Gregarius » BetaNews.Com » février 12, 2015

BetaNews.Com (17 non lus)

When you die Facebook will grant your 'legacy contact' access to your account

Publié: février 12, 2015, 9:37pm CET par Mark Wilson

Have you prepared for the day you die? Let people know if you want to be stuck in a hole in the ground, cremated and scattered in an awkward place, or just left at the side of the road to be picked at by passing foxes? While you may have considered what happens to your lifeless meatsack and your worldly belongings, what about things in the digital realm?

Facebook has just taken a step that will make it easier for a designated loved one to take control of your account. Your 'legacy contact' will be able to set up a memorial to you and download your account archive.

If this sounds of interest, and you're in the US, you're in luck. Facebook is now rolling out the Legacy Contact feature so you can make things easier for those you leave behind when you shuffle, run, leap, or fall off this mortal coil. There's no need to worry about how this contact might sully your memory, as there are limits to what they will be able to do.

Once Facebook is informed of your death, your account can be converted to a memorial page and your chosen contact can add a post at the top of your account. They can also change your profile picture and cover photo, as well as respond to friend requests -- although these would presumably only be coming from people who didn’t know you all that well in the first place.

While the legacy contact can, if you choose to let them, download an archive of your Facebook activity, you can be sure that your private messages will be kept out of sight.

To activate the feature on your account, head to settings and click Security followed by Legacy Contact. You'll be guided through selecting your contact and given the chance to send a message to the person in question. While the feature is starting off in the US, there are plans to roll it out further afield. If you'd like to be left alone after you snuff it, you may prefer to have your account deleted

Photo credit: Lane V. Erickson / Shutterstock
Microsoft launches Windows 10 Technical Preview for Phones

Publié: février 12, 2015, 8:24pm CET par Mark Wilson
The chances are that you have tried out Windows 10 on your computer already and now -- at long last -- you have the opportunity to try it out on your Windows Phone. Windows Insiders can now grab the first public build of Microsoft's latest mobile operating system and try it out for themselves.

Windows Insiders have been eager to see what Microsoft has done with Windows Phone, and earlier today Gabe Aul cryptically hinted at when the first build would be released. Now it has gone live. As with all preview builds, this is far from a completed product, and there are a few caveats to bear in mind.

First of all, there are a very small number of handsets that are eligible to use the preview for now. In fact, there are just six: the Lumia 630, Lumia 638, Lumia 635, Lumia 730, Lumia 636 and Lumia 830 -- but, pleasingly, the preview is available internationally. There's no mention of some of the big hitters like the Lumia 928, 929 and 930 at this stage. If you're wondering why more high-end phones are not included, Microsoft has an explanation:

We have a feature that will be coming soon called 'partition stitching' which will allow us to adjust the OS partition dynamically to create room for the install process to be able to update the OS in-place. Until this comes in, we needed devices which were configured by mobile operators with sufficiently sized OS partitions to allow the in-place upgrade, and many of the bigger phones have very tight OS partitions.

The second thing to keep in mind is that -- as the company points out -- this is the earliest ever public preview for Windows phones. Just as with Windows 10 on the desktop, Microsoft is looking for feedback but warns Windows Insiders that:

You will encounter bugs. You will see experiences that are clearly just not done yet, and UX that lacks polish at this point. DON’T WORRY! It will improve as we go and new features, stability and performance improvements, and more polished UX will come at each step.

So what's new? In addition to a (somewhat) seamless experience when moving from the desktop to a phone handset, and the ability to work with universal apps on both platforms, Windows 10 Technical Preview for phones boasts:
- Full-size Background Image for Start: We believe phones should be intensely personal -- so we’ve added another option to customize the start screen with a full-size background image.
- More Quick Actions in Action Center: We’ve increased the number of quick actions available to you. Windows Phone 8.1 has four programmable quick actions -- but with Windows 10 you also get an expanded view that can now have up to three rows.
- Interactive Notifications: Notifications are now interactive, allowing you to take action directly like dismissing an alarm, or seeing images for maps. For example, for text messages, when the toast pops, you can quickly reply inline via text or voice.
- Significantly enhanced speech-to-text capability: You can talk to virtually any data field you choose. Your words show up as you speak them – and punctuation appears automatically. This feature is smart enough to understand when to use 'two' -- the number -- instead of 'too' as in 'also'.
- More powerful Photos app: From your very first launch, Photos will show the aggregated set of all your local photos and all your OneDrive photos
There's a lot missing at this stage, and there's clearly a lot of work still to do, but this is the preview that people have been asking for. There are a lot of known issues, but they're being worked on, and new builds will follow in the coming weeks and months.

