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Total 100 articles, created at 2016-06-09 18:04 1 Best mobile games of 2016 (pictures) Looking for a new game to play on your mobile device? Here's our pick of the best released in 2016 (so far). 2016-06-09 12:53 677Bytes (1.08/2) www.cnet.com

2 Apple revamps App Store, may not win over developers Apple Inc. announced a series of long-awaited enhancements to (1.05/2) its App Store on Wednesday, but the new features may not ease concerns of developers and analysts who say that the App Store model - and the very idea of the single-purpose app - has... 2016-06-09 08:46 4KB pctechmag.com 3 HPE Unveils Converged Systems for IoT The Edgeline EL1000 and EL4000 systems are part of a larger series of announcements by HPE to address such IoT issues as (1.02/2) security and management. 2016-06-09 12:49 5KB www.eweek.com 4 What is AmazonFresh? Amazon launches new grocery service for the UK: Can I get (1.02/2) AmazonFresh in the UK? What is AmazonFresh, Amazon launches new grocery service for the UK, Can I get AmazonFresh in the UK, where does AmazonFresh deliver, what does AmazonFresh deliver 2016-06-09 12:42 3KB www.pcadvisor.co.uk 5 Borderlands 3 UK release date, price and gamelplay rumours: Gearbox has confirmed the (1.02/2) game is being developed Gearbox, the developers behind the Borderlands series are back it again with a new game on the horizon. 2016-06-09 11:00 3KB www.pcadvisor.co.uk 6 More Than 32 Million Twitter Passwords May Have Been Hacked And Leaked On The Dark (1.02/2) Web Last week Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg's social accounts; Pinterest and Twitter were briefly hacked, with the details coming from the LinkedIn breach that happened in 2012, with the founder of the world’s biggest social network reusing the password “dadada.” This time around Twitter users have become the... 2016-06-09 09:17 3KB pctechmag.com

7 Go from SHA-1 to SHA-2 in 8 steps The clock is ticking for organizations to complete their SHA-1 migration. Here's what admins must do to ensure they aren't (1.02/2) locked out. 2016-06-09 04:42 1KB www.computerworld.com 8 Transfer of internet oversight by US could face new hurdles

(1.02/2) Newly introduced bills demand that the transfer of control should be specifically authorized by Congress 2016-06-09 03:38 4KB www.infoworld.com 9 Apple outlines plan to take smaller revenue cut from ‘reliable’ apps (1.02/2) Apps of any kind will also be eligible to offer subscriptions soon 2016-06-09 00:00 3KB www.itpro.co.uk 10 6 productivity solutions that would benefit a 15-inch MacBook Air (0.01/2) These would still come in handy 2016-06-09 11:57 3KB feedproxy.google.com 11 Fitbit Alta vs. Misfit Ray: Comparing 2 stylish new fitness trackers

(0.01/2) The best activity band is the one you'll wear all day, every day. Fitbit and Misfit are aiming for your dollars with fitness trackers that focus on fashion. 2016-06-09 03:15 2KB www.itnews.com 12 Google, Oxford Researchers Study Way to Stop AI Systems From Misbehaving Intelligent systems of the future may not always behave optimally, so a way to safely interrupt them is needed, the Google and Oxford University researchers say. 2016-06-09 15:43 3KB www.eweek.com 13 Databricks Secures Apache Spark, Launches Community Edition At the Spark Summit, Databricks announced a new enterprise security framework for Apache Spark and made its data platform generally available. 2016-06-09 15:43 4KB www.eweek.com 14 The Network Evolution Will Be Digital As companies large and small charge toward a new digital age, the network becomes the battleground that helps make this revolution a reality. 2016-06-09 15:43 1KB www.informationweek.com 15 IT leaders: Don't fear the future For longtime Computerworld columnist Thornton May, the inevitability of technical progression means that a key skill for IT leaders is to anticipate what’s coming... 2016-06-09 13:02 914Bytes www.computerworld.com 16 Multiple devices mean rapid application development needs to get faster, easier Users have become accustomed to using applications and accessing information on any device in front of them, and that poses challenges for 2016-06-09 12:42 4KB www.itworldcanada.com 17 Private sector should lead Canada’s cyber security strategy, say experts In the global war against crime Canada is one of a number of countries with a national cyber strategy, aimed at strengthening 2016-06-09 12:48 4KB www.itworldcanada.com 18 How to SUM in Excel; how to subtract in Excel - Use Excel as a calculator to add and subtract numbers It’s easy to add together the contents of cells, or subtract one from the other on your spreadsheet. We show you step by step how to sum in Excel and how to subtract in Excel 2016-06-09 13:39 3KB www.pcadvisor.co.uk 19 The top tech gifts for Dad this Father's Day father's day,fathers day 2016,best fathers day gifts,best tech fathers day,best fathers day gadgets,best fathers day technology,what are the best fathers day gifts,what shall i buy for fathers day 2016-06-09 13:38 6KB www.pcadvisor.co.uk 20 How to set up a new Mac Mac daddy 2016-06-09 13:30 4KB feedproxy.google.com 21 Best headphones 2016: What's the best headphones? The 20 best headphones you can buy in the UK today - best headphone reviews We review the top headphones you can buy in the UK in 2016. Get the most for your money with our best headphones for your smartphone or tablet - best in ear, on ear and over ear headphones. Wireless and noise cancelling. 2016-06-09 13:08 11KB www.pcadvisor.co.uk 22 Sony h.ear on Wireless NC review: Stylish noise cancelling over-ear headphones with decent sound quality Want a pair of headphones packed with tech and features? The new Sony h.ear on come with wireless, NFC, LDACC, aptX and active noise cancelling. 2016-06-09 12:53 7KB www.pcadvisor.co.uk

23 Microsoft Launches Planner, GigJam Preview Hits iOS Planner, Microsoft's Trello-like team and project management tool, is now generally available for select Office 365 customers. 2016-06-09 15:43 3KB www.eweek.com 24 Qualcomm Unveils Platform for Connected Cars The chip maker creates a reference architecture to bring together the various connectivity technologies that are coming to connected vehicles. 2016-06-09 15:43 4KB www.eweek.com 25 Microsoft Releases Kaizala App for iOS in India The Android app, available only in India, will soon be out in other countries. First, it's paying Apple iOS devices a visit. 2016-06-09 15:43 3KB www.eweek.com 26 Zimperium Raises $25M for Mobile Security Tech The security firm that first discovered the Stagefright vulnerability is expanding its global footprint. 2016-06-09 15:43 3KB www.eweek.com 27 From Smartphones to a Robot, Asus Shows Off a Variety of New Products At the Computex 2016 trade show, Asus had something for everyone, including a trio of new flagship smartphones, 2-in-1s, laptops and even a home robot. 2016-06-09 09:40 1KB www.eweek.com 28 Smartphone Sales Will Fall to Single-Digit Increases in 2016: Gartner Those crazy former annual smartphone sales increases, such as the record 73% jump in 2010, are old history as market saturation continues. 2016-06-09 14:37 5KB www.eweek.com 29 How Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp Compare and Work Together Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp? We look at the differences and similarities between each Facebook-owned chat app, and how customers can use both. 2016-06-09 14:37 1KB www.eweek.com

30 Microsoft Outlook Available on HoloLens Augmented-Reality Headsets Microsoft Outlook makes its augmented-reality debut on HoloLens; IBM launches Apache Spark-based Data Science Experience; Verizon's latest bid for Yahoo's Web business is $3B; and there's more. 2016-06-09 14:37 7KB www.eweek.com 31 Top 10 web design packages for small business 10 ways to build your business an online home 2016-06-09 11:48 12KB feedproxy.google.com 32 How to watch UEFA Euro 2016 championship in style Get the best kit for kick-off 2016-06-09 11:42 6KB feedproxy.google.com 33 Nostalrius PM reports back on Blizzard meeting What's up with legacy servers, then? 2016-06-09 11:38 2KB www.pcgamer.com 34 Microsoft wants to help you find out if you're ready for Windows 10 Ready For Windows site lists all the business apps available 2016-06-09 11:33 1KB feedproxy.google.com 35 How Skywind is recreating a modern classic Morrowind made new. 2016-06-09 11:07 14KB www.pcgamer.com 36 How to watch Bethesda E3 2016 press conference live stream and what to expect: Bethesda rumoured to showcase Dishonored 2 gameplay alongside new games at E3 2016 Bethesda is set to take the stage at E3 2016 in Los Angeles next week - here, we tell you when the press conference is due to begin, along with how to watch it live and what to expect from the announcement. 2016-06-09 11:02 3KB www.pcadvisor.co.uk 37 Forrester urges CIOs to outsource analytics to data scientists There is huge demand for data scientists – but rather than build skills in-house, analyst Forrester suggests CIOs can outsource to specialist providers 2016-06-09 10:45 2KB www.computerweekly.com 38 AmazonFresh has arrived in the UK - here's how it works Meals on wheels 2016-06-09 10:38 2KB feedproxy.google.com 39 Microsoft's latest Windows 10 preview hones Edge and Windows Ink Another 'bug bash' is happening this month ahead of the Anniversary Update 2016-06-09 10:37 2KB feedproxy.google.com 40 Doom's multiplayer to get some TLC from id Private games and custom settings are on their way. 2016-06-09 10:23 1KB www.pcgamer.com 41 Job Opportunity: Network and System Administrators (2 positions available) Description: Ensure prompt response in resolving LAN/WAN problems, in keeping with the availability as per defined KPIs. Job Description: Implementation & support of corporate access level data network for all P-PAGE offices and all network related services for the data centers and P... 2016-06-09 10:16 1KB pctechmag.com 42 Get ready for the Galaxy Note 7 to scan your eyes Is this really the next level of smartphone security? 2016-06-09 10:14 2KB feedproxy.google.com 43 Why scientists are purposefully crashing drones To try and make them safer 2016-06-09 10:13 2KB feedproxy.google.com 44 How to watch Sony E3 2016 live video stream: Tipped to launch PS4 Neo, Last of Us 2 and more E3 2016 is next week, and Sony is tipped to announce an enhanced version of the PS4, plus several new games including The Last of Us 2. Here's how to watch Sony E3 video stream live in the UK. 2016-06-09 10:13 2KB www.pcadvisor.co.uk 45 Datacentre operators should evaluate emerging markets before jumping in Indian telco CEO claims datacentre operators are risking business failure by not investing time in getting to know the nuances of emerging markets before they expand into them. 2016-06-09 10:00 3KB www.computerweekly.com

46 Turtle Beach's latest speakers are like a pair of invisible headphones - here's how they work Beams of audio, kids. Beams. Of. Audio. 2016-06-09 09:40 5KB feedproxy.google.com 47 Beyond the Atlantic: Data privacy laws around the world Don't ignore changes in data privacy regulation in Asia and beyond 2016-06-09 09:35 4KB feedproxy.google.com 48 Edge datacentres hailed as answer to latency concerns in IoT era With user demand for low-latency, high-performing applications, delegates at Datacloud Europe 2016 hail edge datacentres as the answer. 2016-06-09 09:30 2KB www.computerweekly.com 49 Malware 'Crysis': New Strain Combines Multiple Threats, Platforms NEWS ANALYSIS: The latest release of Crysis malware combines ransomware with a data breach, and then spreads on its own. 2016-06-09 08:35 3KB www.eweek.com 50 Shattering the myth of Agile methodologies The word “Agile” is a common phrase thrown around in any IT environment -- but exactly what does it mean? You may 2016-06-09 10:49 2KB www.itworldcanada.com 51 Phishing awareness training almost futile, say Canadian bank infosec pros New reports warn of extent of phishing Canadians rank 26th on phishing test You've trained, warned and threatened staff not to click on suspicious email attachment, and they still do it. Employees seem dense. Even 2016-06-09 10:49 5KB www.itworldcanada.com 52 OnePlus 3 release date, news and rumors The OnePlus Three needs to be a phone which doesn't settle 2016-06-09 08:58 7KB feedproxy.google.com

53 Project Tango: everything you need to know Lenovo is allegedly making the first Project Tango phone 2016-06-09 08:57 4KB feedproxy.google.com 54 It looks certain that this is the OnePlus 3 Expect the expected 2016-06-09 08:44 1KB feedproxy.google.com 55 The BBC wants to use its new demos to write the VR rulebook Using VR to shed new light on history and current affairs 2016-06-09 08:18 10KB feedproxy.google.com 56 Cyber crime is serious business, shows Imperva report If organisations want to fight cyber crime, they need to get serious and they need to get professional about it, says Imperva CTO Amichai Shulman 2016-06-09 08:01 2KB www.computerweekly.com 57 Salesforce TrailheaDX: Path Toward Redefining Developers To help businesses adapt to a world of omnipresent software, Salesforce aims to create more programmers. Here is a look at the company's first developer conference, where it explored that mission. 2016-06-09 07:06 3KB www.informationweek.com 58 Bootstrapped Microsoft Standout BitTitan Finally Accepts Venture Funding The Microsoft technology partner that built a thriving business orchestrating cloud migrations plans to scale its MSP platform and expand internationally with the $15 million. 2016-06-09 07:00 2KB www.crn.com 59 Why political candidates can't do agile It’s voting season, and we all know how candidates for office act. They have to be light on their feet, but their behavior is anything but ’agile‘… and their habits would destroy any agile project. Once you’ve absorbed that idea, substitute the word ’executives‘ for ‘candidates.’ 2016-06-09 06:24 1KB www.itnews.com 60 The Week in Mac Apps: Roadblock's customizable browsing experience gets rid of pop-up ads This week's roundup of new Mac apps includes Roadblock, which lets you filter out certain browsing annoyances to give you a better internet experience. 2016-06-09 06:00 4KB www.itnews.com

61 Can Apple flick the Android-to-iPhone switch at WWDC 2016? Apple has a chance to woo 26 percent of Android users to iOS at WWDC, but only if it plays the hand it has been dealt. 2016-06-09 06:00 5KB www.computerworld.com 62 Windows 10 beta build 14361 closes in on the final Anniversary update, but problems remain Another round of bug fixes and small tweaks, but LastPass still has a way to go 2016-06-09 05:27 5KB www.infoworld.com 63 Why consumers still aren't buying social media buy buttons Social media simply isn't an effective sales channel today, and despite social companies' efforts to rollout new forms of buying features, the slow adoption may have more to do with consumer behavioral than technology. 2016-06-09 05:00 5KB www.itworld.com 64 Minecraft's latest update brings new foes and more A new technical block is available, too. 2016-06-09 04:57 1KB www.pcgamer.com 65 WWDC wish list: Will we see any new hardware? Most signs point to a software show, but that doesn't mean new Macs, displays, or other hardware is out of the question. 2016-06-09 04:36 5KB www.itnews.com 66 5 reasons the Surface Pro 4 is fit for the enterprise The Microsoft Surface Pro 4 is the clear choice of hybrid for the enterprise -- and for good reason. Here are five features that make this device the best option for business users. 2016-06-09 04:15 8KB www.cio.com 67 Asus' Jonney Shih on product design and artificial intelligence In an interview at Asus' headquarters in Taipei last week, Shih talked about his design philosophy, where he seeks inspiration and artificial intelligence. 2016-06-09 04:11 1KB www.computerworld.com

68 Is anyone listening? In IT, we’ve all had the sensation that business people haven’t really heard what we’ve told them. Here’s how you can be sure to grab their attention. 2016-06-09 04:00 4KB www.itnews.com 69 Naim Audio Mu-so Qb wireless speaker review: It sounds as beautiful as it looks, it just doesn’t get loud enough It’ll fill the smaller spaces in your home with sound, but you’ll need its bigger sibling for the living room. 2016-06-09 04:00 11KB www.itnews.com 70 The best edge panel add-ons for the Galaxy S7 Edge Put that curvy screen to use with these apps that put news and other information just one swipe away. 2016-06-09 04:00 7KB www.itnews.com 71 Why robocallers can stalk you on your cell phone Robocall laws aren't keeping up with technology, making it easy for telemarketers and scammers to have their way. 2016-06-09 04:00 5KB www.itnews.com 72 Why you don’t have to fix every vulnerability Not every vulnerability results in high risk, here are a few scenarios in which immediate changes are not necessarily needed. 2016-06-09 03:49 5KB www.itnews.com 73 Affordable drones are the new wave of underwater exploration Two companies are helping to unlock the secrets of the sea with low-cost, easy-to-pilot aquatic drones. 2016-06-09 03:43 2KB www.computerworld.com 74 Multi-process Firefox project nears completion of first phase After years of work, Mozilla's browser will finally separate UI from content for performance and stability gains 2016-06-09 03:42 5KB www.infoworld.com 75 This company uses AI to stop cyberattacks before they start Cylance, a startup that uses AI to detect and prevent cyberattacks, just took in $100 million in fresh funding 2016-06-09 03:26 2KB www.infoworld.com 76 Tinder to 17-year-olds: Get off my lawn Dating app Tinder is shutting down service for under-18s. The official reason is hazy at best, but a moment’s thought says it’s bad news for the safety of minors. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers think it’s the most ridiculous idea ever... 2016-06-09 03:11 1KB www.computerworld.com 77 Misfit Ray review: This fitness band looks like a bracelet, but trades function for style Misfit's focus on fashion hobbles the Ray, which relies on vibration and LED lights to communicate with you. 2016-06-09 03:10 6KB www.itnews.com 78 Securing your car from cyberattacks is becoming a big business New cars have between 50 million and 100 million lines of computer code -- and for every 1,000 lines there are 10 to 15 bugs that are potential vulnerabilities for hackers. So the industry is ramping up to defend against cyberattacks. 2016-06-09 03:01 7KB www.itworld.com 79 Mingis on Tech: Getting virtual with reality Intrigued by the Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive, but leery of the cost? Turns out you don't have to spend big bucks to try VR. Executive Editor Ken Mingis and Multimedia Editor Keith Shaw don the goggles and hash out the details. 2016-06-09 03:00 1KB www.itworld.com 80 'We don't care. We don't have to.' This network provider's customer is moving to the building next door -- just about 50 feet. Hpw hard could it be to get broadband to the new office? 2016-06-09 03:00 2KB www.computerworld.com 81 Salesforce puts Lightning in a tightly sealed bottle The LockerService architecture isolates components in their own containers and stops them from calling undocumented or private APIs 2016-06-09 03:00 2KB www.infoworld.com 82 Learn from SOA: 5 lessons for the microservices era The rise and fall of SOA can teach us much about making the best use of microservices 2016-06-09 03:00 7KB www.infoworld.com 83 We have the big data tools -- let's learn to use them Few enterprises enjoy even the first-order benefits of big data. The real payoff will come when we interact with systems much less than we do today 2016-06-09 03:00 4KB www.infoworld.com 84 Overwatch map tricks and secret routes Sneaky maneuvers with which to flank and surprise your enemies. 2016-06-09 02:12 2KB www.pcgamer.com 85 The stats don’t lie, Lucio is Overwatch’s most valuable hero He's in the top three for popularity, winrate, and score-per-minute according to stat-tracking site Master Overwatch. 2016-06-09 00:13 4KB www.pcgamer.com 86 Plex Media Server Storms Onto NVIDIA SHIELD Pro Console To Satisfy Media Hoarders | HotHardware In case you haven’t already noticed, we’re pretty big fans of the NVIDIA SHIELD. The Tegra X1-powered console runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow and is part media streamer and part gaming box. And thankfully, NVIDIA has been very adamant about keeping the SHIELD fresh over... 2016-06-09 00:00 2KB hothardware.com 87 Save Big On Microsoft SQL Server Database Administration Certification Training In The HotHardware Shop | HotHardware If you want to learn all there is to know about SQL Server and Microsoft’s data platform, we’ve got an awesome deal running in the HotHardware Shop you’ll want to check out. Microsoft SQL Server Database Administration Certification Training is heavily discounted (over 90% off!... 2016-06-09 00:00 1KB hothardware.com 88 WWDC 2016: iOS, OS X, App Store and what else to expect With less than a week ago, we round up what's likely to appear during next week's keynote,Software ,Apple 2016-06-09 00:00 1KB www.theinquirer.net 89 uTorrent forums hack sees 35,000 accounts comprimised You should probably change your crap password,Security ,Security 2016-06-09 00:00 2KB www.theinquirer.net 90 Hands On: Philips Sonicare FlexCare Platinum Connected This $199 Bluetooth-connected toothbrush aims to improve your oral hygiene technique. 2016-06-09 00:00 3KB feedproxy.google.com

91 Bruce Schneier: IoT programmers can't be left to code the world Nerds! They code this mother f****** world ,Developer,Hardware,Security ,IoT 2016-06-09 00:00 2KB www.theinquirer.net 92 Singapore's civil servants are set to lose internet privileges The country's government is planning on blocking the internet from civil servants starting next year in the interest of security. 2016-06-09 00:00 1KB www.cnet.com 93 Brace yourself: The longest episode yet of 'Game of Thrones' is coming Clocking in at 69 minutes, season 6's finale will be the storied TV show's longest episode. 2016-06-09 00:00 910Bytes www.cnet.com 94 Sony Xperia X review The Xperia Z6 by any other name would smell as sweet 2016-06-09 00:00 713Bytes www.itpro.co.uk 95 AI employment crunch is "fanciful", claims HPE exec Robots will not take our jobs - they will enhance them 2016-06-09 00:00 2KB www.itpro.co.uk 96 BBC to experiment with 360-degree video and virtual reality But you won't be able to watch Don't Tell The Bride in VR just yet,Software ,VR 2016-06-09 00:00 2KB www.theinquirer.net 97 Spotify's Daniel Ek 'not going to sell' the streaming service Spotify is European through and through, and co-founder Daniel Ek wants it to stay that way. 2016-06-09 00:00 1KB www.cnet.com 98 Rocky mountain high (speed): Acura to field two NSXs, NSX-inspired electric prototype at Pikes Peak All three cars will compete in different classes, with accomplished Pikes Peak drivers taking each wheel. 2016-06-09 00:00 1KB www.cnet.com

99 Google's Larry Page is reportedly building flying cars in secret The Google co-founder is using his personal fortune to bankroll what many consider to be an impossible dream. 2016-06-09 00:00 1KB www.cnet.com 100 Making bourbon, with a tech twist Bourbon distillers say it takes years to produce great bourbon. Some upstarts are challenging that assumption. 2016-06-09 00:00 8KB www.cnet.com Articles

Total 100 articles, created at 2016-06-09 18:04

1 Best mobile games of 2016 (pictures) (1.08/2) GoPro, Pixpro, or Ricoh? You can spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a 360-degree camera. We tested three of them to find out what kind of quality and ease of use you can expect at each price point.

The best free YouTube to MP3 converters 2016 feedproxy.google.com

The best free YouTube video downloaders 2016 feedproxy.google.com The best free antivirus software 2016 feedproxy.google.com 2016-06-09 12:53 Michelle Starr www.cnet.com

2 2 Apple revamps App Store, may not win over developers (1.05/2) Apple Inc. announced a series of long-awaited enhancements to its App Store on Wednesday, but the new features may not ease concerns of developers and analysts who say that the App Store model – and the very idea of the single- purpose app – has seen its best days. The revamped App Store will let developers advertise their wares in search results and give developers a bigger cut of revenues on subscription apps, while Apple said it has already dramatically sped up its app-approval process. The goal is to sustain the virtuous cycle at the heart of the hugely lucrative iPhone business. Software developers make apps for the iPhone because its customers are willing to pay, and those customers, in turn, pay a premium for the device because it has the best apps. The store is now more strategically important than ever for Apple as sales of the iPhone begin to level off and the company looks to software and services to fill the gap. Apple CEO Tim Cook said on a recent conference call that App Store revenues were up 35 percent over last year. But the store is also a victim of its own success. Eight years after its launch, it is packed with more than 1.9 million apps, according to analytics firm App Annie, making it almost impossible for developers to find an audience – and increasingly difficult for customers to find what they need, as some 14,000 new apps arrive in the store each week. “The app space has grown out of control,” said Vint Cerf, one of the inventors of the internet and now a vice president at Alphabet Inc’s Google, who was speaking at a San Francisco conference on the future of the web on Wednesday. “We need to move away from having an individual app for every individual thing you want to do.” Artificial Intelligence Some users are moving away from apps toward messaging services such as Slack and Facebook Inc’s Messenger, which are branching out into areas like shopping and document storage. Meanwhile, rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) could lead to a world where people navigate their phones through voice-controlled digital assistants such as Apple’s Siri, rather than opening individual apps. To be sure, chat and AI are in their infancy, and their appeal to the masses remains uncertain. But if they take off, they could erase the edge Apple enjoys by virtue of its strong app ecosystem and tip the scales toward Google, which is widely considered to have the lead in AI. “The current dynamic is very favorable to Apple, and this is a suggestion that we might shift to a different dynamic where Google would have a very strong advantage,” said Benedict Evans, a partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. “No matter what you do to an app store, you always have that underlying problem: It’s a list of a million things,” he added. Apple may yet find ways to wield AI to reinforce the App Store. The company has already woven more intelligence into its operating system, which now prompts iPhone users to open certain apps during the day based on their habits. Developer Gripes On a more basic level, the changes announced this week address some of the loudest complaints from developers, who say it is virtually impossible to stand out in an app landscape dominated by hit games, big media companies and internet giants such as Facebook and Google. Statistics from Sensor Tower, an app analytics firm, show a stark and widening divide between top earners and low performers in the App Store. The top 1 percent of app publishers raked in about 94 percent of the store’s estimated $1.43 billion net revenue in the first quarter of 2016. The gulf has expanded rapidly since July 2012, the first month for which Sensor Tower has data, when the top 1 percent netted about 80 percent of the revenue in the store, according to data provided to Reuters. The figures cover paid apps and apps that include in-app purchases. Some developers who carved out a niche early say they doubt success would come so easily today. “Now the challenge for developers is, if there’s an app for everything, how will you create an app people will use?” said Lucas Buick, who founded Hipstamatic, a photography app that was an early hit in the App Store. [ Reuters ] App Store subscriptions don't solve problems for most developers itnews.com

FAQ: How Apple’s new App Store subscriptions affect you itnews.com 2016-06-09 08:46 PC Tech pctechmag.com

3 HPE Unveils Converged Systems for IoT (1.02/2) The Edgeline EL1000 and EL4000 systems are part of a larger series of announcements by HPE to address such IoT issues as security and management. Hewlett Packard Enterprise is making a concentrated push to be the infrastructure, analytics and security provider for enterprises' Internet of things efforts. At the company's Discover 2016 show June 8 in Las Vegas, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) officials unveiled two new converged systems that the company said will not only bring the analytics and security capabilities that are needed for the Internet of things (IoT), but that also are rugged enough to be used in environments closer to the network's edge and where the IoT devices live. The tens of billions of devices, sensors and systems that make up the IoT are generating massive amounts of data that enterprises and service providers want to analyze as quickly as possible in order to make sound business decisions and spin out new services to their employees and customers. HPE and other tech vendors, such as Cisco Systems, Dell, EMC and VMware, are looking for ways to bring the analytics capabilities closer to these devices to speed up the time between when the data is generated and when decisions can be made based on that data. "Organizations that take advantage of the vast amount of data and run deep analytics at the edge can become digital disrupters within their industries," Tom Bradicich, vice president and general manager of servers and IoT systems at HPE, said in a statement. "HPE has built machine learning and real-time analytics into its IoT platforms, and provides services that help customers understand how data can best be leveraged, enabling them to optimize maintenance management, improve operations efficiency and, ultimately, drive significant cost savings. " The new converged systems, the Edgeline EL1000 and EL4000, were among a number of IoT-focused announcements made by HPE officials at the show. The company also made moves to shore up security (a key concern when talking about the Internet of things), offer tools to help businesses plan their strategies and deployments, and form partnerships to develop joint offerings to bring to the market. The IoT market is expected to grow rapidly. Forecasts on the number of devices that will make up the Internet vary, but officials with both Cisco and Intel put the figure at more than 50 billion by 2020. IDC analysts have said that spending on the IoT worldwide will jump from $698.6 billion last year to almost $1.3 trillion in 2019. HPE, like most other companies in the industry, has been rapidly growing out its IoT portfolio, including the rollout last month of its Universal IoT Platform , which the company expects to build out into a management solution for all IoT systems and devices. The growing Edgeline lineup of products are the result of a partnership with Intel announced last year to jointly develop products that sit at the edge of the network. The EL1000 and EL4000 systems integrate compute, storage and networking into a single system that also includes data capture and systems and device-management capabilities. They're also built to run in difficult environments that include shock, vibration and extreme temperature issues. The EL4000 also can run HPE's Vertica Analytics Platform, which brings machine learning capabilities to the network edge to more quickly provide real-time insights from the IoT data. At the same time, both systems support Aruba Networks' Virtual Intranet Access VPN client, which delivers an automated, zero-touch virtual private network for both commercial and high- security government IoT workloads. Aruba is a subsidiary of HPE. HPE and Intel also announced four IoT Innovation Labs worldwide, where customers can build and test IoT applications and have access to HPE and Intel expertise. The labs are in Houston, Texas; Grenoble, France; Bangalore, India; and Singapore. The company also is enhancing Aruba's ClearPass software to enable it to better profile new IoT devices on the network, enforce security policies and exchange policy status with other security systems. It's a nod to the ongoing concerns of the increasing attack surface being created by having tens of billions of devices and systems connecting to the Internet. The ClearPass technology lets businesses automatically add, detect, profile and secure IoT devices. In addition, HPE unveiled its IoT Transformation Workshop, an interactive session designed to help customers more easily define their IoT strategies through analytical and fact-based approaches. HPE also is partnering with such companies as GE Digital, National Instruments and PTC to jointly develop industrial IoT offerings in industries, including aerospace, oil and gas, manufacturing, automotive and energy. HPE's new converged IoT systems bring horsepower to the edge infoworld.com 2016-06-09 12:49 Jeffrey Burt www.eweek.com

4 What is AmazonFresh? Amazon launches new grocery service for the UK: Can I get AmazonFresh in the UK? (1.02/2) As of 9 June 2016, Amazon.co.uk has launched a new service called AmazonFresh for select areas of London in the UK. The service allows those in the initial catchment area to order groceries from a massive range of locally sourced products from around London. Amazon promises ‘fast and flexible delivery’ and is a c clear move to compete in yet another retail space in an attempt to wrestle some ground from the food delivery services of Tesco and Ocado. Tellingly and cleverly for Amazon, it will exploit its existing relationship with Morrisons to offer the latter’s products over those of other supermarkets. AmazonFresh currently delivers to 69 Central and East London postcodes. As with many of Amazon's new services, this is a trial run of a service that has expanded greatly in the US. To check if you are eligible for the services, click here and follow the instructions , or check out the map below of the initial areas. There are a whole host of foods you can purchase on AmazonFresh, with enough range to conceive doing your whole food shop on it. From dairy to deli, meat to breakfast food, the service means you can order as little or as much as you like with the same delivery options. Check the range out here . If you are in the catchment area, you are eligible. Unfortunately this means it is a London-only service at the moment, but as with services such as Amazon Prime, we expect the reach of it to increase massively very soon. AmazonFresh is available to existing Amazon Prime members. Prime is a membership that allows people to use many of the company’s different services. For a full explanation, here’s our Amazon Prime round up. The necessary Amazon Prime membership in order to use AmazonFresh costs £79 per year – click here to view the benefits and sign up for a free 30-day trial of Amazon Prime. It is notable however that you not only have to sign up to Prime, but also pay an additional £6.99 monthly fee on top of that. This gets you unlimited free orders of shops over £40 in total. If this seems like a lot to pay, you may be right - however if you already have Prime and want your food to come from the same company, it represents a good deal. Amazon already has a service called Amazon Pantry, which is confusingly slightly different. Amazon Pantry allows you to fill a box for a flat rate of £2.99 with any good eligible – the range is different to that offered by AmazonFresh. Every subsequent box you order is 99p. It’s great if you’re a Prime member in an area that’s served and need a few bits and pieces delivered fast. Check out Amazon Pantry here .

AmazonFresh grocery service takes on at UK supermarkets itpro.co.uk 2016-06-09 12:42 Henry Burrell www.pcadvisor.co.uk

5 Borderlands 3 UK release date, price and gamelplay rumours: Gearbox has confirmed the game is being developed (1.02/2) Borderlands 3 is being developed by its makers, Gearbox. Randy Pitchford the CEO and president of Gearbox confirmed at PAX East that the new game is being developed. Not much has been announced so far, but let us take a look at the rumours and what we can expect from the next Borderlands game. Also see: Borderlands 2 review . First of all, we cannot confirm that it will be called Borderlands 3. Even Randy Pitchford said himself that he wasn't sure on what to call it. It might even be called Borderlands 4! We predict Borderlands 3 will come during the autumn months of 2017. In its history, Borderlands has been released around the September-October months, whilst iterations, such as console ports or Mac releases have followed at a later date. Considering the rumours and no official announcement, it's highly unlikely that we will see a rushed 2016 release. A 2017 release seems even more likely, knowing that Borderlands 2 (2012) had a three year gap with the original Borderlands game (2009). Also see: Most anticipated games of 2016 . Gearbox has indicated that the game will be made natively for later generation consoles, meaning we expect it to be optimised for full-HD 60fps gameplay. It will come out on PC, PS4, Xbox One and later on Mac and Linux. We do not see it being included for older generation consoles, such as the Xbox 360 nor the PS3. We might not see it ported over to the PlayStation Vita either, as Borderlands 2 received a lot of criticism. Also see: Ultimate list of PS4 games to play in 2016 . As of yet, there are no indications on its release date or price. However, we predict to come out at around £30-40 on PC, whilst on consoles you will be expected to pay £40-50 for the game, if not more. There is very little information out there about the game, but given the somewhat negative response Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel received, due to it being received as an expansion of Borderlands 2 that is set in space, we see the new Borderlands 3 being a land-based game, with certain game elements resorting to space travel. We expect the very same Mature-rated gameplay with the same level of control on gore. In Borderlands 2, you were able to toggle gore, experience the game without any nudity or much profanity, but the game was full of violence and killing scenes. We expect more explosions, more crazy headshots and gruelling boss fights - exactly what you want to do when you've got some time to kill. Let us know in the comments what you would like to see in the new Borderlands 3 game! -Handsome Jack out. Also see: Best Xbox One games 2016.

Galaxy Note 7 release date, price, rumours and specs theinquirer.net 2016-06-09 11:00 Christopher Minasians www.pcadvisor.co.uk

6 More Than 32 Million Twitter Passwords May Have Been Hacked And Leaked On The Dark Web (1.02/2) Last week Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s social accounts; Pinterest and Twitter were briefly hacked, with the details coming from the LinkedIn breach that happened in 2012, with the founder of the world’s biggest social network reusing the password “dadada.” This time around Twitter users have become the latest to have their security put at risk as data including unencrypted passwords on over 32 million accounts is being sold on the dark web for less than $6,000. According to LeakedSource , passwords are presented in plain text meaning they have not been encrypted and it is much more likely that the credentials were collected as a result of millions of users having their computers being infected with malware. LeakedSource added saying that, the data is currently being traded on the dark web though it gives no indication of how much the data is being sold for. According to the online hacktivist known as The Jester, he wrote on his website, “The first indication was the low asking price of 10 Bit Coins (around $5000USD) – after investigation by myself and trusted associated who queried 32 Million records of the alleged TWITTER dump on the LEAKEDSOURCE website the following was deduced.” “After checking the dump against current Twitter registered emails and two old emails, the alleged TWITTER DB dump is made up of records from the last two previous TUMBLR and LinkedIn breaches. This conclusion was reached because the old adresses twitter registered emails that appeared in the TUMBLR and LINKEDIN breaches appeared and CURRENT Twitter registered email did not.” The database was given to LeakedSource by a user who goes by the alias “[email protected]” who also provided the website with over 167 million LinkedIn credentials, 360 million Myspace accounts and most recently 171 million details on users of VKontakte (or VK), the equivalent of Russia’s Facebook. In total, LeakedSource now has a searchable database of over 1.8 billion stolen records. Analysis by LeakedSource of the 32,888,300 Twitters records each of which contains an email address, a username and a visible password suggests that many of the victims are based in Russia, with mail.ru email addresses being the most prevalent in the leaked data. Twitter has not officially responded to the latest leak, but Michael Coates, who works on Twitter’s security team, said the company had seen the data and is working with LeakedSource to help protect those customers who are affected. Users can search the database here to see if they have been affected, and for those seeking to add more security to their Twitter account, the two- factor authentication can be switched on, which means anyone trying to log into your account from a new device will need to have a security code that is sent to your phone. Once again, the list of the most common passwords seen in the data shows a recognizable pattern with the likes of “123456,” “password” and “qwerty” all among the top five, International Business Times reported.

