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• 

  Future cars to be seen as 'a big moving mobile device'

  Publié: juin 10, 2015, 7:33pm CEST par Sead Fadilpašić

  

  As smart cars enter the mainstream, carmakers will have to work out a way to properly collaborate with start-ups, which means they have to start thinking like one.

  That was the general conclusion of a TechCrunch/TechNode Shanghai panel when Juergen Bauer, who manages the Audi-Tongji Joint Lab in Shanghai, asked a panel of representatives from car companies about how the auto industry can handle the transition.

  This could trigger a "fight of the titans", Tech Crunch writes in a report, as automakers and tech giants like Apple, Google, and Samsung negotiate for control over what goes into vehicles.

  First step would be to find a way to integrate autonomous features into cars that won’t confuse drivers.

  "Of course in the car, we have lots of opportunities to build things which you can integrate into the whole design and interior of cars. One thing is a very nice heads up display, which you can’t really reproduce in other ways now", said Carsten Isert, the head of BMW Technology Office China.

  "On the other hand, we want customers to have the latest software and functionality, which you get from the big IT companies and start-ups, so again, we have to think about safety, which is a critical issue especially since many severe accidents are caused by using phones or texting while driving".

  Drivers that spend a lot of time behind the wheel are perfect users for tech companies, but they must tread carefully when choosing what to put in a smart car.

  This means that automakers can’t see the car as a vehicle anymore, but as a big moving mobile device", said Francis Man, the head of Interior Electronics Solutions in China for Continental Automotive.

  The full report from panel, with quotes from PSA Peugeot Citroen’s David Allard and Carsten Isert, the head of BMW Technology Office China can be found on this link.

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

  Photo Credit: RioPatuca/Shutterstock

  
• 

  'Fappening' suspect accessed up to 572 celebrity iCloud accounts

  Publié: juin 10, 2015, 7:13pm CEST par Wayne Williams

  

  Last year a large number of young female celebrities had their personal -- and in the majority of cases, nude and sexually explicit -- photos and videos leaked on to the internet, in what became known as The Fappening. Most of the photos were accessed through iCloud, leading Apple to take steps to strengthen its cloud service’s security.

  According to a recently-unsealed search warrant and affidavit the leaks are believed to be the work of one man who managed to access as many as 572 iCloud accounts.

  During investigations, US law enforcement agencies traced the attacks to the IP address of Emilio Herrera in Chicago.

  Yes, despite being able to break into a large number of iCloud accounts it seems Emilio was unable to adequately disguise his IP address, which was reportedly used to access the compromised accounts 3,263 times between 31 May 2013 and 31 August 2014. It is believed that while he managed to gain access to as many as 572 iCloud accounts, he may have targeted around 1,987 accounts in total.

  As Forbes points out, it seems incredible that one IP address attempting to access nearly 2,000 iCloud accounts didn’t set alarm bells ringing at Apple.

  Herrera had his home searched and his computer equipment confiscated in October, and the case is ongoing.

  High profile female celebrities targeted in the attack included Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Kim Kardashian, Vanessa Hudgens, Mary-Kate Olsen, Kelly Brook, and Hayden Panettiere. The affidavit makes for interesting reading as it reveals how certain celebrates discovered they were victims of the leaks. They aren’t named, but you can probably work out who they are from the initials.

  Photo Credit: Lighthunter/Shutterstock

  
• 

  Microsoft Portable Dual Chargers give smartphone junkies a power fix

  Publié: juin 10, 2015, 6:15pm CEST par Brian Fagioli

  

  For technology junkies, electricity is like crack cocaine. During a blackout, it can seem like users go through withdrawals without access to their precious internet and computers. Mobile devices are the best examples of this; when a user's smartphone battery is depleted, it is like the end of the world. They will sit on a filthy Starbucks floor just to charge their phone in an available outlet.

  Sadly, more and more phone manufacturers are forgoing the removable battery option, making a battery swap an impossibility. Luckily, portable battery packs solve this issue, allowing users longer portability without needing to seek out an outlet. Today, Microsoft unveils its own such model.

  There are three different capacities for this new battery pack -- 5200mAh, 9000mAh and 12000mAh. Obviously, the larger the capacity, the more charges it can offer. Prices will also increase based on each increase of capacity -- $35, $45, and $55 respectively. If you are going to buy one, I would suggest investing in the biggest since batteries lose capacity over time.

  

  "When it comes to charging and holding their power, the Microsoft Portable Dual chargers can hold their charge for months at a time and still have up to 80 percent capacity after several months. They also charge your USB charging smartphone or tablet as fast as our AC-60 wall charger. Checking the power levels on each pack is easy, thanks to the handy LED indicator", says Adam Fraser, Microsoft.

  Fraser further says, "if both your Lumia and portable charger need charging, make use of the 'daisy-chain' feature. Simply connect the power pack to the charger, then your mobile device to the power pack and both will charge simultaneously".

  Keep in mind, this should charge Android devices and iPhones too.

