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BetaNews.Com (21 non lus)

Retailers believe social media is key for future growth

Publié: juillet 20, 2016, 10:03pm CEST par Sead Fadilpašić

Retailers consider social media extremely important for future growth, a new report states, adding that all of them use at least one social media channel. SAP’s new report, based on a face-to-face survey with retailers and SMEs between April and May 2016, reveals that almost a third (29 percent) of respondents use more than three social media channels. Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are considered the most popular, but Pinterest and YouTube are not that far behind. "Every customer we engage with has an interest in social media", says EJ Jackson, SVP & GM of SAP Anywhere. "The number using social media… [Continue Reading]
France: Windows 10 collects 'excessive personal data', issues Microsoft with formal warning

Publié: juillet 20, 2016, 8:42pm CEST par Mark Wilson

After accusations that Windows 10 collects too much data about users, France's National Data Protection Commission (CNIL) has order Microsoft to comply with the French Data Protection Act within three months. The company has been ordered to "stop collecting excessive data and tracking browsing by users without their consent". In addition to this, the chair of CNIL has notified Microsoft that it needs to take "satisfactory measures to ensure the security and confidentiality of user data". The notice comes after numerous complaints about Windows 10, and a series of investigations by French authorities which revealed a number of failings on… [Continue Reading]
Machine learning, big data analytics and Internet of Things skills are in high demand

Publié: juillet 20, 2016, 8:28pm CEST par Sead Fadilpašić

Both virtual and augmented reality, machine learning and big data analytics, as well as the Internet of Things, are the most in-demand skills, according to a new report by Packt. The report, titled "Skill Up", polled more than 11,500 worldwide developers and IT professionals. Besides identifying the most sought-after skills, it also says that security is one of the highest-paying industries in 2016, especially for freelancers. Bash, Perl and Scala are programming languages which will earn you most money, and online training is still a great way to acquire new skills. Python remains the "tool for all trades in 2016",… [Continue Reading]
Microsoft is killing Skype for Windows Phone -- a final slap in its fans' faces

Publié: juillet 20, 2016, 6:53pm CEST par Brian Fagioli

Windows Phone was a terrible experiment that never got off the ground. Microsoft's mobile operating system was never popular with developers, nor did many consumers care about it. With that said, some of the company's most loyal fans did embrace it, however. Not to mention, due to low prices, a small number of unknowing budget-hunters bought the much maligned phones too. Fast forward to today, and Microsoft has moved on to Windows 10 Mobile. Sadly, its newest mobile push is not doing well either, but I digress. As a final slap in the face to users that own Windows Phones that… [Continue Reading]
The clock is ticking for free Windows 10 upgrades and Microsoft is having one last nag

Publié: juillet 20, 2016, 6:46pm CEST par Mark Wilson

When it comes to encouraging people to take advantage of the free upgrade to Windows 10, Microsoft has not been shy about pushing things -- some would say a little too much. But now the clock really is ticking. The deadline for free upgrades of July 29 is fast approaching, and Microsoft has one final bit of nagging up its sleeve. With just nine days to go, an update has been pushed out to GWX which drives home the fact that time is running out. To add a bit of an incentive -- you could call it fearmongering -- there's… [Continue Reading]
Facebook celebrates 1 billion monthly Messenger users

Publié: juillet 20, 2016, 5:22pm CEST par Mark Wilson

The battle between messaging apps has been going on for a number of years now, but the same names keep floating to the top. WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger regularly feature in the top chat apps, and today Facebook announces that it has hit a key milestone -- one billion users every month. To celebrate, the social network has a little gift to say thanks... but don’t get too excited. Facebook says: "We're grateful for all the people who are sending billions of messages every day and we hope to send 1 billion thank yous in the form of a new… [Continue Reading]
LogMeOnce adds features to track and wipe mobile devices

Publié: juillet 20, 2016, 5:07pm CEST par Ian Barker

The increasing use of mobile devices and spread of BYOD means that there’s a risk of data falling into the wrong hands if a device is lost or stolen. Mobile identity and password management company LogMeOnce is adding new features to its app making it simpler to manage, track and wipe personal and business data from devices. LogMeOnce's Kill-Pill and Mobile Device Management (MDM) features enable individuals, businesses and IT administrators to easily enroll and manage devices, verify compliance and wipe data stored in LogMeOnce if necessary. Additionally, LogMeOnce BYOD enhances office productivity and security of sensitive data by giving… [Continue Reading]
Google is making it harder to root Android 7.0 Nougat

