Announcement
74 articles, 2016-07-29 06:01 1 Unsupported Windows phones can no longer get Windows 10 Mobile through the Insider Preview (2.02/3) After releasing Windows 10 build 14393.5 for PC and Mobile to the Release Preview ring today, users of unsupported Windows phones will no longer be able to use it to upgrade to Windows 10 Mobile. 2016-07-28 23:30 3KB feedproxy.google.com 2 Microsoft shares some interesting stats regarding Windows 10 With the free Windows 10 upgrade offer set to expire in almost a (1.06/3) day, Microsoft has released some pretty interesting statistics about Cortana usage, gaming and Microsoft Edge on its latest OS. 2016-07-28 18:46 2KB feedproxy.google.com 3 Upgrade to Windows 10 Today Because Tomorrow’s the End of the World Doomsday is happening on July 29, according to… some people (1.03/3) 2016-07-28 12:17 2KB news.softpedia.com 4 Oracle buys NetSuite, but vows to respect independence (1.02/3) Oracle has agreed to buy NetSuite and the acquired company will retain autonomy says Oracle 2016-07-28 17:35 3KB www.computerweekly.com 5 Microsoft updates Windows Device Recovery Tool with support for more phones Microsoft has released another update to its Windows Device (1.02/3) Recovery Tool, adding support for a range of third-party devices, including those from BLU, XOLO, Micromax, Freetel, Diginnos, and more. 2016-07-28 17:24 1KB feedproxy.google.com 6 Yahoo Messenger is not dead -- new Windows and Mac apps are available now You may be surprised to read this, but, yes, Yahoo Messenger is (1.02/3) still up and running. In fact, the longstanding service seems to be here to stay as it just received new desktop apps that should make Windows and Mac users happy. You may... 2016-07-28 14:31 1KB feeds.betanews.com 7 Linux Kernel 3.12.62 LTS Improves SPARC Support, Updates the Networking Stack All users of the Linux 3.12 LTS series must update 2016-07-28 22:07 (0.01/3) 2KB news.softpedia.com
8 Ubuntu MATE 16.10 Alpha 2 Ships with New Unity-Like Heads-Up Display (HUD)
(0.01/3) Several of the in-house built apps were updated 2016-07-28 21:10 2KB news.softpedia.com 9 Microsoft opens up Node.js to other JavaScript engines The company also has its ChakraCore engine working on Linux and MacOS 2016-07-29 04:48 3KB www.computerworld.com.au 10 Google Puts Its Stamp On The Network Of The Future Amin Vadhat, Google Fellow and Networking Technical Lead, talked to Network Computing Editor-in-Chief Susan Fogarty about how Google is putting its stamp on the enterprise network. 2016-07-29 03:37 986Bytes www.informationweek.com 11 Ubuntu Touch OTA-13 Update to Rename the Libertine Scope to "Desktop Apps" The software update should be available this fall 2016-07-29 00:13 2KB news.softpedia.com 12 Russia Finalizes Procedures for Collecting Encryption Keys Companies sweating as they wait to see Russia's implementation details for its latest encryption backdoor law 2016-07-29 00:05 2KB news.softpedia.com 13 Linux Mint 18 Xfce Is Just Around the Corner, KDE Edition Coming This September Linux Mint 18.1 development to start next month 2016-07-28 23:59 2KB news.softpedia.com 14 Petya, Mischa ransomware goes public with affiliate program The developers behind the Petya and Mischa ransomware have recently opened their cybercrime program to the public, allowing anyone to join them and further spread the program for a profit. 2016-07-28 23:46 2KB feedproxy.google.com 15 Tanglu 4 "Dasyatis Kuhlii" Enters Beta, Ships with Linux Kernel 4.6 & GNOME 3.20 The KDE Plasma 5.6 desktop environment is available as well 2016-07-28 23:25 2KB news.softpedia.com
16 Offline Bitcoin Exchange Ends in Robbery at Knifepoint Victim loses $28,000 in offline Bitcoin exchange 2016-07-28 23:20 2KB news.softpedia.com 17 LXLE "Eclectica" 16.04.1 Up to Release Candidate Stage, Based on Ubuntu 16.04.1 The distro is not based on the Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS release 2016-07-28 23:10 2KB news.softpedia.com 18 KaOS 2016.07 Adds KDE Plasma 5.7.2 and Linux Kernel 4.6, July's Software Updates The kernel now ships with build-in microcode support 2016-07-28 22:33 2KB news.softpedia.com 19 New SpyNote Android RAT Leaks Online RAT doesn't need root access to work properly 2016-07-28 22:25 2KB news.softpedia.com 20 Elive 2 Is Still in Beta, Version 2.7.1 Introduces Audacity, Google Voice Search The timezone detection was greatly improved 2016-07-28 21:40 2KB linux.softpedia.com 21 A Windows 10 Mobile 'phablet' called WP10 from China's CUBE appears online Chinese tablet manufacturer, CUBE, has listed a mid-range 6.98- inch phablet based on Windows 10 Mobile on its website, but pricing and availability still remains a mystery. 2016-07-28 21:26 1KB feedproxy.google.com 22 Google Adds More Linux Kernel Defenses to Android Core Android Nougat will be more secure than any other OS version 2016-07-28 21:15 3KB news.softpedia.com 23 Malvertising Campaign Infected Thousands of Users per Day for More Than a Year Campaign affected 22 ad networks, 113 legitimate sites 2016-07-28 21:10 3KB news.softpedia.com 24 People Caught Using VPNs, Tor, or Proxies in the UAE Risk a $545,000 Fine Caught offenders also risk prison sentences 2016-07-28 21:05 2KB news.softpedia.com
25 8-Inch Samsung Galaxy Tab Tablet With S Pen Passes Through the FCC A sketch of the tablet was also revealed 2016-07-28 19:43 2KB news.softpedia.com 26 Windows Server turns 20-years-old today With the Windows 10 Anniversary Update around the corner, Microsoft is also celebrating a different anniversary this weekend: Windows Server, which began life as Windows NT 4.0 Server in 1996. 2016-07-28 19:42 2KB feedproxy.google.com 27 Akyumen Holofone: 7" Windows 10 and Android phablet with built-in projector launches Sep 1 Priced from $600, Akyumen's 7-inch tablet dual-boots Windows 10 and Android Lollipop, and its killer feature is a built-in projector that can project 720p images up to a size of 100 inches diagonal. 2016-07-28 19:24 2KB feedproxy.google.com 28 Samsung Galaxy Folder 2 Surfaces at TENAA, Images Leak The smartphone carries the model number SM-G1600 2016-07-28 19:03 2KB news.softpedia.com 29 Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Featured in Video, Specs Detailed The video showing the phone is 11 minutes long 2016-07-28 18:31 2KB news.softpedia.com 30 Universal Windows Platform apps can now use Unreal Engine 4 Microsoft has introduced support for the Unreal Engine 4 in its Universal Windows Platform apps and has made available the source code of the game engine on its GitHub repository to Unreal licensees. 2016-07-28 18:30 1KB feedproxy.google.com 31 Valve launches first-ever Steam VR Weekend Sale Virtual reality gamers, listen up! If you’ve been waiting for prices to come down to build out your VR game collection, now is the time to act as Valve has launched the first-ever VR Weekend Sale over on Steam. … 2016-07-28 18:15 1KB www.techspot.com
32 Google parent Alphabet's earnings: $8.42 per share, vs. expected EPS of $8.04 The parent company of Google on Thursday reported earnings and revenue that beat analyst expectations. 2016-07-28 17:47 4KB www.cnbc.com 33 Skype teams up with Coldplay for new Mojis Microsoft today announced that it has teamed up with Coldplay in an effort to bring new Mojis to Skype. The new Mojis center around the band's newest album, 'A Head Full of Dreams'. 2016-07-28 17:44 1KB feedproxy.google.com 34 Creating a security-aware mobile culture Historically hackers have pursued and targeted individuals more frequently than they have targeted businesses as they are typically the path of least resistance. However, the number of organizations worldwide falling victim to major cyber attacks is dramatically rising. More and more, hackers are infiltrating businesses of... 2016-07-28 17:30 6KB feeds.betanews.com 35 Apple Car project reportedly shifting focus to self-driving software Apple has been long rumored to be working on an electric car and has hired several high-profile tech and auto industry veterans. Now, shortly after former executive Bob Mansfield was brought back to Apple to run the secretive project, reports… 2016-07-28 17:30 2KB www.techspot.com 36 Apple has no one to blame for its lack of streaming TV service but itself With iPhone sales cooling due to slowed innovation and a saturated market, there’s never been a better time for Apple to graduate its media set-top box from hobby status to bona fide feature product. Apple has dominated every market it… 2016-07-28 16:45 2KB www.techspot.com 37 Lock your home's doors by voice with new Amazon Echo Alexa Skill When Amazon Echo first came to market, I was a bit skeptical. My phone already has a voice assistant -- why do I need dedicated hardware tethered to my wall? After buying it, however, its value quickly became apparent. I am now... 2016-07-28 16:44 3KB feeds.betanews.com 38 Ford and Whole Foods skid, Alere and Facebook jump Alere Inc., $5.09 to $36.56. Ford Motor Co., down $1.13 to $12.71. Facebook Inc., up $1.66 to $125. 2016-07-28 16:38 1KB www.cnbc.com
39 Winning hackathon team develops sensors to save the bees The winning team from a Cisco Live hackathon has developed sensors that aim to reverse the declining bee population and the global food production crisis 2016-07-28 16:00 5KB sdtimes.com 40 Almost 60% of millennials search for jobs through company websites Research by Monster finds the younger generation react strongly to what they find on an employer’s website when looking for work. 2016-07-28 15:51 2KB www.computerweekly.com 41 Best Buy is making changes to its loyalty program Best Buy is actively e-mailing My Best Buy loyalty program members with regard to changes that’ll go into effect August 28. Chief among them is a move to free two-day shipping across multiple member tiers. 2016-07-28 15:45 1KB www.techspot.com 42 Businesses are less high tech than they think they are Here’s an interesting prospect: the majority of companies that consider themselves high-tech have not invested nearly enough to become digital businesses. Here’s an interesting prospect: the majority of companies that consider themselves high-tech have not invested nearly enough to become digital businesses. That is... 2016-07-28 15:39 2KB feeds.betanews.com 43 How to print to PDF directly in Windows 10 -- no software required PDF is a great file format because it shows a document exactly how it’s intended to look. There’s no shortage of tools you can use to create your own PDFs, and if you have Microsoft Office installed you can even save documents and spreadsheets in that format via... 2016-07-28 15:38 1KB feeds.betanews.com 44 MI5 accused of compromising security court Judges at the UK's most secret court were persuaded not to disclose the existence of secret intrusive data on the population after briefings and lunch with MI5's deputy director general 2016-07-28 15:03 1KB www.computerweekly.com 45 South Korea Says North Korea Is Blackmailing One of Its Top Online Retailers Hackers asking for $2.66 million or they'll release the data 2016-07-28 14:53 2KB news.softpedia.com
46 Most cloud applications not GDPR-ready, report reveals Just 2% of more than 15,000 enterprise cloud application analysed are GDPR-ready, according to a cloud risk report 2016-07-28 14:30 1KB www.computerweekly.com 47 How IT teams of the future will look IT teams will look completely different in the next five years, according to professional IT resourcing company Experis. IT teams will look completely different in the next five years, according to professional IT resourcing company Experis. The company has released a new report, titled Tomorrow’s Tech Teams, in whic… 2016-07-28 14:25 2KB feeds.betanews.com 48 New solution helps enterprises guard against chat-based phishing Slack is the largest enterprise chat platform in the world with more than 2.7 million daily active users who spend an average of 140 minutes per day using it. Slack is the largest enterprise chat platform in the world with more than 2.7 million daily active users... 2016-07-28 14:09 2KB feeds.betanews.com 49 22% off iHealth Oxygen level, Pulse rate, and Perfusion Index Monitor - Deal Alert This oximeter gives you gives you fast, accurate vitals sign readings. Measure, track, and share your blood oxygen level, pulse rate, and perfusion index right from your smartphone or tablet. 2016-07-28 13:53 1KB www.javaworld.com 50 What new tech will you see in your lifetime? Technology has already shaped the world we live in. Things like television, the jet engine and the first computers have made major changes to the way we live our lives. Technology has already shaped the world we live in. Things like television, the jet engine... 2016-07-28 13:31 1KB feeds.betanews.com 51 Monitor and analyze your network traffic with SmartSniff We recently wrote about Microsoft Message Analyzer, and explained how it could be used to monitor and better understand your network and internet traffic. We recently wrote about Microsoft Message Analyzer, and explained how it could be used to monitor and better understand your network and internet... 2016-07-28 13:28 3KB feeds.betanews.com
52 Sony is shedding the battery division it started in 1975 Sony has been shedding elements of its core business at a steady pace in an effort to return to profitability. On Thursday, the Japanese electronics giant announced intentions to part ways with yet another major division. 2016-07-28 12:30 2KB www.techspot.com 53 AT&T rolls out update for Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, bringing Wi-Fi calling support AT&T said last month that Wi-Fi calling would come to "select Android devices" starting with the LG G4, and later, the Galaxy S6 active. Now, the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge have been added to the list too. 2016-07-28 12:26 1KB feedproxy.google.com 54 BT sales increase 35% in 2016 Q2 with EE and broadband boosts BT Group reported a 35% increase in revenue as it benefits from its EE acquisition and a large share of the broadband market 2016-07-28 12:15 2KB www.computerweekly.com 55 Locky Ransomware Was Top Malware Threat for Q2 2016 Q2 quieter than Q1 thanks to Angler and Nuclear shutdowns 2016-07-28 12:00 3KB news.softpedia.com 56 Windows 10 Build 14393.31 Could Launch Ahead of Anniversary Update Debut New build based on 14393 spotted online today 2016-07-28 11:51 2KB news.softpedia.com 57 Al Murooj Rotana increases guest satisfaction with updated Wi-Fi network Dubai-based hotel sees guest satisfaction rates rise on back of 802.11ac wireless roll-out. 2016-07-28 11:45 2KB www.computerweekly.com 58 Motorola won't commit to monthly Android security patches, because it's too "difficult" While Samsung, LG and others committed to delivering monthly Android security updates long ago, Motorola says it's too "difficult" to do so, and "most efficient" to roll out patches less frequently. 2016-07-28 11:24 2KB feedproxy.google.com 59 61 percent of Americans fear having their cars or home security cameras hacked As more and more devices get connected to the Internet of Things, so their susceptibility to hacking increases too. As more and more devices get connected to the Internet of Things, so their susceptibility to hacking increases too. New research from enterprise data protection company Vormetric in conjunction wit… 2016-07-28 10:56 2KB feeds.betanews.com
60 Apple iTunes 12.4.2 for Windows Latest desktop version of Apple's popular media player,Mobile Software ,Apple,iTunes,Windows,Windows 10,Windows 7,Music,review 2016-07-28 10:47 1KB www.v3.co.uk 61 Nintendo has a new book to go along with its retro NES Classic Nintendo did itself a solid earlier this month with the announcement of the NES Classic, a pint-sized replica of the original Nintendo Entertainment System that’ll come pre-loaded with 30 of the all-time best games of the era later this year. … 2016-07-28 10:45 2KB www.techspot.com 62 Using a #hashtag to take diversity awareness global Structur3dpeople has utilised the power of social media to spread the word about women who are in the tech industry 2016-07-28 10:15 3KB www.computerweekly.com 63 VAIO unveils its 'fashionable' dual-color C15 laptop After its Sony sell-off, VAIO has moved on to be an independent company, coming up with new devices. And now, it has unveiled the C15, a laptop being touted by the company as a 'fashionable PC.' 2016-07-28 09:50 2KB feedproxy.google.com 64 How to install Windows 7 from a USB key Handy for netbooks - and it installs faster, too 2016-07-28 09:35 1KB www.techradar.com 65 Facebook’s revenue rockets on strong growth Facebook has reported a 186% year-on-year increase in second- quarter profits driven by a 63% rise in advertising revenue boosted by demand for video ads 2016-07-28 09:03 2KB www.computerweekly.com 66 Xen hypervisor has 'fatal' security vulnerability Security expert Jérémie Boutoille from Quarkslab says that he has found a critical bug in the Xen hypervisor. The open-source hypervisor, which has the likes of Amazon, and IBM on its cloud clients list, has had a bug which could lead to potential privilege escalation... 2016-07-28 08:53 2KB feeds.betanews.com
67 Never lose track of customer journey, says Brussels Airlines CIO Brussels Airlines is transforming its IT, with customer experience the driving force. 2016-07-28 08:30 1KB www.computerweekly.com 68 App category changes coming to Google Play in the next two months Google Play is available to over 1 billion people actively using Android. Knowing this, Google is making changes to improve its app store so that good and relevant apps don't get missed by users. 2016-07-28 08:12 1KB feedproxy.google.com 69 Nvidia to pay each GTX 970 owner $30 over memory controversy More than a year and a half ago, Nvidia's GeForce GTX 970 was the subject of a major controversy concerning its memory subsystem. Enthusiasts discovered that the graphics card, which was advertised as having 4 GB of memory, actually only… 2016-07-28 08:00 1KB www.techspot.com 70 LastPass immediately patches new vulnerabilities discovered by users Over the past few days, reports have begun to surface about known, major vulnerabilities in password manager LastPass. Today, the company has released a statement regarding these vulnerabilities, revealing that they were addressed immediately. 2016-07-28 07:30 2KB www.techspot.com 71 Parents are naming their babies after Pok�mon Go characters As Pokémon Go continues its global ambush on productivity, many are questioning the game’s staying power. Are we in the midst of a fad that’ll soon die down as quickly as it arrived or will the game stick around for… 2016-07-28 07:00 1KB www.techspot.com 72 Ubuntu 15.10 Wily Werewolf reaches end-of- life 9 months after release Ubuntu 15.10 Wily Werewolf, launched in October, has today reached end-of-life. Users should upgrade to the Ubuntu 16.04.1 to continue to receive security updates through the update manager. 2016-07-28 06:42 1KB feedproxy.google.com
73 Mozilla celebrates 10,000 days since web proposal was submitted Mozilla has launched a new Thunderclap campaign to spread awareness that the web was proposed 10,000 days ago. The company will recap the web's history on Twitter during the day of July 28th. 2016-07-28 06:26 1KB feedproxy.google.com 74 Facebook's Q2 results show the company continuing to grow at an incredible pace After so many years of incredible growth, you might expect Facebook to be reaching a plateau. But the company’s latest Q2 earnings results show the social media Juggernaut isn’t slowing down in the slightest. 2016-07-28 06:15 2KB www.techspot.com Articles
74 articles, 2016-07-29 06:01