Introducing this first build in a blog post, Aul explains how to get hold of Windows 10 Technical Preview for phones:
- Join the Windows Insider Program
- Register your device to receive builds as over the air updates
- Builds will come to you automatically as they are ready, after being validated by engineers at Microsoft and used on their own phones
- Use the built-in Windows Feedback app to send us problem reports and suggestions
- Updates will continue all the way up to the final build that goes out to all customers
- You can roll your phone back to the previous OS any time you'd like
So... fire up your Windows Phone and head on over to the Windows Insider website. Joe Belfiore shows off some of what you have to look forward to in a specially-produced video:
SMath Studio: Like Mathcad, only free

Publié: février 12, 2015, 4:57pm CET par Mike Williams

It used to be feeble in the extreme, but these days Windows Calculator is a relatively capable tool. With its Scientific mode, statistics and other options, it can handle most of the math that the average user will ever need.

Of course, if you’re not an average user -- if you’re regularly running complex scientific or engineering calculations -- then it’s a different story. You’ll need something far more powerful, maybe along the lines of the free SMath Studio.

The program arrives as a ridiculously small installer, under 2MB, and we wondered if it would download everything else. But no: even when installed it takes up a mere 3.6MB of drive space, and more than half of that is supporting files (examples, documentation, languages and more).

Although it’s aimed very much at engineers and scientists, the program can be immediately useful to anyone. Just click anywhere on the paper-like interface, type a simple math expression -- 2+2= -- and as soon as you hit the equals key, the answer appears.

You can do that anywhere, but one immediate SMath plus is that it displays what you’re typing using the appropriate mathematical notation, rather than just a string of characters.

The program also supports just about every function you could ever need, and plenty you won’t. To try that out, type Sin. As soon as you press "S", SMath pops up a list of everything it thinks you might want to type. Sure enough there’s sin and sinh, but you also get sec and sech, sqrt, solve(2), solve(4), submatrix, sum(1), sum(4), and a host of measurement units, amongst other things (Angstrom, BTU, byte, dB, deg, dpi, dyne and more).

SMath Studio can also solve differential equations, run calculations on matrices and vectors, find roots of polynomials and functions, handle hyperbolics, complex numbers and trigonometry, even run simple programs, displaying graphics, working with strings and files.

Assorted plugins help you do much more. Bundled examples extend the program to work with images, plot graphs, maybe save the results as images or HTML.

There’s a lot to learn, but SMath Studio provides several examples to get you started. Click Tools > Snippet Manager > Examples and double-click anything interesting to take a look.
Antivirus tools miss almost 70 percent of malware within the first hour

Publié: février 12, 2015, 4:36pm CET par Ian Barker

Threat protection company Damballa has released its latest State of Infections report for the fourth quarter of 2014 which highlights the limitations of a prevention-focused approach to security.

The report finds that within the first hour of submission, AV products missed nearly 70 percent of malware. Further, when rescanned to identify malware signatures, only 66 percent were identified after 24 hours, and after seven days the total was 72 percent. It took more than six months for AV products to create signatures for 100 percent of new malicious files.

This has an impact on containment and raises the risk that at any time there may be live infections on a network. The report also highlights the importance of automating manual processes and decreasing the noise from false positives to make the most of skilled security manpower, rather than trawling through uncorroborated alerts to find the true infections.

In order to reduce manual efforts, Damballa advises that security teams must have automatic detection of actual infections able to reach a statistical threshold of confidence in a true positive infection. They also need integration between detection and response systems, and policies that enable automated response based on a degree of confidence.

"What's clear from these figures is that we have to turn the table on infection 'dwell' time. In much that same way that a flu vaccine hinges on making 'best-guess' decisions about the most prevalent virus strains -- AV is only effective for some of the people some of the time. Viruses morph and mutate and new ones can appear in the time it takes to address the most commonly found malware", says Brian Foster CTO of Damballa. "Dependence on prevention tools simply isn't enough in this new age of advanced malware infections; attackers can morph malware code on a whim, yet organizations have a finite number of staff to deal with the barrage of noise generated from security alerts. We urge taking a fresh 'breach-readiness' approach, which reduces dependence on people and legacy prevention tools".

The full report is available to download from the Damballa website.

Image Credit: Sergey Nivens / Shutterstock
Microsoft adds more depth to Office Online

Publié: février 12, 2015, 4:15pm CET par Mihaita Bamburic

Office Online is great for creating simple documents, presentations and spreadsheets, as well as doing some light editing, while maintaining compatibility with the full-blown version of Office. The web suite may not be as powerful, and that's fine. Not everyone needs the most advanced features that Office has to offer.

Still, Microsoft has been working hard on improving Office Online, to make it even more powerful and refined. The latest update, which is available now, adds more depth to the features offered by the web suite.

Microsoft has focused on expanding the functionality that Office Online already offers, so that explains why there are no new major features in the mix. Let's take a look at what's new.

Those of you who like to print from Word Online will be pleased to know that you are no longer required to download files locally; the web app adds support for direct printing now.

Microsoft tweaked the Reading View toolbar to make commands like Edit, Print and Share immediately available, and make tools like Download and Translate easier to locate.