Publié: juillet 20, 2016, 5:05pm CEST par Mihăiță Bamburic

Rooting Android remains very popular with a certain crowd of users, but fact of the matter is for most folks it is an unnecessary hassle. I have gone through the pros and cons of hacking the operating system in previous articles, so I will not discuss them again here, but suffice to say that both the software and the hardware have matured so nicely that the vast majority of people can be perfectly happy with their new smartphone or tablet as it comes out of the box. Google has been somewhat permissive with regards to rooting, but, behind closed doors, it has… [Continue Reading]
Widespread BT outage caused by a faulty UPS

Publié: juillet 20, 2016, 4:40pm CEST par Mark Wilson

This morning, thousands of BT and Plusnet customers complained about dodgy internet connections. The problem has now been fixed, and the cause identified as a failed UPS owned by Equinix, leading to massive disruption. Equinix, owned by Telecity, said there had been a problem "with one of our UPS system at 8/9 Harbour Exchange (LD8)" in London. The exact cause is not yet known, but further investigations are underway. This morning's outage -- which caused problems ranging from not being able to get online at all, to intermittent connectivity issues -- affected around 10 percent of BT customers. The company… [Continue Reading]
New solution delivers compliance for business Instagram users

Publié: juillet 20, 2016, 3:51pm CEST par Ian Barker

Businesses are increasingly adopting Instagram within the enterprise as a tool for building brand awareness and connecting with prospects and customers. But as with any form of business communication it's subject to regulatory control. Regulators may classify Instagram posts as advertisements and exchanged comments as business records. To address this, compliance specialist Actiance is adding Instagram support to its Actiance Socialite platform, which enables companies to capture social media posts in context and retain data, including the images, for instant search and retrieval. "Forward-thinking companies are increasingly using Instagram and other social channels to connect with digital audiences. Yet as they… [Continue Reading]
Google's DeepMind AI has cut data center electricity usage by 15 percent

Publié: juillet 20, 2016, 3:42pm CEST par Mark Wilson

Artificial intelligence is frequently associated with sentient computers, bots and the like. But in the real world, AI is being put to a far wider range of uses. DeepMind, Google's AI division has been instrumental in slashing energy consumption in data centers. Lying at the heart of the internet, data centers are huge electricity gobblers, and anything that can be done to reduce usage is to be welcomed. DeepMind has reduced consumption in Google's data centers by an impressive 15 percent, helping the company to do its bit for the environment. DeepMind has used a number of approaches to help… [Continue Reading]
Microsoft changes how it reports Windows 10 numbers, no longer chasing a billion devices

Publié: juillet 20, 2016, 3:34pm CEST par Wayne Williams

We know that Windows 10 is on upwards of 350 million systems now, because Microsoft told us three weeks ago. The last time Microsoft released any numbers before that, was two months previous when the new OS was on 300 million devices. The problem with how Microsoft announces these new milestones, isn’t just that it’s infrequent, but also that it refers to devices, not users -- and includes PCs, tablets, and mobile phones not yet sold. That’s useful when you’re aiming for a particular target -- 1 billion devices -- but not so useful when that target becomes unrealistic and… [Continue Reading]
New identity platform delivers passwordless authentication

Publié: juillet 20, 2016, 3:32pm CEST par Ian Barker

We regularly hear stories about the imminent death of the password. Add in thousands of Internet of Things devices needing to authenticate and it’s clear that the time has come for a better system. Identity management company ForgeRock is launching the latest edition of its ForgeRock Identity Platform, with advanced new capabilities that will enable organizations to employ passwordless login. ForgeRock Identity Platform is an end-to-end open source identity management solution that supports passwordless login as well as frictionless second factor authentication capabilities to provide continuous security. It can invoke two factor authentication if an anomaly occurs, for example if a… [Continue Reading]
Businesses can minimize software costs by 30 percent

Publié: juillet 20, 2016, 3:03pm CEST par Sead Fadilpašić

Businesses can cut software costs by 30 percent if they stick to software management best practices, Gartner has announced -- research director Hank Marquis says potential savings are just "too large to ignore". Companies will spend $332 billion on it in 2016, so yes, it is a pretty big deal. There are three best practices organizations can use to achieve these savings: optimizing software configurations, recycling licenses and using software asset management (SAM) tools. "Automated software license optimization is a relatively new discipline and most organizations are at lower levels of maturity", says Marquis. "The variety of license entitlements also makes it tough for… [Continue Reading]
Investigate suspect EXEs with Professional PE Explorer