  

  What makes these models particularly handy is the dual-port functionality. You can charge two devices at once, meaning you can share it with friends, family, or even strangers. Hell, use it as an opportunity to make a new friend or start a romantic encounter; "we met over a charge", you can tell your future kids.

  Ready to pull the trigger? You can buy it at various retailers "over the next few weeks", says Microsoft.

  
• 

  Security firm Kaspersky Lab hacked by a 'nation state'

  Publié: juin 10, 2015, 5:35pm CEST par Wayne Williams

  

  Security firms are supposed to keep us safe from threats like malware and hacker attacks, but occasionally they fall foul of the bad guys too. A year ago Avast was hacked, and some 400,000 user details were stolen. Two years ago, AVG and Avira had their websites taken over by pro-Palestinian hackers.

  The latest security firm to be hacked is Russian anti-virus software maker Kaspersky Lab.

  In a post on the company's blog, Chairman and CEO Eugene Kaspersky says the attack on its own internal networks was "complex, stealthy, [and] it exploited several zero-day vulnerabilities". The firm is also very confident that there was a "nation state" behind it all.

  Antivirus firms like to name threats, and Kaspersky Lab has labeled this particular attack Duqu 2.0, after the Duqu Trojan which was used in attacks on Iran, India, France and Ukraine back in 2011.

  Kaspersky Lab believes the purpose of the hack was to steal the company’s secrets, and says the attack was "a generation ahead of anything we’d seen earlier -- it uses a number of tricks that make it really difficult to detect and neutralize. It looks like the people behind Duqu 2.0 were fully confident it would be impossible to have their clandestine activity exposed".

  The firm views the hack as being mostly a good thing because despite its sophistication, Kaspersky Lab was able to detect it, and now has everything it needs to protect customers against future attacks. No products or services were compromised in the hack, and customers remain perfectly safe.

  Duqu 2.0 wasn’t only used to spy on Kaspersky Lab but, according to the firm, also used to spy "on several prominent targets, including participants in the international negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program and in the 70th anniversary event of the liberation of Auschwitz".

  If, as Kaspersky Lab believes, a nation state is behind the attack, there’s obviously one important unanswered question -- which one? The company isn’t saying. Whether it's because it doesn't know, or simply doesn't want to get involved in that kind of finger-pointing is a matter for debate. However, Eugene Kaspersky did have this to say:

  Governments attacking IT security companies is simply outrageous. We’re supposed to be on the same side as responsible nations, sharing the common goal of a safe and secure cyberworld. We share our knowledge to fight cybercrime and help investigations become more effective. There are many things we do together to make this cyberworld a better place. But now we see some members of this 'community' paying no respect to laws, professional ethics or common sense.

  People living in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

  To me, it’s another clear signal we need globally-accepted rules of the game to curb digital espionage and prevent cyberwarfare. If various murky groups -- often government-linked -- treat the Internet as a Wild West with no rules and run amok with impunity, it will put the sustainable global progress of information technologies at serious risk. So I’m once again calling on all responsible governments to come together and agree on such rules, and to fight against cybercrime and malware, not sponsor and promote it.

  Image Credit: lolloj/Shutterstock

  
• 

  Microsoft Surface Hub coming to a business near you soon

  Publié: juin 10, 2015, 4:19pm CEST par Ian Barker

  

  The promise of surface computing for businesses seems to have been around for ages, remember all those cool videos of interactive coffee tables and screens from around three years ago? Yet so far there hasn't been a great deal of practical application.

  That could be about to change as Microsoft makes its Surface Hub available for businesses to order in 24 markets -- including Australia, North America, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, and the UK -- from July 1.

  Surface hub will be available in two sizes, a 55-inch model for $6,999 and an 84-inch model for an eye-watering $19,999. The larger model has a 4k touch-screen display that refreshes faster than the human eye can detect -- every 8.33 milliseconds. On both sizes, Surface Hub supports 100 points of multitouch and up to three simultaneous pen inputs, has dual 1080p front-facing video cameras and a four-microphone array help ensure that those remotely joining Skype for Business meetings can see and hear the entire room.

  Microsoft says it will offer the power and versatility of a complete, cloud-connected Windows 10 device along with the simplicity and consistency of a custom interface that's built for shared spaces. Surface Hub has built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and a variety of ports for easy wired and wireless connectivity options

  "While there are a number of devices designed to improve our productivity as individuals, there has yet to be a device that is truly optimized for a group of people to use together -- designed not just for what we need to do, but how we want to work. Until now," says Mike Angiulo, corporate vice president, Microsoft Devices. "Just as the PC revolutionized productivity for individuals, Surface Hub will transform the way groups of people work together".

  Microsoft is working closely with a number of strategic partners to make it easy for businesses to deploy Surface Hub into their organizations in a way that naturally integrates into their existing rooms and IT environments.

  The price means this is going to be the preserve of big corporations, but hopefully if it takes off it will become more accessible. To find out more you can pay a visit to the Surface Hub website or the Microsoft Surface Blog.

