Announcement

Total 70 articles, created at 2016-03-31 12:02 1 FBI agrees to try to hack iPhone, iPod in Arkansas murder case The trial of a teen murder suspect has been postponed a day after the FBI says it (2.00/3) cracked the defenses of an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. 2016-03-31 07:06 2KB cnet.com.feedsportal.com 2 Microsoft’s Windows 10 anniversary update is coming for free this summer

(2.00/3) Software giant Microsoft has officially announced that its largest update to Windows 10 will arrive this summer. The update will make the OS more convenient for consumers and more powerful developers. The Anniversary update will enable users to use Windows Hello to login to apps and access secure features. The update also has improved stylus support... 2016-03-31 05:17 1KB pctechmag.com 3 EMC locks down ScaleIO with its biggest update yet EMC has added features to ScaleIO to meet the needs of plus-size customers like banks and telecommunications carriers that are adopting the software-defined storage system. (2.00/3) 2016-03-30 16:21 2KB www.computerworld.com 4 Amazon puts shonky USB-C cables in a noose The end of a Leung and winding road 2016-03-30 14:17 2KB www.theinquirer.net

(2.00/3)

5 Federal privacy commissioner will watch threat information sharing, says official How a Canadian hospital faces insider threats Knowing the unknowable: the challenge of complying with the Digital Privacy Act Threat information sharing between organizations and governments has been touted by experts as a necessity to combat online attackers. That's fine for 2016-03-31 09:40 6KB www.itworldcanada.com 6 AIIM Market Intelligence: Making sense of European Data Protection Regulations as they relate to the storage and management of content in the Cloud The development of public, private, government and hybrid cloud computing services has created a challenge to on-premise data storage and processing, and 2016-03-31 10:33 1KB www.itworldcanada.com 7 Wearable technology creates opportunities for retailers The proliferation of wearable devices such as smart watches and activity trackers is one of the significant technology trends of 2016. With these innovations, organisations are collecting vast ranges of personal data, such as calorie intake, heart rate, exercise levels and location. It is... 2016-03-31 07:31 1KB www.computerweekly.com 8 Managing Governance, Risk and Compliance with ECM and BPM Many of the elements involved in meeting compliance and regulatory requirements are best managed by content and records management systems, particularly where 2016-03-31 09:23 1KB www.itworldcanada.com 9 The Marketing Transformation: From Managing Campaigns to Orchestrating Experiences These experiences are becoming the differentiating aspect of marketing a product or service. But although consumer values and buying habits have changed, 2016-03-31 09:23 1KB www.itworldcanada.com

10 A hacker's next target is just a Web search away Bad guys and good guys alike can use Google to find vulnerable targets online. What matters most, then, is who's fastest. 2016-03-31 07:06 5KB cnet.com.feedsportal.com 11 Whoopi Goldberg has a prescription for menstrual cramps: weed Launching a marijuana brand is basically the new right of passage for celebrity stoners. 2016-03-31 07:06 3KB cnet.com.feedsportal.com 12 How Microsoft's other machine learning tricks could make its bots even smarter Microsoft's machine learning smartens up 2016-03-31 05:53 4KB feedproxy.google.com 13 Final Fantasy XV coming to PS4 and Xbox One September 30 Square Enix on Wednesday made a series of announcements regarding Final Fantasy XV, with a mobile game, movie and anime tie-ins coming ahead of the game's long- awaited release in September. 2016-03-31 08:16 1KB cnet.com.feedsportal.com 14 The Future-Ready Enterprise The economic benefits are clear — future readiness corresponds to better business outcomes. But organizations that don’t find themselves at the top 2016-03-31 08:16 1KB www.itworldcanada.com 15 Samsung gets forecast upgrade on back of S7 sales Analysts are expecting Samsung to ship almost 10 million S7 handsets for the first quarter of the year. 2016-03-31 04:46 3KB zdnet.com.feedsportal.com 16 The greatest scientific minds beat each other's brains out in Science Kombat Great names from scientific history like Albert Einstein, Marie Curie and Stephen Hawking put their brains aside to use their braun and battle each other Street Fighter style in a new web-based video game. 2016-03-31 08:16 2KB cnet.com.feedsportal.com 17 ​Ecommerce enables impoverished Indian artisans to become rupee millionaires From conflict zones to victims of human trafficking and master craftspeople exploited by middlemen, ecommerce in India is bringing livelihoods to artisans across the country. 2016-03-31 04:18 6KB zdnet.com.feedsportal.com 18 How Australia can cash in on the cyber boom Australia is world leader in developing infosec ideas, but bad at commercialising them. There's a plan to fix that. 2016-03-31 03:35 6KB zdnet.com.feedsportal.com 19 LG G5 launches in South Korea In possibly its most important product launch in recent years, LG has begun sales of its modular G5 smartphone and accompanying accessories in South Korea a day ahead of the US launch on April 1. 2016-03-31 03:05 2KB zdnet.com.feedsportal.com 20 ​Startup paranoia keeping General Electric on its feet: GE Australian chief As General Electric transitions from an equipment manufacturer into a software company, its Australian chief executive said fear of becoming redundant added to the success of the shift. 2016-03-31 02:58 4KB zdnet.com.feedsportal.com 21 China rejects worry over domain rules China has responded to concerns that broad new rules, which could allow the blocking of sites without a Chinese domain name registered, are simply misunderstood. 2016-03-31 02:06 4KB zdnet.com.feedsportal.com 22 Australian feds cannot tell senator if they have his metadata The Australian Federal Police has refused to say whether politicians, political staffers, or journalists have had their metadata preserved or accessed in the past year. 2016-03-31 00:58 2KB zdnet.com.feedsportal.com 23 ​Slack grows with office launch in Australia Slack has opened its sixth global office in Melbourne to cater for the Asia-Pacific region and time zone, which will mainly employ customer service support staff. 2016-03-31 00:20 5KB zdnet.com.feedsportal.com 24 Open Benchtable Project gives tweakers a portable test bench Streacom has teamed up with HWBOT and Overclocking-TV to kick off the Open Benchtable Project. The group wants to produce a design a... 2016-03-31 00:08 1KB techreport.com 25 Indian government allows 100 percent foreign investment in ecommerce sector Some retail traders have cried foul at the decision to permit 100 percent foreign direct investment and plan to launch agitation soon. 2016-03-30 23:50 5KB zdnet.com.feedsportal.com 26 Singtel joins Telstra and SubPartners on 20Tbps Perth to Singapore subsea cable The APX-West subsea cable connecting Perth to Singapore has been newly designed as a 20Tbps cable to be owned and operated by Telstra, Singtel, and SubPartners. 2016-03-30 23:17 5KB zdnet.com.feedsportal.com 27 Quick take: BMW gesture control Because who wants a touchscreen, right? 2016-03-30 23:01 2KB feedproxy.google.com 28 Microsoft plans to build ad blocker into its Microsoft Edge browser Who needs extensions like AdBlock Plus? In a session for Web developers today, Microsoft revealed that the next version of Microsoft Edge will include its own ad blocker. 2016-03-30 22:56 3KB zdnet.com.feedsportal.com 29 Refurbished 'iPhone SE' appears in China Some Chinese IT outlets have been providing services to refurbish iPhone 5 and iPhone 5S handsets to look like the new iPhone SE ahead of its official global launch. 2016-03-30 22:38 2KB zdnet.com.feedsportal.com 30 Turn your real life into virtual reality with these 360-degree cameras These 360-cameras will let you capture life in a whole new perspective 2016-03-30 21:00 5KB feedproxy.google.com 31 Build 2016: how to watch the live streams and what happened on Day 1 Anniversary Update, HoloLens, Bots – it was a big one 2016-03-30 20:33 4KB feedproxy.google.com