LinkedIn hacker is selling 33 million Twitter log-ins on the dark web theinquirer.net 2016-06-09 09:17 Nathan Ernest pctechmag.com

7 Go from SHA-1 to SHA-2 in 8 steps (1.02/2) As deadlines go, Jan. 1, 2017, isn’t far away, yet many organizations still haven’t switched their digital certificates and signing infrastructure to use SHA-2 , the set of cryptographic hash functions succeeding the weaker SHA-1 algorithm. SHA-1 deprecation must happen; otherwise, organizations will find their sites blocked by browsers and their devices unable to access HTTPS sites or run applications. All digital certificates -- to guarantee the website accepting payment card information is secure, software is authentic and the message was sent by a person and not an impersonator -- are signed by a hashing algorithm. The most common is currently SHA-1, despite significant cryptographic weaknesses that render the certificates vulnerable to collision attacks. To continue reading this article register now Learn More Existing Users Sign In Do it now! From SHA-1 to SHA-2 in 8 steps infoworld.com 2016-06-09 04:42 Fahmida Y www.computerworld.com

8 Transfer of internet oversight by US could face new hurdles (1.02/2) U. S. plans to transfer the oversight of key technical internet functions to an international multi- stakeholder governance model have run into hurdles with two bills being introduced on Wednesday that would require the government to first take the approval of Congress for the transition. A bill proposed in the Senate by Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, called the Protecting Internet Freedom Act, would prohibit any transfer of internet domain name system functions except if expressly allowed under a federal statute passed after the new legislation has been enacted. The bill would also require that the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information provide to Congress written certification within 60 days of the enactment of the new internet freedom legislation that the U. S. has secured sole ownership of the .gov and .mil top-level domains and a contract for the exclusive control and use of the the domains in perpetuity. A version of the bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives by Sean Duffy, a Republican from Wisconsin. The administration of President Barack Obama is "months away from deciding whether the United States government will continue to provide oversight over core functions of the internet and protect it from authoritarian regimes that view the internet as a way to increase their influence and suppress freedom of speech," Cruz said in a statement. The senator has been for long a critic of U. S. government policy about transfer of control of the internet to a global multistakeholder body. He put a hold last year on the Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters (DOTCOM) Act, legislation that would give Congress 30 days to review alternative governance models for the internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers before a transition occurs , as he wanted to include a provision requiring a Congress vote to approve the transition plan. ICANN currently operates under contract with the U. S. Department of Commerce the internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions, which include responsibility for the coordination of the DNS (Domain Name System) root, IP addressing, and other internet protocol resources. The U. S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), an agency located in the Department of Commerce, said in March 2014 that it planned to let its contract with ICANN to operate key domain- name functions expire in September 2015, passing the oversight of the agency to a global governance model. The Department of Commerce said in August last year that the transition was being delayed to September this year while the community formulated its plan, had it reviewed by the U. S. government and then put it into action if approved. ICANN submitted in March to the U. S. its plan for ending U. S. oversight of the technical internet functions. The Department of Commerce told AFP on Thursday that the proposal had been endorsed as it meets criteria set by the U. S. administration. But there are still concerns in some quarters that after the transition to a global multi-stakeholder governance model, dictatorial regimes could meddle and try to censor the internet. A number of conservative groups have backed the new draft legislation. Berin Szóka, president of policy think thank TechFreedom, for example, said that the U. S. administration hasn't been willing to negotiate to protect ICANN's multi-stakeholder model. Congressional approval of the transition, besides ensuring more transparency and accountability mechanisms, would meet a legal requirement if a U. S. court were to rule that the IANA function constituted government property, Szóka added. The Constitution requires that Congress authorize disposition of government assets.

Internet oversight transfer by U.S. could face new hurdles computerworld.com 2016-06-09 03:38 John Ribeiro www.infoworld.com

9 Apple outlines plan to take smaller revenue cut from ‘reliable’ apps (1.02/2) Apple is lowering its App Store commission for the first time, giving publishers and developers a larger cut of their sold apps. Since the App Store launched in 2008, developers selling apps through Apple’s digital marketplace have had to make do with a 70/30 split between themselves and Apple. Starting from 13 June, Apple will lower that revenue split to 85/15, on the condition that an app retains a subscriber for more than one year. All current subscriptions are eligible, and the change will apply immediately to apps with users that are more than a year old. The change means that an app offering subscriptions, such as Spotify, stands to make around $15 million (£10.3m) in extra subscription revenue every month. In addition to new revenue split, Apple is also overhauling its terms for subscriptions. Previously only certain apps – such those in media and entertainment or productivity – could charge subscription fees. From this autumn, all apps will be eligible to offer subscriptions. Opening up all apps to subscriptions is been seen by some industry watchers as a way for Apple to stimulate more high-end productivity and creation apps on its iOS platform, which powers devices like the iPad Pro . Technology writer and noted Apple watcher, John Gruber, wrote : “This could be the change that makes the market for professional-calibre iPad apps possible… I think this is terrific news both for developers and users.” Games will also be eligible, which could potentially have a major impact on titles such as Candy Crush Saga and Clash of Clans, which have attracted millions of players, and operate on a free-to-play model, supplemented by in-app purchases. VR-related apps, too, which serve the likes of Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive may benefit. However, as Apple itself notes, though all categories of apps will be eligible, the subscription business model will not be appropriate for every app. Further changes are being made to App Store very soon. Apple’s digital marketplace now offers some 1.5 million apps – surpassed only by the Google Play Store. As such, finding content can be a struggle for users, and ‘featured app’ spots have become a much sought after positions for developers. Soon ads will appear at the top of search results in the App Store. Apple said these promotions will be relevant to the given search terms. Location data may also be used to serve some ads, but users can opt-out of this in their settings. Ads will not to displayed to users under 13. These announcements come ahead of Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers’ Conference (WWDC) , which takes places in San Francisco next week. Expect further announcements about the Apple’s plans for the App Store then. Apple to give devs a bigger cut of revenues on subscription-based apps theinquirer.net 2016-06-09 00:00 Aaron Lee www.itpro.co.uk

10 6 productivity solutions that would benefit a 15-inch MacBook Air (0.01/2) At last! According to the rumour mill, Apple is readying a 15-inch MacBook Air. This is great news for fans of the company's larger laptops, and anybody who values having a ton of space on the desktop to be productive. Fingers crossed that it will come with a gorgeous 4K display to rival the Dell XPS 15. It's been a challenging few years for productivity-focused Air owners who aren't prepared to trade the machine's portability to get hold of the heavier and bulkier MacBook Pro's Retina display. As such, in addition to using an external monitor, you may have learnt a trick or two in your quest to get hold of more pixels. The question is: would such methods still come in useful with a larger 15-inch MacBook Air? Click (or tap) on ahead to find out. The road warrior's ultimate pixel-providing companion, portable USB monitors are a niche yet highly useful alternative to lugging around a full- sized monitor. You can even use them as dinner trays. When it comes to their intended purpose, older models powered by USB 2.0 suffer from high input lag, which thankfully has been rectified by newer ones sporting faster USB 3.0 connectivity. Quality varies depending on price, with cheaper TN panel-equipped monitors tending to suffer from poor viewing angels compared to more expensive IPS-equipped variants. On the plus side they only require a single USB port for display and power. Why put up with a single portable monitor when you can have two? That's the thinking behind the Sliden'Joy , an accessory that effectively attaches two portable 1080p monitors to each side of the laptop's display while connecting using a single USB 3.0 cable. A potentially great idea, we can't actually salute you for trying it because the Sliden'Joy still hasn't gone on sale after several years in production. Boo. A thoroughly modern method, using an iPad to extend your desktop can be easily done through a number of "Second Screen" iOS apps. They can be particularly useful if you have one of Apple's more recent tablets, with its iPad Pro being a genuine small monitor replacement. Be careful, though: this method can prove infuriatingly laggy if your local Wi- Fi connection is slow. Though messier, using apps that require a cable to be connected from the iPad to your MacBook work much faster. Real cinema-goers know that the only way to get more screen space while maximising the movie experience is to hook up a MacBook Air to a projector. Alright, so you'll be forced to use a VGA or HDMI connection and will only manage to obtain a picture with a slightly higher resolution than your MacBook's display, but still; you can't beat beaming Netflix onto your bedroom's six-foot wall. A MacBook Air is curiously satisfying to use with a large TV and has made for a default setup for many living room-dwelling owners throughout the years. Whether hooked up to a TV using a DisplayPort-to-HDMI cable or routed through an Apple TV, any MacBook Air is turned into an instant media centre that's comfortable to use on your lap. This method has enjoyed a revival with the arrival of cheaper 4K televisions, and would complement a 15-inch MacBook Air nicely. OS X's Mission Control has long proved the easiest way to get hold of more desktop space without additional hardware. Formerly known as Exposé, it lets you quickly locate open windows and assign apps to multiple many virtual desktops, reducing clutter and saving time. Mission Control works brilliantly when used in conjunction with OS X's Hot Corners feature, which is activated by drifting the mouse into the corner of the desktop.

Apple could ditch the 11-inch MacBook Air for a 15-inch model feedproxy.google.com 2016-06-09 11:57 By Kane feedproxy.google.com

11 Fitbit Alta vs. Misfit Ray: Comparing 2 stylish new fitness trackers (0.01/2) I’ve tested out a variety of fitness bands, from activity trackers disguised as analog timepieces to powerful cardio-focused watches and everything in between. There’s a different audience for every fitness tracker on the market, but I’ve found that most people are looking for a basic band that tracks daily stats and sleep. A solid app dashboard that presents information in an easy-to-digest way is also essential, otherwise there’s no point in tracking all that data. But if an activity tracker doesn’t fit into your life, you’re not gonna wear it no matter how many features it has. That’s why companies like Fitbit and Misfit, which was acquired by Fossil last year, have designed fitness bands that are fashionable and discreet enough to be worn all day and night, from the gym to the office to a night on the town and back to bed, without looking ridiculous. The Fitbit Alta and Misfit Ray have a few differences, namely the Alta has a display where the Ray does not, but both are designed with style in mind for daily wear, and both are in the same price range. The Ray is $100 MSRP (available for the same price on Amazon ) and the Alta is $130 MSRP (currently $117 on Amazon ). But that extra $30 gets you a better, more accurate fitness band in the Alta, which has a display for easier, quicker access to your daily activity stats. Misfit’s Ray is designed to look like a sleek piece of jewelry, which I appreciate, but I don’t love its notification method: a combination of vibrations and changing LED lights that mean different things. (What things? I can’t remember.) Fitbit also has a better app, and because the company leads the wearables market, chances are some of your friends, family, or coworkers are using a Fitbit and can compete in activity challenges with or against you. The Ray wins on battery life, at eight months compared to the Alta’s five days, but I’d rather charge a device than deal with batteries. Check out my full reviews of both devices—the Misfit Ray, and the Fitbit Alta —and let us know in the comments what your must-have features are in a fitness tracker. Style? Comfort? Heart rate sensor? We want to know.

Fitbit Alta review: My favorite Fitbit by far itnews.com 2016-06-09 03:15 Caitlin McGarry www.itnews.com

12 Google, Oxford Researchers Study Way to Stop AI Systems From Misbehaving Intelligent systems of the future may not always behave optimally, so a way to safely interrupt them is needed, the Google and Oxford University researchers say. Researchers from Google's DeepMind group and at the University of Oxford are collaborating on a project to develop what amounts to a kill switch for preventing artificial intelligence systems from going rogue, like the iconic HAL 9000 system in "2001: A Space Odyssey. " A paper, titled "Safely Interruptible Agents," describing the effort will be presented at the upcoming Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence in New York later this month. The paper , according to its authors Laurent Orseau from Google and Stuart Armstrong from Oxford University, explores a method for ensuring that super-intelligent artificial intelligence (AI) systems of the future will not be capable of learning how to prevent interruption by a human operator. Reinforcement learning agents, or computing systems, which learn independently from past behaviors and actions, will not behave in an optimal fashion all the time, the two researchers noted in their paper. There can be situations where an AI system may start exhibiting behavior, which requires a "human operator to press the big red button" to stop escalation of that behavior, they wrote in the paper. As one example, the two researchers pointed to a situation in which a robot is programmed to carry boxes from outside a warehouse and put them indoors or to stay indoors and sort boxes. If the robot is shut down and carried inside the building every time it begins to rain while it is working outside, the robot will eventually learn to simply stay inside the warehouse and sort boxes rather than venturing outside. The constant human intervention, whenever it rains, causes a bias in the system and causes it to modify its behavior, the researchers said. The method described in the research paper explores a way to ensure that the robot is unaware of any interruptions or that it functions on the assumption that such interruptions will never happen again, Orseau and Armstrong said. "Reinforcement learning (RL) agents learn to act so as to maximize a reward function," the researchers noted in their paper. If not properly designed, such agents, or AI systems may take "unpredictable and undesirable" shortcuts. The paper describes a method where a human operator can safely interrupt the operation of an AI system while also ensuring that the system will not learn how to prevent such interruptions. The paper by Orseau and Armstrong offers a new way to design an AI system that is capable of recognizing flaws in its operation and assisting humans in addressing the issue rather than blocking it, the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI) noted in a blog post. Such "corrigibility" is critical to ensuring the safe operation of AI systems the paper noted. Safely interruptible agents, such as the one that the researchers have described in their paper, "are indifferent to programmers' interventions to modify their policies and will not try to stop programmers from intervening on their everyday activities," MIRI said.

2016-06-09 15:43 Jaikumar Vijayan www.eweek.com

13 Databricks Secures Apache Spark, Launches Community Edition At the Spark Summit, Databricks announced a new enterprise security framework for Apache Spark and made its data platform generally available. Databricks, the company founded by the team that created Apache Spark, today announced the completion of the first phase of the Databricks Enterprise Security (DBES) framework. In making the announcement at the Spark Summit 2016 in San Francisco, Databricks said this move makes it the first company to provide end-to-end enterprise security for Apache Spark . DBES combines encryption, integrated identity management, role-based access control, data governance and compliance standards to secure Apache Spark workloads. "ESG research shows the number one attribute sought in evaluating a big data/analytics solution is now security," Nik Rouda, senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), said in a statement. "As Apache Spark grows rapidly in production environments, satisfying the stringent operational requirements of the enterprise becomes critical. Databricks is accelerating the maturity of their just-in-time data platform built on top of open-source Apache Spark in important ways. " DBES builds on the Databricks access management and encryption functionalities that already exist, Dave Wang, director of product marketing at Databricks, said in a blog post. "With the completion of DBES Phase One today, enterprises gain the ability to control access to Apache Spark clusters on an individual basis, manage user identity with a SAML 2.0 compatible identify management provider service, and end-to-end auditability," he said. The new security framework provides strong encryption for data at rest and in flight with support for standards such as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and keys stored in the AWS Key Management System (KMS). It also is designed to provide integrated identity management and facilitate seamless integration with enterprise identity providers via SAML 2.0 and Active Directory. In addition, DBES provides role-based access control and enables fine-grained management access to every component of the enterprise data infrastructure, including files, clusters, code, application deployments, dashboards and reports. Regarding data governance, DBES guarantees the ability to monitor and audit all actions taken in every aspect of the enterprise data infrastructure. It also helps with compliance requirements, achieving security compliance that exceeds the high standards of FedRAMP as well as HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) or Sarbanes-Oxley as part of Databricks' ongoing DBES strategy, the company said. "End-to-end security requirements are top-of-mind for today's enterprises that are building advanced analytics solutions," Ali Ghodsi, CEO at Databricks, said in a statement. "Yet building a truly secure, multi-tenant, and cloud-based enterprise data platform proves to be an impossible undertaking for most. We're delighted to be the first vendor to solve this problem comprehensively for Apache Spark, allowing enterprises to maximize the value from their data without compromising compliance and security. " DBES also features cluster access control lists, single sign-on support and audit logs to monitor usage patterns. "Databricks' vision is to empower anyone to easily build and deploy advanced analytics solutions," Wang said. "With the Databricks Enterprise Security Framework, Databricks can satisfy the diverse (and sometimes competing) needs to secure big data in the modern enterprise, end-to-end. Phase One is only the beginning. "

2016-06-09 15:43 Darryl K www.eweek.com

14 The Network Evolution Will Be Digital As companies large and small charge toward a new digital age, the network becomes the battleground that helps make this revolution a reality. The challenge, however, is discovering how enterprises can adopt technologies such as automation and software-defined networking in order to create the networking infrastructures that make the digital world a reality. In order to find out more about how companies can achieve their digital goals, InformationWeek senior editor Sara Peters spoke to Jeff Reed, senior vice president of Cisco's Enterprise Infrastructure and Solutions Group, at this year's Interop to learn more about what it takes to create the enterprise network of tomorrow, now.

2016-06-09 15:43 www.informationweek.com

15 IT leaders: Don't fear the future For longtime Computerworld columnist Thornton May, the inevitability of technical progression means that a key skill for IT leaders is to anticipate what’s coming and determine what will be worth incorporating into the business and what will be little more than a fad, with no potential for adding value to the enterprise. To read some of May's predictions for what to keep on your radar going forward, download the Knowledge Pack below.

2016-06-09 13:02 CSO CIO www.computerworld.com

16 Multiple devices mean rapid application development needs to get faster, easier Users have become accustomed to using applications and accessing information on any device in front of them, and that poses challenges for developers as they have to rapidly build apps for multiple platforms that are updated regularly. Even within the mobile space, where iOS and Android dominate, rapid application development (RAD) needs to live up to its name to stay current with all of the operating systems flavours, said Vijay Pullur, CEO of WaveMaker, which just announced professional services to support delivery of mobile apps without the need for coding. He said the new services are aimed at both professional and non- professional developers to relieve the burden on IT departments so companies can speed up deployment of mobile apps as means to stay competitive. The new offering includes services for design, development and hosting of custom applications for enterprise customers, “jumpstart” services to support short-term consulting projects with the help of WaveMaker experts at any stage of the delivery lifecycle, and training services to get customers up to speed on WaveMaker RAD. Pullur said application development has become more complex as applications must be built for a variety of platforms and or operating systems in parallel, which can slow down delivery. “Lots of applications are going to the cloud and end users are consuming apps on multiple devices, including mobile, tablets and browsers.” The latter used to be the primary concern of developers, who leveraged SOAP to Web-enable legacy enterprise applications, said Pullur. “But it no longer just about maintaining browser compatibility.” To accommodate all of the different endpoints, development is now leveraging APis instead. “Enterprise apps not only need to make themselves available they also need to make other apps access each other.” In addition to enabling quicker service integrations by automating creation of APIs, developers are also adopting a micro-services architecture in app development, using individual pretested micro-services to simplify app design, testing, and deployment; they want to be able to re-use core code and functionalities. As end points have become diverse, he said modernizing the front-ends of existing apps to add mobile capabilities using web technologies is more efficient and cost-effective than building native apps for each mobile platform. WaveMaker’s new services are designed developers to create “real looking” apps in a matter of days, and without slowing the full development lifecycle, said Pullur, while enterprises are adopting a best- practices approach to Agile development to reduce development times. The increasing complexity of development coupled with the increased adoption of APIs has put pressure developers, who need to be more skilled than ever, said Pullur. At the same time, departments within organizations are looking to be able to create than own apps for their lines of business to disseminate information and make employees more productive. WaveMaker supports drag and drop functionality to support those users, while freeing hard core developers to create proprietary code. It’s not the only company looking to make app building easy for lines of business and non-developers. Late last year, Microsoft announced PowerApps , an enterprise service for employees, developers and IT professionals, that allows them to quickly create apps that work on any device using a Microsoft Office-like experience with a template and a visual designer that automates workflows. PowerApps includes Azure App Service for employee-facing apps to deliver native web and mobile apps employees faster. It supports data security and privacy controls, data access can be managed and corporate policies maintained, which WaveMaker also supports in its platform. A year ago, Vancouver-based ScoopMAE launched its Scoop 4.0 Enterprise Mobility Platform that enables operations personnel to quickly build mobile apps for use by field workers so they can quickly collect data and bring it into a centralized cloud platform.

2016-06-09 12:42 Gary Hilson www.itworldcanada.com

17 Private sector should lead Canada’s cyber security strategy, say experts In the global war against crime Canada is one of a number of countries with a national cyber strategy, aimed at strengthening important departments and working with the private sector to shore up critical infrastructure. But two security experts told a conference Thursday that businesses, not Ottawa, should be leading the charge. But they also laid the blame for the country’s poor cyber security at the executive floor. “We (infosec pros) feel it’s difficult to convince upper management something should be done,” Jason Murray, senior manager for cyber security at consulting firm MNP LLP, told the SC Congress conference in Toronto on Canada’s cyber strategy. “They’re not listening to us. They get it, they just don’t need to do anything about it. “They’re accumulating technical debt. Every year they don’t spend enough on information security they’re adding to the debt and hoping that when the debt comes due they’re not around to take the fall … The market should punish these people, just like they were accumulating financial debt… and they would go out of business.” However, he admitted, few companies – even those suffering huge breaches like Home Depot – lose customers over the long term. But he also complained organizations “are not doing the basic hygene stuff… I go in there (to customers) and assess against the PCI (Payment Card Industry security) framework or the critical controls framework … and they’re scoring 40 per cent at best.” Fellow panellist Peter Sloty, a former Toronto deputy police chief and now an executive director at Deloitte Canada, agreed the responsibility is on the private sector’s shoulders. “If a private entity is having a (digital) hygene factor, that’s leadership from the C-suite, and the shop floor as well. This could cost jobs, it could cost clients, it could cost value and reputation as well.” But both also credited Ottawa with passing a law requiring organizations coming under federal privacy law to notify customers and partners of breaches where there is risk of significant harm to victims. The federal privacy commissioner will also have to be notified. The regulations around breach notification are still being ironed out and it is not expected to come into force until 2017. Breach disclosure “is a great lever” for action, Sloty said. Recently made mandatory in Australia, he noted, it has “put a real burning platform under CEOs” to get security right. Canada’s cyber security strategy includes a wide range of efforts. The Harper government announced an action plan in 2013 which included working with the provinces, municipalities and the private sector to improve IT security in a number of sectors, a plan the Trudeau government has adopted in its first budget. The strategy includes the Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre , a Public Safety Canada web site with many resources and the encouragement of the fledgling Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange (CTTX). The exchange is expected to go live in December. However, Murray said organizations shouldn’t rush to join the exchange if they don’t have the capability to make use of the near real-time data feeds it will offer. He also called for federal funding to help train more infosec professionals. “We need people, we need processes, we need tech, we need all of that.” Sloty called for a host of cyber security centres of excellence across the country. In an interview Murray said there has to be a “carrot and stick” approach to Canada’s cyber security strategy, with mandatory breach notification being one of the sticks.

2016-06-09 12:48 Howard Solomon www.itworldcanada.com

18 How to SUM in Excel; how to subtract in Excel - Use Excel as a calculator to add and subtract numbers Excel is great for many things, including producing graphs from data and keeping track of your finances, but one of the most basic functions is to add or subtract numbers in different cells. Here we’ll show you how to sum in Excel and how to subtract in Excel. Also see: How to get free Microsoft Office 2016 Other Excel tutorials: Once you’ve got a few numbers in your spreadsheet, pick an empty cell and then click it to start typing (double-tap the cell if you’re using it on a touchscreen without a keyboard). Now type =sum( and then use your mouse (or a finger) to select all the cells you wish to add together. Excel will fill in the details and leave those cells highlighted so you can see which are included. Simply add a ) to close off the calculation and press Enter to display the result in the cell. If you need to select cells which aren’t together in a block, hold down the Ctrl key and click on individual cells or click and drag to select another range. Each different selection will be shown as a different colour, and each will be highlighted on your spreadsheet whenever you double-click on the cell that contains the SUM formula. If you wanted to enter the cell numbers manually, do it in the format B2:B6 (this includes cells B2, B3, B4, B5 and B6) and if you need separate cells or more than one range, use a comma to separate them: =sum(B2:B6,F3:F5) An simpler alternative if you need to add the contents only a couple of cells is to type = in the cell where you want the result, then click on the first cell to include in the calculation, type + and then click on the second cell. Hit Enter and Excel will display the result. Note that no brackets are needed, and you can add the contents of as many cells as you like this way. The way to do subtraction is pretty much the same as for addition: just replace the + with a minus sign. For the simple calculation, just select a cell and type = then click on the first cell, type a – and then click on the second cell. Press Enter and the result will be displayed. Unlike the SUM function for adding multiple cells and cell ranges, there is no subtract function in Excel. You can subtract multiple cells by entering a formula such as =B1-B2-B3-B4 if you need to, or you could achieve the same thing by using the formula =B1-SUM(B2:B4) You might have to use your GCSE maths skills if you want to combine addition and subtraction with multiplication and division in the same formula. That’s because Excel treats multiplication and division as more important, so the formula =(A1+A2)*A3 may not have the same answer as =A1+A2*A3, because in the latter example Excel will first multiply cell A2 by A3 and then add the contents of A1. The brackets in the first example tell Excel to first add the contents of A1 and A2, then multiply the result by A3. The same goes for division.

2016-06-09 13:39 Jim Martin www.pcadvisor.co.uk

19 The top tech gifts for Dad this Father's Day If your dad is constantly fighting for the TV remote, enjoys reading news online or maybe enjoys a spot of gaming, a tablet could be a really good idea for a Father's Day present. It's an extra special gift if you live far apart, as it'll open up the world of video calls via Skype or FaceTime. The gold standard of tablets is surely the iPad Air 2, which has recently taken a welcome price drop to £349. View the iPad Air 2 from Apple Yet for under £50 you could opt for Amazon’s recently updated Fire tablet. It’s ridiculously good value and available in four colours. View the Amazon Fire from Amazon That’s just two options, so why not take a look at our definitive lists of the best tablets available too? Click here to see our guide to the best tablets available And here are the best budget tablets If your dad is still toting around a creaky old feature phone or you just feel he deserves a swanky new handset, there’s always a smartphone. In our opinion, the best phone on the market is the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, though a tad pricey art £639 – how great has Dad been this year?! View the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge from Samsung Alternatively, the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 is an outstanding budget Android handset for the price (as long as Dad’s on Vodafone!) View the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 from Amazon Here are all the best budget smartphones on the market While here are the best smartphones if money is no object If your dad likes playing with the latest tech and is also into a bit of amateur aviation, drones and quadcopters can actually be surprisingly affordable. You can get the Revell X-Spy for under £100. View the Revell X-Spy from Argos It beams live video straight to your dad’s Android or iOS device. Here also is our list of the best drones available right now, at every price point. Some can get a tad expensive, but it depends what you’re looking for. If your dad loves TV and movies, you might find that a media streaming device is a good way to give him access to services such as Netflix or BBC iPlayer without having to fork out for a smart TV. Many also offer additional benefits such as the ability to stream content from a tablet or smartphone, for example. Our favourite streaming stick is the Roku Streaming Stick, sitting pretty at number 1 in our best TV media streamer list . View the Roku Streaming Stick on Amazon Another undisputedly great option for around the same low price is the Amazon Fire TV Stick. Simply plug it into the USB port on your dad’s telly and he’ll have a wealth of shows and films at his fingertips. View the Amazon Fire Stick on Amazon As long as its not a cheeky ploy to get him to lose weight, an activity tracker is a cool present for your dad this Father’s Day. There are so many on the market, so maybe a peek at our list of the best activity trackers is in order. We’d pick out the Fitbit Charge HR as the best all rounder. View the Charge HR on Amazon If your Dad is after something with a few more features and even more style, the brand new Fitbit Blaze in Gunmetal colouring. View the Fitbit Blaze from Fitbit. A cheaper alternative with many of the same features is the Misfit Flash, which is under £40 but does miss out on the heart rate sensor, display and floors climbed data. View the Misfit Flash from Amazon There’s always the option to go full-blown smartwatch, so long as your dad is a smartphone user – he’d need to pair the two over Bluetooth. Smartwatches have more features and a screen, and the go-to example for most is the Apple Watch. It’s recently had a much welcomed price drop, but will only work with iPhone (5 or later). View the Apple Watch Sport from Apple There are similarly priced alternatives such as the Samsung Gear S2 (Android only!) but also cheaper options such as the Pebble Time, which can be found for under £100. View the Samsung Gear S2 from Amazon View the Pebble Time from Amazon Even if he’s blasting Rod Stewart, it’s his day, so let him. Bluetooth speakers come in all shapes, sizes and prices. Here is our guide to the best. Number one on that list is the outstanding Sumvision Psyc Monic. You can get it for around £40 and the sound it delivers for the price is unbelievable – the sub-bass is top notch. Even if Dad doesn’t have a Bluetooth device to pair it with, you can just plug in a music player with an auxiliary cable. View the Sumvision Psyc Monic from Amazon If you’d rather your dad kept his questionable audio tastes to himself, you’re in luck. Headphones are an affordable item that he can use with his phone, tablet, laptop or even TV – a good pick is the Ausdom over-ear headphones. For under £30 you get great audio quality and the option to connect over Bluetooth. View the Ausdom headphones from Amazon Online retailer reichelt also has some great savings on all manner of tech, including the excellent JVC HA-SR85S-B on ear headphones. View the JVC headphones from reichelt. We're also very excited about Bose's new QC35s - they are available for pre-order and will ship just in time for Fathers Day. View the Bose QC35 here on Amazon. For a full run down of the best budget headphones available, here you go . For the literary inclined father in your life, there’s always an eReader. It’s impossible to not mention Kindle. The base Kindle is only £59.99, though you may want to pay the optional extra £10 to avoid your dad having adverts on the lock screen. It is perfectly capable as a reading device; the high end £300+ model has the same basic features. View the Amazon Kindle from Amazon For a Kindle-heavy rundown of the best eReaders, check out our guide

2016-06-09 13:38 Henry Burrell www.pcadvisor.co.uk

20 How to set up a new Mac When you first switch on a brand new Mac, there are a few steps to go through before you can get going with it. For starters, you'll need to personalize your Mac , and optionally connect it to the internet and Apple's iCloud service. The Setup Assistant guides you through these important steps in just a few minutes. You'll need to confirm the language you want to use and verify your keyboard layout. The latter of these steps is especially important if you aren't using an Apple keyboard, which is most likely if you've moved to the Mac from a Windows PC and kept your existing mouse and keyboard. You'll also create an administrator account and assign a password to it during these steps. The password is important because it protects access to your Mac's contents and the ability to make major changes to it – stopping malicious software from the internet from affecting it, for example. There's nothing to stop you using this account as your own, but it's better for security if you create a second separate account for personal use and set its account type to Standard. This account, and others for your whole family, can be created after you've fi nished the Setup Assistant's steps and reached the desktop. These options can be altered later, should you go astray or change your mind. You also get an option to register your Mac with Apple, but this isn't compulsory. If you've been using a Windows PC or another Mac, the Setup Assistant gives you an opportunity to transfer data from the old machine. This includes your files, Mac apps, stored email messages and personal settings. If you use an Apple trackpad or Magic Mouse, the direction in which you move a fi nger to scroll differs from a Windows PC. This can be confusing at first, but it can be reversed after the Setup Assistant completes its job. If you need help with this and other gestures that help you to get around in OS X, check out our guide on how to use multi-touch gestures on your Mac. First, specify your country, then click Continue. Your country determines the keyboard layouts offered on the next page. Choosing the correct layout on that page is important if you've connected a keyboard that isn't from Apple or has a non-standard layout. If your keyboard layout isn't shown for any reason, check Show All under the list of layouts. You'll next see a list of nearby Wi-Fi networks. Click yours, provide its password and click Continue. If your network isn't listed, perhaps because it's set to not broadcast its name, choose Other to provide its name manually. You might need to scroll down the list to see this option. If you're using an Ethernet cable or don't want to go online, you can do this via Other Network Options. The next page asks if you want to transfer information from your old Mac – either directly or from a Time Machine backup of it – or from a Windows PC. Even if you have an old computer, you don't need to do this now. For a full guide to migrating your old machine, check out our guide on how to migrate from an old Mac using Migration Assistant . You'll be asked whether to enable Location Services, and then whether to sign in with an Apple ID. This is recommended: it enables data to be synced between your Mac and other devices using iCloud, and to use Find My Mac, which can locate a missing Mac. You might already have an Apple ID for buying from the iTunes or App Stores, or you can create one here if you don't have one. Accept terms and conditions for OS X and iCloud, then create an admin account. This is needed to make changes such as security settings. It can use your Apple ID's credentials or different ones. Click Continue and, if you signed into iCloud, choose whether to use iCloud Keychain , and then set whether diagnostics info is shared with Apple and app developers. The final step is to register your Mac with Apple by providing your address and other contact details. Again, this is optional. When you advance past this, the Setup Assistant might take a few minutes to do some last-minute work behind the scenes. When it's finished, the desktop will fade into view.

2016-06-09 13:30 By MacLife feedproxy.google.com

21 Best headphones 2016: What's the best headphones? The 20 best headphones you can buy in the UK today - best headphone reviews We review the best headphones you can buy in the UK in 2016. Get the most for your money with our top headphones for your smartphone or tablet, including best in-ear headphones, best on-ear headphones and best over- ear headphones. See also: Best headphones for kids. Walk the streets of any town or city and you will see myriad people locked in to their own world, listening intently to headphones plugged in to smartphone, tablet or even - surely not - an MP3 player. The digital audio revolution has happened, and I can't be the only person who travels to work in a train carriage silent to the outside world as my fellow travellers concentrate on music, podcasts, audiobooks and video to make the commute more fun (endurable). Also read: How to stop earphone cables getting tangled or twisted Headphones are more than just a functional device. Like the display on your PC they are the crucial part in the link between you and your favourite portable device. As such it is worth investing in a good set of headphones. Moreover not all headphones are made equal: you can spend a lot of money on something that looks - rather than sounds - good. And for some people that is the key thing. Even within the realm of good audio fidelity there is choice. We may wrinkle our noses at the bassy stylings of Beats by Dre Studio headphones, but we know plenty of DJs who swear by them. And that's before you get into questions of on-ear, in-ear or over ear. Which type of headphones you prefer will depend on your physical shape, your needs, your musical taste, and the size of your wallet. If you really are strapped for cash, check out our best budget headphones group test where all entries are under £50. The types of headphones on offer are fairly self-explanatorybut in-ears are small earbuds which you put into your ear canal, on-ear headphones have a headband but the cup sits on your ear while over-ear have larger cups so encompass your ear. Most headphones are wired but you can also get ones with Bluetooth to get a wire-free experience. Regardless, here are the pick of all the headphones we have reviewed that are on the market right now. Best headphones for value, best headphones for audio, best headphones for exercise, best Bluetooth wireless headphones, and so on. We've got a wide range of headphones covering a broad set of prices so we hope you find something that fits your needs. There are so many pairs of headphones on the market that we'd need to spend all our collective time, and then some, to review them all. So do bear in mind that these are the best of what we've had through the lab, not every pair ever made! We will be regularly updating this article as we review more headphones, so stay tuned. The Onkyo H500M on-ear headphone provides a stylish design and a removable cable, useful for longevity. The overall sound signature has a good presentation, but is severely let down by its closed soundstage, making the headphones sound clustered. Its on-ear design also limits the isolation and comfort of the headphones, making it hard to recommend for busy commutes. Read our Onkyo H500M review . If you can afford the price, the Sennheiser Urbanite XL Wireless headphones provide great sound over Bluetooth, offering punchy bass without going over the top. There are handy features such as NFC, a smart touchpad for controls, and a microphone for calls. Some might find the build is a little on the plastic side, and these headphones are pretty bulky – but that's the street style that Sennheiser is aiming for. Read our Sennheiser Urbanite XL Wireless review . Although expensive, we rate the Sony MDR-HW700DS wireless surround headphones as a compelling alternative to a physical multichannel speaker setup, and they're a great practical solution when it's just not possible to crank things up. Read our Sony MDR-HW700DS 9.1 wireless headphones review . The Kommand IEM is a step up from the Alpha Genus and any other sub-£50 headphones, but you'd expect that at more than twice that price. There's lots to like about their sound quality, but some might find the ear hooks uncomfortable. Read our Rock Jaw Kommand review . We were impressed with the Creative Hitz WP380 wireless headphones, for sound quality, comfort and wireless freedom. Once you tried Bluetooth headphones going back to wired models seems rather primitive. Sound quality is great and these headphones are comfortable to wear and don’t leak much noise to the outside world. Read our Creative Hitz WP380 wireless headphones review . The Sennheiser MM 400-X Bluetooth headphones offer true portability with excellent wired and wireless audio. At £179 they're not cheap but they feel comfortable and robust and boast sound that beats other Bluetooth headphones we've tested. The two-year warranty is also appreciated. Read our Sennheiser MM 400-X Bluetooth headphones review . Once again, Kef has made a stylish and well-built pair of headphones in the M400. They are lightweight, portable and the optional splash of colour is nice. Sound quality is once again very good although these aren't the best choice for bass lovers. Our main issue is that you can currently buy the flagship M500 headphones for less making these hard to recommend until the price drops. Read our Kef M400 review . So, taking into consideration all of the above, are they worth buying? We definitely feel the RHA T10i worth buying, even at their full price. For build quality alone in this price range they stand out. Features and audio quality are of a sufficiently good quality, and it helps that there is that three year guarantee. Not for the pure audiophile, but a great step up for the music lover who wants a better quality of headphones. Read our RHA T10i review . They might not be the complete package, but Audio-Technica has created some seriously good sounding headphones here. The ATH-MSR7 offer good build and stylish design, although they aren't the most comfortable or portable around. What we're most taken by, though, is the sound quality you get at this price which makes them a good buy. Read our Audio-Technica ATH-MSR7 review . Bowers & Wilkins has delivered an excellent balance of price, design, build quality and sound performance with the P3. For the reasonable price of £169 you get a comfortable and stylish pair of portable headphones with balanced and clear sound. Read our Bowers & Wilkins P3 review . We said in our Series 2 review that some might find the £249 price a little hard to swallow, and it’s harder still to stump up £80 more for the removal of a cable. Yet, if you are specifically after wireless headphones, these are one of the best pairs we’ve tested. Read our Bowers & Wilkins P5 Wireless review . Sony has done a great job of combining style, functionality and great sound quality into a pair of headphones which aren't too expensive for what you're getting. Most importantly, the wireless sound quality is excellent and we're impressed with the noise cancelling, too. Build quality is good for plastic and extra features such as NFC and easy to use controls add to the experience. These are a great choice for anyone looking for wireless over- ear headphones with noise cancelling and solid sound quality. Read our Sony h.ear on Wireless NC MDR-100ABN review . KEF has come up trumps with its first pair of headphones offering excellent build quality and a stylish comfortable design. After running in, the M500 headphones sound clear, punchy and balanced but won't blow you away quite as touted. They are also pricey for our liking and you can find similar or better sound quality for less. Read our KEF M500 review . We were impressed by Kef's first headphones, the M500 on-ear cans, and the M100 in-ears are really no different. They offer excellent build quality, a lightweight comfortable design combined with nicely balanced and crisp sound performance. They're also not as pricey as we had expected making them a solid choice for a pair of in-ear headphones. Read our Kef M100 review . While original P5 owners don't need to jump at this upgrade, the P5 Series 2 are one of the best pairs of on-ear headphones we've tested. The price tag might be a little high for some but Bowers & Wilkins has done a sterling job once again of combining design and build with decent comfort, noise isolation and excellent sound quality. Read our Bowers & Wilkins P5 Series 2 review . Although Denon's AH-W150 Bluetooth earphones are not for audiophiles, they produce excellent sound quality and volume at an affordable price point, particularly considering they are wireless. Read our Denon AH-W150 Wireless Fitness review . The Bose QC20 headphones make for an impressive set of in-ears which you're unlikely to regret if you travel a lot. Although sound performance isn't the best, the sensational noise cancelling, comfortable design and handy aware mode make these a great buy. Read our Bose QuietComfort 20 review . Well-balanced and versatile, the Audio-Technica headphones are revealing without becoming tiring – either sonically or in comfort terms. They deliver in sound quality and with a dramatic price drop are a great buy. Read our Audio-Technica ATH-WS99 review . We found the Denon to deliver a fantastic overall package as a portable headphone with the AH-MM400. However, we did not find it capable to dethrone or compete with the older Denon AH-D600, D7100, D2000, D5000 and D7000 headphones, which simply outclassed the MM400 in almost every single aspect but for portability. The Denon AH-MM400 therefore provide current Denon owners with a great way of having a similar sound signature headphone on-the-go. In comparison to its competition in the portable headphone market, we felt the Denon AH-MM400 was almost unrivaled by its overall sound quality and build quality, making the headphones an easy recommendation for portable listeners. Read our Denon AH-MM400 review . The AH-D600 headphones offer armchair comfort with analytical insight into the musical mix. These headphones possess comfort levels that rise above lighter street-friendly designs, but that will make them a little bulky and ostentatious for most people to use on the move. Nevertheless, if you want a great taste of high-end head sound the Denons will deliver with majestic and relaxed sound. Read our Denon AH-D600 review .