  
• 

  Capture.NET is the Swiss army knife of PC desktop tools

  Publié: juin 10, 2015, 3:56pm CEST par Mike Williams

  

  Capture.NET started life more than ten years ago as a simple screen capture tool. But then the developer began to expand it, with a clock, timer, calendar tools, text notes, program launcher, magnifier, screen ruler, backup tool and more.

  That’s not bad, especially as the end result is portable, ultra-lightweight (a single 1.4MB executable) and free for personal use. But can this kind of all-in-one tool really replace more specialist programs? We took a look.

  Capture.NET gets off to a good start, its compact interface displaying a clock, calendar and screen ruler. Right-clicking gives you a "Clock Mode" option which displays a transparent analogue clock only, a neat desktop gadget on its own.

  There are several other useful clock features. Double-click and you’re able to set multiple actions to run daily, weekly or on selected days of the week. By default these are alarms, but you can also have the program shut down, restart or switch your PC to standby, synchronize your clock, launch some custom applications and more.

  The Timer is another plus, a convenient stopwatch with various features (count up, count down, optional alarm).

  The core of the program remains its screen capture tool. This impresses immediately with its lengthy list of capture types (window/ object, region, freehand, fixed-size, scrolling, full screen), as well as an Auto Capture feature which automatically captures a defined area of the screen every X (5-59) seconds.

  Your image can then be tweaked with a built-in editor. There are simple bitmap drawing tools (oval, rectangle, arrow, line, text), a few effects (Diffuse, Emboss, Sharpen, Smooth, Spotlight), text watermarks and a few neat presentation tricks (shadows, torn edges).

  Elsewhere, the "Post-It" module has enough features to be useful: you can create text notes, print them, optionally add an alarm time, even protect them with a password.

  The "Backup Expert" isn’t so well-named. It’s a very simple backup tool with options to save your favorites/ feeds (IE, Chrome, Firefox), mail (Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Outlook) or custom folders. The implementation is dubious, with the program trying to alter our Registry via Regedit for an Outlook backup, and then crashing when we didn’t give permission.

  The remaining tools work more or less as you’d expect. There’s a color picker, a magnifier, a very basic batch image converter/ resizer and a Quick Launch where you can run your chosen applications or commands.

  Capture.NET isn’t quite as good as the developer thinks it is, but the screen capture and clock functions are enough to justify the download, and the Post-It notes feature may be useful, too. Give it a try.

  
• 

  PandaDoc integrates with Zendesk to simplify customer service paperwork

  Publié: juin 10, 2015, 3:02pm CEST par Ian Barker

  

  One of the problems with business software is that it tends to exist in compartments when it would make life much easier for users if it all worked together.

  Sales document creation specialist PandaDoc is launching a new add-on to integrate its software with the Zendesk customer service platform.

  "PandaDoc's heritage in enabling stronger, more results-driven document collaboration between sales and marketing teams makes us a natural partner for Zendesk. Through this integration, we’re now empowering customer service agents to do their jobs better by making traditionally mundane paperwork processes, like securing e-signatures, much simpler and faster," says Mikita Mikado, Co-Founder and CEO of PandaDoc.

  Administering customer support documentation -- particularly securing electronic signatures -- from within Zendesk can be a challenge. Service agents may find themselves spending too much time switching between applications to send various document types, plus document-related details aren't connected back to Zendesk.

  Using PandaDoc enables form fields to be automatically filled using previously supplied information, saving time and effort when Zendesk users are creating things like NDAs or contract renewals.

  In addition, the PandaDoc integration means that documents and document-related information will now be part of the comprehensive information available to service agents. End-customers will also have the option to access these documents themselves, an important capability for outsourcing organizations offering branded self-service communities through Zendesk.

  "PandaDoc greatly simplifies the paperwork tasks involved in customer service. This not only increases the efficiency of service agents, but also helps organizations maximize their Zendesk benefits including delivering greater customer convenience, building stronger relationships and generating more revenues," adds Mikado.

  You can find out more about PandaDoc and sign up for a 14-day trial on the company's website.

  Image Credit: HABRDA / Shutterstock

  
• 

  Dish Network is the pay-TV company that gets it

  Publié: juin 10, 2015, 2:56pm CEST par Mark Raby

  

  While its competitors were fighting about Weather Channel royalty fees and customer service fiascos, Dish Network was blazing ahead to become an exceedingly relevant TV provider in a 21st century landscape. Its new effort to merge with T-Mobile is just the latest example.

  As has been widely reported, Dish and T-Mobile are in discussions to become one entity that would give a huge amount of wireless spectrum to T-Mobile and give Dish a completely unique position in the mobile marketplace.

  The mobile market is filled with complicated spectrum laws and antitrust watchdogs preventing any major shakeups, and the pay-TV space has been dominated by egos and bullying for the better part of 30 years. This is the kind of merger that could actually mark a conceptual change in these two behemoth industries.