32 ARLP Gets a 70% Boost in Performance with Disaster Recovery Solution from HPE Coal producer and distributor Alliance Resource Partners (ARLP) conducted a competitive review before upgrading its storage architecture. with an HPE storage solution. By choosing HPE 3PAR StoreServ primary storage and HPE StoreOnce Backup, Oklahoma-based ARLP saved a half million dollars in the process. 2016-03-30 19:14 6KB www.computerworld.com 33 Ubuntu (not Linux) on Windows: How it works Ubuntu, but not Linux per se, will be running on in the next major Windows 10 update, Redstone. 2016-03-30 18:46 5KB zdnet.com.feedsportal.com 34 Instagram has quickly fixed the disappearing Log Out button A quick fix with a new update 2016-03-30 18:34 1KB feedproxy.google.com 35 MedStar Health partially restores services after ransomware attack MedStar Health said Wednesday it is restoring its computer systems following a cyberattack that reportedly involved file-encrypting malware. 2016-03-30 18:07 4KB www.computerworld.com 36 Acer Predator Z850 Projector Throws 120-Inch Images at Gamers for $5,000 Acer announced the availability of the industry's first ultra-wide HD laser projector, the Predator Z850. 2016-03-30 16:26 2KB www.maximumpc.com 37 Apple should set a better example with its supplier report, Greenpeace says Apple says conditions at factories where its iPhones and iPads are made have improved, but Greenpeace said the company could set a better example in reporting on its suppliers. 2016-03-30 15:51 2KB www.itnews.com 38 Microsoft says Windows 10 is now running on 270 million devices In the opening keynote for its Build conference in San Francisco, Microsoft's Terry Myerson announced that the number of active devices has risen sharply since the start of the year. But can that pace continue? 2016-03-30 15:49 3KB zdnet.com.feedsportal.com 39 Apple at 40: Seeing promise in the 'blossoming' home computer market When Apple launched the Apple II in 1977, it was still far from certain that consumers would need or want a home computer. In this article from the IDG archives, Apple lays out its predictions for the home PC market in 1978 and beyond. 2016-03-30 15:34 4KB www.itnews.com 40 Code Watch: Those who can, code If it were illegal to program a computer, I’d have a machine under the floorboards. I sold my first program when I was 16 years old, in 1980, and with any luck I’ll be making my living this way for another couple decades. I’ve been... 2016-03-30 15:30 4KB sdtimes.com 41 Acer Chromebook 14 arrives with aluminium chassis and 14-hour battery life It's also the first to offer a 14in IPS screen 2016-03-30 15:21 2KB www.theinquirer.net 42 Windows 10 tip: Find any setting in seconds One confusing aspect of Windows 10 is the way it keeps some options in the old-style Control Panel and others in the new Settings app. The good news is you don't have to guess where to look, once you learn these two search secrets. 2016-03-30 15:19 1KB zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

43 Hands-on with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay in a 2016 Chevy Tahoe The ability to use your smartphone to power your automobile navigation, entertainment, and communication systems is here with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. I spent a long weekend with the tech in a 2016 Chevy Tahoe. 2016-03-30 15:13 7KB zdnet.com.feedsportal.com 44 Square's new APIs expand merchant access to processing, hardware features The 'Build with Square' APIs allow businesses to incorporate various aspects of the Square ecosystem without committing to the whole package. 2016-03-30 15:05 2KB zdnet.com.feedsportal.com 45 Barbie maker Mattel falls prey to Chinese phishing attack but gets its money back Plastic provider called in the law to restore access to its pocket purse 2016-03-30 14:58 2KB www.theinquirer.net 46 ​Cloudera highlights public cloud push at analyst day Cloudera highlights use cases in push to public cloud. However, there's a disconnect between strategy and product roadmaps. 2016-03-30 14:53 4KB zdnet.com.feedsportal.com 47 Researcher develops algorithm that turns Tweets into tweets 'Ave a bird 2016-03-30 14:03 1KB feedproxy.google.com 48 'Routine' demands for encrypted data go far beyond Apple, raising questions Analysis: It's not just Apple that has been compelled to turn over data under a 230-year- old law. Where do these "quite ordinary" requests end? 2016-03-30 14:01 2KB zdnet.com.feedsportal.com 49 How Microsoft is serious about supporting Linux and cloud rivals with OMS New Microsoft, new attitude… 2016-03-30 14:00 4KB feedproxy.google.com 50 Nintendo NX UK release date, features, pricing and spec rumours: Leaked image Nintendo NX controller appears and will it be more powerful than the PS4? Nintendo has a habit of teasing products before launch, which is exactly what the late Nintendo Chief Executive Santoru Iwata did back at a press conference in March 2015, teasing that we'd find out more in 2016. Now 2016 is here, what do we know... 2016-03-30 13:58 16KB www.pcadvisor.co.uk 51 Dolcer Bluetooth speaker review: a multifunctional speaker with a 5200mAh power bank Here's our review of the £28.99 speaker which has a metal finished body providing the speaker with an elegant design. 2016-03-30 13:58 4KB www.pcadvisor.co.uk 52 Snoopers' Charter could cost local police forces £1bn Don't Spy on Us coalition steps up anti-Investigatory Powers Bill efforts 2016-03-30 13:43 3KB www.theinquirer.net

53 Scholarship Opportunity Are you interested in studying ICT4D at MSc level? The 2016 Development Informatics Scholarship worth 24500 USD (82.6 million UGX) is available for developing countries applicants to the one-year MSc ICT4D Programme; creating ICT4D champions. Applicants apply first for the programme. On receipt... 2016-03-30 13:40 1KB pctechmag.com 54 EE TV review: YouView rival has a great app and clever features but lacks on-demand services Looking for an alternative to YouView? Read our EE TV review to find out what's on offer. 2016-03-30 13:38 6KB www.pcadvisor.co.uk 55 Salesforce wins $100 million Health & Human Services deal Salesforce has added a blanket purchase agreement with the U. S. Department of Health & Human Services to its roster of large deals. 2016-03-30 13:17 1KB zdnet.com.feedsportal.com 56 MacBook review You might not need one, but you'll need willpower not to want one 2016-03-30 13:17 6KB feedproxy.google.com 57 SCO vs IBM: 13-year-old Linux dispute returns as SCO files new appeal FFS 2016-03-30 13:16 2KB www.theinquirer.net 58 KLM Passengers Can Use Facebook Messenger For Check In KLM, a Netherlands-based airline, is the first to allow passengers to check in, obtain flight details, and even talk to customer service from within the Facebook Messenger chat app. 2016-03-30 13:05 3KB www.informationweek.com 59 OpenText CEO: 'One does not upgrade to digital' Every company is an information company today, says Mark Barrenechea, and transforming for the digital era requires looking beyond the ERP systems that have played such a central role over the past few decades. 2016-03-30 13:05 2KB www.itworld.com 60 Google gets into the landline business with Fibre Phone Google gets into the landline business with Fibre Phone. Extra $10 a month for POTS service. 2016-03-30 13:02 1KB feedproxy.google.com

61 Best VR controller: HTC Vive vs Oculus Rift vs PlayStation VR vs Gear VR We really want to see those fingers… 2016-03-30 13:00 6KB feedproxy.google.com 62 Preorder iPhone SE: New iPhone SE UK release date, price, full specifications, performance benchmarks - 4in iPhone is more iPhone 6s than iPhone 5s with top performance and camera Apple has confirmed its new 4in iPhone as the iPhone SE, which you can preorder tomorrow. Here's everything you need to know about the iPhone SE UK release date, price, where to buy and specifications. Plus: Apple's iPhone SE launch as it happened. 2016-03-30 13:00 12KB www.pcadvisor.co.uk 63 UK firms failing to make use of security and collaboration tools So says HP Inc 2016-03-30 12:55 3KB www.theinquirer.net

64 TODO Group comes to the Linux Foundation Linux Foundation announces it will host the TODO Group, an initiative focused on open- source software 2016-03-30 12:54 2KB sdtimes.com

65 Razer releases Ripsaw video capture box Razer releases Ripsaw video capture box. 1080p60 capture from HDMI. 2016-03-30 12:49 2KB feedproxy.google.com