The Save As menu is more powerful now, letting you choose where to save files and what to name them, rename files, download copies, and download files as PDFs.

From the Office Online toolbar you can now also easily add files to OneDrive. Microsoft explains that this feature can be helpful when, for instance, you want to edit a locked file -- just save it to your OneDrive and make the changes you want. Click on Add to OneDrive, choose the location and hit Save to take advantage of it.

The latest update to Office Online is also touted to be designed to let you start editing much faster. You can quickly create documents with a certain template, directly navigate to your most-recently used files, and see more OneDrive files.

The proofreading service is improved, and there is also a new highlighted word count feature, which works for the whole documents as well as specific sections you select.

Last but not least, Tell Me, the Office Online help tool, now integrates the ? help icon. Just type in the Tell Me box to get the information you're looking for.

Head over to Office Online to experience all the latest changes now.
Web app self-service reduces support queries and cuts costs

Publié: février 12, 2015, 3:47pm CET par Ian Barker

Last year we looked at how supplier of point-and-click answer technology AnswerDash was integrating its software with the Zendesk help centre system.

Now the company has released performance stats from its customers which show that self-service technology can cut support costs by an average of $20k a year.

The technology can also boost conversion rates by up to 85 percent and reduce support ticket volume by 60 percent.

By providing a first line of defense for handling customer questions Answerdash can reduce the volume of incoming support inquiries requiring human assistance and allow customers to get answers at their point-of-action where they are most likely to complete a purchase.

"We calculated AnswerDash's impact on support ticket reduction across our early customer base and examined the average support cost savings, revealing a substantial $20K average cost reduction across all verticals. AnswerDash provides the biggest impact for SaaS customers, with a $32K average cost reduction", says Jake Wobbrock, founder and CEO of AnswerDash. "By answering common and frequently asked questions, AnswerDash reduces support ticket volume by up to 60 percent, allowing businesses to grow without a huge support investment".

A separate analysis across eight customers revealed that companies which had implemented AnswerDash witnessed double-digit increases in sales conversion rates, averaging around 30 percent increases.

For example PetHub experienced a 24.9 percent increase in sales conversion rate and also a 67 percent reduction in customer support tickets. Similarly after implementing AnswerDash, TireBuyer saw an 13 percent increase in revenue per visitor by deploying AnswerDash in the checkout process.

You can find out more about how AnswerDash works and see interactive demos on the company's website.

Photo Credit: sheelamohanachandran2010/Shutterstock
Hacker finds vulnerability in Facebook, can delete your photo albums

Publié: février 12, 2015, 2:15pm CET par Alan Buckingham

Like it or not, Facebook has become almost ubiquitous in today's world. Most people you know, both young and old, are on there. Worse, some folks keep memories of their lives stored on the service, including precious photos that, in some cases, may not be backed up in any way. It feels safe, after all, Facebook wouldn't lose them, right? Not so fast.

This is less about Facebook losing them, I'm sure it has backups, but more about a third-party taking them away. That sounds scary, but a security researcher has proven it's possible. Laxman Muthiyah posted his findings along with details of how the exploit works.

Essentially he utilized the Graph API to accomplish both deletion of his own album and then that of a "victim". Though Facebook claims this isn't possible, it is quite the opposite case and proof is posted for everyone to see. The token generated should only grant limited access, however generating a token for the mobile version of the social network changed things.

"The album got deleted! So i got the key to delete all of your Facebook photos", Muthiya calmly states. Of course he won't do this, he's only proving a point. But that point should be acted upon quickly by the service because, now that it's out there, someone will certainly begin using it "just for fun", right?

Well, no. Fortunately, it has been fixed, so the need to worry about this is no longer a concern. Facebook also awarded Mr. Muthiyah $12,500 for finding the flaw. Kudos for acting quickly.

Photo credit: 1000 Words / Shutterstock
PingView is a versatile network monitor

Publié: février 12, 2015, 1:59pm CET par Mike Williams

Managing networks is a tedious, time-consuming business, and if your needs are simple then it might be best not to bother. If a network device goes offline, so what? You can just deal with any problems as they crop up.

If several others are using your network, though, you might want to take a more proactive approach, and keep an eye on your hardware. Enter PingView, a free tool for monitoring selected devices -- or domains -- and checking they’re still online.

The program is portable, making it easier to use from anywhere on your network. Just unzip the download and go.

PingView opens with the Ping Collection Creation Wizard, which scans your network for available devices. Accept its default settings, it quickly finds any network devices, and clicking "Create" builds the collection.

The main interface then displays a list of any discovered devices. You can select any of these to display a little more data -- MAC address, device name maybe -- although there’s nothing like the detail you’d see with a full network scanner (device type, manufacturer, services available etc).

Right-clicking in the collection pane and selecting "Add Target" allows you to add additional devices, IP addresses or domains.

