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éléments par Jamie Hinks

What Back to the Future II got right and wrong about 2015

Publié: octobre 21, 2015, 12:36pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Today is the day Marty McFly visits in Back to the Future Part II, the sequel to Robert Zemeckis’ 1985 masterpiece "Back to the Future".

Now that we’ve finally hit the day portrayed in the film it’s time to give the producers a report card on the things they got right… and wrong.

What Back to the Future II Got Right

Tablet computers

Apple catapulted tablets into the mainstream with its first iPad back in 2010 that had followed years of various companies playing around the concept of a tablet PC. In Back to the Future II, Marty McFly is asked to sign a tablet by another member of the Hill Valley Preservation Society and, although it’s a lot chunkier than the current batch of tablets, it was still a tablet.

Video calling

Online video calling is second nature in the real year 2015 with Skype and FaceTime used almost more than regular mobile phones to keep in contact with people. This was the thing that Zemeckis managed to get almost completely correct in a scene where the TV is used to make a call in full screen with the smaller image in the corner making it look not unlike FaceTime.

Flat-screen wall-mounted TVs

He got even closer to the modern day when it came to visualizing what TV would be like in the future and including a large flat-screen wall-mounted TV on Marty McFly’s wall.The TV looks suspiciously like any Samsung, LG, Sony or other branded TV set that you would expect to find in a local electronics store. The movie even made sure that the aspect ratio of the TV was 16×9 and not 4×3 that was preferred up until widescreen became the common standard.

Wearables

It’s projected that everyone will be completely addicted to wearables in the coming years and their invention didn’t go unseen by McFly’s kids of the future in 2015 who sit chomping away at dinner complete with virtual reality headsets and clunky smart watches that are akin to some of a wrist-chunks on the market right now. The headsets in Back to the Future II allow you to make and receive calls, watch TV and connect in with the phone system used by everyone in the house.

Smart Home

When Jennifer is escorted home by the cops and realizes she’s in the future, she is reminded that lights should be programmed for when you get home, much like what you can now do in a smart home right now.

Biometrics

Fingerprint and eye scanning technology is scattered about in Back to the Future II much like it is in real life today with everything from letting yourself into the house to paying for a taxi with your thumbprint as used by creator Zemeckis. It mirrors the modern day where biometric technology has eventually found its way onto our mobile devices and we can use that in conjunction with technology inside taxis to pay for a ride home, and plays a big part in immigration at US airports.

Hoverboards

Okay, so these aren’t as widespread as in Back to the Future II but there are companies working on hoverboards, including Lexus, even if they have restrictions. Still, a hoverboard is a hoverboard.

Jaws 19

What Back to the Future II Got Wrong

No Internet

One of the biggest boobs that Back to the Future II failed to notice was the Internet and it is conspicuous by its complete absence from the realization of 2015.

Fax Machines Reign Supreme

Fax machines have long been replaced by email as a form of electronically transmitting a form and few organizations still rely on them as heavily as the film foresaw, where faxes were spilling out of machines and there is even the mention of dust-repellent paper. Imagine that!

The double tie phenomenon and other fashion faux pas

Marty McFly the 2015 edition decided that one tie just wasn’t going to cut it and took to wearing two separate pieces of material hanging from his neck at once that made it look like he was keeping one to give to his friend later on.

It wasn’t just Marty going double with other people donning the same look and it’s something that hasn’t as yet found its way onto the catwalks. Further to that, most of the clothes worn were hideously old fashioned that people in the real 2015 wouldn’t be seen dead in them. Not even the hipsters!

Self-tying shoes

Marty only has to tap his shoes to make them lace up and, even though Nike did unveil a limited release shoe based on Marty’s sneakers, it definitely hasn’t started to be the standard way we lace our shoes. We have slip-ons for that after all.

Flying cars

Look at most films that have a peek at the future and the flying car is one of the standard components in almost every one. We still haven’t been blessed by the flying car and, even though driverless cars are on the way, we will be putting up with roads for some time yet.

Automation and robotics

The arrival of robotics and everything being automated was a huge part of Back to the Future II, however, we haven’t handed over dog walking to robots and litter bins are not remote controlled just yet.

Among the other things Back to the Future II got wrong were the cinemas showing Jaws 19, lawyers being completely abolished, the Black & Decker Hydrator, zappers, x-ray vision and the distinct lack of mobile phones even though they had already been invented in full brick form by the time the film came out.

This is why Windows 10 will be essential for your business

Publié: février 2, 2015, 8:02am CET par Jamie Hinks

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Microsoft’s worldwide release of Windows 10 gets underway later this year and with it thousands of businesses and those in the enterprise will be on tenterhooks to see if it manages to fulfill all the promise that the company is throwing behind it.

Windows 10 is a lot more than just the return of the Start menu and it could transform your business in a number of different ways.

Cortana

For the first time since it was released for Windows Phone, Microsoft’s virtual assistant Cortana will be on the desktop, able to deliver information across all the Windows 10 platforms and could result in an uplift to your company’s productivity. Cortana will bring with it voice commands on your desktop that will make advanced searching a lot easier, web integration with the newly enhanced Spartan browser and all of this will be spread across all your devices.

Bolstered Security

One of the major differences in Windows 10 is one that you might not notice: the addition of an extra layer of protection using containers and data separation that means security protection is at the app and file level. On each device that is using Windows 10, the enterprise can issue public and private keys using their existing PKI infrastructure and any devices will be able to be added using these credentials. The tokens are then stored in a virtualized container on top of Hyper-V technology thus making enterprises more secure against various different attacks.

Continuum

Tablets and hybrids are becoming increasingly more widespread in the workplace and as such continuum will be a valuable addition thanks to its ability to recognize when the user has switched from tablet to desktop mode and vice versa.

Updates at your pace

Enterprises can take one of two attitudes towards Windows 10 updates. One is to keep as up to date as consumers by using the automatic updates feature that will quickly become popular or roll it out at their own pace.

Vastly improved multitasking

Business will benefit hugely from the enhancements to multitasking that allows larger screens to appear as if there are four separate screens by snapping apps into different sections of the screen and mimicking a multi-monitor setup. This feature, known as Aero Snap, was actually present in Windows 7 but the big change is that back then screens couldn’t be divided up into different areas, as will be the case in Windows 10

With the promised constant stream of updates for what will now be Windows-as-a-Service, plenty of other features will be unveiled in due course to help all businesses take full advantage of the new OS.

What Back to the Future II's vision of 2015 got wrong

Publié: janvier 28, 2015, 10:35am CET par Jamie Hinks

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To celebrate the fact we are now in the year Marty McFly was teleported to, yesterday we had a look back at what Back to the Future II creator Robert Zemeckis got right in his look forward to the year 2015 where he envisaged everything from smart homes and wearables to hoverboards.

There was, of course, also a whole lot he got wrong about the future, and here’s a rundown of the things that didn’t go according to his vision.

1. No Internet

One of the biggest boobs that Back to the Future II failed to notice was the Internet and it is conspicuous by its complete absence from the realization of 2015.

2. Fax Machines Reign Supreme

3. The double tie phenomenon and other fashion faux pas

4. Self-tying shoes

5. Flying cars

6. Automation and robotics

Take a look at what Zemeckis got correct right here.

What Back to the Future II's vision of 2015 got right

Publié: janvier 27, 2015, 11:07am CET par Jamie Hinks

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Marty McFly visits the year 2015 in Back to the Future Part II, the sequel to Robert Zemeckis’ 1985 masterpiece "Back to the Future".

Now that we’ve finally hit the year portrayed in the film it’s time to give them a report card on the things they got right.

Tablet computers

Video calling

Flat-screen wall-mounted TVs

Wearables

Smart Home

Biometrics

Hoverboards

Okay, so these aren’t as widespread as in Back to the Future II but there is one company (Hendo) working on a hoverboard prototype with none other than Tony Hawk. So far it looks a bit chunkier than Marty’s version but a hoverboard is a hoverboard.

Check back tomorrow when we’ll be going through what wasn’t completely correct in Marty’s realization of 2015.

Five iconic phones that came before iPhone

Publié: janvier 22, 2015, 7:50pm CET par Jamie Hinks

Nokia-3310

It’s weird to think that this time 10 years ago we still hadn’t been interrupted from our feature phones to grasp hold of Apple’s smartphone revolution, which in fact didn’t take place until mid-2007. Those gray (or off-yellow) and black tinged days when all we wanted to do was type a text that was longer than 161 characters and play games about slithery animals on small screens.

So grab a hold of your eBay account details as these five beauties will have you bidding on bricks to help you relive those days.

Motorola StarTAC

Before Motorola got swallowed up by Google, regurgitated, and then ingested by Lenovo it used to make some iconic handsets. The clam-shell was where it really stuck out against the likes of Nokia and Ericsson, and the StarTAC was the one that every remembers for its odd design that at one point looked like one phone giving a small baby phone a piggy-back. Motorola sold around 60 million StarTACs thanks to its lightweight and compact design, ability to send SMS text messages, and a vibrate alert.

Sony Ericsson w550i

We’ll move from there on to the only swivel mechanism phone on the list and also the only one to be named after another technological icon – the Sony Ericsson W550i (or Walkman550i). Yes this phone looked a little bit odd, to the untrained eye had no keypad, and had a carrying handle that would have only been of help to The Borrowers. It may have also been incredibly easy to break in two, but it was a neat phone. It did have a whopping 256MB of expandable memory, FM radio, a 1.3-megapixel camera, THREE speakers, and dedicated gaming buttons.

Nokia 5110

When you think of mobile phones that came out before the iPhone it’s hard not to dedicate the entire list to Nokia. The 5110 with its distinctive design that enabled owners to customise the facia was also the first one to feature snake as a playable game. It was a sad day when its three-year run ended in 2001.

Nokia 3310

If the 5110 built up Nokia’s popularity amongst most people, the 3310 took it onto another level. At the time it replaced the very popular 3210 and anyone at Nokia worried about what its replacement was foolish to think it would fail. The 3310 sold around 126 million units worldwide thanks to a series of handy features such as being allowed to send text messages that were three times longer than normal, voice dialing, Snake II (!!), custom ringtones and interchangeable covers.

BlackBerry’s QWERTY phones

Back in the 2000s was when BlackBerry or should I say Research in Motion, really meant something as a company. The iPhone hadn’t arrived and it was sitting pretty with its popular line of handsets that brought a QWERTY keyboard to the table that made the regular keypads favoured by its competitors pale into insignificance. There were plenty of different handsets that RIM pushed out and we’re pretty sure you have your favorite so fill in the gap here -- the BlackBerry ___ was one of the best.

Why I couldn't care less about smartphones

Publié: janvier 21, 2015, 9:31am CET par Jamie Hinks

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Smartphones make me fed up. There. I said it.

Every year since Apple released its paradigm shifting iPhone 3G and pushed the industry into the stratosphere there has been nothing to get truly excited about in a sector that should be just that: exciting.

Everyone copies everyone else

You don’t have to look at the finer details of one of the litany of patent disputes between Apple and Samsung to know that almost all smartphones look and feel the same. Of course, there are slight variations in shape, size and weight, but what you hold in your hand has been influenced so much by the design of the original iPhone that it feels almost staid at this point. This could explain why consumers are increasingly moving away from the likes of Samsung and Sony to cheaper manufacturers that can offer almost exactly the same device for a much lower cost. Apple, meanwhile, has no such problem due to the brand loyalty that has stood the test of time since the iPhone 3G was released and looks like a mere pipe dream for its competitors.

We have more and more peripherals we don’t want

Google Glass fell by the wayside last week and with it went yet another smartphone peripheral that promised much, but has ultimately failed for the moment and it all boils down to one thing: we don’t want to shell out a load more money on added extras. Parting with the best part of $600 for a smartphone doesn’t mean that consumers want to make it a race to the $1,000 mark and beyond, by spending on devices that make the easy task of operating a phone, even easier. Wearables will find a niche at some point and the Apple Watch will likely be the smart watch sector’s "iPhone moment". The manufacturers of them just need to be more price sensitive going forwards.

They aren’t even phones anymore

This might seem like an obvious one, however, it feels like smartphone manufacturers are missing the point by constantly pushing the boundaries in terms of size and features. Once upon a time we dreamed about mobile phones that were small enough to fit in our pockets and didn’t look like they could knock someone out if thrown in a fit of rage. Even though the latter weight and bulk have gone, smartphones have headed off into a new dimension of huge screen sizes and phones that don’t fit in the pocket of a regular pair of jeans.

Prices are too high

If you’d told me 10 years ago that we’d all be walking around with $600+ devices weighing down our pockets I’d have been slightly skeptical and probably asked if you started off the day with vodka on your corn flakes. That’s the status quo. Of course, you could opt for an older model or one of the scores of cheaper handsets such as the Google Nexus 5, but what self-respecting person doesn’t want the new Nexus 6 or an iPhone 6 Plus? Like many consumer electronics it’s a toss-up between having the very latest piece of kit and being price sensitive, the former usually winning on the day. The whole point of price may seem like an obvious one and it will be very interesting to see if Western consumers react to cheaper handsets from the likes of Xiaomi in the same way their counterparts in China have done.

Photo Credit: mast3r/Shutterstock

5 main reasons why Google Glass failed

Publié: janvier 19, 2015, 8:54am CET par Jamie Hinks

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Google pulled its wearable headset last week after under two years in the wild that saw it aim to revolutionize the way we use technology.

In truth, people were writing the obituaries for Google Glass way before it finally got canned. Google says it eventually intends to bring out a new version of the Glass, but let’s look at the five reasons why it didn’t prove a success this time around.

Price

Consumers were finally given the go ahead to start buying Google Glass last year yet not many took Google up on the opportunity due to the hefty $1,500 price tag. The company has not released sales figures for how many consumers took the plunge and became an honorary "Glasshole", and beyond tech buffs it’s unlikely that regular consumers were sufficiently attracted by the looks or the price tag.

It is not cool (or able to be used by drivers)

That brings us nicely to our next point: the hands-free device simply doesn’t tick the "cool" box. The specs look like a pair of lens-less glasses that even the staunchest of Shoreditch hipsters has now ditched, and they didn’t even have the whole frame that was so loved by that set. One place where it would have been cool to use Google Glass was in the car to help navigate London’s maze of streets. This was, regrettably, ruled out by the Metropolitan Police. Not cool.

Poor Battery Life

This one speaks for itself. Google advertised that the Glass could stand up to "one day of typical use", yet most users complained that after just three to five hours of use the low battery symbol would appear. Definitely something to consider for the next stage of its development.

Negative Attitude of the General Public

It wasn’t long after its release that stories began to emerge of Google Glass wearers being attacked for wearing the device whilst in different locations around the center of the Silicon Valley in San Francisco. It came to a head when tech writer Sarah Slocum was assaulted and robbed in a bar just because she had the headset on. After entering the bar at around 1:45 am she was given quite the welcome by patrons who swore at her and then tore the glasses from her face before stealing her purse and smartphone. Various other early adopters saw attempts to steal the headset and Google should think of a less intrusive design in future to prevent this happening.

It Was Only an Experiment

Google Glass was only ever an experiment meaning the commercial rollout was going to be limited and didn’t need to be a commercial success to be deemed a success by those working on it at Google. All the complaints about the battery life, malfunctioning apps, and anything else that didn’t work were all part of the developer version of the device, which it stayed as throughout its short life-cycle.

Three steps to the perfect smartwatch

Publié: janvier 15, 2015, 9:19am CET par Jamie Hinks

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Even with all the trillion dollar estimates on what the wearables market will become by the turn of the decade, the outlook at the current juncture is slightly bleak for all but the biggest of manufacturers. Research released by the University of Pennsylvania showed that of 6,223 wearables users it studied, over 50 percent had given up on the devices and two thirds of that number did so in the first six months.