66 10 best monitors and displays on the market 2016 Pick a panel that's good for you 2016-03-30 12:40 4KB feedproxy.google.com 67 Foxconn finalises Sharp buyout at $3.5 billion Foxconn finalises Sharp buyout at $3.5 billion. Sharp's value takes a bath. 2016-03-30 12:39 2KB feedproxy.google.com

68 Microsoft March madness is over: Disappointments and successes, just like the basketball tourney The number one pick let me down at times while the lower ranked device surprised me with its capability. A couple things are headed to the drawer, while others will continue to be used daily. 2016-03-30 12:21 3KB zdnet.com.feedsportal.com 69 25 caffeine-laced foods to replace coffee Because sometimes you're in your fifth dev meeting, the beta still isn't done, and you're both tired AND hungry. 2016-03-30 12:19 793Bytes zdnet.com.feedsportal.com 70 Can we trust tech with our health? Apple Health, Fitbit and other gadgets are bordering on medical devices these days. We’re increasingly looking to technology to help improve our fitness, but should we trust it with our health too? 2016-03-30 12:06 4KB www.pcadvisor.co.uk Articles

Total 70 articles, created at 2016-03-31 12:02

1 FBI agrees to try to hack iPhone, iPod in Arkansas murder case (2.00/3) Fresh off cracking a terrorist's iPhone, the FBI has agreed to help prosecutors in Arkansas unlock an iPhone and iPod belonging to two teenagers accused of murder. The FBI and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The FBI hasn't said how it cracked the San Bernardino shooter's phone, but its actions have left Apple in a precarious position. The company worries that method used by the government to crack the iPhone could end up in the hands of hackers or criminals, putting all iPhones at risk. Without knowing how the government unlocked the phone, Apple also faces the challenge of figuring out how to better secure its top-selling product to prevent future decryption attempts. A day after the Justice Department announced Monday it had cracked the iPhone without Apple's assistance, an Arkansas judge agreed to postpone the trial of 18-year-old Hunter Drexler so prosecutors could seek the FBI's assistance. Prosecutors believe the devices may hold evidence related to the murders last July of Robert and Patricia Cogdell. Also charged in the murders is 15-year-old Justin Staton, who the Cogdells raised as their grandson, according to the AP. This isn't the only case in which prosecutors are trying to gain access to the contents of an iPhone. A Justice Department request that the electronics maker unlock an iPhone linked to an accused drug dealer in New York was denied in February, but the Justice Department is appealing that decision.

Report: FBI hacked into encrypted iPhone, and Apple wants to know how sdtimes.com 2016-03-31 07:06 Steven Musil cnet.com.feedsportal.com

2 2 Microsoft’s Windows 10 anniversary update is coming for free this summer (2.00/3) Software giant Microsoft has officially announced that its largest update to Windows 10 will arrive this summer. The update will make the OS more convenient for consumers and more powerful developers. The Anniversary update will enable users to use Windows Hello to login to apps and access secure features. The update also has improved stylus support, and you can also create Cortana reminders right from your notes. Microsoft also showed off a touch-based stencil in Illustrator due to close work with Adobe.

Windows 10's Anniversary Update arrives this summer techreport.com 2016-03-31 05:17 Ephraim Batambuze pctechmag.com

3 EMC locks down ScaleIO with its biggest update yet (2.00/3) EMC has added features to ScaleIO to meet the needs of plus-size customers like banks and telecommunications carriers that are adopting the software- defined storage system. ScaleIO 2.0, available now, is the biggest enhancement yet to EMC's product, which pools object storage capacity across an enterprise in one logical system. EMC acquired ScaleIO in 2013. Like other software-based storage platforms, ScaleIO is designed to free data from specific hardware so IT organizations can keep up with rapid growth requirements. It can turn direct- attached flash or disk storage throughout an organization into a resource that all applications can use. EMC also sells its own commodity-type hardware for ScaleIO in the form of its VxRack platform. The update adds three features designed to better lock the platform down and meet regulatory requirements. Financial institutions are more strict than most when it comes to keeping their information out of the wrong hands. ScaleIO also works with more of the open-source platforms that many these customers and Web-scale companies are adopting. Enterprises can now control users' access to ScaleIO data through role-based user management platforms, namely Active Directory and LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol), instead of doing it separately with ScaleIO. In addition, the system now works with IPv6 (Internet Protocol, Version 6), the next-generation networking protocol that provides many more Internet addresses (good for carriers) and has security advantages over IPv4. The system is also better equipped now to ensure its own security. All the components of the software are digitally signed so ScaleIO can automatically check each one to determine if it's been compromised. There are other enhancements to make ScaleIO networks more resilient to failure. Now it can apply a digital signature to each packet and use an "in-flight checksum" to verify that the data hasn't been manipulated or sufferd a "bit flip" on the way from the application to the storage, said David Noy, vice president of product management in EMC's Emerging Technologies Division. The update adds support for Ubuntu Linux, which is popular among cloud-computing shops that put their applications in Docker containers, he said. And EMC has contributed ScaleIO drivers to OpenStack, so enterprises can more easily use ScaleIO as the underlying storage infrastructure for OpenStack environments. Until now, users had to request the OpenStack drivers.

EMC has locked down ScaleIO with its biggest update yet itworld.com 2016-03-30 16:21 Stephen Lawson www.computerworld.com

4 Amazon puts shonky USB-C cables in a noose (2.00/3) AMAZON HAS confirmed that it will ban potentially dangerous USB-C cables that don't fully meet the specifications. This marks the culmination of a campaign by Google engineer Benson Leung, who sacrificed his own Chromebook Pixel machine in the quest to test for the best and the rest. Leung has systematically bought and reviewed USB- C cables on Amazon for some time after it was discovered that manufacturers of a lot of the cheaper versions hadn't made allowances for the large currents that the new format can carry. As a result, a particularly bad cable that carried the USB-C moniker and size, but not the specification, fried not only his Pixel but two PD devices used for testing the very thing that caused the borkage. Amazon has now stepped in to put a stop to the free-for-all on crappy cables. The retailer's list of prohibited electronics items now includes 'any USB-C (or USB Type-C) cable or adapter product that is not compliant with standard specifications issued by USB Implementers Forum Inc'. Leung enthused on his Google+ page (we read Google+ because no-one else will): "Really great news, but we all have to continue to be vigilant and call out any bad products we find on Amazon and other stores (both online and brick and mortar) as we find them. " OnePlus, one of the first smartphone makers to adopt the new standard, offered a voluntary refund to customers after it was discovered that its bundled USB-C cables didn't make the cross-compatibility grade, although they worked fine on the devices for which they were made. Newer Macs, Chromebooks and the Nvidia Shield TV are among a growing number of devices beginning to adopt USB-C, but the standards-within-standards go further than just power. Storage vendors have warned that some early USB-C storage devices offer no speed boost over their predecessors , making universal adoption of the supposedly unifying standard even further off. µ

Amazon Bans Unsafe USB-C Cables informationweek.com 2016-03-30 14:17 Chris Merriman www.theinquirer.net

