Gregarius » BetaNews.Com » août 19, 2016

BetaNews.Com (13 non lus)

Windows 10 Anniversary Update reinstalls bundled apps you've previously removed

Publié: août 19, 2016, 9:23pm CEST par Wayne Williams

Windows 10 has a history of interfering with user choice when it comes to software. The operating system was found to be uninstalling some user programs without permission shortly after the November Update arrived, a problem that persisted for some time. Now it seems as if the Anniversary Update is doing the reverse, and bringing back bundled apps that users have previously uninstalled. Is it a mistake on Microsoft’s behalf, or is the company, once again, running roughshod over user choice? As noted by Ghacks, users have found that bundled apps they’ve taken the time to remove have mysteriously returned… [Continue Reading]
Smart plugs have major security issues

Publié: août 19, 2016, 9:10pm CEST par Sead Fadilpašić

Plugging things into a smart electrical plug might not be the wisest of choices at the moment, because they could easily be hacked, putting both your physical and digital life at risk. This is according to a new report by Bitdefender, which says that smart electrical plugs could be hacked, and the attacker could not only gain access to your personal data, but also reprogram the plug. If these plugs control your security systems or medical devices -- it could spell a whole lot of trouble. There are two crucial problems with such devices, according to the report. First, the… [Continue Reading]
Twitch is exposing your activity by default -- here's how to fix the privacy issue

Publié: août 19, 2016, 6:32pm CEST par Brian Fagioli

As someone that grew up playing video games in the 1980s, I am rather intrigued by the current trend in watching other people play. It is not so different from when I was a kid actually -- upwards of ten children from the neighborhood would all gather around one NES waiting for their turn to play. If you think about it, we probably spent more time watching others playing than doing so ourselves. One of the most popular video game streaming platforms is Twitch. There are countless folks broadcasting themselves playing games, and even more spectating. The service has introduced a… [Continue Reading]
ImBatch 5 adds multithreading for 400% speed increase

Publié: août 19, 2016, 5:27pm CEST par Mike Williams

High Motion Software has updated its powerhouse image processor ImBatch with multithreading support for even greater performance. The new feature is only available in the $29.95 licensed edition, but is it worth the money? We took a look. We used a test set of 345 PNG images, 918 megapixels in total, and set up only two processing tasks: just a "Sharpen" and a "Save as JPG". Running this job with a single thread took 266 seconds on our test system. Repeating the process with four threads (after clearing the disk cache) cut execution time to 77 seconds, that’s 29 percent… [Continue Reading]
Nvidia slams Intel for fudging CPU vs GPU benchmark results

Publié: août 19, 2016, 5:18pm CEST par Sead Fadilpašić

Intel’s recent claims that CPUs are better than GPUs when it comes to deep learning on neural networks has sparked a rebuttal from Nvidia. In case you don’t know what this is all about, here’s a short recap: Machine learning is currently a really big deal. It’s a huge market with untapped potential in many industry verticals, which is why a lot of different companies are trying to get in on the action. It is widely taken as a fact that GPUs are a better solution than CPUs when it comes to deep learning, because neural networks require low precision computation,… [Continue Reading]
EFF: T-Mobile One plan may break net neutrality rules

Publié: août 19, 2016, 4:27pm CEST par Mihăiță Bamburic

The Electronic Frontier Foundation believes that T-Mobile's new One plan, which offers unlimited data, calls, and texts, may fall afoul of net neutrality rules due to the restrictions that it imposes on how customers can consume data. T-Mobile One, which was announced yesterday, is claimed to do away with data "buckets", which CEO John Legere calls "the single biggest pain point in wireless", but limits the quality of video streams for customers who do not wish to pay an additional monthly fee to enjoy high-definition content. T-Mobile One brings unlimited video streaming in standard-definition, which is "typically DVD quality (480p)" according to T-Mobile. To… [Continue Reading]
Stress-test your PC with HeavyLoad