The Options > Collection Properties dialog gives control over details like ping frequency and timeout.

Once you’re ready to go, clicking Actions > Start launches the monitoring process.(You can also press F1, slightly bizarrely. PingView’s developer pays no attention to keyboard shortcut conventions.)

PingView checks each device every 30 seconds (by default), highlighting anything which is inaccessible, and displaying response times and other information for working devices.

Right-clicking individual devices displays further options to view graphs of ping times, open a browser window at that IP address, and more.

PingView has some quirks and irritations. For example, by default the program is set up to play a sound when a device becomes unavailable. And it comes with four WAV files, representing various device states. But those audio files aren’t linked to the events, so for this to work you must manually go to Options > Collection Properties > Sound and set them up yourself.

Still, once you’ve done that, it’s no longer an issue. And by way of compensation, PingView does offer some interesting advanced features. In particular, remote access allows one instance of PingView to share its collection with another, enabling you to see the status of network devices even if they’re behind a firewall and maybe inaccessible from your current location.

On balance, we think PingView’s portability and bonus extras (like the ability to monitor domains instead of devices) are enough to justify the download. But be prepared to spend an extra five minutes figuring out the interface before it’s all working correctly.
Remembering Radio Shack

Publié: février 12, 2015, 12:46pm CET par Robert X. Cringely

With Radio Shack having declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with hundreds of stores closing and others possibly becoming Sprint locations, let’s take a moment to look back at the important contributions the company made in the early days of personal computing.

Charles Tandy started the Tandy Leather Company which opened hundreds of little shops in the 1950s selling kits for consumers to make their own tooled leather belts, for example. I made one in 1959, burning my name into the belt with a soldering iron. As leather craft faded as a hobby and electronics boomed many of those Tandy Leather stores became Radio Shacks (but not all -- a few leather stores survive even today). Radio Shack stores always had the advantage of proximity balanced by higher prices. If you needed a part or two you drove down to Radio Shack but if you had a bunch of electronic parts to buy there was generally some cheaper store across town.

Even today you can buy a $35 Raspberry Pi computer from the Raspberry Pi Foundation or a $121 Raspberry Pi kit from Radio Shack. No wonder the Shack is in trouble.

Just as Jack Tramiel’s Commodore rode the 1970’s handheld calculator boom, Radio Shack rode that decade’s even bigger CB Radio boom. But as each boom faded the two companies had to find the Next Big Thing, so they both turned to personal computers.

Radio Shack found its salvation in Steve Leininger, an employee at Paul Terrell’s Byte Shop in Mountain View where the original Apple 1s were sold. Leininger designed the TRS-80 that was to become, from 1978-82, the fastest selling computer in the world -- bigger at the time than even the Apple II. The barebones TRS-80 cost $199.95 in a pretty much unusable form and about $1800 completely tricked out. The TRS-80 was fabulously successful.

Not so successful but equally important to computer history was Radio Shack’s answer to the IBM PC, the Model 2000, which appeared in the fall of 1983. The Model 2000 was intended to beat the IBM PC with twice the speed, more storage, and higher-resolution graphics. The trick was its more powerful processor, the Intel 80186, which could run rings around IBM’s old 8088.

Because Tandy had its own distribution through 5,000 Radio Shack stores and through a chain of Tandy Computer Centers, the company thought for a long time that it was somehow immune to the influence of the IBM PC standard. The TRS-80, after all, was a proprietary design and a huge success. Tandy thought of their trusty Radio Shack customers as Albanians who would loyally shop at the Albanian Computer Store, no matter what was happening in the rest of the world. Alas, it was not to be so.

Bill Gates was a strong believer in the Model 2000 because it was the only mass market personal computer powerful enough to run new software from Microsoft called Windows without being embarrassingly slow. For Windows to succeed, Bill Gates needed a computer like the Model 2000 available everywhere. So young Bill, who handled the Tandy account himself, predicted that the computer would be a grand success -- something the boys and girls at Tandy HQ in Fort Worth wanted badly to hear. And Gates made a public endorsement of the Model 2000, hoping to sway customers and promote Windows as well.

Still, the Model 2000 failed miserably. Nobody gave a damn about Windows 1, which didn’t appear until 1985, and even then didn’t work well. The computer wasn’t hardware compatible with IBM. It wasn’t very software compatible with IBM either, and the most popular IBM PC programs -- the ones that talked directly to the PC’s memory and so worked faster than those that allowed the operating system to do the talking for them -- wouldn’t work at all. Even the signals from the keyboard were different from IBM’s, which drove software developers crazy and was one of the reasons that only a handful of software houses produced 2000-specific versions of their products.

Today the Model 2000 is considered the magnum opus of Radio Shack marketing failures. Worse, a Radio Shack computer buyer in his last days with the company for some reason ordered 20,000 more of the systems built even when it was apparent they weren’t selling. Tandy eventually sold 5,000 of those systems to itself, placing one in each Radio Shack store to track inventory. Some leftover Model 2000s were still in the warehouse in early 1990, almost seven years later.