1 Unsupported Windows phones can no longer get Windows 10 Mobile through the Insider Preview (2.02/3) When Microsoft released the Windows 10 Mobile upgrade back in March, it was available to a fairly short list of devices compared to the promise of all devices running Windows Phone 8.1. Those unsupported devices, however, were offered a workaround by upgrading through the Release Preview ring of the Insider Preview. Microsoft announced today that the workaround will no longer work. If you have an unsupported device and you're on Windows 10 Mobile, you won't receive any updates beyond build 10586. If you use the Windows Device Recovery Tool to roll back to Windows Phone 8.1, you will not have the option to upgrade your device back to Windows 10 Mobile. Of course, there is a reason for this. The Release Preview ring was designed to offer early access to cumulative updates, or anything that non- Insiders are going to eventually get their hands on. Microsoft allowed unsupported devices to continue getting the 10586 builds, since they were supported during the Preview period. Those devices were never supported for any of the Anniversary Update previews, so now that the Anniversary Update is in the Release Preview ring , 10586 is not. Microsoft has been very clear that unsupported devices would not have a path beyond 10586 since the very beginning; however, the company did not, and would not, say whether build 10586 would continue to be available once the Anniversary Update was. In fact, we've been trying to ask Microsoft about this for weeks, hoping to offer users a "last chance" to upgrade, rather than having the opportunity taken away without warning. For those that are already on Windows 10 Mobile with an unsupported device, we've reached out to Microsoft to confirm whether or not there will be any future cumulative updates for build 10586. Clearly, the probable answer is no, but Windows 10 for PCs will most certainly have updates for the build (businesses need them; in fact, there are still 10240 updates rolling out), and since Windows 10 is developed in parallel with Windows 10 Mobile, anything is possible. Nevertheless, if you're on an unsupported device, you no longer have an upgrade path to Windows 10 Mobile. However, if your Windows phone doesn't use a Snapdragon S4 chipset, has 1GB RAM or more, and 8GB of internal storage or more, there's always a chance that it can be added to support, much like the Yezz Billy 4.7 was . 2016-07-28 23:30 Rich Woods
2 Microsoft shares some interesting stats regarding Windows 10 (1.06/3) While the free upgrade to Windows 10 offer is scheduled to expire in less than 36 hours - and you should probably upgrade to it if you haven't already or even if you don't want to right now - Microsoft wants as many users on its latest operating system as possible. To this end, the company is sharing some pretty interesting facts and statistics on its official @Windows Twitter account to entice users to upgrade to Windows 10. Almost one month ago, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 is now installed on over 350 million devices - but cautioned that it might miss its one billion devices by 2018 goal - and while the company hasn't updated the aforementioned figures as of yet, it has disclosed some other statistics about the usage of its latest OS. The Redmond giant states that over 19 billion hours have been spent playing games on Windows 10. This equates to nearly 792 million days or over two million years, which are all quite impressive figures. While the company hasn't clarified fully, the number likely includes all platforms of gaming on Windows 10, including Steam and the Windows Store itself. It's not clear if it includes the Xbox One, although the console has run a version of Windows 10 since November. Moreover, Microsoft has also revealed that Cortana has answered more than 6 billion questions on Windows 10. The company has been working hard to improve its virtual assistant and has even announced that it will be coming to the Xbox One as part of its Anniversary Update. Another interesting statistic that Microsoft has revealed discloses that users have spent over 63 billion minutes on its Edge browser, which is equivalent to over one billion hours, nearly 44 million days or almost 120,000 years. Have you upgraded to Windows 10 yet? How much have you contributed to these statistical figures? Let us know in the comments below! Source: Microsoft ( 1 ) ( 2 ) ( 3 ) 2016-07-28 18:46 Usama Jawad
3 Upgrade to Windows 10 Today Because Tomorrow’s the End of the World (1.03/3) Now, we’re not going to discuss the reasons that will trigger the apocalypse, although most people seem to believe that the polar flip will happen on Friday (others claim that we’ll be invaded by aliens or demons who’ll eat our hearts out, but it doesn’t even matter, it’s the apocalypse, we don’t have time to discuss such things), but here’s one last thing that you could do before the end of the world: upgrade to Windows 10. It’s like Microsoft knew (and that wouldn’t be such a huge surprise, given all the prediction engines that are being developed in Redmond nowadays): the end of the free upgrade offer for Windows 10 takes place on the same day as the end of the world. Coincidence? I think NOT! Now, we know what you’re going to say. “Why should we upgrade if the end of the world is happening tomorrow anyway?” That’s one good question, but the answer is easier than you’d think. You wouldn’t want aliens, or demons, or whoever discovers this planet after doomsday to think we were Neanderthals, would you? Because judging from OS stats and from how many people are still using Windows XP or even 95/98 these days, there are big chances they'd think we were retarded. The upgrade to Windows 10 shouldn’t take too long, or at least that’s what Microsoft claims, but we do know that every second counts now since we don’t have too much time to live. Good thing the end of the world is coming, I had a dentist appointment on Friday… And P. S.: if the world isn't ending tomorrow, it might happen sooner than we think. Donald Trump could be the next president of the US, Microsoft makes it impossible to disable Cortana in Windows 10 , everyone's playing Pokemon Go... /s 2016-07-28 12:17 Bogdan Popa
4 Oracle buys NetSuite, but vows to respect independence (1.02/3) Oracle has agreed to buy NetSuite , the cloud applications company that Oracle founder Larry Ellison has a significant stake in. The transaction is valued at approximately $9bn. The acquisition seems in line with Oracle’s avowed fundamental shift to cloud as a delivery mode for its business applications, trumpeted at Oracle OpenWorld 2015 . Evan Goldberg, founder, chief technology officer and chairman, at NetSuite said in a statement: “NetSuite has been working for 18 years to develop a single system for running a business in the cloud. This combination is a winner for NetSuite’s customers, employees and partners.” Zach Nelson, the to-be-acquired company’s CEO said: “NetSuite will benefit from Oracle’s global scale and reach to accelerate the availability of our cloud solutions in more industries and more countries”. NetSuite’s UK customers include Orlebar Brown, a swimming shorts, and other beachwear retailer, and Trunki , who make luggage for children. It provides a suite of cloud-based financials , Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and omnichannel commerce software for more than 30,000 companies, organisations, and subsidiaries over 100 countries. NetSuite, founded in 1998, in part with $125m from Ellison, was one of the first software-as-a-service companies, and has offered competition, especially among small and medium enterprises, to Salesforce.com , founded by former Oracle executive Mark Benioff in 1999. Enterprise software analyst Vinnie Mirchandani said of NetSuite earlier this year that it had, in his view, particular strengths in the retail industry, “especially in support for omni-channel commerce. At this even [the supplier’s SuiteWorld conference], I saw that extended to omni-business-model – any product, any service and any subscription as-a-service. Add to that NetSuite’s multi- national strengths, SuiteCloud Platform PaaS capabilities, and partner diversity and you can see how its solutions are attractive to a wide number of industries”. Mirchandani saw the supplier lacking in “more industry specific operational modules”, but he said: “At this stage, I believe NetSuite has one of the most evolved industry strategies in the cloud application world”. Mark Hurd, co-CEO at Oracle, described Oracle’s and NetSuite’s cloud applications as “complementary” and added they “will coexist in the marketplace forever”. His fellow co-CEO, Safra Catz, said she expected the acquisition to be “immediately accretive to Oracle’s earnings” in the “first full fiscal year after closing”. Until the transaction closes, Oracle and NetSuite will continue to operate independently. 2016-07-28 17:35 Business Applications
5 Microsoft updates Windows Device Recovery Tool with support for more phones (1.02/3) Microsoft has updated its Windows Device Recovery Tool (WDRT) many times in recent weeks, adding support for Acer handsets last month, and for a range of Windows phones from various manufacturers a few weeks ago. After a further update last week brought improvements to the recovery process for Microsoft's HoloLens headset, yet another update is available today. The release notes highlight a "minor update" for HoloLens recovery this time around, along with "other minor bug fixes". But more significantly, the WDRT has now added support for numerous devices from Microsoft's hardware partners. Devices from BLU, XOLO, Micromax, KM, Diginnos Mobile, Inversenet, Jenesis, MCJ (Mouse Computer) and Freetel will all be compatible with the WDRT once the mandatory version 3.9 update is installed. To get the latest version of the tool, simply start it up - you'll be prompted to install the update once it launches. If you haven't installed it yet, you can download it here. Source: Windows Central 2016-07-28 17:24 Andy Weir
6 Yahoo Messenger is not dead -- new Windows and Mac apps are available now (1.02/3) You may be surprised to read this, but, yes, Yahoo Messenger is still up and running. In fact, the longstanding service seems to be here to stay as it just received new desktop apps that should make Windows and Mac users happy. Yahoo has launched the new clients to replace the "legacy" programs, which will no longer work after August 5. What you now get is a fresh design and a number of really nice features that add up to a user experience closer to Android, iOS, and the web. Yahoo has introduced the ability to unsend messages. Users can drag and drop photos to share them quickly, like messages, and find GIFs to send to others. The availability of desktop notifications should come as no surprise. The company is making a big deal out of the newfound ability to unsend messages, saying that it extends to photos and GIFs too. This is really a welcome addition, as we have all made mistakes, wished to add something to a message or wanted to take something back at one point or another. The new Yahoo Messenger apps are available to download now from Yahoo's website. The company recommends that those who use the so- called legacy versions should upgrade right away to avoid losing access to the service after support ends. 2016-07-28 14:31 By Mihăiță
7 Linux Kernel 3.12.62 LTS Improves SPARC Support, Updates the Networking Stack (0.01/3) Linux kernel 3.12.62 LTS is a modest update, and looking at the diff from the previous maintenance release, version 3.12.61, we can notice that it changes a total of 96 files, with 1213 insertions and 1053 deletions. Among the changes, we can notice lots of fixes for the SPARC hardware architecture, but there are various other improvements for the ARM, MIPS, PA-RISC, and x86 instruction set architectures. Additionally, there are multiple updated drivers implemented in the Linux 3.12.62 LTS kernel, in particular for crypto, EDAC, InfiniBand, Macintosh, HID, networking (Ethernet Atheros and QLogic, Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN), and mac80211), PCI, SCSI, and USB. The UBIFS (Unsorted Block Image File System), Network File System (NFS), and eCryptfs filesystems have also received some minor improvements. "I'm announcing the release of the 3.12.62 kernel. All users of the 3.12 kernel series must upgrade," said Jiri Slaby in the announcement. "The updated 3.12.y git tree can be found at: git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git linux-3.12.y and can be browsed at the normal kernel.org git web browser: http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git;a=summary. " Also new in Linux kernel 3.12.62 LTS is an updated networking stack with improvements to the IPv6 and IPv4 protocols, the mac80211 wireless framework, Netfilter framework, Netlink socket family, Reliable Datagram Sockets (RDS) protocol, as well as wireless and bridge support. Last but not least, it looks like the sound stack has been improved as well. If you're using a GNU/Linux operating system powered by a kernel from the long-term supported Linux 3.12 series, we recommend that you update to the 3.12.62 release as soon as possible, or more precisely as soon as the new version lands in the main software repositories of your distribution. OS vendors are also urged to download the Linux kernel 3.12.62 LTS sources right now from kernel.org or via our website. 2016-07-28 22:07 Marius Nestor
8 Ubuntu MATE 16.10 Alpha 2 Ships with New Unity-Like Heads-Up Display (HUD) (0.01/3) If you read our previous report on the availability of the Ubuntu 16.10 Alpha 2 development release of opt- in flavors , you would know already that only Lubuntu, Ubuntu Kylin, and Ubuntu MATE have announced their participation, and they all ship pretty much with the same GNU/Linux technologies under the hood. So yes, Ubuntu MATE 16.10 Alpha 2 remains powered by the Linux 4.4 LTS kernel that is used in the stable Ubuntu MATE 16.04.1 LTS (Xenial Xerus). However, there are some very interesting changes implemented in this milestone, such as the Unity-like HUD (Heads-Up Display) that Martin Wimpress teased earlier in the week on Twitter. The HUD can be used for running commands directly from the menubar, but it's not enabled by default. If you decide to test drive Ubuntu MATE 16.10 Alpha 2, you must enable the new HUD feature from the MATE Tweak tool, which has been updated to version 16.10.4 with improved Indicator support via the Message Menu. Also new in the Ubuntu MATE 16.10 Alpha 2 release, the Ubuntu MATE Welcome 16.10.7 tool is present with automatic focus of the search text entry, along with MATE Dock Applet 0.73, which introduces drag and drop support when rearranging dock icons, revamped window list on mouse hover over a dock icon, and a few other bug fixes. Other than that, the Mozilla Firefox web browser now has a customized Ubuntu MATE Start Page, the Cheese webcam viewer is now installed by default, Indicator Session was re-implemented in the Ubiquity installer and will be available during installation of Ubuntu MATE, and it looks like the ISOs are approximately 150MB smaller. Last but not least, Ubuntu MATE 16.10 Alpha 2 ships with the latest MATE 1.14.1 desktop environment. You can download the Live ISO images for either 64-bit, 32-bit or PowerPC (PPC) hardware architectures right now via our website and take the distribution for a test driver to report bugs. 2016-07-28 21:10 Marius Nestor
9 9 Microsoft opens up Node.js to other JavaScript engines Moving ahead with plans for its ChakraCore JavaScript engine, Microsoft is developing a standard interface to enable different virtual machines to access the server-side platform. Now running on Linux and MacOS, ChakraCore is an alternative to the V8 engine underlying Node.js. Microsoft said this week that it has a preview ready of Node-ChakraCore on Linux , which links ChakraCore to the popular Node.js server-side platform. The company also is featuring an experimental implementation of the ChakraCore runtime on x64 Linux and MacOS. ChakraCore is the open source core of the Windows-only Chakra JavaScript engine that powers Microsoft's Edge browser and the Universal Windows Platform. Microsoft is trying to take Node.js beyond its current ties to Google's V8 JavaScript engine. The company wants "to make Node be agnostic of the VM it supports based on a standard Node interface," said Arunesh Chandra, Microsoft senior program manager for ChakraCore, at the Node Summit conference in San Francisco this week. "Node is so sensitive to fluctuations in V8 that it breaks the ecosystem quite often," he noted. Other attempts have been made to port Node to other VMs, such as SpiderNode. Microsoft would like to standardize these efforts under one umbrella. ChakraShim, a V8 API shim atop the ChakraCore runtime hosting API, powers Node.js on ChakraCore. It implements essential V8 APIs, making the change of the underlying JavaScript engine transparent to Node.js. The effort is still a work in progress, though, and is not an officially supported Node.js branch. Microsoft claims that bringing ChakraCore to Linux and MacOS X enables developers to build cross-platform applications with the engine. For Linux, development and testing happens mostly on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, but this support should translate to working with other distributions as well. However, the engine currently is available on non-Windows platforms in a limited fashion only. "It's an experimental build," Chandra said. "It doesn't have JIT (just in time compilation) or high-performance GC (garbage collection) on it. " More about Google Linux Microsoft Ubuntu 2016-07-29 04:48 www.computerworld
10 Google Puts Its Stamp On The Network Of The Future Join us for a roundup of the top stories on InformationWeek.com for the week of July 17, 2016. We'll be talking with the InformationWeek.com editors and correspondents who brought you the top stories of the week to get the "story behind the story. " 2016-07-29 03:37 www.informationweek
11 Ubuntu Touch OTA-13 Update to Rename the Libertine Scope to "Desktop Apps" Yes, that's right, we're talking about the OTA-13 update, which should arrive this fall with numerous new features, many improvements to existing components, as well as countless bug fixes. One feature that caught our attention is the rename of the Libertine Scope introduced in the OTA-12 release to "Desktop Apps. " If you haven't heard of the new Libertine Scope, we would like to inform you that it has been added as part of the Ubuntu Touch OTA-12 software update for Ubuntu Phone and Tablet devices that support execution of X apps on top of the Ubuntu mobile operating system. The Scope just lists the installed X apps and lets users open them quickly. "OTA-12 phasing has finished in the morning and now all users should be able to upgrade," says Łukasz Zemczak, Canonical Foundations. "In the meantime, we're concentrating on OTA-13, with a new libertine-scope landing in the overlay with build system improvements and a visual rename of the scope itself to "Desktop Apps. " There were some rumors a while ago that Meizu might release a new Ubuntu Phone device, the Meizu MX6, which has been officially unveiled last week. However, Meizu didn't tell anyone anything about a Meizu MX6 Ubuntu Edition coming soon, but considering the fact that Ubuntu Touch OTA-13 will finally move to the Android 6.0 Marshmallow BSP (Board Support Package), it should also support new devices. The development cycle of the Ubuntu Touch OTA-13 update will end sometimes at the end of August or the first week of September, which means that the development team has a lot of time on their hands to add many goodies for our Ubuntu Phone/Tablet devices. As soon as we know more about the upcoming OTA-13 features will let you know in a new story. In the meantime, make sure you update to OTA-12. 2016-07-29 00:13 Marius Nestor