2016-06-09 13:08 Chris Martin www.pcadvisor.co.uk

22 Sony h.ear on Wireless NC review: Stylish noise cancelling over-ear headphones with decent sound quality By Chris Martin | 12 mins ago See full specs £220 inc VAT Headphones are quite simple in essence but the Sony h.ear on Wireless NC headphones are for the music lover who wants their cans packed with tech and features. Connecting wirelessly to devices and access to noise cancelling is real advantage for some. Here's our Sony h.ear on Wireless NC review. See also: Best headphones 2016. Priced at £220, the h.ear on Wireless NC headphones are fairly expensive but it's nothing dramatic. We've seen plenty of pairs which fetch more and don't have some of the features available here. The model number is MDR- 100ABN to help you find them online. There's some stiff competition in the area and the long awaited Bose QC35 wireless headphones have just been announced. However, they are priced at £289 so these Sony cans are the cheaper option here. They are also cheaper than the Sennheiser Urbanite XL Wireless which have an RRP of £249 and we found them of decent quality with good features but plastiky in build. If you're not too fussed about some of the features such as wireless connectivity and noise cancelling then you can save some cash by opting for Sony's MDR-100AAP headphones which have the same design but retail at £150. Check out the best budget headphones if you need to spend a little less. If you like big, bold and colourful headphones then these are a great choice for you. The h.ear on Wireless NC headphones are available in some seriously bright 'look at me' colours including Cinnabar Red, Lime Yellow, Bordeaux Pink and our favourite, Viridian Blue which are more like a teal green really. If you're a bit more self-conscious then you can also get a pair in plain Charcoal Black. The build is almost entirely plastic, bar the cushions and covers on the ear cups and headband. That said, it is somehow plastic that looks and feels rather nice with a stylish matt finish and a two-tone pearlescent effect which looks great as you move the headphones in light. The headphones flex a decent amount without feeling weak and fold to travel a little easier when not in use. A hard shell carry case is provided in the box. Since these are wireless headphones, there's plenty of buttons on each ear cup with which to control things. On the left are buttons for power and noise cancelling, plus a microphone for hands-free calls. On the right is a second microphone, volume rocker and a spring-loaded switch for skipping forwards or backwards – pushing this in is used for play/pause and answering calls. All of which are easy to use once you become accustomed to their locations and functions. We just wish there wasn't a slightly creep voice telling you when you're in Bluetooth pairing mode and the headphones are switching off. The h.ear on Wireless NC headphones are very comfortable over-ear headphones thanks to the soft pads and the fact they don't clamp onto your head with too much pressure, like the Audio-Technica ATH-MSR7. They are also not too heavy thanks to the plastic in use at 290g. There's little in the way of air flow or ventilation but we didn't find them to hot and steamy. There are two main reasons to opt for the h.ear on Wireless NC headphones – they're wireless and they have noise cancelling. Sony hasn't stopped there though, so read on to find out the specs and features, plus what we make of the sound quality. On the spec sheet, the h.ear on Wireless NC headphones tick a number of feature boxes as they support the aptX codec for better quality Bluetooth streaming. Like a lot of Sony products, they have an NFC chip so you can pair with a smartphone or other compatible device quickly and easily – the chip is on the outside of the left ear cup. Once you're connected the headphones will last for up to 20 hours on the built-in battery and you can charge them via Micro-USB. You don't *have* to use them wirelessly though, as a cable with a regular headphone jack is included; handy, but also necessary, in some situations. The noise cancelling won't work without power, though. On top of that, Sony touts specs and features such as the inclusion of an LDAC – which transmits approximately three times more data (at the maximum transfer rate: 990 kbps) than conventional Bluetooth, according to Sony – and Hi-Res certification. The former supposedly allows for sound quality 'near to High Resolution Audio' while the latter is only available when a wired connection is used. Most of this is marketing to make the product look more attractive in the shops, online and to make the box look more impressive. We can't say how much difference it makes since they are features which can't be toggled on or off, so we'll stick to what we do know - what the headphones are like in real life in terms of sound quality. As with most larger pairs of headphones, the Sony h.ear on Wireless NC headphones have large 40mm drivers. They are 'High-Resolution compatible HD drivers which Sony says are capable of reproducing frequencies of up to 40Khz – when human hearing maxes out at 20Khz and that's if you haven't stood too close to the speakers at too many gigs. The sound quality over all is very good and although Sony talks about 'lightweight CCAW voice coils deliver a high-linearity response for stable, true-to-source high frequencies', the headphones produce a sound that is dominated by bass and the mid-range. It's not that the high-end is lacking as such, but it doesn't sparkle and cut though like some other headphones we've tested. It's not really much of a surprise as the target market for these cans is likely to appreciate the punchy strong bass and rich mid-range. We've found the h.ear on Wireless NC headphones particularly well suited to dance music, pop and also rock. Finally, the noise cancelling is a nice feature to have on a pair of headphones when you travel a lot or find yourself is a raucous environment. As mentioned earlier, the feature is easily switched on and off via a button and does a great job of eliminating background distractions such as air conditioning. The sound of people talking is much harder to eradicate but get some tunes playing and the combination means you'll feel nicely isolated. What we really like about the noise cancelling is that it's not too aggressive and so doesn’t exert pressure on your ear drums which can be uncomfortable in some headphones. Using the feature also means you can listen to music at a more suitable level. Sony has done a great job of combining style, functionality and great sound quality into a pair of headphones which aren't too expensive for what you're getting. Most importantly, the wireless sound quality is excellent and we're impressed with the noise cancelling, too. Build quality is good for plastic and extra features such as NFC and easy to use controls add to the experience. These are a great choice for anyone looking for wireless over- ear headphones with noise cancelling and solid sound quality. How to install Windows 10: Get Windows 10 free before the upgrade deadline 1995-2015: How technology has changed the world in 20 years Slack could host your next conference call The 107 best Mac games: Lego Avengers for Mac reviewed, and more brilliant RPGs, shooting games,…

2016-06-09 12:53 Chris Martin www.pcadvisor.co.uk

23 Microsoft Launches Planner, GigJam Preview Hits iOS Planner, Microsoft's Trello-like team and project management tool, is now generally available for select Office 365 customers. Nearly six months after releasing a preview version of its new Planner project management tool, Microsoft has officially launched the cloud-based software for visual workers. Planner is Microsoft's answer to Trello, Blossom and other cloud-based team and project management solutions that take a visual approach to prioritizing activities, assigning tasks and collaborating with fellow team members. The software organizes projects into board and card layouts with drag-and-drop support. Users can attach content from their Office 365 document libraries to tasks and add comments. Color-coded progress trackers provide managers with an at-a-glance view of how their projects are coming along. Email notifications alert users when they have been assigned new tasks or added to conversations, or if a task has changed. Kicking off a plan in the software automatically creates a new Office 365 Group, noted Microsoft in an accompanying FAQ. According to Microsoft, the company plans to add more collaboration- enabling functionality soon. "Some of the new features we plan to introduce over the next few months include the ability to assign a task to multiple users, external user access, plan templates, customizable boards and apps for iOS, Android and Windows," blogged the company's Planner team. Planner is currently available to Office 365 customers with the following subscription: Enterprise E1 through E5, Business Essentials, Premium and Education. Meanwhile, another Office collaboration tool has made its way to Apple mobile devices. The GigJam preview has been expanded to iOS devices, announced Vijay Mital, general manager of Microsoft's Ambient Computing team. First demoed at last summer's Worldwide Partner Conference, GigJam is another mobile-friendly, task-centric app from Microsoft. Rather than focus on keeping projects on track, GigJam can be used to create collaborative mini-app experiences that draw data from Office content, communications, line of business applications and other sources. Users can selectively add or exclude information to keep tasks focused or comply with confidentiality and privacy requirements. The software is yet another example of how Microsoft hopes to evolve Office from a collection of productivity apps into a platform that supports virtually frictionless workplace collaboration and helps wean enterprises off of their overreliance on email. Last month, the company added real-time chat capabilities to Office Online's co-authoring feature, itself a technology that was designed to help Office users avoid endlessly trading email attachments when they work together on Office documents. Earlier this year, Microsoft expanded the co- authoring feature's reach by enabling support for documents stored in third- party cloud file storage services including Box. "GigJam breaks down artificial barriers between devices, apps and people," said Mital in a June 7 announcement. "In this new world, work becomes communal, with each person free to summon, divvy up and share just what they want, for only as long as they need, using any device. " The preview GigJam is now available on the iPhone, iPad, Mac and Windows, and an invitation is no longer required, added Mital. Microsoft hopes to announce its general availability sometime later this year.

2016-06-09 15:43 Pedro Hernandez www.eweek.com

24 Qualcomm Unveils Platform for Connected Cars The chip maker creates a reference architecture to bring together the various connectivity technologies that are coming to connected vehicles. Qualcomm officials over the past year have been making an aggressive push into the emerging connected car space, and they are taking their next step with a reference platform based on a broad array of the company's technologies. The chip maker on June 8 introduced the Qualcomm Connected Car Reference Platform, which officials said will give car makers the tools and technologies they need as they design and build their vehicles as well as address the growing range of use cases brought on by the rapid advances in wireless connectivity, such as 4G LTE, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. The platform is designed to bring together the growing number of wireless connectivity technologies that are finding their way into modern cars into a modular, centralized architecture that can be easily upgraded on the hardware and software sides, they said. "As the technological experience continues to evolve to include ADAS [advanced driver assistance system], V2X [vehicle-to-everything] communications, 5G, and other immersive experiences, auto tech must evolve with it," Qualcomm officials wrote in a post on the company blog. "And in the context of those technologies, auto tech systems will need to handle multiple connections to and from different data-collecting objects seamlessly, recording everything from on-the-road telemetry to potential preferences for untried pizzerias. It's a huge opportunity for OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers—provided they can successfully craft the computer architecture capable of handling the next wave of tech demands. " Like many other chip makers, Qualcomm is looking to emerging markets like the Internet of things (IoT), wearable devices and connected as new areas for their processors. Most recently, NXP Semiconductors, leveraging the technologies it inherited through its $12 billion acquisition of Freescale Semiconductor, in May introduced a platform for self-driving cars that includes everything from the sensors that collect massive amounts of data to the compute engine— which the company calls the BlueBox —capable of fusing all that data and ensuring that the right decisions are made. For its part, Qualcomm at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) earlier this year unveiled the Snapdragon 820 Automotive (820A) family of systems-on-a-chip (SoCs). Qualcomm officials said the company has been working with the automotive industry for years, having shipped more than 340 million chips for products used by more than 20 automakers. With the new reference platform, the company is bringing together many parts of its portfolio, including its Snapdragon X12 and X5 LTE modems, quad-constellation Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and 2D/3D Dead Reckoning (DR) location solutions. Other technologies include its VIVE WiFi technology, dedicated short range communications (DSRC) for V2X, Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy, and and broadcast capabilities such as analog and digital tuner support through Qualcomm's tuneX chips. The platform also features in-vehicle networking technologies such as Gigabit Ethernet with Automotive Audio Bus (A2B) and controller area network (CAN) interfaces. The reference architecture brings scalability, future-proofing—by enabling the connectivity hardware and software to be upgraded—support for OEM and third-party applications. In addition, it makes it easier for car makers to enable the various wireless connectivity technologies more easily coexist. "The platform is ideally suited to facilitate V2X connectivity: the ability for vehicles to interact with their environments—other cars, infrastructure, pedestrians and the cloud—through wireless connectivity," officials wrote in the blog. It will be available later in the year, though Qualcomm will be demonstrating the reference architecture this week at the TU-Automotive Detroit conference.

2016-06-09 15:43 Jeffrey Burt www.eweek.com

25 Microsoft Releases Kaizala App for iOS in India The Android app, available only in India, will soon be out in other countries. First, it's paying Apple iOS devices a visit. iPhone users can now install Kaizala, a small- and midsize- business (SMB) collaboration app originally released by Microsoft Garage in February. Microsoft Garage is home to several experimental apps, from a productivity-enhancing Android keyboard for Excel users to an iOS and Web app that can identify dog breeds. Available exclusively in India, Kaizala is a free app designed to help SMB owners manage their businesses and collaborate with their teams using a chat-inspired interface. Users can submit bills, assign jobs, share and request locations and attach photos by adding one-tap actions to their private or group chat messages. "The team behind Kaizala embraces mobile-only thinking, especially for independent businesses," stated Athima Chansanchai, a Microsoft spokesperson, in a June 7 announcement. "They responded to the needs of users who wanted to manage business contacts and share a secure collaboration space on the go. " Chansanchai noted that outside the United States entrepreneurs are more likely to use cell phones to operate their businesses, rather than invest in PCs and costlier devices. The lightweight app even works over 2G cellular connections that could slow down other business apps or render them unusable. This week, Microsoft released a version of Kaizala for Apple iOS devices. Soon, the software giant expects to roll out the app to other countries, Chansanchai said. Following a similar trajectory as Kaizala is the iOS version of Sprightly, another Microsoft Garage app. Also available on Android since February, Sprightly is meant to ease SMB users into the world of mobile and social marketing. The template-driven app can be used to create shareable, professional- quality fliers, e-cards, price lists, catalogs and coupons. The app organizes images and other marketing content into reusable "Collections. " Sharing options include Facebook, WhatsApp and PDFs. Kaizala and Sprightly represent a new breed of Microsoft productivity apps tailored for small businesses. In April, Microsoft took the wraps off Project Madeira, an Office-powered ERP offering for small companies. The cloud-based service piggybacks on Office applications, enabling users to complete ERP-related tasks without switching between applications. For example, if Project Madeira detects an invoice or quote request in an Outlook inbox, it contextually displays it within Outlook along with the tools required to process it. "Project Madeira connects business processes with the productivity tools in Office 365 to help small and midsize businesses grow sales, manage finances and streamline operations," Microsoft Project Madeira General Manager Marko Perisic stated in an April 11 announcement. "If you know how to use Office, then you know how to use Project Madeira," he said. In October 2015, Microsoft released its cloud-enabled Dynamics NAV 2016 ERP software , bringing several of the company's enterprise-grade business analytics capabilities to its SMB customers. The software features built-in Power BI dashboards, Dynamics CRM Online integrations, native mobile apps and an assortment of on-premises and cloud installation options.

2016-06-09 15:43 Pedro Hernandez www.eweek.com

26 Zimperium Raises $25M for Mobile Security Tech The security firm that first discovered the Stagefright vulnerability is expanding its global footprint. Mobile security vendor Zimperium announced on June 7 that it raised $25 million in a Series C round of funding, bringing total funding to date for the company up to $43.5 million. The company will use the new funding to expand its global operations and invest in new technology development. Zimperium was founded in 2010 by Israeli security researcher Zuk Avraham and first gained notoriety with the release of its Android Network Toolkit (ANTI), which has since been renamed zANTI, providing mobile penetration capabilities. In July 2015, Zimperium researcher Joshua Drake discovered and reported the Stagefright vulnerabilities in Android, helping to propel the company's brand and its fortunes. "We believe we have a significant lead on our competition, and we want to invest in new products and spend more on our security as well as research and development," Shridhar Mittal, CEO of Zimperium, told eWEEK . Zimperium has a good set of customers and is growing, thanks in part to an expanding list of telecom carrier partnerships, including Deutsche Telekom in Germany and Telestra in Australia, Mittal said. While Zimperium does not sell commercial support for its zANTI mobile penetration testing platform, instead offering it as a freely available product, it does sell its zIPS mobile intrusion prevention system and its zIAP in-app protection software. Stagefright Discovery a Milestone The Stagefright flaw discovery was a real milestone for Zimperium in many ways. After the Stagefright discovery, customers started to realize how critical mobile security is to the enterprise, said John Michelsen, chief product officer at Zimperium. "We saw our business go from little league to major league in the third quarter of last year," Michelsen told eWEEK . A common problem with mobile security is the lack of patching by end users for known vulnerabilities. The promise of Zimperium's technology, however, is to go beyond just patching to protect mobile users. Michelsen noted that the Stagefright vulnerability was exploitable since the Android 2 release in 2009, when the vulnerable code was first introduced. Zimperium's Drake only discovered the flaw in 2015, meaning the flaws could have potentially been left unpatched and exploitable for six years. "Patching makes us safer, but it doesn't make us safe," Michelsen said. "That's why zIPS and zIAP are important because there is a need for detection of currently unknown vulnerabilities. " Looking forward, Mittal noted that the right foundation is now in place for Zimperium and he's confident he has the right investors too. "Now it's just a matter of growing the company and executing on our plans," Mittal said. Zimperium's new round of funding was led by Warburg Pincus and included the participation of Sierra Ventures, Telstra Ventures and Lazarus Israel Opportunities Fund LLLP. Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at eWEEK and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.

2016-06-09 15:43 Sean Michael www.eweek.com

27 From Smartphones to a Robot, Asus Shows Off a Variety of New Products When Asus debuted its latest products at the recent Computex 2016 trade show in Taiwan, it had something for almost everyone, with three new flagship ZenFone 3 models, its latest 2-in-1 notebooks, a new ZenBook 3 laptop and even a Zenbo home robot. The ZenFone 3 smartphones offer distinct choices for buyers, with each aimed at giving consumers just the right mix of features that they are seeking. The flagship ZenFone 3 Deluxe includes an advanced camera, while the ZenFone 3 offers premium design, features and performance. Completing the ZenFone 3 family is the ZenFone 3 Ultra, which is built around a large, 6.78-inch Full HD display for watching videos on the go. The Zenbo home robot is designed to provide assistance, entertainment and companionship to users, while three new Transformer 2-in-1 convertibles and a new ZenBook 3 laptop are aimed at users who need mobile machines with a good mix of features. Prices, availability dates and details on which nations and regions the products will be sold have not yet been released. Peruse this eWEEK slide show for more details.

2016-06-09 09:40 Todd R www.eweek.com

28 Smartphone Sales Will Fall to Single-Digit Increases in 2016: Gartner Those crazy former annual smartphone sales increases, such as the record 73% jump in 2010, are old history as market saturation continues. Sluggish global smartphone sales will continue through 2016 as the annual double- digit sales increases of the past few years disappear and make way for single-digit increases. That's the conclusion of the latest research from Gartner, which predicts worldwide smartphone sales growth of only 7 percent , or about 1.5 billion handsets, through the end of the year. "The smartphone market will no longer grow at the levels it has reached over the last seven years," Roberta Cozza, an analyst with Gartner, said in a statement. "Smartphone sales recorded their highest growth in 2010, reaching 73 percent," but those kinds of sales increases won't be hit again anytime soon due to market saturation, according to the research firm. The anticipated 7 percent growth rate for 2016 is down substantially from the worldwide 14.4 percent growth rate that was recorded in 2015, the company said. In 2020, smartphone sales are projected to total 1.9 billion devices. A big part of the slowdown in global smartphone sales is due to market saturation, with 90 percent saturation rates in North America, Western Europe, Japan and mature Asia markets, which will also slow future growth for smartphones, according to Gartner. "It's a natural extension of what we've been talking about in the past," Tuong Nguyen, a Gartner analyst, told eWEEK. "The larger mature markets are at a point where they are saturated. In the U. S., as an example, pretty much everyone who wants a smartphone has one, and that's the key. " Many users of feature phones are satisfied with what they are using and don't want or need more expensive and feature-laden smartphones, added Nguyen. And users of existing smartphones are seemingly happy with their devices and don't see any compelling new features that would make them want to upgrade or switch devices in today's market, he said. "They're not really waiting for anything new to come out," he said. "Those who have them already, what they have is good enough. " That trend certainly is affecting the smartphone sales slowdown, he continued. In addition, "there's much more competition for our wallets" from other technology devices, including smart televisions, laptops, virtual reality devices and more. "It's not only that people are not wanting to replace their existing smartphones, but people are saying they will hold off and get other tech gear instead," he said. "It's kind of exacerbating the problem by extending the life of existing devices. " With key major markets in the U. S., Europe and Asia slowing, smartphone makers are turning more of their attention to making sales in countries such as India and China, where there are large populations of people who still do not have smartphones, Nguyen said. The problem with that approach is that buyers in those nations often have much lower incomes and typically don't buy expensive smartphones. "In India and other developing countries, people have different income brackets, so we're not talking about purchases of iPhones and other top-of- the-line phones," he said. "It sets an aspirational bar, but it's not a one to one swap-out" that adds to global smartphone sales. "Most of the people in those countries are buying entry-level devices. " In India, about 167 million feature phones were sold in 2015, which was about 61 percent of total mobile phone sales in India, according to Gartner. In comparison, Gartner expects about 139 million smartphones will be sold in India in 2016, which will be an increase of about 29.5 percent from 2015. In China, smartphone sales growth hit 16 percent in 2014 but were flat in 2015, with little growth expected over the next five years, according to Gartner. Smartphone sales in China made up 95 percent of the total mobile phone sales there in 2015. In May, Gartner global smartphone sales figures for the first quarter of 2016 showed Samsung continuing to lead the world with 81.2 million phones sold for a 23.2 percent market share, followed by Apple with 51.6 million iPhones sold for a 14.8 percent share, according to an earlier eWEEK story. But Samsung's sales were essentially flat compared to the first quarter of 2015 when it sold 81.1 million smartphones for a 24.1 percent market share, and sales were down substantially for Apple from last year's first quarter, when it sold 60.2 million iPhones and had a 17.9 percent market share. Meanwhile, Huawei had a banner first quarter in 2016, with sales of 28.8 million smartphones, compared to 18.1 million handsets in the same quarter one year prior. Huawei's market share rose to 8.3 percent in the latest quarter from 5.4 percent a year earlier. 2016-06-09 14:37 Todd R www.eweek.com

29 How Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp Compare and Work Together When Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014, there were some who questioned the move. After all, the price was extremely high, but Facebook's goal was to tap into the messaging service's user base and offer a new way for its own users to communicate. Now, two years later, the idea seems to have made some sense. Although Facebook likely hasn't earned a positive return on its investment just yet, the company is exploring how to monetize WhatsApp in meaningful ways. More importantly, Facebook has shown that Messenger, its own chatting app, and WhatsApp can live side by side and deliver outstanding services to users of all types. In the following slides, eWEEK looks at both of Facebook's messaging apps, discusses their similarities and differences, and identifies what has made them leading solutions for those who want to chat with others around the world without using traditional Short Message Service (SMS) or Apple's iMessage. Read on to learn more about Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.

2016-06-09 14:37 Don Reisinger www.eweek.com

30 Microsoft Outlook Available on HoloLens Augmented-Reality Headsets DAILY VIDEO: Microsoft Outlook makes its augmented-reality debut on HoloLens; IBM launches Apache Spark-based Data Science Experience; Verizon's latest bid for Yahoo's Web business is $3B; and there's more. Latest Videos Sponsored Videos IBM Steps Up Support for R Programming Language, Joins R Consortium DAILY VIDEO: IBM joins R Consortium to advance the R programming language; Lenovo expands networking,... Oracle Returns to Court, Now Facing Off Against HPE DAILY VIDEO: Oracle back in court, this time vs. HPE; ownCloud folds in U. S. as its founder starts... LG Stylus 2 Plus Phone Coming Soon to North America DAILY VIDEO: LG Stylus 2 Plus smartphone delivers more power, better screen; OnePlus 3 smartphone... Sirin's $14K Luxury Solarin Smartphone Boasts High Security DAILY VIDEO: Sirin's Solarin smartphone boasts high security and a $14,000 starting price; hackers... ARM's New GPU, CPU Designed for Virtual Reality, Mobile Gaming DAILY VIDEO: ARM takes aim at VR, AR, mobile gaming with new GPU, CPU; Asus debuts 3 ZenFone models,... Apple Plans to Open Siri App to Outside Developers: Reports DAILY VIDEO: Apple reportedly to open Siri platform to developers; Windows 10 preview build... Phishers Massively Increase Web Pages Built to Hide Cyber-Attacks DAILY VIDEO: Phishers creating more noise to fool defenses; Blockchain could be most significant... Microsoft Announces Layoffs as It Refocuses Its Smartphone Business DAILY VIDEO: Microsoft lays off 1,850 as it shrinks its... Apple to Deliver Thinner, Lighter MacBook Pro Models: Analyst DAILY VIDEO: Apple to deliver thinner, lighter MacBook Pro models:... Apple Works to Fix iOS Update That Bricked iPad Pro 9.7 Tablets DAILY VIDEO: iOS update causes new bricking problem, this time with iPad Pro 9.7; Microsoft sets the... Intel Processors, Storage Enhancements Set New Dell Servers Apart Dell’s latest Intel-based PowerEdge servers bring new levels of operational efficiency and... Dell PowerEdge R630: Incredible Density Across a Range of Resources The Dell PowerEdge R630 is a mainstream 2S/1U rack server that delivers incredible density across a... Save on Operating Costs for Scale-Out Workloads With the introduction of the Dell PowerEdge FM 120x4, Dell and Intel are bringing to market a server... Dell PowerEdge R730xd: Storage Density for Clouds, Big Data and More The Dell PowerEdge R730xd, also based on Intel Xeon processors, is one of the world's densest... Dell PowerEdge T630: Versatility for ROBO Environments and More The Dell PowerEdge T630 is a mainstream 2S/5U rack-mount tower server with a versatile mix of... Introduction to the 13th Generation Dell PowerEdge Servers video Dell's latest generation of Intel-based PowerEdge servers has the power and flexibility to solve all... Meet Some of the 13th Generation Dell PowerEdge Servers video Dell’s latest Intel-based PowerEdge servers bring new levels of operational efficiency and... Management Features of the 13th Generation Dell PowerEdge Servers video Today's businesses need to innovate to compete. If your IT talent is spending too much time... Innovative Features in the 13th Generation Dell PowerEdge Servers video Dell PowerEdge servers powered by Intel processors include a number of innovative features designed... Virtualization, Convergence and Cloud with Dell PowerEdge Servers video Agility is a competitive edge that Dell's PowerEdge servers can deliver thanks to dense, storage... Read more about the stories in today's news: Microsoft Outlook Makes Its Augmented-Reality Debut on HoloLens IBM Launches Apache Spark-Based Data Science Experience Verizon's Latest Bid for Yahoo's Web Business Is $3B: Report T-Mobile Launches Un-carrier 11 'Customer Thanks' Initiatives Today's topics include Microsoft’s debut of Outlook for HoloLens, IBM’s launch of its Data Science Experience application, Verizon’s latest bid for Yahoo’s Web business and T-Mobile’s commencement of its customer thanks initiatives. Microsoft has released its first "holographic" email and calendar apps for HoloLens, the company's Windows 10-powered augmented-reality headset. The device, currently available to developers with $3,000 to spare, can run applications that overlay 3D objects on a user's physical environment. Now, with the new Outlook Mail and Calendar apps for HoloLens, users can splash their inboxes and event calendars on a wall or other surface. IBM has launched a new application for Apache Spark called the Data Science Experience, which the company is referring to as the first enterprise application for Apache Spark. In an interview with eWEEK , Ritika Gunnar, vice president of Offering Management for IBM Analytics, described the new IBM Data Science Experience as a cloud-based development environment for real-time, high- performance analytics that gives data scientists and developers the ability to access and ingest vast amounts of data and deliver new business insights. IBM made the announcement at Spark Summit 2016 in San Francisco. Verizon's pursuit of Yahoo's 1 billion Internet users continues with a $3 billion bid for Yahoo's Web business in a second round of bidding as the search company looks to sell off some of its assets to streamline its operations. The latest Verizon bid, disclosed by an unnamed person who is familiar with the bidding, was reported June 6 by The Wall Street Journal. "Yahoo is expected to hold at least one more cycle of bidding, and the offers could change by the final round," the story continued. In April, Verizon was named as a very interested bidder for Yahoo, as other potential bidders, including AT&T and Comcast, dropped out of the competition, according to an earlier eWEEK story. T-Mobile has launched its latest Un-carrier event, which it calls "Stock Up," to offer a free full share of the carrier's common stock to all existing and new customers to thank them for their business. Customers also have the potential to earn up to 100 free stock shares a year by recommending the company to friends and family members. T-Mobile unveiled the Stock-Up Un-carrier event on June 6 in a nationwide online simulcast, along with several other Un-carrier 11 benefits. The company's Un-carrier initiatives, which it has been unveiling for several years, are designed to show customers that T-Mobile is not a stodgy mobile carrier, which is how the company identifies its key competitors—AT&T, Sprint and Verizon.

2016-06-09 14:37 eWEEK Staff www.eweek.com

31 Top 10 web design packages for small business Whether you're a sole trader or a multinational corporation, just about every business needs a website. Even if you don't sell products online a site can help people find you, learn more about your skills and services, and provide a way share your details with other potential customers. Getting started can be very easy. Cloud-based website builders can help you build anything from a simple single-page site to a professional web store, even if you've no design or HTML experience at all. More experienced users can customise and fine-tune the design to suit their own needs, or perhaps install a more traditional web design package that allows them to build the perfect site from scratch. There are free options, but these often have major restrictions, including limits on the size of the site and the lack of any option to use your own domain. Fortunately, the commercial options are very reasonably priced, from around £5/$5 to £10/$10 a month, with hosting included. To help you decide which option is best for your needs here are – in no particular order – techradar pro's top 10 web design tools for small business. Creating your first business website can seem like an intimidating task, especially if you're a web design novice, but online site builders like Weebly provide a very easy way to get started. The service offers hundreds of professionally-designed web templates, covering just about any site type. Choose whatever catches your eye, then use the drag-and-drop editor to add text blocks, images, galleries, videos, maps and whatever else you need. Experienced users can go even further, taking full HTML and CSS control to customise every aspect of the site. Weebly's free service allows you to get a basic idea of how this works, but has some major issues: a 500MB storage limit, no custom domain support (yoursite.weebly.com instead of yoursite.com), Weebly branding on the footer, and no e-commerce support at all. The £8 per month Pro package removes all those restrictions, and adds important extras like HD video and audio players, site search, password protected pages and more. If you're going to sell online then spending £17 per month on the Pro package also gets you full and unrestricted e- commerce features, including a shopping cart on your domain, shipping and tax calculators, coupon codes and more. Jimdo's web-based site creator is priced much the same as Weebly, but it's important to read the small print, especially for the free account – it's better than you think. A standard list of limitations includes ads, a 500MB storage limit, no custom domain, and very limited SEO. But there are also a few features you won't get in other free plans, like a password protected area, and there's also very basic e-commerce support for up to 5 products. Site building isn't as impressive as with some of the competition. There aren't as many templates, you can't add quite as many functions or features, and the modules you do get aren't as configurable. Still, the templates are more than adequate for most purposes (and you can switch them whenever you like), the editor isn't difficult to use, and there's support for all the content you'd expect (text, images, galleries, maps, videos, downloads, and forms). If you'd like to experiment with a simple web store without spending anything, Jimdo should be on your shortlist. Wix is a popular online website creator, similar to Weebly, which offers a range of plans and products. The free version has Wix branding, limited storage space and bandwidth, but the Unlimited plan (£7.76 per month) removes those restrictions and includes a free domain, while the e- commerce plan adds an online store for a reasonable £10.10 per month. An excellent collection of 500 plus templates gets the design process off to a quick start. The drag-and-drop editor gives you all kinds of tools and features to explore – the image editor, video backgrounds, password protected pages, social buttons, an integrated site blog – and just about everything can be tweaked, tuned and restyled. Wix can't quite match Weebly in a couple of areas. You don't get the same low-level HTML and CSS control, and there's no way to switch templates after you've customised a site; you can only start again. But if you're a web- building novice, Wix's great templates and design flexibility makes it a good first choice. While most online site builders offer a simple, free account, Squarespace's most basic plan costs $5 a month (billed annually, so that's $60 per year, or £41), and the prices climb steeply from there. But don't be put off, you can start a trial without using a credit card, and there's better value here than you might expect. Squarespace's $60 per year Cover Page account may only get you a single-page site, but that could be enough for some businesses, and there are none of the restrictions you get with other companies: no ads, no bandwidth or storage limits, plus you even get a free domain. There isn't the choice of templates you'll get with Wix, but Squarespace's designs generally look better to us. The editor offers lots of modules to customise them further: galleries, social networking integration, forms, charts, e-commerce, integrated blogging, a comments system, and more. You're able to make changes at the CSS/HTML level, or switch templates at any time if you change your mind. Squarespace isn't the best choice for beginners, but the single-page sites are good value and there's a lot of expert-level functionality. Just check the complete feature list to see for yourself. As you'll probably guess from the name, Shopify is a specialist website builder which focuses on building professional, feature-packed online stores. The design process seems to be much like other tools: choose from 100 plus templates, adjust and tweak the colours, style and layout, then add your own content. But the e-commerce features are so much better, with a great- looking and supremely configurable product catalogue, a comprehensive shopping cart (allowing for the acceptance of credit cards, and offering free shipping, along with automatic tax handling for many countries), advanced store management, and lots of marketing tools (social media integration, discount codes and coupons, customer product reviews, and more). Shopify is also reasonable value, with even the basic $29 per month account supporting custom domains, unlimited products and storage, and there's a free SSL certificate. But if your budget is tiny, check out the separate $9 (just over £6) per month Shopify Lite product which allows selling from Facebook. Cloud-based site builders are perfect for design newbies or anyone in a hurry, but they can also be very inflexible, and may not provide the control you need. WebEasy Professional 10 is a Windows package which you install locally, and use offline. You get complete control over the site code – you can edit it manually, and use other software to inspect or amend it, if you like – and the results can be uploaded to WebEasy's own hosting service (there's a year bundled for free) or your preferred provider. This doesn't mean the program is any more complex, in fact it's simpler than some online designers. There are hundreds of templates to choose from, a drag-and-drop editor, various content types (text, images, Google Maps, YouTube videos, social media integration, and more) along with support for building an online store. The downside with WebEasy is it hasn't been updated since 2014, and as a result the templates are looking tired, they're not responsive, and there simply isn't the same level of functionality you'll get with Wix or Squarespace. But if you need simplicity and an offline designer, this product may still appeal. CoffeeCup HTML Editor is a powerful coding tool for more experienced web developers, which gives complete control over every aspect of your site. While that sounds intimidating – and beginners should definitely look elsewhere – CoffeeCup is much easier to use than many similar packages. There are 13 Responsive Themes to help you get started, for instance. You can view the code to see how it works, tweak and change it as required, and immediately see the results in a preview pane. The Components Library is a great timesaver. Use it to store reusable objects like menus or headers, edit them in the library, and they'll immediately be updated right across your site. Elsewhere, smart code completion automatically suggests appropriate tags as you type, a comprehensive Tag Reference is available, a built-in validation tool checks your code for references, and you can open your site in up to 10 browsers from within the program. Factor in the low price – which won't even cover you for a year on some basic online builder plans – and CoffeeCup HTML Editor is a good pick for more knowledgeable users. Mobirise Web Builder is a free tool which brings some of the simplicity and content of online web designers to the Windows desktop. It's certainly easy to use. After you launch the program, a default theme appears, and you can customise text, images and site behaviour with a click. There are also a few good-looking content blocks – images, text, videos, carousels, sliders, social network buttons, contact forms, PayPal shopping cart, Twitter feed, plus Facebook comments – and adding them only takes a drag and a drop. Your proto-site automatically rearranges itself to fit your tablet, phone or desktop's screen. You can check this at any time, preview the results in your browser as a final confirmation, then publish it locally, to Google Drive or FTP. This is all very basic. There's a grand total of two free themes, only a fraction of the content types available on sites like Wix, and with far less configurability and control. But what you do get looks good and works well, and if your needs are simple, and your budget non-existent, Mobirise deserves a closer look. Many desktop applications have tried to match the abilities of the online site builders, but ToWeb probably gets closest. You'll find more than 100 templates to start your site; the quality is average but you're sure to spot something you like. A wizard creates a few initial pages for you, and these can be customised with text, images, galleries, videos, maps, polls, forms, even a complete online store with your own shopping cart if you buy the E-Commerce or Studio versions (£78 or £155 respectively). Advanced features include password protection for as many pages as you need (no limits), an integrated site search engine, image editor, watermarking, Captcha verification for forms, and a complete CSS editor to customise every element of the page. Creating pages isn't as straightforward as some of the competition, and the help isn't immediately helpful, either. But explore the menus and dialogs and you'll soon have a good-looking site, ready to publish locally or to any FTP server. Xara Web Designer Premium is an excellent website builder, easy to use but with plenty of options, and enough supporting extras to get you up and running quickly. The package includes a host of stylish templates, both general and themed around specific businesses. Each one has common pages included by default, speeding up the development process, and the results are immediately impressive. (Don't take our word for it – browse through those templates here ). As usual, you can customise each page with videos, maps, forms, social networking buttons, and so on. But Xara Web Designer Premium also has plenty of more business-oriented features, including interactive charts, graphs, and a tool for building web-based presentations, complete with animated transitions. E-commerce features are relatively limited (there's a PayPal widget), but there's still a lot here for your money, especially as the package includes 2GB of hosting space, free for a year. If you don't need a big web store, give it a try.

