Gregarius » BetaNews.Com » juillet 23, 2015

BetaNews.Com (20 non lus)

Why should you upgrade to Windows 10? 'Multi-doing' and getting things done

Publié: juillet 23, 2015, 11:42pm CEST par Mark Wilson

windows_10_doing

This time next week many of us will have upgraded to Windows 10. Until that day, Microsoft continues to publish videos pushing the benefits that the latest incarnation has to offer. This time around we are treated to a guide to 'multi-doing'.

Microsoft explains that this is "all about removing the obstacles between you and 'Done'", and the video is essentially a showcase of all of the tools that help with productivity. From Snap Assist to virtual desktop, Microsoft uses its latest video to show just what Windows 10 can do for you.

The video continues in the vein of its predecessors; bouncy dance music accompanies on screen text urging you to "do (insert-not-particularly-computery-word) things". For anyone who hasn’t been following the preview builds, it serves as a great introduction to what has changed from previous versions.

Improved Snap Assist makes it easier to work with multiple apps and windows, while multiple desktops are on hand to help keep different tasks separate. There's also the Action Center, task view, and more.

Check out the video and see if you agree with what Microsoft has to say about the benefits of Windows 10:

HORNET is an encrypted, anonymous web browsing system that destroys Tor's performance

Publié: juillet 23, 2015, 11:10pm CEST par Mark Wilson

hornet

With the current concerns about surveillance and privacy, more and more people are turning to anonymizing tools. The existence of unknown numbers of spying tools means that increasing numbers of people are turning to the likes of Tor to keep their online activities private.

But encryption systems such as those used by The Onion Relay have a horrible tendency to slow things down. A new encryption system called HORNET could be a solution. Its creators say that data transfer speeds of up to 93GBps are possible, with much of the acceleration coming from a reduction in the number of hops data has to make around the network.

It might be some time before HORNET is rolled out on any sort of large scale, but things are already looking promising. The academics behind the technology (which is short for High-speed Onion Routing at the Network Layer) published a paper this week outlining the advantages of their system which they say continues to offer robust protection against surveillance. Unlike Tor, HORNET has great potential for scaling up without suffering from the slowdown that blights its better-known counterpart.

The paper concludes by saying:

Our experiments show that small trade-offs in packet header size greatly benefit security, while retaining high performance.

That said, it is worth remembering that things are still in very early stages, and HORNET is yet to be peer-reviewed.

Writing on the Daily Dot, Patrick Howell O'Neill gives a neat summary of how the system works:

The basic architecture of Tor and HORNET are very similar: A group of global relay nodes are used to mix and encrypt Internet traffic in multiple layers—hence the 'onion routing' names— so that by the end of the process, no one is supposed to know where the traffic originated.

HORNET aims for more scalability and efficiency as it pushes the traffic through its network by having the intermediate relay nodes avoid keeping the per-session state (for instance, encryption keys and routing information) and pushing that task to the nodes on either end of the connection. Without that task, nodes can theoretically forward traffic more quickly to a larger number of clients.

Check out the paper in full on the Cornell University Library website.

Photo credit: irin-k / Shutterstock

Should Apple keep making iPads?

Publié: juillet 23, 2015, 7:42pm CEST par Nabil Ansari

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When Apple released its Q3 report for FY2015, it revealed that its iPad sales continue to fall. This was the first quarter when the iPad’s revenue was lower than Mac sales. The past quarter reported that the revenue was lower than a couple hundred million dollars, but this quarter shows that the difference is nearly $1.5 billion.

This is quite a substantial drop in revenue, but still, the iPad in terms of units sold is still higher than Mac sales.

The meaning of this, is that Apple is currently making more revenue per Mac sold, compared to the revenue per iPad sold. Simple maths shows us that after selling 4.7 million units of Mac devices, the tech giant resulted in a revenue of $6 billion. While on the other hand, after selling 10.9 million units, it made $4.5 billion in revenue.

This begs the question -- should Apple stop making the iPad?

Definitely not. This isn’t a great reason to stop making the iPad. Plus, the more revenue Apple has, the better it will be, and it goes without saying that the company has to be diverse and corner the market as much as it can.