12 Russia Finalizes Procedures for Collecting Encryption Keys On June 24, a month ago, the Russian Duma passed a sweeping surveillance law which allows the Russian state to require backdoors in all encrypted traffic, while also forcing telecom operators to log and store all traffic for at least three years. Before the bill was voted, Russian authorities explained that the law was nothing more than a tool to fight terrorism in the country, a similar explanation that Chinese authorities gave last year when they adopted a similar law. Russian politicians blamed apps like Telegram, WhatsApp, Viber, and Allo as tools used by terrorists and criminals, and used them as the public faces for their campaign to get the law approved. In reality, the law applies to all Internet traffic, along with cell-phone communications, not just mobile apps. Two weeks after the Duma passed the law, Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded the FSB to find a way to collect the encryption keys to decrypt encrypted traffic. Two weeks after his demand, the FSB announced today that it finalized the procedure through which the encryption keys would be obtained from all Internet companies. The FSB sent the order to the Ministry of Justice for official registration, after which it will start enforcing it. At this moment it is unclear how this procedure works. Are companies supposed to provide a master key to their encryption that the FSB can use all the time when it feels like, or will the FSB knock on the company's door whenever is investigating a case? Companies that won't abide with FSB requests risk fines from 800,000 to 1,000,000 rubles ($12,400-15,500). The same bill also includes fines for regular Russian citizens, if caught using encryption and failing to abide by requests to decrypt their traffic. Russian citizens will be fined from 3,000 to 5,000 rubles ($45-77), while state officials from 30,000 to 50,000 rubles ($4,500-7,700). We will be curious to see if Apple stands up to Russia and the FSB like it did to the FBI. 2016-07-29 00:05 Catalin Cimpanu
13 Linux Mint 18 Xfce Is Just Around the Corner, KDE Edition Coming This September As you might know, a Beta version of the soon-to-be- released Linux Mint 18 "Sarah" Xfce edition has been made available last week, and Clement Lefebvre now informs us that the final release is expected to land very soon and that the upgrade path for Linux Mint 17.3 "Rosa" Xfce users will be open in the coming weeks. In the meantime, the Linux Mint works hard on the Linux Mint 18 "Sarah" KDE Edition, which didn't receive a Beta milestone just yet because the upgrade from the KDE4 desktop environment used in the Linux Mint 17.3 "Rosa" KDE Edition to KDE Plasma 5 takes a lot of effort to become usable as your daily driver. "There are so many differences between KDE 4 and Plasma 5, we’ve had to work on this edition as if it was a brand new product, inheriting very little from the past and with each component being added one at a time," says Clement Lefebvre. "Most of the critical issues were fixed with the exception of some compatibility issues between the screensaver, the session, and the display manager. " In August, the Linux Mint devs will be quite busy starting work on the next major release of the Ubuntu-based operating system, Linux Mint 18.1, which should bring the latest GNU/Linux technologies from the upstream Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS (Xenial Xerus) distro, along with other new features. Also, they promise to release the Beta of Linux Mint 18 "Sarah" KDE Edition. As for those who use the LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) operating system, Clement Lefebvre reminds them that the major components introduced in Linux Mint 18 "Sarah" release, such as Cinnamon 3.0, MATE 1.14, as well as the new X Apps, are already present in the LMDE 2 "Betsy" rolling release distribution. Other core components will be backported to LMDE 2 in the coming weeks. 2016-07-28 23:59 Marius Nestor
14 Petya, Mischa ransomware goes public with affiliate program The developers behind the Petya and Mischa ransomware have recently made their program open to the public, after its developers leaked a rival program's decryption keys onto the internet. This 'ransomware-as-a- service' program was launched by the developers last June 26th. As of now, the service allows anyone who is interested to be a part of spreading the Petya and Mischa ransomware to potential innocent victims on the internet, leading to possibly even greater infection rates in the future. This scheme is comparable to the Chimera ransomware , where aside from demanding a payment to decrypt files, it offers victims a chance to join their program. According to Lawrence Abrams of Bleeping Computer , the program pays out distributors depending on how many bitcoins they have extorted from their victims. For example, if someone collects lower than 5 bitcoins in a week, they will get to keep only 25% of the earnings. Obtaining less than 25 in a week will reward the distributor with 50%, while less than 125 bitcoins will bring in a share of 75%. If in the case that they rake in 125 bitcoins or even more, they will be able to keep 85% of the profit. Furthermore, the Petya and Mischa ransomware-as-a-service requires potential affiliates to send in what seems to be a registration fee, a small amount of bitcoins equating to ~$1.00. This, according to the program, is to "discourage timewasters and kiddies" from meddling with them. It comforts potential distributors by stating that the fee will be refunded to them when their first payment has been made. With all of these in consideration, we advise everyone to take extra measures in staying safe on the internet by being wary of what you open and click on. Warning friends and family can go a long way too in the battle against ransomware. Source: Bleeping Computer via Graham Cluley | Image via Bleeping Computer 2016-07-28 23:46 Justin Luna
15 Tanglu 4 "Dasyatis Kuhlii" Enters Beta, Ships with Linux Kernel 4.6 & GNOME 3.20 Tanglu 4 "Dasyatis Kuhlii" Beta is distributed with the usual flavors, including with the KDE and GNOME desktop environments. A Core edition is available as well, designed for those who want to build their own Tanglu-based GNU/Linux distribution. Under the hood, all Tanglu 4 Beta editions are powered by a kernel from the Linux 4.6 series, along with the systemd 229 init system, but each one incorporates some of the latest open-source technologies that correspond to their user base. For example, the Tanglu 4 Beta KDE Edition ships with the KDE Plasma 5.6 desktop environment, and the Tanglu 4 Beta GNOME Edition with the GNOME 3.20 desktop. However, known issues are still present, and you should be aware of them when testing. "Known issues for the Beta include the live-installer only launching from terminal in the GNOME flavor, and the GNOME flavor not showing GDM if run in VirtualBox, unless you boot with "quiet splash" removed from the kernel command line," says Matthias Klumpp. The development cycle of the Tanglu 4 operating system will continue with a second and third Beta milestones, as well as a Release Candidate (RC) build, which should be made available to the public in the coming weeks and months. During this development cycle, the Tanglu developers announced plans to move to the latest Mesa 3D Graphics Library 12.0 release, as well as to upgrade the kernel packages to a new stable version (possibly Linux kernel 4.7). As expected, the OS remains based on Debian GNU/Linux, and the final Tanglu 4 release should hit the streets sometime at the end of the year. Until then, you can download and test Tanglu 4 Beta KDE and Tanglu 4 Beta GNOME and Core editions right now. 2016-07-28 23:25 Marius Nestor
16 Offline Bitcoin Exchange Ends in Robbery at Knifepoint Steve Manos, 32, of Lake Worth, Florida, had arranged to meet with two men with whom he did business before, to exchange a sum of money into Bitcoin. He met with the two in his car, on Monday morning, July 25, 2016, in front of the West Palm Beach Boston Market, the Sun Sentinel reports . One of the men sat in the car's front passenger seat, and one behind the driver seat. As agreed upon, Manos handed the man in the passenger seat a bag with the $28,000, rolled in $1,000 bundles. The man initially pulled out a laptop, to make the exchange and transfer Bitcoin funds from his account to Manos' Bitcoin wallet. After taking out the laptop, the man immediately pulled out a knife as well, threatening Manos. The victim, at this point, just told the robbers to take the money and leave. Things escalated into a fight after the man in the backseat tried to take the victim's gun, found in the car's driver door pocket. The two robbers ran away and fled in their own car, a Honda Acura. The victim went straight to the police, where he filed an armed robbery report. Because Manos had done business before with the two robbers, he had a phone number at which he reached them to set up exchanges. He gave the number to local police, who tied it to Andre Allen, 34, of West Boynton. Officers arrested Allen the same day, who is now in county jail. There is a reason why Bitcoin si a "digital currency," and that's to avoid the same pitfalls and dangers of dealing with fiat currencies, one of which is physical robberies. Of course, there are still digital robberies , known to empty out wallets once in a while. 2016-07-28 23:20 Catalin Cimpanu
17 LXLE "Eclectica" 16.04.1 Up to Release Candidate Stage, Based on Ubuntu 16.04.1 LXLE "Eclectica" 16.04.1 Release Candidate comes only two weeks after the release of the Beta version , which was seeded to public beta testers at the beginning of the month, but was only available for 64-bit PCs and it dind't include the goodies Canonical introduces with the first point release of the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) OS. Therefore, the Release Candidate milestone of LXLE 16.04.1 ships now with more up-to-date GNU/Linux technologies, as well as lots of improvements, such as support for the Btrfs file system, support for multi-monitor configurations, Expose- like window picker, a lightweight app launcher, i3lock screen with autoblur, and new startup splash. Additionally, there's Assistive Technology apps, a tool that changes the desktop wallpaper at different intervals of time, an Aero-like window snap feature, various new applications from Linux Mint and MATE Stack, a CLI weather app, a more condensed Control Menu, the uCareSystemCore update manager, faster application menu, and latest security updates. Also new in the LXLE 16.04.1 Release Candidate milestone are new file manager extension that should make your LXLE desktop experience a lot better. These include "Open as root" for opening various files with system administrator privileges, "Set as wallpaper" for setting an image as default desktop background, "Check md5sum" for checking the MD5 checksum of certain files, and "Trash empty" for emtpying the trash. LXLE 16.04.1 Release Candidate is available for download right now via our website for 64-bit and 32-bit platforms. "There is a difference in file size between the 32-bit and the 64-bit, this is due to some packages naturally being larger for the 32-bit version. The 32-bit was built twice from scratch resulting in the same exact size. The ISOs are the same," read the release announcement. 2016-07-28 23:10 Marius Nestor
18 KaOS 2016.07 Adds KDE Plasma 5.7.2 and Linux Kernel 4.6, July's Software Updates KaOS 2016.07 is, as expected, a major update, but it's here only for those who want to reinstall their KaOS installation for various reasons or deploy the operating system on new computers. Existing users who want to get all the goodies included in the KaOS 2016.07 ISO need only to run the "pacman - Syu" command from time to time. "The policy is, once a first pacman -Syu becomes a major update, it is time for a new ISO, so new users are not faced with a difficult first update. With all the needed rebuilds for the move to GCC 5, most systems will see 70- 80% of their install replaced by new packages, so a new ISO is more than due," the developers explain. Among the updated core components and applications introduced in the KaOS 2016.07 ISO refresh, we can mention the latest KDE technologies, including the KDE Plasma 5.7.2 desktop environment , KDE Applications 16.04.3 software suite, and KDE Frameworks 5.24.0 collection of add-ons for the Qt 5.7 GUI toolkit. Another interesting change is the move to the Linux 4.6 kernel series, which now comes with built-in microcode support, allowing full automatic update of the CPU firmware on modern PCs that support this feature. There's also encrypted file system support implemented in the Calamares graphical installer, using LUKS encryption. Moreover, the KaOS 2016.07 release includes lots of other up-to-date GNU/Linux technologies, such as GCC (GNU Compiler Collection) 5.4.0, X. Org Server 1.18.4, PulseAudio 9.0, Python 3.5.2, Binutils 2.26.1, LLVM/Clang 3.8.1, Poppler 0.45.0, MariaDB 10.1.15, and Calamares 2.3. Download KaOS 2016.07 right now via our website. 2016-07-28 22:33 Marius Nestor
19 New SpyNote Android RAT Leaks Online Palo Alto Networks experts say that this new RAT, nicknamed SpyNote, is similar, feature-wise, to other well-known Android RATs such as OmniRat and DroidJack. Based on the features they've discovered, Palo Alto says that SpyNote allows attackers a wide range of intrusive actions. This includes the ability to update itself, download and install new apps, view SMS messages, listen to calls, make calls, retrieve the contact list, and get technical details such as the device's IMEI number, Wi-Fi MAC address, and cell-phone carrier details. Additionally, the RAT allows crooks to get the phone's last GPS location, listen or record audio via the device's microphone, or even access the video camera in real-time. All of these were possible without SpyNote having to gain root access on the device, albeit, the app in which the RAT was hidden, would ask for a large number of permissions, raising suspicions for attentive users. Currently at version 2, SpyNote features a builder that will allow crooks to create their own version of the RAT, which will communicate with custom C&C servers configured during the building process. It is unknown if the RAT will be available as an open tool, or as a paid-for malware on underground hacking forums. Common sense would dictate that its authors would opt for the second option, but with the builder leaked, they might have a hard time monetizing their malware. Below is a video presentation of SpyNote features, along with an image of the control panel the crooks would use to control infected devices. 2016-07-28 22:25 Catalin Cimpanu
20 Elive 2 Is Still in Beta, Version 2.7.1 Introduces Audacity, Google Voice Search Release highlights of Elive 2.7.1 Beta include the addition of the popular and cross-platform Audacity audio editor software, which is installed by default in the distribution, along with Google Voice search implementation by using an external or built-in microphone on your PC. Other changes include great improvements to the timezone detection, support for detecting the latest Microsoft Windows 10 operating system when attempting to dual boot Elive with Windows on your personal computer, and a newer Linux kernel that includes lots of patches for detecting new, modern hardware components. If you're wondering how much time will the Elive 2.x series remain in the Beta stages of development, the developer informs us that it shouldn't be long until the upcoming GNU/Linux distribution will hit the stable channels, as he worked very hard in the past two months to add new features and many improvements. "Stable soon?: Short answer: yes. I have been working in the two last months in big internal changes which pushed me to take a soon decision on the stable version. You will receive more news about this soon," said the Elive developer in the release announcement. Until then, you can download the Elive 2.7.1 Beta Live ISO image right now via our website and take the operating system for a test drive if you want to get an early taste. Just please try to keep in mind that this is a pre-release version, not suitable for use as your daily driver. 2016-07-28 21:40 Marius Nestor
21 A Windows 10 Mobile 'phablet' called WP10 from China's CUBE appears online Every once in a while a new smartphone-maker emerges with a Windows 10 Mobile device and this time it is CUBE from China. The company specializes in Android / Windows tablets, and will soon be launching a Windows 10 Mobile-based smartphone with a very large screen. The device will be known as WP10 and has already been listed on the company's website. Apart from its large screen size of 6.98-inches, the WP10 is a rather basic device in terms of hardware specifications. According to its teaser page on CUBE's website, the phablet's screen resolution is just 1280x768, which is rather low for its size. The device is expected to feature a Snapdragon SoC clocked at 1.3 GHz but the exact details of the chip aren't yet known. It will support 4G LTE and will come with a battery of 3000 mAh capacity. From the images, it is also clear that the device doesn't feature a USB Type-C port, but there are many other details about the phablet that aren't mentioned on the website. We might get to know more about the device once the company officially announces the pricing and availability in the near future. Source: CUBE via MSPU 2016-07-28 21:26 Shreyas Gandhe
22 Google Adds More Linux Kernel Defenses to Android Core Few people know that the Android operating system is nothing more than a modified version of the Linux kernel. It's a stand-alone operating system, different from GNU Linux, but at its core, Android is powered by the Linux kernel. As such, there is no reason for Google engineers to ignore the monumental work put by thousands of coders into the Linux kernel's security features, especially when Android has become a big blinking target for hackers and nation states alike. The first security features that ended up in the Android OS were introduced a few years back, in Android 4.3 (nicknamed JeyllBean), via the SEAndroid (Security Enhancements for Android) component, a re-write of the SELinux project. Continuing on this path, Google's Android team has now announced the addition of new security features to Android, inspired by the similar work put into the Linux kernel project. Part of the features added to boost memory protection, Google's Jeff Vander Stoep announced two new configuration options called CONFIG_DEBUG_RODATA and CONFIG_CPU_SW_DOMAIN_PAN. The first can allow developers to control what memory segments are writeable and executable. By limiting how much of the memory apps and features can access and interact with, developers also limit the memory available to attackers when they manage to compromise that app or feature. This feature has been backported to Android 3.18, and will be made available to older devices. The second option limits if and how much of the userspace memory the kernel can access. Since exploits tend to leverage the userspace memory first and wait for functions with kernel level to access that space, this narrows down the attack surface and reduces the probability of malicious code reaching the kernel, leading to total device compromise. This feature, as well, has been backported down to Android 4.1. Further, the Android team also improved protection against stack buffer overflows by adding coverage for additional array types. To reduce the overall Android kernel attack surface, Google engineers did three things. First, they cut off default access to the kernel's debug feature, then they made the seccomp component (sandboxing-related system) a requirement, and they also restricted app access to IOCTL commands. The last was of grave importance. "Most of the kernel vulnerabilities reported on Android occur in drivers and are reached using the ioctl syscall," Stoep explains. "Some ioctl commands are needed by third-party applications, however most are not and access can be restricted without breaking legitimate functionality. " Android 6.0 Nougat will be released this fall. Google has made security hardening a priority for the Nougat release. These and many other are included. 2016-07-28 21:15 Catalin Cimpanu