5 Federal privacy commissioner will watch threat information sharing, says official How a Canadian hospital faces insider threats Knowing the unknowable: the challenge of complying with the Digital Privacy Act Threat information sharing between organizations and governments has been touted by experts as a necessity to combat online attackers. That’s fine for sharing indicators of compromise, but what about threats that might identify a customer — email from a particular individual with suspected malicious links, or a specific Web site. Is there protection in Canadian law for sharing that kind of information without the person’s consent? Canada’s new Digital Privacy Act — which was passed last summer– might appear to offer some protection. It protects the disclosure of personal information to another organization if it is for the purposes of investigating a breach of an agreement or a contravention of the laws of Canada, or to detect, suppress and preventing fraud. But an official of the federal Privacy Commissioner’s office warned CISOs on Wednesday such information disclosures will be watched carefully. “We are going to be reading every word of those provisions,” Vance Lockton, a senior regional analyst for the commissioner, told a privacy conference. If you say it’s necessary “you’d better be able to establish that it is necessary for this purpose,” he said, that that telling the individual about the disclosure would make it impossible to investigate the possible fraud. “You’d better be able to justify why you’ve come to that conclusion. This isn’t something that’s going to be hand-waved away. We’re going to be holding organizations feet to the fire.” In an interview Lockton said threat information sharing “could very well fall under those exceptions” for disclosing personal information to a third party. But , he added, he can’t say for sure because the legislation is so new. Parliament’s intent wasn’t to allow broad sharing of personal information collected by organizations with no oversight, he added. The provisions of section 7.4 speak of reasonable disclosure for investigating a limited set of circumstances, he said. The commission will soon release a discussion paper on how this and other provisions of the new law should be interpreted. Organized by the Canadian Institute , the conference continues Thursday. Also at the conference, Sherry Liang, an assistant commissioner in the office of Ontario’s privacy commissioner, warned organizations there is lots they can do do prevent employees from unauthorized snooping into the personal data of customers and fellow staffers. “It may be impossible to have a completely watertight system, but there is much that can be done to prevent it,” she said. “They range from better systems controls, password and login controls, timeouts, audits – both in response to an incident but random as well. Employee discipline is important, she added, including training. Make sure staff sign confidentiality agreements, she added — and that they are renewed. “Don’t assume that once is good enough.” A lot of the recommendations are common sense, Liang added in an interview. At another session Amalia Steiu, an independent privacy consultant, and Samara Starkman, principal consultant at Drawbridge Consulting Inc., a privacy consulting firm, cautioned that accountability is a prime part of any organization’s data privacy plan. ‘Without accountability people don’t have guidance, they don’t have a complete set of what they need to do, and risks will be taken that shouldn’t happen,” Steiu said in an interview. Senior management has to take their role in the organization’s governance structure seriously, she said. So if the privacy officer tells them certain elements of the privacy program are not developing or do not exist the C-suite should act. The other enabler for privacy policy is the organization’s risk management framework. Finally, the organization’s audit team — either internal or external — should audit privacy policies. In fact she said, if they don’t have the skills they should look at the IT department, which has experience in setting up data security controls and are similar to privacy controls. “IT is audited more than privacy,” she said, “so they can talk to auditors about controls they’ve applied to support privacy. It’s a good place to educate auditors.” Finally, conference chair Pamela Snively , Telus’ vice-president and chief data and trust officer, spoke of the need for organizations to have a detailed privacy breach protocol ready for the day when — not if — the network is breached. It’s critical to get buy-in from the top (either board or C-suite) for this plan, she said — especially who in the organization will be responsible for leading the incident response team, communicating with staff and the media, and who — if necessary — will write the note to affected customers. At the outset of the conference she mentioned that several people asked her in the past week if privacy is dead, given the amount of personal data organizations collect. “There has never been so much sensitivity to data privacy,” she said. “While privacy is under threat in lots of ways, we’re also seeing keen interest from people in protecting their privacy” and how to balance privacy and security. While some worry that so-called big data users will impinge on privacy, Snively believes it will transform the lives of Canadians in positive ways. But, she added, organizations need to be careful about the data flows they create once data repositories are constructed it’s hard to pull datasets out of them.

2016-03-31 09:40 Howard Solomon www.itworldcanada.com

6 AIIM Market Intelligence: Making sense of European Data Protection Regulations as they relate to the storage and management of content in the Cloud The development of public, private, government and hybrid cloud computing services has created a challenge to on-premise data storage and processing, and thus created uncertainty regarding responsibilities of the respective organisations regarding data protection and data privacy. The European Union is soon to implement the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which will bring all 27 countries under a single regime of rules, and penalties for breach. Providers and users need to be aware of the current legislative challenges. Download this white paper as it informs end-users of the current and potential future legislative landscape in Europe regarding data protection and data privacy. This will enable end-user organisations to make risk-based decisions about cloud versus on-premise content storage. This will also allow them to evaluate providers of cloud services to ensure that they will stay compliant with applicable law. This white paper is based on AIIM’s in-house research and the interactive guide provided by the international law firm Bird and Bird.

2016-03-31 10:33 www.itworldcanada.com

7 Wearable technology creates opportunities for retailers The proliferation of wearable devices such as smart watches and activity trackers is one of the significant technology trends of 2016. With these innovations, organisations are collecting vast ranges of personal data, such as calorie intake, heart rate, exercise levels and location. It is time for businesses to investigate how this data can be used to help them build stronger and more personal relationships with their customers. First and foremost, organisations should focus on the potential of wearable technology in creating hyper-convenience for the consumer. Streamlining the customer journey and cutting through the blanket marketing messages individuals encounter each day could be instrumental in winning business and securing a competitive advantage. For such personalisation to prove effective, businesses must work to understand their customer base, uncover what may deter people from buying, and work out when to intervene.

2016-03-31 07:31 Andy Eaton www.computerweekly.com

8 8 Managing Governance, Risk and Compliance with ECM and BPM Many of the elements involved in meeting compliance and regulatory requirements are best managed by content and records management systems, particularly where core business processes are document-centric. ECM and RM also come into their own for the management of policy records, internal audit evidence, or documents related to an incident. BPM and workflow systems can provide automated scheduling and approvals, management dashboard and reporting, and risk and compliance monitoring. Download this white paper as it highlights many specific issues related to policy lifecycle management, operational risk control, internal audit, and supply chain management, but a common thread found is that key documentation is not stored in one place, processes are inefficient and manual, and systems are home-grown.

2016-03-31 09:23 www.itworldcanada.com

9 The Marketing Transformation: From Managing Campaigns to Orchestrating Experiences These experiences are becoming the differentiating aspect of marketing a product or service. But although consumer values and buying habits have changed, the reality is that, in most cases, marketing processes and strategies haven’t changed. Many businesses are still organizing and scaling their marketing processes in the same way that has been around for 80 years. However, consumers simply expect an always-on 24/7/365 consistency through any channel they desire to interact on. This brief explores how to manage a cohesive, connected and consistent portfolio of customer experiences that integrates everything the brand does (physical or otherwise) to help create the total customer experience.

2016-03-31 09:23 www.itworldcanada.com

10 A hacker's next target is just a Web search away "Google dorking. " It sounds goofy, but it could be just the ticket for a hacker looking to stir mayhem. The search technique is one of several methods that bad guys can use to find vulnerable computer systems and trace them to a specific place on the Internet. All they have to do is type in the right search terms, and they're well on their way. It's a troubling example of what security researchers have long known -- a computer system with out-of-date software is a sitting target. That's because information about old and buggy software and how to hack into it has a way of getting to the public very quickly. Add dorking (or "Google hacking," a term preferred by some cybersecurity pros) to a growing list of tools that, used together, can help automate the process of finding and exploiting weak spots everywhere, from an element of a city's infrastructure to a surveillance camera in your home or the network of a business that holds records of all your personal information. Google is just one layer of this approach, and other search engines from Microsoft's Bing to the specialized Shodan.io can be substituted for it. Experts say that with these tools, a hacker could roll out of bed, check his or her email and find alerts with information on how to hack you before breakfast. "If you like it, then you can go attack it," said Srinivas Mukkamala, chief executive of cybersecurity company RiskSense. "I don't need to know anything, and I can be a very bad guy. " What saved the day in the case of the small Bowman Avenue dam in Rye Brook, New York, is that at the time of the breach in 2013, the dam, undergoing maintenance, had been disconnected from the computer system that controlled it. Otherwise, the hacker might have been able to take control of the floodgate. Similar techniques are known to have been used in espionage efforts. Scary, right? But these search engines and alert systems are only making it easier to find information that's already public. More important, said Mati Aharoni of cybersecurity company Offensive Security, these services help out the good guys much more than they could possibly help malicious hackers, who will get their hands on the information one way or another. Aharoni trains people to use his company's repository of known hacking attacks, Exploit Database. The trainees are good guys who need to track down fatal flaws quickly, he said. Hackers already have access to illegal tools that guys good guys can't use. "We're helping to level the playing field. " Shodan CEO John Matherly, whose Shodan.io search tool is used by security companies to find specific computers, agreed. If you're a hacker looking for vulnerable systems, "you can do so fairly cheaply on your own," he said. Layered on top of all the search services are systems that can send automated alerts. One is the Google Hacking Diggity Project. It draws on services like Google alerts, so you can get a message letting you know when a search engine indexes new information about a particular topic. Google is not involved in the creation or operation of Diggity. A lazy hacker could conceivably use it to get an alert when a vulnerable system and a tool for hacking it are both available, RiskSense's Mukkamala said. But Diggity creator Fran Brown said his tools help people who are defending websites and computer networks -- or, for that matter, Internet-connected dams -- to quickly find out when their systems are leaking sensitive information or have a known vulnerability. "You basically can trip over dangerous and sensitive information just by Googling," said Brown, co-founder of cybersecurity consulting firm Bishop Fox. It's not clear how exactly the Iranian hacker got into the dam's systems after he reportedly found its location on the Internet using Google. He's been indicted along with six other Iranian hackers by the US Department of Justice for the dam attack and for attacks on banks. He might have used the same vulnerability that flagged the dam in a Google dork search to break in, or he might have used a completely unrelated attack. But the hack still highlights what can go wrong if a security flaw hangs around on a system after it goes public. When a manufacturer announces a fix, it's a race against time to patch up the problem. It's also a race that the people responsible for many Internet-connected systems are losing badly, said Michael Bazzell, a former cybercrimes investigator with the FBI. "If that system hasn't been patched in the last few years," Bazzell said, "it's pretty trivial getting in. "