2016-06-09 11:48 By Mike feedproxy.google.com

32 How to watch UEFA Euro 2016 championship in style The UEFA Euro 2016 football championships kick off in France on June 10, and if you're a soccer fan who's looking forward to the competition, read on to discover the best tech for enjoying the beautiful game this summer. We'll take a look at the top gadgets that will make watching Euro 2016 more enjoyable, and share some tips and tricks to ensure you never miss a game, or a goal. The good news is that – assuming you have a TV licence in the UK – it should be easy to watch Euro 2016 games for free, with most of the games being shown on ITV and the BBC . For example, the June 11 game between England and Russia, and the June 20 game between England and Slovakia, will be shown on ITV. The England vs Wales game on June 16 will be shown on BBC1. If you're not in the UK, but want to watch Euro 2016 games, then check out the list for the worldwide UEFA Euro 2016 broadcasting rights , which will tell you which channel will be showing the matches. Because the BBC and ITV have the rights to Euro 2016 games, it's easy to watch the games live online – just use the BBC iPlayer or ITV Hub online streaming services. These can be viewed through your web browser, and many smart TVs and games consoles have apps for them, as well as Android and iOS smartphones. Websites such as TVCatchup (which also has an app for smartphones) is another handy source for watching the Euro 2016 games online for free. If you're not in the UK then a number of other broadcasters will be streaming the Euro 2016 matches online, such as ESPN. The UEFA Euro 2016 Live website is a handy resource for finding out which games are streamed and where to watch them. The official UEFA Euro 2016 website has all the fixtures and kick-off times, and the BBC also has a comprehensive guide. However, one of the fastest ways to see when the next game is on is to simply type 'euro 2016' into Google – you'll see a schedule of the games at the top of the results page. There's also the official Euro 2016 app for iOS and Android devices, which will deliver match times straight to your smartphone or tablet. If you're going to be watching the games at home then you'll want to make sure you're enjoying the best viewing experience possible. If you're considering buying a new TV for Euro 2016 then the Hisense 75M7900 (£2,485, around $3,594, AU$4,832) is definitely worth considering – it boasts a huge 75-inch 4K screen and HDR , 3D and Smart TV technology. Hisense is also an official partner of the Euro 2016 championship. See the best 75M7900 deals While we've heard the disappointing news that neither the BBC nor ITV will be showing Euro 2016 matches in 4K , you'll at least be getting a UHD TV set that's extremely future-proof. Hisense isn't quite a household name in the UK or US yet, but it's a big deal in its native China, with a growing reputation for premium features in TVs that are quite a bit cheaper than the competition. If you're after a (slightly) smaller – and curved – screen, then Hisense also has the 65XT910, a 65-inch 4K TV that uses proprietary Hisense ULED 2.0 technology for vibrant high-contrast images. See the best Hisense 65XT910 deals If you're on more of a budget and don't need such a big TV, then the Hisense LTDN40K321WTS 40-inch 4K Smart TV is a great option for £299 (around $432, AU$581), and if you drop 4K for 1080p then you can get a Samsung T32E310 32-inch LED TV for just £199 (around $288, AU$387). See the best Samsung T32E310 deals You'll want to make sure your TV is properly calibrated before the first ball is kicked at Euro 2016, so that you get the best possible image quality. As football is a fast-paced sport you'll want to make sure your TV can handle quick-moving action smoothly – which may mean turning off certain image processing settings. Check out our guide on How to set up your TV for the perfect picture to find out more. The chants of the crowd, a shrill whistle from the referee, the insults traded between the players – it's all part of the experience. Well, maybe not the insults part. However, if you're planning to get fully immersed in the Euro 2016 matches, you won't want to rely on the tinny speakers of your TV. If you want the absolute top sound quality – and you have a budget that can accommodate the asking price – then the Monitor Audio R90HT1 5.1 speaker package (£1,499, around $2,169, AU$2,916) is well worth the investment, with surround sound capabilities that will help you to feel like you're inside the stadium, watching the games live. If space – and budget – is more of a concern then a soundbar is a great choice, offering great sound quality and virtual surround sound without the nuisance of speaker wires trailing everywhere. The Denon HEOS HomeCinema soundbar and sub-woofer is worth considering – and its HEOS multi-room technology enables you to connect multiple soundbars throughout your house to play music, making it a great choice for after- match parties. Best of all, Denon has dropped the price of the HEOS HomeCinema soundbar from £599 to £399 in the UK for four weeks to coincide with Euro 2016. If you're not in the UK then check your local AV specialists, as they may have a similar deal. For more soundbar suggestions check out our list of the 10 best soundbars for your TV . Having friends and family round to watch the games is a big part of the Euro 2016 experience – and you'll want to be the perfect host. Keeping ice-cold beers (and other, less essential, beverages) nearby is pretty much a must, so having something like the Smeg FAB5RNE mini- fridge in your living room will impress your guests. See the best Smeg FAB5RNE deals And if people are feeling peckish then you can wow them with this Pop Up Hot Dog Toaster , which will cook the hot dogs and warm the buns for you without you having to take your eyes off the game. To really make the experience memorable you could also deck-out your living room with Philips Hue smart bulbs. These impressive lights can automatically change colour whenever a goal is scored by your favourite team – all you need is a simple IFTTT (If This Then That) recipe. See the best Philips Hue deals If you fancy nipping outside for a kickabout in between Euro 2016 games the Adidas MiCoach smart ball is an interesting choice. It's not just a regular football – it has an integrated sensor inside that detects speed, spin, strike and flight path and sends the data to the miCoach smartphone app, which in turn gives you advice on how to improve your skills. Who knows – when Euro 2020 comes around you could be out there on the pitch, instead of watching the action on your TV at home.

2016-06-09 11:42 By Matt feedproxy.google.com

33 Nostalrius PM reports back on Blizzard meeting When Blizzard issued Nostalrius (the world's most popular Vanilla WoW server) with a cease and desist order in April, the community outcry was unprecedented. Over 250,000 people signed a petition asking Blizzard to reconsider. Sceptical though I am of internet petitions, in this case it found success. Blizzard isn't going to allow Nostalrius to continue, but it did invite the developers to its Irvine offices for a post-mortem and to clarify why running official legacy servers is easier said than done. In attendance were CEO Mike Morhaime, executive producer J Allen Brack, game director Tom Chilton and many more of Warcraft's big names. What was scheduled as a two-hour meeting lasted almost five. "In a sense, they are also Vanilla World of Warcraft fans," writes admin and project manager Viper. "One of the game developers said that WoW belongs to gaming history and agreed that it should be playable again—at least for the sake of game preservation—and he would definitely enjoy playing again. "After this meeting, we can affirm that these guys WANT to have legacy WoW servers, that is for sure. " So what's the sticking point? Though Blizzard has retained all the source code for Vanilla WoW, apparently it's not as easy as turning the lights back on. "In order to generate the server (and the client), a complex build system is being used. It is not just about generating the “WoW.exe” and “Server.exe” files. The build process takes data, models, maps, etc. created by Blizzard and also generates client and server specific files. The client only has the information it needs and the server only has the information that it needs. "This means that before re-launching vanilla realms, all of the data needed for the build processes has to be gathered in one place with the code. Not all of this information was under a version control system. In the end, whichever of these parts were lost at any point, they will have to be recreated: this is likely to take a lot of resources through a long development process. " Whereas private servers fill in the gaps by trial and error, that's not an attractive option to a purveyor of premium games. I'm certain legacy servers will appear just as soon as the economic argument can be made. We might have to wait until WoW's expansions finally run out of juice, but after this meeting it's hard to believe Blizzard would let a piece of history disappear for good.

2016-06-09 11:38 By Angus www.pcgamer.com

34 Microsoft wants to help you find out if you're ready for Windows 10 Microsoft has implemented a new website which lists all the business apps that are available for its newest OS. Not every business has made the move to Windows 10 , not by a long shot – upgrading is a more complex matter for a company compared to an individual, of course – and a considerable part of any concerns might revolve around whether existing apps are compatible with the operating system. So in the interests of making it crystal clear what is supported in terms of business apps, the new Ready For Windows website lists the lot for those mulling a move to Windows 10, and indeed for those who are merely curious or looking to source solutions for the OS. The site breaks the apps down into separate categories for convenience, with those categories including: communication, education, finance, health, manufacturing, media, public sector, along with retail and consumer goods. Big names already listed include the likes of Citrix, Sage, Cisco, Salesforce, Autodesk, Oracle, Symantec, Intel Education and more. Of course, this is all part of Redmond's major offensive to push Windows 10 onto as many PCs as possible, in both the business and consumer spheres. As Microsoft notes, Windows 10 is the fastest adopted OS in Redmond's history, although a good deal of adoption has been driven due to the fact that the operating system has been a free upgrade for the first year (a freebie which runs out at the end of July). Via: ZDNet Article continues below

2016-06-09 11:33 By Darren feedproxy.google.com

35 How Skywind is recreating a modern classic A mushroom towers above you, reaching for the sky. The place feels familiar, but the light has changed. Plants have taken root in previously barren land, new rocks jut from the earth like gnarled fingers. It’s the same, but different—a place inspired by what came before. “A complete remake and re- imagining of Morrowind,” in the words of Brandon Giles, one of the lead developers of the ambitious community project Skywind. The mod aims to draw players fresh and old to the world of Bethesda’s 14-year-old RPG. Skywind had its inception in 2012. The seeds can be found in Morroblivion, which ported Morrowind’s content into Oblivion’s engine. Once the project came to an end, some leftover team members decided to attempt a similar feat—this time using Skyrim as their base. “It wasn’t until late into the following year that the project evolved into what it is now,” Giles says of the Elder Scrolls Renewal Project, of which Skywind is a part. “[We] aspired to do something greater than a mere port of Morrowind. No one really knows the exact point that this switch happened, but I think as we got more and more talented individuals on board, we really broadened our horizons and looked to make something much more special. Since then the vision has only grown.” Skywind’s global team was brought together by a love of the Elder Scrolls series. They’re all volunteers, and their ultimate reward for the thousands of hours invested will be the finished project itself. The challenge they have set is to take a classic and renovate it, improving it graphically and bringing the world’s density, life and interactions up to the standards set by today’s open-world games. The team, though scattered, has clear lines of management. Tasks are chopped into manageable chunks and assigned by the development leads. Countless spreadsheets are assembled in order to keep track of the various tasks and deadlines. The driving force is a small core team, working with and managing the vast array of people who have volunteered their time. These team members all share the same broad vision for Skywind. Morrowind is a game that now shows its age. The locales feel barren and sparse compared to modern achievements, the fog-cloaked horizon is a stark contrast to the immense draw distances we’re now accustomed to. The team have to address this disparity, filling in areas of the world with new content. This act of creation in a game so revered comes with its own difficulties—the additions must merge seamlessly with the established world. Skywind will include the story and quests familiar to Morrowind players, but some carefully constructed new missions have been added. The ultimate aim is that new content should be indistinguishable from the old. Modifying a classic is no easy task, and the team must tread carefully when deciding on additions. Every idea goes through a vetting process. “When someone has a new suggestion, and they’re serious enough about it, they write up a detailed plan and share it with the rest of the team,” Giles says. “Everyone leaves comments and suggestions and we work from there, and if it’s worth implementing, we’ll put in the effort to make it a reality.” Additions are rigorously scrutinised to ensure that they meet the same high standards across the board. The gatekeepers of quality are several industry professionals, who are lending their expertise partly because of a deep love for the Elder Scrolls series, and partly to work on a project that’s free from corporate oversight. ‘Lore masters’ also pick over any suggestions with a fine-tooth comb— guaranteeing that everything fits within the universe set out by the Elder Scrolls games. These team members have been followers of the series since the start, and are able to draw from their own deep knowledge of the world, as well as consult the extensive wikis and other reference sources. They are essentially historians—historians with the advantage of being in direct communication with the creative mind behind a large part of the world and lore of Morrowind, former Bethesda designer Michael Kirkbride. Enthusiasm can only take you so far, however, and the attrition rate among Skywind’s voluntary team is high. “The success of the project has been that, out of a number of people who have offered to help, you get one that really sticks with the project,” Darren Habib, one of the team’s veterans, says. “I’ll put a rough figure to it: out of every 100 people that join up to do some tasks, only one person will actually carry on to progress the project.” ‘Lore masters’ also pick over any suggestions with a fine-tooth comb— guaranteeing that everything fits within the universe set out by the Elder Scrolls games. The bulk of development is therefore handled by the core team, but they still want the project to remain as open as possible. They leave the door open in order to attract unique individuals able to contribute. Burnout is high—true of any voluntary project—but the team understand this, allowing people to take breaks when they need them. They have managed to keep morale high with their continuous communication and recruitment. Everyone is kept in the loop and made to feel a part of the community. The legacy of the original game released back in 2002—the third in the Elder Scrolls series—still casts a long shadow. Its weird world is filled with wonders, from magically crafted mushroom architecture to the sprawling waterway-filled city of Vivec. Morrowind captured—and continues to capture —the hearts of its players. The action mostly takes place on the island of Vvardenfell, which today stands out as delightfully alien compared to other locations in the Elder Scrolls series. All of Bethesda’s worlds have had their quirks, but none have had nearly as diverse a landscape as that found in Morrowind. Each region feels fresh and different, its architecture and landscapes drawn from different inspirations. The first Elder Scrolls games, Arena and Daggerfall, presented players with huge worlds, using random generation to map out and stock their myriad dungeons. Morrowind broke with tradition; Bethesda opted to create a smaller, more detailed, world than its predecessors. Throwing out the random generation, the game’s designers hand-crafted every section of the world. This painstaking approach proved a massive undertaking, but the payoff was worth it. The developers’ love and attention shines through in the design of every location. From the caves of skooma-smuggling bandits, to the tombs cobwebbed with history linked to actual families in-game. Post-Morrowind, there have been two new main Elder Scrolls releases: Oblivion and Skyrim. These build upon the foundations laid down by Morrowind, inevitably changing aspects of it as well. “The strength of Elder Scrolls games—especially Morrowind—has always been believable world building and focus on exploration,” says Max Fellinger, Skywind’s game mechanics lead. “Skyrim shifted away from this to present a more streamlined reward-curve, based mostly on dungeon-crawls.” The team faces the challenge of deciding which new features from Skyrim should carry over to Skywind and which should be consigned to history. They have to determine how best to retain the feel of Morrowind while keeping any improvements made by the new game. Abilities such as shouts, tied specifically to the Dragonborn protagonist, have been removed completely. In general, Skyrim felt more focused on player skill, like modern action games, while Morrowind focused on character skill, like a classical RPG. For instance, contrary to the implications of its first-person action combat, Morrowind used the classic RPG dice roll to decide what happened in a fight. Your sword might hit an enemy’s flesh, but it was a behind-the-scenes number that decided whether or not you did serious damage. It’s a system that lacks responsiveness. Skyrim has far better feedback, because it’s driven more by the player’s actions than their character’s stats. However, as a result, Skyrim is more uniform when it comes to the character builds of its players. There are certain core abilities and skills that almost everyone upgrades, while others are largely ignored. Morrowind encouraged players to have more freedom in their choices. There’s no single correct build. Some balancing issues remain, but in general players have a wider range to choose from. Skywind again aims high. Its ultimate goal is to have all lines of dialogue fully voiced. The challenge, then: how best to fix Skyrim’s problems without recreating Morrowind’s unresponsiveness? The developers have a balancing act on their hands, merging two disparate systems into a cohesive whole. Their approach has been to strip down the Elder Scrolls and other RPGs to their core, and find out what makes them tick—how the gears of their various systems mesh together. Ultimately, the team want to craft an experience that brings back some of the systems of classic RPGs, giving players the freedom to build a character in whatever way they want. In Morrowind’s original release, dialogue was largely confined to text boxes, with only a small percentage of it voice acted. Skywind again aims high. Its ultimate goal is to have all lines of dialogue fully voiced. “Our biggest challenge is the sheer number of voice actors we’re going for,” voice acting lead Ben Iredale told me. “Unlike Bethesda’s situation, where they focus on a smaller cast of actors covering the majority of lines, we’re looking to have a pretty massive amount of unique voices to cover the roughly 40,000 lines of dialogue that are in Skywind. We think it is worth the extra effort especially since it is one of the benefits we have as a community project— there are so many dedicated fans ready to lend their voices.” Skyrim’s world often comes close to a place that feels like home. At least until a guard tells you, yet again, about how their previous career as an adventurer was brought to a close by an arrow to the knee. Idle banter can make or break immersion in virtual worlds, especially those that support hundreds of hours of exploration. For Skywind, Iredale says that a team of writers have crafted 9,000 in-game conversation lines between NPCs, giving each character their own essence of personality. The final release will include priests discussing the 36 lessons of Vivec, and merchants arguing over prices—little touches that breathe life into the world. On release Morrowind was praised for its vision and fully 3D world. Time has not been so kind. Its once vaunted graphics are now showing their age. Giving Morrowind back its beauty is a major objective for the Skywind team —they want to recreate the world with all the bells and whistles we’ve become accustomed to in modern games. This is no walk in the park: the team have to rebuild the world from the ground up. Interpreting the low poly models and textures is one challenge, according to Aeryn James Davies, Skywind’s lead artist. “[It’s] practically impossible without going back to the drawing board and looking at pre-3D concepting by the original team. We went back to the original concepts of Kirkbride and others and reworked it from the earlier stages. The 3D representation of 2D concepts are always limited by the technology of the time. Fourteen years is a big difference in processing power.” The evolution of videogame graphics in the intervening time has given the team the chance to make something really special, building on the ambitions of what came before. The redesign ranges from equipment to landscapes, with a particular focus on ensuring each area of the island has its own distinctive feel. “We felt that each region of the game deserved its own unique set of assets and textures to expand on the exotic nature of the original,” says lead landscape designer Giles. “As a result, each area looks and feels much different than from before. Any Morrowind purist might be upset by the new changes, but we really wanted to do something different instead of just adding shinier texture work and remodelled objects. There have been countless fans who have commented on videos or screenshots of the game saying ‘it looks and feels exactly as I remember!’ so I think even with these major changes, the charm and spirit of Morrowind has definitely carried over to this new design.” Azura’s coast is just one of the regions undergoing a dramatic change. It was originally sprinkled with menhirs, but the Skywind team have transformed it into a landscape filled with striking basalt formations, quietly betraying Vvardenfell’s volcanic roots. An overhaul of this scale could have been a disaster, but it’s handled with care by the team—changing the visual identity of the region while staying true to the heart and soul of Morrowind. The team’s ambitions aren’t restricted to improving the variety of the landscape, either. They’re aiming to make Skywind’s graphical quality in its entirety exceed that of Skyrim—itself now almost five years old. The team feels able to do this because their focus is solely on the PC. Where Bethesda had to take ageing console tech into account, Skywind’s developers are free to concentrate on a single, more powerful platform. The mod itself remains without a release date—the general feeling being that it’ll be done when it’s done. Still, there’s confidence that it will, eventually, be done. In the years since the mod’s initial reveal there has been the constant worry that it might end up as vapourware—all stylish screenshots and video, but never making it to a final release. It’s a consequence of the team’s open development. Professional studios only reveal projects after years of work. Skywind has been in the wild since day one. Viewed this way, their progress in the last four years has been remarkable from a group of volunteers. The project inches ever onwards, getting closer to its release, but there is still plenty of work to be done and new volunteers are always welcome. The team have a lot riding on this—a lot of people to please—but each and every one is convinced they will deliver what they have promised. They probably won’t have to resort to using magic to get there.

2016-06-09 11:07 By PC www.pcgamer.com

36 How to watch Bethesda E3 2016 press conference live stream and what to expect: Bethesda rumoured to showcase Dishonored 2 gameplay alongside new games at E3 2016 Bethesda is set to take the stage at E3 2016 in Los Angeles next week and is rumoured to showcase a brand new game, along with more Dishonored 2 content and possibly even Skyrim remastered for PS4 and Xbox One. Here, we tell you when the press conference is due to begin, along with how to watch it live and what to expect from the announcement. Read next: What to expect at E3 2016 There are two questions on every gamers lips at the moment: “When is the Bethesda E3 2016 press conference?” and, more importantly, “How can I watch it?”. Don’t worry gaming fans, as we have you covered. The Bethesda E3 2016 press conference is set to take place on 12 June 2016 at 7pm local time, or 13 June 2016 at 3am (we know) for those of us in the UK. Now we’ve addressed the when, it’s time to address the how. The good news is that, like many other companies at E3, Bethesda is planning to live stream its press conference online. We’ll embed the live stream on this page as soon as its published, so make sure you head back here in the early hours of the 13 June 2016 to watch Bethesda announce a flurry of new products. Read next: Most anticipated games of 2016 So, what can we expect to see during Bethesda’s E3 2016 conference? Last year we were treated to the announcement of the hugely popular Fallout 4, which launched only a few months later in November 2015 (devs – take note, that’s how you do a game announcement properly!). With less than a week to go until the conference, the rumour mill has been churning and this is what we expect to see: The game that we’re almost 100 percent sure will get some air time is the upcoming first person stealth game Dishonored 2. Why? It’s Bethesda’s big release for 2016, and is due out later on this year. While there is already a lot of information about the upcoming game available online, there is a lack of gameplay videos – something we expect to change during E3 2016. We imagine that, at the very least, we’ll get a five-minute gameplay video showing off some of the new features of the game. Want to find out more about the upcoming game? Take a look at our rumour hub here: Dishonored 2 UK release date, pre-orders, pricing, gameplay and trailers Apart from Dishonored 2 announcements, Bethesda is playing its cards close to its chest. It’s speculated that we may see announcements related to recent Bethesda games including the likes of DOOM, Fallout and The Elder Scrolls, but whether these announcements are to do with annoying mobile spin-offs like Fallout Shelter or something more interesting, like a remastered Skyrim for PS4 and Xbox One, is anyone’s guess. There are also rumours that claim Bethesda is set to lift the cloak from one of its big, new projects – possibly even more than one. However, what these big, new projects feature is unclear at this time. It’s quite exciting that with less than a week to go (and a flurry of recent leaks) Bethesda is managing to keep tight-lipped. Read next: The Last of Us 2 rumours: Is The Last of Us 2 in development?

2016-06-09 11:02 Lewis Painter www.pcadvisor.co.uk

37 Forrester urges CIOs to outsource analytics to data scientists CIOs should consider outsourcing data analytics to so- called insight providers, to support data-driven business initiatives. Analyst Forrester uses the term "insight provider" to describe IT, data services companies and business consultancies that work with organisations to enable them to run complex analytics. Most organisations do not have the skills to work internal and external data sources to make meaningful business decisions. Speaking at the Forrester Forum in London, principal analyst Jennifer Belissent, said: “There’s a data capability gap. " She said almost half of organisations in a recent survey said they prioritise improving data and analytics technologies. Yet there is a challenge in terms of skills, according to Belissent. She said: “While 73% firms want to be data-driven, only 29% say they do a good job turning data into actions.” A quarter of organisations Forrester spoke to said they have capabilities to deliver data dashboards to business users days. A further 25% said such dashboards would be ready in weeks. But for advanced analytics, Belissent said only 9% of the organisations the analyst firm spoke to said they could respond to the business in days; 19% said it would take weeks. For most, the task of delivering advanced analytics is too complex to deliver in a timely fashion. While 74% of the executives Forrester spoke to said they are hiring people with data analysis skills – and hundreds of job vacancies are advertised – finding and retaining data scientists is not easy, according to Belissent.

2016-06-09 10:45 Managing Editor www.computerweekly.com

38 AmazonFresh has arrived in the UK - here's how it works AmazonFresh, the company's fresh grocery delivery service, has launched in the UK. Amazon Prime customers in select London locations will now be able to use the service which has been running in the US since 2007. While the initial rollout is small, it's obviously still bad news for competing UK supermarkets such as Tesco, ASDA and Sainsbury's, which also offer online shopping. So, are you eligible to use Amazon Fresh? How does it work? And is it any good? Let us break it down for you. Right now, AmazonFresh is only available in parts of central and east London. 69 postcodes are currently eligible for the service, and although Amazon hasn't published a list of all of them, you can easily find out if you're Fresh- compatible by visiting the website . While only a relatively small number of people can use Fresh right now, have no doubt that Amazon will roll this out more widely in the future, first across London and then to other cities. Fresh gives you access to meat, seafood, fresh fruit and vegetables, dairy, bakes good, and a range of home supplies. Amazon has partnered with supermarket Morrisons and says it will offer around 130,000 products as part of the service. Good observation, but no. While Pantry does indeed let you order food and household items to your doorstep, the key word that differentiates the two services is "fresh". If you want fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and seafood, you'll only get those through AmazonFresh. AmazonFresh will cost an additional £6.99 per month for existing Prime members - a membership that costs £79 a year, we should add. Same-day deliveries for orders over £40 are free, otherwise you'll have to pay a £4 delivery fee. As a sweetner, Amazon is offering a free 30-day trial to Prime subscribers – just remember to cancel it if you don't want to keep using it after the trial period. As for the prices of the food itself, so far they look pretty decent. A 500ml tub of Ben & Jerry's Half Baked ice cream costs £2.50, while it's £3.85 to order from Sainsbury's and £4 from Tesco. Amazon is offering one-hour delivery slots between 7am and 11pm, seven days a week, so it's pretty flexible. It's also offering same-day delivery to arrive from 5pm if you place your order by 1pm. Article continues below

2016-06-09 10:38 By Hugh feedproxy.google.com

39 Microsoft's latest Windows 10 preview hones Edge and Windows Ink Microsoft has released another preview version of Windows 10 to Insiders testing on the Fast Ring, with the big Anniversary Update just around the corner. So what's new with build 14361? Naturally enough, there's a load of bug fixes, as squashing bugs is a priority right now to smooth things over for said Anniversary Update (with a June 'bug bash' kicking off next week). But the new features are doubtless what you want to hear about, and Microsoft has introduced another fresh extension for the Edge web browser, this one being security related: you can now download LastPass, an extension for the popular password manager. That brings the total number of extensions live in the preview version of Windows 10 to a nice round 10, appropriately enough. Windows 10 now also supports Hyper-V Containers, allowing developers to create and run containers which use the Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 5 Nano Server container OS image. There are also improvements to both Windows Ink and the Settings app. In the case of the former, that includes various bug fixes and tweaks such as making sure the Windows Ink ruler is now long enough to span the diagonal of the display when running on Microsoft's Surface Book, and improving the Sketch Pad UI. With the Settings app, again interface tweaks have been made, such as adjusting the text size to be more readable and adding a splash of colour to highlight which Settings tab you've selected. Some Windows 10 icons have also been changed (for the better, hopefully) and Redmond has implemented some important minor fixes, including smoothing over a problem which caused sites like YouTube to fall over in both Edge and Internet Explorer. For the full list of bug fixes – be warned, it's a long one – check out Microsoft's blog post on the new preview version. Article continues below

2016-06-09 10:37 By Darren feedproxy.google.com

40 Doom's multiplayer to get some TLC from id Multiplayer is the thorn in Doom 's fleshy, purulent side. James hailed the singleplayer as a "fulfilling return to acrobatic gunplay", but players trying to get their money's worth online contend with cheaters and a lack of standard features like custom games. Speaking to Eurogamer , executive producer Marty Stratton revealed how id is tackling complaints. "There's certainly no lack of commitment to Doom as a multiplayer game on our side," Stratton says. "We are already working on private matches with custom game settings and expect to include that in a free update this summer. " Private matches doesn't necessarily mean private servers—a much- requested feature that would allow admins to police the cheating problem. At launch, private matches will be invite-only, but id is looking into implementing a traditional match browser too. Bots are also planned, albeit some way off. "Our bot system was actually written by one of our long-time senior programmers, John Dean, known online as 'Maleficus', who also wrote the Return to Castle Wolfenstein Fritz bot and the bots in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, so he does great work with bots. But John also just happens to be our internal lead programmer on SnapMap, so he's very busy. " I expect we'll hear more about Doom's future at Bethesda's E3 showcase on Sunday 12, 7pm PT. Here's hoping for more of that singleplayer mayhem.

2016-06-09 10:23 By Angus www.pcgamer.com

41 Job Opportunity: Network and System Administrators (2 positions available) Description: Ensure prompt response in resolving LAN/WAN problems, in keeping with the availability as per defined KPIs. Job Description: Implementation & support of corporate access level data network for all P-PAGE offices and all network related services for the data centers and P-PAGE outlets network and Strong coordination with peers in business support systems team to provide fully functional access level network. Key duties & responsibilities: Qualification, skills & experience: How to apply: Applicants should download the application form fill it and send it as an attachment to [email protected] or [email protected] , specifying the job title in the email subje 2016-06-09 10:16 PC Tech pctechmag.com

42 Get ready for the Galaxy Note 7 to scan your eyes With the exception of the iPhone 7 , the Samsung Galaxy Note 6 , or Galaxy Note 7 as it's now rumored to be called, is probably the most highly anticipated phone still to drop this year and it could have a big new feature. That feature is iris scanning and there's a growing amount of evidence to suggest we'll see it appear on the new phone. Most recently a leaked screenshot, supposedly taken using beta software made available through the Samsung Galaxy Beta Program, shows a pop- up asking for a fingerprint, but the bottom right option translates to 'use iris' according to GSM Arena , which found the image on PriceRaja . Normally we wouldn't assign too much truth to this, as a bit of text is the easiest thing in the world to Photoshop, but we know Samsung has iris scanning technology. It's trademarked the terms 'Samsung Iris' and 'Samsung Eyeprint' and more recently even packed the tech into the Samsung Galaxy Tab Iris, which is available in India. That's not a consumer device, as it's designed for use by government and enterprises, but we can't imagine Samsung would limit such an exciting feature to that segment of the market and, anyway, the dimensions of this screenshot are those of a smartphone, not a tablet. This still doesn't confirm that we'll get an iris scanner in the Galaxy Note 7, but it would make sense. It seems like Samsung's take on the tech must be more or less ready if it's already in a device and the company tends to pack new and cutting edge features into its Note flagships. If the new Note does have an iris scanner then it could be a hugely exciting handset, as it's also rumored to have a huge 4200mAh battery , a cutting- edge Snapdragon 823 processor and 6GB of RAM. Nothing has been confirmed yet, but everything is likely to be revealed in early August. Article continues below 2016-06-09 10:14 By James feedproxy.google.com

43 Why scientists are purposefully crashing drones Security researchers at Johns Hopkins University are intentionally crashing commercial drones in the hope of persuading manufacturers to improve the security of their devices. Drone sales have skyrocketed in recent years, proving popular with photographers , industry and even racing enthusiasts. But Lanier A. Watkins, who led a team of students in the research, says that manufacturers have left many security weaknesses in their haste to get products to market. "You see it with a lot of new technology," he added. "Security is often an afterthought. The value of our work is in showing that the technology in these drones is highly vulnerable to hackers. " Over the past year, Watkins tasked a group of master's students with finding a security exploit in an unspecified popular drone model. They found not just one, but three major flaws in its software. In the first, they sent the drone 1,000 wireless connection requests in quick succession, each asking for control of the device. The bombardment overloaded the drone's CPU, causing it to shut down and fall out of the air. In the second, they sent it an exceptionally large data packet - larger than the capacity of its memory buffer. Again, this caused a crash. For the third, they sent digital packets to the drone's controller from their laptop, tweaked so they appeared to be coming from the drone itself. After a while, the controller began to mistake the laptop for the drone, severing its connection to the aircraft, leading the drone to make an emergency landing. "We found three points that were actually vulnerable, and they were vulnerable in a way that we could actually build exploits for," Watkins said. "We demonstrated here that not only could someone remotely force the drone to land, but they could also remotely crash it in their yard and just take it. " Earlier this year, the team notified the manufacturer of the targeted device of their findings, but the company had not responded by the end of May. Watkins says that he hopes that publishing his group's work will serve as a wake-up call so that future devices come with better security precautions built in. Article continues below

2016-06-09 10:13 By Duncan feedproxy.google.com

44 How to watch Sony E3 2016 live video stream: Tipped to launch PS4 Neo, Last of Us 2 and more Sony's E3 2016 press conference is happening next Tuesday 14 June and you can watch it live right here. We'll add the video as soon as it's available. But for now you can watch the announcements from last year. See the entire E3 2016 schedule and what games and hardware to expect. You'll also like: 22 most anticipated games of 2016 Bad news for those in the UK: it's a middle of the night job for British PlayStation fans because E3 is held in Los Angeles. The Sony press conference starts at 6pm PT on 13 June means that you will need to tune in at 2am on 14 June so make sure you've got plenty of caffeine to keep you going. If you can't stay up late to watch the keynote then you should be able to catch the announcements the following morning - Sony usually leaves the video on YouTube for this reason. Details on the PlayStation 5 are very unlikely but the rumours suggest Sony will unveil the PS4 Neo, or PS4.5 as some have nicknamed it. You can read more on the PS4 Neo , which is expected to arrive in the UK in September 2016 and will probably be the biggest hardware announcement at this year's E3. There are sure to be some surprise game announcements, but we think it will use its slot to talk about The Last of Us 2 , and possibly the new Resident Evil and a new Spider-man game. We're also expecting details on PlayStation VR titles, as there haven't yet been any big-name games announced for the headset. Here's hoping the next Gran Tourismo gets VR support...

2016-06-09 10:13 Chris Martin www.pcadvisor.co.uk

45 Datacentre operators should evaluate emerging markets before jumping in Colocation providers wanting to cash in on growing demand for datacentre capacity in emerging markets should take time to understand the nuanced demands of users in those regions to be successful. That’s according to William Barney, CEO of Indian telco Reliance Communications, who talked up the untapped growth potential for datacentre operators in the “emerging market corridor” during a keynote speech at the 2016 Datacloud Europe conference in Monaco. “Most of your internet datacentres are located in Central and Western Europe , North America and North Asia. If you look at the emerging market corridor, which goes through China, Eastern Europe and Africa , there are no datacentres and no cloud capabilities ,” he said. “If you look at the past two decades, most of the growth in GDP came from Western Europe, North America and Japan. If you look at the past five years, China and the emerging markets have been driving growth and the economy, and they will continue to grow in the next five years.” Despite the scarcity of datacentres in emerging markets, internet use is growing in the corridor as the average selling price of web-connected devices falls, he claimed. “Some 75% of the world’s population is in this corridor, and 1,400% of the internet growth is coming from there. Four billion people in that corridor do not have internet access, but they will.” As access to the internet opens up in these regions, the demand for locally hosted content will grow, and colocation providers could clean up. However, Barney cautioned, success is not guaranteed. “In the emerging markets today, almost 50% of the datacentre businesses have gone bankrupt or out of business, and they went out of business for a reason. “In some places, like China and India, the reality is they didn’t really look at the model that works. And to say the model that worked in North America, for example, can apply to the emerging markets is false. “You have to look at the specific market, the regulations, and try to understand how you can make money in those markets,” he added. Colocation giant Equinix operates several datacentres in Shanghai , China. Speaking to Computer Weekly, Eric Schwartz, the company’s president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, backed Barney’s view. “We’ve been very thoughtful of how we operate in China to make sure we’re consistent on policies, regulations and laws, and we haven’t just gone in there thinking ‘this worked in Los Angeles, it’ll work here too’,” he said. “It is a very different political, regulatory and economic environment, and you have to respect that. Having a willingness and ability to operate in that way makes a tremendous difference.”