23 23 Malvertising Campaign Infected Thousands of Users per Day for More Than a Year Researchers first spotted the campaign last October, when they were investigating two other massive, and more easy to spot, malvertising campaigns codenamed GooNky and VirtualDonna. According to subsequent research carried out by both companies, this campaign codenamed AdGholas , used innovative and sophisticated techniques to avoid detection. Crooks used 22 different ad networks to display their ads on a large number of legitimate sites. They used the traffic filtering controls provided by the advertising platforms to show their malicious ads only to the audience they were interested in targeting. However, the group wasn't satisfied and also used additional homegrown fingerprinting scripts to filter the users that clicked on the ads or were redirected to their own malicious domains. These additional filters used several information disclosure bugs to leak details about the user's operating systems. The crooks were interested in users that had Nvidia or ATI drivers installed, and OEM logos on their PCs, as a sign that they were using a highly- customized OEM version of Windows. Furthermore, this malvertising campaign marks the first time that crooks leveraged steganography to transmit malicious code embedded in malicious banner ads. All of these advanced methods of filtering the ad traffic allowed the campaign to go unnoticed for almost an year. During this time, researchers noticed the groups used the Angler exploit kit to infect users, and later the Neutrino exploit kit, after Angler shut down operations . When a user would reach the exploit kit landing pages, users would be infected with a broad range of malware, usually different based on the user's location. Proofpoint says that exploits kits delivered Gozi ISFB malware in Canada, Terdot. A (DELoader) in Australia, Godzilla-loaded Terdot. A in Great Britain, and Gootkit in Spain. The two security firms notified all 22 ad platforms in June, and they moved to take down all of the campaign's malicious ads from their networks. During their operation, the crooks showed malicious ads on 113 domains, including some big names such as The New York Times, Le Figaro, The Verge, PCMag, IBTimes, ArsTechnica, Daily Mail, Telegraaf, La Gazetta dello Sport, CBS Sports, Top Gear, Urban Dictionary, Playboy, Answers.com, Sky.com, and more. "Although recent changes in the exploit kit landscape suggest a contraction in the drive-by malware scene, AdGholas shows that the threat is not diminishing," Proofpoint notes. "Instead, AdGholas is a vivid reminder that attackers continue to evolve. Their increasingly sophisticated techniques enable them to remain stealthy and effective even in the face of the latest defensive advances. " 2016-07-28 21:10 Catalin Cimpanu
24 People Caught Using VPNs, Tor, or Proxies in the UAE Risk a $545,000 Fine Federal Law No. 12/2016, amending Federal Law No. 5/2012, is a new UAE law for combating IT crimes in the United Arab Emirates., which features the following controversial paragraph: “ Whoever uses a fraudulent computer network protocol address (IP address) by using a false address or a third-party address by any other means for the purpose of committing a crime or preventing its discovery, shall be punished by temporary imprisonment and a fine of no less than Dh500,000 and not exceeding Dh2,000,000, or either of these two penalties. ” The above paragraph dictates that people caught using IP-masking technologies like VPNs, proxies, Tor, I2P, or others, risk going to jail, and/or an additional fine between $135,000 and $545,000. The purpose of this law is to deter UAE citizens from accessing the Internet by masking their real IP address, which is like a street address for the Internet, revealing someone's rough position on the globe. The reasons to deter UAE citizens from masking their IP address are many. First off to fight cyber-crime, but some argue that this rule was put in place to scare users from using VPNs or proxies and accessing services blocked in the country, such as Internet telephony (VoIP) services. The country's largest Internet providers block access to VoIP Web and mobile services such as Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, Skype and others. The UAE government has been relatively quiet on this front, allowing the ISPs to do as they wished. Other countries like Morocco also allow telcos to ban Internet calling services to protect their businesses. At one point, even Russia was pondering similar laws to protect Russian telecom giants from Skype and ICQ, the most successful VoIP services at that time. 2016-07-28 21:05 Catalin Cimpanu
25 8-Inch Samsung Galaxy Tab Tablet With S Pen Passes Through the FCC New information shows that Samsung is also working on a new tablet, as it has just recently passed through the FCC, according to Ausdroid. The listing shows that the tablet carries the model numbers SM-P585. The device seem to have an 8.0-inch display and comes with an S Pen stylus. In addition, connectivity options include 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2 LE, location services and a LTE modem, which covers bands 1,3, 5, 7, 8, 20 and 40. The rear camera will also have a flash for capturing images in low light conditions, but information on screen type or resolution is quite scarce. The device seems to run a version of Android, most likely Marshmallow 6.0.1 considering that Google is just weeks away from unveiling the last version of the Android operating system. The tablet will be coming with an S Pen stylus, which means that it could be a variant of the Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2016), which has the model number SM- T585. The FCC listing does come with a sketch of the device, which seems to resemble the Galaxy Note 8.0 which was released in February 2013. Samsung is also expected to unveil the Galaxy Tab S3 in early September, possibly the first day of the month. Some reports say that the tablet could actually be revealed together with the Gear S3. In addition, the tablet could come with a 9.7-inch display and have a screen resolution of 2048 x 1536. The tablet could come with a 4,000mAh battery. More information is bound to surface soon, as the supposed launch date is approaching. 2016-07-28 19:43 Alexandra Vaidos
26 Windows Server turns 20-years-old today The year was 1996. Bill Clinton was about to be elected to a second term, the Yankees would win a World Series for the first time since the 70s, Will Smith was punching aliens while saying "Welcome to Earth", and Windows NT 4.0 Server made its debut. System requirements were a 33MHz CPU, 32MB RAM, and 150MB of disk space. That's megabytes, with an 'M'. These were days before anything had a gigabyte of RAM, and few had over a gigabyte of storage. As Microsoft says: Windows 2000 Server was released in, you guessed it, 2000, which Microsoft is calling the Enterprise Era. With this new product, the company said it brought higher levels of "scalability, reliability, and availability", also adding features that we know today such as "Active Directory (an X500 LDAP-compatible directory), group policies, enterprise-wide security policies, and centralized groups and permissions. " Windows Server 2003 was the first to increase the RAM requirement from 32MB to a whopping 512MB. It also needed a 400MHz CPU and 1.5GB of hard drive space. This is also when Microsoft introduced the. Net Framework. Rather than Active Server Pages, C++, and Visual Basic, programmers now had ASP. Net, C#, and VB. Net. Windows Server 2008 entered what Microsoft calls the "Datacenter Era": As the company says, Windows Server 2012 "opened the door to every app on any cloud. " Indeed, Microsoft called it "the cloud OS". Quite a bit has changed in the past 20 years. Bill's wife is now running for President, the Yankees aren't even close to the World Series, Will Smith is in Suicide Squad, and Microsoft is still working on Windows Server 2016. If you're interested in trying out Server 2016, you can grab the Technical Preview now. 2016-07-28 19:42 Rich Woods
27 Akyumen Holofone: 7" Windows 10 and Android phablet with built-in projector launches Sep 1 Back in February, at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Californian hardware firm Akyumen announced its new Holofone Phablet, a 7-inch Windows 10 tablet with 4G LTE connectivity and a built-in projector. Its key specs include: According to the company's site , the Holofone has a "2-in-1" operating system solution, dual-booting either Windows 10, or Android 5.x Lollipop. The device runs full-fat Windows 10 - rather than Windows 10 Mobile, which is found on various other small tablets. The projector offers 'high definition' resolution, with 35 lumens of brightness (although this is also stated as 45 lumens in some places on Akyumen's site ), and can project its image up to a size of 100 inches diagonal. The numerous renders on Akyumen's site show the device's ability to project images with considerable clarity and color accuracy up to a very large size, even in a brightly lit room. Some of those representations are perhaps a tad ambitious, although when CNET got to play with the Holofone earlier this year, they observed that "in a dimly room the projector gave a bright picture". The Holofone name is also a bit of an overstatement - you'll get a standard 2D projection, but none of the clever augmented reality elements that you'll see on a 'holographic' headset like Microsoft's HoloLens . According to Akyumen, users can expect up to two hours of battery life with continuous use of the projector, which offers 720p resolution. In addition to Wi-Fi and 4G LTE connectivity, the Holofone also has a USB Type-C connector, and HDMI output to connect the device to a TV or display via a wire. Four retail packages are listed on Akyumen's website - although every single color and package combination states that it is "no longer available for pre-ordering": Akyumen told CNET in February that the educational version would go on sale in April, priced at $450, while the consumer model would launch in the US in June for $650, which would "include a number of accessories". Clearly, those plans have changed somewhat since then. The device is now scheduled to launch on September 1, and the basic consumer package - with its various accessories - is now priced $100 higher than expected. Source: Akyumen - 1 | 2 via CNET / Windows Central 2016-07-28 19:24 Andy Weir
28 Samsung Galaxy Folder 2 Surfaces at TENAA, Images Leak The smartphone carries the model number SM-G1600 and it seems to be running Android OS. Galaxy Folder 2 flip phone has already received approval from WiFi and the FCC. The TENAA listing doesn't reveal many details on the upcoming smartphone, but images show that it will be coming with a golden color option and that it will support Dual SIM and 4G LTE connectivity options, according to Times News. Volume buttons will be placed at the side of the smartphone, as leaked images show. Rumors say that the Galaxy Folder 2 will be coming with a 3.8-inch WVGA display with 800 x 480 pixel resolution. It will run a quad-core Snapdragon 425 processor clocked at 1.4GHz, coupled with Adreno 308 GPU and 2GB of RAM. Internal storage capacity could reach 16GB and the smartphone could come with the option to expand memory to up to 200GB using a microSD card. In addition, it seems to be running Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 right out of the box. Rear camera capacity could reach 8MP with LED flash and the front camera could have 5MP. The smartphone will come with some standard connectivity options, as well as 4G LTE, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth and GPS. The listing on the TENAA website showed that the Galaxy Folder 2 will be coming with a 2,000mAh battery. The Folder 2 will be the successor to the Galaxy Folder which was released in South Korea for an approximate price of $253. The Galaxy Folder was released last year in July and it features specs with a lesser performance. 2016-07-28 19:03 Alexandra Vaidos
29 Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Featured in Video, Specs Detailed The video was spotted on TechTastic and it's 11 minutes long. It seems to be shot in Korea, since the software indicates that it's for Korea's SK Telecom. The smartphone seems to be running Exynos 8890 with 4GB of RAM, which confirms the rumor that the smartphone could be coming with just this RAM capacity. The camera on the Note 7 seems to be Sony IMX260, possibly 12MP just like on the Galaxy S7. The video starts with a presentation of the hardware, including the Always on Display feature on its dual-edge screen. In addition, the video presents the S Pen stylus, which is located on the side of the phone just like on the Note 5. In addition, the video presents the iris scanner and it shows the speed with which the phone is unlocked, more exactly in 0.22 seconds. The video also shows how the Galaxy Note 7 scores during several benchmarking tests and its performance is more than satisfactory considering its specs. In fact, processor power and RAM capacity seem to be the same as on the Galaxy S7, but one must keep in mind that this is simply a prototype designed for the South Korean market. The European market will most likely get the Snapdragon 820 processor model and possibly the same RAM capacity of 4GB. Samsung is set to unveil the Galaxy Note 7 during the Unpacked event in New York, scheduled on August 2. The event will be broadcast on the company's website and similar events will take place in other cities, on the same day. 2016-07-28 18:31 Alexandra Vaidos
30 Universal Windows Platform apps can now use Unreal Engine 4 Microsoft has released a fork of the Unreal Engine 4, which can be used by developers in their Universal Windows Platform apps merely days after the engine's creator bashed the company publicly. The source code is now available on Microsoft Xbox Advanced Technology Group's GitHub. It seems that the repository isn't directly available to anyone, and that users will be required to have a GitHub account and sign up for the Epic program on Microsoft Xbox ATG's page. The steps mentioned by Microsoft's Dave Voyles are as follows: It doesn't look like Microsoft will be providing support to developers who wish to use the Unreal Engine 4 fork in their UWP apps. These developers will have to rely on community support and forums to get help in their projects. Microsoft will be contributing to the repository to accelerate development of better support for UWP in the future. Source: Unreal Forums via MSPU 2016-07-28 18:30 Shreyas Gandhe
31 Valve launches first-ever Steam VR Weekend Sale Virtual reality gamers, listen up! If you’ve been waiting for prices to come down to build out your VR game collection, now is the time to act as Valve has launched the first-ever VR Weekend Sale over on Steam. As is the case with Valve’s well-known seasonal sales, the VR Weekend Sale offers a variety of titles at discounts ranging from 10 percent off games like Design it, Drive it: Speedboats and House of the Dying Sun all the way up to 88 percent off bloxyz. Of course, the pool of games to choose from isn’t nearly as diverse as a traditional sale but that’s to be expected given the budding nature of VR gaming. A quick check reveals 182 total titles up for sale but what if you’re like me and not sure where to start? Fret not as Valve as put together what it describes as some of the best VR titles available in a single bundle. The 20-game bundle includes Space Pirate Trainer, Vanishing Realms, Holopoint, Pool Nation VR, Final Approach, HoloBall, Battle Dome, Cloudlands: VR Minigolf, Hover Junkers, Audioshield, BLARP!, House of the Dying Sun, The Brookhaven Experiment, The Solus Project, SoundStage, Universe Sandbox, Fantastic Contraption, Gunjack, Inbound and theBlu – all for $251.42, an overall savings of 32 percent. The Steam VR Weekend Sale runs through the weekend (duh) and ends Monday. 2016-07-28 18:15 Shawn Knight
32 Google parent Alphabet's earnings: $8.42 per share, vs. expected EPS of $8.04 Alphabet on Thursday reported quarterly earnings that beat analysts' expectations. The parent company of Google posted earnings of $8.42 a share on $21.5 billion in revenue. Quarterly sales rose 21 percent year over year. Wall Street expected the company to report earnings of $8.04 a share on $20.76 billion in revenue, according to a Thomson Reuters consensus estimate. CFO Ruth Porat said in a statement that the results "reflect the successful investments we've made over many years in rapidly expanding areas such as mobile and video. " Both Class A and Class C shares of Alphabet gained more than 4 percent in extended trading. The former briefly traded above its record intraday high of $810.35. The Class A shares have since pared those gains. Last year, Google's founders changed the company's structure, creating Alphabet as a holding company of sorts. Core Google generates most of the company's money, and a separate category called "other bets" includes projects like Google Fiber, Nest Thermostats, science initiatives Calico and Verily, and the investment arm Google Ventures. Alphabet reported that revenue for the latter segment came in at $185 million for the quarter, above analyst expectations of $168.2 million in revenue, according to a StreetAccount consensus estimate. One of the projects in the "other bets" category is Alphabet's self-driving cars. During the company's Thursday afternoon earnings webcast, Porat said the company is now testing driverless cars in Mountain View, California; Austin, Texas; Kirkland, Washington, and Phoenix. She added that the company has conducted self-driving tests that total more than 1.6 million miles. Porat said that Alphabet's approach to driverless cars is different from the way other companies are approaching the space. "We're focused on fully autonomous cars because in early testing we saw the risk of depending on drivers to remain engaged once you give them the option to switch off. So we've invested a lot there. We're testing extensively based on this approach," she said. Alphabet said its advertising revenue increased 19 percent to $19.14 billion. Aggregate paid clicks grew 29 percent from the same period last year, while paid clicks on Google websites were up 37 percent year over year. This earnings report likely "assured investors so far today that they are continuing to grow at very healthy growth rates," said Aaron Kessler, senior vice president of equity research of Raymond James. Kessler also said Google is likely to profit from shifts in the entertainment industry. "Google clearly still benefits on the video side with their YouTube offering. You're seeing a lot of video dollars flow to the internet, and I think YouTube is getting a nice share of that flow as well as surge," Kessler, said during an interview on CNBC's "Closing Bell. " Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that while the company doesn't have any new metrics to share, he believes engagement on YouTube is healthy. "We reach more [people] 18 to 34 and 18 to 49 than any other TV network, broadcast or cable. Every indication we see is that the growth is very, very strong and being driven by mobile. It's growing globally as well," he said during a Thursday earnings webcast. In the second quarter, Alphabet repurchased 2.0 million shares of its Class C capital stock for a total amount of $1.4 billion, the company said. 2016-07-28 17:47 Christine Wang