2016-03-31 07:06 Laura Hautala cnet.com.feedsportal.com

11 Whoopi Goldberg has a prescription for menstrual cramps: weed A few years ago, the hot thing for rich celebrities to do was to launch a lifestyle brand. Reese Witherspoon started Draper James, a Southern-inspired clothing line. Gwyneth Paltrow begat Goop, a website about women's accessories. And that's not even discussing the vanity projects of Alison Pincus, or Jessica Alba or Jay Z or -- well, you get the point. But now the rich, famous and herb-friendly have a new status symbol to check off: Marijuana entrepreneur. In the last year, rapper Snoop Dogg and singer Willie Nelson have launched their own brands of marijuana. And now Whoopi Goldberg just joined them. On Wednesday, the comedian announced that she is starting a line of marijuana products specifically focused on painful periods. Yes, you read that right. Co-founded with cannabis entrepreneur Maya Elisabeth, the new business -- dubbed Whoopi & Maya -- aims to help women get through hard times of the month with the help of their top-shelf, medical-grade ganja. "This was all inspired by my own experience from a lifetime of difficult periods and the fact that cannabis was literally the only thing that gave me relief," Goldberg said in a statement. "Every month women experience pain and discomfort associated with their period. Cannabis is a wonderful remedy, and...can provide the type of relief many women need. " A quick glance at their site on Wednesday showed some of the marijuana-infused products Whoopi & Maya plans to offer. Think Whoopi & Maya's Medical Cannabis Bath Soak, which comes in three different fragrances and "promotes a state of deep relaxation and offers relief from the aches, pains and cramping associated with the menstrual cycle. " There's Savor, a Superfood-style jar of cacao that coupled with cannabis promises to help women deal with inflammation, irritability, and joint and uterine pain, according to the site. And there's also a skin cream that's dubbed Rub and a tincture line called Relax. Only four licensed medical marijuana dispensaries will carry Whoopi & Maya when it goes on sale next month; however, the company says its products should be widely available throughout the state sometime this year. Notably absent from Whoopi & Maya: actual bud. Both Willie Nelson and Snoop's marijuana businesses involve actually selling the flower, Goldberg's doesn't. That's not by accident. Goldberg is clearly going after a different consumer. "For me, I feel like if you don't want to get high high, this is a product specifically just to get rid of discomfort," she told Vanity Fair. "Smoking a joint is fine, but most people can't smoke a joint and go to work. "

2016-03-31 07:06 Max Taves cnet.com.feedsportal.com

12 How Microsoft's other machine learning tricks could make its bots even smarter As someone on Twitter said, if "bots" was on your Build 2016 drinking game card, you'd be long dead. But while Microsoft is all about getting developers to create intelligent app companions to make our lives easier, is there any impressive machine learning the Redmond firm is ready to show off right now? The answer, surprise, is yes. Besides ordering Domino's pizzas , Microsoft has been tinkering with its Azure-based tools to recognize age, gender, emotion and individuals by name. Remember the great/awful How Old Do I Look? website introduced at last year's Build? The Windows 10 maker has been building off this ego-buster since, and what it's cooked up is far more intelligent - and more flattering - than its earlier iteration. During a demo of the API's capabilities, Microsoft Data Scientist Carlos Pessoa showed myself and a group of reporters a Real-Time Perceptual Intelligence app that recognizes your age, gender and emotion, even if other people are in the shot with you (though it will pinpoint that data for each of them, too). Whereas last year's HODIL guessed my age to be in the mid- to late 30s, and even pushed it into the 40s on some tries, today it initially got my age correct at 29, then fluctuated to as low as 26 and as high as 31, depending on my expression. A natural smile yielded the most accurate result, while a scowl or surprised tended to skew older. (Not my real age) It pegged my emotion at being generally happy or neutral if I was smiling broadly or just a little. A surprised expression was recognized as such or as happy, and apparently my resting face registers as sad. Pessoa confirmed that Microsoft's age recognition tech has gotten smarter: even if it doesn't guess your exact age correctly, it's usually in the ballpark now. He also showed how the machine could recognize someone by name if he took a picture of them with his phone and "taught" the machine who they were. If the same person walks by the same machine at any point during Build this week, it will recognize them. There were other demos, such as an emotion matcher that pairs a just-snapped photo of you with a baby it deems shows the same top three emotions as you are, as well as the Fetch! app to match mug with you with a dog. But Real-Time Perceptual Intelligence was the most intriguing of them all. It was just a small demo, but the powerful program app was running off of Passoa's phone and it felt like in the past year How Old Do I Look? went to college and got a master's degree in terms of capability. The real-time, accurate assessment of my age and expression got me excited - and maybe slightly scared - to think of its possible uses. Pessoa sees the API being used for good, of course, in places like the customer service industry. He gave the example of an ATM camera that could tell if an elderly person walks up and it needs to make the font on the screen bigger. Or, if customers were having a consistently negative interaction with the ATM, a bank could investigate the issue and make improvements. And with today's talk of bots that use "the power of natural human language with advanced machine intelligence", is there a place for bots that tap into the power of visuals, too? "There's no intersection yet, but yes, I think it's only a matter of time," Pessoa told me in terms of bringing this machine learning to app bots. "You could have a How Old Do I Look Bot? that you send a picture to after you've gotten a hair cut, and it could tell you what it thinks your age is. If it sees your expression, it might flatter you by saying, 'Oh, you have a beautiful smile.'" It will likely be a while before we see applications like this come to market. Microsoft only announced its Bot Framework today, giving developers tools so they can start making apps that communicate intelligently with platforms like Skype, SMS and the web. But if bots catch on, it may only be a matter of time before apps with integrated bots are telling us that our new hairstyle makes us look 10 years older, or stores are equipped with cameras to gauge our customer satisfaction. Tapping into Microsoft's APIs, they'll probably end up eerily accurate. Article continues below

Microsoft's Bots could be its biggest contribution to computing since Windows feedproxy.google.com 2016-03-31 05:53 By Michelle feedproxy.google.com

13 Final Fantasy XV coming to PS4 and Xbox One September 30 A decade after it was first revealed, Final Fantasy XV has been given a release date: September 30, 2016. The release date was one of many announcements made at the Final Fantasy: Uncovered event in Los Angeles this Wednesday. Developer Square Enix is placing big bets on Final Fantasy XV, bringing news of several tie-in releases ahead of the game's release. Here's a quick rundown of everything: Additionally, two special edition packages were announced, both of which are available for pre-order on Square Enix's online store. Japanese role-playing games don't come with any higher pedigree than Final Fantasy, but the series has been faltering in recent years. The last non-spinoff single player game released on consoles was Final Fantasy XIII back in 2009. Though it was a commercial success, it didn't receive the same overwhelmingly positive critical response as previous titles in the series. Things are looking up though, with Final Fantasy XV's release date now known and the long awaited Final Fantasy VII remake being announced last year.