It’s becoming abundantly clear that tech firms need to arrest this decline and, although there is expectation that Apple’s entry into the sector can give everyone a jolt forwards, plenty more can be done.

Inject some real style

Smartwatch manufacturers have to get away from the sector’s early chunkiness and built something truly different that will make consumers sit up and take notice.

The size of the components such as accelerometers and sensors inside each device shouldn’t be a problem and as such creating something truly different won’t be hard. Now is the time to take a chance on a design that is truly out of the box to stand out from the competition.

Something beyond simply "blinging up" the exterior of the device and it’s likely that even more partnerships between traditional watch manufacturers and tech companies will spring up to enable this. Consumers don’t simply want a second phone on the wrist and would sacrifice a big screen for a watch that looks good and is less intrusive.

Don’t follow everyone else

One of the key takeaways from this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was the uncanny ability of almost everyone to simply duplicate what rivals are doing.

Smartwatches haven’t had their "iPod" or "iPhone" moment just yet and even if the Apple Watch brings this to the table, which there is no bona-fide guarantee it will, purveyors of smart watches need to differentiate.

Almost every single device currently offers the same standard specification that extends to health and fitness sensors, a small-sized screen that hooks up with your smartphone and the ability to connect Bluetooth headphones. Think up something truly different before anyone else and it might just position you to become the industry’s most innovative company.

Think About Price

Talk to anyone about what would push them to buy a smartwatch and words to the effect of "I want it to be as cheap as possible" won’t be far away.

Pricing a watch anywhere near its smartphone counterpart isn’t going to work. Consider that Xiaomi and ultra-cheap Chinese smartphones will soon be arriving in the Western marketplace leading to even cheaper prices and then price the device accordingly.

Smartwatches must follow this drop in price otherwise they won’t be able to achieve the kind of penetration that is definitely possible for this sector.

Why CES 2015 was the best yet

Publié: janvier 12, 2015, 8:27am CET par Jamie Hinks

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Technology’s yearly trip to Sin City has been and gone in a heartbeat with gadgets and gizmos packing the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Centre as far as the eye can see. As soon as delegates landed they were inundated with power outlets that reminded everyone, yes, you’re in the center of the technology universe for the next few days and you can bet we won’t let you forget that!

That wasn’t the only thing that made CES 2015 the best one yet, and here are five of the top takeaways:

1. What Car Driving Will Look Like in 2030

German car manufacturers Mercedes Benz and Audi both brought their 'A' game to CES 2015 to show us how they think driving will look in a couple of decades time. The former debuted the Mercedes Benz F 015 Luxury in Motion that is basically a living room on wheels that uses an incredible level of technology to drive itself. Audi, on the other hand, trumpeted its driverless car tech by sending its A7 Sportback nicknamed 'Jack' from Silicon Valley to Las Vegas [560 miles] on an almost-completely auto-pilot journey. It has a 360-degree view of the surroundings, can change lanes and overtake automatically, doesn’t exceed 70 mph, and can brake on its own.

2. Drained Batteries Gone in (almost) 60 Seconds

Running out of battery and waiting next to a power source for a significant portion of the day is about to be banished thanks to StoreDot’s ultra-fast charging system that can power up a smartphone in a little under two minutes. A demonstration at CES 2015 showed a Samsung Galaxy S5 with one of the cells on board that has just five hours of life but can be charged in a vastly shorter space of time. Also keep an eye out this year for the three-minute charge Tesla battery produced by StoreDot.

3. Washing Machines Get A CES moment

Doing the washing is by all accounts "a chore" yet it’s hard not to get a bit excited about something that makes it a lot easier. LG has stepped up its white goods game up through a dual washing machine that features a huge drum for one load and a mini-washer in a drawer beneath that makes it look a bit like a range cooker and reduces washing times significantly.

4. Healthcare Solutions Reign Supreme

If washing machines had a "moment" at CES 2015 then healthcare solutions had multiple moments that serve to impact the length of lives and to manage health problems in the best way possible. Some of our favorites from this year’s show include the ReSound LiNX smart hearing aid, the lower back health device from Valedo, Temp Traq to monitor your child’s temperature 24/7 and the Vigilant LilyPad UV sensor that also monitors pool temperature whilst floating on the water.

5. Defend Yourself: Wear a Dress

One of the more interesting devices at CES 2015 comes in the form of Intel’s 3D-printed experimental dress that has robotic spider legs and looks genuinely scary. The dress defends the owner by measuring the stress levels in the body, assessing what is going on around and will enter "territorial attack mode" if someone approaches aggressively. Consider this a warning!

Apple set to totally dominate the wearable tech sector

Publié: décembre 22, 2014, 9:27am CET par Jamie Hinks

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Wearables are on track to hit 168 million shipments by 2019 with the sector driven by Apple’s long-awaited entry into a segment it will eventually lead.

A new report from Berg Insight predicts that wearable technology shipments will hit 19 million in 2014, up from 5.9 million in 2013, before accelerating to 168.2 million by 2019 thanks to a compound annual growth rate of 54.7 percent.

Fitness trackers currently lead the way in the sector with 13 million units shipped in 2014, though they face huge competition from the scores of smartwatches being launched all the time.

"This product category is now facing fierce competition from smartwatches that have activity tracking features. Decreasing prices and new form factors will still enable dedicated fitness & activity trackers to reach shipments of 42.0 million units in 2019”, said Johan Svanberg, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight. “Smartwatches are already the second largest category of connected wearables and sales will pick up considerably in 2015. The Apple Watch will enter the market and other major smartphone vendors will launch next generation Android Wear devices".

Apple’s projected dominance in the wearables sector is cemented by a separate report produced by Ipsos MediaCT.

"When asked which brands Americans would consider purchasing in the wearable category, Apple [62 percent], Google [44 percent] and Samsung [43 percent] were the top three most mentioned brands. Fitness brands were also highly mentioned, with Fitbit [31 percent] ranking fourth in consideration and Nike in sixth [27 percent]", the report read, according to Wareable.

The Apple Watch is still quite the guarded secret given that it has a tentative release date of Spring 2015 in the US and pricing that starts at some $349.

Sony data breach: how not to protect your passwords

Publié: décembre 8, 2014, 11:57am CET par Jamie Hinks

Sony Pictures Entertainment faces being left completely red-faced after reports began to emerge that it contributed to its latest data breach by storing thousands of passwords in a folder entitled "Password".

Personal details of some 47,000 employees and actors have been leaked online in recent days and the much-publicized leak contains confidential details including social security numbers and reams of other tidbits, according to The Telegraph.

The controversially named "Password" folder contains 139 Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, zip files and PDFs that give access to passwords and usernames for everything from internal computers to social media accounts.

One of those files, which has been seen by BuzzFeed, contains scores of usernames and passwords to various social media accounts thus giving anyone easy access to Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter accounts linked to the firm.

Sony hasn’t spoken publicly about the hack and the only noises came in an internal company-wide memo from CEO Michael Lynton and co-chairman Amy Pascal that called it a "brazen attack on our company, our employees and our business partners".

Sony’s leak comes at the same time that a clutch of high profile upcoming films were made available online with many reports pointing the finger at North Korea in retaliation for an upcoming film that pokes fun at the country.

Since then, the country has come out to deny that it is responsible for the hack and called claims that it had anything to do with it "another fabrication targeting the country".

The film in question, The Interview, stars Seth Rogan and James Franco and centers on a fictional plot by the US government to assassinate North Korea’s leader, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the real life leader Kim Jong-un.

Employees at Sony Pictures, who are some of the worst affected, aren’t likely to be surprised at the leak given that former workers told Fusion that the company’s "long-running lax attitude towards security" is likely to blame.

US military worried about stolen cars being used as weapons

Publié: novembre 28, 2014, 4:26pm CET par Jamie Hinks

Car weapon

The US military is preparing to wage war on car crime with the specific remit to develop a plan with manufacturers that prevents hackers stealing cars and one day turning them into weapons.

A group of hackers was recently hired by the US Defense Department to see if they could break into a 2012 model car and computer scientist Kathleen Fisher, who heads the group, showed that an electronic key could be created to unlock to car’s network.

Fisher admitted to the Associated Press that the process would take months but from then on it would be "pretty easy to package up the smarts and make it available online, perhaps in a black-market type situation".

The goal of the project is to adapt the lines of computer code that are most vulnerable to hackers, patch them up and then release a code to car manufacturers that is easily adaptable but remains safe.

Car manufacturers are also working to address the concerns over hackers targeting cars and the Association of Global Automakers, which includes Honda and Toyota, has already created an "information and analysis center".

"Before, when you designed something, you looked at how might components fail," said Michael Cammisa, director of safety for the Association of Global Automakers. "Now, you have to look at how would somebody maliciously attack the vehicle".

There have been no known instances of hackers gaining remote access to a car, however, one in three car thefts in London is now carried out by hackers taking advantage of key fobs thus leading to worries of full scale control becoming an issue.

"The danger comes in when this access can be attained remotely. This type of remote access requires an entry point other that the vehicles physical diagnostics port", Jacques Louw, senior information security consultant at MWR InfoSecurity, told the Huffington Post. "As security has not been a prime objective for vehicle manufacturers in the past these systems have been tightly integrated, leading to a situation where the security of an in-car media player can affect the car’s brakes".

Photo Credit: MisterElements /Shutterstock

Analog TV frequencies could be used for 'super Wi-Fi', say scientists

Publié: novembre 28, 2014, 11:29am CET par Jamie Hinks

Wi-Fi connection

Outdated analog TV frequencies should be used to create new space for "super Wi-Fi" that would boost the world’s economy and take the strain off overloaded mobile networks even though worries persist over how workable they are.

Scientists from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology [KIT] are calling for governments to hand over the unused frequencies so that a widespread free Wi-Fi network can be created.

"Implementation of our approach would have far-reaching consequences. Individuals, institutions and companies would be far less dependent on expensive mobile communications networks in conducting their digital communication. This would also be of great economic benefit", said Arnd Weber from KIT, according to Factor.

Using the repurposed TV frequencies would allow Wi-Fi cover a much wider area due to the fact they operate over lower frequencies and it opens up the chance for hard to reach areas to be connected.

KIT’s plans haven’t gone down well with everyone, Nobel Prize winning economist Ronald Coarse arguing that governments should still auction off the frequencies so their use is as effective as possible. The governments involved would then use the proceeds from the sales to fund other projects.

The argument from KIT’s side of the fence is that selling the frequencies off to the highest bidder isn’t the best plan and the long-term economic benefits wouldn’t be realized were this the case.

Coarse’s differing of opinion isn’t the only one, others stating that lower frequency networks will become extremely congested and thus be rendered useless as a result. KIT scientists think that the right technology would avoid this being the case and testing would prove whether this would be case.

Weber and Jens Elsner, his colleague at KIT, will present their case at the UN-initiated World Radio communication conference next year to argue their approach is the best in the hope that governments sit up and take notice.

Photo Credit: phloxii/Shutterstock

App Store downloads hit a new high

Publié: novembre 26, 2014, 9:00am CET par Jamie Hinks

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App Store downloads reached an all-time high during October following the release of the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus as well as the implementation of iOS 8.

Fiksu’s App Store Competitive Index recorded 7.8 million downloads of the top 200 free iOS apps in October 2014, which was a huge increase of 42 percent on the previous month and 39 percent on October 2013.

"The release of the iPhone 6 and availability of iOS 8 undoubtedly led to this high volume of activity as users updated their new devices with their favorite apps", wrote Jeremy Sacco in a blog post.

The mobile app marketing firm pointed out how important it is for app marketers to find a way to be "vital" to users, especially before new device launches and in the lead up to holiday periods.

"In October, we observed typical app behavior in the Cost per Loyal User [CPLU] Index, declining to $2.16 from September’s $2.25. This likely reflects users who were choosing to re-download their most-used apps during phone upgrades," added Sacco, stating that it shows why retargeting is so important.

Even though the CPLU above went down, the cost to acquire loyal users rose 33 percent when set against the numbers from October 2013. iOS apps, although they are out-downloaded by their Android counterparts, still garner far more revenue per app when compared, with 80 percent higher revenues despite Google’s apps holding a 60 percent lead in volume.

Apple released the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in September and the latter device represented the first time the company ventured into phablet territory through its 5.5in display. The sales figures speak volumes for the success the two phones have already enjoyed with over 10 million iPhone 6 units sold over the opening weekend and stock shortages since.

Microsoft agrees a $30m deal with Real Madrid

Publié: novembre 21, 2014, 8:18am CET par Jamie Hinks

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Microsoft has agreed a four-year deal with Real Madrid rumored to be worth $30 million that will see the technology giant revolutionize Europe’s most successful club with a "digital transformation".

The new partnership sees Microsoft become the team’s strategic technology partner that involves building a digital platform to boost fan interaction across all devices and various other projects in the coming months.

Real’s new digital platform will allow fans to access experiences, content and exclusive digital services either in the team’s Santiago Bernabeu stadium, at home or at any other location. As well as this there will be a wealth of data on all players, past and present, and the chance to delve into statistics from specific games.

The platform goes deeper than that by providing supporters the chance to access the stadium virtually at any time before, during or after each game, and it is powered by Microsoft’s Power BI for Office 365.

"Today is the start of a long journey that Real Madrid and Microsoft are embarking on together, heading toward the full digital revolution of the club. This new era translates into an unprecedented personalized experience for supporters that will allow millions of fans from all over the planet to enjoy their passion for Real Madrid anywhere, anytime and on any device," stated Orlando Ayala, corporate VP and chairman of emerging markets at Microsoft.

Another strand to the agreement sees Microsoft lay on its devices and services to Real Madrid such as Surface Pro 3 tablets being given to all players and coaching staff. There is also scope for further collaboration on "useful information and knowledge" that could eventually see partnerships on joint research projects with Microsoft Research.

The latest deal between the two comes after an agreement signed by Microsoft with Real Madrid’s foundation last year and it’s still rumored that the company will eventually buy the naming rights to the new Santiago Bernabeu, when it is built.

Global monthly smartphone data traffic to hit 17 exabytes by 2020

Publié: novembre 20, 2014, 8:40pm CET par Jamie Hinks

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Smartphone data usage will increase eightfold over the next six years as consumers continue to take advantage of the increasingly fast speeds on offer from mobile operators.

Global data produced as part of the latest Ericsson Mobility Report showed that traffic would grow from the 2.1 exabytes used per month in 2014 to approximately 17 exabytes by 2020.

On a per user basis it’s expected that the average subscriber will jump from using an average of 900MB per month in 2014 to 3.5GB per month by 2020 and markets in Western Europe and North America are at the forefront of the change.

This is being driven by a 130 percent increase in the number of smartphone subscriptions in the six-year period that will result in a jump from 2.7 billion in 2014 to 6.1 billion in 2020.

Overall mobile subscriptions, which includes broadband, PCs, tablets, routers and cellular M2M, will increase from 7.1 billion in 2014 to 9.5 billion in 2020 and as a proportion of this, 90 percent of the world’s population over six years old will have a mobile by 2020.

"Most mobile broadband devices are, and will continue to be, smartphones. Many consumers in developing markets first experience the internet on smartphones – usually because they have only limited access to fixed broadband," read the report.

When it comes to devices, tablets are set to see a 15-fold increase in mobile data traffic between now and 2020 whereas the overall device market will see the same eight-fold increase as overall smartphone data traffic.

4G LTE, which is currently worth a small proportion of those 7.1 billion subscriptions, will grow to 3.5 billion by 2020 as more users in Western Europe and North America take advantage of the faster connections. That will be music to the ears of mobile operators in the UK that have spent vast reserves of money on establishing 4G networks and subscribers are will flood onto their networks in the next few years.