33 Skype teams up with Coldplay for new Mojis Microsoft announced today that Skype has teamed up with Coldplay to bring you new Mojis. They will center around the band's latest album, A Head Full of Dreams. Check out this video where Coldplay finds out what a Moji is: Microsoft says that the animations found in the new Mojis are unlike "anything we've seen before, or seen elsewhere. " Lead singer Chris Martin said the following: This definitely isn't the first time that Skype has teamed up with a third party for new Mojis. Earlier this year, the company worked with Sir Paul McCartney for new love-themed Mojis. In June, it created a new collection of Mojis to celebrate powerful women. If you're a Coldplay fan, today is your day. The new Mojis haven't shown up for us yet, but they should be available soon. Make sure that Skype is up to date by going to Help -> Check for Updates. Source: Skype Blogs 2016-07-28 17:44 Rich Woods
34 Creating a security-aware mobile culture Historically hackers have pursued and targeted individuals more frequently than they have targeted businesses as they are typically the path of least resistance. However, the number of organizations worldwide falling victim to major cyber attacks is dramatically rising. More and more, hackers are infiltrating businesses of all sizes -- and not just through traditional system hacks, but now increasingly through social engineering. Tricking people to access money or sensitive information on the Internet is by no means a new concept -- these cleverly disguised emails were behind the infamous ‘Celebgate’ hacking case, which exposed nude photos of celebrities. Except now, fraudsters are doing their homework to perfect their technique. The latest threat duping enterprises out of millions is Business Email Compromise (BEC), also known as "CEO Fraud". BEC attacks are carried out by compromising or impersonating official business email accounts of C-suite executives, typically the CEO or CFO. The hacker imitating the executive urgently requests an employee, often within the accounts department, to conduct an unauthorized wire transaction to a specific recipient, usually to pay a fake invoice. Typically the money is sent to accounts in Asia or Africa before the company realizes it has been duped. The message and hijacked email account appears legitimate to the individual who, without realizing, places their organization at huge risk. Pinpointing the target Last year, Ubiquiti Network , an American technology company, lost $39.1 million as a consequence of a BEC scam. Impersonation and fraudulent requests were made to target the finance department, deceiving the department to send money to an outside entity. Fortunately, the company recovered $8.1 million from legal litigation and they’re working on recovering an additional $6.8 million, but the additional funds are subject to legal injunction. Regardless of funds recovered, the full amount lost will not be salvaged. Another example is The Scoular Company , an employee-owned commodities trader in the United States. In this case the fraudster, pretending to be the CEO, told the Controller in a confidential email that Scoular was in the process of acquiring a Chinese company. The Controller was instructed to liaise with a lawyer at KPMG and wire $17.2 million to an offshore account in China, which he did without question. One of the most outrageous examples of BEC is the central bank of Bangladesh which suffered recent fraud of $100 million. Funds were sent to Sri Lanka and The Philippines by the Federal Reserve of the United States, and the issue was only flagged when someone spotted a typo in one of the requests. Beyond the clear takeaway here that spelling is important, this scenario demonstrates just how expensive social engineering can be. HR departments are also commonly targeted to gain unfettered access to the victim’s credentials. Snapchat is the latest victim of this method after the hacker posed as the CEO and requested payroll information, which may then place the company’s employees at risk of identity theft. Within these examples, the criminal behind the attack has clearly researched the management structure and pinpointed which employee is the best target. Sophisticated BEC attackers will typically research travel schedules of executives or mergers and acquisitions to reference in their emails. These hackers are also ultimately taking advantage of employees’ willingness to be helpful, especially when requested to act by a C-suite executive of the company. While employees are a company’s biggest asset, they are unfortunately usually the weakest link when it comes to security. For organizations today, the only way to efficiently protect against attacks such as this is to arm employees with the know-how to avoid these compromises. Educating employees Education and subsequent repeated reinforcement, is the most effective means of protecting companies against BEC scams and similar attacks. There is a frightening lack of public awareness around the prevalence of these scams, therefore CEOs, CIOs and CISOs should educate employees on what an attack entails. Employees who are aware of the threat and are encouraged and even empowered to scrutinize emails will have the confidence to decline or at least double check what they perceive as an illicit request. A security-aware culture is essential. Related to this is the threat of accessing public Wi-Fi hotspots on work devices. BEC attacks rely on the hacker having context with which to make the request seem legitimate. These include email addresses and formats, names, travel details, internal processes -- all of which can be readily gleaned through man-in-the-middle attacks on public Wi-Fi. Public Wi-Fi hotspots are not typically encrypted, meaning that with the right tools, skilled hackers can intercept sensitive information on a connected device and use it to target that company. Understanding the danger of transmitting sensitive data "in the clear" reduces the opportunity for a hacker to intercept revealing information or to eavesdrop on online conversations. Similarly, companies and employees should also think carefully before posting information on social media, which could be used as context in this type of attack. Employees are at the heart of every day-to-day process but are also the weakest links in cyber-security. Ensuring that they are up to speed with current security issues is crucial to avoiding falling victim. Responsibility needs to be taken within every company -- whether by the CIO or the CISO - - to put strategic, up-to-date training in place to minimize the chance of vital information falling into the hands of hackers. Photo Credit: Lasse Kristensen / Shutterstock Michael Covington leads Wandera’s Product team and is responsible for both defining the product vision and overseeing its delivery to delighted customers. Dr. Covington has over twenty years experience in security research and product development-- with roles in academia and industry -- including stints at Intel Labs, Cisco Security and Juniper Networks. 2016-07-28 17:30 By Michael
35 Apple Car project reportedly shifting focus to self-driving software Apple has been long rumored to be working on an electric car and has hired several high-profile tech and auto industry veterans. Now, shortly after former executive Bob Mansfield was brought back to Apple to run the secretive project, reports are emerging that the company is shifting its focus from a full-fledged electric vehicle to self-driving software. According to Bloomberg , Apple is not abandoning its effort to build a full Apple Car, but the shift in strategy leaves the door open should the company eventually decide to partner with or acquire an established car maker. The report claims Apple has been targeting a release as soon as 2020, but is facing delays over multiple departures and confusion regarding the direction of the project. Partnering with a car maker would likely speed things up. Bob Mansfield reportedly has three teams under his division, each led by Apple veterans: a software team under John Wright; a sensors group headed by Benjamin Lyon; and a unit of hardware engineers led by D. J. Novotney. Dan Dodge, who ran BlackBerry's automotive software division and developed QNX, the software platform found in a wide range of in-car infotainment systems, is the company’s latest hire to join the software team. Car makers and several tech firms are racing to develop autonomous driving technologies, which are widely expected to shape the future of private and public transportation. The latest tie-up includes BMW, Intel and machine-vision technology company Mobileye, which aim to deliver a new flagship car equipped with autonomous driving capabilities in 2021. 2016-07-28 17:30 Jose Vilches
36 Apple has no one to blame for its lack of streaming TV service but itself With iPhone sales cooling due to slowed innovation and a saturated market, there’s never been a better time for Apple to graduate its media set-top box from hobby status to bona fide feature product. Apple has dominated every market it has entered dating back to music with the iPod and iTunes through the iPhone and iPad yet television has remained elusive. With such a successful track record, one has to wonder why Apple has struggled so mightily with attracting media companies. According to The Wall Street Journal , Apple has no one to blame but itself. The Journal recounts a meeting in early 2015 with Walt Disney Co. in which Apple executive Eddy Cue stunned those across the table with outrageous demands that would have upended how broadcasters have built their business for years. Specifically, Apple reportedly wanted to lock the monthly rate per viewer it would pay Disney to license content at a fixed rate for several years. Typically, broadcasters get annual rate increases which they use to fuel profit growth. Needless to say, Disney wasn’t interested. Similar talks with CBS Corp. and 21st Century Fox Inc. also stalled, the Journal notes. As such, when Apple launched the latest revision of its media player last September, the long-rumored streaming TV service was nowhere to be found. A senior TV executive told the publication that they are challenged in a lot of ways but they aren’t waiting for a white knight to come racing in the way music was (referring to the industry's struggle with piracy). 2016-07-28 16:45 Shawn Knight
37 Lock your home's doors by voice with new Amazon Echo Alexa Skill When Amazon Echo first came to market, I was a bit skeptical. My phone already has a voice assistant -- why do I need dedicated hardware tethered to my wall? After buying it, however, its value quickly became apparent. I am now doing cool things like turning off my lamp every night by simply telling "Alexa" to do so. It all feels very futuristic. Today, Amazon's popular solution gains another skill -- locking doors. Yes, you now have the ability to both lock and unlock the doors in your home using August Smart Lock hardware! Before you call this nothing more than a gimmick, I argue that it is a life-changing feature for a very specific segment of the population -- the home-bound handicapped. "As the first smart lock to support Alexa-enabled devices such as Amazon Echo, we are giving consumers a whole new level of convenience with a hands-free way to control the front door. Amazon Echo and other Alexa- enabled devices have captivated consumers with the ability to integrate voice into the smart home. We share Amazon's vision of delighting consumers with awesome experiences. This marks the first announcement in an ongoing relationship we have with Amazon", says Jason Johnson, CEO of August Home Inc. Charlie Kindel, Director, Amazon Alexa Smart Home explains, "we’re excited to work with August to expand our smart home capabilities by launching an Alexa skill for Smart Lock, the first ever Alexa-enabled Smart Lock. The Alexa smart home category has been tremendously popular with our customers, and continues to grow with great developers such as August introducing new Alexa capabilities, showcasing the benefit of hands-free, voice control throughout the home". As I stated earlier, this could be quite the benefit for handicapped folks that are home-bound. As an example, maybe they have a caretaker come to the house to deliver food. If they do not want to share a key with the person, but cannot get up to unlock the door, they can instead instruct Alexa to do so. This way, they retain a bit of independence, while keeping their home safe too. Very cool. Of course, even if you are physically able to answer and unlock the door, sometimes people can be a bit lazy -- I'm not judging. You can use this to unlock the door for, say, the pizza delivery guy without needing to miss an important football play. Regardless of your reason for leveraging this solution, it is undoubtedly cool. Also, if you are the paranoid type that wonders at bedtime whether or not you locked the door, Alexa can confirm the status as well. To take advantage of this cool feature, you obviously need the smart locks and an Amazon Echo, but you also must have the "August Connect" hub found here . 2016-07-28 16:44 By Brian
38 Ford and Whole Foods skid, Alere and Facebook jump NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily on Thursday: Alere Inc., $5.09 to $36.56 The diagnostic test maker said a Justice Department inquiry only relates to a small part of its business. Ford Motor Co., down $1.13 to $12.71 The auto maker said it may struggle to reach its annual forecasts as U. S. sales slow and the market in China gets tougher. Facebook Inc., up $1.66 to $125 Facebook's second-quarter results were better than expected again as its mobile ad revenue and users kept climbing. Whole Foods Market Inc., down $3.03 to $30.61 The supermarket chain said a key sales measurement fell again as it struggles to distinguish itself from competitors. Groupon Inc., up $1.09 to $4.87 The online daily deal service raised its forecasts after it reported a smaller loss and much better sales than analysts expected. Boston Scientific Corp., up 68 cents to $24.34 The medical device company's sales were stronger than expected and raised its projections for the year. NetSuite Inc., up $16.84 to $108.41 Software maker Oracle agreed to buy the cloud computing and business software company for $9.3 billion. Molina Healthcare Inc., up $6.62 to $57.21 The health insurer said its business improved in the second quarter and it posted better-than-expected profit. 2016-07-28 16:38 CNBC
39 Winning hackathon team develops sensors to save the bees Bee colonies have been on the decline for some time due to environmental pressures, and it’s become a global issue that researchers, farmers, environmentalists, even average citizens are trying to solve. One software development team has joined the fight, and their small device with simple and inexpensive hardware might be one way to bring the bees back. David Guidos, a senior software engineer, and a team from Asynchrony Labs and World Wide Technology demonstrated their bee-saving software project at a hackathon taking place at Cisco Live conference in Las Vegas. The team also included Shawn Donoho, Todd Erickson and Timothy Fuller. This year, the theme of the hackathon focused on the bee population and how technology or software could be used to stop the decline for the sake of global food production. The theme was a part of a Cisco corporate social responsibility initiative called “Connected Bees.” Where are the bees? When working on this project, Guidos’ team began to think about beehives that are placed out in the field so a farmer can have his property pollinated. They asked how one could determine how effective the placement of those hives were. With this question in mind, Guidos and his team used a simple Raspberry Pi 3 with built-in communications, coupled with an inexpensive USB microphone, as a way to create sensors that can detect the buzzing sound of bees. This technology is able to listen for the buzzing to detect which areas the bees are visiting—and which areas they are not. (Related: What GitHub’s numbers say about its projects ) Depending on where the sensors are placed, Guidos said it was useful to put a solar battery pack on the device so the farmer doesn’t have to run electricity to where the sensors are. The sensors then communicated over WiFi and received the information using Cisco technologies, such as Relayr, a cloud platform that gets information up to servers. The sensors also used Cisco’s Tropo, designed to automate communications by connecting code to a phone network with voice and messaging. Tropo is also good for voice alerts to let a farmer know if a predator is attacking their hive. “If we find out that certain areas are not being visited by the bees, than we know [that] maybe relocating the hives a little closer might get the bees spread out a little better,” said Guidos. The team also used a thermal imaging camera in addition to the audio sensor. Guidos said someone can place this camera next to a beehive to monitor its health, and it can detect whether the heat generated from the bees demonstrates activity in the hive. It can also detect predators, like a weasel trying to get at the honey in a hive, he said. The team comprised a mix of employees from WWT and Asynchrony Labs. From left to right: Shawn Donoho, David Guidos, Timothy Fuller and Todd Erickson. “The sensors are really useful for monitoring the health of the hive and for determining whether the bees are getting out to all the crops,” said Guidos. “We’re in an exciting time in terms of technology; there are so many of these little systems like the Raspberry Pi that are perfect for this sort of thing.” To get the sensors to detect the bees and their buzzing, Guidos had to develop a program that listens for this sound. It would then then perform a fast Fourier transform, which determines what frequencies the microphone can pick up. According to Guidos, bees’ buzzing is made up of “clicks” that sound between 190 to 250 times a second. Those clicks are actually pings, which are about 1,600 hertz at the end of each cycle. “We have to watch and monitor for a certain range of frequencies to determine if it’s a buzzing of a bee or a car driving by, and the system filters it out really well,” said Guidos. “The frequency changes when the bees are inside the flower, and their buzzing is a whole different sound. So, we are experimenting with other methods of filtering the sound so that we can recognize the different types of activities the bees are doing.” The team also wants to experiment with the software so it can detect other types of insects and eliminate their sounds. Bugs like grasshoppers or potential predators like hornets can be factored out to see what is actually harming the bees. While this project is not Guidos’ or the other team members’ full-time focus, he said that “keeping bees healthy is so critical to our planet.” He wants to take the program he wrote for the sensors and put it on GitHub so other developers can get involved. “Plan Bee,” the name of their hackathon project, most likely will also be the name of it on GitHub. 2016-07-28 16:00 Madison Moore
