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BetaNews.Com (14 non lus)

Disable those 'Get Windows 10' pop-ups with GWX Stopper

Publié: janvier 18, 2016, 9:23pm CET par Mike Williams

While it’s great that Microsoft is offering free upgrades to Windows 10, it’s maybe less impressive that they’re using regular pop-up ads to tell us about this. Over, and over, and over again.

If you’re happy with Windows 7 or 8 then there are various ways to get rid of these alerts, but GWX Stopper is probably the simplest of all.

The program requires installation, which is annoying for something so basic. But there’s no adware, no marketing beyond a few buttons and links which open the developer’s website, so it’s entirely safe to use.

Operations couldn’t be any easier. Run the program as an administrator, click the big red "Stop GWX!" button, wait, and within a few seconds you’ll be told it’s disabled.

That’s it. No, really. There’s not even a "Start GWX" button to undo the changes, should you want to do so -- it’s one-way only.

What makes GWX Stopper unusual is the developer doesn’t try to hide its simplicity, in fact he tells you precisely what it’s doing in the Readme.txt:

This command will disable the GWX scheduling tasks and renames the folder: c:\Windows\System32\GWX to "GWX-".

He spells out how to reverse these changes, too:

1. To restore GWX you should rename the folder: "c:\Windows\System32\GWX-” to “c:\Windows\System32\GWX".
2. Open Windows Task Scheduler.
3. Go to the folder: Microsoft\Windows\Setup\GWX.
4. Enable GWX and GWXTriggers scheduled tasks.
5. Restart your computer.

Although that seems (okay, is) extremely basic, it makes a refreshing change to see someone detail exactly what they’re doing. Unlike other tools we’ve seen, which, for example, claim to disable the upgrade to Windows 10, but hide the underlying mechanics, which can be as dangerous as disabling the Windows Update service.

If you’re an experienced Windows user then you could use this information to disable GWX yourself, of course. It’ll probably be quicker than downloading, installing, using and uninstalling the program, too.

But if you’ve a less technical friend who needs some help then GWX Stopper is a simple and relatively safe way to get rid of those Windows 10 alerts.

GWX Stopper is a free-for-personal-use application for Windows 7 and later.
Big Data EMEA revenue to reach $2.7bn by 2019

Publié: janvier 18, 2016, 9:11pm CET par Sead Fadilpašić

Big Data, and its infrastructure is expected to grow significantly in the next four years, a new study by the International Data Corporation (IDC) shows.

IDC has done an in-depth market sizing of the Big Data infrastructure in Europe, Middle East and Africa, including servers and storage, as well as cloud resources, and here are the results:

Big Data-related server shipments will jump from six percent this year to 16 percent by 2019. The business is currently valued at $1 billion (£700m), but will be worth $2.7bn (£1.88bn) by the same year.

The storage capacity will reach 20 exabytes. If you’re not sure how much that is, here’s a Wikipedia article.

The analysis also says 134,000 server units got shipped in 2015 for Big Data, as well as 764 petabytes of storage capacity. Most of the storage was external, it adds.

Compliance is the main reason why most of the data, especially sensitive one, will remain in companies’ own datacenters, although analytics workloads will be moved to the public cloud.

Public cloud infrastructure share of Big Data workloads is expected to jump from 19 percent to 34 percent by 2019, and storage capacity on public clouds will also rise, from 25 percent to 55 percent by 2019.

"Big Data and analytics have risen to the top of executives’ and developers’ agendas as the technology has evolved and mindsets are starting to change in organizations in EMEA", said Andreas Olah, senior research analyst, European Datacenters and Big Data, IDC. "The main challenge is not the data or its volume, but the ability to generate value from it"

"Many customers are still at the beginning of their journey and still don’t know where to start. Others have high ambitions and clear ideas but are slowed down by increasing complexities and the lack of highly skilled data scientists and developers", adds Olah.

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

Image Credit: Tashatuvango / Shutterstock
France joins the Netherlands in saying no to cryptographic backdoors

Publié: janvier 18, 2016, 7:51pm CET par Alan Buckingham

Secure communications exist for many reasons, including free speech from behind the borders of certain nations, to business secrets being discussed. These days it's under attack from several sectors, including law enforcement agencies investigating crimes and those who claim to need info for catching terrorists -- something we've recently found can be futile in some cases.

