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BetaNews.Com (21 non lus)

Android N Developer Preview 2 available to download now

Publié: avril 13, 2016, 11:30pm CEST par Mark Wilson

android_n_logo

It's only a few weeks since the first developer preview of Android N was released, but now it's time for the second. Google has announced the availability of Android N Developer Preview 2 packed with bug fixes and a raft of new features.

Among the new tools for developers to play with is Vulkan, a new 3D rendering API which Google says provides a big performance boost for certain apps. Other key additions include support for the more human-looking Emoji Unicode 9, and new launcher shortcuts that can be used to quickly jump to specific actions within an app.

Android N Developer Preview 2 also includes API improvements for multi-window support, giving developers the ability to specify height and width for an activity. As before, the preview build is only available for a limited number of devices -- which will hopefully expand over time -- but the range of bug fixes is impressive (although, of course, there are still a number of known issues).

In a blog post, Google explains how to get hold of Android N Developer Preview 2:

The easiest way to get this and later preview updates is by enrolling your devices in the Android Beta Program. Just visit g.co/androidbeta and opt-in your eligible Android phone or tablet -- you’ll soon receive this (and later) preview updates over-the-air. If you’ve already enrolled your device, you’ll receive the update shortly, no action is needed on your part. You can also download and flash this update manually. Developer Preview 2 is intended for developers and not as a daily driver; this build is not yet optimized for performance and battery life.

The N Developer Preview is currently available for Nexus 6, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus 9, and Pixel C devices, as well as General Mobile 4G [Android One] devices. For Nexus Player, the update to Developer Preview 2 will follow the other devices by several days.

To build and test apps with Developer Preview 2, you need to use Android Studio 2.1 -- the same version that was required for Developer Preview 1. You’ll need to check for SDK components updates (including build tools and emulator system images) for Developer Preview 2 -- see here for details.

Can Microsoft's online demo persuade you to upgrade to Windows 10?

Publié: avril 13, 2016, 8:52pm CEST par Wayne Williams

Windows 10 demo

Microsoft is doing its best to persuade users of Windows 7 and 8.1 to upgrade to Windows 10. Having seen reasonable -- but not outstanding -- upgrade numbers as a result of aggressively ramming the new OS down users’ throats, the software giant is now trying to sell the benefits of Windows 10 to those customers still on the fence.

An online Windows 10 demo covering PC, Tablet and Phone lets users see the new OS in action, and gives them the opportunity to upgrade if they like what's on offer.

Select a device type at the top, and then pick a category you’re interested in from the list down the left hand side. Options for the PC are:

Work across my devices
Meet Cortana
Get more done
Stay organized
Get apps and more
Personalize my PC
Keep in touch
Browse the web
Manage my photos
Have more fun
Find my way with maps

Once you’ve selected one of those you can choose a particular area you’re interested in, and the relevant video will play on the right.

If you want to know how to "get more done", for example, the demo will show you how to mark up and share web pages, work on the go, work hands free, take notes with you, and instantly unlock your PC.

Should the videos do their job of convincing you to upgrade, you can do so by clicking the Shop Now button on the site.

You can try the demo here.

What do you think? Are you tempted to upgrade, and if not, what's holding you back?

Cyber-criminals run things like a business

Publié: avril 13, 2016, 8:42pm CEST par Sead Fadilpašić

hacker malware

This cyber-crime thing has gotten to a point where we now really need a digital Batman to fix everything. Security firm Symantec has recently released its Internet Security Threat Report, revealing that cyber-criminals are almost as good as state-sponsored attackers.

They’re highly skilled, well-organized and structured like a business. Here’s what Kevin Haley, director at Symantec Security Response says:

"Advanced criminal attack groups now echo the skill sets of nation-state attackers. They have extensive resources and a highly-skilled technical staff that operate with such efficiency that they maintain normal business hours and even take the weekends and holidays off. We are even seeing low-level criminal attackers create call center operations to increase the impact of their scams". Yeah, I only have Sony Entertainment left to hack this week, then I can go to Bora Bora for a couple of days.

Zero-day vulnerabilities are on the price nowadays. Advanced groups will either take advantage of them, or sell them on the open market. Symantec says that the number of zero-day vulnerabilities discovered in 2015 more than doubled, to 54, breaking records along the way. Compared to a year before, this represents a 124 per cent jump.

The report also sheds some light on data theft, saying that more than half a billion personal information records were either stolen, or lost, last year. Encryption is now used by cyber-crooks to keep data hostage, a practice also known as ransomware. Scam is also making a comeback, with fake tech support centers (a 200 percent increase last year) being the most popular one.

Image Credit: alphaspirit/Shutterstock

Women and black writers are the biggest victims of abusive online comments

Publié: avril 13, 2016, 6:56pm CEST par Mark Wilson

abuse

Online abuse is a serious problem. While the likes of Twitter and Facebook are great platforms for trolls to indulge their hobby, it's the good, old-fashioned comments section where you'll find some of the most obvious examples of threats and abuse. The problem is so great that many websites have taken the seemingly drastic step of completely disabling comments on stories, while others do so on an individual basis for articles that could prove controversial.