40 Almost 60% of millennials search for jobs through company websites Companies should ensure their brand values are presented through their online presence if they want to attract younger people to work for them, according to research. A study by Monster and YouGov found 59% of millennials – people aged between 18 and 35 – will browse a firm’s website when looking for a new job. “Your company website and how you portray yourself is really important to millennials because that is where they are looking,” said Sinead Bunting, European director for consumer marketing at Monster. “Millennials will soon be the biggest part of the workforce, so we have to understand them and know what makes them tick.” Millennials also said they would be more likely to work for an organisation whose values aligned with their own, and Bunting said the workplace would have to adapt to the “new era” of progressive younger workers both on and offline. “We are living in the ‘selfie’ generation – we are our own star of our own online story,” she said. Many young people are increasingly aware of how their online presence affects their career , and Monster thinks millennials may benefit from advice on “how to manage and enhance your online reputation”. Freelance technology journalist Georgie Barrat described millennials as the “sharing generation” who are used to portraying their own brand online through social platforms, and therefore expect a business’s online brand to be clear and concise. Barrat also said younger people want to feel “part of a community”, which is something that can be fuelled and solidified by company values and online presence. “Whether it is conscious or not, people have their own online brand that they read and add to it every single day,” said Barrat. “It is about having some very clear brand messages across all of your platforms.” 2016-07-28 15:51 Business Editor
41 Best Buy is making changes to its loyalty program Best Buy is actively e-mailing My Best Buy loyalty program members with regard to changes that’ll go into effect August 28. Chief among them is a move to free two-day shipping across multiple member tiers. Standard members will get free two-day shipping on “thousands” of items with a minimum $35 purchase. Elite-level membership eliminates the minimum purchase and adds free scheduled delivery on the same “thousands” of items while Elite Plus affords free two-day shipping and free scheduled delivery with no minimum purchase on seemingly any item purchased, putting it in line with something like Amazon Prime (without Amazon’s other benefits, of course). As always, Best Buy offers free in-store pickup if you need your new tech ASAP. It’s also worth mentioning the changes that are coming as it relates to point accumulation. Standard members that currently receive one point for every $1 spent will receive 0.5 points per dollar after August 28. Similarly, Elite members that currently get 1.1 point per buck will see that dropped down to 1.0 for each dollar. Top-level Elite Plus members will see no change, continuing to receive 1.25 points per every dollar spent for the foreseeable future. Image courtesy Jeramey Lende, Shutterstock 2016-07-28 15:45 Shawn Knight
42 Businesses are less high tech than they think they are Here’s an interesting prospect: the majority of companies that consider themselves high-tech have not invested nearly enough to become digital businesses. That is according to a report just released by Accenture, a global professional services and consulting company. Titled Accelerating Digital Performance in High-Tech , it says that just nine percent, out of 55 companies surveyed, are "digital high performers". The companies that were surveyed do a wide variety of businesses, from smartphone manufacturing, to telecoms equipment, software, and a "range of other high-tech products and services". What’s more, almost half (40 percent) say they haven’t even tried building their digital capabilities, through the use of digital technologies and tools. A couple of companies are considered digital high performers, such as Apple, Citrix, Huawei, Microsoft and Salesforce. The criteria included a digital strategy, production and delivery, customer experience and corporate culture and operations. "Our analysis found that although the high-tech industry has long been a catalyst for digital disruption in many industries, its overall Digital Performance score of 2.8 on the four-point scale indicates that the digital journey of many companies is lagging relative to the degree of disruption that is occurring in the industry", the report reveals. "To win in the changing industry landscape, high-tech incumbents need to accelerate the renewal of their core business while investing in building new platforms and 'as-a- service' business models". The entire research report, with all the fancy colours and vector animations can be found here . Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved. 2016-07-28 15:39 By Sead
43 How to print to PDF directly in Windows 10 -- no software required PDF is a great file format because it shows a document exactly how it’s intended to look. There’s no shortage of tools you can use to create your own PDFs, and if you have Microsoft Office installed you can even save documents and spreadsheets in that format via the Save As menu. Windows 10 cleverly offers native PDF printing, so you can turn almost any document or image into a PDF without needing to install anything. It’s very easy to use the feature -- just choose to print something and open up the list of printers. You will see Microsoft Print to PDF listed there. Select this, change any settings and click Print. Choose where to save the new PDF to, and give it a name. If the Microsoft Print to PDF option isn’t listed, click Start and go to Settings > Devices > Printers & scanners. Under the Printers & scanners heading you should see Microsoft Print to PDF. If it isn’t there, open the Control Panel and select Programs > Programs & Features. Click Turn Windows features on or off. Check Microsoft Print to PDF , OK the change and exit the screen. Restart your PC and it should be available. Photo Credit : IhorZigor / Shutterstock 2016-07-28 15:38 By Wayne
44 MI5 accused of compromising security court MI5 used a secret meeting to persuade judges at the UK’s top intelligence and security court not to disclose any information on sensitive databases holding highly intrusive records about the population. Classified documents released on Thursday 28 July show that MI5 invited six senior judges from the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) – the body that oversees the UK’s intelligence agencies – to a series of briefings and lunch. The aim was to persuade the judges to keep data held on mass databases, known as bulk personal datasets , secret from people who filed complaints to the tribunal. The document emerged during a four-day legal challenge by Privacy International over the lack of safeguards over the use of bulk personal datasets by MI5, MI6 and GCHQ. The datasets hold highly sensitive information on the population, including location and travel history, internet and mobile phone use, and financial information. The decision meant that the IPT could not carry out its role of overseeing the work of the intelligence agencies effectively, and was unable to identify errors or mistakes in the data, the group said today. 2016-07-28 15:03 Fiona O
45 South Korea Says North Korea Is Blackmailing One of Its Top Online Retailers According to reports from South Korean media , on Monday, authorities announced they were investigating a data breach at Interpark Corp, a company that runs the interpark.com online shopping portal, one of South Korea's biggest online stores. Authorities said that the attacker managed to steal data of about ten million Interpark customers. No other details were provided at that time regarding the incident, except that it happened in May, but it only recently came to light. Two days later, on Wednesday, June 27, South Korean authorities made the first public statements regarding this incident after conducting a basic investigation surrounding the IP addresses involved in the Interpark hack. South Korean officials said they tracked down the attack to an IP from North Korea's address space, which was previously used in other cyber-attacks against South Korean properties. In the last few years, South Korea has accused North Korea of multiple cyber-attacks against its businesses and government infrastructure. Investigators also revealed that, after the May breach, the hackers contacted Interpark's management and attempted to extort the company. The attackers asked the company's execs via email for 3 billion won (South Korean currency) or they would release the stolen data on the public Internet, exposing their failure to protect their customers. The hackers wanted the money transferred to their accounts as Bitcoin. Besides the evidence related to the IP addresses used in the attacks, investigators also said that these emails, written in the Korean language, contained words and vocabulary expressions that are only used in North Korea. 2016-07-28 14:53 Catalin Cimpanu
46 Most cloud applications not GDPR-ready, report reveals Some 98% of cloud-based applications do not comply with rules introduced by the European Union’s (EU’s) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a report has revealed. Nearly a quarter of all files stored in the cloud are shared, and around 12% of those contain compliance-related data or confidential data, according to the 1H 2016 Shadow Data Threat Report published by security firm Blue Coat. The report is based on data gathered by the security firm’s Elastica Cloud Threat Labs, which analysed more than 15,000 enterprise cloud applications in use and 108 million enterprise documents stored and shared within them. The GDPR, which comes into force on 25 May 2018, is aimed at strengthening data protection for individuals in the EU and requires compliance by any company anywhere in the world processing personal data relating to EU citzens. Elastica has analysed business apps for GDPR readiness, covering fifteen key attributes, including access control, brute force protection, encryption of data at rest and in motion, and admin audit trails. Across all enterprise-oriented cloud apps tracked by Elastica, just 2% are GDPR ready, but that includes popular apps such as Microsoft Office 365, Google Drive, Salesforce, Box and Dropbox. A further 25% of business apps meet some of the GDPR requirements for usage in the EU, but have some way to go before being considered fully compliant, the report said. 2016-07-28 14:30 Security Editor
47 How IT teams of the future will look IT teams will look completely different in the next five years, according to professional IT resourcing company Experis. The company has released a new report, titled Tomorrow’s Tech Teams , in which it polled 1,000 IT workers and 200 senior IT managers. Six in ten (59 percent) believe the traditional IT department doesn’t exist in modern business. IT teams of the future will look differently, with regards to contingent workers, skill sets, age and gender balance. The change is fueled mostly by the pressure to deliver additional services, such as cloud computing, strategic input for decision-making, or mobile apps. In order to meet such demands, more than two thirds said they’ll rely more heavily on contingent workers, as they can provide more flexibility, fresh perspective and unique skills. In the next two years, people with backgrounds other than tech are also expected to join the team. "Today’s tech team dynamic is unsustainable. Businesses and their IT teams need to think about building 2020’s optimum team now to support changing demands and achieve digital transformation. It’s encouraging to see a rise in female and millennial workers anticipated, as businesses address the current imbalance and recognize the essential skills they can bring", says Geoff Smith, managing director of Experis. "IT and HR managers must become more agile and work together to identify the brightest and best candidates, as well as existing team members, that possess wider business skills and a strategic mindset that IT teams need. While contingent workers will become increasingly important to deliver short-term change, IT should also look for people who have the aspiration to sit at the boardroom table, contributing ideas on how IT can support future transformation, bring innovative projects to fruition and enable business growth and competitive edge. But, the right candidates for the job don’t necessarily need a strong tech background". Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved. Photo Credit: Rawpixel.com / Shutterstock 2016-07-28 14:25 By Sead
48 48 New solution helps enterprises guard against chat-based phishing Slack is the largest enterprise chat platform in the world with more than 2.7 million daily active users who spend an average of 140 minutes per day using it. Not surprising then that alert attackers see it as an opportunity to expand their social engineering campaigns. The fact than many people use Slack without the IT team's knowledge creates a further security issue. Cloud security specialist GreatHorn is announcing its Collaboration and Chat Security product which provides security operations, analytics, and reporting for Slack deployments, as well as expanding security controls for cloud systems like Google Apps and Office 365. "Employees from almost every large enterprise are using collaborative chat software and it’s vitally important that the same foundational controls that we see put in place to safeguard other cloud communications platforms be extended to this new ecosystem," says GreatHorn CEO and co-founder Kevin O'Brien. "GreatHorn can find even the most advanced threats, analyzing threat data around inbound message transmission routes, attack content and context, and advanced persistent threats that no other solution can see. As we've continued to experience explosive growth through the first half of 2016, the GreatHorn Data Cloud has become the premier resource for threat identification and, combined with the security automation workflows built into the platform, is able to protect a company’s employees and sensitive information in real time". GreatHorn natively integrates with Slack, offering enhanced security and visibility without impacting the use of any existing authentication or single sign-on technology. It's compatible with security email gateways (SEGs) and cloud access security broker (CASB) solutions too. You can find out more about the product on the GreatHorn website . Photo Credit: Lasse Kristensen / Shutterstock 2016-07-28 14:09 By Ian
49 49 22% off iHealth Oxygen level, Pulse rate, and Perfusion Index Monitor - Deal Alert This handy meter gives fast and reliable readings of your oxygen level, pulse rate, and perfusion index, wirelessly on your smartphone or tablet. Using the iHealth app, easily record and save your data to the secure, HIPPA compliant iHealth cloud for meaningful results you can track over time for yourself or a caregiver. This iHealth monitor typically lists for $69.95, but is currently discounted 22% to $54.33. See the discounted item now on Amazon. 2016-07-28 13:53 DealPost Team
50 What new tech will you see in your lifetime? Technology has already shaped the world we live in. Things like television, the jet engine and the first computers have made major changes to the way we live our lives. But what can we expect in the future? The pace of change is faster than ever and there are innovations on the horizon that will change our lives just as radically as those of the past. Electronics supplier RS Components has produced an interactive graphic that lets you see how old you’ll be when these new technologies arrive. It predicts the first robot pharmacists dispensing drugs by 2021 for example and the first 3D printed cars hitting the roads a year later. To find out what changes you're likely to see in your own lifetime simply enter your age into the graphic below and press Enter. Photo credit: Poznyakov / Shutterstock 2016-07-28 13:31 By Ian
51 Monitor and analyze your network traffic with SmartSniff We recently wrote about Microsoft Message Analyzer , and explained how it could be used to monitor and better understand your network and internet traffic. It’s a hugely powerful tool, but also bulky and with an intimidating interface. If you’d prefer something more lightweight, then as usual, NirSoft might have the answer. SmartSniff is also a network monitor which tries to capture the TCP/IP packets that pass through your chosen network adapter, then allows you to view, filter and display them. Like Microsoft Message Analyzer, the program is very configurable. But unlike Microsoft’s offering, it’s portable, and a mere 100KB download. To get started, open the program, click the green "Play" button toolbar and select the network adapter to use. SmartSniff can capture packets using WinPcap and Microsoft Network Monitor, but is also able to use raw sockets if you’ve nothing else installed. Once capture has started, collect some emails, open a browser, visit a website or do something else internet-related. With any luck the packets should be captured and various details displayed: protocol, local and remote addresses/ ports/ hosts, service name, data size, capture time, local and remote MAC address, and more. If there’s a lot of activity this could be hard to follow. Click Stop to stop capture when you’ve had enough. Browse down the report looking for interesting activity. This might be an IP address or remote host you don’t recognize, an unusual port number, maybe something that’s transmitting a lot of data and you don’t know why. If you’re trying to diagnose an email issue, for instance, you might look for a relevant "Remote Host" ( mail.something.com ), "Service Name" (pop3) or "Remote Port" (110). We clicked on the first element of a POP3 exchange and SmartSniff displayed the full conversation in plain text, including the account user name and password. Further down was a "Remote Host" we didn’t recognize, static.xx.xx.xx.xx- clients.your-server.de. What was this? Clicking it displayed a hex dump of the traffic which included the text " www.tunnelbear.com" , a VPN installed on our system -- suddenly it all made sense. Display filters help you drill down to the information you need. Click Options > Display Filter and enter include:remote:tcp:80 to display only web traffic, for instance, or use include:remote:tcp:110 to focus on that pop3 activity. A huge number of configuration options allow you to define what’s capturing, how it’s displayed and exactly how SmartSniff works. Once you’ve finished, SmartSniff is able to save both its own report and the stored network packets. That’s helpful for you, but be very careful if you share it with others. The data could contain user names, passwords and other confidential information. SmartSniff’s raw sockets capture method won’t work in every situation, and it doesn’t have the charts, graphs and other views of Microsoft Message Analyzer. But then again, you can download and be running it in seconds, on anything from Windows 98 up (yes, really), and there’s still more than enough power here to handle many simple network troubleshooting tasks. Grab a copy immediately. SmartSniff is a free application for Windows 98 and later. 2016-07-28 13:28 By Mike