Still, the Model 2000’s failure was Bill Gates’s gain. Windows 1 was a failure, but the head of Radio Shack’s computer division, Jon Shirley, the very guy who’d been duped by Bill Gates into doing the Model 2000 in the first place, sensed that his position in Fort Worth was in danger and joined Microsoft as president in 1983.

While Radio Shack still sells computers (at least for a few weeks longer) the company’s computer heyday peaked around 1980 -- 35 years ago.

Mobile phones offered the company a lifeline over the past decade but the positioning was all wrong. Those 1000+ Radio Shack stores that are rumored to be going to Sprint, for example, will represent the primary point of retail contact between the wireless carrier and subscribers valued by Wall Street at more than $2000 each. Sprint has far more to gain from each Radio Shack location it takes over than Tandy could ever have hoped to get from selling us batteries and speaker wire.

Where Radio Shack could no longer operate a profitable enough business in the age of Amazon Prime, for Sprint there’s still real value in neighborhood locations.
The kill switch works! Smartphone theft drops in major US, UK cities

Publié: février 12, 2015, 11:43am CET par Sead Fadilpašić

Smartphone theft in some of the major cities in the US and the UK has declined dramatically, so say the authorities.

But it's not because of improved law enforcement, it's actually down to manufacturers implementing a kill switch option, allowing smartphones to be deactivated remotely.

London saw a drop in smartphone thefts by 50 percent, San Francisco by 40 percent, and New York by 25 percent, said authorities on Tuesday.

"We have made real progress in tackling the smartphone theft epidemic that was affecting many major cities just two years ago", said London Mayor Boris Johnson.

Senior politicians of these cities started a joint campaign back in 2013, asking manufacturers to introduce a kill switch to their devices, saying that tens of thousands of devices are being stolen every month.

Only in London, as the mayor said, 10,000 handsets are stolen every month.

Apple was the first to react, adding a "lock phone" feature to its Find my iPhone app in 2013, followed by Microsoft and Google, who had announced, in July 2014, a similar feature.

California is about to implement a new law that would force manufacturers to implement a kill switch feature. The initiative has gotten wide support from California prosecutors and law enforcement agencies.

"The wireless industry continues to roll out sophisticated new features, but preventing their own customers from being the target of a violent crime is the coolest technology they can bring to market", said San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon.

Photo Credit: The To/Shutterstock
Here are 10 awesome apps for Valentine's Day

Publié: février 12, 2015, 11:30am CET par Barclay Ballard

The most romantic day of the year is almost upon us, but there's no reason for any man or woman to tackle Valentine's Day alone, as there are a whole host of apps to help you safely navigate the swathes of balloons, chocolates and rose petals.

So, without further ado, here are 10 of the best apps for Valentine's Day.

Tinder

Those of you without a date for the big day needn't fear as there's an easily accessible trough of singletons to be found on Tinder.

The matchmaking software was originally launched in 2012 and now boasts more than 20 million members. Those kinds of numbers should mean there's something for everyone, but you might want to get swiping now as Valentine's Day is fast approaching.

Love Quotes

If you do manage to secure a hot date but are worried about fluffing your lines, then perhaps Love Quotes is for you.

The app is simple enough, offering a selection of romantic phrases that range from cheesy to creepy to fit any situation. Just as a disclaimer, this one is probably best for long-term couples as a first date is not the best time to say: "If I had to choose between breathing and loving you I would use my last breath to tell you I love you".

OpenTable

Valentine's Day is one of the busiest days of the year for the restaurant industry, so finding a venue that's not fully booked can be a pain.

However, OpenTable provides online reservations at approximately 31,000 upscale restaurants across the globe, so you should be able to find somewhere nearby to suit you. What's more, the app lets you filter by price, so whether it's a cheap date or an expensive one, OpenTable has you covered.

Ocado

If eating out isn't for you, then why not try a romantic home-cooked meal for two?

Ocado will deliver everything straight to your door and also comes with a low-price guarantee, so if your shop comes to more than it would at Tesco, you'll receive a money-off voucher covering the difference.

The app also has a special Valentine's Day section, offering deals across flowers, chocolate and champagne.

Couple

Instead of clogging up your friend' social media feeds on V-day, download Couple, so no one else has to see you proclaim: "I wuv u" or "you complete me".

Couple allows you to connect just with your partner privately and lets you share to-do lists, calendars and photos and even experience a ThumbKiss.

Kamasutra Sex Positions Guide

If things start getting a little racy but you've used up all your best moves already, simply tell your partner to wait a second while you check your Kamasutra Sex Positions app.

The free version comes with 30 positions, but once you've mastered them you can switch to the paid version to unlock more. The app also comes with a progress bar letting you know which positions you've tried and how often.