Publié: juillet 20, 2016, 3:01pm CEST par Mike Williams

Professional PE Explorer is a portable tool which allows investigating Windows executables including EXE files, SYS, DLL and more. The download is so tiny you’ll wonder if it’s broken -- 78.1KB, really? -- but no, this is all you get. Unzip it and run PPEE.exe to get started. Drag and drop a suspect file onto the program and a left-hand tree lists some of its structures: DOS Header, NT Header, Section Headers, assorted directory entries and more. If you’re happy with this low-level detail, you’ll also appreciate the program’s "anomaly detection", where unusual elements of the section are highlighted in… [Continue Reading]
Deezer now generally available in US

Publié: juillet 20, 2016, 1:39pm CEST par Mihăiță Bamburic

Most US consumers may not be familiar with Deezer and for good reason. While it is one of the oldest players in the music streaming industry, having launched nine years ago in France, the service has only been offered alongside some audio products and carrier subscriptions so far. That is about to change though, as Deezer is now, finally, widely available in US. Just like its main competitors, it can be sampled on all the major platforms, including Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows, with customers getting unlimited access to the "world's largest music streaming library", live radio, news, and podcasts. Deezer… [Continue Reading]
DisCoverJ automatically finds cover art for your MP3s

Publié: juillet 20, 2016, 12:36pm CEST par Mike Williams

While there are endless MP3 tag editors around, cover art support is often basic, if it’s included at all. DisCoverJ is a Java-based editor which focuses solely on cover art, automatically locating, downloading and tagging your MP3s with the right images. Installation is straightforward on Windows, Linux and Mac. There’s no adware or other hassles and you’re ready to go in seconds. Tagging is just as easy. Simply drag and drop your MP3s onto disCoverJ, click the Search button bottom-right, and watch. DisCoverJ uses multiple search engines to find your artwork (iTunes, Amazon, Google, Bing, Deezer, Spotify, Discogs, Gracenote), downloads… [Continue Reading]
BT Broadband customers hit by connection problems due to DNS issues

Publié: juillet 20, 2016, 11:52am CEST par Mark Wilson

BT broadband customers across the UK are reporting problems accessing websites today. The ISP is aware of the issue and is currently working to implement a fix, but in the meantime, thousands of users up and down the country are experiencing DNS problems. The problem is also affecting customers of Plusnet, a separate branch of BT. The company says that "Engineers are working to fix things as fast as possible", but this will come as little comfort to those who find they are unable to go about their daily business. The BBC reports that the problems have been attributed to… [Continue Reading]
Twitter slaps a permanent ban on Breitbart's Milo Yiannopoulos, AKA @Nero

Publié: juillet 20, 2016, 9:28am CEST par Mark Wilson

There's a lots going on at Twitter at the moment. Yesterday, the company opened the floodgates, giving everyone the opportunity to apply for account verification. In the same day, Twitter also handed out a rare permanent ban to Breitbart tech editor and right wing pundit Milo Yiannopoulos, who went under the handle of @Nero. Yiannopoulos has long-been a controversial figure -- a troll, many would say -- who has spoken out against feminism, movements such as Gamergate, Islam, and political correctness. This is not the first time he has received a ban, but in the past they have been temporary.… [Continue Reading]
Microsoft Stream lets businesses securely manage and share videos

Publié: juillet 20, 2016, 7:58am CEST par Anthony Spadafora

Microsoft has announced a new video service called Stream that will enable businesses of all sizes to securely manage and share videos. From today on, any user with a business email address will be able to sign up for the preview of the new service in seconds. With Stream they can then begin to upload, share and tag videos from their organization. It will also be simple to discover relevant videos since the company will employ machine learning to help users find trending videos and will also give them the ability to search by hashtag, most liked videos or other… [Continue Reading]
Forget Hillary's email server, Republicans use phony 'I vote Trump!' Wi-Fi hotspots!

Publié: juillet 20, 2016, 4:02am CEST par Brian Fagioli

Donald Trump secured the Republican nomination at the RNC tonight, meaning he is now officially their candidate for president. Most likely, Hillary Clinton will secure the Democrat nomination, so we can expect to hear Trump's criticism of her private email server usage for the next several months leading up to the election. While Hillary Clinton's private email server usage was against the rules and wrong, it seems she is not the only one in politics demonstrating poor judgement regarding technology and security. It turns out, many Republican delegates are also lax in this regard, by connecting to non-secure Wi-Fi hotspots.… [Continue Reading]