Just the other day we heard that the state of New York is looking to legislate backdoors into mobile devices, a law that seems unlikely to pass, given the amount of opposition and evidence against it being effective to anyone but the hackers, who are likely to be quick to find these openings.

For its part, the Netherlands has already stood up against allowing this. The country is not alone now as France is saying "non" to these tactics. In fact, in a staunch answer to this perceived controversy, France described the idea as "vulnerability by design". Stating further "While the intention is commendable, it opens the door to actors whose intentions are less than commendable". France's Digital Minister stated simply "In the government’s view, this is not a good solution".

Companies such as Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo, Facebook and, most notably Apple have all spoken out against such a plan, with Tim Cook being especially vocal.

These calls by government agencies and law enforcement will continue, this battle is far from being over, but minor victories, as France has provided, are greatly appreciated.

Photo credit: Maksim Kabakou / Shutterstock
Doro PDF printer adds color conversion, page rotation controls

Publié: janvier 18, 2016, 7:06pm CET par Mike Williams

Lightweight virtual PDF printer Doro has been updated with new color conversion and page rotation settings.

If the default "UseDeviceIndependentColor" color conversion strategy doesn’t work, then you can now convert to RGB, CMYK or grayscale, or just use the colors in the source document.

Doro has also gained the option to detect page rotations by page, for the whole file, or not at all (the source isn’t reformatted at all).

As with previous editions, these advanced settings are hard to spot because they don’t have an interface -- they’re only accessible via an INI file (Settings > Doro.ini).

It you can live with that, Doro does offer a reasonable feature set. You’re able to set metadata, encryption, apply security restrictions, set your default page layout, and the page to be displayed on opening the PDF file, among other options.

Better still, Doro has no awkward dependencies, not even .NET, which means it runs on anything from Windows 95 up.

If you’ve a legacy system which needs PDF support then this could be a good choice.

Doro is a freeware application for Windows 95 and later.
Apple's iAd may soon allow developers to keep all the revenue

Publié: janvier 18, 2016, 5:54pm CET par Anthony Spadafora

Back in 2010, Steve Jobs revealed Apple’s new mobile advertising platform iAd. The goal of this new venture into advertising was to make the mobile ads that appeared in iPhone and iPad apps interactive and more stylish.

Apple users would also be able to remain within the current app they were using without being forced out of the app and into their browser. The iAd platform was able to achieve this but it came at a high cost and required advertisers to relinquish power to Apple, which had final say over which ads were approved. The company was also reluctant to share the marketing data it acquired through iAd.

Apple has now decided to take a step back in regard to iAd after six years of running the mobile advertising platform. It is rumored that the company will soon allow publishers to take over the responsibilities of ad creation, sales, and the management of iAd.

Apple has already begun to disband the iAd sales force in preparation for the upcoming transfer of leadership and they will most likely receive buyouts. It has also updated the iAd platform to enable publishers to sell their ads through it directly and those who do so will be able to keep 100 percent of the ad revenue generated.

According to data from the firm EMarketer, iAd just had a 5.1 percent share of the total advertising revenue earned from mobile devices in 2015. This is quite a low percentage when compared to Google’s 9.5 percent and especially to Facebook’s 37.9 per cent.

Hopefully this new direction for iAd will give the advertising platform a chance at living up to Jobs’ original vision.

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

Photo credit: Maen Zayyad / Shutterstock
Apple dismisses diversity proposal to shake up board of directors as 'unduly burdensome'

Publié: janvier 18, 2016, 5:25pm CET par Mark Wilson

A call by shareholders to do more to increase diversity on Apple's board of directors has been soundly rejected by the company. The board is currently predominantly white and male, leading to calls for an "accelerated recruitment policy requiring Apple to increase the diversity of senior management and its board of directors".

But in a proxy statement, the board can be seen to have voted against the proposal, saying that it would be "unduly burdensome and not necessary because Apple has demonstrated to shareholders its commitment to inclusion and diversity". The result of the vote will come as something of a surprise as Tim Cook has admitted that the company has much to do to improve diversity.