  The merger with T-Mobile cannot be looked at in a vacuum. In a market where most pay TV companies are becoming increasingly irrelevant and only succeeding in becoming more of a subject of vitriol and ridicule, Dish has long been the outsider. This is not a case of a satellite TV company wanting to become relevant. It in instead the latest chapter of the only long-standing TV provider that has pushed for relevance for years.

  Dish has been allowing its traditional customers to remotely stream virtually any live TV channel or DVR'ed content from their smartphone since 2013. The year before that was when it introduced the commercial-skipping Hopper DVR, a technology that was so disruptive that networks, most vocally CBS, expressed unparalleled rage.

  Then, at CES earlier this year, Dish announced Sling TV, which is now the preeminent solution for streaming live satellite TV across a variety of devices. And unlike so many announcements that are all about hype without any specific roadmap to launch, Sling TV launched the very next month.

  Dish's approach toward Sling TV is refreshing. The company explicitly and unapologetically says it is only targeting people who have already cut the cord, or were never bound to a cord to begin with; it's not trying to steal traditional pay TV customers. If a customer is even thinking about signing up for cable or satellite, Sling TV does not want that customer.

  That such a product is coming from a traditional provider is the perfect example of just how much Dish Network "gets it". Time Warner Cable, Cox, Comcast, and the rest have now finally begun to offer what today are seemingly basic necessities -- things like streaming live TV from a mobile device or being able to watch on-demand content from anywhere. Most of the providers only began that kind of innovation after fighting for years, to their own detriment, to prevent it. And even still, you will need old-school cable or satellite subscriptions and hardware leases that belong in the 1990s.

  Oh, and one more thing: Sling TV lets customers subscribe and unsubscribe with a few button clicks. No need to wait for 5-hour installation windows or fight with anti-cancellation "retention specialists".

  Dish's daring vision never to cling to the status quo seems a perfect marriage with T-Mobile, which has been desperate over the past few years to appear as the edgier mobile carrier.

  It would be a very compelling case for T-Mobile if it were able to offer some kind of exclusive deal with Sling TV. The idea that customers could potentially find themselves paying for HBO, ESPN, and the rest of their favorite live TV channels as part of their smartphone bill, does not seem like some crazy far-off concept. It sounds like the perfect forward-thinking reality of today's content consumption landscape.

  And Dish Network is the only one that could pull it off. This kind of merger would be a poster child for questioning the status quo and understanding that no matter how gigantic or unmovable an industry may seem, paradigm shifts will always be inevitable. It's going to be interesting to see how it plays out.

  
• 

  How businesses should tackle information security

  Publié: juin 10, 2015, 2:35pm CEST par Chris Sigley

  

  As the role of Information Technology continues to grow and evolve within business, the potential risks associated with accessing, storing, sharing and protecting information are similarly increasing. In order to better equip themselves to adjust to these kind of threats, businesses need to consider the various risks they might be vulnerable to and implement a reliable strategy to deal with these effectively and efficiently.

  Firstly, let’s consider a few threats. In each of the scenarios below, a vulnerability can result in a serious risk to your business:

  • A hacker obtains access to your website and remains undetected until the damage has been done. Maybe they have maliciously updated something on the website creating misinformation or they have defaced it to deliberately generate negative public opinion.
  • Attacks have resulted in your internal and external communications getting blocked, or perhaps your domain name has become blacklisted.
  • Multiple hardware failures or even a single hardware failure (in an infrastructure without resilience) is exacerbated by the lack of an up-to-date DR (disaster recovery) plan to provide fast and efficient recovery.
  • You recently discovered that a disgruntled employee who left the company a few weeks ago used their high access privileges and deleted or updated some critical internal data.
  • An environmental problem (e.g. flood, fire, power failure) means you have no access to your server room, and all the kit is powered off.

  In order to try and stop these kind of threats from resulting in disastrous consequences for your business, here are three areas you should review, consider and action if you haven’t already done so.

  Prevent

  As the classic idiom states, "prevention is better than cure". Try and prevent attacks from happening in the first place by utilizing network and software technologies that detect and block threats while allowing appropriate traffic to proceed with minimal performance impact. This is an area that most of us have already thought about and implemented. Firewalls, proxy servers, spam filters, web filtering and isolated DMZ’s to name but a few.

  React

  Next, consider how you would react to these threats if they were to actually happen? Are you able to roll back your applications and critical data or restore entire systems? Maybe you can go back to last night easily, but what if you need to go back three weeks? Is that data residing on some tapes in an offsite location? How quickly can you get those back and then reinstate the systems as they were before the incident?

  Plan

  Plan for the worst but hope for the best. Have you got copies of all your critical servers, services and data in an offsite location, away from the incident? If so, have you tested that you can actually recover that data? Is it part of your regular DR tests, or do you not even have an up-to-date DR plan?