Furthermore, if you do some research, you will notice that Apple is still dominating the tablet market. Not even a single manufacturer is close to the sales it is making with the iPad.

So, to answer your question about whether the tablet, or the iPad is dying -- it’s not. The iPad is still outselling the rest of the industry.

Microsoft thanks you for using Bing Listens to guide its future

Publié: juillet 23, 2015, 7:27pm CEST par Mark Wilson

bing_listens

As shown by the Window Insider program and the development of Windows 10, Microsoft is now all ears. Under Satya Nadella, this is now a company that wants to listen to, and be guided by, its customers. Google may dominate the search arena, but Microsoft is keen for Bing to eat into its market share by giving people what they want.

This is precisely why the Bing Listens program was created, giving people an opportunity to make suggestions about changes and additions they'd like to see made. Today Microsoft not only thanks people for providing feedback, but also reveals some of the suggestions it has acted on. Have your idea been used?

The Bing team reveals that since its launch back in March there have been thousands of ideas submitted and more than 80 percent have been responded to. Among the requests that have been implemented are public transport details, shopping from Bing Images, and synchronization of My Places on Bing Maps with Cortana.

Bing Listens has been updated so you can now see the top three ideas that have been suggested and voted for, and there are plans to make it easier for people to keep track of the suggestions they put forward. The team says:

In the first few months alone, we’ve seen more than a thousand ideas ranging from new ways to earn rewards to adding a custom filter for news, to enabling users to contribute feedback on translation results, and even searching medical related issues.

More than 1 million visitors have been to Bing Listens, with thousands contributing, voting or commenting on the 1500-plus ideas that have been submitted since the launch. The suggestions have been fantastic.

If you want to shape the future of Bing -- or you just fancy seeing the ideas that others have come up with -- take a look at Bing Listens.

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Want to be the next iJustine or Shane Dawson? Canon Video Creator Kits can help

Publié: juillet 23, 2015, 6:30pm CEST par Brian Fagioli

ijustine

The world is changing; whether for the better or worse is debatable. When it comes to entertainment, the dinosaur media such as network television is in massive trouble. Why? Many people are turning to the web for videos nowadays, from services like YouTube and Twitch.

Guess what? Many online personalities are getting paid, and paid well, and becoming genuine celebrities. Vloggers (video bloggers) such as iJustine and Shane Dawson have millions of followers and make their livings from these videos. Hell, PewDiePie is a millionaire from playing video games online. Do you think you can be the next big vlogger, but don't know where to start? Don't worry. Cannon's Video Creator Kits will start you down the path of Internet stardom.

"Two stars in a universe of online talent, YouTube content creators iJustine and DevinSuperTramp, have helped define a new method of storytelling through online video. With so many young vloggers following their example and creating their own innovative content, Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, unveils new, specialized Video Creator Kits including a Canon DSLR camera and lens, an external microphone, and a 32GB SD card. These specially-packaged Video Creator Kits provide the vlogging superstars of tomorrow with the tools they need to shoot and share high-quality, compelling stories", says Canon.

Canon shares the following 3 kits and associated prices.

EOS 70D Video Creator Kit: includes EOS 70D camera & EF-S 18-135mm IS STM lens, an external microphone and 32GB SD card ($1649.99)
EOS Rebel T6i Video Creator Kit: includes EOS Rebel T6i camera and EF-S 18-55mm IS STM lens, an external microphone and 32GB SD card ($999.99)
EOS Rebel T5i Video Creator Kit: includes EOS Rebel T5i camera and EF-S 18-55mm IS STM lens, an external microphone and 32GB SD card ($899.99)

Are these kits good? Absolutely. Everything included is high quality hardware and a great place to start with vlogging. With that said, they are all expensive too. Before you spend the money, I would suggest starting with your smartphone camera and uploading some videos to YouTube to see how you do.

Remember, the key to becoming a star on YouTube is being interesting and having a good personality. If you are boring or unlikable, it will not matter how good your equipment is. Not everyone is meant to be a famous YouTube creator. With that said, vlogging can be satisfying and rewarding even if you do not become rich and famous.