52 Sony is shedding the battery division it started in 1975 Sony has been shedding elements of its core business at a steady pace in an effort to return to profitability. On Thursday, the Japanese electronics giant announced intentions to part ways with yet another major division. Murata Manufacturing Co. has entered into a non-binding memorandum of understanding (a fancy term for an agreement that isn’t legally-binding) with Sony to purchase its battery business. In a mutual press release issued earlier today, Murata said it still needs to perform due diligence and negotiate terms and conditions of the deal. That said, the deal is expected to include the battery business conducted by Sony Energy Devices Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony’s in Japan, the company’s battery-related manufacturing operations in Singapore and China plus assets and personnel assigned to the battery business within Sony’s sales and R&D sites around the globe. As Engadget highlights , Sony started its battery business in 1975 and was the first company to commercialize lithium-ion batteries in 1991. The battery arm has served Sony well over the years yet as of late, it’s been a drain. Last year, it cost the company $270 million. Murata said it intends to position the battery business as a core operation within its energy business in order to target further business growth and expansion. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the two expect to have a binding agreement in place by mid-October of this year and wrap up the transfer by the end of March 2017 pending regulatory approval. Image courtesy Kim Kyung Hoon, Reuters 2016-07-28 12:30 Shawn Knight
53 AT&T rolls out update for Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, bringing Wi-Fi calling support AT&T has begun rolling out an update for the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, adding support for a handy new feature. The carrier announced last month that it would be bringing support for Wi-Fi calling to "select Android devices" , starting with the LG G4. A few weeks ago, the Galaxy S6 active was also added to that rather short list. Now, it's the turn of Samsung's 2016 flagships. As Android Police reports, the new update weighs in at around 600MB, and bumps the build number on both devices up to AUCU2APG1. In addition to Wi-Fi calling support, the update also adds support for IPME (AT&T's advanced messaging standard), along with 'AMBS Phase 3', which likely refers to AT&T's Messages Backup & Sync service. Unspecified changes to the Setup and Transfer process are also included. Source: Android Police 2016-07-28 12:26 Andy Weir
54 BT sales increase 35% in 2016 Q2 with EE and broadband boosts Increasing numbers of broadband and pay monthly mobile customers since BT’s integration of EE and company reorganisation has helped BT increase sales and profit. The company completed the £12.5bn acquisition of EE in January 2016 , with the mobile operator becoming a new business unit in the wider group. BT’s sales increased 35% to more than £5.7bn in the three months from April to June, with a profit of £717m for the same period. Through EE, BT gained 244,000 mobile pay monthly customers in the period. Gavin Patterson, chief executive officer at BT, said the integration of EE is progressing well. “EE performed strongly, both financially and commercially,” he said. “We remain focused on improving customer experience, and 100% of EE pay monthly calls are now handled in UK and Ireland contact centres. We’ve reduced engineer missed appointments by more than a third since last quarter and Openreach is ahead on all 60 minimum service levels set by Ofcom.” BT said broadband sales were strong, and its fibre broadband is now available to well over 25 million premises. Patterson added that BT got 79% share of new UK broadband customers in the quarter. Patterson said the company will continue to invest in rolling out fibre and 4G networks through its Emergency Services Network (ESN) contract . This is part of what is known as the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme. It aims to provide an enhanced commercial – but shared with the public – 4G mobile network for the use of ambulance, fire and police services across the UK. This will replace the private terrestrial-trunked radio (Tetra) network currently in use but coming to the end of its life. 2016-07-28 12:15 Services Editor
55 Locky Ransomware Was Top Malware Threat for Q2 2016 Locky's dominant position is no surprise to anyone following the infosec sector, this ransomware family being created and distributed by one of the largest cyber-crime syndicates around, the same people behind the Dridex banking trojan, also one of the most commonly encountered malware families. To understand what happened in Q2, you will need the bigger picture of the entire year. 2016 started with a bang, with Locky first appearing on the scene and slowly gaining more traction with growing numbers each week. This ransomware was spread not only via spam messages but also via exploit kits. Nevertheless, spam was Locky's main method of distribution, either via malicious Office files containing macro scripts or via ZIP files containing malicious JavaScript files. Spam distribution was at record numbers almost all year, from January to May, with Proofpoint detecting in some periods hundreds of millions of spam messages per day. Spam numbers took a dive in June, when one of the Dridex gang's main botnets, Necurs, responsible for distributing Locky ransomware, shut down for about three weeks . About the same time, the Angler exploit kit also closed down , and a month earlier, in May, so did the Nuclear exploit kit . Necurs did eventually come back online towards the end of June, but these three blows made Q2 a quieter quarter in terms of malware distribution compared to the previous Q1. Nevertheless, when it was active, the botnet helped Locky win the top spot as Q2's most active malware threat. According to the company's data, Locky dominated spam distribution in Q2, replacing the Dridex trojan as the most popular spam malware, while the CryptXXX ransomware remained the favorite malware spread via exploit kits. Malicious JavaScript files attached to email spam exploded in terms of popularity, growing 230 percent compared to Q1. Many of today's malware families rely now on this trick, but it was Locky and Dridex that made this distribution method popular. The Angler and Nuclear exploit kits were more popular than many people thought, and after their shutdowns, traffic to exploit kits went down 96 percent worldwide. Despite this, Proofpoint also registered a growth in popularity for exploit kits capable of infecting mobile devices. The company reports that over ten million Android devices were compromised this way in Q2 alone. Overall, Android malware accounted for 98 percent of the entire mobile malware scene, which is curious, since iOS devices are more popular compared to Android, than OX S is to Windows, meaning that the attack surface is wider and crooks should be, in theory, more interested in targeting these devices. Apparently, they weren't. 2016-07-28 12:00 Catalin Cimpanu
56 Windows 10 Build 14393.31 Could Launch Ahead of Anniversary Update Debut As WinBeta reports, Windows 10 build 14393.31 has been spotted online, and this is the first sign that a new release is imminent, obviously as a cumulative update for insiders in the fast ring. Since we’re only a few days away from the moment when the Anniversary Update goes live for everyone, .31 could be released as soon as this week, and why not, as soon as today. Dona Sarkar, head of the Windows Insider program, hasn’t dropped any hints that a new cumulative update could be released, but neither did she about the previous releases based on 14393, so anything’s possible. The most recent cumulative update released for Windows insiders pushed Windows 10 to version 14393.5 , so a huge bump to .31 could signal the introduction of one significantly large pack of improvements. As you probably know by now, cumulative updates do not bring any new features, and it doesn’t make sense to include any now that we’re so close to the public launch, so the focus is on fixing bugs and improving performance at the very last minute. The Windows 10 Anniversary Update will debut for both PCs and mobile devices, so this new cumulative update will also be released to users on the two platforms. The official rollout will start on August 2, but as we’ve said so many times before, it’s important to keep in mind that not everyone will get it during the same day, as the company is going for a staged release because it’s nearly impossible to offer a smooth upgrade since Windows 10 is running on more than 350 million devices around the world. Fortunately, we’re almost there, and even if this new cumulative update doesn’t get the green light, we have less than a week to wait until we receive the final bits of the Anniversary Update. 2016-07-28 11:51 Bogdan Popa
57 Al Murooj Rotana increases guest satisfaction with updated Wi-Fi network Rotana Hotels, a large hotel management group headquartered in United Arab Emirates (UAE) capital Abu Dhabi, recently improved guests’ experience with the roll-out of new services at its Al Murooj Rotana property , where it implemented an updated wireless network infrastructure from Aruba Networks. Prior to the implementation, the Dubai-based, five-star hotel regularly suffered wireless network issues such as signal drops and fluctuations. The problem was growing worse because of the increasing number of guests, as well as their increasing bandwidth requirements. The hotel’s management also began to worry about the security of the wireless network. “With 900 to 1,000 guests using the network on an average day, we began to see noticeable performance issues,” said Renju Ramanadhan, cluster director of IT for the Al Murooj Rotana and Al Bustan Rotana hotels in Dubai. “Further, as guests increasingly utilised video and multimedia rich applications, both the speed and security of the network were brought into question.” To solve the issues, Ramanadhan attempted to simply upgrade the firmware of the hotel’s existing wireless controllers, in conjunction with increasing the number of access points. However, with guest requirements becoming more demanding, these actions turned out to be stop-gap measures – the underlying infrastructure simply couldn’t keep up with the property’s Wi-Fi requirements, meaning the whole system needed an overhaul. “We expected and wanted a basic requirement in today’s world – a very reliable wireless infrastructure to provide stable connectivity for all our guests,” said Ramanadhan. 2016-07-28 11:45 Tom Paye
58 Motorola won't commit to monthly Android security patches, because it's too "difficult" Last year, a massive security vulnerability was discovered, which targeted a core component of the Android OS, known as Stagefright , and was believed to affect almost a billion Android devices. The security researcher who published details of the vulnerability said he had created patches and sent them to Google months earlier, but the slow pace of Android updates meant that many devices continued to be left unprotected. Soon after that, Google announced that it was launching monthly security updates for Android , and major manufacturers such as Samsung and LG quickly committed to delivering the monthly patches to some of their devices. Motorola, however, was not among them - and it seems that's not going to change any time soon. At the launch of the Moto Z last month, Ars Technica asked Motorola if it planned to commit to delivering monthly security updates for the device. It responded with an unequivocal "no". But a later statement from the company led to some ambiguity over whether it might intend to do so: Of course, that's not quite the same thing as a firm commitment to delivering monthly updates. Pressed for clarification, Motorola issued a further statement - and unfortunately, for its customers, it's not good news: So while some of Motorola's devices will receive the security updates, the company has no intention of delivering them in a timely fashion. As Ars Technica notes, last year's Moto X has only received the monthly patches roughly once every quarter, and the most recent update delivered to the Moto Z was from May. While delivering these updates less frequently is clearly more efficient for Motorola, it's obviously far from ideal for its customers, whose devices remain unprotected by the latest security improvements and fixes until the company eventually gets around to releasing them, sometimes months late. It's not clear why Motorola is apparently incapable of adhering to a monthly rollout, when other major Android manufacturers are able to do so. Motorola is owned by Lenovo, which hasn't exactly had the best track record when it comes to security considerations on its devices . Source: Ars Technica 2016-07-28 11:24 Andy Weir
59 61 percent of Americans fear having their cars or home security cameras hacked As more and more devices get connected to the Internet of Things, so their susceptibility to hacking increases too. New research from enterprise data protection company Vormetric in conjunction with Wakefield Research shows that this is a concern for many people. Most feared is the hacking of cars and home security cameras, both cited by 61 percent. In addition 52 percent thought a virtual personal assistant such as Amazon Echo would be vulnerable to hacking, and 45 percent were concerned about the potential to hack smartwatches. Although security of healthcare systems has received a lot of attention, medical monitors register with less than a quarter of respondents (20 percent) and tie with refrigerators in terms of perceived hacking risk. These devices are followed by fitness trackers (18 percent), thermostats (14 percent) and lightbulbs (9 percent). "Consumers don't seem to recognize the amount of sensitive data that these devices collect," says Tina Stewart, VP of marketing at Vormetric. "Consider fitness trackers. These generate a continuous stream of location and health data that can pinpoint where a person is at all times when wearing the device. There are already many cases in the courts where Fitbit data is being used to corroborate testimony and check on people's whereabouts. It's important that people take the time to investigate the data security of their IoT devices. After all, personal and financial health could be at stake". The survey shows that around half of respondents are already using some form of IoT device, though baby boomers on 46 percent lag behind millennials on 56 percent. The most popular devices already in use are: cars (24 percent), wearable fitness trackers (18 percent), home security cameras or similar devices (9 percent), thermostats (8 percent), lightbulbs (7 percent) and smartwatches (also 7 percent). You can read more about the findings on the Vormetric blog . Image Credit : cybrain / Shutterstock 2016-07-28 10:56 By Ian
60 Apple iTunes 12.4.2 for Windows iTunes is a popular, free application which organises and plays your digital music and video on your computer. iTunes is the best way to organise and enjoy the music, music videos, television shows, audiobooks, podcasts, movies you already have - and shop for the ones you want to get. With iTunes for Windows you can: iTunes 12.4.2 is a minor update and resolves a playback issue with short Apple Music songs in your Up Next queue. It also improves the security of iTunes on Windows. For more information on the security content of this update see: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222 2016-07-28 10:47 [Product name]
61 Nintendo has a new book to go along with its retro NES Classic Nintendo did itself a solid earlier this month with the announcement of the NES Classic , a pint-sized replica of the original Nintendo Entertainment System that’ll come pre-loaded with 30 of the all-time best games of the era later this year. The Japanese gaming giant’s latest reveal proves that it’s fully embracing its nostalgic roots which I, for one, welcome with open arms. Nintendo has partnered with video game strategy guide specialist Prima Games on a new hardcover book called Playing With Power: Nintendo NES Classics. The book offers a “fascinating” retrospective on 17 NES classics including Super Mario Bros. 3, Donkey Kong and The Legend of Zelda complete with interviews and commentary from Nintendo visionaries that pioneered this beloved era in gaming. The book, which comes with an embossed slipcase that resembles a classic NES cartridge, also includes hand—drawn maps, character and game environment art as well as vintage advertising and priceless excerpts from Nintendo Power magazine back issues. Playing With Power: Nintendo NES Classics goes on sale November 18, just one week after the aforementioned NES Classic console. You can go ahead and put in your pre-order now through various retailers including Amazon, Barnes & Noble and GameStop. Your best bet is to get it through Amazon for $26.99 versus GameStop’s insane $44.99 asking price. 2016-07-28 10:45 Shawn Knight
62 Using a #hashtag to take diversity awareness global Recruitment company Structur3dpeople has used a social media initiative to showcase women working in the tech industry and spread awareness about diversity in technology. Structur3dpeople partnered with TechUK in November 2015 to launch its global Tech Role Model campaign, which encourages women in the technology industry to share pictures of themselves on social media along with their name, job title and the hashtag #GettingMoreWomenIntoTech . Since its launch, the hashtag has been used by around 200 women. The initiative is being pushed wider to ensure more firms take part and encourage their employees to be part of the campaign. With Citrix vice-president and TechUK president Jacqueline de Rojas as the face of the effort, the initiative aims to make women in the technology industry more visible and provide others interested in the industry with role models. “I am delighted to support the #GettingMoreWomenIntoTech campaign. I passionately believe in the power of diversity and its ability to create more successful businesses. Playing our part at grass roots level will help create the digital talent so badly needed to fuel our digital future,” said de Rojas. With help of TechUK, Structur3dpeople has been able to appeal to a more global audience by extending the campaign to its networks, with Cisco and FDM also showing support. The tech industry suffers from a lack of visible role models for prospective IT candidates , according to many groups attempting to encourage more women and girls into the sector. It is debated that although there are a lot of high profile women at the top of firms, such as Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman, there are few visible examples of women in the early stages of their tech career . The #GettingMoreWomenIntoTech campaign aims to make role models of all types and levels more visible on social media platforms, such as Twitter and Linkedin. Many also believe there is too much emphasis on coding in the new UK computing curriculum , which supports the geeky-male stereotype that comes along with more technical roles . By supplying their job title in their pictures, participants are helping to raise awareness about different types of roles available in the technology industry, as well as what opportunities exist at different stages of a tech career. But until men are also on board with changing the diversity landscape , it will continue to be difficult to increase the number of women in the tech space. Structur3dpeople has seen a number of men also showing support for the Tech Role Model campaign, sharing the hashtag and posting about women contributing to the cause. 2016-07-28 10:15 Business Editor