Hotel Tonight

Spontaneity can add some much needed spice to a relationship, so why not decide to book a last-minute hotel-stay for Valentine’s Day.

Hotel Tonight lets you see which venues are offering the best discounts on their empty rooms and the easy three-swipe process lets you book a getaway in less than 10 seconds.

Date Escape

Sometimes it's best to cut your losses and for anyone stuck in a date from Hell this Valentine’s Day, Date Escape lets you do just that.

Upon request, the app bombards your phone with fake texts and phone calls so you can more easily make your excuses and launch a speedy getaway.

Valentine’s Day Fun Facts

Nothing says, "You’re single" like downloading the Valentine’s Day Fun Facts app, but who needs romance when you've got useless trivia?

Plus, once you've absorbed all these interesting facts, you're sure to be a hit with the opposite sex, because anyone who knows that "the first Valentine gift was sent by the Duke of Orleans to his wife, after he was captured in 1415", is sure to be an interesting date.

Fingle

First dates can be awkward at the best of times, but Fingle looks to break the ice by getting you to explore the intimate touch of each other's fingers.

The two-player game will require you to come into close proximity with the other participant, so you might want to make sure those palms are dry.

However, the game’s creators admit that this might not be for everyone, as it could help kick-start an evening or make things "awkwardly close".

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

Image Credit: Naypong / Shutterstock
Microsoft enigmatically reveals release date for Windows 10 for phones

Publié: février 12, 2015, 10:44am CET par Mark Wilson

The Windows Phone Windows Insider App was recently updated, indicating that a mobile build of Windows 10 is imminent -- but when? Answering questions from eager users on Twitter, Microsoft's Gabriel Aul has given some cryptic hints about when the first preview of the successor to Windows Phone 8.1 will be launched.

Over the last few months Microsoft has been popping out new builds of Windows 10 left, right and center. While we now have a pretty good idea of how things are going to look and feel on the desktop, the same cannot be said of mobiles and tablets.

Of course it would be far too simple to just come out with an actual release date, so Gabe decided to tease Twitter users a little. Rather than answering queries about the release date directly, he chose to wind people up by answering in mysterious terms. If you want to know when you can get your hands on a mobile build, you'll have to solve a puzzle.

Make of it what you will, but the release date is somehow wrapped up in the clue 1316:

@callum90ish I love the creative ways you guys try to squeeze me :-) How about a puzzle? This is a REAL answer if you can solve it: 1316

— Gabriel Aul (@GabeAul) February 12, 2015

Joe Belfiore had already made it clear that we should expect a release in February, but no date was pinned down:

Also, we're on track for Insider build coming "in Feb" as Terry said at our 1/21 event. We need to complete internal testing 1st, hang in!

— joebelfiore (@joebelfiore) February 8, 2015

Gabe himself, in response to numerous guesses at the date, caved in a confirmed that we can expect to see the release this month, but would not go into any more detail:

@dey_ritwick All I can say today is "in February". When it comes out, we'll see who gets it right. No one has solved puzzle so far though

— Gabriel Aul (@GabeAul) February 12, 2015

So... start guessing! It seems that no one has managed to pin down the release date precisely yet -- or at least Aul is not saying as much -- but there's only a couple of weeks to wait at the most now.

Update

It's out now!
Watch the 2015 Cricket World Cup on Roku, India and others compete for the title

Publié: février 12, 2015, 5:58am CET par Alan Buckingham

Sports fans can rejoice, providing they prefer Cricket at least. The event may seem foreign to US viewers, but to much of the world it is a big deal, and the world cup is something special. If you are looking to catch all of the action then Roku has your back covered.

The tournament kicks off on February 13th and runs through most of March. The event is being held in Australia and New Zealand, but teams from around the world will compete. Things start with Sri Lanka pitted against New Zealand, a match that takes place at 5pm ET on opening day.

"We’re proud to be the only connected-TV device that’s featuring the ESPN Cricket World Cup. Can’t make it to Australia and New Zealand? Now you don’t have to miss the action! Roku customers in the U.S. can stream the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 on their big screen from the comfort of their couch", says Steve Shannon on Roku.

As you likely guessed, this isn't free. You'll need to pony up $99 to watch the event. However, in exchange you get "access to live and on-demand coverage of all 49 matches in the quadrennial tournament in the world’s second most popular sport, direct from ESPN". According to Roku, that is over 390 hours of Cricket. Get your caffeine ready.
Get organized with sChecklist's 'to do' manager

Publié: février 12, 2015, 4:09am CET par Mike Williams

Task management software should be all about making you more productive, saving you time, but it doesn't always work out that way. Especially if the software is so complex that you waste most of your time just trying to figure out how it works.

SChecklist isn't that kind of package. You won't spend an age figuring out how to set up sub-tasks, time requirements, dependencies or web sync because it can't do any of that. It's just about creating lists of item names, with checkboxes, and there's absolutely nothing else.