2016-06-09 10:00 Datacentre Editor www.computerweekly.com

46 Turtle Beach's latest speakers are like a pair of invisible headphones - here's how they work Soon you'll be able to turn up your speakers as loud as you like without disturbing a person sat just a couple of feet away, thanks to Turtle Beach's new glass directional speakers. The directional speakers focus sound on a specific point, which allows you to hear sound that's practically inaudible to the rest of the room. The glass construction results in a pair of futuristic looking speakers that look like a pair of free standing window panes. The invention is especially useful for individuals who are hard of hearing, since it allows them to boost the volume on their speakers to make them audible, without disturbing those around them. The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) estimates that about one in eight people aged 12 years and older have hearing loss in both ears, while about 15% of adults in America between 20 and 69 years old have high frequency hearing loss due to exposure to noise at work or during leisure activities. Yeah, it sucks. One last fact, and it's an important one: according to the NIDCD, among adults aged 20 to 69, approximately 16% who could benefit from wearing hearing aids have ever used one. In short, there are a lot of us out there who probably need hearing aids and are just too brazen – or embarrassed – to use them. Turtle Beach's solution uses precise beams of sound that carry additional mid and high frequencies to supplement traditional TV speakers. It's unusual, yes, but also pretty impressive, and I got a chance to try out an earlier non-glass prototype a couple of months ago. Beams of high-frequency sound might give off a far-fetched, sci-fi vibe, but they really do exist, and Turtle Beach is using the vehicle to transmit enhanced audio directly to your ears. In a brief demo, Turtle Beach set up the two reflective sound emitters, a base station and a PS4. For the demo, representatives brought both the latest Transformers flick and James Cameron's Avatar on Blu-ray. Figuring that there'd be more details in Avatar, I went with that. The version I got to try out featured a metal speaker construction. They rolled a chair into the middle of the room and pointed the emitters (the silver, mirror-looking devices you see above) towards it. Before sitting down, I was asked to stand off to the side while the movie started. It sounded like it always had when I watched it in my own living room, minus the 7.1 surround sound. The audio was passable and the details were existent, though not totally immaculate. Then, I was asked to sit in the chair. The difference was night and day. The emitters created a directional beam of sound, focused on a singular point. They said the system is designed for most living rooms and could accurately reproduce sound for about 20 to 25 feet before experiencing diminished results. Those sitting close to you, say, on a couch nearby would be capable of hearing the enhanced dialog and effects, but would need to mostly rely on the TV or whatever speaker you have hooked up for audio. Dialog that I struggled to hear before and had just considered impossible to hear was now entirely understandable. I imagine how games like Call of Duty would sound with this level of clarity, and how many details I've missed out on over the years unknowingly. However I was told that this sensitivity could be customized to your tastes and needs. If someone can hear moderately well, the HyperSound unit can be tuned to accentuate higher frequencies, like dialog, and leave the lower frequencies untouched. The demonstration left me with one major question: "So, why isn't a technology that improves sound quality to this level getting any attention? " Problematically, you can't go into Best Buy or log onto Amazon to buy a pair of the sound emitters. The only person with the hookup is your audiologist, a specialist who you might not even see unless your primary doctor noticed a severe decline in your hearing. Plus, even if you did get the recommendation to see an audiologist, Hypersound (like any other medical device) is not cheap. But those are hangups that Turtle Beach wants to fix in 2016. Already available in the US through audiological health specialists, the company recently got approval to start selling the system in Europe, and hopes to secure deals with regular consumer retailers here in the US to start putting units on store shelves. This in turn will help the manufacturer move more units and ultimately bring down the price from its current $1,675 (about £1,200, AU$2,200) price tag. While my demo was spent mostly talking about how aging gamers would benefit from the sound emitter system, Turtle Beach is also targeting retailers directly – arguing that directed sound makes for more engaging displays in stores – and businesses that want their employees to freely listen to music without the need for headphones. These ideas are practical, of course, but obviously less fun and convenient than using HyperSound Clear to improve the in-home cinema experience for those that are struggling to hear the TV. HyperSound Clear is an interesting technology and makes for an impressive demo. At its current price and availability, however, it's not something I can picture anyone running to the doctor to request. But, a cheaper, more accessible version for you and I might be the next step home entertainment takes toward the futuristic living room we've all been dreaming of. Article continues below

2016-06-09 09:40 By Nick feedproxy.google.com

47 47 Beyond the Atlantic: Data privacy laws around the world One world, one internet – many laws. Given the furore over the EU-US Privacy Shield and the GDPR , you could be forgiven for thinking that data protection and privacy is something for the Atlantic power blocs to sort out, with every other country following suit. That's not the case. "Internet communication has made the whole discussion on data privacy a global interest," says Lillian Pang, Senior Director, Legal, Rackspace. "Data privacy is no longer a local discussion. " Some of the very same emerging economies constantly being talked about as 'tomorrow's markets' (so of critical interest to all international and web- based tech and IT businesses) are legislating around data privacy in drastically different ways. "Rules and regulations vary widely geographically," says Robert Stroud, Director on ISACA's board and Principal Analyst, Forrester Research. "There are no consistent guidelines and rules … even neighbouring legislative regions have different policies. " South Korea has recently enacted data protection laws The European Union's negotiations with the US in recent years has seen the continent of Europe painted as the bulwark of data privacy laws. "It just happens that because of the developed markets in the EU, which has the most progressive laws on data protection globally, and the US, which has the vast majority of the technology industry benefiting from the creation of data, that the data flow between them is particularly under scrutiny," says Ross Woodham, Director, Legal Affairs and Privacy, Cogeco Peer 1. Europe definitely sets the tone, but it's important to remember that the bloc has defined its reaction to data privacy in relation to the US. That's not an exclusive standpoint. For example, Canada's Digital Privacy Act came into force in 2015 to help guard Canadians' private data stored by US-based services like Facebook, Gmail, Twitter and YouTube, though individual provinces in Canada do have their own requirements. "Canada and Europe tend to lead the world in terms of legislating personal data," says Pang, but the rest of the world is catching up fast, though hugely unevenly. "Many countries outside of the EU have enacted data protection laws in recent years, including Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, and Turkey," says Janine Regan, Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys. "Many of these laws are very similar to the EU Data Protection Directive , although these jurisdictions often carry incredibly heavy sanctions for non- compliance – including prison sentences. " However, the European Commission thinks only Andorra, Argentina, Canada, Faeroe Islands, Guernsey, Israel, Isle of Man, Jersey, New Zealand, Switzerland and Uruguay offer EU citizens adequate protection. Hong Kong has strong data privacy laws Some areas of the world have modelled their response to data privacy on the EU's battle with the US, and that certainly applies to Asia, which goes straight to the top of the list of concern for the IT and tech industry. After all, around 28% of the world's middle class already lives in Asia, and that's about to double in just the next 14 years. That's a huge global demographic shift. In recent years, several Asian countries have undergone a major change in data privacy regulation, and that's mostly due to the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-Operation (APEC) Privacy Framework. "APEC agreed on a privacy framework in 2005," explains Malcolm Harkins, Global CISO from Cylance. Early leaders in Asia Pacific data protection were Australia, New Zealand, and Hong Kong, all of which passed strong data privacy laws in the 1990s. " More recently, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines have passed comprehensive legislation of their own. "The APEC Privacy Framework has provided some rough signposts for a common approach to principle-based regulation, but priorities for policymaking and enforcement vary significantly by jurisdiction," says Bill Stroud, principal engineer at Covata. Singapore's banking sector has produced rigid data privacy laws However, there are efforts to harmonise Asia and the EU. "The WP29 is in talks with Asia to see how they can work together to make these two labels become mutually recognised," says Elodie Downing, VP, EMEA general counsel, BMC Software. Still, no harmonisation has happened thus far.

2016-06-09 09:35 By Jamie feedproxy.google.com

48 Edge datacentres hailed as answer to latency concerns in IoT era Growing demand for low-latency web connections as the internet of things (IoT) trend takes hold is set to drastically change the way the datacentre industry operates over the coming decade, market watchers predict. IoT will fuel demand for low-latency connections and faster data processing times, but user expectations will be impossible to meet unless the industry commits to building datacentres closer to where users are, according to speakers at the 2016 Datacloud Europe conference in Monaco. Mark Bidinger, president of the cloud and service provider segment at datacentre energy management firm Schneider Electric , said the rising number of internet-connected devices meant the industry must rapidly rethink how it delivers compute capacity. “The internet of things is going to [drive the need for] a new method of deployment in the cloud computing industry, and the datacentre industry as a whole, meaning it needs to be more agile in both compute and deploy,” he said. In the IoT era, datacentre providers will need to collect and process massive amounts of data, before sending back the produced insights to users so they can make real-time decisions, he continued. Speed will be crucial in these scenarios, meaning the closer the industry can get this data processing power to the users, the better. To emphasise this point, Bidinger talked about the commercial implications of relying on high-latency web connections, in the context of internet giants such as Google and Amazon. “A half-second delay will cause a 20% drop in Google’s traffic,” he said. “From an Amazon perspective, a one-tenth-of-a-second delay [in response] will impact on 1% of its sales. These [delays] are irritants and they need to be removed.” For the colocation community, the future lies in building out smaller, edge datacentres that can be used to locally host cloud services and process data closer to the users generating it , he added .

2016-06-09 09:30 Datacentre Editor www.computerweekly.com

49 Malware 'Crysis': New Strain Combines Multiple Threats, Platforms NEWS ANALYSIS: The latest release of Crysis malware combines ransomware with a data breach, and then spreads on its own. In some ways, the latest variation of Crysis (or Crisis, depending on whom you ask) malware either provides something for everyone, or it's a nightmare scenario, depending on how you look at it. When Crysis first came to light, it was a fairly typical, if annoying, form of ransomware. It would encrypt some files and then demand ransom, ostensibly offering to decrypt those files if you paid. Things have changed. Following a series of monthly updates, this malware is now able to exfiltrate critical files and user information, gain administrator rights to the computer it's infecting and take over as an admin user. It also doesn't matter if the computer is a PC or a Mac because Crysis can infect either platform, and once inside a network, it can also attack virtual machines and any server visible to the computer it's on. Complicating matters, the Crysis malware that's out now doesn't attack any OS vulnerabilities. According to a study by Symantec , the malware is inserted using a Java applet dropper. Normally, Java applets can't access machine resources, but in this case, the attack includes sophisticated social engineering intended to get the machine's user to allow it to have full access to the system. Once installed on a machine, the Crysis malware can use a variety of self- running files to spread to other machines, including Windows Phone devices and other computers on the same network. Right now, the malware can only attack certain virtual machines (VMs) from VMware, but not other VMs, but there's no reason this can't be extended. Adding to the misery, the Crysis malware also copies the admin login information for any computer it attacks to its command-and-control server, allowing that machine and others to be attacked as long as the credentials haven't been changed. And if that's not enough, the bad guys have now raised their ransoms from a few hundred bucks to levels well in excess of $20,000. And, of course, there's no assurance that they will actually deliver the decryption keys or remove the malware. Fortunately, you don't need to pay the ransom to recover, and you don't need to be infected if you're careful and follow some common-sense security guidelines. First, a good anti-malware package will detect the actions of the Crysis malware once it starts trying to infect a computer, even if the initial Java applets go undetected (which is what they're designed to do). Second, you can recover using backups. Unfortunately, the malware developers aren't resting. "What we see with most malware is that there is furious innovation," said Stu Sjouwerman, CEO of Knowbe4. "They're using Agile development techniques with monthly releases. " The rapid development is a result of competition, Sjouwerman said. "They're adding new features at a very rapid clip because they're fighting for criminal market share. " While new versions of Crysis and other malware products are coming out rapidly, the creators of these packages are doing their best to hide the details, he said. "It is very hard to identify different versions; they're trying to obfuscate those versions" to keep other criminals off balance, he said.

2016-06-09 08:35 Wayne Rash www.eweek.com

50 Shattering the myth of Agile methodologies The word “Agile” is a common phrase thrown around in any IT environment — but exactly what does it mean? You may be thinking it’s only meant for software developers, but actually any professional who wants to encourage a more fluid and flexible response to change across multiple teams should optimize Agile’s many advantages. The monotonous methods of the planning process are simplified in an Agile approach by dividing tasks into digestible, short-term goals. It’s where collaboration meets localized decision-making, and it’s being swept across many industries including finance and manufacturing. “Too many companies have learned to fail,” says Jim Love, CIO of ITWC. “The beauty of an agile approach is that you have to deliver something of real value on a regular basis. It’s how companies learn to succeed.” Many professionals still fear, or are unaware, of the benefits Agile methodologies have to offer. Doubling productivity, reduction in time and an improved quality of work are among the rewards. Agile methodologies are also known to shine a light on in-person communications, results and empowering team members. As Doug Dockery, a Director in CA Technologies’ Agile Management practice, puts it: “Agile allows you to be good at finishing things, not just good at starting them.” A webinar sponsored by CA Technologies, Agile – Not Just for Software Developers , will be held on Wednesday, June 29, 2016 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm ET and will showcase one organization’s use of Agile methodologies, the challenges and the benefits which you can apply to your business. Join Jim Love, and special guest Skip Angel, Director of Services, West Region, CA Technologies, to find out more about why it’s the method of choice for successful companies.

2016-06-09 10:49 Mudeeha Yousaf www.itworldcanada.com

51 Phishing awareness training almost futile, say Canadian bank infosec pros New reports warn of extent of phishing Canadians rank 26th on phishing test You’ve trained, warned and threatened staff not to click on suspicious email attachment, and they still do it. Employees seem dense. Even the C-suite fail tests. You think there’s no hope for them or of stopping staff from falling for phishing. Congratulations, you’re in good company: Senior security officials at two of the country’s biggest banks think so too. “What I’ve learned is you can’t fix stupid,” Manish Khera, director of data protection, security consulting and application security at RBC Capital Markets said Thursday at the SC Congress security conference in Toronto. Some employees delete phishing email, he said, but others click and when nothing happens (because the malware is quietly downloading behind the screen) they reply to the sender, who sends another link – or the staffer forwards the message to their home. “We have to get to a place where we are OK with stopping business processes, with breaking things for the safety of our assets and the company,” he said. “Until we get to that point I don’t think we can win this battle.” Jeff Stark, director of cyber security at CIBC , agreed. “It’s not the end of the world (to briefly delay messages), an email can be re-sent. That would go a long way to help us as security practitioners to put in solutions that actually solve the problem properly instead of weakening our security controls.” But he said at previous posts when he told management there could be a five minute delay for some messages that are being scanned “the business loses their minds.” User awareness training doesn’t work, he added – in fact he thinks it should be abandoned – although later organizations should keep it up, but that he’s lost faith in its effectiveness. Stark noted that when he asks employees how they can improve training, the majority say, “’We don’t care. My job is in marketing or finance. We click. You’re the security guy: Protect me.’” Even Khera admitted that’s his wife’s attitude. RBC does monthly phishing tests and awareness training, Khera said, and tracks click response with some success. But he suggested some people are hopeless – he gives up on those who click on bad test email six times or more. It’s long been known, Stark said that email, “is the best threat vector to get into an organization, and I thought this was or should have been solved many years ago, and it turns out that it’s not. And I’m still baffled about why we’re still having these discussions.” But also he believes many IT departments aren’t performing basic message hygene, such as deleting executable attachments, or following proper procedures. That’s why the increasingly common spoofed CEO email telling a staffer to transfer money isn’t getting caught “You should never have an inbound message from your own company coming from the Internet,” Stark said. “To me the problem has been solved, we’re just not executing properly as security practitioners.” He went further, saying infosec pros haven’t implemented basic security across their entire stacks. Then they add more tools – which aren’t configured right – and they wonder why malware still goes through. When one conference attendee suggested giving employees more time to let awareness training sink in, Khera agreed, but admits it will still take years. But Stark noted security awareness training has been going on for the past 20 years. All this prompted one attendee to argue that if Stark and Khera, with their large security budgets, see things as hopeless, what hope is there for smaller companies? They may be better off, Stark suggested. His last job was at virtual bank ING [now owned by Scotiabank], which, with 200 employees, was nimbler than CIBC’s 48,000 workforce spread around the world. Audience members tossed out a number of possible solutions, including shaming repeat offenders. But, countered Stark, you want end users to trust and work with the security team and call in to report suspicious activity. But he did say one training tactic he’s tried has had some impact: Deception. Stark has placed a ‘Protect your Kids Online,’ slide show on CIBC’s Lunch And Learn program. It’s voluntary, not mandatory, and while parents pick up tips aimed at their children the message also sinks in to them. He also urged infosec pros to frame email scanning strategies in financial savings terms: Re-imaging an infected PC, for example might cost $500. Multiply that times the number of devices that have to be remediated each month and it will add up. Cutting into that saves the enterprise money. “I tell our team we’re not just security people, we’re marketing people and we market what we need to do to executives to get the money we need. You have to be able to sell your solutions to management.” Stark insisted that thorough scanning of email is the solution, although there may be a small price. But, he said, “if we can set the expectation that not every message is going to be delayed five minutes … then you can move forward with the solution.” However, Kherea said technology isn’t the answer. “We have to make a risk-aware culture such that we’re all responsible” for security. “We haven’t done a good job in that.”

2016-06-09 10:49 Howard Solomon www.itworldcanada.com

52 OnePlus 3 release date, news and rumors The OnePlus 2 is a great phone, with a beautiful screen and a brilliantly low price, but there are plenty of things that could have been done better – or just done, full stop. OnePlus underwent a lot of criticism for losing NFC and it's hoped that will be sorted on the OnePlus Three. Rumors and leaks for the OnePlus 3 are now coming in thick and fast while OnePlus has now confirmed the phone will be announced on June 14. Here's all the juicy details we know so far about one of the most exciting phones of 2016 - and if you want to hear us analyzing the rumors below in a bit more detail, check out our new video on the subject! OnePlus has revealed that its next flagship will be announced at 12:30pm EDT (9:30am PDT, 5:30pm BST) on June 14. The company also revealed that it will go on sale a few hours after launch and that you won't need an invite to buy it or any future OnePlus handset, which is great news, as actually being able to get your hands on a OnePlus phone has long been one of its biggest problems. However, as it's a small company supply may be quite limited. This won't be any normal launch event though, as the OnePlus 3 will be announced by a virtual reality press conference. OnePlus is giving away 30,000 free VR headsets ready for the launch and those are set to be shipped on June 6. OnePlus has also confirmed that those who watch the press conference will be able to order the phone two and a half hours before anyone else, with it set to appear in VR from 12:30pm EDT (9:30am PDT, 5:30pm BST) and on the website from 3pm EDT (12pm PDT, 8pm BST). The design on the OnePlus One and OnePlus 2 was largely similar, but OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei has confirmed that the OnePlus 3 will sport a new design. The best leaked image of the OnePlus Three is a high-quality render of the phone, which looks more like the HTC 10 than anything OnePlus has previously made, with a slim, slightly curved metal body in a silver color and antenna bands at the top and bottom. The same render was supplied to Engadget China directly from a OnePlus PR rep, but it's a weird situation as some had speculated it may be a fake even though it comes from an official source. That said, another source on Twitter has shown off a similar design for the OnePlus 3, but this time in the flesh. It looks exactly the same as the render above showing off the premium metal look, an oblong home button and antennas running around the top and bottom of the phone. On top of that, there's also some leaked marketing materials that show off the design and it matches the renders and leaks above. This looks pretty certain to be the OnePlus 3. Some other leaked shots come direct from TENAA (China's regulatory agency) so it's pretty close to official and shows a metal handset that's apparently 152.6 x 74.6 x 7.3mm and 160g, which would make it similar in size to the OnePlus 2, but slimmer and lighter. If those images aren't correct though there are also a bunch of other leaked shots , which all show a plain back likely made of metal and an antenna band running along the top. The lack of logo and less polished appearance suggests this might have been an earlier prototype, but it's broadly similar to the renders above. The same source also leaked shots purportedly showing the front of the OnePlus 3 and these also line up with the render, showing a (likely 5.5-inch AMOLED) screen, slim bezels and a home button that probably houses a fingerprint scanner. China's regulatory agency has released specs for the OnePlus 3 and as that's an official government body it's likely that it's got the right information. In which case you can look forward to a 2.15GHz quad-core Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of RAM, a 5.5-inch 1080 x 1920 screen, a 16MP rear camera, an 8MP front-facing one, 64GB of storage, Android Marshmallow and a 3000mAh battery. Since the initial listing it's updated the details to include a 6GB RAM version - with 64GB of storage -alongside a 4GB one with 32GB onboard. Plus the latest GFX benchmarking leaks claim to boast exactly the same spec list making it look even more certain. If this turns out to be true, that will mean an end to the 16GB OnePlus model. Another source who claimed this would be the case said the 32GB version will cost a similar amount to what the 16GB OnePlus 2 did though, so you shouldn't expect a big jump in price. Another benchmarking source suggested there will be NFC support on the OnePlus 3. That's a big deal for OnePlus customers who missed the technology on the OnePlus 2. Upon the launch of the OnePlus 2, OnePlus confirmed to techradar it decided to ditch the feature as it "saw most of [its] users weren't using NFC" on the OnePlus One. But things have changed since 2014 -when NFC wasn't as useful - and a lot of people will now be using the technology for mobile payments. On battery, one source claims the OnePlus 3 will come with a 3500mAh cell rather than the 3300mAh one used on the OnePlus 2. But more recently we've heard it might just have a 3000mAh juice pack. Given that China's regulatory agency also shows a 3000mAh juice pack that's what we're banking on. An import listing also shows the phone will include Oppo's VOOC fast- charging technology for the very first time. That means the OnePlus 3 may be able to charge from empty to full battery in just 15 minutes. The big selling point for OnePlus is the price. The OnePlus 2 cost £239 or US$329 (about AU$460) so we'd expect a similar price point for the OnePlus 3. The most recent pricing rumors come from unnamed sources in China speaking to MobiPicker , who claim there'll be four distinct pricing options. Apparently the OnePlus 3 will start at CNY 2299 (around US$349/£242/AU$482) for a model with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. For 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage you're looking at CNY 2499 (roughly US$379/£263/AU$524). But there's also said to be a version with 6GB of RAM, which will apparently cost CNY 2699 (around US$409/£284/AU$566) with 32GB of storage or CNY 2799 (roughly US$425/£294/AU$587) with 64GB of storage. That's all believable as it's somewhat in line with the pricing of the OnePlus 2, but it's not the only pricing rumor. All we know with any certainty right now is that the OnePlus 3 will probably undercut big name flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S7 and HTC 10. OnePlus launched the OnePlus 2 as the "2016 flagship killer" even though it came mid-way through 2015. It held its own against some of the best phones you can buy, but the spec now looks a little dated compared to the brand new flagship handsets. There's stiff competition for OnePlus with the Samsung Galaxy S7 , LG G5 , HTC 10 and the iPhone 6S. In September, we also expect to see the iPhone 7 launch. But then there's both the OnePlus X and the OnePlus 2 as well. Even though both of these phones are older, they'll be cheaper than the OnePlus 3 when it launches and will likely be in stock as well.

2016-06-09 08:58 By James feedproxy.google.com

53 Project Tango: everything you need to know You may have heard the words Project Tango said together over the last few years, but never fully understood what it means. Let's give you better directions. Tango is a new technology made by Google to help your smartphone or tablet detect where exactly it is in a room without having to use GPS or other outside signals. It may not sound like the most revolutionary technology, but it may be a game changer for the way we navigate around the world and open up indoor navigation on mobile devices for the very first time. Even NASA has tested out the technology at the International Space Station, on autonomous robots that sometimes travel outside of the space ships and everything. Project Tango is a new way of identifying where your phone is without using GPS technology or any other external signals. It's all done by your phone itself, using sensors paired with the Tango specific camera on your phone. It means indoor navigation is now possible on a phone or tablet – something we've never seen done of mobile devices. Google Maps could really be everywhere soon. It'll also make 3D mapping easier than ever before as well as measuring up physical spaces. On top of that it will be a big step in the right direction for augmented reality and 3D worlds. Three types of technology are used to make Project Tango and the first is motion-tracking. It'll use the camera to track the visuals of the environment as well as the accelerometer and gyroscope data to track where you are in a room. If you move, Project Tango will know where and how you've moved. Second is area learning, where Project Tango will take information it has had in the past and enhance it with other elements such as notes or points of interest in a location. Then there's depth perception as well to track how far away surfaces are. All of these then combine to make a 3D image of the environment you're in. Developers can use this technology to great effect. For example, an app could track the size of the room you're standing in and put potential renovations on top of your home through augmented reality so you can see it before it happens. That's tech we've seen before – but with the use of Tango it can track where you are and move with you. Developers working with Tango could also create an app to help you navigate around a shop. Struggle to find the baked beans? Which aisle was that again? Whip your phone out, boot up the supermarket app and it'll direct you right to where you need to be. It could even help for gaming with endless augmented reality possibilities. Take Pokemon Go, for example, and if the app included Project Tango it could do even more than it already will. Right now, we're seeing a bunch of familiar games demoed: AR Jenga puts the haphazardly stacked wooden blocks on a table while you pull one out at a time from thin air (all of the fun none of the mess). Bridge the AR gap, there's also a way to strap Tango tablet to a very real oversized nerf gun in order to shoot fictitious aliens. There's even a demon in which you can pet a cat that prances around your multi-level room (knowing the table, floor and chairs) Apps would even be able to help the visually impaired navigate around indoors. It all comes down to what developers decide to do with the technology. We've already seen the technology being used in a museum in Barcelona, which allowed us to navigate around easily and see the key points. Plus the AR elements on top of exhibits meant we learnt even more about what we were seeing. Not yet, but it won't be long. Google has already released two devices with Project Tango technology on board but both have been designed solely for software developers. First was the Peanut phone, which has since gone off sale, and there is also the Yellowstone tablet with the tech included. Lenovo has also announced an official partnership with Google to create the first Project Tango toting consumer device. That will be released in summer 2016, and it looks to be the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro. Rumors point toward it being announced at the Lenovo Tech World conference, which kicks off on June 10. Maybe we'll see it officially unveiled at the press conference. Leaks of that phone suggests it will have a 6.4-inch display as well as 3 separate cameras on the back to allow Project Tango to work. The phone will likely be released in the next couple of months but it's going to take developers some extra time to start making apps that are ready for the tech. Article continues below

2016-06-09 08:57 By James feedproxy.google.com

54 It looks certain that this is the OnePlus 3 That rumored metal design is here and it looks much more premium than the OnePlus 2. It also matches a leaked render that was claimed to come from a OnePlus PR, which means this really might be the OnePlus 3. Leaks of the OnePlus 3's specs have been coming in thick and fast, and the latest by Napidroid – using GFX benchmarking software – only adds to the pile. Like previous leaks before it, this latest one claims the phone will come with a 5.5-inch Full HD display, a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor and 6GB of RAM. The phone being benchmarked also comes with 53GB of storage – which will probably be 64GB before software. The rumors point to a 32GB version of the phone with 4GB of RAM, and a 64GB model with 6GB of RAM. Camera-wise, the benchmarks suggest a 15MP sensor on the back and a 7MP sensor on the front – those will likely be rounded up to 16MP and 8MP. It will also come with Android 6.0.1 software, with the OxygenOS overlay sat on top. All this is much the same as we've seen with previous OnePlus 3 leaks, which suggests we're looking at the real deal. The launch will be happening in virtual reality, with a space station-themed location called The Loop playing host to the event. You'll be able to buy the phone during the press conference in a virtual reality store. OnePlus has now killed its invite-only scheme, so you'll be able to buy it on day one – rumor has it OnePlus has over a million phones ready to ship. Article continues below 2016-06-09 08:44 By James feedproxy.google.com

55 The BBC wants to use its new demos to write the VR rulebook VR is hard. No wait, scrap that. Creating any sort of content full-stop is hard. Even sitting here writing this article is a challenge, just writing an introduction that draws someone in without slipping into hyperbole is often half the battle when it comes to writing a piece. But at least most content creators have a rulebook to follow. Between us, the editors at TechRadar have penned literally thousands of articles on the site, and with each article we learn a little more about what works and what doesn't, which rules to follow and which to ignore. But when it comes to VR there is no rulebook. There is no one with a huge wealth of experience of what works and what doesn't work, no shining examples of VR done right or VR done wrong. Everyone's in the dark, and there is literally no light... yet. Which is exactly what the BBC's R&D department is trying to change. The organisation doesn't have to worry about immediately having to make something profitable, or about reaching the widest possible audience in the shortest possible time. Instead, the researchers and developers at the BBC are free to imagine what the world of broadcasting will look like over the next 5-10 years. They have the freedom to do the messy experimentation to learn what works and what doesn't, which technologies have a future and which are mere gimmicks, and once they've worked to find a solution they are free to share this information not just internally at the BBC, but with the rest of the industry. They do this all without charging a penny. They're operating entirely using public money after all. Playing around with virtual reality might sound luxurious, but it's important to put the BBC's work into perspective. This is an organisation that helped to define the original radio and broadcast standards, that brought Ceefax to the world when the world wide web was still in its infancy, and that set the bar for how broadcaster streaming should work with iPlayer. Now it's using those same problem-solving abilities to tackle the challenges VR brings. The BBC might be as in the dark as everyone else, but without the need to find a solution that immediately makes money it can focus on getting it right without having to worry about getting it profitable. I went along to the BBC's R&D department recently to try out some of these experiments, which ranged from 360 videos of traditional news events, to historical documentaries and interactive experiences that wouldn't have been out of place in the science museum. Space is terrifying, so when I was lead into a dark room and told I was about to go on a space walk, I knew my vertigo was going to give me a tough time. Better still, Home involves strapping a Bluetooth heart rate monitor to your wrist. Ostensibly this is so that the software can then pump the sound of your heartbeat into your headphones, increasing the sense of claustrophobia you feel as you use the two Vive controllers to pull yourself along the outside of the International Space Station. But what it ended up meaning for me is that the BBC researcher could see just how terrified I was when I saw the hatch open for the first time to reveal the earth over 200 miles beneath me. He even apologised after he'd seen how high my heart rate was because he thought the heart rate monitor had been playing up. Unfortunately technical issues meant that I was unable to complete the demo, but what I got to experience was probably the closest I'm ever going to get to going on an actual space walk. An intimidating VR setup indeed "Oh wow, look at those storm clouds gathering over the British Isles" my in- game instructor told me over my headphones. I was supposed to gaze lovingly at the island I call home from space, but instead all I could do was refocus my attention on the task at hand as my brain screamed at me, "YOU'RE IN SPACE YOU'RE IN SPACE OH BLOODY CHRIST YOU'RE IN SPACE. " As a piece of non-fiction documentary Home didn't teach me anything new about how the ISS operates, or the science that goes on behind it. But what it did do is make me feel the claustrophobia and vertigo that astronauts on the space station feel every day as they work to keep one of the world's most advanced scientific laboratories functioning. It was frankly terrifying. In an abrupt change of tone, my next VR demo switched the modern setting of space with the more historical Dublin during the 1916 Easter Rising, where a group of Irish rebels rose up against their British rulers. With the real life recording of Willie McNieve playing in my ears, I was transported through the events of the six day uprising. I saw the rebels take control of, and then barricade themselves inside Dublin's post office. I saw them preparing to ambush a British brigade as it drove by, waiting for an order to open fire that never came. I even saw them trade fire with British troops on the streets of Dublin, which involved a really cool moment of using the Oculus Rift's positional head tracking to peer round a corner at the approaching British troops. Interestingly, Easter Rising: Voice of a Rebel opts to eschew photo realism in favour of a more stylised art style. The figures around me that made up the other members of the uprising often felt like the kinds of mannequins you'd find in a historic reconstruction at a museum, but as scenes changed the polygons that made them up exploded apart and reformed. Voice of a Rebel uses devices like this to carry you through the experience at a decent pace without disorientating you, moving the world around you without taking control of your head movement (a big no no in VR). Perhaps the most encouraging thing about this demo is that it feels like there's no shortage of historical events that would benefit from a VR retelling. Easter Rising works well because it's based on the personal recollections of a single man involved in the events, and there are countless examples of other figures throughout history that have recorded similarly personal accounts. Easter Rising was a remarkably polished documentary, especially considering it's a first attempt in an area that VR hasn't yet experimented with, and we're excited to see which other historical events the BBC chooses to tackle next. From historical accounts to modern documentaries, the next demo on display was a fictional account of a group of migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean called We Wait. Turning an event that's currently happening into an interactive experience is one that's fraught with difficulties. Too artistic and you risk romanticising their struggle, too photorealistic and you risk revelling in their suffering. We Wait's response to these issues is to present a stylised account of the events. The figures that accompany you on the tiny boat looks more like puppets than real people, but their narration makes up for this by bringing home the human realities of the people's struggle. Much like the Home demo, We Wait probably won't teach you anything about the migrant crisis that you didn't know already, but instead it aims to humanise a news story that all too often feels like a tale of numbers rather than people. I wasn't sold on the art style of the characters, but We Wait shows VR's potential to shed new light on a news story that people might feel all too familiar with. The final virtual reality project we got to experience was an interactive children's story called The Turning Forest. According to a senior member of the BBC's R&D team, The Turning Forest was an attempt to experiment with the possibilities of sound in virtual reality. It wasn't as advanced as Nvidia's VRWorks Audio that I recently got the chance to try out , but it was nevertheless an interesting attempt to integrate audio more fully into the VR experience. The demo also featured the use of a vibrating backpack to enhance the sound within the demo without needing to turn the headphone volume up too loud. The demo tell the story of two children playing in a colorful storybook forest, but instead of showing the children directly the demo instead lets the user follow them around using sound alone, and uses the movement of leaves on the forest floor to show their exact locations. The combination of the sound and visual cues made it remarkably easy to place them within the space, but the demo frustratingly often placed a lot of the action behind me, forcing me to crane my neck to watch what was going on. When a fairy tale monster appeared on the scene, the vibration coming from the backpack finally became noticeable. At one point the beast jumped from outside of my field of view and landed on all fours in front of me, and the vibration from my backpack gave a sense of weight to the creature that would have required a lot more volume otherwise. When it then bared its teeth at me I was able to activate a series of chimes by looking at each of the teeth in turn. The Turning Forest was the least impressive of the VR demos I got a chance to try. It felt more like a proof of concept than a full demo, a taste of what's possible rather than a complete experience. The demos I got a chance to try out weren't all amazing experiences by any stretch, but they showed off the enormous potential VR has outside of the pure gaming sense. The historical documentary style of Easter Uprising in particular felt like a format that's likely to really take off as more VR headsets make their way into consumers' hands. But beyond formats, the demos worked to try and establish a language of VR storytelling, combining visuals, audio and interactivity to paint a picture of an event that's unlike anything possible on TV, radio or even online. Playing the demos made me appreciate how safely most VR demos play their cards when it comes to story. They rely on the language of film and games to tell their stories, rather than fully using the new possibilities afforded by VR. Not everything the BBC has shown off will become a format in its own right, but it's clear that the BBC wants to leave no stone unturned when it comes to exploring this new and exciting medium. If you're interested in trying out these demos for yourself, they should all be available on the BBC's Taster site 'soon' according to the BBC. Article continues below

2016-06-09 08:18 By Jon feedproxy.google.com

56 Cyber crime is serious business, shows Imperva report Security researchers have discovered a long-running, multi-vector black hat search engine optimisation (SEO) campaign that shows that cyber criminals are organised and professional. The campaign – started before November 2015 and discovered in March 2016 – uses automated botnet -based attacks to compromise legitimate websites to boost the rankings of cyber criminals’ customer websites. Black hat SEO methods typically exploit weaknesses in web infrastructure to promote the visibility and popularity of clients' websites by tricking search engine rankings. The campaign – which is still believed to be active – is detailed in the latest Hacker Intelligence Report released at Infosecurity Europe 2016 in London by security firm Imperva . “This campaign shows cyber crime is a serious and organised professional business that makes use of botnets, link farms and distributed, co-ordinated activities to provide SEO services to paying customers,” said Amichai Shulman , chief technology officer at Imperva. “If organisations want to fight cyber crime, they need to get serious and they need to get professional about it – because their adversaries are professional and very serious about their industry,” he told Computer Weekly. Researchers at the Imperva Defense Center discovered the cyber criminal SEO campaign after noticing Imperva’s systems were detecting and blocking attempts to compromise customer sites. They found that thousands of websites had been targeted by botnet-driven SQL injection , HTML injection, cross-site scripting (XSS) and comment spam attacks to promote mainly illegal web commerce sites.