ResMed unveils its non-contact sleep monitor

Publié: novembre 17, 2014, 8:30pm CET par Jamie Hinks

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Sleep monitoring usually conjures up images of sensors placed all over the room or even in the bed making you think so much about the devices that you struggle to get off to sleep.

ResMed thinks it has the solution with its S+ system that it brags is the world’s first non-contact sleep system to come onto the market by using a wealth of data to give tips on how to sleep better.

S+ uses bio-motion sensors to measure the stages of sleep through breathing patterns and body movement, light, noise and temperature levels from within a room.

"Using our patented SleepSensor technology that connects direct to your smartphone, the S+ allows for more accurate in-home monitoring, and represents a quantum leap forward in sleep science to achieve better sleep", said Don Darkin, president of ResMed’s sleep-disordered breathing business unit. "Millions of Americans are already counting their calories or miles walked, but it’s impossible to track and measure the quality of your sleep without assistance".

The device is controlled by a dedicated app for both iOS and Android that allows users to input various information such as caffeine and alcohol intake, exercise, and look at patterns over time that result in personalized sleep patterns.

It has a range of different tools to aid better sleep such as soothing sounds that link with breathing patterns, a sleep scorecard that rates your night out of 100, and S+ Mentor that gives feedback to users that can be acted upon straight away.

In addition there are color-coded charts based on the various stages of sleep, the ability to record a voice clip or text note to clear your thoughts, and a smart alarm that only wakes you up when you’ve entered a light sleep.

The S+ comes in with a suggested retail price of $149.99 at Bed Bath & Beyond with online sales through mysplus.com and it is available right now.

WhatsApp and Facebook lead the way with global app engagement

Publié: novembre 15, 2014, 3:34am CET par Jamie Hinks

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Facebook’s stable of apps lead the way in Western Europe and around the world when it comes to user engagement on social media and messaging apps.

Mobidia’s new "Social Media & Messaging Engagement: Chat, Social, Videoconferencing, Rich Media and VoIP Apps" white paper found that social and chat apps dominate the top end of the mobile app usage scale and Facebook is a huge part of why.

"Social and chat apps are clearly having an impact on mobile data usage, and the performance of Facebook’s app portfolio is impressive," said Chris Hill, senior vice president of marketing at Mobidia. "We expect to see other app developers taking inspiration from the engagement metrics that Facebook has been able to achieve".

In Western Europe WhatsApp, which is also owned by Facebook, led usage engagement at 73 percent with analyzed users averaging 612 minutes per month or 20 minutes per day. Facebook’s own mobile app, in comparison, had app engagement of 60 percent with users averaging 500 minutes per month and Instagram trailed behind on 20 percent engagement and users averaging 300 minutes per month.

Twitter and Snapchat are almost neck-and-neck in fourth place in Western Europe behind WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram with Viber slightly further behind in sixth place.

Globally, Facebook polled high monthly utilization in all major markets [except South Korea, Germany and Japan] as over 50 percent of users engaged with the app each month.

Facebook only got the final okay on its WhatsApp acquisition last month and the $19 billion deal brings with it some 600 million active users, as of August.

The Mobidia report is based on data compiled by ABI Research from millions of smartphone users across the world including those in China, Germany, Malaysia, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, the US and the UK.

Image Credit: Flickr (Jan Persiel)

Enterprises view cloud computing as the 'new normal'

Publié: novembre 14, 2014, 11:50pm CET par Jamie Hinks

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Cloud computing is growing at such a pace that it is becoming the "new normal" with businesses and enterprises turning to it without giving a second thought to on-premise offerings.

Amazon Web Services [AWS], one of the world’s largest cloud providers, used its re:invent conference in Las Vegas to push the cloud’s popularity that has meant upwards of a million customers are using its cloud services -- a number that continues to increase by the day.

"What we’ve seen over the past three years, and particularly accelerating over the past 12 months, is that more and more companies are moving their workloads in larger amounts to AWS and the cloud," said Andy Jassy, senior VP of AWS, according to Cloud Pro. "It seems pretty apparent at this point that cloud has become the new normal. Companies of every size are deploying new applications by default to the cloud and large companies are trying to work out how to migrate more of their applications as fast as possible to the cloud".

The uplift in usage is illustrated by the fact its EC2 compute offering and S3 cloud storage service have seen respective usage increases of 99 percent an 137 percent compared to the previous year.

Some of the companies that have signed up for AWS’ cloud based services include Spotify, Pinterest, and Johnson & Johnson, and the CIA’s decision to trust AWS with its data has lead to an increase in confidence elsewhere.

"[After news of that broke] more of our customers would say, 'if it’s secure enough for the CIA to us, it’s probably secure enough for us too,'" Jassy said.

Later in the same keynote a range of AWS customers, such as Major League Baseball and Intuit, explained how early success using the technology made them rely more heavily on the services. The MLB, for example, uses AWS’ cloud to handle data concerning the behavior of players, umpires and the ball itself to project how the outcomes of games can change should players change their behavior.

Image Credit: Flickr (Breno Peck)

Google cuts its cloud prices by up to 79%

Publié: novembre 7, 2014, 8:40am CET par Jamie Hinks

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Google Cloud’s long-awaited price cuts have finally been announced with various new features coming as part of the decreases that follow earlier cuts by its two main competitors in the space in Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

The search giant cut some products by almost 80 percent and added direct peering, container scheduling and a new container engine built on Google’s Kubernetes technology.

Google’s cuts extend to Network egress [down 47 percent], BigQuery storage [23 percent], Persistent Disk Snapshots [79 percent], Persistent Disk SSD [48 percent], and Cloud SQL [25 percent].

It comes after Google slashed the cost of its Compute Engine by 10 percent just last month and Brian Stevens, VP of product management, stated that the cuts "reflect our commitment to make sure you benefit from increased efficiency and falling hardware prices".

"As always, we have an enduring commitment to passing along the savings we receive from Moore's Law to our users," he added in a blog post.

Google Cloud Interconnect brings a new secure network that allows direct peering to connect to Google at over 70 points of presence in 33 countries around the world and it also includes carrier interconnect with a number of partners including Equinix, Verizon, TATA and many more. Google also plans to add VPN-based connectivity next month.

The new Google Container Engine based on Kubernetes allows companies to move from looking after application components on individual virtual machines to launching portable Docker containers scheduled into a managed compute cluster.

In addition, it revealed its App Engine -- Managed VMs service has gone beta and now includes auto-scaling support, Cloud SDK integration and support for runtimes built on Docker containers.

To try to tempt new customers it is offering a free trial of its cloud platform that includes $300 worth of free credits to spend on all Cloud Platform services with no ongoing commitments.

Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services have both engaged in a war on pricing over the past year and it would be hardly surprising should the two decide to cut them further following Google Cloud’s news.

Photo credit: Tom Wang/Shutterstock

IT professionals frustrated by web hosting price war

Publié: novembre 3, 2014, 9:10am CET par Jamie Hinks

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IT professionals across the US and UK have been left confused and annoyed by the web hosting price war that has left many to stay with existing providers due to worries over security and customer service.

A survey carried out by Pier 1 Hosting to find out the effect price has on choosing a web hosting provider found that 80 percent of those IT professionals surveyed aren’t willing to compromise on security for the sake of lower prices. In addition, upwards of 90 percent aren’t prepared to sacrifice customer service in order to benefit from lower prices and it’s a trend that doesn’t surprised those at Peer 1 Hosting.

"In the age of heightened cyber threats, the boom in e-Commerce and also the storing and dissemination of data by thousands of organizations, the role of hosting in many businesses has never been more important. Whilst cheaper hosting has an appeal for some who are motivated by price, the research shows that speed, service, and security are a priority for many IT decision makers who are not willing to compromise on their web hosting business," Toby Owen, VP Product at Peer 1 Hosting said.

60 percent of UK respondents said that the hosting price battle was "not to be trusted", "confusing", or "annoying". Both the US and UK respondents were in agreement that the most important factors when choosing a hosting provider are "security" and "customer service", and when asked about speed half stated they wouldn’t settle for a slower connection if it was cheaper.

The survey also asked "How likely is it that a price cut from another hosting provider would cause you to change hosting provider?" 23 percent said it was "highly" or "somewhat" likely whereas 43 percent admitted it would be "extremely unlikely" or "unlikely" to make them change.

Peer 1 Hosting’s survey fielded answers from 300 US and 250 UK based IT decision makers with the sole remit to gain a clearer understanding on the web hosting market.

Image Credit: Flickr (Phil Whitehouse)

Keyless cars being targeted by high-tech thieves in London

Publié: octobre 29, 2014, 8:57am CET par Jamie Hinks

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Thefts of cars that use keyless fobs to gain access are on the rise after criminals gained the ability to hack into the car’s onboard computer and it is causing some luxury car owners to be refused insurance.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers [SMMT] reports that organized crime syndicates have been able to bypass the onboard security by using software only meant for mechanics and start vehicles using the ignition button present in many high end models, such as Range Rovers and BMWs.

"The criminal act of stealing vehicles through the re-programming of remote-entry keys is an on-going industry-wide problem," said Jaguar Land Rover, according to the BBC. "Our line-up continues to meet the insurance industry requirements as tested and agreed with relevant insurance bodies. Nevertheless we are taking this issue very seriously and our engineering teams are actively working in collaboration with insurance bodies and police forces to solve this continuously evolving problem".

It has come to a head with one Range Rover Evoque driver telling The Times that they were refused cover due to the fact the car couldn’t be parked in a garage or secured location.

On the whole car theft is down with figures from the UK Office for National Statistics showing that thefts are dropped from 318,000 in 2002 to 77,500 in 2013 though London has seen a spike and many of those vehicles stolen use this new technology.

One security expert, on the other hand, is still somewhat baffled by what the nature of the problem actually is but are calling for all new technologies of this ilk to be completely secured before released into the wild.

"What is unclear at this time is whether this is related to a software/hardware vulnerability or another weakness in their system" Vicente Diaz, Principal Security Researcher, Global Research and Analysis Team at Kaspersky, told us.

"This is a timely reminder of how fast times and technology are moving; how cars are implementing more and more technology for different systems and how attackers are actively looking for ways of bypassing security mechanisms implemented, for their own gain. This means, more than ever, that security should be a priority in any new systems or designs, rather than the afterthought it often is," Diaz added.

Image Credit: Flickr (Ming-Yen Hsu)

How to get Android 5.0 Lollipop on your mobile device

Publié: octobre 17, 2014, 11:06am CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Google has officially announced Android 5.0 Lollipop alongside a brand spanking new range of Nexus devices including a phablet, tablet and set top box geared towards gaming.

Over the coming weeks the new OS will roll out to the Nexus 6 and 9 before landing on a raft of Android devices across various manufacturers including HTC, Sony, Samsung and many more. In order to be prepared for its arrival, here is a step-by-step guide to make sure it hits your device without a hitch.

1. Check your device is compatible

Not every Android device will be able to handle the new OS version and Google has already confirmed that the Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 will get it in the coming weeks, as well as the Nexus 6 and 9. Other devices that are getting the update include:

Various Google Play Edition devices [possibly all of them]
HTC One M8 and One M7
Motorola Moto X, Moto G, Moto G 4G, Moto E, Droid Ultra, Droid Maxx and Droid Mini
Sony, Samsung and LG will all confirm which devices will get the update in the coming weeks

2. Backup your stuff

Even though this is a stable release it is always wise to make sure everything on your device is backed up. This can be done by using Google Drive or any other well-known cloud storage service.

3. Plug your phone into a power supply

To make sure the smartphone or tablet doesn’t power down during the update be sure to plug it into the wall or a USB port on your computer.

4. Download the update

Navigate to Settings > About Phone or About Tablet > Software Update > Check for Updates. If Android 5.0 Lollipop is available and your smartphone or tablet has a Wi-Fi connection it will begin the download right away. It’s then just a matter of waiting for Android to do its thing.

After those easy steps you should have the newest version of Android on your phone and it’ll be time to enjoy all the new features that Google has worked hard to implement.

British criminals are remotely wiping mobile devices while in police custody

Publié: octobre 13, 2014, 8:23am CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Offenders are using software to remotely wipe tablets and smartphones confiscated by the police so they cannot be used as evidence in criminal cases.

Police forces in Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Durham all admitted to the BBC that seized devices have been remotely "wiped" of all data to prevent it being used as evidence in court.

Dorset has been the worst affected with six occurrences in one year and the police in the county were at pains to point out that they don’t have the foggiest how users are doing so.

"There were six incidents, but we don't know how people wiped them," the Dorset police spokesperson told the BBC. "We have cases where phones get seized, and they are not necessarily taken from an arrested person -- but we don't know the details of these cases as there is not a reason to keep records of this".

Derbyshire police also confirmed that a device has been wiped remotely whilst in police custody in relation to a romance fraud case, however, this didn’t impact the investigation and a conviction was secured.

Cleveland police, on the other hand, was another left befuddled by a device and it admitted it was unclear "whether it was wiped prior to coming into police hands". It’s also not apparent if it affected the investigation because the force doesn’t know what was on the phone.

Forces in Cambridgeshire, Durham and Nottingham have also all seen one case each and it’s thought that offenders are able to wipe devices remotely if the police force in question leaves the power on due to the fact it still has a signal.

"If a device has a signal, in theory it is possible to wipe it remotely," Ken Munro, a digital forensics expert with Pen Test Partners told the BBC.

Munro analyses scores of devices for corporate clients and advises anyone seizing a device to put it inside a radio-frequency shielded bag to prevent the signal getting through and if that isn’t available then a microwave oven provides a shield.

Apple iOS and Google Android devices can be easily wiped remotely by using the Find My Device or WheresMyDroid services just so long as there is an Internet connection and the device has battery power, thus showing how easy it is for offenders to destroy evidence.

Image Credit: Flickr (heather buckley)

Apple: Most OS X users shouldn't worry about Shellshock

Publié: septembre 29, 2014, 10:02am CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Apple has admitted that most OS X users have nothing to be concerned about when it comes to the bug that has been dubbed "worse than Heartbleed".

In a statement the firm admitted that it is already working on a software update for advanced UNIX users that repairs the major exploit that can be used by hackers to gain access to connected devices by inserting malicious code into the "Bash" command shell in OS X and Linux.

"The vast majority of OS X users are not at risk to recently reported bash vulnerabilities", an Apple spokesperson told iMore. "Bash, a UNIX command shell and language included in OS X, has a weakness that could allow unauthorized users to remotely gain control of vulnerable systems. With OS X, systems are safe by default and not exposed to remote exploits of bash unless users configure advanced UNIX services. We are working to quickly provide a software update for our advanced UNIX users".

Shellshock hit the headlines yesterday with many security researchers, including Darien Kindlund from FireEye, stating that "it’s worse than Heartbleed" and Robert Graham adding that some systems won’t be able to be patched to prevent damage.

The bug is a ubiquitous one and as such a large per cent of software across the web is constantly interacting with the shell and there are a number of ways it can infiltrate software.

Regular users of OS X don’t have any real need to panic and Apple has been at pains to point out it's advanced users that have configured UNIX services that are mainly at risk and may need to turn off services or apply home-made patches using Xcode.

For the full rundown on how to protect your machines from the Bash big, check out ITProPortal.com guide on the measure that can be taken.

Photo Credit: wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock

Facebook's Atlas ad platform set to challenge Google's dominance

Publié: septembre 24, 2014, 5:52pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Facebook is ready to shake up its advertising efforts through a new platform that has already been dubbed by some as having the potential to be more powerful than Google’s current offering.

Atlas, which should be announced next week, allows marketers to track Facebook users that have seen, interacted with or acted upon ads on the social network, as well as third party sites and applications.