If you are interested in buying one of these Canon Video Creator Kits, you can pre-order now and they will ship in August.

Who are your favorite YouTube creators? Tell me in the comments.

Photo Credit: Andrey_Popov l/Shutterstock

Enterprise cloud economy is booming

Publié: juillet 23, 2015, 6:24pm CEST par Ian Barker

cloud money cash cloud hands

The market for enterprise technology products is booming with 72 percent of high-technology providers reporting growth in sales quote volumes according to a new report.

According to the SAAS Purchases Report from sales quoting software specialist SteelBrick this market is growing much faster than the overall US economy.

The report looks at how enterprise companies are selling to customers and also examines B2B selling trends compared to the same time last year. SteelBrick ran the survey online during May 2015, based on a poll of over 130 SteelBrick customers, 80 percent of which work in the high-tech economy, including SaaS, storage, cloud infrastructure, telecommunications, networking, and big data leaders.

The report also shows that sales are up, closing times are down and overall quote volumes are up, indicating a growth in demand as enterprise technology shifts to the cloud and seeks to make sense of the big data being generated by accelerating mobile and cloud adoption.

Other findings are that in the first quarter of this year sales teams have seen a 12 percent year-over-year increase in the number of quotes being processed. Sales cycles are shorter too, high-tech companies report sales cycles of 100 days compared to up to a year across the board. On average tech companies are successfully closing 38 percent of the quotes they issue, again indicating robust demand.

SteelBrick says that its Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) software helps companies improve turn around times and eliminate errors in quotes.

"Our new barometer for the high-tech economy shows that sales of enterprise technology are growing at a robust clip as cloud and mobile adoption accelerate. Furthermore, many tech companies are becoming more sophisticated around the process of selling software services and are now implementing CPQ tools in conjunction with their CRM platforms, helping them sell even faster and more efficiently than their high-tech peers," says Godard Abel, CEO of SteelBrick. "By polling our customers, we are able to provide benchmarks for sales process efficiency and growth, as well as validate how our solution is helping them grow their business to become Silicon Valley’s next big unicorns".

You can see more findings from the report on the SteelBrick website.

Photo Credit: Andy Dean Photography/Shutterstock

This is what OnePlus Two looks like

Publié: juillet 23, 2015, 6:16pm CEST par David Curry

OnePlus Two Leak

OnePlus has been dropping hints on the OnePlus Two for a few months now, but one part we haven’t seen is the design. Chinese wireless regulator TENAA fixed that, by showing all four sides of the OnePlus Two.

We are not sure if TENAA meant to upload the images or if there was an issue internally. Usually, phone manufacturers make sure regulators don’t publicize images of the phone before release, a request usually granted.

The OnePlus Two looks similar to the OnePlus One, but features a rectangular home button similar to the Samsung Galaxy S6. The camera has also been moved further down on the back of the device, and looks to feature a two-tone flash.

The home button is undoubtedly for the fingerprint sensor OnePlus is adding to the device. The company has hyped up the sensor, claiming it is faster and more accurate than Apple’s Touch ID.

Other known features coming to the OnePlus Two include the Snapdragon 810 and USB Type-C charging support. OnePlus has also confirmed the device will cost no more than $450 at launch, but customers will need to wait on an invite list.

OnePlus plans to launch the new device at an event on July 27, with pre-orders potentially starting a few hours later. No word on when the invite system will be removed, or if OnePlus even intends to remove it this time. It took the OnePlus One a year to leave the invite system, now customers are able to buy it without waiting.

Mozilla Developer Network turns 10

Publié: juillet 23, 2015, 4:18pm CEST par Ian Barker

birthday cake balloons

In February 2005 a small team of developers set out to create an open, free, community-built online resource for all Web developers.

A few months later, on 23 July, 2005 the original Mozilla Developer Network wiki site launched. Since then it has evolved steadily for the convenience and the benefit of its users.

Ten years on and MDN hosts more than 34,500 documents and its global volunteer community is bigger than ever.