Clearly this is less than ideal. In many ways it could be viewed as a form of censorship that curtails freedom of speech, and comments can be a valuable way to help a story to evolve. For many sites, comments are a black and white topic; on or off. Moderation -- again, often seen as a type of censorship -- is often employed, but this does little to stop abuse aimed at writers. The Guardian has conducted research into the abuse dealt out via comments on its site, and the findings make for disturbing reading.

It has been argued that the world of tech, and the internet, is dominated by white men and that there is more than a hint of racism and sexism. An article entitled The dark side of Guardian comments bears this out. In depth analysis of more than 70 million comments reveals that when looking at the top 10 'most abused' writers, 80 percent of them are women and 60 percent are black.

As the Guardian notes, the comments section of just about any website is often home to truly hateful abuse:

The Guardian was not the only news site to turn comments on, nor has it been the only one to find that some of what is written 'below the line' is crude, bigoted or just vile. On all news sites where comments appear, too often things are said to journalists and other readers that would be unimaginable face to face -- the Guardian is no exception.

This is not really surprising. The veil of anonymity, and the barrier of distance, that the web affords trolls means people often feel free to unleash torrents of abuse that would be unimaginable in another medium. But it is the breakdown of the most abused writers that is both interesting and disturbing, confirming fears that sexism and racism are rife online.

The Guardian itself points out that the majority of its opinion writers are white men. While many would view this as an issue in itself, these same white men do not find themselves to be on the receiving end of the majority of abuse. Regardless of topic, articles written by women result in more trolling and abuse than those written by men.

The 10 regular writers who got the most abuse were eight women (four white and four non-white) and two black men. Two of the women and one of the men were gay. And of the eight women in the 'top 10', one was Muslim and one Jewish.

And the 10 regular writers who got the least abuse? All men.

What's particularly interesting is that in stereotypically male arenas such as sport and technology, female writers found themselves on the end of more comments deemed blockable by moderators. Some individual topics also attracted more unpleasant comments than others:

We also found that some subjects attracted more abusive or disruptive comments than others. Conversations about crosswords, cricket, horse racing and jazz were respectful; discussions about the Israel/Palestine conflict were not. Articles about feminism attracted very high levels of blocked comments. And so did rape.

The primary focus of the analysis was the different reception men and women enjoyed, but it did reveal more.

We focused on gender in this research partly because we wanted to test the theory that women experience more abuse than men. But both writers and moderators observe that ethnic and religious minorities, and LGBT people also appear to experience a disproportionate amount of abuse.

Running a website means walking a narrow line between saying 'anything goes' and becoming over-enthusiastic with the ban hammer. The Guardian's research throws some interesting light on just how complicated the commenting ecosystem is. Do you give people a free rein to say whatever they want -- risking things going wildly off-topic or getting abusive and personal -- or do you risk accusations of limiting free speech by stepping in as a moderator when things get out of hand?

It's not an easy question to answer, and it's made all the more difficult once gender and race are thrown into the equation.

Photo credit: aastock / Shutterstock

ASUS ROG Spatha MMO-focused gaming mouse has 12 programmable buttons, wired or wireless

Publié: avril 13, 2016, 6:48pm CEST par Brian Fagioli

rogspartha1

While a talented gamer can get by with any mouse, a gaming device is often preferred. These game-focused mice sometimes feature additional buttons, adjustable weights, and variable DPI. Plus, of course, they often look futuristic and have LED lights, because, you know, all gamers must have such things (sarcasm).

Today, ASUS announces its newest gaming mouse -- the ROG (Republic of Gamers) Spatha. While it looks really cool and is chock full of features, there is one such feature that I really love -- it can be both wired and wireless. If the battery gets low, or depletes entirely, you can connect a cable and continue to game. When you do need to add some juice, the magnetic charger has you covered. That's really cool.

"The Spatha can be a wired mouse and offers wireless freedom as well, featuring an 8200 dpi laser sensor with the ability to track 30g (gravitational) acceleration, 150 ips (inches per second) and at 2000Hz for polling rate (in wired mode, 1000Hz for wireless). The Mayan-patterned grip and ergonomic design make sure you have complete command of the mouse even if you have ginormous hands. The Spatha is perfect for the palm or claw grip", says ASUS.

The company further says, "No matter what games you're into, the 12 programmable buttons including six for the thumb will have you covered - even for MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) games. The large left and right buttons are separated from the body for responsiveness while different Japanese-made Omron switches offer different tactile-feel, up to 20-million click lifespan, and can be easily swapped out (extra switches come bundled). The Alps encoder scroll wheel provides smooth and accurate movement, vital for when cycling through weapons or the inventory. A 2-level dpi switch with light indicator is perfect for FPS (First Person Shooter) games where you want to zoom in and out instantly to snipe, horizontal (X) and vertical (Y) sensitivity can be customized independently to help keep the crosshair leveled for more headshots".