Two people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal that the new product is part of Facebook’s efforts to try and challenge Google’s lead in the online advertising sector and one strategist in particular thinks its efforts could be richly rewarded.

"What Facebook is doing is potentially more powerful than what Google can currently do," stated Rishad Tobaccowala, chief strategist at Paris-based Publicis Groupe, whilst explaining the firm’s current advertising capabilities.

Atlas’ release coincides with the Advertising Week conference that gets underway on 29 September in New York and it’s reported that Facebook will draw marketers in by arguing that cookies are an outdated method for targeting and tracking online ads.

Facebook still has a long way to catch up with Google’s reported ad revenue that totaled $14.36 billion during Q2 2014 whereas Facebook only reached $2.68 billion in the same period.

The success of Facebook’s mobile ads have given CEO Mark Zuckerberg reason to smile over the past 12 months after they went from representing 30 percent of the company’s ad revenues in Q1 2013 to 59 percent in Q1 2014.

1.5 million advertising customers are currently serviced by Facebook and with its ad business showing strong numbers it is catching up, yet it will be an almighty effort if it ever even gets within touching distance of the search giant’s numbers.

The Pi-Top is a 3D-printable Raspberry Pi laptop that anyone can make

Publié: septembre 24, 2014, 8:42am CEST par Jamie Hinks

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DIY laptop building is about to hit the mainstream thanks to a new project based on the Raspberry Pi that uses 3D printing to bring a revolutionary concept to the Kickstarter crowd-funding site.

Pi-Top is a 3D-printable fully-fledged laptop based on the Raspberry Pi kit that allows anyone to build an affordable, completely functional computer whilst at the same time learning some vital skills.

"The Pi-Top Kit provides a basis to expand your knowledge in hardware and software innovation. Build and understand your own Raspberry Pi Model B+ powered laptop. We take you through each component and its functionality, so that you can use the Pi-Top as a tool for your own build projects in the future," states the official website.

The Pi-Top kit, which will go live on Kickstarter soon, can be ordered with pre-fabricated parts or users can print them out on a 3D printer depending on if one is available. It also includes a six-hour battery, Wi-Fi antenna, laptop keyboard and trackpad, 13.3in HD TFT LCD screen with a 1,366 x 768 pixel resolution and the newest version of the Raspbian OS.

Pi-Top’s creators went on to explain that future updates to the project would let owners of the kit create new products. This is being supplemented by free lessons for beginners and advanced users that will teach owners about hardware and software innovations that will eventually help users design printed circuit boards and create their own products.

The team behind Pi-Top printed the original prototype case in three different parts and it took about 160 hours to produce it, according to CNET, using a Rostock Max V2 printer and the same times can be expected for anyone wanting to print it out at home.

Image Credit: Facebook

Can't afford an iPhone 6? Rent your girlfriend on eBay

Publié: septembre 23, 2014, 3:32pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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One Apple fan has taken his efforts to acquire the new iPhone 6 to the next level by offering rentals of his girlfriend to raise the necessary funding to get hold of the brand new handset.

The Shanghai man held up a sign near Songjiang University saying he is "sharing" his girlfriend Xiao Ai for "pocket money" to the sum of $1.64 per hour, $8.19 per day and $82 per month with UPI reporting that he has already stipulated that no "funny business" is allowed.

Since he pitched up outside the university the campaign has gone viral on Weibo and further details explained that the sharing is limited to studying, eating, playing games and "three person dates" with his girlfriend where he comes as the chaperon.

"If you are interested, connect to personal hotspot 'Wi-Fi sharing master' to check her out," he said, alluding to photos of his girlfriend, who is a willing participant.

The fan is starting off his saving early as the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus aren’t expected to hit the Chinese market until next year and the news of his rental scheme comes just days after it was released in the UK and a number of other worldwide markets.

Earning money from the iPhone handsets is something that has been going on for a few years and this year saw various charities auction off spots in the line to raise money for good causes.

The devices themselves, which were released on Friday, sold over 10 million units and as such set a record for the fastest selling Apple handsets of all time, with many markets still yet to receive it.

As for the Shanghai man auctioning off his girlfriend there’s currently no word on how many have signed up and at the rates he’s charging he should just about be able to afford the iPhone 6 on its release in China.

How to thwart contactless pickpockets

Publié: septembre 22, 2014, 11:40pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Pickpockets targeting contactless payments are set to multiply following the decision by Transport for London to roll out the technology to London Underground stations and Bitdefender has outlined a number of precautions to take.

The company has detailed the different types of attacks that could take place including skimming, eavesdropping, hacked terminals, replay attacks, and cross-contamination.

Catalin Cosoi, chief security strategist at Bitdefender, explained that even though contactless payments have the same level of protection as chip and PIN cards they don’t require a PIN number and the RF or NFC technology presents less of a barrier.

"Over the last decade, researchers have shown that fraudsters can pickpocket a victim’s financial data using a dedicated amplifier, an antenna and other low-cost electronics that can fit into a rucksack," Cosoi stated.

When it comes to skimming attacks, Cosoi recommends that RF-enabled credit cards are kept from being read by using slipcases and wallets to shield them from unwanted scanning.

Eavesdropping attacks, which allow attackers to record information streamed from the credit card tags to another legitimate device from a distance away, can be prevented by using "blocker tags" that trick hackers into thinking there are more tags present.

Hackers also use counterfeit terminals to steal data and although Cosoi admitted these are hard to detect, he urged vigilance. Replay attacks, meanwhile, can be prevented by using session tokens to log-in with random, one-time passwords that aren’t able to be reused.

Relay attacks, which involve receiving data from a malicious terminals, can be prevented by using services with better cryptography to decrease the chances that data can be deciphered by unauthorized readers.

Cross-contamination uses various techniques to find a victim’s address and issue a new bank card, and Cosoi’s only advice once again is to be vigilant and inform the bank as soon as suspicious activity is uncovered.

Lastly, Cosoi’s biggest piece of advice is to never let anyone else walk away with your payment card.

Intel set to release a wireless charging bowl later this year

Publié: septembre 22, 2014, 1:52pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Intel’s wireless charging bowl is on track to be released by the end of the year with the company still tight-lipped on how much the revolutionary device will end up costing.

CEO Brian Krzanich confirmed as much during a speech at MakerCon in New York when he said that the device will be "on the market right around the end of this year," according to CNET.

The charging bowl was devised when a team of Intel workers sat around a table talking about wearables and the fact that they have to create a plug on a device to allow it to be charged.

It was then that they started to speculate as to how a device could be charged from the outside by just throwing it onto something and a female member of the group then said she tossed her jewelry into a bowl at the end of the day.

That concept gained traction amongst the group and after a visit to a nearby Walmart to pick up a chip bowl, it was rigged up to make a charger.

"To our surprise, it actually worked," Krzanich admitted.

The bowl is one of a number of different devices that Intel has developed to try and capture a piece of the growth currently being experienced in the Internet of Things sector.

During the Consumer Electronics Show [CES] speech made by Krzanich in January he mentioned "smart earbuds" that have been released as BioSport In-Ear Earphones and a partnership with Opening Ceremony that produced the MICA luxury smart bracelet.

The charging bowl was mentioned alongside those two devices and Krzanich added that it has been by far the most popular concept with the company inbox inundated by people wanting to know more.

It’s anticipated that pricing will be announced in the coming weeks before it is released just in time to fill stockings this festive season.

SwiftKey is a massive success on iOS 8

Publié: septembre 19, 2014, 9:27am CEST par Jamie Hinks

SwiftKey has hit the top of Apple’s App Store charts just hours after launching on Apple iOS 8 devices bringing with it the swipe-to-type features that have become second nature to Android users.

The swipe-to-type app is number one among all free "Utilities" apps in the Apple App Store and comes out in second overall for all free apps on the entire Apple App Store.

"Obviously we're overwhelmed that SwiftKey Keyboard shot to the top of the charts after launching on iOS 8. We've worked really hard on getting something ready for launch and this is the ultimate reward. As for what the future holds -- all I can say is we have so much more planned and really, now that we're a cross platform app, we're just seeing this as the beginning," Joe Braidwood, CMO at SwiftKey said.

SwiftKey’s launch on iOS 8 means that gesture typing is now a part of the Apple mobile OS in addition to intelligent predictive text that learns what you want to type over time, and it also has cloud connection settings that makes the information available across devices.

When it comes to predictive text, SwiftKey can store everything it has learned about you in the cloud and, as long as you sign in with Facebook or Google, you can benefit from a streamlined experience on any device that has the SwiftKey keyboard installed.

Apple’s decision to allow developers to replace certain OS components is behind SwiftKey’s full launch on iOS 8 as iPhone or iPad owners have been able to use the service inside its SwiftKey Note note-taking service since January this year.

Any iOS 8 users that want to download SwiftKey can do so for free from the App Store or click this link to be taken there right away.

LG's efficient OLED light panels set to arrive in November

Publié: septembre 18, 2014, 2:45pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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LG plans to bring OLED technology into the commercial lighting sector, challenging existing LED bulbs with a range of new products in November that are capable of matching the performance of current options.

The firm’s LG Chem arm has created OLED panels that have an efficacy of 100 lumens per watt and a life of 40,000 hours that is far greater than the 60 lumens per watt that current OLED panels can achieve.

In comparison, fluorescent lights offer 100 lumens per watt and 20,000 hours of life and LED panels reach the same 100 lumens per watt level yet last for 50,000 hours.

One of the stumbling blocks for OLED panels is that the cost currently comes in at 10 times that of LED ones and LG Chem representatives have expressed a willingness to try and bring prices down.

"We think the significance is in being able to bring the efficacy up to LED standards. We expect unit costs to ultimately decrease by five-fold or more through ongoing developments,” read a statement, according to CNET.

OLED lighting panels are expected to see traction in North America and Europe thanks to consumers that want a more eco-friendly offering and thus the products are more likely to achieve success commercially.

LG already has over 50 lighting companies on board including Acuity Lighting.

Oculus VR could revolutionize education

Publié: septembre 16, 2014, 5:30pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Facebook’s Oculus VR wants to transform the school classrooms of the future with a new breed of virtual reality [VR] headset that its creators think will be big part of the education sector.

Brendan Iribe, chief executive of Oculus VR, told The Chronicle of Higher Education that his prototype that secured the $2 billion [£1.2 billion] takeover by Facebook is even more impressive than the current incarnation.

“We believe this is going to be one of the most transformative platforms for education of all time,” he said. “There’s this thing that happens when you see really great VR. And most of the world hasn’t seen it yet. Maybe only 1,000 people have seen really great VR that tricks your brain, the back of the brain, into thinking that it’s a real place. And when you get that, you suddenly get the feeling, and it’s not like I’m looking at a video game or some kind of entertainment experience. It’s like you’re in a virtual place”.

Iribe was talking at the University of Maryland after making a $31 million donation to fund a new computer science building at the institution that he found the two business partners that made the Oculus VR project become a reality.

With the outlay, the 35-year-old became the University’s most generous donor ever and Iribe explained that the reason VR education never worked in the past is down to the significant advances that have been made with hardware.

“People had incredible ambition. They had the idea. Everyone was dreaming about it. They were making movies about it in the 80s. But it never worked. Every time you put it on, you looked around, and it made you dizzy. You wanted to take them off. It made you sick,” Iribe said, promising that the vomit-inducing features are very much a thing of the past.

Facebook acquired Oculus VR for $2 billion back in March and shortly afterwards the creators announced an official launch date of 2015 for the headset that promises to be highly sought after.

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Google’s Android One rollout in India sets off alarm bells at Samsung

Publié: septembre 5, 2014, 2:20am CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Google and Samsung look all set to battle it out for India’s burgeoning smartphone market after three Indian phone producers signed up to the Android One initiative that targets growth at the low end of the emerging market.

Micromax Infomatics, Karbonn Mobile and Spice Group have become the first manufacturers to sign up to Google’s new initiative that wants to drive an improvement in quality that will spark demand for low-end Android handsets.

Android One gives manufacturers specifications for key hardware parts and one of the major reasons for the initiative is to bring a stock Android to devices that takes over from customized versions that make apps on current phones prone to errors.

The situation could see Samsung become something of a fall guy as it has Apple targeting it at the top end of the market in China and various other markets plus now Google hitting it at the bottom end.

“A major threat for Samsung is that Android One will accelerate the race to the bottom on smartphone pricing". said Neil Mawston, a UK-based analyst at Strategy Analytics, according to Reuters. "Android One now makes Google a foe, not just a friend, for Samsung".

Samsung currently leads the way in India’s smartphone market, however, its vice-like grip weakened during Q2 2014 and saw its share drop from 33.3 per cent to 25.3 per cent as Micromax, in second place, increased from 16.7 per cent to 19.1 per cent.

It has all led analysts to suggest a complete strategy rethink for Samsung products in the low to mid range bracket could be in order and if Android One proves a success in India it could target Samsung in other markets.

"Samsung needs to figure out whether it's going to stay in [the] market at the lower end and come lower or whether it’s going to maybe focus on higher level segments," said Rachel Lashford, analyst at Canalys.

Part of that plan could involve adopting Android One for its own low-end handsets and thus benefit from the high quality experience that Google wants the OS to deliver.

Targeting India’s market is a very deliberate strategy by Google given that Counterpart Research estimates made earlier this year showed that annual shipment revenues will hit $20 billion [£12 billion] by 2017 -- a rise of almost 50 per cent compared to the $14 billion [£8.5 billion] this year.

Google expects the handsets sold as part of the Android One program will be priced under 6,000 rupees [£60] though various local media reports stated this will actually be closer to falling between 7,000 rupees [£70] and 10,000 rupees [£100], ot around $163.

Image Credit: RuthChoi / Shutterstock

Lenovo introduces the EMC-based VNX5150 Storage Array

Publié: septembre 1, 2014, 11:19am CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Lenovo hopes to put a smile on the face of penny-pinching small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) through a new storage area network (SAN) solution based on EMC's VNX unified storage family.

The Lenovo|EMC VNX5150 Storage Array is a dual-processor SAN that offers full redundancy for all major components as well as dual paths of connectivity throughout for a price that SMBs will be able to afford.

"The Lenovo|EMC VNX5150 is a key solution element for enterprises, enabling Lenovo to provide server and storage solutions to our customers. The VNX5150 platform is a unique offering, based on EMC's industry-leading midrange storage capabilities, tailored to the needs of Lenovo’s customers", stated Vincent Fauquenot, VP Products and Channels, Lenovo EMEA.

The solution is powered by Intel and designed to handle mixed workloads that are both physical and virtual, and it includes 6Gbps SAS drives and either 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch drive bays.

It supports the EMC FAST (fully automated storage tiering) suite that handles data using its cache and virtual pools (VP). The FAST Cache can absorb unpredictable spikes in system workloads whereas the FAST VP are in place to automatically tier data from high-performance to high-capacity drives that will eventually result in high performance and lower costs.

SMBs that lack extensive IT support can benefit from the EMC Unisphere management system that brings an integrated user interface for remote control. The customizable front end aggregates systems information into an easy-on-the-eye solution that shows capacity, CPU utilization, health and alerts to enable administrators to gain instant and actionable knowledge about performance.

Lenovo|EMC VNX5150 is already available in the UK, Ireland and a range of other European countries with prices start at €8,500 (£6,755).

Facebook could make explicit content more difficult to view

Publié: août 30, 2014, 12:00am CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Facebook's own safety advisers are calling for new controls to be put in place that prevent gruesome images appearing on the social network after harrowing images appeared on one page in particular.

The new move is being proposed by Stephen Balkam, chief executive of the US Family Online Institute (Fosi), at the next meeting of Facebook's Safety Advisory Board after images of severed heads appeared on the social network courtesy of the Islamic State (IS).