Currently, MDN has more than 4 million users with over 1,000 volunteer editors per month creating and translating documentation, sample code, tutorials and other learning resources for all open Web technologies. These include CSS, HTML, JavaScript and everything else that makes the open Web as rich and versatile as it is.

Milestones along the way include the development of its own Kuma wiki platform in 2012, and a complete redesign of the front end in 2013.

MDN_10-Milestones_UK

To celebrate the birthday it's produced an infographic showing some facts and figures on how the network is used. Visitors to the network are spread across the world with 26 percent coming from the USA.

The most viewed documents relate to JavaScript, CSS and Firefox. MDN isn't just for experienced developers though, there are 90 articles for complete beginners and people learning the Web. There's more information on the Mozilla blog or in the facts and figures infographic below.

MDN turns 10

Photo Credit: Elena Schweitzer/Shutterstock

Care to hike Mongolia? Google Maps does it for you

Publié: juillet 23, 2015, 4:09pm CEST par Alan Buckingham

mongolia

Mongolia seems to be a country largely forgotten by the outside world. Aside from Genghis Khan it appears few people know much about the Asian nation. That's a shame because it has a beautiful countryside with deserts, rivers and mountains.

Now Google wants to take you on a rather long journey through the country -- 5,000 km to be exact. All the way across Mongolia, including those beautiful Steppes.

"Last fall we strapped a Street View camera onto a four-wheel drive pickup truck to begin capturing 360-imagery from rugged Mongolian roads. Since then we’ve also gone off-road to capture images of the country’s most beautiful places with Ariuntuul, our Mongolian Trekker operator, who carried the 18-kg Street View Trekker into the wild expanses of Mongolia’s diverse countryside", says Google's Cynthia Wei.

There's real beauty here. Frozen lakes, the Salenga River and Gobi Desert. Sounds fascinating? It is, as there is much more to the country than one might expect.

Google points out that "adventurers will spend weeks exploring the hidden treasures of Mongolia". You can see it all now and without that pricey airfare. Head over to Google Maps and begin your trek.

New collaboration helps deliver self-serve analytics solutions

Publié: juillet 23, 2015, 3:48pm CEST par Ian Barker

Business intelligence is only of use if it can be delivered quickly to decision makers. That's why there's increasing demand for self-service solutions that make it easy for managers to extract information.

Enterprise BI specialist Pyramid Analytics is announcing a strategic collaboration with Microsoft to deliver development collaboration and technology integration.

The partnership will bring new features to the Microsoft Power BI Desktop. Among these will be an option to publish a Power BI Desktop file to Pyramid Analytics Server making integration between the two easier.

"Organizations are getting hooked to self-served data discovery, but want to expand the benefits beyond departmental or individual usage," says Omri Kohl, co-founder and CEO of Pyramid Analytics. "Our clients come to us to scale BI adoption and share analytics content across the enterprise. Our work with Microsoft will give Power BI Desktop users the ability to publish files to an on-premises or private cloud server for broad collaboration on BI content".

Pyramid Analytics offers a turnkey enterprise analytics solution that makes it easy to self-serve and share trusted BI content. Its approach not only ensures data integrity and privacy, but also drives meaningful, contextual, and collaborative analytics that can work for both IT and business goals. This allows organizations to expand and scale their BI adoption via governed sharing of analytics content, reports, data models, business logic, and more across the whole enterprise.

"Pyramid Analytics brings technology that complements Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services and uses all of the features of the Microsoft BI stack," says Amir Netz, Technical Fellow at Microsoft. "Pyramid Analytics has a proven record of partnering with Microsoft to deliver analytics solutions to meet the needs of our joint customers".

More information on the collaboration can be found on the Pyramid Analytics website.

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Get your finances under control with Yapbam

Publié: juillet 23, 2015, 3:47pm CEST par Mike Williams

yapbam

Managing your money can be complicated, tedious, time-consuming. It’s tempting to just leave your accounts to look after themselves, and if your finances aren’t too tight then you might get away with that. For a while, anyway.