Shareholders suggest that the board of directors and senior management "presently fail to adequately represent diversity (particularly Hispanic, African-American, Native-American and other people of colour)". Voicing the proposal, shareholder Antonio Avian Maldonado says:

Shareholders' view of diversity -- that everyone matters (irrespective of colour, race, sex, creed or religion) -- recognizes the Company's commitment to diversity and the uniqueness of experience, strength, culture, thought and commitment contributed by each employee; however, it does not ignore the Company's senior management and board of directors diminutive level of diversity and its painstakingly slow implementation.

Overall, by its own public disclosure, the number of minorities holding senior management-level positions or board of directorship within the Company does not reflect the Company's demographic data.

Apple rejects the suggestion, saying that its approach to diversity is "much broader than the 'accelerated recruitment policy' requested". The company -- seemingly missing the point of the proposal -- says that it is interested in addressing diversity across Apple as a whole, pointing to scholarship schemes it runs to attract students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (Apple's capitalization).

In its proxy statement issued ahead of February's shareholder meeting, Apple concludes by saying:

This proposal would require the Board to adopt an accelerated recruitment policy for increasing diversity among senior management and the Board. We believe that the proposal is unduly burdensome and not necessary because Apple has demonstrated to shareholders its commitment to inclusion and diversity, which are core values for our company.

Photo credit: Terrance Emerson / Shutterstock
What's on your wrist? Wearable market expected to continue its surge

Publié: janvier 18, 2016, 4:18pm CET par Alan Buckingham

Apple Watch, Android Wear, Google Glass, the list of wearable technology continues to grow longer. New products were unveiled just recently at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. We saw items like the watch from Casio, which may appeal to this year's buyers.

The trend is expected to continue, at least according to a new report from Irish firm Research and Markets. How big will this growth be?

According to the numbers, 2014 saw sales of 25.3 million devices, while in 2015 these shot up to 72.5 million. The analysts project this to continue, reaching 228.3 million in the year 2020. The firm also expects Bluetooth to remain the primary means of connectivity, although it claims cellular will have a large place in the future market.

The entry by Apple into this market caused a large response from rivals rushing to add new products to the lineups. This has even reached the more traditional manufacturers like Fossil and TAG Heuer.

As of today, fitness trackers still have the lion's share of the market, accounting for 51 million of 2015's sales. "Market pioneers such as Fitbit, Jawbone and Garmin have in the past years been joined by an abundance of companies including major players from the smartphone industry. Xiaomi has been particularly successful with its affordable trackers and the company is the only fitness tracker vendor which can compete with Fitbit in terms of sales volumes", says Johan Svanberg.

That category may increasingly suffer as a growing number of smartwatches offer the same functionality. However the dedicated devices are still expected to rise slightly in marketshare.

Will 2016 be the year you purchase wearable technology, or have you already? Or perhaps you just have no interest at all? It certainly isn't for everyone.
Is your iPhone 6s' battery percentage off? Apple explains why and how to fix it

Publié: janvier 18, 2016, 2:54pm CET par Mihaita Bamburic

Apple has finally acknowledged that the battery percentage shown on iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus may not always be accurately displayed by iOS 9. Users have reported issues since the two flagships were introduced last year, in September.

According to user reports, the battery percentage on the two devices will stop updating after a certain level is reached, leading to an empty battery much sooner than indicated. Users say that a restart will force iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus to display an accurate readout again, at least temporarily. But what causes it?

This bug, Apple says, is triggered when users manually change the time or they change time zones when traveling. The company also recommends users perform a restart, but also to set the time to be automatically updated. If that does not work, Apple suggests contacting support.

To enable the automatic updating of the time, you have to go to the Settings menu, open General, tap on Date & Time and turn on the Set Automatically option. Normally, this option is turned on by default.

Apple says that it is working on a permanent fix, but there is no estimate offered as to when it will be available. A solution is likely to be offered in iOS 9.3, which is now undergoing testing.

Photo Credit: Wayne Williams
Don’t want Windows 10? Here's how to say no to the upgrade in Windows 7 and 8.1

Publié: janvier 18, 2016, 2:11pm CET par Wayne Williams
Fed up of Microsoft aggressively pushing Windows 10 on you? Happy to stick with Windows 7 or 8.1? You’re not alone.