ASUS shares the following specs and features.

Connectivity	Wireless RF 2.4GHz Wired via USB 2.0
Tracking resolution	8200DPI laser sensor
Tracking speed	150 inches per second
Tracking acceleration	30g
Responsiveness	2000Hz polling rate (in wired mode) 1000 Hz polling rate (in wireless mode)
Switch	OMRON D2FC-F-7N(20M) with 20-million-click lifespan Additional OMRON D2F-01F switches included Compatible switches: OMRON D2F Series switches: D2F, D2F-F, D2F-01, D2F-01F OMRON D2FC Series switches: D2FC-3M, D2FC-F-7N, D2FC-F-7N(10M) , D2FC-F-7N(20M)
Cables	2m braided USB cable 1m rubber USB cable
OS compatibility	Windows 10 Windows 8.1 Windows 8 Windows 7
Package contents	1 x wireless receiver/ charging dock 1 x 2-meter braided USB cable 1 x 1-meter regular rubber USB cable 2 x Japanese-made Omron switches 1 x ROG hard carry case 2 x ROG logo stickers 1 x screwdriver User documentation
Size	137 x 89 x 45mm
Weight	175g (without cable)

Click to view slideshow.

While the mouse should work fine on Linux or OS X, it is designed for Microsoft's operating system. The customization software, which allows you to do things like change the lighting color, or acceleration, is a Windows-only affair. This isn't a huge deal as that operating system is still the choice for PC gamers -- for now.

If you want to buy the ASUS Rog Spatha, I unfortunately do not have any information on pricing or availability. ASUS is remaining quiet on the subject for now. With that said, it will almost certainly be expensive -- over $100 is almost a guarantee.

Do you want it? Tell me in the comments.

animate_6

Meizu Pro 6 is a new flagship Android smartphone with 10-core processor

Publié: avril 13, 2016, 6:32pm CEST par Mihăiță Bamburic

Meizu Pro 6

The Android flagships introduced so far this year feature an octa-core processor, typically a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820. Hardly anyone can argue that eight cores are not enough for whatever apps and games users might want to run. Meizu is an exception as with its latest high-end smartphone it is taking things up a notch.

Meizu's new Pro 6 is among the first, if not the first, smartphone to feature a 10-core processor, namely a Helio X25 chip with four Cortex-A53 cores at 1.4 GHz, four Cortex-A53 cores at 2 GHz and two Cortex-A72 cores at 2.5 GHz. On paper it looks much more impressive than a Samsung Galaxy S7 or HTC 10.

The 10-core processor is not the only feature that sets Pro 6 apart from the competition, as the flagship also features 3D Press. That is a Meizu's speak for a pressure-sensitive display, similar to what Apple has introduced in iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. The Samsung-made AMOLED screen measures 5.2 inches in diagonal, and has a resolution of 1,080 by 1,920. That's a bit low compared to the display on Galaxy S7 and HTC 10, but it's more than enough for the respective size.

The processor is backed by 4 GB of RAM, and there are two storage tiers: 32 GB and 64 GB, both eMMC 5.1 enabled. There is no microSD expansion listed in the specs sheet, so if you are interested in it you might want to opt for the latter version.

In the imaging department, Pro 6 features a 21.16 MP rear-facing camera with an f/2.2 aperture lens. There is phase-detection included, but no optical image stabilization. Focusing time is said to be 0.07s. On paper, it looks like it will struggle to keep up with the competition in low-light conditions. The front camera is a 5 MP unit, with an f/2.0 aperture lens.

There is a fingerprint sensor, called mTouch 2.1, embedded in the home button. Meizu quotes a 0.2s response time; it is designed to store up to five fingerprints.

Pro 6 has a 2,560 mAh battery, which is smaller than what its main competitors offer. That said, it supports quick charging (called mCharge 3.0 in this case), which enables a 24W charging rate. It will charge fully in an hour. Worth pointing out is that there's a USB 3.1 Type-C port at the bottom.

The smartphone measures 147.7 x 70.8 x 7.25 mm and weighs 160 g. The higher weight is likely due to it having a metal body and that 3D Touch-like display.

There is no word on what version of Android underpins Meizu's distribution, called Flyme, but by the looks of it it appears to be 6.0 Marshmallow.

As far as pricing and availability go, Meizu will sell the 32 GB Pro 6 for CNY 2,500 and the 64 GB version for CNY 2,800, starting on April 23. That is about $386 and $433, respectively, which is slightly higher than what Xiaomi asks for its Mi 5, but way below what you can expect to pay for an unlocked Galaxy S7.

Crowdsourcing platform creates insights from unstructured data

Publié: avril 13, 2016, 5:54pm CEST par Ian Barker

people crowd

Getting useful information from unstructured data is a notoriously difficult and time consuming task, but the launch of a new intelligent crowdsourcing platform could be about to change that.