Keeping track of your balances is a much better idea, though, and it doesn’t have to be difficult. Yapbam (Yet Another Personal Bank Account Manager) is a cross-platform personal finance manager which helps you get started almost immediately.

It’s an open source Java-based program, and there’s no installation required. Unzip the download and you can run it from a USB key on Windows, Mac, Linux -- anywhere with Java.

A bundled Sample Data file populates the various screens with dummy figures, allowing you to view the transactions screen, balance history charts, budget details, account summary and more. Play around for a few minutes and you’ll soon discover whether the program is right for you.

If you want to try Yapbam out for real then an Import tool might be able to import your transactions from another account manager or your bank’s online statements. An Entry Wizard helps you manually enter everything else, and automatically generates any regular transactions.

The program then monitors your balance, raising alerts whenever it’s negative, and producing various budget and category-based reports to show where your cash is going.

Surprising extras include the ability to synchronize your data between multiple computers via Dropbox, as well as a currency converter which grabs the latest rates from a couple of online sources.

The lack of documentation is the main problem here. Clicking help displays an empty test file, the "Documentation and Support" section of the website contains nothing on how to use the program, and although there are links to two tutorials, they have no content at all.

Still, if you’ve ever used another personal finance manager you’ll figure out Yapbam fairly quickly, and as it’s still being actively developed we’re hopeful that improvements will appear soon. Go take a look.

New tool helps businesses understand and optimize APIs

Publié: juillet 23, 2015, 3:11pm CEST par Ian Barker

API

APIs provide a convenient way of giving developers the building blocks needed to extract data from and gain insights into digital systems.

But it's important for organizations to know how APIs are performing, how they are being used and whether they're providing business value. To help with this API and cloud integration specialist Akana is launching Envision, an enhanced API analytics platform that helps enterprises to find critical insights across their systems.

"In today's digital economy, data-driven insights are proving to be a key differentiator for businesses. Understanding the data that is being tunneled through their APIs and how it can be used to optimize their business and operations is of paramount importance," says Alistair Farquharson, CTO of Akana. "We have delivered Akana Envision to extend the Akana API Management platform with powerful analytics capabilities so that digital businesses can increase agility and adapt based on intelligent insights gleaned from their API programs".

The Envision platform can be used to perform complex custom analytics or integrate with an existing analytics platform to reduce infrastructure redundancy. It targets enterprises that require advanced analytics and insights around their APIs and the data that is exchanged through them.

The platform can also help identify new opportunities and provide insights to improve business models. Envision API Analytics can identify top APIs by usage, monetization, app type, platform or channel. API owners can analyze licenses and usage as a means to fine-tune developer and partner integration. Operationally, IT professionals can use Envision to analyze how their infrastructure responds to requests from different devices, locations and request types. Enterprises gain the ability to manage the quality-of-service of their APIs, oversee quota usage and troubleshoot and react to problems before they impact on the business.

Features include policy-based data collection for regulatory and security compliance, pre-configured reports and dashboards, data import from external sources, and the ability to export to external analytics tools for further analysis.

Envision is available from today and you can find more details on the Akana website.

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Acer One 10 Windows 8.1 tablet with keyboard can be had for just $199.99

Publié: juillet 23, 2015, 2:22pm CEST par Mihaita Bamburic

Acer One 10 Windows 8.1 Tablet with keyboard

Just like with Windows Phones, Windows tablets seem to be most-attractive when they offer great value for money. There are exceptions, like Microsoft's Surface Pro 3, but generally speaking that means good hardware with a low price tag. And if there is anything extra thrown into the mix, you have a winner.

Acer's One 10 Windows 8.1 slate offers plenty of value at the $199.99 price point. It features a large touchscreen, solid internals, and, last but not least, a free keyboard in the box. That last part adds plenty of value, making it easy for One 10 to double as a small laptop replacement. And that is not all.

One 10 also comes with a one-year subscription to Microsoft Office 365 Personal, which, if purchased individually, normally costs $69.99. Basically, for $199.99, it comes with all the right features for those shopping in this segment. With the keyboard attached, the tablet can be used in four different modes, depending on orientation.