  As IT continues to evolve within business, companies are exposed to more risks than ever before and it’s essential that they remain robust and agile to cope with them. Utilizing cloud services is an effective way for an organization to safeguard itself from a number of critical threats facing businesses today. By implementing secure cloud backup, unified endpoint management and efficient cloud-based disaster recovery, companies can become less reliant on hugely complex disaster recovery plans and are no longer faced with significant upfront expenditure to ensure they’re protected.

  Nevertheless, one thing that has remained unchanged is the need to choose the right service delivery partner and the right technology for the job. No two businesses are alike and the same can be said for a reputable cloud provider. It’s important that business owners consider their individual needs and choose a service that can be customized to fit those needs.

  Chris Sigley is the General Manager of Redstor. Redstor provides cloud backup, storage and disaster recovery services.

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

  Photo Credit: Maksim Kabakou/Shutterstock

  
• 

  Apple's arguments for 16GB iPhones are disingenous

  Publié: juin 10, 2015, 2:08pm CEST par Mihaita Bamburic

  

  If you cannot expand the storage capacity on a high-end smartphone, 16 GB of available space just isn't enough. Install all your favorite apps and games, maybe try a couple of new ones, add some music, use the device for a while, and you end up with an alarmingly-low available capacity. As someone who is using a 16 GB iPhone 6 Plus daily, I have to work around this restriction.

  And I shouldn't have to, which is why I find Phil Schiller's arguments on why the company he represents as SVP still makes 16 GB iPhones to be disingenuous. Phil, at least be honest: it is all about the money.

  In an interview with Daring Fireball's John Gruber, Schiller tries, and fails, to convince that cloud storage services, like Apple's iCloud which gives users just 5 GB of free storage, can make up for the low storage tier. While it is certainly possible to do so, it is only effective to a certain extent.

  Sufficient local storage is paramount if we are talking about using smartphones as smartphones, meaning installing and using apps and games on them. You could always stream music, to make some room, but iPhone apps and games can only run from internal storage. And the more you use them, the more space they take.

  Let us not forget that even if you manage to keep some space free, you will likely run into some problems when the time comes to install a major iOS upgrade. Even iOS 9, which comes this fall with major optimizations regarding storage requirements, will need more than 1 GB to install. With electric cars, there's range anxiety. With 16 GB iPhones, there's available storage anxiety.

  Schiller tries again, and fails one more time, when he says that the savings Apple makes by offering 16 GB of storage in its iPhones allows it to divert more resources into things like the camera. This is like saying "Honey, the reason why we have such a small dressing room is so that we could have a slightly bigger castle".

  Yes, offering more storage in the entry-level iPhones would increase the cost slightly, but considering the sort of margins Apple wants it is well within reason to ask for more without sacrificing its huge profits. The cost of a single flash memory module that Apple uses in iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus is about $9 according to this estimate. I imagine it is accurate. Thing is, by doubling the capacity for instance, Apple would not have to also double the cost.

  Jumping from 16 GB to 32 GB of internal storage, going by microSD prices for SanDisk's Extreme models (which is a comparison that favors Apple, seeing as microSD vendors also want to make a profit on higher-capacity models), there is only a 67 percent increase in price. But what's $6 -- and I am being generous here, again -- to Apple?

  Well, if you do the math, Apple would have to lose only $6 million for every million iPhones it sells. That is not much. But, if you look at it from a different perspective, it would likely mean it would lose many sales of higher-capacity iPhones, which retail for $100 or $200 more than the entry-level models.

  Now, that is a totally different situation. Instead of losing $6 million to make its customers more satisfied with buying iPhones, it would be losing those $6 million per million iPhones plus the $100 million for every next-biggest capacity iPhone it did not sell. The former is not much, but when adding the latter into the mix it explains a lot of things.

  Just consider that Apple has sold tens of millions of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in every quarter following their release, with $100 between storage tiers. You do the math, and tell me it is not about the money.

  Photo Credit: aerogondo2/Shutterstock

  
• 

  Want to hook your PC to your TV? New Logitech keyboard can handle it

  Publié: juin 10, 2015, 2:00pm CEST par Alan Buckingham

  

  Logitech is no stranger to making a keyboard or mouse, nor is the company unfamiliar with the living room. Last year it released a home theater keyboard -- the Harmony Smart Keyboard. Now an updated version of the same concept is being announced, though this time without the Harmony name attached. This one is actually a successor to a previous model.

  The Logitech Wireless Touch Keyboard K400 Plus aims to help you control your living room via a computer hooked to the TV, in other words an HTPC. Logitech claims a wireless range of up to 33 feet for this device. There's also no mouse required, as the keyboard has a built-in touchpad. It also comes with batteries that Logitech claim will last 18 months.

  "The living room is a place where we come to relax, entertain ourselves and connect with friends and family", says Charlotte Johs, global vice president of computer peripherals at Logitech. "The Logitech Wireless Keyboard K400 Plus makes it easy to connect your PC to the TV and search for Internet content".