2016-03-31 08:16 Daniel Van cnet.com.feedsportal.com

14 The Future-Ready Enterprise The economic benefits are clear — future readiness corresponds to better business outcomes. But organizations that don’t find themselves at the top of the scale should not be disheartened. Future readiness is an ongoing journey, and organizations can see significant improvements in business outcomes from increasing their future readiness regardless of their starting point. Companies can also drive business results by choosing to focus on improving the specific aspect of their IT future readiness landscape — converged infrastructure, cloud, BDA, and future-minded IT organizational practices — most relevant to their needs.

2016-03-31 08:16 www.itworldcanada.com

15 Samsung gets forecast upgrade on back of S7 sales Early indications of stronger-than-expected sales of new Galaxy S7 smartphones suggest technology giant Samsung Electronics is emerging from a two-year decline at its flagship mobile business. Squeezed by Apple Inc in premium products and undercut by Chinese rivals like Huawei in cheaper devices, Samsung's smartphone profits and global market share have fallen, sapping momentum at South Korea's most valuable company. But several brokerages on Wednesday upgraded first-quarter forecasts for what is still the world's top smartphone maker, citing a strong start for the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge premium phones that were launched earlier this month. Samsung likely shipped 9.5 million S7 phones in the first quarter, significantly more than the initial estimate of 7 million, Jay Yoo, industry analyst at Korea Investment & Securities, wrote in a report. "It looks like the sell-in numbers have been pretty good and analysts are raising their sales forecasts for the S7 this year," noted HDC Asset Management fund manager Park Jung-hoon. "The firm is pushing up volume in the mid-to-low tier to protect market share. Starting S7 sales about a month earlier than the S6 to take advantage of Apple not having new products out yet was also a good move. " Samsung shares gained as much as 2.4 percent on Wednesday to an 18-week high. The stock is up by more than a fifth since mid-January following a 22 percent slide over the previous three months. The two Galaxy S7 models have won acclaim for their sleek design and the return of features from previous models such as microSD card storage support and water resistance, though analysts noted the phones offer only incremental upgrades and do not look very different to their predecessors. In January, Samsung Electronics reported its lowest net profit in four years as its smartphone and semi-conductor core businesses face a slowdown amid weakening global demand for consumer electronics. The company also hinted at a profit decline for the first half of this year. For the full year, Samsung earned 19.1 trillion won, down 19 percent from the previous year. It was the second year in a row with a decline in annual net income after the company's earnings peaked at 30.5 trillion won in 2013. Samsung has also recently made the move into the payments space with Samsung Pay. On Tuesday, Samsung launched Samsung Pay in China in alliance with local vendor Union Pay. The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, Galaxy S6 Edge Plus, and Galaxy Note 5 support the service, with Samsung saying more devices will be added in the future. Samsung Pay enters a battle in China against rivlas that include Apple Pay and Huawei Pay .

2016-03-31 04:46 Chris Duckett zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

16 The greatest scientific minds beat each other's brains out in Science Kombat Imagine what would happen if the greatest analytical minds in the history of humankind came back to the land of the living. If you have a more scientific leaning, you might hope they could use their powers of logic and innovation to solve some of the world's biggest problems. If you're a gamer, you might secretly wish that they would immediately start fighting each other in hand-to-hand combat. The game features eight science-based brawlers, including Pythagoras, Tesla, Turing, Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Sir Issac Newton, Stephen Hawking and Marie Curie. Each has a basic punch and kick move but there are also special moves that each combatant can execute as well. If you're a regular player of any of the Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter games, you should be able to figure them out pretty quick. The rest can just use the tried and true technique of button mashing. The game also has its own boss once you take down the eight regular fighters, but I'd rather not spoil the surprise. And no, it's not your high school science teacher who made you hate science before you realized it was cool. A game that plays this well can only get better if they add more fighters to the roster. Hopefully, the magazine will add more names like Erwin Schrodinger, who unleashes a radioactive tiger from a box, or Hippocrates, who flings the four bodily humors at his enemies. Heck, this game could even answer a question that's been on every science fan's mind for a long time. Who would win in a fight: Neil deGrasse Tyson or Bill Nye the Science Guy?

2016-03-31 08:16 Danny Gallagher cnet.com.feedsportal.com

17 Ecommerce enables impoverished Indian artisans to become rupee millionaires "Earlier I used to work for 15,000 rupees ($250) per month as karigar (craftsman) of leather jacket. Now I earn 15 lakh rupees ($22,000) a month by selling jackets to markets like the US, UK and Canada. " These are the almost unbelievable words and numbers offered by Nadeem Sayed, 28, a resident of Dharavi, India's (and Mumbai's) largest slum located smack dab in the heart of the city of some 25 million. Dharavi's houses have no running water, no sanitation, and no electricity. Rivers of sewage sometimes run through the streets, especially during the monsoons. Children wander about collecting scrap metal for a living, as recounted beautifully in Pulitzer Prize-winning author Katherine Boo's remarkable book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers. Yet, Dharavi is also a powerful engine of economic activity, housing thousands of artisans, craftspeople, entrepreneurs, and mini-factories whose products populate the living rooms of the more affluent in India and abroad. Reuters estimates this at 15,000 small scale industries spread over 500 acres. The problem confronting people like Sayed is the all-pervasive menace that stymies prosperity and growth amongst the lower classes and castes in India -- the rapacious middleman. And if they weren't bad enough, there are other existential threats such as cheaper Chinese goods, rising raw material costs, and labour shortages. Now, however, thanks to ecommerce, Sayed and his ilk can finally earn what they deserve, accruing the kind of fortunes in the space of a just a year that his family wouldn't have been able to engineer in several lifetimes. Thanks to people like Megha Gupta , an urban researcher who marshalled entrepreneurs in this vast, thriving slum together under the storefront Dharavimarket.com (powered by Snapdeal, India's third-largest ecommerce site), artisans there can see a future beyond immediate survival. In fact, in the last few years, all of the internet ecommerce biggies in India -- from Amazon, to Flipkart to Snapdeal -- have assiduously tied up with Indian artisans, providing them a marketplace for their goods as well as the knowhow and instructional sessions to create websites and backends that facilitate their sales. This process is the beginning of a major change in India that could finally allow people to fashion their own destinies rather than having them shaped for them. Many of these craftsfolk come from troubled regions in the throes of violence and civil unrest. Bastar, in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, offers up some of the most exquisite tribal art the world has seen. Sadly, the region is racked by a debilitating conflict with roots in resource extraction, violence, underdevelopment, and governmental apathy and corruption, with women and children being the primary targets. Consequently, finding a market for Bastar's fabulous art and getting a fair price for its artists and artisans has been a gargantuan problem. Kashmir is another violence-racked region whose artists and craftspeople suffered not only through decades of violence but also because of predatory middlemen. As the Hindustan Times reports , Shahnawaz Jan carried on his father's craft of paper mache but planned to quit because of an inability to make ends meet. Through ecommerce sales, he now receives a monthly income that not only allows him to more than keep afloat but also accords him something that is still elusive for many Indian artists -- the dignity that a stable, regular, and fair wage brings with it. Shawl maker Mohammad is another Kashmiri who has been able to thrive by selling things like Kashmiri shawls online and side-stepping middlemen. "Initially, we would get 10 orders in a month and with the passage of time it has increased to 300 per month," says Mohammad in the Hindustan Times. He has apparently sold 50 lakh rupees ($ 80,000) worth of products in the last five years, ever since he allied himself with ecommerce site Kashmir Box, and has even taken on 10 more artisans to meet burgeoning demand for his products which he now sells exclusively through the website. Some people are beginning to leverage the intersection of arts and crafts and ecommerce in the face of overarching humanitarian tragedies. To The Market sells things made by people who are survivors of human trafficking amongst other forms of abuse and enables people to shop by cause or country according to the Epoch Times. Founded by Jane Mosbacher Morris, who dreamed it up while travelling through Kolkata, India with a few human rights organisations on a work trip in 2013, the organization is "an Etsy-like platform" that allows cooperatives in this field to tie up with craftspeople who are former victims and manage their backend such as photography of products, packaging, and shipping, while also advising them on their business. Kahmir's famed paper mache In a world where markets aren't truly free (remember the sub-prime fiasco anyone?), labour is often bonded, and the human tendency to profit off other people's miseries is an omnipresent reality, ecommerce is proving to be one of the few genuine and trustworthy paths towards empowerment. Of course, there is a buzzword around artisans and ecommerce in India and you may find that many sites touted in a magazine article a year ago are barely functioning today. Others may not be experiencing the kind of infrastructure support that was originally promised to them. But in a country like India with a huge population of artisans who have no one else to turn to, the ecommerce revolution that is taking place in this arena can prove to be literally life-saving.