"There may be instances in which graphic photos and videos, like the beheadings in Syria, can be justified as being in the public interest", he explained to the BBC. "However, if they are hosted on Facebook or other social media platforms, there should be two barriers put in place".

Balkam went on to recommend that the first barrier should be an interstitial or cover page of the graphic images to prevent users, particularly children, from seeing the images on their timeline.

Secondly there should be an "age gate" that asks users to confirm they are 18 years of age and although Balkam admitted this is easy to surpass, "it does at least warn the user and may well deter both kids and adults alike".

The latest controversy came after The Raqqa Media Center (RMC), which operates in an ISIS-controlled part of Syria, posted photos of severed heads to its Facebook page that were readily available until Facebook closed the page last week.

Facebook's rules on the sharing of graphic content ban anything distributed to gain sadistic pleasure, however, using images to condone violence or highlight an important issue are permitted.

"We expect people that want to use Facebook to condemn or report on violence, to do so in a responsible manner, which may include warning people about the nature of content in the videos and imagery they're sharing and carefully selecting the audience for the content", a spokesperson told the BBC. "Our goal is to strike a balance between allowing people to comment on the often brutal world around them, whilst protecting people from the most graphic of content".

Twitter has already suspended RMC's account and no YouTube videos have been posted since July and there's now every chance that RMC could find a place on Diaspora’s decentralized social network alongside IS supporters and fighters.

Photo Credit: AR Images/Shutterstock

Apple and Samsung may have to settle in patent litigation

Publié: août 29, 2014, 3:00pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Apple and Samsung are reportedly close to reaching an amicable conclusion in a long-winded patent litigation battle after the US firm lost another court case against its rival.

The familiar US District Judge Lucy Koh ruled against Apple's bid to impose a sales ban on some older Samsung smartphones in the US and it follows the decision to drop all suits against each other in a range of different countries in the past few months.

Apple's latest attempt targeted specific features in nine Samsung devices and offered what is dubbed a "sunset period" to gives its competitor the opportunity to circumnavigate the features before a ban was enforced, according to Bloomberg.

In this case, Apple targeted the Admire, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy S2, Galaxy S2 Epic 4G Touch, Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, Galaxy S3 and Stratosphere.

Samsung's argument in the current case is that Apple suffered no "irreparable harm" from such infringements and it repeated its assertion that Apple failed to draw a close connection between infringement of patented features and a loss of sales.

"Apple has provided no persuasive justification for depriving the public of product choices created by a thriving level of competition other than its claim that an injunction serves the public's interest in protecting innovation and patent rights", said Samsung's court filing.

Koh has overseen an increasingly fraught patent battle between the two companies that got underway in San Jose in 2012 and has stretched across four continents over time.

Both sides have taken out litigation against each other with neither winning a significant enough case to make it worthwhile and Koh, as well as several other judges, has pleaded with the two companies to settle instead of dragging it through the courts.

Whether or not this is the end of the squabbling remains to be seen and no-one would be at all surprised if it all kicks off between the two once more.

Photo Credit: EDHAR/Shutterstock

LG's first 4K OLED TVs go on sale

Publié: août 26, 2014, 10:09pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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LG’s first OLED 4K Ultra-HD televisions are on the way after the company combined the two technologies to make the first curved-TV to feature the new level of resolution.

The sets, which go on sale in September, will be the first such devices to reach retail stores and cost an eye-watering ₩12 million (roughly $11,796) to any consumer who wants to take advantage of the revolutionary technology on board.

“OLED TVs are expected to overtake LCD in sales within a few years and no company is better prepared for this than LG. OLED’s benefits are obvious. There's no deterioration in picture quality and issues such as image blurring, distortion and color leakage in curved LED units are simply non-existent on curved OLED TVs. 4K OLED TV represents superb value for the consumer in terms of color reproduction, contrast ratio, detail and viewing angles", stated Hyun-hwoi Ha, president of LG’s Home Entertainment Company.

LG’s new TV sets come in 65-inch and 77-inch sizes and use LG Display’s four-color pixel WRGB technology that is supplemented by 33 million sub-pixels that work to attempt to produce an experience that is unlike anything experienced before.

Both Sony and Panasonic have already shown off 4K OLED screens, at CES 2013 in Las Vegas, though neither decided to put them into production and analysts are rounding on LG’s decision as one that doesn’t make sense due to a lack of content available.

"There's a lack of a compelling reason for you to go out to buy one tomorrow", Chris Green, technology analyst at Davies Murphy Group told the BBC. "And in most of the world the broadband isn't there to deliver a 4K stream to many people's TVs".

Pre-orders get underway in Korea this week with North America and Europe able to start pre-ordering the two sets from next month plus LG is showing them off at IFA 2014 in Berlin.

SanDisk launches the Ultra Fit USB 3.0 flash drive

Publié: août 13, 2014, 9:16am CEST par Jamie Hinks

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SanDisk has unveiled a new super-fast tiny USB flash drive designed to appeal to media savvy customers that want top performance inside a small package.

The Ultra Fit USB 3.0 Flash Drive comes in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB incarnations and is designed to offer transfer speeds that are up to 10 times as fast as the current USB 2.0 flash drives on the market.

"As a leader in the flash storage space, our goal has always been to deliver the best, most reliable products," said Philippe Willams, director of product marketing, SanDisk. "While there are other USB 3.0 products on the market, SanDisk’s Ultra Fit USB 3.0 Flash Drive offers consumers superior performance and impressive capacity in an extremely compact design".

Customers familiar with SanDisk’s Cruzer Fit range of flash drives will be familiar with the device as it is a refresh of that line and brings an "updated and modern" design as well as the performance uplift that makes it suitable for moving data between different devices.

The 32GB and 64GB incarnations of the device offer write speeds that are 10 times faster than other standard USB 2.0 drives and the 16GB versions. Every single capacity offers a read speed of 130Mbps, comes with SanDisk SecureAccess software, 128-bit encryption and a year’s subscription to RescuePRO software.

SanDisk’s latest USB flash drive is available now around the world with pricing coming in at $40 for the 16GB version, $70 for 32GB and $110 for 64GB.

Microsoft posts its worst-ever quarterly Surface loss

Publié: août 7, 2014, 8:50am CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Microsoft’s Surface range of tablets has posted its worst single quarter loss since its launch leaving analysts to question whether the fledgling slate is still a viable option for the company.

Two separate sets of figures show that the Surface line of slates ended up posting negative gross margins for the final quarter of FY2014 and the experiment has ended up costing Microsoft $1.73 billion since it first launched.

Microsoft’s own figures for Q4 FY2014 reported that the tablet took revenue of $409 million though the firm failed to give a cost of revenue figure to go alongside the numbers.

Computerworld used various US Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] filings to work this out and came to a figure of $772 million for the period thus resulting in a loss of $363 million for the tablets -- the largest since its launch.

Jan Dawson, chief analyst at Jackdaw Research, posted a similar $733 million cost of revenue figure that meant a loss of $324 million, though he did add that the Q4 FY2014 numbers include costs related to the unreleased Surface Mini.

"Current year cost of revenue included Surface inventory adjustments resulting from our transition to newer generation devices and a decision to not ship a new form factor," Dawson said.

Dawson added that the cost of revenue also included manufacturing expenses from the Surface Pro 3 line that was only released towards the end of the quarter and it will be hard to gauge how successful it is until the following quarter’s numbers.

For the whole year the company took $2.192 billion in Surface revenue but unfortunately the cost of revenue topped out at $2.872 billion leading to a total loss of $676 million. Add this to the FY2013 figure and it shows that Microsoft’s Surface range has lost $1.73 billion since its launch.

"Continued losses will make it harder and harder for Microsoft to keep the Surface project going, so a good performance in the next quarter or two will be critical to justifying its continued existence,” Dawson added. "My sense is that [Satya] Nadella is less willing to accept losses than was [Steve] Ballmer. He [Ballmer] was willing to make decisions that involved heavy losses".

Nadella took the reins at the company earlier on this year and as part of his plan to create a devices and services company he has already sacrificed a number of positions as part of an extensive restructuring effort. In terms of the tablet’s future, much hinges on the Surface Pro 3 that will get its first report card at the end of this quarter.

BlackBerry: Apple and IBM partnership is like 'two elephants dancing'

Publié: juillet 28, 2014, 8:19am CEST par Jamie Hinks

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BlackBerry isn’t losing any sleep over the recent enterprise tie-up between IBM and Apple as their CEO John Chen compared it to a couple of large mammals taking to the dance floor.

Chen, talking to the Financial Times, likened the partnership to when "two elephants start dancing" and thinks that the firm he is slowly rebuilding has enough in the bag to compete with anyone that challenges it in the enterprise market.

Rumors persist that it is ready to sign up with its own enterprise partners and Chen stoked the fire by giving an inkling that it is ready to start dancing with its own beau, with the CEO remaining coy on who it could be. That hasn’t stopped various observers speculating that the likes of SAP, Oracle or even Samsung could be a-party to some kind of tie-up.

"A good enterprise partner for them might be an SAP or an Oracle," says Joe Compeau, a lecturer in information systems at the Ivey Business School, according to The Globe and Mail. "Security is a little more important part of those systems, so BlackBerry would be a natural fit".

The deal signed between IBM and Apple is expected to bring iPhones and iPad into the enterprise sector with a range of secured apps that leverage each side’s expertise and at the time the deal was signed, BlackBerry’s share price dived.

BlackBerry has been busy in the past week with the release of the first-ever cloud-hosted version of its BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 that means customers don’t have to maintain individual BES10 servers. It followed this up with the appointment of Marty Beard as new COO, a man that worked closely with Chen at Sybase and has also been employed by Oracle.

"What it needs [is] to find a company that can really accelerate its software agenda," added technology analyst Carmi Levy, someone that believes huge app libraries will matter more to consumers but less so in the enterprise sector. "It’s about how many business-relevant solutions you can create".

Kingston's new solid state drive almost cracks 1TB barrier

Publié: juillet 23, 2014, 6:04pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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A new 1TB solid state drive [SSD] is on the horizon after Kingston Digital began shipping high-speed flash drives with a capacity that closes in on the significant milestone.

The Kingston SSDNow V310 SSD comes with a 960GB memory size that allows an entire hard drive to be migrated onto a new system at high speed and is capable of 450Mbps read and write speeds.

"SSDNow V310 with its large 960GB capacity is the perfect upgrade to an existing system as it improves boot speeds and application load times helping maximize one’s computer investment," stated Ariel Perez, SSD business manager at Kingston.

Each SSDNow V310 is 10 times faster than a comparable 7,200RPM hard-disk drive thanks to its Phison 3108 controller and the aforementioned 450Mbps read and write speeds.

It can be ordered as either a stand-alone drive or an all-in-one kit that includes all the accessories that are needed to set it up including software to clone files and an OS that makes it easy to install.

The drive’s form factor is a 2.5in drive that is available in 7mm with an adapter so that it can fit 9.5mm systems, and the interface is SATA Rev 3.0 with backwards compatibility to SATA Rev 2.0.

"Since 2009, our V 'Value' series solid-state drives have delivered the best price to performance ratio as possible to enable consumers on a budget or entry-level users to experience the benefits of SSD technology. Our new V310 continues that along with providing the biggest capacity ever in a Kingston SSD," Perez added.

Update: As has been pointed out in the comments, while Kingston doesn't have a 1TB SSD yet, others -- such as Crucial -- already do.

Apple's cut-price eBay store returns

Publié: juillet 14, 2014, 9:28am CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Apple’s mysterious eBay Store is out of the wilderness and back online selling iPhones at prices that undercut the company’s own online refurbished store and pre-empt a new iPhone launch in September.

It’s being reported by Apple Insider that the storefront, which first appeared in 2012, is back on eBay’s site and selling "Apple Certified" iPhone 5 devices in a range of specifications -- something even Apple’s official refurbished site isn’t doing.

Prices on the devices range from $449 for the 16GB model, $479 for the 32GB model and $499 for the 64GB model and all three configurations come in both black and white colors.

All iPhone 5 handsets are factory-unlocked for GSM networks and come with an Apple warranty as well as a number of new items including a lightning cable, USB charger, Apple EarPods and a manual.

Each pre-owned device has been returned to "like-new condition" with complete burn-in testing and has passed a final quality inspection by Apple technicians before being sent out.

Apple launching an eBay Store has all the hallmarks of a similar move made in March 2013 when it looked to sell off refurbished iPads at $100 less than Apple’s own refurbished store ahead of the new iPad’s launch a short time afterwards.

The storefront then disappeared without a trace before the 2013 iPad was launched and Apple Insider reports that it later found out it was part of an Apple three-month pilot program that wasn’t renewed.

Apple is expected to launch a new iPhone handset this September and most rumors point to it equipping the new smartphone with a larger display to enable it to challenge many of its Android rivals.

Steve Wozniak disposes of 'worthless' Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch on eBay

Publié: juillet 3, 2014, 11:22am CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Samsung’s Galaxy Gear has been handed a rotten assessment by Apple’s gadget-loving co-founder Steve Wozniak.

The man who started up the technology behemoth with Steve Jobs complained that the smartwatch doesn’t offer the convenience he was hoping and within half a day it was up on eBay ready to be sold at a bargain price.

"That [Galaxy Gear] was the only technology I bought to experiment with that I threw out after half a day, sold it on eBay because it was so worthless and did so little that was convenient,” he told the Flying Car innovation conference, according to CNET.

Wozniak went on from there and was equally scathing of the screen that he said should be a size that is big enough to give him everything his eyes could need. That was before he expressed his displeasure at the functionality of it.

"You had to hold it up to your ear and stuff,” he added.

It’s clear listening to Wozniak that he thinks the key to unlocking the wearables sector is one company coming in with a product that blows all the competitors away or starts a revolution like Apple did with both the iPhone and iPad.

"When one company does one thing very strikingly different, and everybody says this company got it right, this is the way of the future. In the past, it's been Apple a number of times -- not always. So I'm really hoping that Apple's the big breakthrough,” he said.

Apple’s co-founder was more glowing about Google Glass and stated that although it isn’t that useful he has "actually kind of liked playing with it".

Apple is expected to release a wearable device of some sort in the near future and the developers will be hoping that Wozniak doesn’t decide to toss it away like the Galaxy Gear.

Microsoft takes down legitimate sites during crackdown on malware servers

Publié: juillet 2, 2014, 1:47pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Microsoft has taken unprecedented action against million of cybercriminals by shutting down a barrage of servers used to infect PCs with dangerous malware across the globe.

The firm, which obtained a court order, gained control of a large number of domains being used to spread malware and in the process shut down legitimate sites due to what the domain owner called "heavy-handed" tactics.

"In a civil case filed on 19 June, Microsoft named two foreign nationals, Mohamed Benabdellah and Naser Al Mutairi, and a US company, Vitalwerks Internet Solutions, LLC [doing business as No-IP.com], for their roles in creating, controlling, and assisting in infecting millions of computers with malicious software -- harming Microsoft, its customers and the public at large," read a blog from Richard Domingues Boscovich, assistant general counsel of Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit.

Microsoft stated that No-IP’s infrastructure had been used to facilitate the spread of the Jenxcus and Bladabindi malicious programs in 93 percent of cases that it has seen and in the past year the virus has been detected in some form over 7.4 million times. The two pieces of malware allow offenders to steal data, record keystrokes and even listen to sounds that were happening around the computer.

Federal court in Nevada granted Microsoft ownership over the domains as it managed to convince the court that No-IP didn’t do enough to prevent them being used for malicious purposes.

No-IP is unhappy at the level of disruption caused and doubts that Microsoft had any idea at the number of innocent customers that would be affected by the move.

"Millions of innocent users are experiencing outages to their services because of Microsoft's attempt to remediate hostnames associated with a few bad actors,” it wrote in a statement, according to the BBC.