Unsurprisingly, the program is extremely simple to use, right from the beginning. There's no installation, just unzip it into a folder and you get a single EXE which should run on anything from Windows XP up.

The interface has two panes. Your checklists appear on the left, and you can create as many as you need in a click or two.

Select a list and you're able to add as many items as you need. The standard ways of doing this are a little cumbersome (click an Add button, type a name, click OK , or double-click an empty line, type a name and press Enter), but sChecklist also has more convenient clipboard support. If you already have a list in Notepad, Excel or anywhere else, just copy and paste it here and it's ready for immediate use.

Once you're set up, there's very little else to do. Check a box once that item is complete; maybe change the sort order for long lists (move checked items to the top or bottom); save a list as text if you'd like to use it elsewhere, or just delete it when you’re done.

If you need the program to always be available then you’ll also appreciate its ability to minimize to the system tray (this has to be enabled from the Options dialog).

SChecklist has no fancy features, but that’s only because it's focusing on core "to do" list basics, and in general it does that very well. If you need a simple to-do manager which works anywhere, online or off, then give it a try.
Microsoft Office 365 free to all New York City Public School students and teachers

Publié: février 12, 2015, 3:02am CET par Brian Fagioli

I'm going to let you in on a secret. Ever hear of Microsoft Office? Of course you have. Well, learning it is essential for success in a business environment. I'm not just talking about word processing, but spreadsheets, presentations and more -- Microsoft's software is the best. Sure, the average student can get by with Google Docs on a Chromebook or Libreoffice, but guess what? Formal education ends eventually. Software that is "good enough" just won't cut it in the working world.

Today, all New York City Public School students and teachers gain access to this important software, as Microsoft Office 365 is being given to them for free. Yes, you are reading that right -- every teacher and student for free. This is a huge win for Microsoft, the students and the teachers. More importantly, however, it is a win for society, as future members of the workforce will be better prepared for success.

"In collaboration with the City Council, the New York City Department of Education is making the Office 365 ProPlus benefit available to all teachers and students -- at no cost -- providing them with up to five downloads of the latest versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access and Publisher, along with anywhere, anytime access to OneDrive cloud storage. Students and teachers can also download Office to 5 additional mobile devices (smartphones or tablets)", says Anthony Salcito, VP Worldwide Public Sector Education, Microsoft.

Salcito further explains, "with the program, educators can access full Office on up to five PCs or Macs and can unlock the editing capabilities of Office apps for iPad. They can also take advantage of great Office apps and add-ins like Office Mix to record and publish class lectures. With tools like Lync, the students in NYC can communicate with other classrooms around the world, and collaborate instantaneously. And with OneNote, teachers can share lesson plans, class notes, photos, and ideas on any device, accessible from anywhere".

It is important to remember that when you get a job with a company, you don't typically get to pick the operating system or software that you use. If you're a Linux or OS X user that loves Libreoffice, tough luck; you use what the company gives you, and that is more than likely to be Microsoft's Windows and Office. You know who will succeed? Those that are proficient at both.

If your boss needs to create pivot tables or use complicated formulas in Excel, you had better know Excel and not an imitator. Proficiency in Microsoft Office on Windows is a skill employers want to see.

What do you think of this news? Tell me in the comments.

Photo Credit: Vadim Georgiev / Shutterstock
Amazing! Apple wins the smartwatch wars without ever shipping a device!

Publié: février 12, 2015, 1:49am CET par Joe Wilcox
That is the only takeaway from today's brutal bias assault against Android Wear. Canalys reports half-year 2014 shipments of 720,000, and the Apple-loving free press categorizes the number as a failure. Meanwhile, the analyst firm boasts that "All eyes are now on Apple, which will reveal further details about the Apple Watch prior to its release in April". Not mine. Are yours?

Over at Wall Street Journal, Rolfe Winkler begins his hatchet piece with: "It's been a slow start for Google’s smartwatches". The search and information giant doesn't sell any of the devices, developing the underlying platform. Nitpicking aside, he ridiculously writes: "Apple sold roughly 114 million iPhones over the same period. That means Apple sold almost as many iPhones each day as makers of Android smartwaches sold over the six months". Oh yeah?

Apples to Coffee

According to Starbucks, 60 million people visit its stores each week. Assuming that only 40 million buy coffee, then the company sells more cups of Joe in three weeks than Apple sold iPhones during the previous six months. There you go! Case closed! iPhone is a failure. You can bitch nay in comments, but the measure of coffee to iPhones makes about as much sense as comparison to smartwatches. They are quite different categories.

What would make a bit more sense is Android Wear to iPhone during summer 2007, when the device was, like Google-powered smartwatches in 2014, a new category. By that reckoning, the original iPhone reached 1 million units in about 74 days. If that's your measure of failure, fair enough. But consider this: Canalys claims Moto 360 is the Android Wear market share leader, but the smartwatch's sales started in early September, selling out almost immediately.