The Spare5 platform uses a known community of specialists to accomplish custom micro-tasks that, filtered for quality, allow product owners to train powerful artificial intelligence models, improve their search and browse experiences, augment their directories and more.

According to IDG, unstructured data is growing at the rate of 62 percent annually and by 2022, 93 percent of all data will be unstructured. The Spare5 platform applies a combination of human insights and machine learning to solve the increasingly complex problem of using unstructured data, including images, video, social media content and text messages. Among the company's first wave of customers are Avvo, Expedia, Getty Images, GoPro, and Sentient Technologies.

"The old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words is true, but it's just the beginning. Spare5 is providing us breakthrough value by delivering nuanced human insights into our photos, at a value and scale that was unthinkable just a year ago," says Steve Heck, CTO of Getty Images.

Recognizing that all people have some expertise, valuable interests and free time, Spare5 has amassed a community of subject matter specialists across a wide range of skills and demographics, and built a library of game-like tasks. This approach enables Spare5 to ensure the right task goes to the right person. In order to continuously improve accuracy its Reputation Engine applies machine learning to rate each individual's performance.

As customers use the platform over time, the process becomes faster, smarter and better. Using a variety of SDKs and APIs, processed data can be easily integrated into existing data workflows and exported to produce top-line business reports.

"Our mission is to tap the world's potential brainpower," says Matt Bencke, founder and CEO of Spare5. "Businesses need specialized human insights to solve complex data problems. It used to be somewhere between impossible and impractical to crowdsource specialized insights at scale, with confidence and speed. Not any more. We love seeing our customers get the help they need to interpret unstructured data, while freeing up their employees to focus on their core competencies. There is a profound difference when the right human intelligence powers machine learning. And we've just begun".

Spare5 uses a subscription model allowing companies to easily make use of the platform. To find out more about it you can take a look at the company's website.

Photo Credit: photobank.kiev.ua/Shutterstock

Can you hear me now? 36,000 Verizon workers go on strike

Publié: avril 13, 2016, 5:53pm CEST par Alan Buckingham

shutterstock_343143350

Is your phone working? The reason I ask is this morning at 6am EDT 36,000 Verizon workers walked off the job in protest of outsourcing of work to countries such the Philippines, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. The carrier is closing call centers in favor of overseas help. The union also makes accusations of sending workers out of state for extended periods of time.

"Verizon's corporate greed isn't just harming workers' families, it's hurting customers as well," the CWA (Communications Workers of America) says in a statement to CNN.

If you are using Verizon Wireless your mobile will probably be working fine, but if you have one of those old-fashioned landlines then you may experience problems. Likewise with the Fios internet service, though the company promises it's prepared and interruptions should not occur.

Like all situations, there are two sides to this story. While Verizon profits are up, that is the result of the wireless side of the business -- one not served by the CWA. Landlines are in decline and that side of the business is slipping as more and more people find them unnecessary.

While a Verizon spokesman told the New York Times there would be no problems, the union contends that landline service will be degredated and customer service will be less readily available.

Despite the possible problems there is no need to worry about your bill -- it will be unaffected even if your service is having problems.

Image Credit: Ken Wolter / Shutterstock

Hackers love Microsoft's PowerShell

Publié: avril 13, 2016, 5:46pm CEST par Sead Fadilpašić

powershell

PowerShell, a scripting language inherent to Microsoft operating systems, is largely used to launch cyber-attacks, a new report suggests.

The Unified Threat Research report, released by next-generation endpoint security (NGES) firm Carbon Black, says that 38 percent of incidents reported by Carbon Black partners used PowerShell.

During investigations last year, 68 percent of the company’s responding partners encountered PowerShell, and almost a third (31 percent) reported getting no security alerts before the investigation of incidents related to the scripting language.

The majority of attacks (87 percent) were clic-fraud, fake antivirus programs and ransomware, but social engineering techniques are still the favorite.

"PowerShell is a very powerful tool that offers tremendous benefit for querying systems and executing commands, including on remote machines", said Ben Johnson, Carbon Black’s chief security strategist and cofounder.

"However, more recently we’re seeing bad guys exploiting it for malicious purposes it because it falls under the radar of traditional endpoint security products. This often causes tension between the IT and security professionals. PowerShell gives the bad guys a lot of power because it’s part of the native Windows operating system, which makes it difficult for security teams. On the other hand, PowerShell helps IT guys automate various tasks. The two departments need to come together and strike a balance between IT automation and security".

New sales platform combines human and machine intelligence

Publié: avril 13, 2016, 4:53pm CEST par Ian Barker

Machine intelligence

Much of the sales process is about making effective use of information about existing and potential customers. But often that knowledge isn't easily accessible and therefore not used effectively.

A new platform from sales transformation specialist Altify aims to give B2B sales teams real-time visibility into the process based on stored knowledge and its built-in contextual insight engine.

Called Altify Max it monitors what is happening in the opportunity, the account, and the pipeline and forecast, assesses the impact, and notifies the salesperson to act with a suggested measure. Max has 30 years of deep sales knowledge and insights built in to the software, and customers can extend and customize the knowledge with their own insights. This real-time coaching solution is aimed at making the sales team more effective and delivering better results.