The original owner of the domains also added that Microsoft hadn’t made enough of an effort to contact them in relation to limiting the sites.

"Unfortunately, Microsoft never contacted us or asked us to block any subdomains, even though we have an open line of communication with Microsoft corporate executives," No-IP added.

Photo Credit: Oxlock/Shutterstock

IBM set to open new SoftLayer data center in London

Publié: juillet 1, 2014, 8:50am CEST par Jamie Hinks

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IBM is opening a new SoftLayer data center in London next month that will be able provide space for over 15,000 physical servers and is part of a $1.2 billion global investment program.

The new data center is the latest of 15 that are being implemented to support the growth in cloud services in Europe and the rest of the world.

"We already have a large customer base in London and the region; we’re excited to give those customers a full SoftLayer data center right in their backyard, with all the privacy, security, and control the SoftLayer platform offers," said Lance Crosby, SoftLayer CEO.

"The work these businesses are doing -- the solutions and services that they are building in the cloud -- is inspiring. Organizations of all sizes are using SoftLayer services to disrupt their industries or even their own operations, creating new business models and applications".

The new facility, which complements those already constructed in London and Amsterdam, has the capacity for 15,000 physical servers and is able to offer the entire range of SoftLayer cloud infrastructure services including bare metal servers, virtual servers, storage and networking.

It is able to integrate a firm’s leading private network with all SoftLayer data servers and network Point of Presences (PoPs) around the world, both being available on demand and offering full remote access and control.

Orders for the London data center will get underway later this month and those that apply to be a part of the new facility will be able to take advantage of a special offer that gives up to $500 (£293) off new orders for a limited time.

US Marshals Service has no idea how email works

Publié: juin 20, 2014, 2:12pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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A list of prospective bidders for a significant haul of US-government seized bitcoins has been leaked by the very administration that is organizing the auction.

The US Marshals Service accidentally revealed the confidential email addresses of interested parties when messaging them about the process and it has already apologized for the mistake that "was in no way intentional".

The "gaff" was revealed by CoinDesk, a Bitcoin news site, and it now holds a list of those that requested more information about the auction including Fred Ehrsam, co-founder of UK-based payment processor Coinbase.

"The US Marshals Service (USMS) sent an email to individuals who had enquired about bidding in the Silk Road Bitcoin auction informing that that a new FAQ had been published on the USMS website. However, the recipient list was accidentally exposed because it was copied rather than blind copied", CoinDesk reporter Joon Wong told the BBC.

It all concerns the US government plans to auction off around 30,000 bitcoins (£10.2 million) on 27 June, which were seized during an FBI raid in October 2013 linked to the dark web marketplace titled Silk Road.

The coins form part of a civil forfeiture and criminal action taken against Silk Road owner and founder Ross William Ulbricht that was undertaken following his arrest last year.

Wong added the list is not a watertight run down of registered bidders so isn’t a significant breach but the email addresses themselves would be enough for most to identify the bidder involved.

"It is more significant in terms of giving us an insight into the agency handling this auction", he said. "The USMS is the first government agency to conduct a crypto-currency auction. Its clerical error has compromised the anonymity of individuals who contacted it, so this doesn't inspire confidence".

USMS announced the auction last week and informed prospective buyers that it would need a bidder registration form, a copy of a government issued ID as well as a $200,000 (£117,500) deposit wired to an American bank and that all winners have to pay the amount in cash with no instalments accepted.

Photo Credit: Joe Wilcox

LinkedIn repeatedly ignores warning of widespread security flaw

Publié: juin 20, 2014, 9:22am CEST par Jamie Hinks

LinkedIn has failed to address a security flaw for over a year that puts at risk the data of all of its over 300 million users and means that sensitive user information can be pilfered easily.

A report conducted by Zimperium Mobile Defense Security found a straightforward MITM attack that uses an SSL stripping technique allows hackers to steal user credentials and gain full control of an account.

"We have reached out to LinkedIn six times over the last year to bring this critical vulnerability to their attention and have urged them to improve their network security, but more than a year after disclosing the bug they have yet to implement a patch for this vulnerability", read a release from Zimperium.

The information exposed by the flaw includes the user’s email address, password, messages, connections and "who viewed my profile", and the hacker can hijack a session in order to gain access to all this information and impersonate the user.

Impersonating the user allows the hacker to do anything a regular user can such as send invitations to connect, read and send messages, edit the user profile and job postings, and manage company pages.

"Not only is your personal LinkedIn information at risk, but also, if you are an administrator for your corporate LinkedIn presence, your company’s brand reputation could also be damaged if a malicious actor were to gain control over posts and email communication on LinkedIn", the firm added.

Every single user that was tested by Zimperium is open to the attack and it doesn’t just exist when an attacker is on the same network as the target. If an attacker has already compromised a device then once it enters a new network the attacker can use it to attack even more devices on the new network.

Image Credit: Gil C/Shutterstock

Apple opts for an out of court settlement to avoid $800m eBook fine

Publié: juin 18, 2014, 12:53pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Apple has avoided an $800 million bill from a clutch of US states and other complainants by reaching an out of court settlement in a controversial price-fixing case.

The settlement, the terms of which are yet to be revealed, still has to be ratified by the court and both sides involved in the deal have 30 days to submit a filing to US District Judge in Manhattan Denise Cote for it to be approved.

Apple was first accused in April 2012 by the US Department of Justice, alongside five publishers, of colluding to illegally inflate the price of eBooks, which triggered off the class action by 33 states and US territories as well as other individual customers.

The earlier case, which found Apple took part in price fixing in order to fight Amazon’s dominance in the eBook sector, came to a conclusion last July with Apple still appealing that decision and the settlement in this case depends on the outcome of that appeal.

"As set forth in the memorandum of understanding, any payment to be made by Apple under the settlement agreement will be contingent on the outcome of that appeal," Steve Berman of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, the plaintiffs' lead lawyer, wrote in a letter to the judge.

Apple complained in August 2013 that the US DOJ decision is heavily weighted towards its competitor, Amazon, and that the new proposals covering the market were a "broadside masquerading as a brief".

The plaintiffs in the case are seeking damages of $840 million for eBook customers and the exact amount was to be settled at a trial that is scheduled to get underway on 14 July.

Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Penguin Group Inc, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster Inc, all previously agreed to pay out over $166 million in related antitrust charges and the publishers aren’t a part of this case.

Kristin Huguet, a spokesperson, declined to comment further to Reuters on the settlement and more will be known once the 30-day period has elapsed.

18th century Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus is bigger than Jesus (on Wikipedia anyway)

Publié: juin 13, 2014, 9:43pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

Carl_von_Linné Being bigger than Jesus is something that no one in the world can claim -- until now.

A new study of Wikipedia has found that Carl Linnaeus is the most influential person on Wikipedia and it means the 18th century Swedish biologist is more influential than a clutch of personalities such as Michael Jackson and Jesus Christ.

The research, which is reported by the New Zealand Herald, was carried out by Young Ho-Eom of the University of Toulouse and at its heart is an unusual evaluation that meant Linnaeus came out on top.

The study methodology adapted Google’s PageRank algorithm to tally the number of incoming links to a given article and Linnaeus came out on top due to the fact his system of biological taxonomy still used today meant that every plant, animal, bacteria or fungi covered by Wikipedia links back to him.

Linnaeus was only top of the pile when it came to incoming links, and a different algorithm that ranked figures based on incoming and outgoing links produced a top three of Adolf Hitler, Michael Jackson and Madonna. Though this changed when it came to England-language pages and showed that Frank Sinatra was top of the pile followed by Michael Jackson and Pope Pius XII.

Ho-Eom and his team also pointed out "each Wikipedia edition highlights local figures, so that most of its own historical figures are born in the countries which use the language of the edition".

It means that across the world the different rankings on a language-by-language basis differ vastly. For example, the Japanese version has Toyotomi Hideyoshi as most influential, whilst the Hindi version places Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great at top spot. Back in Europe, the German version is headed by Hitler and then Otto von Bismarck before a trio of composers in the shape of Mozart, Beethoven and Handel.

Smart TVs can be hijacked using a $250 antenna

Publié: juin 10, 2014, 10:15pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Smart TVs are the latest product to be exposed to dangerous vulnerabilities that can be exploited by burying malicious code in signals sent to the connected devices and even able to attack other devices in the home.

Researchers have found a loophole in the technology used in the advanced sets that allows attackers to hijack TVs in a straightforward way, leave no trace, and do anything that the owner of the TV can do.

The attack exploits the Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV [HbbTV] standard that is supported by all TV sets sold across Europe and is implemented to allow advertisers to do a better job at targeting users by sending tailored adverts to the sets.

"For this attack you do not need an Internet address, you do not need a server," Yossef Oren, from the Network Security Lab at Colombia University, explained to Forbes. "You just need a roof and an antenna and once you are done with your attack, there's completely no trace of you".

Oren, and his fellow researcher Angelos Keromytis, added that detecting and subsequently halting such an attack is a difficult proposition and once the set is hijacked it can be used to find other vulnerable devices in the home or launch attacks across the Internet.

The researchers told the BBC that one example of how the vulnerability could be used involves owners that have logged into Facebook and the attackers can post messages to the social network on the user’s behalf.

More concerning is the researchers’ belief that it could be used to scan devices on a home network for vulnerabilities and then display messages on the screens requesting credit card details or other sensitive information.

Attackers would only need to buy a $250 antenna to reach thousands of sets in an area where many people own them and a larger antenna would allow the attack area to be considerably larger.

Over 60 broadcasters in Europe have signed up to use the HbbTV technology and millions of sets on the continent have the potential to be exploited, though Oren did add that he doesn’t think the technology’s security needs an entire rewrite.

Box wants IT to be more user-focused

Publié: juin 10, 2014, 2:09pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Companies must think more about end users and the way technology is used in terms of the cloud and mobile or risk the failure of projects according to one prominent cloud storage firm.

Box gathered together a range of different technology CEOs and IT executives to discuss how to put user requirements at the centre of planning and design with a list of principles already out there forming a model that will "lead to higher adoption, agility, and success" for organizations.

"For the past few decades, companies have deployed enterprise technology by first focusing on the business problem and secondly on the user needs, which could explain why so many enterprise IT projects fail due to low adoption", wrote Box head of enterprise product planning Robin Daniels in a blog post.

"Technology has a major role to play, not only when it comes to changing the way organizations compete, but also shifting the behaviour of employees across industries. Thanks to the devices and apps they use in their personal lives, people now have very different expectations and demands for the technology they use at work", he added.

The group is made up of Geoffrey Moore, the author of "Crossing the Chasm" as well as CEOs from GoodData, Jive, Marketo, Okta, Skyhigh Networks, Zendesk and a number of others.

It has identified five different core principles that can be used to identify an organization that has users at the centre of its mindset. They are:

IT serves the business by empowering people to work better and smarter
User-centric IT adapts to the way people work and not the other way round
People, information and knowledge must connect in real time
Mobility is a work-style preference and not just a device
Security should be inherent and transparent to the user experience.

Moore added that as the business world becomes more mobile, cloud-based and digital that "organizations must transform how they deliver IT" and rely far less on cost effectiveness.

The initiative has already launched a website at usercentricit.com and will be posting more information there as the initiative gathers momentum.

Photo Credit: 2jenn/Shutterstock

Microsoft signals HTC may launch new Windows Phones

Publié: juin 5, 2014, 8:57pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Microsoft could renew its partnership with HTC in order for a more diverse range of handsets to be available on the Windows Phone platform.

Nick Parker, head of Microsoft’s OEM division, told a packed press conference at Computex that HTC could soon be back in the Windows Phone fold, according to CNET.

"I'd love to break some news here if I could", said Parker, after being asked about device partners. "But instead I'll just say that Microsoft will continue to have a great relationship with HTC. New things are coming, so get excited".

The hint at HTC’s return comes just a few days after a Tweet from @evleaks suggested that HTC is ready to launch a Windows Phone 8.1 device known as W8 that will first see the light of day on Verizon’s US network in Q3 2014.

In terms of a device specification, it’s rumoured that it will have HTC BoomSound as well as Duo cameras, and rumours of it being a One M8 replica are unfounded as it will reportedly be a mid-range handset taking advantage of Windows Phone 8.1 on-screen button support.

HTC has released a clutch of Windows Phone devices in the past and among the most recent ones is the HTC Windows Phone 8X that saw the light of day in late 2012 with a nice mix of features that presented Windows Phone fans a further choice at the higher end of the Windows Phone selection.

Parker used the same press conference the unveil a range of other manufacturers that are also designing Windows Phone devices including low-cost phones from the likes of Prestigio, InFocus, Yezz and a handful of others that were all on display.

Photo Credit: EDHAR/Shutterstock

VMware warns Amazon AWS plugin may lead to vendor lock-in

Publié: juin 5, 2014, 2:21pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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VMware is locking horns with Amazon Web Services (AWS) over the latter’s decision to implement a new hybrid cloud connector that VMWare warns is a dangerous precursor to vendor lock-in.

A blog post from VMware’s CTO Chris Wolf explained that the recently released AWS Connector for vCenter, a plugin that allows AWS cloud services to be run inside VMware-designed environments, will create significant complications down the line.

"If you want to move those workloads or simply run additional instances in a region with no AWS presence, an outsourcer, another cloud provider, or your own data center, you may find that the cost and complexity associated with migration or a new deployment is too much", read the blog post from Wolf.

"The service stack would likely be bound to proprietary APIs, and all or most of the third party management and operational software will have to be replaced. You will be burdened with new QA challenges and likely will need to reengage with the procurement teams", he added.

The company’s CTO also attacked AWS’ claim that migration using the connector would be a simple and efficient task and called the management dependencies involved "massive" before comparing it to "a game of Jenga" as once one service is removed the entire stack can come tumbling down.

It wasn’t that long ago that similar claims were being levelled at VMware due to the fact that its ESX hypervisor was causing company lock-in at the enterprise data centre level and software was adapted en masse in addition to other firms, such as Google, Amazon and Microsoft, creating their own hypervisors.

Amazon released its AWS Connector for vCenter plug-in last week and the company has yet to provide a statement regarding the comments made by VMware.

Photo Credit: jörg röse-oberreich/Shutterstock

Microsoft details four future Internet Explorer features

Publié: juin 2, 2014, 10:32am CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Microsoft is promising at least four brand new features inside the next release of Internet Explorer and fans of the browser could be treated to even more than that when the final product reaches the market.

The Redmond-based firm confirmed that it would definitely include Web Audio, Media Capture, ES6 Promises and HTTP/2 in the new version plus there is likely to be other features revealed closer to the release date.

"These features form a part of our commitment to delivering interoperable implementations for the latest features on the modern Web. The current list of features 'in development' is not an exhaustive representation of what we will deliver in the next version, but an indication of what we currently have highest confidence in delivering," read the company’s blog.

Web Audio is a JavaScript API that helps to process and synthesize audio in web apps and Media Capture gives access to a device owner’s local audio and video input/output devices. HTTP/2, meanwhile, is a faster protocol for delivering content on the web that is based on Google’s SPDY open networking initiative and it is currently being standardized by the IETF. Lastly, ES6 Promises is designed to let developers create asynchronous code that is cleaner.

At the same time as sharing the new features that will become a part of the new Internet Explorer, Microsoft also explained its priorities for the platform going forwards that include its belief that "the web should just work for everyone -- users, developers and businesses".

In this respect the top priorities are to get users current by encouraging them to download the latest IE version; security; and interoperability and compatibility to make sure that sites written a decade ago and those in the latest HTML5 code work at the same high level.

Microsoft completed the hat trick with news that status.modern.ie, the site that shows developers web technologies and standards that are and will be supported in future versions of IE, has come out of beta. It means a variety of improvements come as part of the package including making data open sourced, improving search & filter, adding deep linking, and providing better mobile support & performance.

