publié: décembre 23, 2014, 1:42am CET par Alan Buckingham

Fire_HDX_8.9_Horizontal

Holiday shopping is now coming down to the final hours, and many procrastinators out there are still putting off that trip to the store. There is always the option to shop online, but the delivery window is closing quickly. Thankfully there are digital options to grab things for friends, family and even yourself.

Amazon has just the thing for the people just described -- it's a digital sale. Beginning December 24th, the app store will offer a range of games and more all offered for free. The complete bundle totals $220 in value if you were to buy each regularly.

Through December 25th holiday movies and TV shows, as well as children oriented content, will be 50 percent off in the video section. This includes titles like Polar Express, Home Alone and A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Amazon also touts its first ever holiday playlist, which features over 40 songs recently recorded. Plus Prime members now have access to this service, so many other tunes are also available. "In addition, anyone who visits Amazon will be able to listen to a selection of the holiday songs from the All Is Bright playlist, for free, while they shop. Featured as a snowflake and music note at the top of every Amazon page, shoppers can just press play and enjoy through December 25th".

From the 25th through New Year's Kindle books will also be discounted, some up to 85 percent, even popular titles like those from James Patterson.

Books, Amazon states, can be given as gifts to anyone, providing they have an email address. Of course what the retailer would really like is for you to give the gift of Prime to friends and family. Not a bad idea if you're stuck for an idea, but it depends on the recipient.

Gregarius » BetaNews.Com » décembre 23, 2014

Canaux

BetaNews.Com (13 non lus)

Konnichiwa, Mozilla! KDDI Fx0 is first-ever Firefox OS smartphone for Japan

Publié: décembre 23, 2014, 7:00pm CET par Brian Fagioli

BetaNews 2014 -- the top news stories, editorial and guides from the past year

Publié: décembre 23, 2014, 3:50pm CET par Wayne Williams

BetaNews 2014 -- the top news stories, editorials and guides from the past year

Publié: décembre 23, 2014, 3:50pm CET par Wayne Williams

Santa boards a flight to hand out Windows tablets to all

Publié: décembre 23, 2014, 3:36pm CET par Alan Buckingham

Apple's year-end is about security

Publié: décembre 23, 2014, 3:27pm CET par Mihaita Bamburic

HoneyView adds BPG support

Publié: décembre 23, 2014, 3:11pm CET par Mike Williams

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas 2024

Publié: décembre 23, 2014, 1:45pm CET par Ian Barker

Icecream PDF Converter extracts text to DOC, ODT, RTF

Publié: décembre 23, 2014, 1:28pm CET par Mike Williams

North Korea's internet disrupted -- is this the start of a cyber war?

Publié: décembre 23, 2014, 11:03am CET par Ian Barker

Microsoft's year-end sale delivers big savings on PCs, tablets, and more

Publié: décembre 23, 2014, 10:35am CET par Wayne Williams

Samsung planning a mobile payments service to take on Apple Pay

Publié: décembre 23, 2014, 10:05am CET par Barclay Ballard

Windows and Linux are the same thing

Publié: décembre 23, 2014, 3:25am CET par Brian Fagioli

Amazon is holding a digital Christmas sale for apps, videos and more

Publié: décembre 23, 2014, 1:42am CET par Alan Buckingham