  The keyboard comes in what Logitech calls "neutral gray" and is very thin and light, making it easy to store and move around. It will be available this month and priced at a reasonable $39.99. If you own the original K400 then this will be a nice upgrade for you. If not, then it could be a new addition to your living room.

  
• 

  How to get the Windows 10 upgrade notification to appear in Windows 7 or 8.x

  Publié: juin 10, 2015, 1:19pm CEST par Wayne Williams

  

  If you’re running Windows 7 or 8.x you should by now see a small Windows 10 icon in the system tray. Click this and you can reserve your free Windows 10 upgrade in advance of the operating system’s launch on July 29.

  Once you’ve reserved the upgrade, Windows 10 will download as soon as available and you’ll be able to install it at your convenience. However, for some reason this icon isn’t appearing on all systems. It wasn’t on mine for example. If you want to summon the upgrade icon, this is what you’ll need to do.

  The first thing to try is make sure Windows Update is set to automatically install all updates on your PC and that your system is fully up to date. That alone might be enough to get the icon to appear. You need to have patch KB3035583 installed.

  If that doesn’t do the trick, and it didn’t for me, then try running this batch script which is available on Dropbox (as reported by the always excellent Ghacks).

  Run the batch file in admin mode, read the disclaimer and then hit any key. The menu presents you with five choices. Step one is check to make sure update KB3035583 is installed. If it is you can return to the main menu and choose one of three methods to get the notification to appear. There are two quick methods and a longer one. The first one worked instantly for me. I ran it and the icon appeared immediately.

  

  When the problem is solved, exit the batch script and click on the new upgrade icon and you will be able to reserve your free copy of Windows 10.

  

  Should you wish to remove the icon, you can follow the instructions here.

  
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  Apple Music's killer feature is its price

  Publié: juin 10, 2015, 1:19pm CEST par Sead Fadilpašić

  

  As with all things Apple, there’s been a lot of talk about its new music streaming service, ingeniously named Apple Music.

  After it got officially unveiled and showcased during this year’s annual Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), the initial amazement was quickly replaced by a profound feeling of meh. Onstage the company said it would transform the listening experience for fans, and the creative act for artists, but once the hype died down it became obvious -- it’s not really offering features you can’t find elsewhere in the market. And then it hits you -- the price!

  Apple offers a family plan that can be shared by up to six people for $14.99 (£9.89). Spotify and Rdio also offer family plans, but those cost $14.99 for two people and $29.99 (£19.60) for five.

  The price triggered alarms in the heads of competitors. Apple’s biggest competitor hopes to match its offer. Speaking to The Verge, Spotify’s global head of communications and public policy, Jonathan Price confirmed the move.

  "We already have similar family pricing in some markets and we expect to offer competitive pricing everywhere in the near future", he said.

  He pointed out that in Sweden, Spotify already charges roughly $20 (£13) a month for a family of five.

  This draws us to an interesting conclusion: either Apple has managed to negotiate an incredibly cheap deal with music labels worldwide, or it decided to hit at their savings to subsidize a very generous offer as means of killing the competition.

  Either way, Apple forcing its competitors to further trim their already very thin margins.

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

  
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  How to remove the Windows 10 upgrade notification from Windows 7 and 8.x

  Publié: juin 10, 2015, 12:13pm CEST par Wayne Williams

  

  If you’re certain you don’t want to upgrade to Windows 10, or you want to do so at your own pace without being nagged into it, the upgrade notification that appears in Windows 7 and 8.x can be viewed as an unwanted annoyance.

  There are plenty of reasons why you might not want to upgrade to Windows 10 as soon as it becomes available -- you might be more than happy with your existing OS, or you may wish to wait until Windows 10 has been out for a while and all of the big issues have been patched. After all, you have a year to upgrade for free. If you want to remove the upgrade notification, there’s a simple tool for the job.

  I Don't Want Windows 10 works by removing the Windows system update responsible for the notification.

  Run it on Windows 7 or 8 and the tool will remove patch KB3035583, thus killing the update offer in the system tray. This of course is something you can do manually easily enough, but I Don't Want Windows 10 simplifies the process down to a couple of mouse clicks.

  Agree to the terms and conditions of the unofficial patch, accept the Windows prompt and the update will be removed. You may need to reboot your PC for the changes to take effect.

  The developer has provided the source code for the program should you wish to check it out.

  

  
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  Facebook Messenger joins select '1 billion downloads' Google Play club

  Publié: juin 10, 2015, 11:53am CEST par Mihaita Bamburic

  

  Being linked to the most-popular social network makes Messenger a very convenient messaging option, giving it a huge advantage in the long run. If you are already friends with someone on Facebook, you can quickly start a conversation with them, share photos, initiate a video chat and more. The way it is designed, you simply cannot ignore its existence, like you would any other messaging service.

  Messenger is growing in popularity as new folks sign up for a Facebook account and more and more users have access to smartphones, from which, you guessed it, they want to check what their friends are doing. As a result, Messenger just joined a very exclusive club on Google Play.