One 10 has a 10.1-inch display with a resolution of 1,280 by 800. The latter specification may not impress anyone nowadays, but at this price point, and given the other aforementioned features, it is hard to complain about it.

The slate is powered by a 1.33 GHz quad-core Intel Atom Z3735F processor, with 2 GB of RAM, and a 2,670 mAh battery. It also comes with 32 GB of internal storage, and a microSD card slot for expansion. There are two USB ports on the side, and the usual connectivity features (Wi-Fi and Bluetooth). One 10 also comes with two 2 MP cameras, on the front and back.

Needless to say, One 10 will be upgradable to Windows 10, once the operating system becomes available later this month. It is available from Best Buy.

Nokia's HERE Maps goes to BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen

Publié: juillet 23, 2015, 1:01pm CEST par David Curry

Nokia buys Alcatel-Lucent for $16.6 billion, considers selling HERE

Nokia has agreed to a deal with a consortium of German car manufacturers for the sale of Here Maps, for $2.71 billion (£1.73 billion). The deal would see Here Maps turn into an open platform, which all car manufacturers can use for navigation and mapping inside vehicles.

Volkswagen (Audi’s parent company), Daimler (Mercedes-Benz parent company) and BMW are the main buyers. The three German manufacturers managed to worm their way out of paying upwards of $4 billion (£2.56 billion), which is what Nokia was apparently looking for when all of the interest started surging on Here Maps.

Sadly, Nokia failed to convince Uber, Baidu, Alibaba, Facebook and other tech companies to stick around. Uber and Baidu even looked at a split investment in Here Maps, with Uber calling in banks to help fund the bid, but it wasn’t enough.

We’re not sure if that is incompetence on Nokia’s side, not realizing the importance of Uber’s bid and how valuable Here Maps was, or if it wanted to side with the German consortium from the start.

Either way, the consortium is the only bidder left. It plans to offer Fiat Chrysler, Renault, Peugeot, Ford, Toyota and General Motors in on the deal, allowing them to use the mapping service for free without licensing issues.

This is a much easier solution for car manufacturers, who have to pay for mapping software installments inside cars. Having this license cost removed, while maintaining a strong mapping and navigation platform, could save the car companies quite a bit per year.

Nokia is selling the entire unit of Here Maps, meaning the car consortium will likely continue hiring developers to work on the platform. Keeping it maintained is necessary, although the goal of the open platform is to remove all costs currently associated with Here Maps.

We are not sure how open the platform will be to outsiders, like Baidu. The Chinese search giant currently uses Here Maps to power Baidu Maps outside of China, and Facebook recently switched to Here Maps to power its own mapping services.

Nokia has lost quite a lot of money on mapping, originally acquiring Navteq for $8.1 billion (£5.2 billion) in 2008. It has lost most of its value since then, only recently starting to compete with Google and Apple.

Photo credit: Joe Ravi / Shutterstock

Mac security software on test

Publié: juillet 23, 2015, 11:07am CEST par Ian Barker

attack mac keyboard security malware virus

Not so long ago most Mac users would have told you that their systems didn't need any form of protection as they were inherently safe. But the world has become a more dangerous place and last year the iWorm malware is thought to have recruited some 18,000 Macs into a botnet.

Whilst experienced users who are careful about what they install and where they go online may still be justified in feeling safe using a Mac without additional protection, there's no doubt that non-experts need extra security. Particularly as cyber criminals have started to target Macs because they know more of them are unprotected.

Independent testing company AV-Comparatives has been testing 10 Mac security products to assess their usability and malware protection abilities.

The products tested are a mixture of free and paid programs: Avast Free Mac Security, AVG AntiVirus for Mac, AVIRA Free Antivirus for Mac, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac, ESET Cyber Security Pro, F-Secure SAFE for Mac, Intego Mac Premium Bundle X8, Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac, Kromtech MacKeeper, and Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac.