Publié: août 19, 2016, 2:12pm CEST par Mike Williams

Jam Software’s quick and easy PC stress-tester HeavyLoad has just been updated to version 3.4, its first release in more than two years. The package is as easy to use as ever, maxing out your CPU, allocating RAM and drive space and stressing your GPU with a click. This release is mostly about compatibility, in particular improving results with the latest OpenGL drivers and handling individual cores in Windows 10. Unfortunately it’s not so compatible with older PCs any more: XP and Server 2003 are no longer supported. The "Simulate Disk Access" test now uses the latest version of Jam… [Continue Reading]
Best Windows apps this week

Publié: août 19, 2016, 12:48pm CEST par Martin Brinkmann

One-hundred and ninety-four in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 8.x and Windows 10 in the past seven days. Several promising apps and games were released this week, such as the Agricoal 2-player game and the Rockband-like game Gu. No app of the week award though this week. As always, if I missed an app or game that has been released this week that you believe is particularly good, let me know in the comments below or notify me via email instead. Discounts this week The following apps and… [Continue Reading]
Traditional malware falls as mobile malware rises in July

Publié: août 19, 2016, 12:39pm CEST par Ian Barker

The number of active malware families attacking businesses fell by five percent in July, but mobile malware now accounts for nine percent of the total -- up 50 percent from June. These figures come from threat prevention company Check Point based on intelligence drawn from its ThreatCloud World Cyber Threat Map. During July, Check Point detected 2,300 unique and active malware families attacking business networks, the first time in four months it has seen a drop in the number of unique malware families. However, the total number seen still matches the second all-time highest number recorded in a calendar month… [Continue Reading]
Security researcher accuses Microsoft of 'sneaky data mining' in Windows 10

Publié: août 19, 2016, 11:03am CEST par Sead Fadilpašić

Ah, you can never get enough paranoia nowadays, can you? Security researcher Mike Patterson -- founder and CEO of security analytics organization Plixer -- says Microsoft's Windows 10 sends encrypted data from your machine every five minutes, and there’s basically very little you can do to stop it. Even when he opted out of everything he could find, regarding data transfer, the OS still continued to do it. The weirdest part about it is that you can’t really determine what is being sent. The content was encrypted so that it is impossible to know what’s going out, essentially hiding this information from the… [Continue Reading]
China wants to monitor and control all live streams in real time

Publié: août 19, 2016, 10:16am CEST par Mark Wilson

China's overarching control of the internet, technology, and its people in general is nothing new. The Great Firewall of China is famous for placing huge restrictions on what citizens are able to access online, and recently the government banned the use of social media as a news source. The latest target for the Chinese government is the increasingly popular activity of live streaming. The proposal includes a requirement for all live streamed content to be monitored around the clock. The Cyberspace Administration of China is looking to wipe out what it sees as inappropriate online content, and live streaming is… [Continue Reading]
Eddie Bauer point of sale systems hit by malware, customers notified

Publié: août 19, 2016, 8:44am CEST par Alan Buckingham

If you aren't thinking twice every time you swipe your card at a retail location, be it a store or restaurant, then you haven't been paying attention lately. It should give you reason for pause, but sadly you still have to do it. Just cross your fingers on the other hand. Previous examples have included Target and Home Depot to name just two. The latest is retailer Eddie Bauer. The company is warning customers it’s point of sale system was hit by malware. This allowed the folks responsible for the attack to access the card information of those paying at the… [Continue Reading]
Microsoft helps Apple macOS users switch from Evernote to OneNote with import tool

Publié: août 19, 2016, 4:35am CEST par Brian Fagioli

Evernote is a very popular organization and note-taking solution. Not only is it easy to use, but it is cross-platform. In other words, users can sync their content between multiple devices running different operating systems. Unfortunately, earlier this year, Evernote did something shocking. It limited its free "Basic" option to two devices. This was not popular. This abrupt change was a deal-breaker for users that leveraged more than just a pair of devices. While some folks were willing to pay for a tier that met their needs, other people decided to switch to other solutions, such as Microsoft's free (and wonderful) OneNote. In fact, Microsoft created an… [Continue Reading]