Microsoft doesn’t make it easy to say no to Windows 10 (wouldn’t it be great if there was a "no thanks" button you could click to make the upgrade message and installation files simply go away?) but you can reject it using a Group Policy Setting or a registry tweak.

To block the Windows 10 upgrade using Group Policy (only available on Pro, Business and Enterprise editions) you may firstly need to download and install an update for your version of Windows.
- Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 users need KB3065987.
- Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 users need KB3065988.
Once installed, restart your PC and navigate to Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update.

Double-click on Turn off the upgrade to the latest version of Windows through Windows Update.

Click Enable to action the setting.

Alternatively, if you don’t have the Group Policy Editor you can use the Registry Editor to block the upgrade, although it may not be as effective.

Navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate. Right-click and select New > Dword (32-bit) Value. Call this DisableOSUpgrade and give it a value of 1.

Next go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\GWX. Create a new Dword (32-bit) Value and call it DisableGWX. Double-click it and set its value to 1.

Finally, another option you might want to consider is to install the GWX Control Panel which handles all of the hard work for you and does a great job of blocking the upgrade.
BlackBerry denies existence of security backdoors and blames 'cracked' encryption on user error

Publié: janvier 18, 2016, 1:49pm CET par Mark Wilson

BlackBerry has spoken out to deny claims that its encryption has been cracked by groups associated with the police in the Netherlands. The company has long-prided itself on the level of security it offers, but that security has been called into question recently.

Reports circulated that Mexican drug lord El Chapo was able to be found partly because of his decision to use a BlackBerry (specifically a BlackBerry Z30, fact fans) to arrange interviews with actor Sean Penn. Coming after claims by the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) that it had been able to decrypt hundreds of encrypted emails on a BlackBerry handset, the Canadian company felt compelled to respond -- by blaming user error.

In a statement in a blog post, the company said: "BlackBerry does not have any details on the specific device or the way that it was configured, managed or otherwise protected, nor do we have details on the nature of the communications that are claimed to have been decrypted".

BlackBerry goes on to say:

If such an information recovery did happen, access to this information from a BlackBerry device could be due to factors unrelated to how the BlackBerry device was designed, such as user consent, an insecure third party application, or deficient security behavior of the user.

Furthermore, there are no backdoors in any BlackBerry devices, and BlackBerry does not store and therefore cannot share BlackBerry device passwords with law enforcement or anyone else. In other words, provided that users follow recommended practices, BlackBerry devices remain as secure and private as they have always been.

Enough to calm the fears of the security-conscious? That remains to be seen.

Photo credit: Maksim Kabakou / Shutterstock
How to restore features Microsoft removed from Windows 10

Publié: janvier 18, 2016, 12:44pm CET par Wayne Williams

Windows 10 is a decent operating system, but Microsoft has seen fit to remove certain features found in previous iterations of the OS.

If you’ve upgraded to Windows 10 and have been disappointed to discover one or more of your favorite features have been removed, the good news is it should be possible to restore the missing functionality without too much effort.

What you need is the Missed Features Installer (MFI) for Windows 10. This is a 1.3GB ISO file which includes a ton of third-party programs, such as Classic Shell, Gadgets 2.0, This PC Tweaker, and the Windows Experience Index Tool. It also includes programs pulled from past versions of Windows.

To use it you need to mount, burn or open the ISO file, and launch the application on a PC running Windows 10. You can then choose which elements to install. The first screen of the menu includes options such as Start Menu, .Net Frameworks, Aero Glass, DirectX 9.0c, Gadgets, and Games (XP/Vista/7).

The menu displays a Click me 1st link and running this so will turn UAC off in order for Missed Features Installer to work properly.

On the next screen you can, among other things, install Windows Media Center and 'Destory' (sic) Win Spying. The third and final screen offers a selection of tools including Briefcase, Windows Movie Maker 6.0, and Windows Mail (from Windows 7), as well as some advanced settings.

Clicking any of the options will either present you with a choice of tools to install (in the case of the Start menu you can choose between Classic Shell and Start Menu Orbs), or simply begin the installation process.