All were tested on OS X 10.10.3 Yosemite, against 105 samples of recent Mac malware. Compared to its Windows equivalent a Mac security product only has to identify a relatively small number of samples, but it needs to to protect the system against all threats that have not yet been blocked by OS X itself. Of those tested seven achieved 100 percent detection, two (Avira and BitDefender) 99 percent and one (Kromtech) 98 percent.

All were assessed as having good interface usability though Kromtech comes in for criticism that its initial analysis can prove misleading and delivers different results depending on whether it's run from an administrator or standard account.

For a more detailed analysis of each product you can download the full report from the AV-Comparatives website.

Photo Credit: Jirsak/Shutterstock

Windows 10 Mobile supports cutting-edge hardware

Publié: juillet 23, 2015, 11:04am CEST par David Curry

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Microsoft has revealed the minimum hardware requirements for all of its different Windows 10 platforms, including Windows 10 Mobile.

For the most part, none of the requirements are shocking. Microsoft is making sure all of the low-end options are compatible with Windows 10 Mobile, while pushing to the limit with 2K display, 4GB of RAM and octa-core processor support.

Interestingly, Microsoft only added Qualcomm and Intel processor requirements. With the low-end focus from Windows Phone 8.1 vendors, we would expect Microsoft to at least acknowledge MediaTek and Nvidia processors.

Qualcomm is the only required provider on WiFi and SoC as well, giving it a lot of influence over the Windows 10 Mobile system. That doesn’t mean Microsoft will ban providers who do not abide with Qualcomm, but for companies looking to stick to the recommended set-up, it might hurt third-party providers.

Microsoft is maintaining a stranglehold over the button placement on Windows 10 Mobile, making sure the three buttons are in a familiar pattern. Unlike Android, where manufacturers can place whatever buttons they want, Windows 10 Mobile is a lot less flexible.

These requirements don’t mean a lot to anyone, considering the major thing Windows Phone 8.1 was missing was apps. It lacked the app store iOS and Android fielded, which in turn lead consumers to look at other options.

Microsoft has plans to launch its own mobile devices, both low and high-end, in the coming months. Other manufacturers have not commented on Windows 10 Mobile and whether they will be actively supporting the operating system.

Which US airports offer the best mobile data coverage?

Publié: juillet 23, 2015, 9:56am CEST par Wayne Williams

AIrport mobile movie

With hundreds of millions of passengers passing through US airports every year, mobile networks often struggle to keep up with demand, which can result in poor and unreliable data performance.

Twice a year, RootMetrics tests mobile coverage at the 50 busiest airports in the US, using off-the-shelf smartphones to measure performance at all the places where passengers are most likely to use their phones. The latest US Airport Network Performance Review, which covers the first half of 2015, features some surprising results, including one of the busiest US airports ranking at the top and another major US airport landing near the very bottom.

The best performing networks at each airport are given a RootScore Award, and Verizon was the clear winner, earning 29 awards for excellent reliability and speed. Big Red recorded the fastest airport median download and upload speeds with a blazing-fast 68.8 Mbps download and 40.4 Mbps upload at Chicago’s Midway International Airport. Reliability was near perfect too as RootMetrics connected to the network more than 97 percent of the time at 49 of the 50 airports tested; and maintained that connection in web/app testing at least 97 percent of the time at 46 of the 50 airports.

T-Mobile came in second place with 20 awards, followed by AT&T on 13 awards. Sprint was more reliable than in previous tests, but failed to win any awards.

In addition to measuring download and upload speeds, the company performs common tasks such as checking emails, web browsing and app usage.

As to the best airports, the top five were:

Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (45,308,407 annual passengers)
Cleveland-Hopkins International (4,375,448 annual passengers)
Southwest Florida International (3,788,870 annual passengers)
San Jose International Airport (4,315,839 annual passengers)
Dallas Love Field (4,023,779 annual passengers)

Sadly for travelers in California, Los Angeles International finished in 48th, with data speeds notably slower across all carriers than at the top-ranked Hartsfield-Jackson. According to RootMetrics, a 45-minute HD video would take less than two minutes to download on T-Mobile at ATL, while that same video would take more than 13 hours to download on T-Mobile at LAX.