"Altify's ongoing mission is to help salespeople provide more value for their customers, and become true business partners," says Donal Daly, CEO of Altify. "We have always embedded knowledge, insight and context into the applications on the Altify Platform, but what makes Max so exciting is that we have poured a lot more knowledge into the system, added contextual notifications, and given our customers the capability to add their own knowledge and insights. This is really augmented intelligence for everyone who uses Salesforce. It is the perfect platform to enable companies to take their sales organizations to a higher level of performance and professionalism".

Benefits of the Max platform include increased engagement and effectiveness, with sales teams able to work more productively. Max can identify warning signs, so salespeople can address risk earlier in the sales process.

Max has been developed using 30 years of sales knowledge and packaged as a set of 'business rules' or insights that can help guide salespeople as they are working their opportunities or accounts. Organizations can personalize Max by customizing or extending the supplied knowledge and by creating insights specific to their own business.

Max will be generally available from next month and you can find out more on the company's website.

Image Credit: Tatiana Shepeleva / Shutterstock

Kindle Oasis is Amazon's lightest and brightest e-reader yet

Publié: avril 13, 2016, 4:22pm CEST par Wayne Williams

Kindle Oasis

Tablet manufacturers are forever trying to deliver the lightest and thinnest products, and today Amazon introduces a new Kindle which is designed to feel almost weightless.

The Kindle Oasis isn’t simply light, weighing in at just 131 grams, it’s also very thin, at just 3.4 mm at its slimmest point. That makes it 30 percent thinner on average than any other Kindle. It also offers an ergonomic grip to shift the center of gravity to your palm, making it perfect for reading one handed. The built-in accelerometer automatically detects whether you are reading left or right handed, and rotates the page and page turn buttons accordingly.

The lightness of the new device has been achieved by using a featherweight polymer frame that has been reinforced using structural electroplating, so it shouldn’t be bendy.

"To lean back and read for hours, you need a sanctuary from distraction", said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. "We want Kindle to disappear, and Kindle Oasis is the next big step in that mission. It’s the most advanced Kindle we’ve ever built -- thin and ultra-lightweight, it gets out of the way so you can lose yourself in the author’s world".

The thing about Kindles is they already have an incredibly long battery life, but the Oasis comes with a dual-battery system to expand this even further. There’s a battery in the cover, as well as in the device itself, so you can enjoy months of battery life before needing to charge it, and a new hibernation mode minimizes power consumption when your Kindle is inactive.

The cover is made of high-quality leather and available in black, merlot, or walnut.

Kindle Oasis_cover color group

The Oasis has the same quality display as the Paperwhite, delivering crisp high-resolution 300 ppi text, and a redesigned front light includes 60 percent more LEDs to make the display as bright as possible.

The new Kindle Oasis is priced at $289.99/£269.99 and will be released on April 27.

Your devices will be able to spot bad USB Type-C cables and chargers

Publié: avril 13, 2016, 3:55pm CEST par Mihăiță Bamburic

Stop

USB Type-C products that are non standard compliant can be so dangerous that the USB 3.0 Promoter Group has introduced an Authentication protocol, to enable smartphones, laptops and other types of devices to detect out of spec USB Type-C cables and chargers.

The "authenticity" of the cable or charger will be determined "right at the moment a wired connection is made -- before inappropriate power or data can be transferred", so, for instance, there will be no risk of damaging your phone when you plug in a bad cable to charge it.

The USB Type-C Authentication solution is meant to be implemented by OEMs, so its effect will only be seen once major players start adopting it. "In support of the growing USB Type-C ecosystem, we anticipated the need for a solution extending the integrity of the USB interface. The new USB Type-C Authentication protocol equips product OEMs with the proper tools to defend against 'bad' USB cables, devices and non-compliant USB Chargers", says USB 3.0 Promoter Group chairman Brad Saunders.

As noted by the USB 3.0 Promoter Group, the solution offers:

A standard protocol for authenticating certified USB Type-C Chargers, devices, cables and power sources

Support for authenticating over either USB data bus or USB Power Delivery communications channels

Products that use the authentication protocol retain control over the security policies to be implemented and enforced

Relies on 128-bit security for all cryptographic methods

Specification references existing internationally-accepted cryptographic methods for certificate format, digital signing, hash and random number generation

Another benefit is that enterprises will be able to enforce a policy that only allows verified USB products to connect to the PCs under its roof. While the vast majority of PCs do not yet offer USB Type-C ports, this will slowly change and this option will no doubt start to get some attention from IT departments.

Of course, none of this helps if you have a USB Type-C device and want to make sure right away whether the cables and chargers that you plan to buy are adequate. So, we advise you to check reviews before purchasing anything, and also check the official list of approved USB Type-C cables and adapters.