2016-03-31 04:18 Rajiv Rao zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

18 How Australia can cash in on the cyber boom The shortage of cybersecurity talent is holding back fast-growing companies like Atlassian -- so is the lack of STEM graduates here in Australia. "From a commercial point of view, I kinda need more, and I need it, like, yesterday," said the company's director of security, Craig Davies. Atlassian set up its cybersecurity centre in Austin, Texas, two years ago, but the company is keen to continue investing in Australia. Last year Atlassian hired 80 graduates here, assigning three to security, and their 2016 recruitment road tour has just started. Davies wants graduates with solid practical skills, an issue he thinks universities need to address. "I'd really like to see the students that come in already have that mindset of: 'This is the flaw, and this is what I can do to take advantage of it -- or more importantly, how I can join those together to create havoc and mayhem," he said. "I'm looking for that puzzle-solving ability, but they've got to learn aggressive techniques. They can't all just learn defence and theoretical. They've got to learn the bad side of it as well, to understand how to defend against it -- and more importantly, not just defend, but identify earlier in the cycle so the architectures become more robust. " The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) has also been hearing industry calls for students with more hands-on experience. "They don't feel that graduates from university come out ready to do the jobs that people have," said Lynwen Connick, PM&C's First Assistant Secretary for Policy and Intelligence. "We've been having a lot of that as part of our Cyber Security Review to see what we can do with universities to help make sure we connect the requirements of business to what's being taught at universities. " That Cyber Security Review is expected to be released "shortly", Connick said. Filling the global cyber talent gap isn't the only way Australia could capitalise on the projected growth in security spending from $75 billion annually now to an estimated $170 billion by 2020. Australian companies are already ranked number four in the world for cybersecurity-related patents, according to the report Network Security: Overview of patent out-licencing opportunities published by intellectual property consultants LexInnova Technologies in 2015. The Cyber Security Growth Centre, with AU$30 million funding announced as part of the National Innovation and Science Agenda in December 2015, is designed to leverage our expertise. "The Growth Centre is about bringing together researchers, startups who can commercialise research ideas and concepts, [and] connecting bigger businesses who have problems that they want to get solved," Connick said. "The Growth Centre will develop a plan for how we grow the cybersecurity sector in Australia, [and] how we connect our sector to international markets. " Connick and Davies were speaking at D61+ Live in Sydney on Wednesday. This event was the inaugural showcase of the work of Data61, the new organisation formed by the merger of NICTA with CSIRO's Digital Productivity research teams. Data61's chief executive officer Adrian Turner is bullish about the potential. "The good news about cyber is [that] it's an arms race, so it's constantly evolving," Turner said. "Even though we're behind in creating industry ... we can catch up. We have the talent, the capability, the universities. We have amazing work going on in the country to create that industry. And I think what's going to be important is to identify those areas where there's either a market failure, or we have capability and understanding of the problem to build critical mass. " Examples include the development of trustworthy and resilient systems, machine-learning analytics, and even behavioural economics that can be used to analyse the intersection of people and security. Data61 has been collaborating with the US Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Boeing to develop secure communications and flight control systems for drones, and that's already delivering results. In one trial, a drone helicopter was equipped with a communication system based on the seL4 proven-correct microkernel, plus a camera system based on Linux. DARPA's red-team penetration testers were given root access on the camera system, but couldn't hack into the drone's communications. Independent assessments have rated Data61 as having one of the top five machine learning teams in the world, Turner said. Atlassian's Davies is impressed with some of Data61's work. "Machine learning is an area that we are super interested in from a security analytics point of view, because of the size and scale across our entire infrastructure ... Australians have a great ability to look at really tough problems and go: 'Oh hang on, we could do it this way'," Davies said. "I walk into a place like here [D61+ Live] and I see much better ideas," he said. "In the US, vendors do have good ideas, but they're 'swamped by all the other stuff' in the companies as they try to be all things to enterprise customers in every sector. "What I get worried about is the small and medium business sector, particularly in Australia. That is an area that is ripe for breach, and is having breaches all the time. It is ripe for clever-thinking ideas," he said. Davies said it would be the same in the US market, but "the scale might be different". Turner says Israel's approach, where a lot of the early companies and capabilities were spun out of the government sector, could be a model for Australia. "This sense of being able to commercialise technology from the government sector, and also have government be an early adopter of technology, really helped to spark the industry there" Turner said. "We've got to create a cyber industry, create depth in the talent pool, to be able to support our other industries as well ... We need to get a critical mass of researchers to attract the investment. "

2016-03-31 03:35 Stilgherrian zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

19 LG G5 launches in South Korea LG has launched its flagship G5 phone in its home country South Korea, a day ahead of the US launch on Friday. The US and South Korea are the tech giant's two most important markets, accounting for the majority of its mobile division's revenue. The G5 will cost 836,000 won ($730), around the same as Samsung's Galaxy S7, and is available in local mobile carriers SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus. It is the first time since 2013's G2 that LG is offering a similar price to Samsung's, suggesting a confidence that it can compete with the world's largest smartphone maker. LG models for the past two years were always priced lower than the Galaxy series due to LG's lack of brand power. Accompanying modules that can be attached to the phone, called LG Friends , will also be available, each costing around $100. With subsidies and depending on price plan, the cost is lowered to 530,000 won ($460), the cheapest in recent years for a flagship model. The price drop is in the face of South Korea's current market saturation for smartphones and the increasing popularity of low- to mid-end phones. Globally, the company may be hopeful. South Korean analysts expected the G5 to be the company's bestselling phone globally yet, with its unique modular concept appealing to consumers enough to make strong sales and turn the firm's mobile division back to the black. LG is promoting the G5 heavily, more so than previous flagship phones. It held a developer's conference in South Korea earlier this month where it said it will open up the SDK and HDK for the smartphone and its accompanying modules. A similar event is planned for San Francisco sometime in the future. Mobile chief Juno Cho has said that LG is planning to continue the modular concept for future phones. The tech giant has also updated the software on the G5 with the UX 5.0. The company is hoping that outside developers will make software and modules of their own to build an ecosystem around the product line. Launch in the US is expected to begin on April 1, a LG spokesman said, while other markets will get them around the end of April.