Photo Credit: michaeljung/Shutterstock

CyberLink launches Media Suite 13

Publié: juillet 23, 2015, 9:50am CEST par Mike Williams

cyberlink

CyberLink Corporation has released Media Suite 13, its comprehensive do-everything collection of multimedia software.

Highlights include the leading consumer video editor PowerDirector 13, PowerDVD 15 for media playback, and an excellent image editor in PhotoDirector 6.

There’s also Power2Go 10 for all your CD, DVD, Blu-ray, even BDXL-burning needs. MediaEspresso 7 is a capable media converter, and the bundle also includes MediaShow 6, PowerProducer 6, WaveEditor 2, PowerBackup 2.6, PowerDVD Copy 1.5 and Label Print 2.5 and InstantBurn.

Okay, so you probably don’t need everything, but Media Suite is all about value. The base Media Suite 13 Ultra edition is available for $129.95, not much more than PowerDVD or PowerDirector. If you can use two of the leading packages then you’re already saving money, and everything else effectively comes for free.

If only the best will do, then CyberLink has also unveiled Media Suite 13 Ultimate ($149.95). This extends the suite with three mobile apps:

Power Media Player offers HD video playback on Android, iOS and Windows devices.
PowerDirector Mobile is a smart video editor for Android and Windows.
PhotoDirector Mobile is a powerful photo editor for Android and Windows.

You also get three of CyberLink’s "Premium Content Packs": Holiday, Travel and Romance.

Media Suite 13 Ultra and Media Suite 13 Ultimate are available now for Windows Vista -- Windows 10.

Easily print custom image thumbnails with Primg

Publié: juillet 23, 2015, 9:47am CEST par Mike Williams

Primg

Windows provides many ways to browse a folder of images, but it’s much less flexible when it comes to printing. Typically you’ll have to print your pictures one at a time, or make do with whatever fixed multi-image formats your printer driver supports.

Primg is one of the simplest solutions around, a tiny portable freebie which gives much more control over your picture printouts.

A straightforward interface means you’ll feel at home immediately. Browsing to your target folder in an Explorer-type pane displays thumbnails of any images it contains. You’re able to change the number of thumbnail columns at a click, which adjusts the size of the thumbnails accordingly, and updates the Preview pane to show the results.

Individual thumbnails can have a caption -- either the file name, or the date and time the picture was taken, based on its Exif tags -- and there are options to display the folder name and page number as a header.

If you only want to print a single image, click that particular thumbnail and it appears in the "Single" view. Here you’re able to resize the image, and/ or drag and drop it into your preferred position on the page.

Alternatively, the "Multiple Fixed Form" tab displays multiple thumbnails of your selected image. There are options to set their width, height, the spacing on the page and the number of images to print in total.

Whatever you’re doing, the Print button sends your work to the printer in a couple of clicks.

Primg won’t be right for every situation. In particular, it can’t print a selection of pictures -- it’s all the images in a folder, or just one. But if you can live with that then it’s quick, simple and easy to use, and a great way to get just a little more image printing flexibility.

Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview Build 10166 finally arrives on the Slow ring

Publié: juillet 23, 2015, 8:55am CEST par Wayne Williams

It’s taken two weeks to get there, but finally Microsoft has deemed the latest build of Windows 10 Mobile stable enough for Slow ring Insiders.

While the mobile version of the OS isn’t likely to launch until the fall, Microsoft is now mostly working on improving stability and squashing bugs along with some small changes and feature tweaks.

The majority of the known issues listed in Build 10149 have been addressed in this new release. Microsoft has also fixed the problem with the missing post-upgrade migration status screen. To anyone updating to Build 10149 it looked as if the process had frozen, when it fact it hadn’t. Another bug that has been resolved in the new build is the problem some Insiders encountered whereby they were unable to unlock their phones despite entering the correct PIN.

Problems with incorrect app colors have been resolved and the reliability of app downloads and updates from the Store have also been improved.

The tiny battery icon has been enlarged as well.

Microsoft suggests that once you’ve updated to the new build you go to the Store and grab the latest app updates, as there have been lots of improvements made to those in recent weeks.