Winkler quotes Canalys analyst Daniel Matte: "Android Wear is not very good", then paraphrases about poor battery life. That's a category-wide problem, by the way, although in his press statement Matte claims: "Apple made the right decisions with its WatchKit software development kit to maximize battery life for the platform, and the Apple Watch will offer leading energy efficiency". Based on what disclosed facts? If as widely rumored, expected charge lasts as much as 19 hours. Consider this: Gizmodo published a review of Sony's newest Android Wear today, finding that the "SmartWatch 3 routinely nets over 48 hours". Forty-eight is less than 19 in what universe?

I know. I know. You may feel a little uneasy comparing smartwatch to smartwatch and actually discussing the type for which Canalys reports shipments. But, hey, not everything in life is about Apple or compares to iPhone.

Something else to ponder: Categorization. Canalys' numbers make Android Wear devices look less than they really are. That 720,000 is from a pool of 4.5 million. Except—and someone correct me, if I am mistaken—Canalys lumps together timepieces and fitness gadgets, calling the category "smart wearable bands". Or did I miss something, and the 1 million Xiaomi Mi Bands shipped tell time and run smart apps? Combining two marginally-related device categories gives Android Wear about 16 percent market share, creating even more negative perceptions about its success—or seemingly lack of it.

Apple's Bitches

Now, it's a little unfair to single out WSJ, so who else swung the hatchet in the most irresponsible manner?
- BGR: "Almost nobody wants an Android Wear watch right now"
- CNET: "Android Wear gadgets not a big hit..."
- re/code: "Android Watch Sales Are Running Slow"
- SlashGear: "Apple Watch may have already beaten Android Wear"
That last story is excellent segue to the idea that, based on Canalys' presentation of the data and media-bias giving the fruit-logo company millions of dollars in free publicity, that Apple's timepiece wins the smartwatch wars without ever shipping. It's just too fraking strange for my sensibilities, since there's presumption Apple Watch will be better based on nothing more than conjuncture, while misrepresenting the success of the early-to-market leaders—and the group is much larger than Android Wear devices; Pebble, anyone?

Common sense news reporting may wane, but it's not gone. Take a look at Andrew Cunningham's ArsTechnica headline: "Android Wear sales: Bad compared to phones, OK compared to other watches". He writes: "These numbers are decidedly unimpressive when considered next to smartphone sales numbers...but by smartwatch standards, the Wear ecosystem is collectively doing OK". That's quite a bit better than bad.

Common Sense

Journalist peer Kevin Toffel's Google+ post brought this total news reporting mind-frak to my attention. He writes:

Bit ludicrous to compare recent iPhone sales—a market that's been around for 8 years now—to the first 6 months of Android Wear sales. I might have taken the article seriously had that not happened. Folks: Smartwatches are accessories. Not everyone wants or needs them. In fact, I'm not sure we've decided what an optimal smartwatch should even do.

He absolutely is right. So what? If Apple Watch sells 1 million units in, say, 24 hours, will fruit-logo crusaders call that a success by comparing to Android Wear while ignoring the iPhone matchup? You can't have it both ways; if the Google platform underperforms compared to iPhone than so must Apple Watch if the numbers are any less than the handset.

So there you go. Maybe Apple Watch is a loser instead. Because the Wall Street Journal and many other blogs and news sites have set the measure of success as 6 months of iPhone sales.
All smart home security systems are insecure

Publié: février 12, 2015, 12:35am CET par Sead Fadilpašić

Every "smart" security device in your home is vulnerable, a new study suggests.

Results of a security testing study conducted by tech giant HP show that 100 percent of the studied devices used in home security contain significant vulnerabilities, including password security, encryption and authentication issues.

Home security systems, such as video cameras and motion detectors, have gained popularity as they have joined the booming Internet of Things (IoT) market and have grown in convenience.

Manufacturers are quickly bringing to market connected security systems that deliver remote monitoring capabilities. The network connectivity and access necessary for remote monitoring presents new security concerns that did not exist for the previous generation of systems that have no internet connectivity.

The most common and easily addressable security issues reported include insufficient authorization, insecure interfaces, privacy concerns and a lack of transport encryption.

The study questions whether the devices make our homes safer, or more vulnerable.

"As we continue to embrace the convenience and availability of connected devices, we must understand how vulnerable they could make our homes and families", said HP’s Jason Schmitt.

"With ten of the top security systems lacking fundamental security features, consumers must be diligent about adopting simple and practical security measures when they're available, and device manufacturers must take ownership in building security into their products to avoid exposing their customers unknowingly to serious threats", adds Schmitt.

As companies push to incorporate much needed security measures, consumers are advised to be extra vigilant when deciding to go for a smart security system for their home.

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

Photo Credit: bahri altay/Shutterstock