Photo Credit: Archiwiz/Shutterstock

Employees opt for Apple when given a technology choice

Publié: avril 13, 2016, 3:52pm CEST par Ian Barker

Apple vote

It's becoming increasingly common for companies to offer their employees a choice of technology devices. And according to a new survey when they do have a choice people are more likely to choose Apple devices.

The study by device management company JAMF Software shows that ease of use is the main reason given by people for selecting Mac (75 percent) and iOS (79 percent) as their work device of choice.

The findings also show a generation gap in computer choice. Employees between the ages of 18 and 54 overwhelmingly choose Mac, while those 55 and over are more comfortable using PCs. However, when given a mobile device choice, nearly 80 percent of all age groups select iOS compared to just 18 percent who choose Android. Regardless of age, when staff are given the technology they want, employers are rewarded with more productive and appreciative employees.

"Employees today not only want -- but expect -- the ability to choose the devices they are most comfortable with for work," says Dean Hager, CEO of JAMF Software. "Because Apple builds technology that puts people first, people prefer Apple. When employers combine the freedom of choice with Apple, employees are happier and are empowered to be more productive -- offering a huge business advantage".

Among other findings are that 61 percent of respondents say their company has a choice program and 72 percent claim that the ability to select their device of choice makes them more productive in the workplace. Choice programs are important to the well being of an organization according to 73 percent, and 70 percent of those who currently lack user choice say their organization should give them the right to choose the device that best empowers them to do their job.

More detail is available in the full report which you can find on the JAMF website.

Photo credit: Blablo101 / Shutterstock

10 hidden Facebook features you should know about

Publié: avril 13, 2016, 3:22pm CEST par Wayne Williams

I know plenty of people who -- literally -- spend their lives on Facebook, sharing everything they do, and obsessively reading and reacting to every post made by their friends.

But here’s the thing. Despite all of the hours they put into being on the site, they probably only know a fraction of what it has to offer. There are a lot of features tucked away that they -- and you -- might never encounter. Think you know Facebook? Think again...

There’s a Hidden Facebook Inbox

This is something we’ve covered previously, but Facebook occasionally filters messages that have been sent to you into a hidden folder. This secret inbox is essentially a spam folder, but will probably contain messages from people you know or pages you’ve liked. Follow the instructions here to access the folder and see the messages you've been missing.

You Can Still Poke People

You probably haven’t done this in years -- if ever -- but the ability to "poke" people (one of the original Facebook features) still exists, although it’s a little tucked away now.

To Poke someone, go to their profile page and click the ellipses (...) next to the Message tab and select Poke.

There’s a Hidden Chess Game in Messenger

As well as chatting to friends in Facebook Messenger you can challenge them to a nice game of chess.

To start a new game just type @fbchess play during a conversation. A board will appear and your opponent will go first.

The commands you need to play are detailed here.

fbchess

There’s a Hidden Basketball Game in Messenger

Chess not your thing? Don’t worry, there’s another game you can play in Messenger -- basketball! To activate this, you just need to send a basketball emoji to someone, tap it in the chat window, and the game will start. You’ll find more details on the game here.

You Can Use Dropbox to Share Files

Facebook Messenger has gained Dropbox support this week, so you can now share content through that cloud service. All you have to do is tap the More button in Messenger for iOS or Android, and you'll see Dropbox as an available source. You will need to have Dropbox installed as well though.

You Can Log Out Remotely

Logged into Facebook on a friend’s computer, and forgot to log out again? You know what that means right? They’ll post status updates in your name, and react to posts you would never, ever, normally react to. Fortunately, it’s easy to log out of that location remotely.

Open up Facebook’s web interface, click the down arrow at the top right and select Settings > Security > Where You're Logged In. Find the place(s) you don’t want to be logged in at and click the End activity link.

You Can Secretly Unfriend Someone

Bored by a Facebook acquaintance’s tedious (or odious) postings and comments? You can simply unfriend them but if they find out, they might be annoyed, and that could lead to all sorts of problems.

Thankfully, Facebook lets you unfollow people. This stops them appearing in your timeline, but still lets you see what they’re up to (creep them) if you so wish.

To unfollow someone, hit the Following button on their page and select Unfollow.

Unfollow

You Can Change the Language Settings to Something Amusing

Facebook in English is boring right? Well there are plenty of other languages you can switch to instead. Go to Settings > Language and click on Edit. Obviously, if you don’t speak Mandarin Chinese you might not want to go for that, but you can switch to Pirate or Upside Down English.

View Your Relationship Over the Years

You can see what you’ve got up to with your significant other over the years by going to www.facebook.com/us. This will display all of the shared and tagged content that includes you both.

Save a Post For Viewing Later

Want to read a post on Facebook but don’t have time right now? You can save it for later. Click the down arrow at the top-right of the post and click Save link. This will send the story to your Saved folder which appears in the sidebar on the left.

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Security is a top priority when installing identity solutions

Publié: avril 13, 2016, 3:10pm CEST par Ian Barker

security verification

According to a new survey 78 percent of organizations say that security outweighs cost savings and user experience when choosing identity management solutions.