The company promised to share more in the coming months on how it plans to make all its proclamations a reality in the next version of its browser.

Samsung unveils its Simband and Sami health platform

Publié: mai 30, 2014, 6:53pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Samsung has taken a new march in the wearables race through a new wristband and development platform to revolutionize the way sensors are used to collect critical health data about the user.

The Simband and Sami [Samsung Architecture Multimedia Interactions] platform, which were announced at a San Francisco press event, will be used by third-party sensor developers to collect and store data.

Both solutions feature open software, hardware and mechanical design, and Samsung’s chief strategy officer Young Sohn explained to the BBC that the plan would only work if "we all work together as one".

To this end it has already worked with Imec, a nanoelectronics research center in Belgium, the University of California and software company TicTrac to design the software platform and is actively looking for more partners as the project develops.

As well as the wide range of sensors that can be added to the device there is also plans to include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity inside the Simband and a magnetic battery charger may be able to be attached to the product at night to enable it to be worn during sleep.

The South Korean company confirmed that it would have a 'beta' version of the Sami APIs and the Simband by the end of the year so that developers can start to use it as a guinea pig to gather and manipulate many different types of data.

During the presentation, Samsung demonstrated that one way for the data to be presented is in the form of a "wellness score". This would be interpreted as a percentage score showing how well the wristband wearer is taking care of themselves.

Samsung was at pains to explain that data would remain under the control of users and it remain the user’s choice when data is shared and dubbed Sami as a "custodian" of data. It went on to point out that $6.5 trillion is spent per year on global healthcare and one analyst went further to speculate that combining this with the burgeoning fitness, sports and activity monitors market could be a particular boon.

"The platform behind the actual Simband shows that Samsung want to be a key player in the internet of things and big data game, possibly signaling that going forward Samsung wants to be more like Google than Apple," said Carolina Milanesi, chief of research at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.

Samsung will shed more light on the wristband and accompanying platform at its annual developers' conference that looks like it will take place in October.

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Google leapfrogs Apple to become world’s most valuable brand, Microsoft does well

Publié: mai 22, 2014, 10:44am CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Google has passed Apple in the brand stakes for the first time with technology dominating the world’s top ten most valuable brands including a strong 12 months for Microsoft.

Research from Millward Brown shows that Google’s brand value grew by 40 percent from 2013 to 2014 as it moved from second to first place with a valuation of $159 billion ahead of its competitor Apple, which saw its value drop 20 percent to $148 billion.

IBM remained in third place on the list but dropped back four percent to $107 billion, whereas Microsoft rose three places after seeing its value rocket 29 percent and finish up on $90 billion.

The results are part of Millward Brown’s Brandz index that ranks the world’s most valuable brands based on brand value and the next technology company to enter the index was Amazon.com in 10th with an uplift of four places thanks to a brand value increase of 41 percent.

Chinese firms have a strong influence in the index and this none more evident than in the case of web firm Tencent, which saw its rank change by seven places and a brand value increase of 97 percent to $53 billion as the Far East continues to flex its muscles.

Facebook, meanwhile, is the highest social media firm on the list in 21st place as it made up 10 places on last year’s position and it was closely followed by Baidu back in 25th place as it increased its brand value by 46 percent.

One of Apple’s other major competitors, Samsung, had to console itself with 29th place as it went up one place even though its brand value increased by 21 percent year-on-year.

Further down the list eBay is down 14 places to 61st, Yahoo is up 23 places to 69th, Twitter is a new entry in 71st place, Cisco is up five places to 72nd, LinkedIn is another new entry in 78th place, Intel is a big loser with a 25-place drop to 86th, and PayPal is another new entry in 97th place.

XMPP-based instant messaging services embrace encryption

Publié: mai 21, 2014, 5:30pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Various instant messaging services are on the verge of blocking unencrypted chat messages thanks to the roll out of a XMPP upgrade that has been in the pipeline for some time.

The XMPP Standard Foundation confirmed that the 70 services that are part of the public XMPP network turned on mandatory encryption for client-to-server and server-to-server connections.

"Today, a large number of services on the public XMPP network permanently turned on mandatory encryption for client-to-server and server-to-server connections. This is the first step toward making the XMPP network more secure for all users", Peter Saint-Andre, the technologist behind the initiative, told The Register.

XMPP was first used by the Jabber instant messaging service and is now implemented, in part, by almost all of the world’s popular IM services, and one signatory company, Prosodical, admitted that the pledge was a prerequisite for other security changes to take place.

"While XMPP is an open distributed network, obviously no single entity can mandate encryption for the whole network -- but as a group we are moving in the right direction", stated a company blog post. "This commitment to encrypted connections is only the first step toward more secure communication using XMPP, and does not obviate the need for technologies supporting end-to-end encryption such as Off-the-Record Messaging, strong authentication, channel binding, secure DNS, server identity checking, and secure service delegation".

A similar initiative entitled Reset the Net is also moving in a similar direction as the coalition of privacy groups looks to persuade further implementation of SSL, HTTP Strict Transport Security [HSTS], Perfect Forward Secrecy [PFS] and end-to-end encryption.

The movement in the direction of mandatory encryption has been rolling along ever since widespread National Security Agency (NSA) snooping and spying was revealed by renowned whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Photo Credit: Maksim Kabakou/Shutterstock

What are the best free Adobe Creative Cloud alternatives?

Publié: mai 16, 2014, 7:24pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Adobe Creative Cloud went down for 24 hours earlier, which means that creative brains around the world were desperately struggling to complete jobs that require the comprehensive suite of services.

The good news is that there are plenty of free alternatives professionals can use to get by and below is an extensive rundown of each product.

The Best Free Photoshop CC Replacement -- GIMP

Feature-wise there is nothing free that comes closer to Adobe’s creation than the Gimp freeware solution. It is available across Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, and the most recent incarnation looks closer to Photoshop than ever before with a range of features that will have many users considering switching over for good.

For those that are slightly put off by the Gimp UI there is a Photoshop port that makes it look exactly the same and the new single-window mode makes it feel like a true replacement for Adobe’s product.

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The Best Free Illustrator CC Replacement -- Inkscape

Vector-based graphics editing is Illustrator’s unique selling point (USP) and the good news is that there is another application in Inkscape that takes the selling out of the USP. The UI doesn’t have the wow factor of Adobe’s creation, however, Inkscape is a more than capable replacement and can perform all the import tasks of Illustrator and at a fraction of the cost.

It enables users to create everything from simple logo forms to complex graphics and its Gradient tool is comparable to Illustrator’s vaunted Gradient Mesh tool. Inkscape makes it simple to scale any drawings up or down and is really the only true, free alternative to Illustrator.

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The Best Free InDesign CC Replacement -- Lucidpress

Alternatives to the newsroom favourite InDesign are slightly thinner on the ground than some of the elements of the Adobe Creative Cloud and one of the newest kids on the block, Lucidpress, is one of the best. Lucidpress looks and feels like a desktop publishing tool should and for anyone looking at using a tool on a casual basis it has a pick up and play factor that other tools, such as Scribus, don’t have.

It comes into its own where collaboration is concerned and using Google Drive it is easy to work with distributed teams and to adjust editing privileges easily. For those that want to extend the experience further, it also has paid options to offer that little bit more functionality and personalisation.

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The Best Free Premiere Pro CC Replacement -- Lightworks

Premiere Pro has set quite the gold standard for video editing alongside the likes of Apple’s Final Cut Pro and the good news is that there are a couple of free offerings out there that can replicate the experience.

Lightworks, which is only available for Windows users, is the best of these and even though there is a professional version available, it still offers a lot of video editing options. Mac users can turn to the simple VideoLAN Movie Creator that offers very simple editing of videos but has nothing on the level of the tool kit that comes with Premiere Pro CC.

The Best Free Dreamweaver CC Replacement -- Microsoft Expression Web 4.0 [Free Version]

An all encompassing replacement for Dreamweaver’s what you see is what you get [WYSIWYG] product for making websites is extremely hard to locate and as such one of the best options out there is Microsoft Expression Web 4. The solution, which was previously a paid-for service, is no longer eligible for technical support, though still has the same features that have led many to compare it to Dreamweaver in the past.

It has full support for current web editing standards and the UI is clear enough that it will remind many of Dreamweaver. It pulls on the HTML5 standard, supports custom workspaces for graphics, and has extensive support for Silverlight.

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The Best Free AfterEffects CC Replacement -- Blender

When it comes to post production video editing and special effects, Adobe already offers it on a shoe-string when compared to many other companies out there. This doesn’t mean that open source services haven’t sprung up in the mean time and the best of these to exist is Blender.

Anyone that downloads Blender should be prepared to learn all the in’s and out’s but once that’s done, it has pretty much everything that is required, is great for 3D and once mastered it will seem simple.

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The Best Free Flash Builder Premium/Professional CC Replacement -- Stencyl/Synfig Studio/Flash Develop

One of the hardest replacements to be procured is one that does a good job of replicating Flash and the difficulty comes from the fact that Flash is an Adobe standard.

There are myriad of alternatives out there that replicate different parts of Flash and one of the best that we have come across is Stencyl, which is primarily used to create games. It is an extremely helpful tool that is very similar to how Flash works and there is no requirement to be able to code before using it.

When it comes to making 2D animations, Synfig Studio is the best free option and can do almost everything that Flash does. Flash Develop, meanwhile, is what you want if ActionScript programming is more your thing and is built especially for ActionScript alone.

The Best Free Acrobat XI Pro Replacement -- PDFescape

Replacing the extensive skill set of Acrobat for free is one of the harder tasks and the free services available are rather limited in what they can do, but should be more than enough during a short 24-hour outage. The best out there is the cloud-based PDFescape that allows up to 10 files of 10MB or 100 pages to be uploaded and then edited.

It offers support for basic annotation, very simple pages can be created from scratch and then text, art and data entry fields can be added. A premium version is available that up’s the ante to 100 larger files but it does cost $20 (£12) a month.

Microsoft openly offered cloud data to the NSA

Publié: mai 16, 2014, 3:30pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Microsoft’s cooperation with the NSA and FBI on the controversial Prism program has been laid bare in a new book written by an American journalist who brought it to public attention in the first place.

Glenn Greenwald, the American journalist who worked extensively with Edward Snowden, wrote in a new book that Microsoft’s cloud services allowed the National Security Agency [NSA] to collect data from a range of its different cloud options.

"Beginning on 7 March 2013, Prism now collects Microsoft SkyDrive data as part of Prism's standard Store Communications collection package for a tasked FISA Amendments Act Section 702 [FAA702] selector,” stated a slide released by Greenwald, according to Cloud Pro.

It is detailed in Greenwald’s new book, No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA and the Surveillance State, and goes on to hint that Microsoft was implicit in the NSA data collecting process.

"This success is the result of the FBI working for many months with Microsoft to get this tasking and collection solution established," the document stated.

Part of the reason that it was able to do this was down to the FISA Amendment Act of 2008 that legalized NSA Internet surveillance and allowed warrantless wiretapping by the NSA and related agencies.

"This means that analysts will no longer have to make a special request to SSO for this. This new capability will result in a much more complete and timely collection response from SSO for our enterprise customers," the documents added.

Other sabotage methods employed by the NSA and outlined in Greenwald’s book include the supply-chain interdiction, which meant intercepting various communications products in order to carry out covert surveillance. This included routers and servers made by Cisco and involved implanting beacons before the products were repackaged and shipped out to customers across the world.

"While American companies were being warned away from supposedly untrustworthy Chinese routers, foreign organizations would have been well advised to beware of American-made ones," Greenwald said.

6.4 million UK adults have never been on the Internet

Publié: mai 16, 2014, 12:35pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Just 13 percent of the UK’s population has never used the Internet before as the amount fell below the seven million.

Figures released by the Office for National Statistics as part of its Internet Access Quarterly Update explained that in Q1 2014 6.4 million adults are still yet to use the Internet, which is a drop of 659,000 since Q1 2013

"Internet use is linked to various socio-economic and demographic characteristics, such as age, sex, disability, geographical location and weekly earnings. For example, those who are less likely to have used the Internet include both the elderly and disabled adults," the release explained.

The same survey reports that 44.6 million adults across the UK used the Internet in Q1 2014, which represents 87 percent of the adults living in the UK and it was up by 1.1 million compared to Q1 2013.

When split across age demographics the survey showed that 99 percent of 16 to 24 year olds had used the Internet at some point whereas just 37 percent of those over the age of 75 have taken the plunge.

Men are more likely to use the Internet than women with a ratio of 89 percent to 85 percent and geographically London had the highest number of users with 90 percent of residents using the Internet. Northern Ireland, in comparison, had the lowest number with just 79 percent going online.

Another recent survey from Ofcom revealed that older Internet users are on the rise thanks to the growth experienced by the tablet market that is more accessible to those over the age of 65. It has led to the number of older people using the Internet to rise by a quarter over the past year and as tablet numbers increase the amount of older Internet users will also increase further.

Latest iPhone lock screen bypass uses Siri to gain access to Contacts

Publié: mai 14, 2014, 2:35pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Apple iPhone owners have a new lock screen bypass to combat after a security researcher discovered a flaw in the newest version of iOS.

It’s reported that the latest exploit, which is inside iOS 7.1.1, allows someone to reach the iPhone’s Contacts screen without unlocking the device and works across all iPhones that have the Siri personal assistant.

Sherif Hashim, a part-time security researcher and full-time neurosurgeon from Egypt, outlines the loophole in a YouTube video where he explains how Siri can be used to enter the device.

Hashim uses Siri’s "Call" command that asks who the user wants to call and after this it takes just a few more steps before being given access to the device’s entire Contact list that can be viewed and used for illicit means.

The bypass can’t be exploited remotely and it has to be done by someone that has physical access to the device and it pays to be vigilant when using a device and to not leave it unattended for long periods of time.

Graham Cluley, a security researcher himself, writes on the Intego security blog that iPhone owners can prevent the attack by going to Settings and then Passcode before scrolling down to the Allow Access When Locked section and turning off Siri.

Apple’s iPhone has been plagued by a number of lock screen exploits over the years that have usually meant that the company releases a new version of iOS that addresses the problem.

That was the case when an updated version of iOS 7 was released to address an error that meant anyone with physical access to the handset could gain partial access to data by simply using the new Control Center that was implemented with iOS 7.

Microsoft Azure to get extra security and disaster recovery features

Publié: mai 14, 2014, 8:28am CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Microsoft Azure is adding a number of new features to its public cloud offering that provide customers with extra security protection and disaster recovery improvements.

The firm told attendees at its TechEd conference in Houston that a glut of new features will include enhanced malware protection, performance protection for virtual machines as well as various parts of the product being refreshed, according to Cloud Pro.

One of the many changes is a rebranded version of the Hyper-V Recovery Manager that will be now be known as Microsoft Azure Site Recovery and able to be previewed from next month.

It will include allowing end users to replicate and recover virtual machines, workloads and services to Azure even if a primary data center goes down, and this makes it cheaper and easier for enterprises to benefit from.

"One of the things that differentiates [this] is that it is drop dead simple to use, and you can apply this to every workload in your data center. Historically, disaster recovery has been reserved for only the most mission critical applications for most organizations because it’s too expensive and too difficult. Let’s have disaster recovery for every one of the offerings in your company. For every one of the offerings your users and customers are using," said Brad Anderson, corporate VP of the company’s cloud and enterprise division.

Anti-malware protection is another product that has been added to the public cloud service to let end users protect Azure hosted virtual machines as well as applications that are being built for the public cloud platform.

To try to build confidence and trust in the security and performance of the public cloud it also announced the launch of the Azure ExpressRoute service. It gives a private Internet connection to connect on premise and data center assets to the public cloud and thus reduces the strain on bandwidth and any latency issues.