  Messenger has topped 1 billion (yes, that would be 1,000,000,000) downloads on Google Play, being one of the few apps to have managed this. The milestone was just revealed by Facebook's David Marcus -- and, naturally, CEO Mark Zuckerberg could not help but like the post.

  In fact, with the exception of Google-made apps like Maps and YouTube, Facebook-made or owned apps are the only ones to have reached the 1 billion downloads mark on Google Play. The first was Facebook, in late-August 2014, followed by WhatsApp in mid-March 2015.

  Ironically, Messenger is not even that well received by Google Play reviewers. With an average rating of 3.9 stars it does not appear to be the best-made app around, but folks are using it nonetheless. Looking at the ratings, there are over 9 million five-star ratings and 2.7 million one-star ratings, suggesting that some users are quite polarized by the offering.

  Google Play is only part of Messenger's success, as the messaging service is also hugely popular on Apple's App Store. While we do not have a similar count available, it is clear that iPhone users are massive Messenger fans given its first-place position in the free iPhone apps chart. It is followed by Facebook and YouTube.

  
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  Four things businesses need to know about payment card compliance

  Publié: juin 10, 2015, 11:28am CEST par Ian Barker

  

  We reported last month that new security standards for the payment card industry, known as PCI DSS, were coming into force by the end of June.

  Security company Rapid7 has produced an infographic looking at PCI compliance, cybersecurity and new related requirements for penetration testing. Based on data from the Verizon 2015 PCI Compliance Report it sets out four things enterprises should know about going into PCI compliance.

  It shows that enterprises are getting better at PCI compliance, however, only one in five organizations were fully compliant at interim assessment. Vulnerability scanning remains a major challenge, PCI DSS Requirement 11 (regularly test security systems and processes) was the only area where compliance levels have fallen year-on-year.

  It also points out that tracking and monitoring is critical, with every company that suffered a data breach being found non-compliant with PCI DSS Requirement 10 (track and monitor all access to networks and cardholder data). Finally starting on July 1, companies must comply with new, more stringent pen-testing requirements.

  You can see the full infographic below.

  

  Image Credit: Sedlacek / Shutterstock

  
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  Windows 10 will keep you safe from malware

  Publié: juin 10, 2015, 9:39am CEST par Wayne Williams

  

  Microsoft’s past attempts at protecting Windows users from malware have been patchy at best. However, with Windows 10 the company is offering a new way to help protect its customers from dynamic script-based malware and other forms of cyberattack.

  AMSI (Antimalware Scan Interface) is an interface standard that allows applications and services to integrate with any existing antimalware product on your PC. Those apps can call the new Windows AMSI APIs at any time to scan for malware.

  Microsoft explains, "Malicious software that uses obfuscation and evasion techniques on Windows' built-in scripting hosts will automatically be inspected at a much deeper level than ever before, providing additional levels of protection". Apps can use AMSI to scan files, memory or streams, perform content source URL/IP reputation checks, and employ other techniques to identify malicious behavior.

  Microsoft envisions communication apps using it to scan instant messages for viruses as they are received, and games automatically checking plugins before they’re installed.

  The software giant is hoping application developers will make use of AMSI to protect users from potentially malicious content, and is calling on antivirus creators to add support for the new interface to their products.

  Image credit: Andrea Danti/Shutterstock

  
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  Piracy is good for Netflix

  Publié: juin 10, 2015, 8:59am CEST par Barclay Ballard

  

  You might assume that Netflix, the world’s most popular video streaming service, would put out a fierce condemnation of online piracy, but CEO Reed Hastings is taking a much more accepting stance.

  Speaking ahead of his company’s launch in Spain in October, Hastings indicated that piracy creates a market receptive to watching content online -- a necessity for his businesses to succeed.

  "I think Spain will be one of our most successful countries. There is a high rate of Internet connectivity and a population that is accustomed to the use of electronic commerce and that has shown signs of being interested in our product. We are very optimistic", Hastings told El Mundo.

  |Well, you can call [piracy] a problem, but the truth is that it has also created a public that is now used to viewing content on the Internet", added Hastings.

  Copyright holders may well be aghast, but Hastings certainly has a point and his comments echo those of many others that stress that the key to fighting piracy is not to clamp down on file sharers and their affiliated sites, but to offer consumers a viable alternative. The Netflix CEO compared the online content market to that of drinking water -- just because people have access to tap water, doesn’t mean that bottled water is doomed to fail. Likewise, Hastings sees the potential for a successful business even in parts of the world where piracy is widespread.

  In fact, studies of online piracy can prove hugely beneficial to legal services. Analyzing the reasons why individuals choose to download content illegally can help entertainment platforms offer a more appealing alternative and help move the discussion away from overly simplistic suggestions that piracy advocates simply don’t want to pay for anything.

  Research from last year suggests that movie pirates in particular are more than happy to pay for content, actually spending more money on average to see films legally than those who do not consume pirated content. The reason being that movie pirates are simply bigger consumers of media than those that stick solely to legal methods.