The survey by access control specialist SecureAuth used responses from over 230 IT security professionals in the US and UK.

When asked why their company has initiated new identity projects in the past, 55 percent of respondents across small, medium and large companies say the deployment of new applications -- including both on-premises and cloud-based -- was the top driver. Board and senior management's drive for increased security is also cited by 50 percent of respondents as a chief reason for new identity project initiation, underscoring that cyber security has become a board-level concern.

Other drivers for installing identity management include compliance and audit requirements at 49 percent, cost savings (44 percent), security breaches at another company (36 percent), increased use of stolen or misused credentials (34 percent) and the company itself experiencing a security breach (25 percent).

"It's no secret that security has become a board room-level imperative," says Craig Lund, CEO of SecureAuth. "A decade ago, it was a nice to have; today, it's a must have. Accordingly, organizations across the globe are abandoning their laissez-faire approaches to cybersecurity and significantly increasing security spending for the coming years. Worthwhile cybersecurity endeavors may require some redirection of budget, but in this day and age, proactivity is just as important as reactivity".

When asked about their plans for identity and access management, 79 percent of respondents say that plans are underway for IAM of externally focused applications, including vendor, partner and customer applications, portals and mobile apps. In addition 47 percent say that IAM investment is a currently funded priority, 32 percent will invest in the next year, and 13 percent will invest in IAM, but don't have a specific time frame.

For more information you can visit the SecureAuth blog.

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Google Calendar now helps you to reach your goals

Publié: avril 13, 2016, 1:53pm CEST par Mark Wilson

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It's not long since the Reminders feature arrived in Google Calendar on the web, a few months after it debuted in iOS and Android. Now Google is rolling out another new feature that makes it easier to find time to reach your goals -- whether this is indulging in a hobby a few times a week, or just trying to do some regular exercise.

Goals in Google Calendar is not about ticking items off your bucket list, but automating the process of adding reminders to your calendar without having to manually search high and low for the necessary time. Just indicate what you want to do, and how often, and the rest will be taken care of for you. But it gets better...

Everyone's plans change. Things crop up, schedules alter. Goals in Google Calendar can help. The feature not only finds empty slots in your day to house your run or yoga sessions, but if you later schedule another event that clashes, it will be automatically moved for you. No more excuses for missing out on a session at the gym!

There's an element of learning to Goals as well; the more you use the feature, the better it gets at picking suitable times to schedule events. This is something that is influenced to a certain extent when you elect to manually defer an event. If you keep delaying a reminder first thing in the morning, your calendar will learn that rescheduling later in the day would probably make more sense.

Check out the video below to get an idea of how Goals in Google Calendar works:

For now, Goals in Google Calendar is available to iOS and Android users, so just make sure you have the latest version of the app installed to make us of the feature.

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New service helps service providers deliver cloud-based security

Publié: avril 13, 2016, 12:32pm CEST par Ian Barker

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Security is a key concern for all enterprises, so it's not surprising that it's something managed service providers are keen to offer their customers in order to add value and differentiate their service.

Network breach detection company Eastwind Networks is launching a Managed Service Provider (MSP) and Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) program. The new program is designed to help service providers stand out and grow their business with a simple cloud-based breach detection solution that ensures that customer data and assets are secure.

"In today's competitive security industry, MSPs are looking for value-added, easy to deploy and manage solutions that help ensure their customer’s success," says Paul Kraus, president and CEO of Eastwind Networks. "With our new MSP program, we are able to offer our partners services that provide an additional level of security expertise, a strong security platform offering and complete visibility to threats, security gaps, application usage, and overall network awareness".

Available via the Eastwind Cloud or in the customer's private cloud, the platform uses rich data, behavioral analytics, and threat intelligence to pinpoint anomalous behaviors even before they're classified as breaches. It's been designed to catch hackers during the weeks and months that they spend in the network before they take action. Storing and mining more than a year's worth of rich network metadata, Eastwind examines not only current network conditions, but continually analyzes historical data against updated threat sources to find breaches that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.

You can find out more about Eastwind breach detection and the MSP program on the company's website.

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Another quarter, another PC sales drop

Publié: avril 13, 2016, 12:18pm CEST par Anthony Spadafora

PC decline graph

The PC market has started off 2016 quite poorly according to both Gartner and the IDC. Worldwide shipments have fallen 9.6 percent to 64.8 million units in the first quarter of the year, according to Garner’s estimates. This makes it the first quarter since 2007 that fewer than 65 million PCs have shipped globally.

Lenovo, HP, Dell, Asus and Apple were the top PC manufacturers in Q1 2016 with only Asus and Apple seeing an increase in the number of units shipped. Lenovo and HP have been hit the hardest this quarter with Lenovo shipments down seven percent and HP’s down nine percent.