The latest changes come after the company changed the product name from Windows Azure to Microsoft Azure in order to better reflect its position as a product that is no longer just linked to Windows.

Sophisticated phishing scam targets Google accounts

Publié: mai 13, 2014, 9:02pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Google account holders are warned to be vigilant after an enhanced phishing attack was spotted that can give hackers full access to any user’s account.

Bitdefender, the antivirus security firm, detailed that a hard to spot email is being sent out to customers explaining that they need to increase the email storage quota of the account involved and the threat has so far bypassed Google Chrome’s uniform resource identifiers (URIs).

"What is interesting about this phishing attack is that users end up having the 'data:' in their browser’s address bar, which indicates the use of a data URI scheme," stated Catalin Cosoi, chief security strategist at Bitdefender.

The email reads, "This is a reminder that your email account will be locked out in 24 hours. Due to not being able to increase your Email storage Quota. Go to the INSTANT INCREASE to increase your Email storage automatically".

Once the INSTANT INCREASE link has been clicked it directs the user to a Google login web page that looks the same as the real thing and requests various account details that are used to infiltrate the account.

"With access to users' Google accounts, hackers can buy apps on Google Play, hijack Google+ accounts and access confidential Google Drive documents. The scam starts with an email allegedly sent by Google, with 'Mail Notice' or 'New Lockout Notice' as a subject," Cosoi added.

The data URI scheme means that scammers can include data in-line in web pages like they are external resources and it uses Base64 encoding to represent file contents, and in this instance supplies the content from the fake page encoded within the data URI.

It’s not the first time that Gmail accounts have been targeted by phishing emails although one this complex will worry those that use Google accounts and users are reminded to be vigilant towards any suspicious looking messages.

Share your life with a total stranger

Publié: mai 13, 2014, 7:04pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Anyone who has ever wanted to know more about the lives of others is in the luck as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has developed an iPhone app that pairs strangers together for a period of a little under three weeks.

20 Day Stranger, which has been engineered by MIT’s Media Lab, works by pairing up two complete strangers and then sharing random information to each person for a period of 20 days, and the best part is you’ll never have to know the identity of the person on the other end.

"For 20 days, you and a stranger will experience the world in your own way, together. You'll never know who it is or exactly where they are, but we hope it will reveal enough about someone to build your imagination of their life... and more broadly, the imagination of strangers everywhere," states the 20 Day Stranger’s website.

The idea is to pair up strangers that are as far away across the globe as possible and utilise each device’s location data and accelerometer in order to collect exact pieces of information. This can include whether the person is driving, biking, walking or sitting in a coffee shop and is even able to tell when you have woken up in the morning by the shaking of your phone.

One example given by FastCo Design is the app telling you that your partner is walking in Paris before providing a Google Maps Street View image within a half-mile radius of the location or grabbing a picture from Instagram.

Data is presented in the form of a news feed that, although being highly specific to the places being shown is vague when it comes to the identity of the person on the other end.

“We’re not trying to tell a story with 100 percent accuracy,” said Kevin Slavin, Playful Systems director. “What we’re trying to do is lift out a story with enough texture and detail to provoke you to imagine a real life somewhere else, happening right now, tied to yours”.

20 Day Stranger is currently in the beta testing stage within MIT and those interested in becoming one of the first to use the app can sign up now on the app’s website.

Oracle wins $1bn appeal against Google over unauthorised Java use in Android

Publié: mai 13, 2014, 3:56pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Oracle has won a significant court battle against Google’s Android OS in relation to unauthorized use of its Java programming language that could mean Google paying $1 billion in damages.

The copyright case was decided by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington and stemmed from a 2010 case brought by Oracle that claimed that Google had illegally incorporated elements of Java into Android.

"We conclude that a set of commands to instruct a computer to carry out desired operations may contain expression that is eligible for copyright protection," stated Federal Circuit Judge Kathleen O'Malley.

Last week’s ruling reverses an earlier decision made by a San Francisco federal judge that stated Oracle couldn’t claim copyright protection over parts of Java.

Oracle’s case against Google hinged on whether application programming interfaces (APIs) can be copyrighted and the trial accused Android of infringing on 37 Java APIs. In the original ruling US District Judge William Alsup stated the Java APIs used by Google weren’t covered by copyright protection and as such could be used by anyone -- something that the court of appeal failed to agree with.

"We find that the district court failed to distinguish between the threshold question of what is copyrightable -- which presents a low bar -- and the scope of conduct that constitutes infringing activity," O'Malley wrote.

The ruling could have widespread ramifications for software companies as it will be harder to work out how to write interoperable computer programs that don’t infringe on copyright.

"What we have is a decision that will definitely shake up the software industry," stated Pamela Samuelson, a professor at University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, who write a brief in support of Google’s case.

Programmers will still be able to create interoperable programs even if the opinion remains the same but involvement from lawyers will become far more common and costs are likely to rise.

"That's really expensive and lawyers are not going to give yes or no answers, and that's going to be stressful for everybody," said Eric Goldman, a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law.

Oracle’s case has now been ordered back in front of Alsup for the original court to decide whether Google’s actions are protected under fair use.

BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 top for cost effectiveness

Publié: mai 12, 2014, 5:44pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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BlackBerry has some long-waited good news to announce in the shape of a high dose of praise for its enterprise mobility management solution.

The company’s BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 (BES10) scored highest when it came to cost effectiveness in a report from market research company Strategic Analytics.

"Our detailed report found that the pricing offered by BES10 creates a lowest-cost migration path from a TCO perspective", said Andrew Brown, Executive Director, Enterprise Research at Strategy Analytics. "We attribute this to multiple factors, including the Enterprise Server License Trade-up program, the impact of BlackBerry Software Assurance across its Advanced and Premium support categories, and new tiered support categories".

"Enterprise Mobility Management: A review of Total Cost of Ownership" found that BES10 is the lowest priced Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) solution on the market based on a total cost of ownership extrapolated over a five year period. It’s also twice as expensive over five years to migrate from BlackBerry Enterprise Service 5 to a competitor’s offering compared to the transition from BES 5 to BES 10.

The report added that the "all inclusive" nature of BES10 gives it an advantage cost wise across the TCO period studied. BlackBerry’s solution performed best across four different categories in particular that included having the lowest TCO for commercial EMM deployments and EMM deployments in regulated and high security environments, the highest security, and the best scope for EMM capabilities.

BES10 is one of the jewels in the dilapidated BlackBerry crown and is still highly thought of among various high level agencies. This includes the US government, which approved the BES10 service on iOS and Android that meant it can offer its Secure Work Space to enterprise organizations working with the US administration.

UK parliament calls for overhaul of the way intelligence agencies handle data

Publié: mai 12, 2014, 9:03am CEST par Jamie Hinks

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MPs want a complete overhaul of the way that UK intelligence agencies handle data after the "embarrassing" way in which Edward Snowden’s revelations have brought to bear the weak oversight and legal accountability of the country’s security and intelligence agencies.

The reforms, which have been proposed by the parliamentary cross-party home affairs select committee, would involve immediate changes to the way intelligence agencies handle data in the future and the oversight that comes with MI5, MI6 and GCHQ.

Its report states that the current system is severely outdated as it was designed before the Internet era and was branded as so ineffective that it has damaged the credibility of UK intelligence agencies and even the government itself.

The response to Snowden’s revelations has been so strong as security and intelligence agency oversight weaknesses were specifically identified as a reason that Snowden took the action that he did.

"One of the reasons that Snowden has cited for releasing the documents is that he believes the oversight of security and intelligence agencies is not effective. It is important to note that when we asked British civil servants -- the national security adviser and the head of MI5 -- to give evidence to us they refused," stated the MPs, according to The Guardian.

Snowden’s revelations of mass Internet surveillance by the National Security Agency were also called out as an "embarrassing indictment" of current measures in the committee’s report.

Among the changes identified by the report are an entire overhaul of the "part-time" and under-served system of oversight commissioners currently in place and greater transparency for the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which is the only one that can currently look into complaints against the UK’s security agencies.

In addition, the MPs desire a system of democratic scrutiny that changes the way members are elected to the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) and the end of its exclusive oversight role.

Lastly, it wants a parliamentary review of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000 with updated technology and an improvement of its oversight safeguards to bring it to a modern standard.

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Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy owners won’t switch brands

Publié: mai 11, 2014, 8:48am CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Samsung and Apple don’t have to worry about users defecting to each other after a new survey suggested that other manufacturers like HTC and Huawei could take advantage of the gap.

Qriously, a London-based startup, surveyed a sample of 2,440 existing iPhone owners and the same number that own Samsung smartphones in order to ascertain how loyal the two sets of consumers are to the respective brands.

Of the existing iPhone owners, 36.7 percent stated they would not upgrade from their current model to the iPhone 6 whereas 32.82 percent stated they would upgrade and 30.48 percent are undecided.

Apple iPhone owners, however, aren’t about to turn to Samsung for the Galaxy S5 as 41.6 percent stated that it’s unlikely they will upgrade to an S5 whereas just 28.72 percent said they would.

The same question was put to Samsung owners with 39.26 percent not considering the S5 when a contract expires and just 32.42 stating they would upgrade, the remainder (28.32 percent) still undecided.

It was the same story when Samsung owners were asked if they would entertain upgrading to an iPhone 6 with a huge 50.37 percent pledging loyalty to Samsung by stating they wouldn’t consider the iPhone 6. This compared to the 25.1 percent that would consider Apple’s next flagship device.

Smartphone manufacturers that aren’t a part of the big two will be pleased by the findings if only for the fact that customers that are due an upgrade could be persuaded to invest in a new device from them.

Windows XP end-of-life boosts PC shipments

Publié: mai 10, 2014, 5:49pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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PC shipments have been boosted by the demise of Windows XP with shipments up by five percent compared to the previous year.

Figures from Canalys showed that 123.7 million PCs were shipped worldwide in Q1 2014 and Lenovo was one of the biggest beneficiaries of this growth as its PC shipments totaled 15 million and increased its market share from 10 percent to 12 percent.

"Lenovo was quick to move with new form factors and its Yoga line now dominates the global convertible notebook market," said Canalys Analyst James Wang.

The press release added that PC shipments across the globe "have been lifted by the end of life of Windows XP" but it still wasn’t enough for notebooks to close the gap on a tablet PC market that continues to outstrip its older sibling.

Growth in tablet shipments was shown to have slowed to 21 percent to reach 50.8 million units, though they still account for 41 percent of the market whereas notebooks are lagging behind on 38 percent.

Even with this kind of tablet optimism there was worrying news in that it illustrated a slowing of tablet sales that is already being sorely felt by Apple where iPad shipments showed a decrease of 16 percent worldwide and a 40 percent drop in the US.

"The fall in iPad shipments in Q1 was the sharpest ever," said Canalys Senior Analyst Tim Coulling. "Apple took action during the quarter to run down its iPad inventory, a smart move as tablet stock in the channel rose due to strong seasonal shipments in the previous quarter. Longer term, we do not believe Apple’s Q1 performance points to a decline in the tablet category, despite growing pressure from larger-screen smart phones".

Even with this being the case it continues to lead the tablet and PC market worldwide and the addition of Office for iPad was mentioned as a factor that will help it to maintain the lead "for some time".

Apple’s long time rival Samsung suffered an even worse quarter as it fell to fourth position in the PC shipment sector due to its exit from the mainstream notebook sector and a "significant sequential decline" in shipments stemming from mounting inventory.

Samsung's 'Gear Solo' smartwatch could let you make calls without a smartphone

Publié: mai 9, 2014, 3:55pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Samsung could put a SIM card inside its next smartwatch so that customers without a Galaxy smartphone are able to step aboard the company’s burgeoning wearables bandwagon.

Not content with its current smartwatch offering, the Gear Solo will offer owners the chance to have a device that has its own SIM card slot and allows it to connect to a mobile network without the need for a smartphone connection.

Maktechblog spotted a listing for the smartwatch on an Indian import site called Zauba, which mentioned a device called the Gear Solo with the code name SM-R710. As well as the SIM card slot the smartwatch also comes complete with a network receiver that will allow calls to be made.

The price on Zauba is listed as 12,499 rupees [$208] with the final price expected to be higher than this and the chance to makes calls directly from a wristwatch is something that will understandably appeal to many consumers.

Samsung has had a busy year in the wearables sector with three new devices unveiled in February in the shape of the Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo and Gear Fit that represented its second mission into the wearables market that started with the Galaxy Gear's release in September 2013.

The three new devices all run on Samsung’s own Tizen OS that is expected to be included on the Gear Solo and one of the main reasons behind developing its own OS is to give a harmonised experience across its smartphones and tablets, and wearables.

Samsung’s latest smartphone offering, the Galaxy S5, is firmly focused on offering health and fitness extras such as a heart rate monitor and was released at the same time as all three of the company’s new Gear 2 smartwatches detailed above.

Symantec: Antivirus software is 'dead' and only catches 45% of cyberattacks

Publié: mai 7, 2014, 6:00pm CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Symantec has declared antivirus software "dead" as it finally gets ready to take the fight to the new breed of cyber security threats that are plaguing companies across the globe.

Brian Dye, Symantec senior VP for information security, told the Wall Street Journal that antivirus is no longer a "moneymaker in any way" for Symantec or any other firm and that technology is being developed that will limit the effect future cyber attacks have.

This week will see the launch of a Symantec response team that will help businesses that have been hacked and put it in a position to challenge its competitors. In six months time it’s planned that the company will be able to sell intelligence briefings on specific threats to let clients work out if they are being hacked and why hackers have chosen to attack the business in question.

Symantec is also devising technology that will allow it look for more advanced malicious software inside a network in order to give it a service that is similar to those already offered by competitors, and Dye hinted at some annoyance with Symantec’s sluggish investment in new technology. "It's one thing to sit there and get frustrated," said Dye. "It's another thing to act on it, go get your act together and go play the game you should have been playing in the first place".

Dye estimates that antivirus software only catches some 45 percent of threats, bad news as the firm still relies on antivirus software and products that run on individual devices for over 40 percent of its revenue.

Analysts are still bullish on Symantec if only because its software runs on such a large number of machines and this will give it the chance to offer guidance on which hackers can be ignored and which will cause the worst problems

Microsoft, Apple and Facebook will inform users of data requests

Publié: mai 5, 2014, 9:13am CEST par Jamie Hinks

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Apple, Facebook and Microsoft are ready to empower users with more information regarding secret data demands in the shape of a new notification system that still won’t inform users when the agencies such as the National Security Agency request data.

The notification system will cover various police requests for email records and other online data that won’t be private unless a gagging order is approved by a court.

"Later this month, Apple will update its policies so that in most cases when law enforcement requests personal information about a customer, the customer will receive a notification from Apple", company spokeswoman Kristin Huguet told the Washington Post, with the same publication citing Microsoft and Facebook sources as stating that policy changes are afoot.

The change in policies won’t affect data requests that have been approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that are automatically made secret. Additionally national security letters, which are also known as administrative subpoenas issued by the FBI, will carry the same binding gagging orders.

"These risks of endangering life, risking destruction of evidence, or allowing suspects to flee or intimidate witnesses are not merely hypothetical, but unfortunately routine", stated Justice Department spokesperson Peter Carr when talking of cases that were affected by early disclosure.

News of Apple, Facebook and Microsoft changing policies comes just days in advance of the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s latest "Who Has Your Back?" report that ranks the internet’s top 18 companies when it comes to privacy.

Past versions have leveled heavy criticism at the likes of Apple and Yahoo for privacy and transparency policies whereas Twitter has regularly come out on top in its ranking by earning stars across all six categories it ranks.

Image Credit: Flickr (Branden Flasch)