Gregarius » BetaNews.Com » novembre 15, 2016

BetaNews.Com (17 non lus)

Samsung buys Harman for $8bn

Publié: novembre 15, 2016, 10:39pm CET par Anthony Spadafora

In an effort to expand into the auto market, Samsung has announced that it will purchase Harman for $8 billion to gain access to both its automotive and audio offerings. The American company Harman is best known for its audio equipment, though it also has a large presence in the automotive market. Last year, the company earned over $7 billion, of which its connected car devices and audio systems accounted for 65 percent of the total sales. Harman's products are installed in around 30 million vehicles worldwide which could really benefit Samsung as it has already lost a lot of… [Continue Reading]
Bigger battery, better camera, faster processor -- the OnePlus 3T is even more of a flagship killer

Publié: novembre 15, 2016, 8:44pm CET par Mark Wilson

The OnePlus 3 -- unashamedly billed as the 'flagship killer' -- caused major ripples of excitement when it was released earlier in the year. Now, after rumors and teasers, and mere months after the launch, there is a follow up -- the OnePlus 3T. One of the key features of the OnePlus 3 was Dash Charge, its fast charging option still offers a full day's usage from 30 minutes of charging -- and the battery has jumped in size. Internally, the processor has been upgraded to a Snapdragon 821 chip clocked at 2.35 GHz, and there's now a 128GB model… [Continue Reading]
What you need to consider before adopting Microsoft Office 365

Publié: novembre 15, 2016, 8:39pm CET par Vivek Vahie

The cloud-based office productivity software market is expected to reach $17 billion in 2016. That’s more than a 400 percent increase from 2009 when the market was valued at $3.3 billion. With the success of cloud-based applications and their pay-as-you-go model, it shouldn’t be surprising that the cloud version of one of the most widely used desktop application packages would grow to become a popular choice for businesses. I’m of course referring to Office 365, Microsoft’s leading productivity and work software package delivered via the cloud. What’s the Fuss? Mobile devices and cloud technologies at large have drastically changed the… [Continue Reading]
Android backdoor found sending personal information from US users to China

Publié: novembre 15, 2016, 8:16pm CET par Mark Wilson

Mobile security firm Kryptowire has discovered a backdoor in several Android smartphones sold in the US. The company says that the firmware collected personal data about users without consent, and sent this private information on to Chinese firm Shanghai Adups Technology Company. Included in the reams of personal data shared to a third party server were the full text of SMS, call histories, and unique device identifiers. In addition to this, an OTA (over the air) update to firmware allowed for the non-consensual installation of apps, user location tracking and keyword monitoring. Kryptowire says that the smartphones -- including the… [Continue Reading]
Is Apple crazy to sell a $300 hardcover photo book? Not at all

Publié: novembre 15, 2016, 6:58pm CET par Brian Fagioli

Last month, Apple unveiled new MacBook Pro laptops. While the machines were undoubtedly great, their prices were very high -- even for Apple. Despite the cost, they are apparently flying off virtual shelves, as shipping dates are now in late December. In other words, price be damned, people will buy what they want, and they are willing to splurge on quality. The old adage of "you get what you pay for" is sometimes quite true. Today, Apple announces a hardcover book called "Designed by Apple in California". It is a paper book comprised of high-quality photographs of the company's products. There… [Continue Reading]
SMBs hold on to their hardware longer than enterprises

Publié: novembre 15, 2016, 6:39pm CET par Sead Fadilpašić

Smaller and medium-sized businesses would rather wait a couple years longer before upgrading their systems, compared to large enterprises, a new survey by memory and storage company Crucial shows. Out of 350 IT decision makers in the UK, US, Germany and France, more than half (52 percent) say their company has a hardware refresh cycle of about three to four years. Large organizations replace systems every two years or so (23 percent) while small organisations wait four years or more (22 percent). The reason behind upgrades is always the same -- their current systems are no longer good enough. Sometimes, businesses would… [Continue Reading]
Twitter expands Mute feature to help combat its troll problem

Publié: novembre 15, 2016, 6:09pm CET par Mark Wilson

Twitter has promised for some time that it will do more to tackle the problem of trolling, abuse and harassment. Today, the company announces that it is expanding its Mute features, giving users the ability to mute keywords, phrases, and conversations. This comes in response to feedback from people who have long-asked for a way to prevent notifications about topics they are not interested in, from people they don’t want to hear from, and so on. Twitter also says that it has retrained its staff and improved systems to make it easier and more efficient to report and deal with… [Continue Reading]
Time tracking tools aren't keeping up with mobile workforces

Publié: novembre 15, 2016, 5:38pm CET par Ian Barker

Modern businesses are increasingly concerned with agility and efficiency and this leads them to seek more mobile solutions. But a new report shows that workforces are struggling with outdated processes that don't adequately support this new world. The study by performance management specialist Changepoint shows that organizations using time and task data to guide business decisions are relying on old-fashioned methods including Excel spreadsheets (28 percent) and even pen and paper (36 percent). The company surveyed more than 800 global project managers, executives, and IT professionals and found that 77 percent aren't confident in the accuracy of the timesheets they… [Continue Reading]
Comodo launches new certificate management platform