2016-06-09 08:01 Security Editor www.computerweekly.com

57 Salesforce TrailheaDX: Path Toward Redefining Developers A software platform requires developers but developers aren't easy to come by. By Salesforce's count, there are about 20 million of them in a world where demand for software could support 50 million of them. There's also a counter- argument that the ostensible shortage of tech talent is really reluctance to extend excessive managerial pay to software engineers, even if top software engineers have been known to get significant bonuses in recent years. A less controversial claim would be that among the developers out there, few are likely to have the exact skillset sought by employers because two out of three are self-taught , which doesn't make for a consistent skill foundation. But taking Saleforce's assertions at face value for the moment, it's understandable that the company might want to open development up to a broader group of people than the relatively limited set of computer science graduates . That's what the company is trying to do with its Lightning tools and with its online learning environment Trailhead. Salesforce sees value in creating more developers capable of improving Salesforce and associated apps. [See Top Programming Languages That Will Future-Proof Your Portfolio .] To make more Salesforce-savvy developers and support existing ones, the company on Tuesday and Wednesday held its first developer conference , TrailheaDX. It was a far more modest affair than the company's sprawling Dreamforce extravaganza, which had about 160,000 attendees last year. Setting aside the event's excessive use of capital letters, TrailheaDX presented Salesforce's latest developer technology in a positive light -- the pleasant spotlights and fill lights from the Warfield Theater lighting grid. As a point of contrast, the blazing sunlight illuminating the outdoor Google I/O developer conference last month made that event more of a trial than it should have been. In keeping with the wilderness theme suggested by the conference name, TrailheaDX tried to evoke the outdoors inside its two venues -- The Warfield and an event space called The Village just across the street -- with fakes trees, fake grass, a taxidermied bear, and a person in a bear suit. One of the vendors I encountered while wandering the exhibit floor claimed that Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff wanted a real bear for Dreamforce last year but was denied a permit. Asked about this, a company representative said that's not true. A USA Today report from last year recounts Benioff suggesting a live bear as a jest. There's still hope for Dreamforce '16. Quirkiness and simulated trees aside, Salesforce is onto something. A lot of programming involves reinventing the wheel. Turning those wheels into ready-to-use modules that anyone with a bit of ambition can use to build an app has real promise. Here are some scenes from the event. Take a look and let us know what you think about Saleforce's first developer conference and its goal to redefine the term "developer. "

2016-06-09 07:06 Thomas Claburn www.informationweek.com

58 58 Bootstrapped Microsoft Standout BitTitan Finally Accepts Venture Funding BitTitan has become a bit of a star in the Microsoft ecosystem, growing rapidly in recent years by offering solutions enabling Microsoft's channel partners to deliver cloud services. The company achieved that success without ever accepting a dime from institutional investors. At least not until this week. On Thursday, the Kirkland, Wash.-based software vendor said it has accepted its first-ever infusion of venture funding with a $15 million Series A round. [Related: 13 Companies Every Microsoft Cloud Partner Should Consider ] "We've roughly doubled revenue and employees over the last two years without any funding," Rocco Seyboth, BitTitan's vice president of product and marketing, told CRN. "But we want to more than double. We think we can grow even faster. " BitTitan bootstrapped itself for its first nine years, growing into a 200- person operation that became profitable in 2010 on the back of a popular solution for migrating email and data to Microsoft's Office 365 cloud suite. But the launch last year of a comprehensive platform for managed service providers changed the company's channel landscape, scaling the partner community by two-thirds in about six months and laying the groundwork for a more aggressive push into international markets, Seyboth said. TVC Capital, an equity firm based in San Diego, led the round with its largest Series A investment ever. Tao Capital Partners also participated. BitTitan didn't disclose the valuation the $15 million imparted to the company, but Seyboth told CRN it was "a relatively small, minority investment" at a "multiple against our revenues that is high compared to industry standards right now. " After years of resisting investors -- even throwing some out of the company’s lobby -- founder and CEO Geeman Yip, who initially grew BitTitan from his basement after leaving Microsoft, decided it was time to accept an infusion of cash. Last summer, Yip hired a new CFO to prepare for that eventuality, Seyboth said.

2016-06-09 07:00 Joseph Tsidulko www.crn.com

59 Why political candidates can't do agile Regardless of who the candidate is or how competitive the race might be, the political animal is a creature of habit. If you took those habits and applied them to an agile software project, there’s almost no chance that things would turn out well. [ Also on CIO.com: 8 quick ways to increase your PM knowledge ] What’s ironic about all this is that the day after the election, the winning politician suddenly lives in the ultimate agile world: It’s no wonder that the popularity of Congress is below 10 percent: the things that made congresspeople attractive as candidates make them unable to achieve anything concrete in session. Now, very few people reading this article want to become politicians, but quite a few would like to become effective at leading agile teams. The thing is, you need political savvy for project management success. Here are my top five lessons: It’s true that agile was conceived of as a way of bypassing bureaucracy and internal politics. But without the right kind of political reflexes, agile teams have a seriously uphill battle. Next read this: Going agile requires a culture shift, say CIOs

2016-06-09 06:24 David Taber www.itnews.com

60 60 The Week in Mac Apps: Roadblock's customizable browsing experience gets rid of pop-up ads This week’s roundup of new Mac apps includes Roadblock, which lets you filter out certain browsing annoyances to give you a better internet experience. Plus, additional tools to keep track of your Bluetooth devices, organize your files, free up memory, save your favorite webpages for offline viewing, and much more. Worried about accidentally playing music too loud in the office? Yoni Levy’s AutoMute comes to the rescue by automatically muting your speakers when this problem is most likely to happen. AutoMute works by disabling your audio output whenever your computer wakes up from sleep, or when your Bluetooth headphones are disconnected. It otherwise sits quietly in the background; it also has a status icon for your Mac’s menu bar from which you can control and activate the app. Inspira Studio’s $5 BlueSense ( Mac App Store Link ) lets you perform a number of custom actions when you are in range of your connected Bluetooth devices. The app features a simple interface that shows you the Bluetooth signal strength that is required to trigger any given command—from automatically unlocking your Mac to changing your online status on Skype. Giorgos Trigonakis’s $5 File List Export ( Mac App Store Link ) is a list manager, letting you create and organize lists of the files residing on your Mac. The also sorts files according a variety of parameters, like size, date, and path, image size, and audio sample rate. The lists it generates can then be exported in a variety of formats for usage by other programs for tasks like backups and indexing. For those moments when your Mac starts slowing down and becoming unresponsive, Rocky Sand Studio’s $5 FreeMemory ( Mac App Store Link ) gathers detailed information about your memory usage and can free up valuable RAM when needed. The app shows you the current status of your memory right from your menu bar, where it can be displayed as text, a graph, or even a detachable 3D pie chart. To keep the process as simple as possible, you can set up reminders to warn you when your RAM is almost full, and let FreeMemory attempt to automatically free it up for you. MaximumSoft’s iSaveWeb ( Mac App Store Link ) saves websites and pages on your local hard drive, so that you can access them offline later. The app works from within Safari or its built-in browser, and downloads everything you need to access pages offline, including images, scripts, and even encrypted data. Pedro Vieira’s Muzzy brings all your iTunes controls right to your menu. It displays album artwork and song lyrics, lets you browse and play all your music, and supports built-in notifications that show your track titles. The app also integrates with Last.fm for additional functionality, like updating your social media status and sharing your playlists. I. R. I. S.’s $100 Readiris 15 features a powerful OCR engine that can convert digital images and PDF files to editable documents that can be opened with any text editor. The app can detect the original document’s layout and convert various components, like tables and paragraphs. For more complex scenarios, it also allows you to manually select the areas that need to be processed. Readiris can export its data to a variety of formats, and supports sharing via multiple cloud providers. Obied Corner’s Roadblock ( Mac App Store Link ) helps you get rid of all those pesky pop-up ads by giving a full set of tools with which you can customize your web browsing experience. The app’s intuitive interface lets you exclude ads and content through a set of simple rules, which you can either specify manually or create interactively from any website. Roadblock also blocks tracking cookies and social media shares, and keeps your settings synchronized across devices, where you can take advantage of its functionality through companion apps for the iPhone and iPad. Antlogic’s Simple Antnotes ( Mac App Store Link ) lets you quickly create reminders and pin them to your desktop for quick access. Its stickies-like interface makes quick work of creating notes and personalizing them with different backgrounds, images, colored text, and sounds; you can then further tweak their appearance by making them translucent or keeping them in the foreground.

2016-06-09 06:00 Marco Tabini www.itnews.com

61 61 Can Apple flick the Android-to-iPhone switch at WWDC 2016? We are seeing numerous surveys and Apple-related data points this week as the industry prepares for Apple’s WWDC. In sum they suggest Apple stands at a critical moment, while its potential to woo customers from other platforms now appears entrenched. Newly-published surveys, from Fluent , GPShopper and Walker Sands , suggest Apple’s anticipated plans to improve Siri and talk a little about Apple Watch 2 will resonate with consumers and consolidate its already highly loyal user base. Apple Pay improvements , including retail enhancements and peer-to-peer payments may unleash new opportunities for the firm, and all these moves together may be enought to attract customers to its platforms. iPhone users overwhelmingly plan to remain iPhone users, Fluent's survey informs. The figures reveal that 87% of iPhone users plan to purchase another iPhone as their next phone, with 65% of them believing Apple products are worth the cost. Android users are also loyal, but significantly less so. The survey claims just 74% of them will buy an Android device as their next phone, this effectively means Apple can still woo one-in-four Android users across to its platforms, if it only makes the right moves. What sort of moves? The anticipated Siri improvements at WWDC will certainly inspire interest, Fluent says: “42% of iPhone users said that they would be somewhat more likely to purchase the newest generation iPhone with a vastly improved Siri,” the company points out. But it is in its forthcoming hardware releases that Apple may find the biggest arguments to convince switchers across. iPhone users want wireless charging, full waterproofing and shatterproof screens as future flagship features, Fluent points out. What’s interesting here is that these are pretty much the same things Android users want to see in future iPhones, which suggests introduction of any or all of these will help drive more of those less loyal to Android users to come to Apple's platform. What you can do with the platform is also important, and that is where we'll see the focus next week. WWDC is developer event so it is interesting that Apple SVP Marketing, Philip Schiller, yesterday chose to give a pretty big series of developer focused announcements through a rare interview with The Verge. Apple has made big announcements like this before other events, in my experience this usually means the company has much more it plans to reveal. Announcing an extension of subscription plans and the introduction of a new 15/85 revenue split with developers Apple clearly wants to incentivize innovation on its platforms. Reacting to the Schiller’s news, Sean Cullen, EVP, Product & Technology at Fluent, told me: “I imagine these changes will have a positive response across the entire iOS developer ecosystem. The decrease from 30% to 15% may satiate large players such as Amazon, which refuses to offer its video service on Apple TV due to the current split, and Spotify, which has a pricing disadvantage vs. Apple Music on Apple platforms. “Opening up subscription pricing to all categories may also allow smaller app developers, especially those that have long complained about the lack of upgrade pricing and the race-to-the-bottom pricing of apps, to achieve long-term sustainability.” Apple may also take heart as a second survey from GPShopper offers positive insights for Apple’s smart watch -- 23% of consumers are considering getting the Apple Watch 2 when it is announced, with most willing to pay “at least” $300. The survey also reveals potential for Apple to exploit iOS and Apple Watch in retail markets, through a combination of retail loyalty schemes and Apple Pay payments (again, this is broadly in line with what I've been saying elsewhere ). The latter findings echo some of those in the recently published 3rd annual Walker Sands Future of Retail Study. This report confirms consumer interest in mobile retail technologies like push notifications, rewards and coupons, all areas in which Apple is thought to be planning Apple Pay and iOS enhancements, possibly as soon as next week. Mobile payments continue to be held back by privacy and security concerns, but Walker Sands points out that: “Peer-to-peer payment applications may be taking off faster than point-of-sale mobile applications, especially among younger generations, with 44% of respondents ages 18 to 25 having used a P2P app.” This latter stat suggests Apple could ignite its relationship with Millennial consumers when it launches such personal payments through iOS, Apple Pay and apps such as Message. WWDC will primarily consist of a series of deeply transformative software announcements this year – but these significant service announcements will underpin all the rest of Apple's empire and may well provide a little more impetus for users of other platforms to switch. Google+? If you use social media and happen to be a Google+ user, why not join AppleHolic's Kool Aid Corner community and join the conversation as we pursue the spirit of the New Model Apple?

2016-06-09 06:00 Jonny Evans www.computerworld.com

62 Windows 10 beta build 14361 closes in on the final Anniversary update, but problems remain Yesterday Microsoft released the latest Windows 10 beta, build 14361,

10.0.14361.0.rs1_release.160603-1700. The About Windows box (type "winver" in Cortana) says we're up to Version 1607 (OS Build 14361.0), thus confirming that Microsoft expects to ship the final version next month -- which should come as a surprise only to a few goatherds in the Gobi Desert. I had a chance to play with this build overnight, and it's solid as a rock in general -- but there are still a few disquieting surprises. You can read about the highlights in Win10 Insider laureate Dona Sarkar's official blog post. In addition to a long list of bug fixes, Sarkar tells us about improvements to Docker technology in Hyper-V Containers ; improvements in Windows Ink, including a longer ruler and a new button that erases everything (primarily of import to those of you with Surface Books and Surface Pros); and a whole lot of cosmetic changes (if you get excited about highlighting in the Settings applet, knock yourself out). The point that interested me most in her rundown was this: LastPass extension for Microsoft Edge: We are excited to announce that LastPass, a popular free password management extension, is now available for download. Visit our extensions page at the Microsoft Edge Dev website to learn more and try it out for yourself! Several hours after that blog was published, it was updated to add this sentence: Be sure to check out the list of known issues for the LastPass extension here. I've been anxious to get LastPass working with Edge -- the last beta build was a disaster, for me -- so I pushed ahead with this new version. I found the new LastPass, version 4.1.1.5, to be full-featured, including all of the nooks and crannies that LastPassers love. I was disappointed, though, to see that running an import/export required the use of a "binary version" (whatever that is) which didn't work. Looking at the Developer site changelog , LastPass also has these problems: Tellingly, the LastPass blog on the release says: We're still working hard on the extension, with more great improvements to come as the Microsoft team also makes enhancements to Microsoft Edge browser. You may read that differently, but it sounds to me like Edge is having protracted problems getting extensions to work. I also had intermittent problems with LastPass -- at times it was very slow, at other times it refused to recognize certain sites unless I waited for many minutes. I'd be willing to bet that the LastPass extension is one of the major roadblocks standing in the way of getting the Anniversary update out in time for the, er, Anniversary. One of the AskWoody.com contributors, PK Cano, experienced repeated crashes in the Settings app when working with Privacy applet. Although it doesn't solve the problem, that's a known issue, documented in Sarkar's blog post: Navigating to the Privacy pages in Settings app will crash the Settings app and prevent you from adjusting your privacy settings. Your privacy settings already set will remain intact after updating to this build. There are also documented problems with the French language version (which doesn't install at all) and an Edge file downloading glitch that occurs when you click a download link. Looking around the build, I found that there's still no clean way to turn off Cortana. In build 10586 you can turn off Cortana by going into the Notebook, Settings applet and then simply turning Cortana off. There's no analogous setting in build 14631, and it's not clear if the "Stop getting to know me" switch in the Windows Settings Privacy applet really does turn off Cortana. There have also been numerous complaints that the 12 hours being given to block a reboot isn't sufficient. (Click Start > Settings > Update & security > Windows Update, on the right click the link to Change active hours.) In earlier Win10 beta builds, you could set aside a block of 10 hours where Win10 would never reboot your system. With version 14631, that blackout period has been extended to 12 hours (I haven't had a chance to test it yet). But some people figure 12 hours isn't long enough. No idea why Microsoft doesn't simply extend the blackout period to 18 hours or more. I've also seen multiple reports that the new Microsoft Authenticator app -- the one that will ultimately let you unlock your Win10 PC from a Windows 10 phone, running over Bluetooth -- crashes frequently. If you were planning to buy a Windows phone to run Authenticator, better to keep that money in your pocket. As usual there's an excellent, comprehensive, staccato list of changes at changewindows.org .

2016-06-09 05:27 Woody Leonhard www.infoworld.com

63 Why consumers still aren't buying social media buy buttons Despite a whole lot of hype, social commerce isn't living up to its potential. Social media sites have massive audiences, but turning social engagement into sales has eluded almost every platform with a social backbone. "Buy buttons" and similar mechanisms that let retailers sell directly to consumers within social apps simple aren't creating customers, at least not yet. Since 2014, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and others added click-to-buy features, but their collective experimentation hasn't translated into significant purchasing. Sales from social media sources actually declined slightly from 1.9 percent of all online sales during the 2014 holiday season to 1.8 percent during the same period in 2015, according to data from Custora , a digital marketing platform for retailers. Converting "likes," "hearts" and "pins" into buys is more than a technological challenge. It requires a change in the behavior of consumers and marketers, according to Jennifer Polk , a research director with Gartner. "It just doesn't align with customer behavior and the way that people want to buy — not in a way that's scalable," she says. "It's not how people are buying at this point. " In one of the most glaring social commerce failures to date, Twitter in May killed its buy button and transferred members of its commerce team to other divisions, according to BuzzFeed.com. Facebook and other, smaller platforms continue to experiment with social commerce, but none of these companies publically share numbers for buy button sales, and it appears the experiment isn't paying off, at least not yet, Polk says. Polk and her colleagues at Gartner asked marketers to identify the highest performing social commerce features, and "the buy button is really very, very far down the list," she says. "If you're looking to actually drive near-term results, you're probably better off putting your money into something like social analytics and social advertising, to drive clickthroughs and traffic to your sites. " Social analytics, ratings, reviews and referral traffic drive the lion's share of marketers' success on social sites, according to Polk. While social media clearly is not yet a viable sales channel, it is an important resource for consumers who want to learn about products of interest that they might purchase elsewhere in the future. Today, 55 percent of Pinterest users shop for products on the platform, and 12 percent of Facebook and Instagram members do the same, according to a recent survey conducted by research company Cowen and Company and cited by eMarketer. The percentage of users who shop for products on Twitter (9 percent), LinkedIn (5 percent) and Snapchat (3 percent) were all in the single digits, the report says. The foundation of social commerce has improved, and the leading platforms removed some of the friction in the purchase process, but mobile shoppers generally haven't noticed, according to eMarketer. "Buy buttons have been appearing sporadically across social media, often in limited tests, so it's fair to assume that consumer familiarity is low," Cowen and Company wrote in its report. "Social media does play a role in consumers' purchase behavior, but typically real-world connections and shopping- specific content take precedence over more general tweets and status updates. " S&P Global Research Analyst Seth Shafer says he's unsure of the long- term viability of buy buttons. "I think the jury is still out if there's a real demand for tight, one-click integration between social and ecommerce or if consumers are happy enough with the status quo and comfortable using different apps or services for different purposes," he says. Today's buy buttons simply don't reflect the ways social commerce happens, according to Polk. Social provides an "assist if anything," and marketers demand more meaningful results than mere "directional metrics" or general assumptions on ROI, she says. "There's something in the behavior that we're missing, something that we are inherently getting wrong," Polk says. "Just because the people are there, and the data is there, doesn't mean this is the new shopping mall. " However, click-to-purchase features could still catch on via social media eventually, she says. "Clearly, Twitter's failure in this space has not scared off Snapchat … I don't think we've seen the end of the experimentation. "

2016-06-09 05:00 Matt Kapko www.itworld.com

64 Minecraft's latest update brings new foes and more Mojang has announced its latest Minecraft update, which ushers in a bunch of adjustments and additions to its ice and desert biomes. Update 1.10 brings new polar bears to the former and a meaner, stronger variety of zombie to the latter, meaning there are more ways to die in your blocky procedural world. Meanwhile, a new technical block has rolled out in the form of a Structure Block. According to the update notes, the Structure Block "allows map makers to store templates of structures and place them dynamically with the help of Redstone trickery". These are restricted to admins in creative mode. There are a bunch of other changes as well. Here's the full list, which was originally published here.

2016-06-09 04:57 Shaun Prescott www.pcgamer.com

65 WWDC wish list: Will we see any new hardware? Over the past couple of years, Apple has turned WWDC into a decidedly software-centric show. It’s not just a new set of toys for developers to play with or even the double-barreled introduction of the latest versions of iOS and OS X; three of the last five conferences haven’t seen any new hardware at all, with the lone bright spots being the retina MacBook Pro, refreshed MacBook Airs, and a sneak peak at the radical Mac Pro redesign. And over the past week, several well-connected bloggers have intimated that this year’s show will be all about software. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t any hope. The rumor mill might be uncharacteristically quiet for the week before a major Apple event, but there are still plenty of reasons to believe Tim Cook might be hiding a few goodies up his sleeve when he hits the stage Monday at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. After all, when Phil Schiller spilled the beans on the App Store changes yesterday, he blamed the uncharacteristic announcement on a “busy enough keynote.” So I dug through all of the rumors I could find to take my best guess at what we might see, what we won’t, and what surprises might be in store. No one knows for sure what schedule Apple Watch is going to follow. Originally announced alongside the iPhone in September 2014, it had its own introductory event in March 2015 and didn’t hit stores until the following month. There had been earlier reports that Apple would be unveiling a significantly thinner Apple Watch at WWDC, but recent rumors peg Apple Watch 2 for a September release alongside the new iPhone, which makes the most sense, especially in light of Cook’s comments regarding its iPod- like seasonality. Coach plans to sell three models of Apple Watch leather bands, in three colors each, for $150. But new bands could always make an appearance. Coach is already releasing a trio due to hit stores Sunday, so there could be a tie-in there. And don’t forget Apple has released new bands at both the iPhone 6s and iPhone SE events, so it’s not inconceivable that more new styles will be announced during the Watch OS 3 segment. For a hot minute, it seemed like Apple was prepping for a massive update to its 27-inch Thunderbolt Display. After eagle-eyed Apple watchers noticed that stock of the screen was dwindling at many Apple Stores, rumors instantly popped up of a 5120x2880 5K display with an integrated GPU, allowing virtually any Mac to bask in its warm glowing warming glow. But iMore’s Rene Ritchie dumped a giant bucket of cold water on that theory, citing well-placed sources that flatly stated, “It’s not happening at the keynote or any time in the immediate future.” However, just because it won’t be powered by an external GPU doesn’t mean Apple won’t be updating its 5-year-old display. But with the online store still well stocked, it seems remote. Apple’s last MacBook Pro overhaul was unveiled at the 2012 conference, and there are some signs that this year could bring another one. It’s been over a year since the MacBook Pro last saw a refresh, and rumors suggest Apple could be planning something bigger than a speed bump. The MacBook Pro is due for a refresh. Often-accurate analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts that new model will be thinner and lighter than the current one, and also integrate a Touch ID fingerprint reader into the enclosure, making it the first Mac to adopt the iOS security mechanism. But perhaps more intriguing is the report of an touch-sensitive OLED display built into the keyboard. Positioned just above the top line of the QWERTY pad, it would eliminate the static function, brightness and volume keys, and add a row of customizable shortcuts. However, a Mac Otakara report this week indicates that even though a new model might get a keynote slot, it might not be immediately available for sale. It wouldn’t be without precedent; at WWDC 2013 Schiller wowed the crowd with a sneak peek at the cylindrical Mac Pro, and a similar preview might be in store for the MacBook Pro. WWDC is certainly the target audience for a MacBook Pro, though the sketchiness of the rumored release date gives me some pause. Like the Pro, the MacBook Air hasn’t been updated since early last year, and many of us were starting to assume Apple was just going to phase it out. That might not be the case (as least not entirely). According to Mac Okatara , Apple is still planning to refresh the 13-inch model while also introducing a new 15-inch Air with Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C ports. Apple has used WWDC for minor refreshes of the MacBook Airs in the past, so this isn’t totally out of the question. And a 15-inch model would certainly appeal to mobile professionals. The poor neglected MacBook Air. While Schiller probably won’t drive out from behind the stage in an Apple Car, there could be a final surprise in store for this year’s show. Rumors have been swirling that Apple is working on its own voice-controlled command center for the home to take on Amazon’s Echo and the newly announced Google Home , and it just might be ready to make its debut. While Jony Ive could very well be designing a svelte standalone speaker, VentureBeat reported last month that Apple is actually looking to add the functionality into a next-generation Apple TV , positioning the streaming box as more of a central home hub than a video component. And since developers are the ones who will be making all of the cool apps and devices for it, a WWDC introduction could be a perfect fit.

2016-06-09 04:36 Michael Simon www.itnews.com

66 5 reasons the Surface Pro 4 is fit for the enterprise Many manufacturers have been vying for the title, " best enterprise hybrid tablet" since the release of the Apple iPad Pro and Samsung TabPro S. However, none have managed to live up to the Surface Pro 4, which was quickly hailed as one of the fastest adopted enterprise tablets soon after its release, and it recently surpassed the Apple iPad Pro for sales in the U. K. It's popularity is no accident Microsoft has spent years tirelessly improving its hybrid offerings, and that work has resulted in an ideal hybrid enterprise device. Microsoft's Surface Pro 4 has a lot going for it in the corporate world, and it and become a great option for any IT department looking to transition to a hybrid tablet device. If you're thinking of getting a Surface Pro 4 for business, here are the top five features of the Surface Pro 4. If you constantly find yourself on the road for business, whether you're travelling by car, plane or train, you want something that isn't going to weigh you down or take up a lot of space in a carry-on. Traditionally speaking, business laptops aren't slim or compact, but that's not the case with the Surface Pro 4. It throws the stereotype of "cumbersome work laptop" out the window with a compact design that won't add much extra weight to your luggage. It's compact enough to fit onto the seat back tray of an airplane, but not so small that you'll compromise on the user experience. You can easily be productive with this device, but at the same time, it offers all the entertainment features you'll want in your downtime - no need to carry a second device for that. The portability and flexibility of the Surface Pro 4 allows you to work in notebook mode or tablet mode by simply attaching or detaching the Microsoft Type Cover. The device itself is supported by a kickstand with a wide range of motion, while the keyboard magnetically attaches to the base of the device, but doesn't act as a supportive base for the display. The keyboard is sold separately, so you'll need to factor that into the cost of the device - but you can typically find it for around $105, now that the device has been out for a while. The keyboard and trackpad are spacious and responsive, and allow for a more natural transition for anyone coming from a typical business laptop. You won't have to compromise on productivity with the Type Cover as you might with some smaller, more cramped tablet keyboards you can find on the market. If you spend all day entrenched in Excel and PowerPoint, you've probably come to embrace the beauty of dual screens. But that requires ports - and if you were also hoping to use a thumb drive, external keyboard or mouse, that means you will need a lot of ports. And the competition doesn't match up to the Surface Pro 4 in this area. There's a Mini DisplayPort, a USB 3.0 port and a separate charging port on the device itself. That means, unlike the Apple iPad Pro or Galaxy TabPro S, you won't have to use one port with a converter for all your peripherals - and that is one less accessory for you to forget at home when trying to catch a flight. If you work at multiple offices and travel often, you might even want to invest in the Surface Dock. It's a small, compact unit with four USB 3.0 ports, audio output, an Ethernet cable port and two high-definition video ports, which give you the capability to connect to two more displays. You'll get expansive ports, so you'll never sacrifice productivity, and you'll have the capability to quickly set up a workstation in any office you visit. If you plan the Surface Pro 4 as a tablet, you'll want to get to know the Surface Pen. It's thin and lightweight, but you don't have to worry about losing it because it magnetically clings to the side of the device when you aren't using it. You'll find an eraser - one that actually works - on the pen, and you can even purchase a tip kit so you can have different styles to write or draw with. The pen makes it easy to sign legal documents on the go, take notes and even markup and edit documents without having to find a printer. ITcan take some practice to adjust to, but if you can get the hang of it, the pen will allow for a better experience in tablet mode. It performs similar actions to a mouse, allowing you to drag and drop items, resize windows, open task bars and launch programs with precision. You can get a pen for most devices, but few are as finely tuned to the device as the Surface Pen is to the Surface Pro 4 - you can compare it to the Apple iPad Pro and Pencil. It also ships with the device, so you won't have to make a separate purchase. Microsoft knows that every business user needs a different level of computing performance - not everyone can be productive with a lower- powered processor. With the Surface Pro 4, you can configure the device with a myriad of options - whether you want a high-powered Intel Core i7 processor or a mobile processor, you can configure it to your needs. Of course, the better the configuration, the more expensive the device, with prices starting at $899 for the entry-level version featuring an Intel Core m3 processor, 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Alternatively, you can max out the device with an Intel Core i7 processor, 16 GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for $1,799. Each version of the Surface Pro 4 comes equipped with Windows 10, so if you're already accustomed to the Windows operating system and Office Suite, the Surface Pro 4 will be a natural transition. Unlike other tablets that might run a mobile operating system, you don't have to compromise and use the watered-down app versions of Excel, Word, PowerPoint, OneNote or Outlook. Instead, you can use the same programs you're used to using on your notebook or desktop. You can still download apps, and while the Microsoft Store doesn't have the best reputation for apps, you will find more popular apps like Facebook and Pandora in there. Microsoft knows the risks involved for businesses that transition to a new type of technology or for businesses that are early adopters of hybrid tablets. Budgets are typically tight, so IT leaders want to be sure they are getting the most for their money. Microsoft was a step ahead of other hybrid manufacturers with enterprise initiatives; shortly after the device was released, the company announced incentives exclusively aimed at businesses. The Microsoft Complete for Enterprise program is tailored for anyone purchasing a fleet of Surface devices for corporate use. For the average consumer, you get up to two warranty claims for the Surface Pro 4 within the warranty period - but that doesn't make sense for an IT department purchasing a fleet of devices for an entire department. Instead, Microsoft allows businesses to pool all of those claims -- two per device -- and use apply them as needed throughout any device's warranty period. That means someone can break their device four times and IT won't be limited to just two claims. Beyond the warranty incentives, Microsoft also included a number of security features - including the capability to destroy a dead device on site, without the need to return it to Microsoft. You'll still get your new Surface device, without the risk of mailing back a hard drive filled with sensitive corporate data. Microsoft also partners with resellers, like Dell, so businesses can order devices directly through them and still get the same customer support they would with a Dell device. It's also a great option for businesses that only want to deploy Surface devices to certain business units, and use another manufacturer, such as Dell, for the rest of the company. And once it comes time to upgrade to the latest version of the Surface Pro, Microsoft allows businesses to trade in old Surface devices for a credit towards the new purchase.

2016-06-09 04:15 Sarah K www.cio.com

67 Asus' Jonney Shih on product design and artificial intelligence If there's one thing that separates Asus from its competitors, it's the company's willingness to experiment with new designs. Asus has had a few big hits that the rest of the industry followed, like the Eee PC in 2008, which sparked the craze for netbooks. Other products have fared less well, like the PadFone , a hybrid device that includes a smartphone that docks into a tablet. But year after year, in a hardware industry that shies away from risk, Asus usually has a surprise or two up its sleeve. Last week it was a home help robot called Zenbo , whose cute antics and affordable price-tag stole the show at Computex. We sat down with Asus Chairman Jonney Shih in Taipei last week and asked him how he approaches product design, and also got his take on AI.

2016-06-09 04:11 Martyn Williams www.computerworld.com

68 68 Is anyone listening? Ever have the feeling that your business sponsors don’t really listen to you? Just about all of us in IT have been there. You might be talking to someone when you realize that this business person has no idea what you’re talking about. You might be giving a formal presentation only to see on the faces in your audience incredulous, quizzical looks that seem to say, “You must be crazy to think that anyone understands a word of what you are saying.” Sometimes our error is that we assume that business people know more about technology than they do. For us, it’s inconceivable that these folk are unfamiliar with basic facts about the systems they rely on and the work we do to support them. Worse, there’s a good chance that we’ve presented the information to them before — repeatedly. We write detailed reports, deliver bulleted presentations and draw intricate diagrams to make sure that they know enough to make informed decisions. Naturally, this is frustrating for us. It can even make us angry, and when that happens we lay the problem entirely at the feet of the business people. They must be too dumb to understand, or they consider technology too unimportant to engage, or they have so little respect for us and our work that they don’t bother to listen at all. That’s an understandable reaction, but is it fair? I don’t think so. The real explanation could be much simpler, and it’s also something that we can actually do something about: Our audiences don’t get what we’re talking about because we try to communicate with them as if they were just like us. We know what we consider to be compelling ways to present information and never consider whether those methods just won’t work with people who are so different from us. Geeks like to receive information organized like a mathematical proof: Start off with premises and move on through a chain of logic to the conclusion. QED. It’s a powerful formula for clarity that works when you have an audience that’s receptive to pure logic. It is not an insult to your audience to say that is often not the case for them. We have to remember that people are emotional beings, and until we address their emotions, they cannot be open to receiving the information we are presenting. We assume that simply offering clear information is sufficient, but it’s not. It’s part of our job to help prepare them to listen. To do that, we need to have some ideas about what they are thinking and feeling at the outset of the conversation. Before you start your next presentation with your sponsor, or even just a hallway chat with a business person, you should have already asked yourself a few questions: If the answers to any of those questions suggest to you that your audience is starting out with negative feelings or assumptions, you can snap them to attention by acknowledging those feelings. You want them to drop their guard and really hear you, and the way you do that is to show that you understand how they think and feel. A simple statement or two is all it takes — not an apology or admission of guilt, but simply an acknowledgment of their feelings. Something along these lines: You’ll know almost immediately if you’ve opened them up. They’ll nod their heads in agreement when they hear you use emotionally laden words such as “frustrating” and “overwhelming.” And if you really work your way in, you’ll see them visibly relax, letting go of the stress they have associated with the conversation. When you see that reaction, you’ll know that they’ve reduced their resistance and that you’ve got your best chance of breaking through.