63 VAIO unveils its 'fashionable' dual-color C15 laptop Roughly two years ago, Sony sold off its VAIO PC business line to an investment fund, spinning it off as an independent company. It has then released a slew of devices, like the ' VAIO Phone ', ' Canvas Z ,' and the Windows 10 Mobile handset, the ' Phone Biz.' And recently, it has announced a new laptop computer aimed for the fashion-savvy people, called the VAIO C15. The laptop's main selling point is its span of color combinations, which range from yellow/black, orange/khaki, white/copper, and navy/gray. The yellow/black and orange/khaki has a 15.5-inch display, with a screen resolution of 1366x768. Under the hood, it runs on an Intel Celeron 3215U processor, with 4 GB of RAM, and 500 GB/1TB SSD for storage. Peculiarly, VAIO also gives buyers an option to install either Windows 7 or Windows 10 onto the machine. This variant is priced at 66,800 yen (roughly $641), but is only available to buy at Sony stores. Regular stores will sell the C15 for 94,800 yen (roughly $910). On the other hand, the white/copper and navy/gray variant of the VAIO C15 can be upgraded to a 1080p display (1920x1080 resolution), 8 GB of RAM, and an Intel Core i3 processor. However, it is not specified how much this will set back those who will decide to upgrade their laptops. Other features of the C15 include a DVD drive, anti-glare LCD screen to reduce possible eye strain, a subwoofer with 'high-quality' speakers, and a full-sized keyboard. It also has an Ethernet port, as well as HDMI and USB. It is not yet fully known when the devices will start to be sold, but according to VAIO , a pre-order sale is scheduled to start by September 1 for the VAIO C15's yellow/black variant. Source: VAIO via The Verge | Images via VAIO 2016-07-28 09:50 Justin Luna
64 How to install Windows 7 from a USB key Microsoft's TechNet magazine has posted instructions on installing Windows 7 from a USB key - which will be very handy for anyone installing Windows 7 on a netbook, in particular. Installing Windows 7 from a USB key will also be faster than installing it from DVD. Here, according to TechNet, is what you need to do: 1. You should already have DiskPart installed on your Windows machine - you'll use this to prepare the USB drive. If this free disk partitioning app isn't already already installed, you can download DiskPart from Microsoft. 10. Drag and drop the contents of your Windows 7 installation DVD onto the USB drive to copy the files across. 11. Stick the USB key drive into the machine you want to install Windows 7 onto and boot the system from the drive. The Windows 7 installation will now begin. Via TechNet Article continues below 2016-07-28 09:35 By Paul
65 Facebook’s revenue rockets on strong growth Facebook has reported second-quarter revenues of $6.44bn, up 59% compared with the same period a year ago and $420m higher than market forecasts. Advertising revenue was up 63% to $6.24bn, and accounted for 97% of the social networking company’s total revenue. Profits were up 186% year on year to $2.06bn, while the number of monthly active users is up 15% to 1.71 billion, with 1.57 billion using mobile devices, an increase of 20% year on year and 91% of the total. Facebook said daily users now number an average of 1.13 billion, an increase of 17% compared with a year ago. With most users accessing Facebook from mobile devices, mobile advertising accounts for around 84% of total advertising revenue, up from around 76% in the second quarter of 2015. “Our community and business had another good quarter,” said Mark Zuckerberg , Facebook founder and CEO. “We're particularly pleased with our progress in video as we move towards a world where video is at the heart of all our services.” In recent months, Facebook has introduced 360 video, which provides a 360-degree view of videos, and Facebook Live, which enables any Facebook user to broadcast video live to the world. According to eMarketer, Facebook’s global ad revenues will account for more than two-thirds of all social media revenue in 2016. The market research company estimates that Facebook’s figure for the year will hit $22.37bn, up from 2015’s $17.08bn. Facebook’s results are in sharp contrast to those of Twitter, which has reported its slowest quarterly sales growth in three years, with revenue up just 20% year on year to $602m and a rise of just 3% in the number of monthly active users to 313 million. Twitter is yet to make a profit, but it did manage to reduce its quarterly loss to $107m from $136m for the same period a year ago. Although Twitter’s advertising revenue was up 18% to $535m, analysts said the company will find it difficult to attract advertisers without stronger growth in the number of users. 2016-07-28 09:03 Security Editor
66 Xen hypervisor has 'fatal' security vulnerability Security expert Jérémie Boutoille from Quarkslab says that he has found a critical bug in the Xen hypervisor. The open-source hypervisor, which has the likes of Amazon, and IBM on its cloud clients list, has had a bug which could lead to potential privilege escalation. The bug, identified as CVE- 2016-6258, affects all versions of Xen. However, only PV guests on x86 hardware should be worried. Hardware virtual machine (HVM) and ARM guests are deemed invulnerable. "Running only HVM guests will avoid this vulnerability", the researcher said in an advisory posted on the Xenbits website. In theory, the bug would allow a malicious PV guest administrator to escalate their privilege in relation to the host. That way, it could break PV virtual machine’s isolation, allowing the attacker breaking into one, to break into others, as well. "The PV pagetable code has fast-paths for making updates to pre-existing pagetable entries, to skip expensive re-validation in safe cases (e.g. clearing only access/dirty bits)", it says in the issue description. "The bits considered safe were too broad, and not actually safe". Xen also forms the basis of the Qubes OS, which is why Joanna Rutkowska spoke up. According to Computing.co.uk, she says the vulnerability should be considered fatal. "The mere fact we were unable to come up with an agreeable exploitation sketch within the last 24 hours should not be treated as a mitigation factor", she says. "This bug, being the second critical bug in the Xen PV virtualization code publicly discussed in a relatively short period of time, cannot simply be shrugged off, patched, and forgotten". Patches are available for download here . Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved. Photo Credit: andriano.cz / Shutterstock 2016-07-28 08:53 By Sead
67 Never lose track of customer journey, says Brussels Airlines CIO Brussels Airlines is transforming its business digitally through a strategy that links traditional IT with its customers through a digital skin. The airline is looking to improving the customer experience and reduce costs through technologies such as mobile and analytics. Simon Lamkin, CIO at the airline , is using his background in e-commerce as well as over a decade of experience of computer platforms at easyJet to take the 15-year-old business to the next digital level. Lufthansa-owned Brussels Airlines was traditionally focused on the European and West African markets but today also operates in North America. It carried 7.5 million passengers on its 50 aircraft last year and expects to reach eight million this year. Lamkin has experience in online and digital travel industry through a company he co-founded. It set him up for a move into the airline industry, which is increasingly focused on digital services to travellers. However, it was the next 12 years, which he spent working at easyJet on multiple platforms, which gave him the experience required to take on a CIO role, which he did at Brussels Airlines in April this year. Spending on customer-facing IT in the airline industry , such as mobile apps for travelers and staff, is growing much faster than spending on traditional industry systems such as ticketing and baggage systems. 2016-07-28 08:30 Services Editor
68 App category changes coming to Google Play in the next two months Google is hard at work improving its Google Play app store. Just recently, Google rolled out the app-sharing Family Library feature and found a way to reduce data consumption when updating apps on Google Play. While those changes make life better for users interacting with apps they already own, Google's latest change to its Play store will help Android users discover new and relevant apps better than before. Google's own Sarah Karam, part of Google Play Apps Business Development, reported on the company's Android Developers Blog to discuss a few important changes regarding how apps will be categorized within Google Play. Within the next 60 days, Google Play will have new and renamed categories to help group similar apps together in modern, relevant ways. When the changes are applied, the new categories will be: In addition to these new categories, the current "Transportation" category is being changed to "Maps & Navigation" while the "Media & Video" category is changing to "Video Players & Editors". Unless something changes in the next two months, many of the other popular categories on Google Play will remain unchanged. Google has a step-by-step process that developers can follow in the event they'd like to play around with re-labeling their apps with the new categories. Source: Google 2016-07-28 08:12 Chris Schroeder
69 Nvidia to pay each GTX 970 owner $30 over memory controversy More than a year and a half ago, Nvidia's GeForce GTX 970 was the subject of a major controversy concerning its memory subsystem. Enthusiasts discovered that the graphics card, which was advertised as having 4 GB of memory, actually only had 3.5 GB of high-performance GDDR5 and a further 512 MB of performance-limited GDDR5. There was a lot of discussion at the time about whether the two-tiered memory subsystem was actually a performance issue in games. Despite Nvidia claiming it made no difference, users who bought the GTX 970 weren't happy, and filed multiple class-action lawsuits against the company alleging false advertising and deceptive business practice. Earlier this week, Nvidia agreed to settle a total of 15 class-action lawsuits for undisclosed terms. However, Nvidia has publicly agreed to pay $30 to every person who purchased a GTX 970, and cover $1.3 million in legal fees. This is only a preliminary settlement, so a court still needs to approve the terms before buyers can start claiming their $30. Nvidia has indicated they will not cap the total amount they will pay to consumers. When users can begin filing their claims, we'll be sure to let you know. It's not clear at this stage whether those who purchased a GTX 970 outside of the United States will be able claim their $30, as the lawsuits were filed and settled in California. 2016-07-28 08:00 Tim Schiesser
70 LastPass immediately patches new vulnerabilities discovered by users Over the past few days, reports have begun to surface about known, major vulnerabilities in password manager LastPass. Today, the company has released a statement regarding these vulnerabilities, revealing that they were addressed immediately. The first and most recent vulnerability was discovered by Google Security Team researcher Tavis Ormandy. He uncovered and documented a message- hijacking bug in the LastPass Firefox addon, which could lead to the execution of actions in the background without the user's knowledge. This vulnerability was disclosed to LastPass and fixed within hours, resulting in an update for Firefox users. The second vulnerability has been making headlines recently due to a post by security researcher Mathias Karlsson titled " How I made LastPass give me all your passwords ". However, as LastPass notes, the issue was disclosed to LastPass more than a year ago and subsequently addressed at the time through an update to all browser extensions. The vulnerability in question surrounded the URL parsing code in LastPass' extension, which allowed Karlsson to steal passwords that were mistakenly autofilled on malicious websites. This was a critical security issue, and LastPass published an update to their extension that addressed it in under a day. In their post on the matter , LastPass reminds people to be wary of phishing attacks, and suggests good security practices like using two-factor authentication and unique passwords for every account. 2016-07-28 07:30 Tim Schiesser
71 Parents are naming their babies after Pok�mon Go characters As Pokémon Go continues its global ambush on productivity, many are questioning the game’s staying power. Are we in the midst of a fad that’ll soon die down as quickly as it arrived or will the game stick around for the long haul? According to BabyCenter , the names of some Pokémon Go characters have recently spiked in popularity. Fortunately, it isn’t quite as bad as it could be as parents are going with more subtle names like Evee, Onyx and Roselia, which have jumped 1,394 spots, 2,191 spots and 5,896 spots compared to a year ago, respectively. That not a sheer coincidence, either. BabyCenter reports that in a recent survey, nearly 50 percent of the moms in its community said they are actively playing Pokémon Go. Then again, one shouldn’t really be all that surprised as pop culture-inspired baby names are a regular occurrence. Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Frozen and House of Cards, the site says, have all served as inspirations for baby names in recent memory. BabyCenter’s editor in chief said parents are always looking to pop culture for baby name inspiration and, right now, it doesn’t get hotter than Pokémon Go. Image courtesy Alexander Tihonov, Shutterstock. Second image courtesy samira_aileen03, Instagram 2016-07-28 07:00 Shawn Knight
72 72 Ubuntu 15.10 Wily Werewolf reaches end-of- life 9 months after release Ubuntu releases come in two flavours, bog standard and Long Term Support (LTS). The latter is supported for five years while standard releases are supported for just nine months. Today, Ubuntu 15.10, a standard release, has reached its end of life, leaving just three releases in a supported state; they are 12.04 LTS, 14.04 LTS, and 16.04 LTS. Many Ubuntu releases come and go these days without too much difference between them so it might be difficult for you to find which release you're running, a good way to find out which version of Ubuntu you are running is by running the following command in the terminal: If you are indeed running Ubuntu 15.10 or 14.04 LTS, you are able to upgrade to the latest LTS. Open the update manager, if your settings are configured correctly a prompt will appear letting you know that an upgrade to Ubuntu 16.04(.1) is available. Ubuntu 15.10 users are advised to upgrade right away to continue receiving security updates. Last week, Canonical released Ubuntu 16.04.1, the first point upgrade or service pack for the LTS release. Users on the previous LTS, 14.04 were not offered Ubuntu 16.04 from the update manager when it launched. This gave Canonical time to squash bugs found in post-release. With the availability of 16.04.1, 14.04 users were given the option to upgrade. Source: OMG Ubuntu 2016-07-28 06:42 Paul Hill
73 Mozilla celebrates 10,000 days since web proposal was submitted On Sunday, March 12, 1989, Tim Berners-Lee submitted a proposal for a distributed information system at CERN (European Organisation for Nuclear Research). Today (July 28, 2016) marks the 10,000th day since those proposals were submitted! To celebrate, Mozilla has launched a Thunderclap campaign inviting users to join them on Twitter to take a trip down memory lane. Mozilla's '10,000 Days of the Web' Thunderclap campaign description reads: The web company is looking to get 10,000 supporters on its Thunderclap campaign to raise awareness of the day, so far it has passed over half of its goal and the campaign has a 'social reach' of over three million people. Stay tuned to the Firefox Twitter account over the course of the day for tweets about the event, posts will probably be accompanied with a #10kDays hashtag, making searches for related posts easy. Since the web launched, we've gone from static websites to dynamic websites, all the way to fully fledged web apps. How do you think the web will look in another 10,000 days on Monday, December 14, 2043? Source: Thunderclap 2016-07-28 06:26 Paul Hill
74 Facebook's Q2 results show the company continuing to grow at an incredible pace After so many years of incredible growth, you might expect Facebook to be reaching a plateau. But the company’s latest Q2 earnings results show the social media Juggernaut isn’t slowing down in the slightest. Mark Zuckerberg’s firm beat Wall Street’s estimates with $6.44 billion in revenue and $2.05 billion in profit during the second quarter of 2016, a 59 percent increase over the same period last year. Analysts had been looking for revenue of around $6.02 billion. One of the most important metrics for Facebook is the Average Revenue per User (ARPU), which shows how much money the company makes on each person. It’s now at $3.82, higher than the estimated $3.60 and more than during the fourth quarter holiday season. It may feel like everyone and their dog is now on Facebook, but its user base continues to grow and is edging ever closer to the 2 billion monthly active users (MAU) milestone. As of June 30, there are 1.71 billion MAUs on the site – about 23 percent of the world’s population – and 1.03 billion Daily Active Users (DAU), marking a 15 percent year-over-year increase. Mobile is an even faster-growing area for the company: DAUs are up 22 percent to 1.03 billion, and MAUs increased 20 percent to 1.57 billion. Mobile advertising, meanwhile, now represents a massive 84 percent of all Facebook’s ad revenue. The Q2 report caused Facebook’s stock to jump more than 6 percent in after-hours trading. With so many people now using the social media site, it seems the only way it can continue growing at such a fast rate is by bringing the internet to the 60 percent of the population (4 billion people) without it. Facebook’s Connectivity Lab is working on technologies that will help those in remote areas get online, and recently conducted the first successful test of its Aquila drone. 2016-07-28 06:15 Rob Thubron
Total 74 articles. Created at 2016-07-29 06:01