You’ll probably want to create a backup of your system before you make any wholesale changes so you can revert to how things were in the event of problems. The software can’t do this for you.
Cyber attacks on industrial Internet of Things are on the rise

Publié: janvier 18, 2016, 12:34pm CET par Alasdair Gilchrist

The United States government has revealed that it has detected a rise in cyber criminal attacks on industrial control systems.

The concern is that with leading manufactures and grid power producers’ early adoption of the industrial internet of things -- and Industry 4.0 which are commercial and industry versions of the Internet of Things -- sufficient safeguards have not been put in place to protect them from the internet.

Previously, these industrial companies had systems that were securely locked down and not connected or accessible to the outside world. The Industrial internet of Things (IIoT) has changed all that though, with companies embracing the internet to leverage remote control and management on a global basis.

There is also the new commercial and business model of utilizing big data collection and analytics, which requires cloud storage and internet access. However, opening up industrial and commercial systems to the Internet has also opened doors to potential attacks.

Not only is the potential scale of attacks far larger from an internet scale perspective, most industrial IT firms do not have the battle hardened skills of dealing with web scale attacks as they are accustomed to dealing with a fortress approach to IT security.

"We see more and more that are gaining access to that control system layer", said Marty Edwards, who runs the Department of Homeland Security’s Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team, or ICS-CERT. "I am very dismayed at the accessibility of some of these networks... they are just hanging right off the tubes".

Dave Palmer, director of Technology at Darktrace also commented: "This marks a dangerous and long predicted shift in the targets of hackers where industrial control systems and basic infrastructure is at risk in addition to the banking and credit card attacks we are used to hearing about".

"If attacks move beyond intellectual property theft and intelligence collection to disrupting or destroying critical infrastructure then, more than ever, organizations within this sector really need to ensure that they have the right strategies and immune systems in place to detect emerging threats and respond to them before a crisis occurs", adds Palmer.

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

Image credit: Gustavo Frazao / Shutterstock
Microsoft announces new flagship event for business leaders

Publié: janvier 18, 2016, 9:49am CET par Alasdair Gilchrist
Microsoft has introduced a new flagship event for business leaders, called Microsoft Envision, which will take place in New Orleans between April 4 and April 6, and registration is open now.

Microsoft Envision is designed to replace Microsoft Convergence as the premier event for business leaders such as CxOs and their senior department and functional leaders.

Microsoft Envision is, according to Microsoft, for those who drive the future and position their organizations and business IT strategy for success in the new mobile and cloud centric world.

Envision therefore is targeted at business leaders and so attendees of Microsoft Envision should expect to gain insights and uncover solutions. More importantly attendees are likely to build connections and exchange ideas at the strategic visionary level.

Microsoft has revealed that the event In New Orleans will include:
- Keynotes and interactive sessions with a broad slate of visionaries, experts and innovators
- Functional and industry-specific content to provide relevant insights and solutions
- Opportunities to build valuable connections that last beyond the event
Thankfully, for those of us with a less lofty position and a more practical than visionary perspective, Microsoft Ignite will continue and address the concerns and provide hands-on labs, demos and access to product experts.

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.
Watch the final Democratic debate live on YouTube

Publié: janvier 18, 2016, 3:25am CET par Alan Buckingham

It's that time of the year. Campaign season, like the holiday shopping season, seems to begin earlier all the time. It's fascinating in some inexplicable way, but then again people slow down to look at car wrecks also. Regardless of who you are throwing your vote behind, it's good to watch the seemingly endless debates to get a feel for each candidate in the presidential election. And with Iowa right around the corner it's crunch time.

Tonight is the final Democratic debate and, unlike the plethora of folks on stage in the Republican contests, there are only three to focus on. We won't go into the good and bad of any of them, that's personal opinion and you should make up your own mind.

The good news here is that you can watch it right on your computer, via YouTube. "Not only will this be the first debate live streamed on a social media platform this election cycle, but you can expect to see some of your favorite YouTube creators involved", the service says.

The contest kicks off at 9pm ET on NBC, but the network also has a YouTube channel that will allow users to catch the action. Regardless of your allegiance or party affiliation, enjoy this tonight.

Image Credit: Andrea Izzotti / Shutterstock