2016-06-09 04:00 Paul Glen www.itnews.com

69 Naim Audio Mu-so Qb wireless speaker review: It sounds as beautiful as it looks, it just doesn’t get loud enough Use commas to separate multiple email addresses Your message has been sent. There was an error emailing this page. By Michael Brown TechHive | Jun 9, 2016 4:00 AM PT When I reviewed Naim Audio’s Mu-so , its $1499 price tag didn’t bother me because its performance knocked me out. So when I saw its diminutive cousin—the Mu-so Qb—at CES in January and learned that Naim planned to introduce multi-room support for the Mu-so lineup, I couldn’t wait to hear the smaller speaker. The Mu-so Qb looks just as beautiful as its larger sibling, but it doesn’t quite live up to its $999 price tag. There’s certainly nothing wrong with the Mu-so Qb’s build quality, its fidelity, or the Mu-so multi-room features in general (which I will also cover in some detail). My one complaint is with this speaker’s amplifier: It filled my 350- square-foot main bedroom with sound, but could provide only background music in the larger area of my great room and adjoining kitchen (about 700 square feet combined. Both rooms have 10-foot ceilings.) The speaker was so quiet when I first auditioned it that I thought there must be something wrong with it. Poking around in the Naim app’s settings revealed the problem: The app had the speaker configured to produce maximum volume of 51 on a scale of 100. I quickly reset this to 100, but it didn’t change my opinion of the Mu-so Qb for large rooms. Amplifier power was much less of an issue when playing pop music than when I wanted to listen to classical music, which tends to be more dynamic. I don’t expect any powered speaker system to make my ears bleed, but the quieter passages of the London Symphony Orchestra’s recording of the Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 , for example—particularly the second movement, “Marcia Funebre–Adagio assai”—got lost in the bigger room unless I was in a near-field listening position. The Naim Mu-so Qb has passive radiators on either side of its enclosure. The cube-shaped Mu-so Qb (get it?) features two 1.0-inch microfiber dome tweeters, two 2.5-inch mid-ranges, and one 5.5-inch woofer mounted in the front. The tweeters and mids are angled and offset to enhance left/right dispersion. Stereo separation was good, but not knock-me-flat terrific; especially when compared to the original, larger Mu-so 0819. A pair of 5.75-inch passive radiators mounted on either side of the cabinet help the powered woofer serve up delicious amounts of extremely well-defined bass. Naim doesn’t offer a wireless companion subwoofer, but you won’t feel the need to have one, either. Listening to Chaka Khan’s over of Prince’s “I Feel for You,” from the album of the same name, I was very pleased with the Mu-so Qb’s ability to render the thumping bass line. The less-expensive Sonos Play:5 —one of my all- time favorite multi-room audio speakers—was much less able to render each bass note as cleanly and distinctly as the Qb was. Naim takes rightful pride in designing its own drivers—there’s nothing off- the-shelf about either of the Mu-so speakers. And the Qb features the very same 32-bit DSP used in the larger speaker, but this one is used to fine- tune the drivers for the acoustic properties of the smaller enclosure. Two DSP settings are exposed to the user in the Naim app: You can configure the speaker as being more than or less than 25cm from the wall. Placing a speaker against the wall can improve bass response, but this can muddy the speaker’s rendering of mid-range frequencies. Naim’s DSP gives you a great deal of flexibility when it comes to placing the speaker—when you can’t avoid a compromised location, the chip will compensate for it. The volume control ring is fabricated from aluminum and features a touch- sensitive display in its center. In terms of design, the Qb shares the same asymmetric aesthetic as the original Mu-so in that it has an undulating cloth-covered speaker grill on three sides. If you don’t like black, you can purchase replacement grills in blue, orange, or red and customize the app’s color scheme to match). The cube itself rests on a clear acrylic base with an LED illuminating the Naim logo (with three levels of brightness). An extruded aluminum heatsink covers the entire back of the speaker, while the top is dominated by an oversized aluminum volume-control wheel. A ring of LEDs backlights the wheel, and backlit touch-sensitive icons on top of it provide play/pause and track-forward/back functions, input selection (USB, analog, or optical), and Internet radio via iRadio (with five presets that you program through the app). The wheel performs as elegantly as it looks. The Mu-so Qb has an ethernet port, for those who prefer wired connections, but I tested it with a wireless connection to my router. I streamed tracks ripped from CD and encoded to FLAC (16-bit/44.1kHz), MP3s (from those times I couldn’t resist buying a $5 album from Amazon), as well as Apple Lossless tracks and high-resolution FLAC files (24-bit/96kHz) purchased from Bowers & Wilkins’ Society of Sound service. These files are stored on a NAS box connected to my home network (both Mu-so’s support UPnP servers). The speakers also support Apple’s AirPlay technology (for streaming from iTunes and Apple Music) and Bluetooth streaming (with AptX support). An aluminum heatsink on the back of the Mu-so Qb keeps the unit cool. Up to five Mu-so speakers ( and other Naim streaming-audio components ) can be linked together and controlled via the app. Naim’s multi-room support is considerably more clunky than that of Sonos—the platinum standard in consumer-configured multi-room audio—but the Mu-so speakers can do one thing no Sonos speaker can: They can stream high- resolution FLAC files. They’d be even more impressive if they could stream DSD files, but that would only be of interest to an even smaller audience. There is a major catch; however, Naim only supports multi-room streaming with files with maximum sampling rates of 48kHz. I was able to stream one 24-bit/96kHz FLAC file to one speaker and a different 24-bit/96kHz FLAC file to a second speaker, but I couldn’t stream the sam The tweeters and mid-ranges are offset in order to enhance stereo imaging. e file to both speakers simultaneously. (Fortunately, the homes neighboring mine are too far away for the occupants to hear PJ Harvey screaming in the media room while Gregorian chants played in the bedroom.) The system had no problem synchronizing the playback of 16-bit/44.1- and 16-bit/48kHz files on the Mu-so Qb and the original Mu-so at the same time. Here’s why I characterize Naim’s multi-room execution as clunky: When you’re in multi-room mode in the Sonos app, you can switch between controlling one speaker and another (or a group of other speakers) with just two taps on the screen: Touch Rooms at the top of the screen and then tap on the group you want to control. Grouping speakers together (or breaking them apart) takes just one more tap. Whatever groupings you make, you can open a window to control the entire group’s volume or each speaker’s volume independently. The Mu-so app isn't nearly as elegant as what Sonos has come up with for its wireless speakers. You can group multiple speakers and control their volume with Naim’s app just as easily; the problem arises when you want to see which tracks are streaming in each room, or you want to change the tracks playing in each room: Apart from the grouped volume control, the app’s entire user interface is dedicated to only one speaker at a time. It takes five taps on the UI to back out of one speaker and get to the point where you can change what’s playing on one of the other speakers—and that’s only if you can remember the proper sequence of taps. The same routine can be accomplished with just two taps in Sonos’s app. The Mu-so Qb's illuminated acrylic base lends the speaker an extra bit of flair. Here’s another aspect where Sonos’s offering is superior: It’s almost impossible to name a legit music-streaming service that you can’t play on it —including Apple Music. Naim supports Spotify and Tidal—and that’s it. One weird thing about Tidal, though: Your Tidal password must be alpha- only or alpha-numeric in order to stream music. You can log in with a more complex password, and the Tidal user interface will appear in the app, but you won’t be able to stream any tracks from the service. If you’re interested in giving Tidal a go, you can sign up for a 90-day free trail of the lossless Hi- Fi tier of service (the service costs $20 per month if you keep it beyond the 90 days). Whichever music you choose, the Mu-so supports most of the important audio formats, including WAV, FLAC, and AIFF up to 24-bit resolution with maximum sampling rates of 192kHz; Apple Lossless up to 24-bit resolution with a 96kHz maximum sampling rate; and up to 16-bit/48kHz AAC, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, and WMA files. One thing I dig about Naim's app is that it pulls in Rovi metadata about whatever music you're listening to, whether it be from your own collection or streamed from a service such as Tidal. If you miss the liner notes of the LP era, you'll appreciate being able to see information about the engineer, the producer, the contributing artists, and much more. It's not as in depth as what you'll get with a Roon subscription , but it's also a whole lot cheaper. One feature we really like about Naim's app is that it includes a wealth of metadata about the music you're streaming to it. If you own other Naim components and are looking to step up to a multi- room system, The Mu-so Qb is a no-brainer for the smaller rooms in your home (bedroom, dining room, and so on). It’s every bit as accurate as the larger Mu-so, but it’s much more compact and it costs a third less. On the other hand, a price tag one-third less than the original Mu-so is still $999. Yes, it’s an audiophile-class speaker that delivers a better musical performance than any Sonos component can touch, but that’s a lot of money to bring music to the smaller rooms in a home. I’d hesitate less if the Mu-so Qb was priced at, say, $750 (the Sonos Play:5 goes for $499, and the B&W Zeppelin Wireless is $699—but that speaker doesn’t support multi- room audio). Then again, I neither consider myself a true audiophile nor live the luxury lifestyle, so perhaps I’m just picking nits. Bottom line: No reasonable music lover will think you a fool for buying a Mu-so Qb. This story, "Naim Audio Mu-so Qb wireless speaker review: It sounds as beautiful as it looks, it just doesn’t get loud enough " was originally published by TechHive . Michael Brown — Executive Editor Michael is TechHive's lead editor and manages IDG Consumer & SMB's coverage of the connected home, home-entertainment, and home- networking markets. Start your new computer off right with solid security tools, productivity software, and other programs... These graphically intense PC games dial the eye candy up to 11 -- and make your PC sweat while they're... 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2016-06-09 04:00 Michael Brown www.itnews.com

70 The best edge panel add-ons for the Galaxy S7 Edge You paid extra for that curvy screen when you opted for one of the Galaxy S edge models. The Galaxy S7 Edge , S6 Edge , and S6 Edge+ can all put live content just one flick away on your screen, which makes for a great way to check the news, weather, sports, or fire up a favorite widget. To get the good stuff, you have to head into Samsung’s Galaxy Apps storefront on your phone, as there’s no web version like with Google Play. Yes, unfortunately this means another account and update process, but that’s what you have to put up with if you want to get this latest wizardry. There are several panel-sized apps of varying quality, so we’ve winnowed down the list to the ten best. In fact it seems there’s more room for innovation here, as the quick-flick method is a great way to get to something fast. If you see something that you love and we didn’t give it a shout here, definitely let us know about it in the comments. A quick glance at the news is an ideal use for the Edge Panel. CNN offers a pretty solid app for this purpose, which allows lets you slide your way through a scroll of national, world, tech, and other news topics (even politics, if you must). You can tweak the number of stories per section, picking anywhere from one to four. Too many sections do get unruly, at which point you’d be better of just launching the CNN app. Tapping a story takes you to Chrome, so if you want to get back to the same list of stories you saw you’ll need to re-launch the news ticker with a flick on the side of the screen. I like it, however, as a quick way to see what’s going on. Weather is another good concept to put into play here, as you can get the latest forecast without waiting for your app to load or draining the battery with another widget. The Weather Channel’s app does the basics well, giving you the current conditions and a look at the next few hours in the edge panel view. But once you install it you have several extra capabilities beyond that, such as an always-on weather panel that lives anywhere you wish on the screen. Touching that fires up other details, so you don’t have to rely solely on what’s in the edge panel if you want fast access to the weather. You also get a persistent temperature in the notification panel, which is helpful for those summer days when you want to know if it’s too hot to go outside. If you’re a hoops fan, you’ll love the ability to just perform a swipe to get the latest basketball scores. It’s especially handy during the playoffs, when you may want to constantly check for updates. And don’t despair after the finals are over, as the offseason lasts about two weeks and then basketball will return. When you install this from Samsung’s app store you’re essentially getting a full-blown app, complete with game video, live box scores, and the ability to watch or listen to supported games. It’s much the same as the Play Store version, with the added edge friendliness. You like widgets. And you like the Edge Panel. Combine these loves with the appropriately named Widget Edge Panel. You can put in the most common widgets that come with your phone, such as Gmail, weather, and even an outdoor scene to give some pleasantry to your day. It’s similar to the iOS concept of keeping all the widgets together in one place, which can help keep your home screens free of clutter. Sure, CNN and other news organizations are nice to follow, but maybe you want a little more choice. Then grab Edge RSS, as it allows you to put in a feed of your very favorite site (you know, like Greenbot). It doesn't always pull up a long list, and often it's just one story at a time unless you've plugged in a site with hundreds of stories per week like The New York Times. But it's a pretty clever way to keep up with something that you like to read. Twitter is all about what’s happening now. The Edge panel app is another good choice for such a use case, and fortunately it plays nicely with the Twitter Android app. Tapping an individual tweet takes you right to Twitter for Android , so there’s no need to. It also works with the topics that are interspersed in-between groups of tweets. Much like other apps, you pull down to refresh the content, as it doesn’t do it automatically. If you’re a Twitter junkie this may be a fun one to have, especially since it plays well with the stock Twitter app. No, this isn’t an official Google extension, but this developer has enabled a way for you to access your notes from Google Keep on the edge panel. Keep in mind that this requires signing in with your Google account, which some may not be cool with doing through a third party. It works, though there were a few freeze-ups noted by others (my experience went fine). It’s handy if you want to have Keep right off to the edge, although there are also several widgets created by Google for this purpose as well. There have been several widgets and other add-ons that have tried to differentiate the apps available to you depending upon your location. This is another, and it’s not so in-your-face about the location changes since it lives off to the side of the screen. But setup takes some work, as you have to tell your phone your home and work locations and then select which apps you want to show up at those times. I’ve always found it’s more efficient to just develop a muscle memory as to where the apps are on your main home screen, but if you like this level of customization then give it a go. While this is one of the edge panels that comes on your phone, it’s still worth highlighting here as the best sports option out there for comprehensive coverage of major leagues. You can add in your favorite teams so they’re always at the ready for a score update. Touching one of the tiles takes you to the the Yahoo sports site, which has box scores and plenty of stats. There’s good coverage of international soccer leagues, though strangely America’s own Major League Soccer isn’t included. There’s no reason ESPN or other providers couldn’t jump in on this, as it’s a good use for rapid score updates. Maybe you like your news in much smaller bites. RSS Feeds works similarly to the other RSS app mentioned in this roundup, but instead it’s more like a news ticker with scrolling headlines. It’s more of a crowd pleaser for your next party where you can show everyone “look what my phone can do that yours can’t,” as you probably don’t want to consume your news by slowly reading headlines that creep by you. But nonetheless it’s pretty neat, especially since you can pick your favorite site to follow.

2016-06-09 04:00 Derek Walter www.itnews.com

71 Why robocallers can stalk you on your cell phone WASHINGTON – “Do not call” doesn’t work so well anymore. Telemarketers and scammers are finding ways around the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which sought to protect consumers from unwanted robocalls. At the same time, the act is blocking beneficial robocalls, such as those from health care providers. “TCPA is showing its age,” said Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota Republican and chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, at a recent hearing called to consider updating the 1991 act. The TCPA did, indeed, sharply reduce some types of abusive and disruptive telemarketing practices. Companies are now required to abide by “do-not-call” lists and to make solicitation calls only between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. The new problems center around cell phones. Under the law, automated calls or texts to a cell phone generally require the consumer’s consent. A violation can bring statutory damages of $500 per call, but only if a consumer files a lawsuit. Damages can be tripled if the activity was intentional. But only one lawsuit is filed for every 1,000 complaints lodged with the Federal Trade Commission, and those are costly and hard to prove, said Margot Saunders of the National Consumer Law Center. “If robocalls were a disease, they would be an epidemic,” Saunders added in her remarks for the hearing. “The current structure of the TCPA does provide some protection, but it does not provide enough.” Despite the penalties, telemarketers still make millions from the calls, apparently willing to pay any fines as a cost of doing business. “The problem is the robocalls only cost a tiny fraction of a penny for a call, making it cheaper for business to make the calls, than to be careful about who they are calling,” said Saunders. New technologies are making telemarketing much easier, cheaper, and efficient. Also, a majority of the calls originate overseas, making them harder to pursue, according to the witnesses and lawmakers at the hearing. The changes in the works, however, do not crack down on telemarketers. Rather, they try to let in ‘good’ robocalls that the TCPA currently forbids. Richard Lovich, national legal counsel for the American Association of Healthcare Administrative Management, said the TCPA was blocking pre- recorded alerts about public safety issues and school closures, outstanding debts, healthcare appointment reminders, and credit card fraud alerts. “It prevents them from receiving these communications on the device they prefer, their mobile phones,” said Lovich. Since 2011, Lovich testified, hospitals and outpatient clinics have been required to perform post-discharge follow-up with patients to reduce readmission rates and save money. Automated calls are the cheapest and most efficient way to do that. But they can’t call cell phones, Lovich pointed out. “Under the TCPA, these calls place the hospital at high risk of violating the statute,” according to Lovich. Last July, the Federal Communications Commission expanded the health care exemptions to cover cell phones, permitting health care providers to place prerecorded voice and text messages to cell phones, without the consumers’ prior express consent. The idea was to allow for relay of important “health care messages” as defined and covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Lovich praised the reform but said “it just touches the surface and does not get to the root of the problem.” One legitimate robocall proved less popular. A provision in the Obama administration’s Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 allows government debt collectors to use auto-dialers to help pressure borrowers to pay their student loans, mortgages, and taxes. Saunders and other witnesses voiced concern that such calls would overwhelm folks at a time when they are more vulnerable than ever to telemarketing. Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller said the exception would unfairly stress out college students and recent graduates already overburdened with debt. “Blasting them with robocalls, running up their cell phone bills and putting them at risk for fraud only adds insult to injury,” he said. Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill agreed. The Democrat said her own family, as well as regular citizens she talks to every day, are continually pestered by robocallers. The TCPA is the best tool to protect the consumers, she said. “This is not that complicated. All you have to ask is the permission of the person you are calling,” said McCaskill.

2016-06-09 04:00 Xiumei Dong www.itnews.com

72 72 Why you don’t have to fix every vulnerability The word “vulnerability” typically comes with a “must fix now” response. However, not all vulnerabilities should be treated equally because not all of them pose a risk. It all depends on what the data represents. In fact, some vulnerabilities are OK to deprioritize, depending on associated threats and the value of the asset at risk. For example, a lock on a 20 th floor window of a building is not as important as one on the ground level, unless the contents of the room are so valuable that a thief would take the effort to access such an unreachable place. Scans reveal thousands of vulnerabilities across all assets – networks, applications, systems and devices – but they do not show which ones could lead to a damaging compromise if not fixed immediately. It is not about ignoring vulnerabilities; it is about prioritizing how you apply your resources to remediate them. Bay Dynamics provides some examples of vulnerabilities that are OK to put on the back burner. Why?: The network is air-gapped so there is no threat from the outside. When secured networks are isolated from unsecured networks, outside criminals cannot exploit vulnerabilities on unsecured networks to get inside the secured ones. However… don’t get a false sense of security because your system is air- gapped. It means that it is inaccessible from the perimeter, but still can be vulnerable in other ways, such as through USB ports (as was demonstrated by StuxNet). Why?: The PC has no CD or communication (USB) ports so it does not need endpoint data exfiltration protection. Without a CD or communication port, individuals inside an organization cannot directly move sensitive corporate information to an exterior device. However… keep in mind that there are other channels of data exfiltration that can still be exploited, such as Bluetooth file transfer, which are often not blocked. Why?: The application only contains public marketing materials and does not require protection. Information that has already been made public, if compromised, would not cause severe damage to the organization. The value at risk is low so it doesn’t need to be encrypted. However… you better be sure that only public information is available, and not any proprietary content, such as descriptions of future product capabilities. Again this all depends on what kind of data is being available as to how high the priority should be. Why?: While the user should not have been given access since he doesn’t need the database to do his job, the database does not contain highly valuable information so therefore it’s not a high-priority vulnerability. However… however, even though it is a low priority, since third parties present a higher risk, their access should be reviewed regularly and removed where not required. Why?: The smartphone is a “burner” phone that contains no important information. It is designed to be thrown away after one use anyway. However… keep in mind that whatever you do on that phone can be potentially exposed, such as contact phone numbers, contact text messages, two - factor authentication text messages, emails, etc. Why?: The physical access to network equipment is controlled so the network doesn’t need to be encrypted. This is as opposed to Wi-Fi, where all communication is typically encrypted because it is easy for anybody in range to access the signal. However… remember to tightly manage access to the network by third- party vendors and unapproved devices, since internal access could provide a gateway to sensitive data access by unauthorized users. Why?: Being a development system, all data is masked or generated and therefore is of limited value. This is an example of a low priority vulnerability although it should not be completely ignored because the vulnerability can be exploited to gather intelligence about how best to compromise the production of the product. However… even though the data is not sensitive per se, access should be limited to relevant users, as access to development environments can provide intelligence that will help bad guys access the production environment where real data is stored. Conclusion: Almost all companies have limited resources to remediate threats and vulnerabilities. To avoid getting overwhelmed and buried by the thousands of vulnerabilities uncovered, organizations must prioritize the ones that actually pose a risk. That means starting with vulnerabilities with an associated threat, and then prioritizing by impact based on information and system value. 2016-06-09 03:49 Ryan Francis www.itnews.com

73 Affordable drones are the new wave of underwater exploration Underwater exploration has never been a cheap endeavor. Aside from a submarine or an underwater rover, your options for unlocking the secrets of the deep are rather limited. Two companies are working to change that by creating compact, affordable underwater robots. The first is O-Robotix, the maker of Seadrone , which takes concepts from aerial drones and modifies them for use under water. The 10.5-by-12 inch Seadrone is compact enough to carry in your hand and has a gimbal- mounted HD camera that streams live video directly to a tablet. You can control the drone via the tablet interface or a joystick. By design, Seadrone caters more to industrial customers. It's been used by acquafarmers and by oil and gas companies for inspecting underwater infrastructure. Sensors measure pressure, temperature, water current and voltage. An auto-depth and heading system, along with a 9-axis inertial measurement unit (IMU), make it easier to steer, allowing users to focus on other tasks. It comes in three models depending on the number of thrusters, which affects speed and maneuverability: The second company hoping to make a splash underwater is OpenROV. Unlike Seadrone, its v2.8 robot is geared more towards enthusiasts. It's priced at $899 and comes as a DIY kit. It doesn't have all the sensors that the Seadrone has, but the v2.8 can be modified because the company has made the design open source. Like Seadrone, the v2.8 can be operated with a joystick. OpenROV expects to release its next underwater drone, Trident, in November. It will cost around $1,500 and come ready-assembled. The Trident will be faster than its predecessor, but also more maneuverable in tight spaces. The drones are available for purchase online. 2016-06-09 03:43 Magdalena Petrova www.computerworld.com

74 Multi-process Firefox project nears completion of first phase Mozilla is nearing a production release of a multi- process Firefox, the "largest change we've ever made to Firefox," a company product manager said this week. "If all goes well in our beta testing, we're about 6 weeks away from shipping the first phase of e10s to Firefox release users with the launch of Firefox 48 on August 2," wrote Asa Dotzler, the product manager in charge of the Firefox roadmap, in a Monday post to his personal blog. "This is a huge change for Firefox, the largest we've ever shipped," Dotzler added. Electrolysis, or "e10s" for short, is Mozilla's long-running project to bring multiple processes to Firefox, a fundamental design change that should boost the browser's performance and make it more stable. Electrolysis harks back to 2009, when Mozilla first began talking about, and working on, a multi-process Firefox. On the performance side, multiple processes can take advantage of multi- processor systems. Stability is improved as separating rendering from content prevents the browser from crashing when a website or app falls. And when combined with sandboxing, the design can also serve as an anti- hacker obstacle: If attackers manage to exploit a specific page's content or an app, they should not be able to compromise the browser and gain access to the underlying system and files. Other browsers, including Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome, have implemented multiple processes, albeit in different ways. Safari, for instance, relies on a single process for the rendering engine, then spawns a new process for each tab's content. On the other hand, Chrome assigns a new rendering process, not just the content, to each new tab. As a general rule, the Chrome method uses more device memory than the Safari model. For the first phase of e10s, Firefox will use just two processes, one to parse pages, a second for all content. Only at some later point will Mozilla press forward on sandboxing each tab and moving to a Chrome-like process-per- tab design. Mozilla began working on e10s six years ago, but paused the project until mid-2015. Since then, e10s has moved from the roughest nightly builds to, recently, being offered to half of the pool running the beta. With the beta of Firefox 48 -- which has not yet been released -- Mozilla will enable e10s on all customers' copies. The next step, as Dotzler spelled out, will be to slowly release the multi- process Firefox to the production track, which is slated to ship version 48 on Aug. 2. At that point, Mozilla will throttle the release so that only 1 percent immediately receive the redesigned browser. If all goes well, Mozilla will open the throttle so all receive e10s in the following weeks. Mozilla frequently uses this throttling technique to gauge an upgrade's performance or find out if engineering has missed major bugs; only after it's sure that everything is good does it greenlight the upgrade for all. Even with Firefox 48, not every user will get e10s: Dotzler said that a big chunk of the user base would not see e10s in August. "The groups that will have to wait a bit for E10S account for about half of our release users and include Windows XP users, users with screen readers, RTL [right-to-left language writing] users [such as Arabic and Hebrew], and the largest group, extension users," Dotzler wrote. The last group will be impacted by e10s because Firefox's aged add-on model assumed that the browser and content used the same memory space; existing add-ons must be modified. Mozilla has published a list of e10s-compatible add-ons that showed 12 of the top 20 Firefox extensions now work. Notable exceptions included NoScript Security Suite and Ghostery. Last year, Mozilla announced it would overhaul Firefox's add-on technology to make it compatible with Chrome', so that developers can easily make their extensions Firefox-ready. (Microsoft has taken a similar approach with Edge.) When that happens, the multi-process design will not affect extensions. At some point, Mozilla intends to isolate add-ons in their own processes. "E10S is the largest change we've ever made to Firefox and we hope you'll help us get through this with as few surprises as possible," said Dotzler. "To help out, get on Beta and let us know what you find. " When available, the beta of Firefox 48 can be downloaded for Windows, OS X, and Linux from Mozilla's website. It's unclear whether, Dotzler's assertions notwithstanding, e10s and modern process management will rescue Firefox from the significant decline it's suffered in the last several years. According to analytics vendor Net Applications, Firefox's global user share , an estimate of the percentage of all users running Mozilla's browser, fell to 8.9 percent in May, the lowest level in 11 years. In the last two years, Firefox's user share has plummeted by 47 percent, and from its peak in 2010, by 65 percent. Most of those losses have been assimilated by Chrome, which is now the world's top browser.

2016-06-09 03:42 Gregg Keizer www.infoworld.com

75 This company uses AI to stop cyberattacks before they start An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, as the old saying goes, and that's just as true in cybersecurity as it is in health. So believes Cylance , a startup that uses AI to detect and prevent cyberattacks. On Wednesday, Cylance announced that it just raised a whopping $100 million in Series D funding. It will use the new infusion to expand its sales, marketing, and engineering programs. Dubbed CylanceProtect, the company's flagship product promises AI- based endpoint security while using a fraction of the system resources required by the approaches used in most enterprises today. Enabling that are technologies including machine learning. Whereas current techniques such as signature, heuristics, and behavior monitoring take a reactionary approach to threats and require an Internet connection, Cylance uses AI to proactively analyze a file's characteristics and predict before it executes on the local host, whether it is safe or a threat. More specifically, Cylance extracts millions of unique characteristics from the code and analyzes them against trained statistical models to determine their intention. Rather than relying on hash comparison or post-run behavior heuristics to determine what to do, Cylance evaluates objects in less than 100 milliseconds, early in the run time process. That way, if the object is determined to be malicious, execution can be stopped. "Our goal of reinventing endpoint security by using machine learning to think like a cyber hacker has been achieved," said Cylance CEO Stuart McClure. "We now must ensure that it is put in the hands of security leaders inside enterprises, organizations, governments, and small businesses as quickly as possible. "

2016-06-09 03:26 Katherine Noyes www.infoworld.com

76 Tinder to 17-year-olds: Get off my lawn In IT Blogwatch , bloggers think it’s the most ridiculous idea ever. Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. You have been reading IT Blogwatch by Richi Jennings , who curates the best bloggy bits, finest forums, and weirdest websites… so you don’t have to. Catch the key commentary from around the Web every morning. Hatemail may be directed to @RiCHi or [email protected] . Opinions expressed may not represent those of Computerworld. Ask your doctor before reading. Your mileage may vary. E&OE.

2016-06-09 03:11 Richi Jennings www.computerworld.com

77 Misfit Ray review: This fitness band looks like a bracelet, but trades function for style Use commas to separate multiple email addresses Your message has been sent. There was an error emailing this page. By Caitlin McGarry Macworld | Jun 9, 2016 3:10 AM PT I could tell the Misfit Ray was gonna be trouble when I couldn’t figure out how to turn it on. Misfit is taking slim and sleek fitness trackers to the next level with the newest addition the lineup, the $100 Ray. The band resembles a futuristic androgynous bracelet and doesn’t have a screen, which is why I couldn’t figure out exactly how this activity tracker that doesn’t look like an activity tracker was going to track my activity. The smart part of this bracelet is an aluminum cylinder, which comes in black or rose gold. It's also detachable from its band, as I soon learned. After trying in vain to pair the Bluetooth Ray to my phone, I realized I was missing something: batteries. Three tiny button cell batteries were buried in the Ray’s packaging, when I stupidly thought they were already placed inside the device. Batteries in hand, I stared at the band. How do I get these little coins inside this little bracelet? One video tutorial later, I was in business. The Ray was flashing its joyful, multicolored LED light at me, and the thought of using this bracelet to track my activity and sleep for eight months without having to charge it—because the last thing I need is another proprietary charger—should have put me in a cheerful mood. But the irritations continued. I’ll get to those in a minute. The Misfit Ray looks like a bracelet, so it doesn't look out of place when worn with other jewelry. Once it’s powered on, the Ray is easy enough to personalize. In the Misfit iOS app, you set activity and sleep goals and toggle on vibration alerts for calls, texts, alarms, and move reminders. All the vibrations are the same, but the LED lighting on the Ray changes to signal what it’s vibrating for. The Ray is designed to look like an unobtrusive piece of jewelry, so it doesn’t have a display. These lights are how the device communicates with you when you’re not staring at the Misfit app. So how do you know which color corresponds to which alert? Well, finding that out as pretty easy, but remembering it—not so much. Every time my wrist vibrated, I checked my phone to see if it was a text or call. If it wasn’t, I guessed that it was a move reminder. Eventually I just wanted to shut off notifications altogether. The activity and sleep data is all wrong. As far as fitness apps go, Misfit’s is one of the most beautifully designed that I’ve used. Your data is synced and laid out as a daily story that you can manually add information that the device doesn’t track, like weight and food intake. Like a journal, you can glance back at data from prior weeks to see if you’ve been meeting your goals. The Ray just isn’t that accurate at collecting that data. You specify in the app how you’re wearing the device, which can be strapped around your wrist like a normal fitness tracker or removed from its band and worn on a pendant around your neck. You can also swap out the sport band for a leather one, for an extra $20. Tracking movement from around the neck would be a little dicey, I think, but even worn in typical fashion on the wrist, the Ray never nailed my sleep times or running mileage. Instead of the 3.2 miles I usually run in the morning, the Ray overestimated my mileage by a lot —3.7, usually. I would move around before bed so the Ray knew I wasn’t sleeping, and yet it would still peg my bedtime as being hours earlier than it actually was. I’m accustomed to wearing fitness trackers to bed to get an overview of my sleep (which is almost disturbingly peaceful). But the Ray kept waking me up in the night, because I could feel aluminum cylinder pressing into the skin on my wrist. As far as undercover activity trackers go, the Ray is definitely more subtle than the Fitbits and Jawbones of the world. But sacrificing accuracy for the sake of style just leads to irritation. I prefer the subtlety of fitness bands that look like analog watches—the Withings Activité Steel is a particular favorite of mine. A useful fitness tracker shows you your progress with just a glance at your wrist. If it tells the time, even better. A vibrating alarm and text notifications are the organic cherries on top of a super-healthy sundae made with frozen yogurt instead of good ice cream. I get what Misfit is going for. I just don’t think the Ray is the best $100 activity tracker on the market—not even for the style-conscious. This story, "Misfit Ray review: This fitness band looks like a bracelet, but trades function for style" was originally published by Macworld . Caitlin McGarry — Staff Writer Caitlin covers Apple news, health and fitness tech, and social networks from IDG's New York bureau. Start your new computer off right with solid security tools, productivity software, and other programs... These graphically intense PC games dial the eye candy up to 11 -- and make your PC sweat while they're... Our top picks show off the best tech advances in portable PCs, from new CPUs and GPUs to new materials. Most signs point to a software show, but that doesn't mean new Macs, displays, or other hardware is out... The Microsoft Surface Pro 4 is the clear choice of hybrid for the enterprise - - and for good reason.... Apple’s pre-WWDC surprise announcement of changes to the App Store’s subscription policy has left a lot...

2016-06-09 03:10 Caitlin McGarry www.itnews.com

78 Securing your car from cyberattacks is becoming a big business A modern car has dozens of computers with as much as 100 million lines of code -- and for every 1,000 lines there are as many as 15 bugs that are potential doors for would-be hackers. With vehicles becoming more automated and connected to the Internet, to other cars and even roadway infrastructure, the number of potential intrusion points is growing exponentially, according to Navigant Research. While cybersecurity became a top priority for carmakers after a 2015 Jeep Cherokee was hacked last year , the lead time for developing a new car is three to five years and with a service life of 20 years or more, most vehicles have systems that bare vastly outdated compared to the latest consumer electronics devices. That's creating what researchers expect to be an enormous market for vehicle anti-malware and secure hardware. With the largest U. S. automotive telematics conference taking place this week - TU-Automotive Detroit -- traditional software companies and start- ups alike are announcing new vehicle security products. Announcements have come from Symantec , Savari and Karamba Security. "Every new vehicle today...has at least some degree of automation capability," said Sam Abuelsamid, an analyst with Navigant Research. "Essentially, every vehicle on the road is going to need some aspect of cyber security built into it. " Abuelsamid, who co-authored a recent report on automotive cybersecurity, said a flurry of companies have sprung up in Israel, including Argus Cyber Security and TowerSec. But not every company is taking the same approach to securing vehicles. For example, Argus offers an intrusion detection and prevention module that ties into a vehicle's controller area network (CAN), which connects the various electronic control units (ECUs) or computers in a car. TowerSec offers software that is embedded in existing ECUs. Karamba's software is made to be intergraded as part of a vehicle's telematics system from the factory. "Basically, what they're all doing is heuristic scanning of the vehicle's data traffic...rather than the traditional anti-virus approach, where its looking for virus signatures," Abuelsamid said. By definition, heuristic-pattern software is not perfect in that it doesn't block malware directly; it watches a vehicle's computer network for any unusual messages or code that shouldn't be there. It then mitigates the infection by keeping it from spreading or executing critical system commands, such as making a car swerve or brake. "It's a more robust approach rather than trying to find traditional anti-virus signatures because it doesn't rely on having constant updates. It is trying to discover malware-like activity before it has a chance to infect," Abuelsamid said. Along with the relatively nascent automotive anti-malware industry, system security is further endangered because vehicle engineers typically do not use the most state-of-the-art hardware. Instead, carmakers opts for processors that may be a generation or two older in order to ensure reliability and robustness. That older hardware, however, may be able to run up-to-date security systems, which can expose latent vulnerabilities in the hardware, according to Navigant. The need for cybersecurity software is so critical that the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the Association of Global Automakers set up its own Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC), which enables the sharing of data involving cybersecurity. Such info-sharing groups exist in most major industries, such as healthcare, financial services and aerospace, but until 2014 the auto industry didn't see the need for a cyber security network. Within five years, most new vehicles will be connected to the Internet, according to Gartner. And, by 2035, there will be 21 million autonomous vehicles on roadways, according to research firm IHS Automotive. Egil Juliussen, director of research at IHS Automotive, said prior to last year's Jeep Cherokee hack, which was performed by two security experts who were able to control the vehicle remotely, the auto industry didn't see an immediate threat. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), the world's seventh largest automaker, issued a recall notice for 1.4 million vehicles in order fix a software hole that allowed hackers to wirelessly break into the Jeep Cherokee and electronically control vital functions. "Last year they all got kicked in the butt," Juliussen said. "When that happened, then they had a data point around how much it could cost to fix these things -- 1.4 million cars that may cost $100, so all of a sudden you're looking at $140 million to fix that. So that changed how they looked at it. " "The first thing they did was look at existing systems...then began planning for new systems coming out in 2019 or 2018," he added. While Internet-connected vehicles offer an avenue for attack, they also provide a potential solution to cybersecurity via over the air (OTA) software updates. Those updates are only now being offered by a limited number of automakers. That will soon change. By 2022, some 203 million vehicles on the road will be able to receive over- the-air software upgrades; among those vehicles, at least 22 million will also be able to get firmware upgrades, according a report by ABI Research . By 2025, nearly half of all global light duty vehicle sales are expected to include telematics capabilities that will enable OTA software updates to address cyber security, functionality, and regulatory compliance issues, according to Navigant. When software can be updated as it is on any mobile device, new threats can be addressed in near real-time. Unlike the financial services or healthcare industry, the automobile industry offers less of a financial incentive for hackers. While vehicle infotainment systems may someday allow drivers to purchase goods and services, it's not a widespread feature and isn't expected to be anytime soon. What does loom as a larger threat from hackers is ransomware and terrorism, Abuelsamid and Juliussen said. For example, a hacker could encrypt a vehicle's infotainment system, denying access and then blackmail either the vehicle owner or the carmaker to release it. For terrorists, the potential to shut down a fleet of vehicles or a transportation system would be considered low-hanging fruit. "That's probably what's scaring [the auto industry] the most," Juliussen said. "They'll spend lots of time and money to do that. If you could disable even 10,000 cars in the New York area or any other place, that would be a total disaster. "

2016-06-09 03:01 Lucas Mearian www.itworld.com

79 Mingis on Tech: Getting virtual with reality Who knew that getting a taste of virtual reality could be so cheap? That's what Executive News Editor Ken Mingis discovered recently when a Google Cardboard VR viewer showed up in the mail -- thanks New York Times -- along with instructions to download the NYT VR app ( for iOS or for Android ). And in a moment, what Mingis had routinely dismissed as something akin to 3D TV became "Dayumn, this is cool. " Sure, you can spend $599 on an Oculus Rift or $799 for an HTC Vive to get in on the high-end virtual action. But you don't have to. For an audio podcast only, click play (or catch up on all episodes) below. Happy listening, and please, send feedback or suggestions for future topics to us. We'd love to hear from you. 2016-06-09 03:00 Ken Mingis www.itworld.com

80 'We don't care. We don't have to.' This network provider's customer is moving to the building next door -- just about 50 feet, says a pilot fish working on the job. "We called up the telco to verify phone line cutover and DSL availability so we could schedule the move," fish says. "The telco said moving next door changes where the local switching takes place, so the current phone numbers won't work and they'll need to get new numbers, and that will take an additional six to eight weeks. " What about DSL service for that building? fish asks. We'll need to send that question over to engineering and get back to you, telco rep says. A few weeks pass. There's no word on DSL, so fish calls again. Rep says they must have lost the work order. He'll reissue it and they'll call when there's word. A couple weeks more, and the customer is ready to move. Another call to the telco about DSL. Rep says they must have the lost work order again. Meanwhile, fish checks on cable Internet service, which the customer has been using at the old office. But the cable provider rep says that 50 feet is too far away to add an additional coax run. Rep suggests putting in a new cable run under the parking lot -- for $5,000. That's a little puzzling to fish, since he knows there's a shared carport between the buildings -- and there's already cabling running between the buildings. "I brought in a cabling contractor and had him do a Cat-5 run between the buildings, and voila! Internet for the new office courtesy of a spare port on the old office's switch," says fish. "Oh yeah -- three months after the move, a telco tech called from the customer site to ask where I wanted the DSL. "

2016-06-09 03:00 Sharky www.computerworld.com

81 Salesforce puts Lightning in a tightly sealed bottle Looking to take cloud app security to a new level, Salesforce is rolling out its LockerService architecture for its Lightning apps platform. Lightning provides components for building multi-form-factor apps for deployment on Salesforce App Cloud. LockerService isolates individual components in their own containers and helps promote coding best practices, said Ryan Ellis, executive vice president of product management at Salesforce. Salesforce's goals with LockerService include keeping application components from causing cross-site scripting (XSS) issues or other problems, preventing components from reading other components’ rendered data without restrictions, and stopping components from calling undocumented or private APIs. LockerService enforces JavaScript ECMAScript 5 Strict Mode without developers having to specify it. Enforcement covers declaration of variables with the var keyword and other JavaScript coding best practices. Libraries used by components must also run in strict mode. With the LockerService DOM access containment feature, a component can only traverse the DOM and access elements created by that component. This prevents the "anti-pattern" of reaching into DOM elements owned by other components. Content security policy has also been tightened to eliminate XSS attacks by removing the unsafe-inline and unsafe-eval keywords for inline scripts (script-src). LockerService features client-side API versioning, a faster security review, more secure JavaScript development practices, and the ability to run JavaScript frameworks like React and Angular . The architecture will be rolled out as a "critical update," Ellis said. "Critical updates give customers time to evaluate and test a change in their sandbox environments before enabling it in their production environment and is standard practice for us with deeper changes such as this one. " Half of customers received LockerService last weekend as part of the Salesforce Summer '16 rollout, and the other half will get it this coming weekend.