  Convenience is often a major factor behind the decision to pirate content, aside from cost, and this is where legal services have to improve their offering. Netflix recognizes this and has long been insisting that fighting piracy head-on is not an effective approach. "We offer a simpler and more immediate alternative to finding a torrent", Hastings explains.

  Netflix has already experienced successful launches in countries like the Netherlands where illegally acquiring content was commonplace, suggesting that the service shouldn’t experience many issues when it comes to Spain, Italy or Portugal later this year.

  Unchecked piracy has obviously caused significant damage to distributors, artists and studios in both the music and movie industries, but for too long the approach has been reactive. The decision to block The Pirate Bay, one of the web’s most notorious file sharing sites, has been largely ineffective, simply pushing users to the site’s many proxies.

  Therefore, the words of Netflix CEO Reed Hastings are hugely refreshing. Piracy is not a victimless crime, but it is not the only reason for the problems plaguing the creative industries. The worlds of movies and music must both find a way of convincing users to choose legal methods instead of piracy if they are to be successful in the future.

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

  Photo credit: Sukharevskyy Dmytro (nevodka) / Shutterstock

  
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  System76 unveils hardcore Serval WS laptop running Ubuntu Linux

  Publié: juin 10, 2015, 5:46am CEST par Brian Fagioli

  

  If you are a Linux user looking to buy a computer, System76 is one of the best manufacturers to target. Rather than buy a Windows machine and formatting the drive to install your favorite distro, the company's machines come pre-loaded with Ubuntu. Even cooler, its laptops do not have the Windows logo on the super key, instead having the Ubuntu logo. Even if you are a fan of a different distro such as Fedora, supporting a Linux-focused seller is good for the overall community.

  Today, the company announces its newest laptop, called "Serval WS". To call this a mere laptop, however, does not do it justice. It is a hardcore, monstrous beast -- a full desktop replacement -- ready to shred through anything you throw at it. Yeah, the specs are that good.

  "The Serval WS is unlike any laptop you've ever experienced. With the performance of a full desktop processor and the fastest mobile GeForce and Quadro GPUs available, you can accomplish complex tasks in less time", says System76.

  The company shares the following specs.

  Operating System	Ubuntu Desktop 15.04 or 14.04.2 LTS
  Processor	4th Gen Intel Core i7
  Display	15.6 inch or 17.3 inch 1920×1080 IPS, Matte Finish
  Graphics	NVIDIA Geforce GTX 970M, 980M, or Quadro K1100M, K3100M
  Memory	Up to 32 GB Dual Channel DDR3 @ 1600 MHz
  Storage	2× M.2, 2× 2.5 inch SATA III
  Expansion	4× USB 3.0, 1× eSata/USB 3.0 combo, SD Card Reader
  Input	Multitouch Touchpad, Multi-Color Backlit Keyboard
  Networking	Gigabit Ethernet, Intel WiFi up to Wireless-AC
  Video Ports	HDMI 1.4a, 2× DisplayPort 1.2
  Audio	Stereo Speakers, Mic, Headphone Jack, Mic Jack, Line In, S/PDIF. 17 inch model includes Woofer.
  Camera	1080p HD Webcam
  Security	Kensington Lock
  Battery	Removable 8 Cell Smart Li-Ion – 82 Wh
  AC Adapter	230W, AC-in 100–240V, 50–60Hz
  Dimensions	Dependent on display size.
  	15 inch model: 15.20 inch × 10.32 inch × 1.41 inch (38.61 × 26.21 × 3.58 cm)
  	17 inch model: 16.46 inch × 11.10 inch × 1.52 inch (41.81 × 28.19 × 3.86 cm)
  Weight	Dependent on display size.
  	15 inch model: 7.4 lbs. (3.36 kg.)
  	17 inch model: 8.6 lbs. (3.90 kg.)

  

  Good lord. Those specs are so hardcore, I just want to rip off my shirt and howl like a wolf! Ahwoo! To show off just how powerful it is, take a look at the side-by-side render comparison between the MacBook Pro (left) and Serval WS (right). Holy mackerel.

  [https:]

  System76 also showcases the gaming performance of the hardcore laptop. It looks fluid, but the video quality of the demo is not great.

  [https:]

  All of this power comes at a price, of course. The starting price for the Serval WS is $1799 -- yes, that is the base price. Playing around with the configurations, I was able to reach a price of over $4,000 (hey, a man can dream). Quite frankly, maxing it out is overkill; even the base model is extremely well equipped -- all models have a Core i7.

  [https:]

  While the price is high, you are getting a lot of power. Keep in mind, this is designed to be a full desktop replacement and not a desktop compliment. It is also very big and heavy, making it more of a portable workstation rather than a mobile laptop. In other words, you can transport it when you have to, but it would not be ideal for business travelers.

  If you want to configure your own, you can pre-order here. It will begin shipping in July.