Publié: novembre 15, 2016, 5:38pm CET par Ian Barker

Digital certificates are an essential part of online security and as the number of Internet of things devices continues to grow they'll become more important still. But as we rely more on certificates so managing them becomes more complex. Cyber security solutions company Comodo, the world's leading certificate authority, is launching the latest release of its Comodo Certificate Manager (CCM), a full-lifecycle digital certificate management platform which makes it easier for enterprises to manage their certificates. CCM allows businesses to self-administer and instantly provision Comodo certificates and to auto-discover and manage all certificates, from any certificate authority, throughout the organization. The… [Continue Reading]
35 percent of cloud spend is wasted through inefficiency

Publié: novembre 15, 2016, 4:47pm CET par Ian Barker

In the dash to the cloud it's easy to lose sight of the fact that it isn't necessarily always the answer to spending your IT budget in the most efficient way. New data released by cloud management company RightScale reveals that cloud users could reduce their spend by an average of 35 percent by making better use of resources. Based on three months of data from RightScale's Cloud Cost Optimization Service it finds that compute resources represent 76 percent of cloud spend and database services account for only 15 percent. Cloud spending continues to rise overall, up 76 percent from… [Continue Reading]
Office 365 and G Suite now in 59 percent of organizations worldwide

Publié: novembre 15, 2016, 3:46pm CET par Ian Barker

Cloud adoption has hit an all time high in 2016, largely driven by productivity packages like Microsoft Office 365 and Google's G Suite, according to a new report. Data protection company Bitglass scanned the cloud use of more than 120,000 companies to identify the primary cloud productivity suite used. It finds 59 percent of organizations worldwide now use one of these two apps, up from 48 percent in 2015. Office 365 continues to edge ahead of G Suite and is deployed in more than a third (34.8 percent) of organizations while G Suite is used by 25 percent. Public companies… [Continue Reading]
SCOSCHE unveils floating BoomBUOY waterproof Bluetooth speaker

Publié: novembre 15, 2016, 2:58pm CET par Brian Fagioli

Yesterday, I reviewed the LG V20 -- one of the more recent Android flagship smartphones. While I really like that device, it suffers from a disappointing integrated speaker -- a problem on many phones. Luckily, a Bluetooth speaker can always be paired to improve sound quality and offer louder volume. The problem, however, is there are too many similar Bluetooth speakers nowadays; so much choice can confuse consumers. Today, SCOSCHE unveils a new wireless speaker, called BoomBUOY, that stands out from many others. What makes it so unique? It floats! While there have been floating speakers released before, this one is rugged… [Continue Reading]
What causes networks to fail?

Publié: novembre 15, 2016, 1:25pm CET par Ian Barker

Network outages are a major source of pain for businesses, so understanding what causes them is an important part of preventing them in the first place. A new survey from Veriflow reveals that complexity and human error are high on the list as contributing to network problems. Of 300 plus network professionals responding to the survey, 97 percent admit that human factors cause network outages. Yet despite this 69 percent of respondents still rely on manual processes, such as inspecting devices via the command line interface (CLI), inspecting configurations and performing manual traceroutes or pings, as one of their main solutions.… [Continue Reading]
New security solution protects Office 365 customers

Publié: novembre 15, 2016, 11:33am CET par Ian Barker

More and more companies are moving their office applications to the cloud and Microsoft Office 365 is one of the most popular options with around 85 million subscribers. One of the major concerns with this trend is keeping information secure, to address this IT management solutions provider Kaseya is launching its latest AuthAnvil. An identity and access management solution, this provides single sign on (SSO), multifactor authentication (MFA) and automated user provisioning for Office 365. AuthAnvil gives end users the simplicity and time saving of securely signing in once to access all applications without having to remember multiple sets of… [Continue Reading]
Major Linux security hole found in Cryptsetup script for LUKS disk encryption

Publié: novembre 15, 2016, 10:41am CET par Mark Wilson

A security vulnerability discovered in numerous Linux distros potentially puts millions of users at risk. CVE-2016-4484 (Cryptsetup Initrd root Shell) affects the Cryptsetup script that is used to unlock partitions encrypted with LUKS (Linux Unified Key Setup). The flaw means that it is possible for a hacker to access, change or delete data on the hard drive, and it is not even necessary to have physical access to exploit the vulnerability in every circumstance. But the worrying thing is just how easy the problem is to exploit. The problem lies in the way password checking is handled by /scripts/local-top/cryptroot. By… [Continue Reading]
What you need to know about network function virtualization

Publié: novembre 15, 2016, 10:32am CET par Ian Barker

We’re seeing more and more technology functions being virtualized in order to streamline operations and cut costs. Networking is no exception to this trend, though it has been slower to adopt it than some other areas, there are good reasons for this which we’ll look at later. A shift is beginning to occur though. Network function virtualization allows network tasks to be performed by software running on commodity hardware, replacing expensive, dedicated hardware appliances. This promises easy scaling of functions and should help in the automation of service delivery. The Background to NFV In the telecommunications sector products have generally… [Continue Reading]
What you need to know about enterprise mobility

Publié: novembre 15, 2016, 12:23am CET par Barclay Ballard

The importance of mobility in the workplace has grown significantly in recent years, driven by technological innovations like smartphones and web-based applications. The traditional office confines have been eroded and now customers, clients and employees demand the tools required to work whenever and wherever they need to. Businesses that are unwilling to embrace mobility, or do so ineffectively, risk being overtaken by a competitor that is able to provide the flexibility required by the modern world of work. There are legitimate concerns when it comes to business mobility, but fortunately there are also a number of solutions that allow organizations… [Continue Reading]