2016-06-09 03:00 Paul Krill www.infoworld.com

82 Learn from SOA: 5 lessons for the microservices era As I mentioned in my previous article, “ Microservice architecture is agile software architecture ,” my initial reaction to microservice architecture was to question how it differed from service- oriented architecture (SOA). I was not alone in associating these two architectural styles. In their definitive blog post , James Lewis and Martin Fowler included a sidebar that contrasts microservices and SOA. In response, skeptics claimed there were no differences. And in fact, influential microservice adopters Amazon and Netflix both referred to their architectures as service-oriented before the term “microservices” was coined. More than two years later, the debate over whether microservice architecture is or is not SOA has produced a substantial library of articles. Why are people so driven to compare microservices and SOA, and why is there so much passion? Although microservices and SOA can be differentiated on many levels -- architectural style, implementation examples, associated technologies -- they have played strikingly similar roles in the technology landscape. Both promised to be transformational, and they succeeded in attracting adherents who attracted still more adherents. In short, while both microservices and SOA began as architectures, they ultimately became movements. Alas, today SOA is generally viewed as a failed movement within enterprise IT, and the wounds are still fresh for the many people who invested in it. This is why there is so much passionate interest in comparing microservices with SOA. People see a similar promise in microservices, and they fear a similar disappointment. In order to understand the context of the microservices-versus-SOA debate, it is important to retrace the history of the SOA movement: what fueled its momentum, and what ultimately sent it off track. Gartner analyst Roy Schulte defined service-oriented architecture in 1996 as follows: A service-oriented architecture is a style of multitier computing that helps organizations share logic and data among multiple applications and usage modes. In spite of this early definition, SOA didn’t gain popularity in the industry until 2002, following the emergence of web services. Although SOAP/XML web services were originally intended for server-to-server web communication between disparate organizations, they were quickly co-opted by enterprise architects who were evaluating ways to exploit the web as a new channel and looking to harness its new technologies wherever possible. As an internet-friendly way of connecting applications, with large cost savings projected , web services caught like wildfire in these enterprises. The “service-oriented architecture” label was adopted for this approach, and the SOA movement was born. As the SOA movement kicked into gear, a new integration pattern emerged to facilitate SOA’s loose coupling principle: the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). Many people now forget that the ESB pattern was intended to be lightweight and ubiquitous , in direct contrast to the hub-and-spoke Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) brokers that were common at the time. In fact, the ESB concept was itself a reaction to the issues caused by the monolithic nature of EAI brokers, such as slower software delivery, too many cross-team dependencies, and poor manageability. Fittingly, the original ESB deployment vision was an integrated network of collaborating service nodes , reminiscent of the “smart endpoints and dumb pipes” principle that has been adopted by the microservices movement. However, as the notion of the ESB gained popularity, it developed a new meaning. Following a 2002 prediction by Gartner that the ESB pattern would be implemented in the majority of enterprises by 2005, the hub-and- spoke EAI middleware vendors were able to convince many in the industry that an ESB was not a pattern , but rather a middleware product to be used for enterprise application integration. They rebranded their EAI broker products as ESBs and customers ate them up. As Gartner had predicted, implementing an ESB became almost an imperative in 2005. Enterprise IT organizations formed centralized delivery groups to manage the ESB infrastructure and become involved in integration projects across their companies. The ESB gave the SOA championing enterprise architects a foothold in the application environments they were tasked with transforming. They used this foothold for two new purposes: control and consistency. SOA program leaders justified their need for control in order to ensure the development and usage of services that supported the organization’s business objectives. This led to the SOA governance submovement that gave birth to its own category of software products. Efforts to establish consistency included attempts at defining canonical enterprise data models and an ever expanding set of vendor-driven standards (collectively WS-*) intended to ease interoperability between web service platforms. With the technological template, the prescriptive standards, and the centralized culture of command and control, the would-be lightweight alternative to EAI had become heavier and heavier. SOA had lost its way. The original promise of SOA was to speed up project delivery, increase IT agility, and reduce integration costs. However, SOA adopters -- i.e., adopters of what SOA had become by this point -- found that it actually increased complexity and introduced bottlenecks, and the costs of implementing an SOA infrastructure (based on the ESB, registry, and service platform template) were excessive. By 2009, people were not merely questioning the SOA approach but marking its death. RESTful Web APIs -- a style of interconnecting applications that had evolved organically on the Web -- arose as a lighter- weight alternative to SOAP services. The distributed nature of cloud infrastructure challenged the placement of the centralized ESB topology. Organizationally and culturally, the agile movement was driving decentralization and team autonomy. The combination of factors among others took the SOA movement out of the mainstream. Asking whether microservices and SOA are different or the same is the wrong question. Why would it matter? The right question is to ask what the microservices movement can learn from the SOA movement. What went wrong? What endured? Here are five important lessons. The microservices movement is exciting. In synthesizing proven principles with new technologies and cultural practices, it is legitimately new. Whether it is SOA done well, an evolution of SOA, or the anti-SOA is beside the point. Microservices will come, leave its mark, and be replaced by the next movement, then the next, and so on. In the present, it is up to the members of the microservices movement to determine what that mark looks like. Heeding these lessons from the SOA movement will hopefully maintain the harmony that can help organizations achieve speed and safety at scale.

2016-06-09 03:00 Matt McLarty www.infoworld.com

83 We have the big data tools -- let's learn to use them Recently, at the Apache Spark Maker Community event in San Francisco , I was on a panel and feeling a bit salty. It seems many people have prematurely declared victory in the data game. A few people have achieved self-service, and even more have claimed to. In truth, this is a tiny minority - - and most of those people have achieved cargo-cult datacentricity. They use Hadoop and/or Spark and pull data into Excel, manipulate it, and paste it into PowerPoint. Maybe they've added Tableau and are able to make prettier charts, but what really has changed? Jack, that's what. Self-service is only step one on this trip to data-driven decision-making. Companies need to know their data before they can consider their choices -- but this is still very much data at the edges with a meat cloud in the center. So far, we use computer aided decision-making and computer-driven process where we have to: advanced fraud detection, algorithmic trading, and rigorously regulated processes (such as Obamacare). Generally, we don't use it elsewhere. Hundreds of millions of people are sitting in cubicles with a grid on their screen manually typing numbers into a spreadsheet. This manual data labor is the bane of corporate existence. As Peter Gibbons put it , "Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms. " We already have the technologies necessary to eliminate this and free humans for the intuitive leaps and creative endeavors they excel at. Yet as a recent New York Times article noted , we mostly use new technology to do the same old thing and do not reap the productivity rewards. Though we need better tools, the wisdom of the day is that everyone will code, because that's what the tools require. Truly, that only seems reasonable because Spark still sucks so much (more fairly, it's a relatively low-level distributed computing framework). It only looks brilliant compared to what we had. At the same time, Spark isn't actually a framework for managing and gaining insights from our data. Now, the rabble will start chanting "applications! " Yet having 100 closed-loop applications will quickly lead to more Excelitis. Instead, it's time to employ a strategy. As I once said in a discussion about groupware, in a mature business, every email is a little failure, as is every hand-generated report or spreadsheet. I'll go further and say every time you have to stare at your phone, it's a microfailure. In any city, look around, you'll see hundreds of people missing everything around them while they hold their phones in their hands and stare at a tiny screen. Part of the problem is we'll still polling and pulling for data. A machine-driven process (designed by people) would instead prompt us: You would know you're not missing anything and do your job -- or better yet, live your life. Success isn't more visualizations. Success is the abolition of the PC and the smartphone as we know them. Success is when we're alerted to data as needed and spend most of our time making creative and intuitive leaps. Self-service, in other words, still indentures us to data labor. The next huge leaps are when we design real systems and go back to living something that looks a lot more like the future envisioned in the 19th century. To do so, we must use data and the scientific method to make decisions and, more important, create processes and systems to make decisions rather than making them ourselves. We need to create methodologies around doing this rather than hoping the next tool of the day will free us from thinking about how to do this. We already have the tools we need to get there. It's time to start using them correctly.

2016-06-09 03:00 Andrew C www.infoworld.com

84 Overwatch map tricks and secret routes One of the most important skills in a shooter is map awareness—knowing all your available escape and flanking routes—and a lot of that comes from experience. But watching other players doesn’t hurt, either, so we’ve compiled a guide to some of our favorite routes and tricks in all of Overwatch’s maps (except for Route 66 and Hollywood, where we didn’t have many strong opinions). This guide isn’t totally comprehensive, of course—there’s tons more already discovered or waiting to be—but we’ll keep adding new routes as we test ‘em, as well as some good turret placements. Widowmaker is excellent for defending on Hanamura. It’s got good choke points to work with, and lots of elevated hiding spots. One is inside the final capture point area, and is easy to get to— just grapple up to the platform. Further out from that point, you can sneakily camp on top of a hunk of technology, as seen below. Lots of characters, including Hanzo, Genji, D. Va, and Pharah, can get through the top windows in the ‘tall room’ on the left path as you approach the first capture point as attackers. It’s a little trickier with Junkrat, but he can do it. Junkrat’s ultimate can be bounced through the windows, too. There are a lot of elevated platforms near the second point, which Genji can make good use of. Widowmaker can snipe from the floating barge near attacker spawn. Characters with movement abilities (D. Va, Tracer, Pharah, Reaper, and so on) can skip the bottleneck on the first point entirely by flying/teleporting over the river to the left as you approach from attacker spawn. Just be careful: Lucio can pull off a defensive ambush at the beginning. On the final point of the map, attacking Pharahs, Lucios, D. Vas, and others can sneak around the right side of the map, to the right of the health kit closet. The main chokepoint is very defensible, so by going this way you can harass and scatter the defense to make it easier for tanks to get through. Pharah, Genji , and D. Va can fly under the refinery between the final capture point and the first bend in the final approach—useful for both attack and defense. Mercy should be able to do it if following. An attacking Lucio can get to the top window of the church they spawn in by wall running (this takes a bit of trial and error). From there you can speed boost-wall run directly to the capture point without touching the ground.

2016-06-09 02:12 By PC www.pcgamer.com

85 The stats don’t lie, Lucio is Overwatch’s most valuable hero Overwatch keeps a detailed record of your in-game stats—sorting kills, damage, healing, and lots more by hero. But what’s the point of knowing your stats if you can’t rub your superior McCree winrate in the faces of your friends? Since face-rubbing functionality isn’t built into the game, stat- tracking website Master Overwatch has emerged to fill that role. And according to the site, everybody's favorite beat-dropping DJ, Lucio, is among the top three heroes in the game for popularity, winrate, and score- per-minute. Master Overwatch gathers player statistics through their career profiles, putting it all into one searchable, sortable database. Players aren’t added to that database until their profile has been searched for, so it isn’t a complete representation of all 7+ million people playing the game. But even so, the Master Overwatch team told me they “currently have over 800,000 players in the database and the leaderboards are based on those players,” despite having no official API from Blizzard to help gather this information. The data exposes some interesting things about the state of Overwatch’s meta shortly after launch, like how the different heroes stack up against one another. For example, Symmetra is currently sitting pretty with the highest overall winrate at 61.7%, but is also the least picked of any hero. Meanwhile Mercy is bringing up the rear with a 48% winrate, despite being the most- picked hero in the game—followed closely in popularity by Lucio who, as mentioned, is near or at the top of pretty much every column. Seriously, Lucio is statistically one of the best heroes in Overwatch. It isn't a secret that Lucio is a valuable pick on almost any team, but these stats clearly show just how influential he can be. He has the highest score per minute (probably because he’s able to heal multiple characters at once and contribute some damage), the third highest winrate, and is the second most popular character globally—which jumps to the most popular for PS4 players. Indeed, Master Overwatch highlights some other interesting discrepancies between PC and console players. Torbjorn boasts a strong 59.4% winrate among PC players, but that number jumps all the way up to 68% on consoles. Additionally, those joysticks seem to get in the way of good sniping, as Widowmaker has a 49.9% winrate with a mouse and keyboard, but only 46.4% and 47.7% on PS4 and Xbox One respectively. It seems an auto-aiming turret is a valuable asset when you’re using a gamepad, while a sniper rifle is generally more of a burden. I encourage you to mess with the filters and look through this data yourself, especially because there’s no guarantee what Blizzard’s reaction to the site will be. The Master Overwatch team told me that Blizzard hasn’t taken a position for or against this sort of thing yet, and that uncertainty has influenced the site’s development. “Of course we are nervous if Blizzard decides to remove access or prevent these sorts of things,” Master Overwatch told me, “but that is why we are very, very careful, despite the frequency that we have been releasing features, about the quality of those features that we introduce.” The team believes the tools they are providing are valuable to the game and the community, and I’m inclined to agree. Master Overwatch is also looking to provide tools for the game’s esports scene, with hand-curated player profile lists for some of the top teams in the game right now. Want to see the K/D of streamer and Luminosity player Seagull on his signature hero, Genji? Turns out it’s a whopping 4.29, though it’s important to note that figure currently only includes stats from Quick Play games. Tournaments and other custom matches aren’t included, but Master Overwatch is hoping to bring the numbers that are available into a tournament setting by partnering with One Nation of Gamers for a $15K tournament this weekend. “During the ONOG games, we will have a list of all the players' public profiles for viewers to quickly take a glance at,” Master Overwatch said, “that's what we're going for—this higher level of engagement.” Master Overwatch is a pretty rich toolset considering it’s only been around for two weeks, and the more people that use it the more accurate those numbers will get. Hopefully Blizzard sees the value a site like this has for Overwatch’s rapidly growing community, and ideally provides an official API to make developing similar things even easier. The alternative, going all Nostalrius on it , would be disappointing for everyone involved.

2016-06-09 00:13 Tom Marks www.pcgamer.com

86 Plex Media Server Storms Onto NVIDIA SHIELD Pro Console To Satisfy Media Hoarders | HotHardware Last month, we brought you news that NVIDIA’s SHIELD Experience Upgrade 3.2 would bring some niceties like 4K VUDU content, in- app voice search and HDR support for the Netflix app, 4K support for the YouTube app, and the enabling of HDR GameStream for use with Pascal graphics cards. But what NVIDIA failed to mention at the time, was that it was saving the best for last when it comes to the new software update: NVIDIA is also bringing the Plex Media Server to SHIELD Pro. The Plex app has always been included for free with with the SHIELD, but adding media server capabilities just makes the console an even more powerful streaming tool for owners. In case you didn’t already know, Plex is an incredibly popular media app that lets you organize all of your movies, TV shows and pictures into a single place. You can then access that content from your computers or streaming devices (a la Roku , Chromecast , Fire TV ) via your home Wi-Fi network or away from the home using a smartphone or tablet. By leveraging the powerful, 8-core ARM-based processor and its GeForce -class GPU, the SHIELD is actually capable of supporting hardware- accelerated video transcoding (H.264, MPEG2 and HEVC). SHIELD will also support multiple streams at a time at 1080p resolutions, which is a huge boon to families. That’s something that we can’t say for other ARM- based boxes out there. It also makes the SHIELD more competitive with expensive transcode-enabled NAS boxes or standalone PCs that are often used as dedicated Plex Media Servers. If you’re a content hoarder, it’s very likely the 500GB HDD in the SHIELD Pro won’t be enough to satiate your needs. With this in mind, NVIDIA allows you to hook up external drives to your SHIELD that can be classified as internal storage to further expand your library, or you can simply mount a NAS drive. And getting your media content to your SHIELD has been made easy using a simple drag and drop from your PC/Mac using the network share feature. When the dust settles, the SHIELD Experience Upgrade 3.2 brings a lot to the table for SHIELD Pro customers, and the addition of the Plex Media Server is just the icing on the cake.

2016-06-09 00:00 Brandon Hill hothardware.com

87 Save Big On Microsoft SQL Server Database Administration Certification Training In The HotHardware Shop | HotHardware Description: If you want to learn all there is to know about SQL Server and Microsoft’s data platform, we’ve got an awesome deal running in the HotHardware Shop you’ll want to check out. Microsoft SQL Server Database Administration Certification Training is heavily discounted (over 90% off!) and available for only $39… SQL Server is the foundation of the Microsoft data platform, and a leader in the deployment and management of industry databases both in-house and in the cloud. It enables enhanced in-memory performance, provides for faster transactions and queries than disk-based relational databases, and offers real-time operational analytics. In this comprehensive training course, you'll learn everything you need to pass the Microsoft SQL Server 70-464, 70-465, 70-411 and 70-412 certification exams. Through lectures, activities, and study guides, you'll soon be qualified for high-paying Microsoft database management positions.

2016-06-09 00:00 Hh Editor hothardware.com

88 WWDC 2016: iOS, OS X, App Store and what else to expect APPLE'S ANNUAL WORLDWIDE DEVELOPER CONFERENCE (WWDC) is now just one week away, with the firm's keynote speech set to take place on 13 June. The amount of speculation surrounding the event has given us a pretty good idea of what we can expect from Tim Cook and Co this year, and we've rounded it up below. Naturally, we'll be covering WWDC as it happens, so be sure to join us from 6pm next Monday for all the latest. iOS 10 Soz, but no prizes for guessing that a new version of iOS will be shown off during the keynote. It's no secret that iOS 10 will make its debut, but we don't yet know much about what it has in store, as rumours point vaguely to an improved Apple Music application and minor tweaks and updates to Siri. But there's talk that iOS 10 might finally bring the ability to hide, or even remove, Apple's stock applications, something Tim Cook alluded to earlier this year . In not such good news, there's also speculation that Apple will make iOS 10 near "impossible" to jailbreak thanks to a new security system called 'Rootless'. Check out our list of the top 10 iOS 10 features we want to see .

2016-06-09 00:00 www.theinquirer.net

89 uTorrent forums hack sees 35,000 accounts comprimised BITTORRENT HAS WARNED that its uTorrents forum has suffered a breach, and has advised all users to change their passwords. The uTorrent forums has tens of thousands of visitors a day and over 388,000 registered members, according to TorrentFreak , but Have I Been Pwned? said that roughly 35,000 accounts have been compromised. BitTorrent hasn't said much about the intrusion, but has said that it made aware of it by the firm's forum software vendor. However, it hasn't publicly named the vendor that was hacked. The company said in a security notice on its website: "On June 6th 2016 BitTorrent was made aware of a security issue involving the vendor that powers our forums. "The vulnerability appears to have been through one of the vendor’s other clients, however it allowed attackers to access some information on other accounts. "As a result, attackers were able to download a list of our forum users. We are investigating further to learn if any other information was accessed. Our vendor has made back-end changes so that the hashes in the file do not appear to be a usable attack vector. " BitTorrent has advised users to change their passwords, which were probably crap anyway. Related: The 6 dumbest passwords from the LinkedIn hack "As a precaution, we are advising our users to change their passwords. While the passwords may not be used as a vector on the forums, those hashed passwords should be considered compromised," the firm said. "Anyone using the same password for forums as well as other places is strongly advised to update their passwords and/or use good personal security practices. " BitTorrent is the latest in a long line of firms to suffer such a breach. Just today, Tessa88, the hacker responsible for the recent attacks on LinkedIn , Myspace , Tumblr and Russian Facebook copycat VK, revealed that they have obtained a database of 33 million Twitter log-ins that are now for sale on the dark web for £4,000. µ

2016-06-09 00:00 www.theinquirer.net

90 Hands On: Philips Sonicare FlexCare Platinum Connected Philips has the latest in Bluetooth-connected oral hygiene technology: The Philips Sonicare FlexCare Platinum Connected. For $199, you can use the high-tech brush's motion sensors to track your brushing technique and sync it with an app to immediately identify problem areas. Missed a spot? The Sonicare will let you know, complete with a 3D representation of your own set of choppers. Though I didn't get to actually clean my pearly whites with the new brush, I did get to handle a prototype and take a peek at the app at an event here in New York City. The brush itself is about what you'd expect from an electric toothbrush. The brush head is, according to Philips, "the only power toothbrush head with flexible rubberized sides and bristles that uniquely conform to the shape of teeth and gums," which I imagine is a claim every toothbrush company makes. As far as the brush head goes, you know what to expect: Some rotating bristles. The rest of the brush is a little more complicated. A big Power button sits near the middle, while a series of Bluetooth LED indicators are located below. Below those is a rubbery rocker for vibration intensity—press the Plus icon for a stronger shake and the Minus icon for a lesser flutter; there are three levels of intensity. Below that, there are indicators for the Sonicare FlexCare Platinum's three brushing modes: Clean is the default mode; White is meant to remove surface stains to polish up teeth; and DeepClean is for, well, really deep cleans. I don't know if there's a tangible difference between any of these modes yet, though you would think one "mode" would be all you need for any of those objectives. Finally, there's a button to switch between modes, and a battery life indicator. Philips claims the battery lasts up to two weeks between charges. As for the app, it shows you exactly where you need to brush in real time. That means you can hold a smartphone or tablet with the app open, with your brush in the other hand, and follow a 3D model of your bicuspids, incisors, and molars to make sure you don't miss any problem areas. Though that sounds kind of uncomfortable (maybe even unnecessary), the app also times your brushing sessions so it ensures you hit (and don't exceed) the dentist-recommended two minutes of brushing for your gums and teeth to remain healthy. The sensors inside the brush also alert you when you're scrubbing too hard or too softly, which could be useful for anyone worried about their gum health. To make sure you keep brushing, Philips has included a coaching aspect into the app. I only saw a few snippets of advice, but it was fairly obvious stuff like "Be sure to floss daily" and "Use mouthwash. " Hopefully there are more detailed suggestions or insights available in the final version. For instance, it would be great to receive warnings from the app about coffee staining followed by a message like "Perhaps you should skip the latte for the next 3 days. " Philips promises the Philips Sonicare FlexCare Platinum Connected will improve your brushing technique, or your money back, which is a nice promise to keep considering this is a $200 toothbrush. There will also be an optional UV sanitizer that claims to kill the bacteria on your brush head. We'll have a full review when the Sonicare FlexCare Platinum Connected comes out in July.

2016-06-09 00:00 By feedproxy.google.com

91 Bruce Schneier: IoT programmers can't be left to code the world PROGRAMMERS CANNOT be allowed to code the world willy-nilly as the Internet of Things (IoT) grows because they will create a cyber security mess. That’s according to Bruce Schneier, security technologist and a member of the Infosecurity Europe Hall of Fame, who warned that the people making IoT devices and software need to be reined in by governments. INQ debate: The Internet Of Things is an existential threat for technology adoption laggards "I don't think we can do that anymore. I think this is becoming too critical to allow programmers to do what they want. " Schneier raised this point after concerns that policies and regulations are needed that tackle the hacker threats posed to IoT devices and networks that have the potential to cause physical damage to people. He described the IoT as effectively a world-sized robot that we are building without realising it because connected devices can sense, think and act autonomously. It will grow to a point where all the connected devices create systems so big that even one breach could cause a catastrophe. Schneier believes that governments and organisations need to put a break on programmers and other people making IoT tech without any real forethought or planning around the effects the tech can have on society, particularly if it gets breached. He said that people should start disconnecting IoT devices or make systems that are distributed but not connected until this problem and the wider security concerns are addressed. Or at least he’d like to see devices that fail in a safe way, such as being able to work offline. The technologist makes a very good point as apparently just one in 10 IoT devices offers adequate security , which is pretty worrying given that big tech firms are looking to pump out more IoT tech and add artificial intelligence to it . µ

2016-06-09 00:00 www.theinquirer.net

92 92 Singapore's civil servants are set to lose internet privileges By this time next year, Singapore's civil servants will have lost access to the internet. The ban, which will affect all 100,000 or so computers used by government agencies, ministries and statutory boards, will come into effect in May 2017. Singapore's Information Development Authority (IDA), the government agency in charge of IT, revealed that it had already begun a trial run of the initiative beginning in April this year within its own agency. Civil servants who need to use to internet will reportedly have access to "internet terminals". The IDA has said that civil servants would still have access to the internet via their own personal devices while at work. However, others see the benefits of the move. "There is no right or wrong approach around banning the internet," says Tony Jarvis, Check Point Software Technologies' chief strategist for threat prevention APAC, Middle East & Africa. "At first glance, the decision to ban internet access might seem extreme. However, it is important to note that this decision will have been made after careful review. " He says that the removal of internet access will bring "the benefit of reducing exposure to many threats" at the cost of productivity and organisational efficacy.

2016-06-09 00:00 Rahil Bhagat www.cnet.com

93 Brace yourself: The longest episode yet of 'Game of Thrones' is coming We're at the tail end of 2016's "Game of Thrones" season, which is sad news for fans. But HBO has something the show's legions can get excited about: Season 6's season finale will clock in at a whopping 69 minutes. The penultimate episode will also be longer than most, running for 60 minutes, the publication reports. Below you'll find the episode names, but be warned, spoilers abound:

2016-06-09 00:00 Daniel Van www.cnet.com

94 Sony Xperia X review Specifications PROCESSOR Hexa-core 1.8GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 SCREEN SIZE 5in SCREEN RESOLUTION 1,920x1,080 REAR CAMERA 23 megapixels STORAGE (FREE) 32GB (20GB) WIRELESS DATA 3G, 4G SIZE 143x69x7.7mm WEIGHT 152g OPERATING SYSTEM Android 6.0.1 WARRANTY One year RTB DETAILS www.sonymobile.com PART CODE F5121

2016-06-09 00:00 Alan Lu www.itpro.co.uk

95 AI employment crunch is "fanciful", claims HPE exec Artificial intelligence will not replace human jobs but will instead help to augment human intelligence, it has been claimed. Speaking at HPE Discover in Las Vegas, executive VP and GM of HPE Software, Robert Youngjohns, called the idea of AI and machine learning replacing humans "fanciful". "Everything and everyone is producing data, whether it's enterprise apps, mobile phones, wearable devices, thermostats, sensors, log files, and more and more," said Youngjohns. "Machine learning does is employ advanced techniques - statistical inference, pattern recognition, artificial neural networks - to understand information in context and reveal hidden insights and predict outcomes" "We need a pragmatic way to get and harness this, to augment human intelligence of our people and our organisation. This isn't about replacing people. Sometimes there's this fanciful view of machine learning and artificial intelligence will be replacing the intelligent [people] is a little far fetched. This is about augmenting human intelligence, making our people more insightful, more effective and more responsive so we can collectively deliver superior business outcomes," he added. Asked by IT Pro why he was so confident in this prediction when others are predicting the imminent demise of jobs and the rise of the machines, Youngjohns said he would "never say never" to anything, but that it is a case of "stages and phases". "When people talk about AI, they immediately go to 'ex-machina' and the robot that does everything and it's an incredible power with human characteristics and so on and that may well be something that happens later on down the track," Youngjohns said. "But I think that the real power of the analytics frameworks over the next five - 10 years is its ability to augment the decision-making processes we already have. " "We are drowning in information and if you can have tools to help you sort through it, select it, look at it in a different way, it can actually enhance the innate qualities we have. So that's why I talk about it being about augmented human intelligence as the next phase," he concluded.

2016-06-09 00:00 Jane McCallion www.itpro.co.uk

96 96 BBC to experiment with 360-degree video and virtual reality BRITISH BROADCASTER the BBC is delving into virtual reality (VR) by creating 360-degree video projects for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. The BBC Taster experimental platform will offer access to 360-degree and VR video projects that can be used with the premium VR headsets or cheaper versions such as Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR. The BBC has flirted with 360-degree video before, but is now exploring full VR video for the first time. You won't be able to watch Don't Tell The Bride in VR just yet, but the broadcaster will release Easter Rising: Voice of a Rebel ( video below ) , We Wait and Home - A VR Spacewalk on the platform. Related: The INQUIRER's guide to VR The former two work on the Oculus Rift and the latter on the HTC Vive, and will be premiered at the Sheffield Documentary Festival. A 360-degree video of Trooping the Colour has also been created to give users a "queen's eye view" of the military display. Will Saunders, editorial lead for BBC Taster, explained that the BBC is keen to experiment with 360-degree video and VR to establish how it fits in with the content delivered to viewers and to augment its production processes. "This is all part of the BBC’s early experimentation to help us better understand emerging technology and new mediums, explore the potential for future audiences, and see what kind of role the BBC should, or shouldn’t, play," he said. "In terms of the technology, the main difference is that VR is more interactive and immersive than 360-degree video, which is very much as it sounds: a video played out in 360 degrees around the viewer. “However, both have the potential to give viewers a sense of presence. This is interesting to us as programme makers as it can help make people feel like they’re at the heart of the action or the story, which could help future audiences better understand important current affairs, news, science and history topics or give them a new perspective.” Amazon, Netflix and YouTube are exploring the use of VR , so it is no surprise that the BBC is also experimenting in the area. µ

2016-06-09 00:00 www.theinquirer.net

97 Spotify's Daniel Ek 'not going to sell' the streaming service Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek said on Thursday that he has no intention of selling the Swedish streaming service. Spotify is a music-streaming giant with the biggest paid subscriber base in the world, but it is also a loss-making company, making it a possible target for a takeover by a bigger company. But even if a tech titan wanted to purchase the service, Ek has said it's not for sale. Spotify is the plucky European startup that competes with major US-based services such as Apple Music, Google Music and YouTube, and Ek wants to keep it that way. "My selfish ambition with Spotify is just trying to show... that we can create one of those super companies here in Europe," Reuters reports the entrepreneur as saying at the Brilliant Minds symposium in Stockholm. When asked directly whether he would consider giving up the company, he responded: "I'm not going to sell, no. " A Spotify spokeswoman said the company had no additional comment.

2016-06-09 00:00 Katie Collins www.cnet.com

98 98 Rocky mountain high (speed): Acura to field two NSXs, NSX-inspired electric prototype at Pikes Peak But that's not all. Acura is also bringing out what it calls "an NSX-inspired prototype vehicle" in the hill climb's Electric Modified class. Honda did something similar with a CR-Z based prototype last year, and it won the Challenge Exhibition class. This new model will feature three times the power from its four individual electric motors, all of which is bolted to an NSX body. Yipes. At the helm is Tetsuya Yamano, who drove the CR-Z prototype to its class victory last year. The hill climb kicks off on June 26.

2016-06-09 00:00 Andrew Krok www.cnet.com

99 Google's Larry Page is reportedly building flying cars in secret Zee. Aero, which set up shop next to Google HQ in Mountain View, California back in 2010, has previously denied any affiliation with Google -- or any tech company for that matter -- but has reportedly been funded in secret by Page since its inception. Page is said to have spent more than $100 million of his personal fortune on the company, but demanded his involvement be kept hidden from the public, said Bloomberg, citing 10 people with intimate knowledge of Zee. Aero. The company is said to be building an electric plane that can take off and land vertically, with the help of aerospace designers and engineers hired from NASA, Boeing and Space X. The second startup, Kitty Hawk, is reported by Bloomberg to be building a vehicle "that resembles a giant version of a quadcopter drone. " Page supposedly invested in the company, which is headed up by founder of the Google X special projects research division, last year. Google and Zee. Aero did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Kitty Hawk could not be reached.

2016-06-09 00:00 Katie Collins www.cnet.com

100 Making bourbon, with a tech twist Woodford Reserve's bourbon warehouse can make you feel mildly inebriated. It's warm, it's dark and it smells invitingly boozy. The other stone buildings in the Versailles, Kentucky (pronounced Ver-SAY-ils), distillery add to that sensation. Giant copper stills and 20- foot-high vats made from cypress give off a complex aroma of grain, fermenting mash, toasted wood and alcohol. This is the best-smelling story I've ever reported. Kentucky is bourbon country, making 95 percent of that particular drink. And bourbon country is a good place to be right now because bourbon is enjoying a revival. Last year, US sales of Kentucky bourbon, Tennessee whiskey and rye rose almost 8 percent, to $2.9 billion. Theories as to why include everything from better marketing to consumers' new affection for top-shelf drinks. There's a problem, though. Despite the fact that bourbon production has increased 170 percent since 1999, distillers are having trouble keeping up with demand. That's because it takes a really long time to make bourbon. Making it goes roughly like this: Mix finely ground grain with water and add yeast to create mash, which then ferments. The fermented mash gets distilled into spirit. Distilleries pour that into new American oak barrels, which have been charred on the inside, and then store it for anywhere from four years to two decades. This barrel aging gives the bourbon its color and distinctive flavor as natural changes in pressure and temperature move the spirit in and out of the wood. For Woodford Reserve and other traditional bourbon makers, barrel aging is as much a curse as a blessing. It gives their products the premium cachet they want, but it also forces them to wait years before recouping their expenses. Now, a new breed of small craft distilleries is trying to take the years out of aging. They're turning to new technologies and processes they hope will deliver the taste and finish people expect from quality bourbon, without the expense. But not everyone applauds their efforts to stray from tradition. Some in the industry worry these new processes could compromise bourbon's reputation and everything it represents. Cleveland Whiskey has no warehouse. It doesn't even store barrels. Three years ago its founder, Tom Lix, wanted to see if high pressure could make bourbon age quickly. Something of an amateur chemist, he tinkered with that idea out of his basement -- blowing up about 600 mason jars in the process. "My wife was worried the police were going to knock on the door," he says. "It was the early days of 'Breaking Bad.' She was convinced the neighbors thought we had a meth lab in the basement. " Today, Cleveland Whiskey adds oxygen and precisely cut pieces of American oak, sugar maple or black cherry to pressurized containers holding the new spirit. The pressure forces the spirit to continually move in and out of the wood. That, along with proprietary techniques the company won't divulge, produces bourbon in less than a week. Cleveland Whiskey has won four gold medals. It has also been called the world's most-hated whiskey among traditional bourbon drinkers. Opponents say barrel aging is about more than just getting wood flavor into the spirit. The barrel also acts as a filter that, over time, mellows unwanted flavors. That's one reason Terressentia -- which makes private label spirits as well as bourbon under the O. Z. Tyler Distillery name -- developed its own rapid- aging process called TerrePure. According to the company's website, TerrePure uses ultrasound, heat and oxygen to eliminate "harsh-tasting impurities present in all spirits" to reveal "the pleasant taste and aroma" that people want. Terressentia CEO Earl Hewlette claims they can take a whiskey that's been in a barrel for six months to a year, and TerrePure will handle the rest. Why are traditionalists so opposed to fast aging? Fear that an inferior product would damage bourbon's popularity, says Michael Veach, bourbon historian and author. If someone really did find a way to rapidly age bourbon without harming flavor, the industry "would all adopt it in a heartbeat," he says, "because it would save them a lot of money and make them a lot of money. " So for now, traditional distilleries will turn to technology to improve efficiency, but won't compromise their core identity. Technology varies among distilleries. Woodford Reserve uses cooling coils in its cypress fermenters and heat cycling in the warehouse to encourage the barrels to expand and contract. "While a lot of the equipment looks very old-fashioned -- and it is -- we've put modern components within it to make it run the way it needs to today," master distiller Chris Morris tells me as we walk between buildings. Eddie Russell, master distiller at nearby Wild Turkey, installed a computerized system that automatically opens and closes water or grain valves. "It's helped me be more consistent and that's what we strive for," he says. "I don't have to worry about somebody talking to a friend and forgetting to turn the water on after 10 minutes. " Maker's Mark will have none of it, even if there are more efficient ways to do the same things. All the labels on the bottles are die-cut and torn by hand because founder Bill Samuels' wife, Marge, did it that way. And all of the bottles, known for the red wax that drips down their necks, are hand dipped in that wax. "It's a way of knowing that every bottle a consumer picks up, no matter where they are in the world, was held and created by the team here at Maker's Mark," says Victoria MacRae-Samuels, vice president of operations for the popular bourbon maker. Writing about bourbon without tasting it borders on negligence. So in the name of professionalism, I stage an unofficial, double-blind taste test with three of my friends. The contestants: O. Z. Tyler Honey Bourbon Whiskey, Wild Turkey American Honey and Evan Williams Honey. The four testers are between 26 and 32, with a range of bourbon expertise. Adam is the connoisseur, the collector. He has more than 80 bottles and stores details and history like sports stats. Michael swears by the $8.99 Benchmark bourbon from Buffalo Trace, but has a few bottles of $200 bourbon, including Angel's Envy. His heart breaks when someone doesn't like it. Paul doesn't seek out bourbon but has paid $30 for a shot of the good stuff. I like fruity drinks. They're from Kentucky. I'm not. We each line up three shot glasses that have been labeled A, B or C on pink Post-it notes. A hush. Then quick, short sniffs. The crunching of palate-cleansing corn chips. A sip, a squint, a scribble. And then we talk about what we do and don't like about each. Which we thought was which, and how we feel when we learn the truth. We split hairs for 40 minutes on the merits of honey. Three of us rank O. Z. Tyler in last place, but all agree it tastes the most like bourbon, albeit a very young one. On the plus side, its honey flavor was less intense than the flavor of the alcohol. But it also had the most burn and a smell that none of us could pinpoint. When I suggest talcum powder, the guys don't think I'm crazy. Did anyone think the rapidly aged bourbon matched traditional bourbons? No, but my friends didn't think that should have been the aim. This crowd viewed the process as a differentiator, not a replacement. "What I would look for in a rapid-aged bourbon is the kind of flavor and notes you get from [older] bourbon, for a fraction of the price," says Paul. Michael likened O. Z. Tyler to a bourbon attached to a talking point, something he'd add to his collection and have friends try. "If [O. Z. Tyler] is set apart by being rapidly aged, that's a pretty cool advantage because it does make them different," he says. And if he had to choose among the three honey bourbons at a liquor store, he would pick O. Z. Tyler. In the end, bourbon makers want to keep their customers happy. For some people, happiness depends on respecting tradition and enjoying the complex mixture of flavors and aroma that take years in the making. For others, it's buying something that's good enough at a great price. It just depends on how quickly they want it. Erin Carson (@ErinCarson) is CNET's staff reporter in Louisville, Kentucky, writing about fun and weird tech. She now has a startling amount of bourbon in her kitchen. This story appears in the summer 2016 edition of CNET Magazine. For other magazine stories, click here.

2016-06-09 00:00 Erin Carson www.cnet.com

Total 100 articles. Created at 2016-06-09 18:04