The International Data Corporation (IDC) is estimating that the worldwide PC shipments are actually lower than Gartner’s estimate and have dropped 11.5 percent to 60.6 million units during Q1. The company also differs from Gartner in that its results see Lenovo, HP, Dell, Apple and Asus as the top five vendors during the quarter. IDC paints a much gloomier picture of global PC shipments and all of its top PC vendors are in the red, with Asus down eight percent and even Apple down two percent.

The strength of the US dollar is one of the main reasons that PC shipments have continued to decline according to Gartner. The firm also notes that many companies experienced an inventory build up as a result of sales offered during the holidays in the fourth quarter of 2015.

Another big factor in declining PC shipments is enterprise adoption of Windows 10. Many companies have yet to fully embrace the latest iteration of Windows and are merely test driving it to see if it will be a meaningful upgrade for their businesses.

Windows 10 may no longer be offered as a free upgrade come July 29 2016 and this could entice users who have yet to switch to do so albeit through purchasing new hardware. In 2016, we will learn without a doubt how Windows 10 will affect worldwide PC sales.

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Jewelery meets gadgetry in the Oukitel A8

Publié: avril 13, 2016, 11:44am CEST par Ian Barker

Oukitel A8

Bluetooth tracking devices to help stop you forgetting your phone have been around for a while, but they've generally been quite functional in design, looking like a remote car key.

Chinese smartphone maker Oukitel is launching its own take on the lost phone finder with a new gadget that looks like a piece of jewelry but also functions as more than just an alarm to tell you you've left your phone behind.

The Oukitel A8 lets you answer and hang up calls so you can appear a bit strange on the train by talking to your pendant -- it could be a good way of getting a seat. It can also control music playback and act as a shutter button to control the phone's camera so it’s handy for taking selfies too.

It has a 280mAh battery which the company says takes only 30 minutes to charge and will give you 15 hours of connected standby or five hours of talk time. It's compatible with both Android and iOS, so it should work with most smartphones on the market and it comes in a choice of blue or black.

Normal price of the A8 is $24.99 but until April 29 it's available for $19.99 from the Tomtop.com site. More details of the gadget are available on the Oukitel website.

Take a low-level look at your PC desktop with Window Inspector

Publié: avril 13, 2016, 10:57am CEST par Mike Williams

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Binary Fortress Software has released Window Inspector, a free tool for examining the low-level details of any application window.

Move your mouse cursor over any window and a detailed display lists its class, text, icons, owning process, command line, Style and StyleEX flags, and more.

A separate tree lists the hierarchy of all desktop windows, and allows them to be closed individually.

If you’ve not guessed already, Window Inspector is mostly for developers, but it can also be occasionally handy for everyone else.

Suppose a desktop alert appears with a strange error message, for instance, or that you just don’t recognize. Is it malware-related? You’ll want to find the owning process, and Task Manager won’t always tell you.

With Window Inspector, all you have to do is move the mouse cursor over the alert, and you’ll see the process which launched it, along with its path, file name and command line arguments.

The program’s list of open windows can also be a helpful way to find out more about the processes running on your PC.

Expanding a cryptic process name like "avgnt.exe", for example, showed us the text "Avira Free Antivirus -- SysTray": the Avira system tray icon.

You could find similar information in Task Manager, but there’s more. The process also has a window called "Protection Cloud", with prompts like "uploading", "filename" and "please wait while the program started is being analyzed".

Even if you’ve never heard of Avira or Protection Cloud, you can see from this that the process is probably going to look for programs being launched, upload and analyze them somewhere.

This kind of information is only available because the process is going to display it to you anyway, so it won’t help you understand malware, or anything else which is trying to hide a function. But it may still be useful information, and Window Inspector makes it easy to find and explore.

Window Inspector is a freeware tool for Windows XP and later.

Box customers can now choose where to store their data

Publié: avril 13, 2016, 10:49am CEST par Sead Fadilpašić

Cloud storage

Online file sharing company Box today announced a new service, allowing businesses to store their cloud data across Europe and Asia.

The service, announced at the Box World Tour Europe, is called Box Zones, and it will allow Box customers to choose whether they want to store their data in Germany, Ireland, Singapore or Japan.

"Businesses today are more connected, collaborative and global thanks to the power of the cloud", said Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box. "Yet for many companies, local laws and regulations have forced them to make technology tradeoffs that limit their success and place a drag on employee productivity and collaboration. Box Zones will help power digital transformation for enterprise customers across Europe and Asia and accelerate our international presence".

The company also said that the new feature will not interfere with any of the existing ones, with features like watermarking, granular permission controls and comments and tasking, staying. Deep integrations with Office 365 and Salesforce are also here to stay.

"Security is the top priority for AWS and our customers. With the recent launch of Box KeySafe running on AWS, Box offers companies of all sizes greater control over their business-critical, sensitive content, and furthers that mission with today’s introduction of Box Zones", said Terry Wise, vice president of Worldwide Partner Ecosystem, Amazon Web Services.

"We believe customers should have the freedom to choose where and how their data is stored. With Box Zones leveraging Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), customers can better meet the highest levels of security and regulatory compliance required in their respective geographies".

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