2016-03-31 03:05 Cho Mu zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

20 Startup paranoia keeping General Electric on its feet: GE Australian chief It is fear and paranoia of a startup disrupting its business that has kept appliance giant General Electric light on its feet, according to Geoff Culbert, president and chief executive for GE in Australia and New Zealand. Speaking at the Data 61 Live 2016 event in Sydney, Culbert said that GE is constantly worried about being disrupted, and has stayed on top of its game by redefining its own business model. "You're constantly worried about if you're going to be around for the next 130 years," he said. "We drive ourselves to constantly change and innovate because we know that we have no choice if we don't be disruptive. " As GE transitions from a company that manufactures and deals in heavy metal to one that also makes software, Culbert believes GE is becoming a software company as rapidly as it is becoming a hardware one. "We're a big company and we started off making light bulbs," he said. "Over the last 130 years we've evolved to be a manufacturer of aircraft engines, power plants, wind turbines, diagnostic health equipment -- but we're going through the biggest change and evolution in our 130 year history right now. " GE is currently focusing on integrating its software applications with its equipment, with Culbert saying the conglomerate is concentrating on embedding software into the likes of aircraft engines, using the copious amounts of data created to run equipment more efficiently. "We're putting that technology all over our equipment and this is going to be a big differentiator for us over the next decade," he said. "We don't worry about being disrupted by two guys in a garage building a new aircraft engine because there's billions of dollars of R&D that goes into that, but we worry about two guys in a garage building software that makes our engines run more efficiently and then we lose control of the hardware. " According to Culbert, GE has spent a lot of time thinking about the culture of its organisation. "[We ask ourselves] are we fast, are we agile, are we nimble, are we too slow, are we being bureaucratic, are our decision making processes too burdensome, are we risk averse," he said. "We've got a lot of cultural processes that we've got to invest in to enable us to be able to compete with the startup community and the entrepreneurial community that are in many respects our natural enemy. That's what we think a lot about. " Collaboration between industry, academia, and startups is also something GE has taken a shining to, with Culbert saying the company has been collaborating more recently than it ever used to. "It used to be the case that when you were a big company like ours, you thought that the best ideas were always within the four corners of your organisation. We no longer think that way," he said. "We now look to collaborate with big companies, with organisations such as CSIRO and Data61. We look at partnering with the startup community, with universities, research centres, because we know that the best ideas don't just live within our company. " Last year, the conglomerate formed GE Digital , a unit combining its various technology efforts, with a focus on the Internet of Things market. Headed by Bill Ruh, the creation of GE Digital is likely to be more of a threat to the likes of IBM and large analytics players, with GE anticipating it to become a top 10 software company by 2020. Earlier this month, GE's new Power Services business signed an agreement to deploy advanced robotic inspection tools to inspect Alinta Energy's gas-fired power plants in Australia and New Zealand. Under the agreement, GE's Robotic Inspection Tool and TurboRotoscan Technologies will alert the utility provider to potential generator issues, responsible for inspecting 19 generators manufactured by GE, Alstom, Mitsubishi, and Brush at seven of Alinta Energy's plants in the region.

2016-03-31 02:58 Asha Barbaschow zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

21 China rejects worry over domain rules China's technology regulator has rejected criticism of proposed internet rules that could block access to foreign websites, insisting the measures are not just a covert way to tighten control over cyberspace. Experts have said the draft regulations, like many laws in China, could be interpreted broadly and, in extreme cases, could give authorities the power to shut off access to all websites that have not registered their web addresses in the country. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in its proposed revisions to domain name management regulations that Chinese websites must use domestic domain registration services or risk being cut off in China, and are facing fines up to 30,000 yuan, approximately AU$6,000. The ministry has since told Reuters there was "misunderstanding" about the regulations which "did not fundamentally conflict" with global practices. The rules "do not involve websites that are accessed overseas, do not affect users from accessing the related internet content and do not affect the normal development of business for overseas companies in China," it said in an email on Wednesday. "We are closely examining the draft regulation and will provide appropriate input," a Baidu spokesman told Reuters. China has long operated the world's most sophisticated online censorship mechanism, known as the Great Firewall. The websites for Google's services, Facebook, and Twitter are all inaccessible in China, although Google reappeared briefly earlier this week. Under President Xi Jinping, the government has implemented an unprecedented increase in internet control, and sought to codify the policy within the law. China's top internet regulator, Lu Wei, has said the government is not being too restrictive. Officials say controls help maintain social stability and national security in the face of threats such as terrorism. At the beginning of last year, China upgraded its Great Firewall and began to crack down on the use of VPNs within the Middle Kingdom. "Cyberservices need to abide to Chinese laws, and bad information will be dealt with in accordance with the laws," Wen Ku, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Director of Telecom Development, said at the time. "With the development of the internet, the country will come up with new methods to tackle these new issues. " In recent months, Citizen Lab, a research group within the University of Toronto, has found a number of Chinese web browsers to be transmitting personally identifiable data with little or no encryption, leaving users open to man-in-the-middle data collection. This week, Citizen Lab revealed the QQ browser from Tencent not only sends a large amount of users' personal data back to its servers, but is also vulnerable to arbitrary code execution thanks to an insecure update process. "QQ Browser phones home information on your device's hardware serial numbers, and tracks your location and every page you visit," said Jeffrey Knockel, senior researcher at Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs. "Even the person you trust most does not have access to this amount of information on you, and yet QQ receives it from everyone who uses their browser. " In February, Citizen Lab found that Baidu Browser for Android and Windows was also transmitting personal data in the open , or with an easily breakable encryption scheme. "Baidu endeavors to collect data in a way consistent with the highest standards of security and user privacy in the industry," Baidu said at the time.

2016-03-31 02:06 Chris Duckett zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

22 Australian feds cannot tell senator if they have his metadata The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has cited the illegality of confirming or denying the existence of a metadata preservation notice to avoid telling an Australian senator whether his metadata has been collected. Responding to a Question on Notice from South Australian Senator Nick Xenophon in February, the AFP said it was unable to provide any information on whether the metadata of any Australian federal politicians has been preserved over the past year. Similar reasoning was provided for not saying whether the metadata of any political staffers or journalists had been accessed by the AFP in the past year. Under Australian data-retention laws passed in March 2015 by both Liberal/National and Labor parties, enforcement agencies are able to warrantlessly access two years' worth of customers' call records, location information, IP addresses, billing information, and other data stored by telcos. So far, 21 agencies are able to access metadata, including the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the AFP, state and territory police forces, state anti-corruption commissions, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the Australian Crime Commission, and the Department of Immigration and Border Protection. In January this year, it was revealed that 61 other agencies have sought to gain access to telecommunications metadata , including organisations such as Australia Post, the RSPCA of Victoria, Bankstown City Council, and Victorian Taxi Services. The Attorney-General's Department (AGD) said at the time that it had not granted any requests for agencies to be added to the list. Despite the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Intelligence and Security recommending in February 2015 that Australia have data-breach notification laws in place before the end of 2015, no such laws are yet in place.

2016-03-31 00:58 Chris Duckett zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

23 ​Slack grows with office launch in Australia Slack has opened its first Australian office in Melbourne to cater for the increasingly growing Asia-Pacific market. The Melbourne-based office is the company's sixth global office, with company CEO and co- founder Stewart Butterfield saying during the official ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday the main decision to open an office in Australia is to cater for the Asia-Pacific region and time zone. Seek, Isobar, and REA Group are some Australian customers that are already using Slack. The office will mainly be made up of customer service support staff. Slack CTO Cal Henderson told ZDNet that unlike other communication business applications such as Yammer, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2012 for $1.2 million, Slack's success so far has been driven by the application's ability to become a central hub for instant messaging, as well as synchronous and long-form asynchronous communication, regardless if people are mobile, in the office, or in a different time zone. As of February 2016, the company claims to have 2.3 million daily active users and was experiencing 10-fold growth in users in 2015, when the size of the average paid team increased by 20 percent. "Yammer was hugely successful, but I think the big difference we've seen is Yammer added another channel, where you have to communicate with people," he said. "We tried Yammer pre-Slack and it was really popular for a week, and the second week people would post stuff, and by the third week to make sure people saw what you posted you would email someone. By adding another communication channel, it was doomed to failure. " Henderson further added that since companies started using Slack in place of other communication tools, the use of emails has dropped by 95 percent. The company has been partnering and integrating with other services including Twitter, Dropbox, Trello, Google Docs, and MailChimp. The Slack app store now contains 300-plus applications, with Slack having only built a handful of those integrated, which are the "higher end software", Henderson said. "Initially when we first built Slack, we went after services that we use and our initial customers, which were tech companies in the Bay area, use. Over time as Slack has grown we've shifted towards letting third parties built services within Slack, so if you're starting any SaaS business it makes sense for you to integrate with Slack because that's what your customers want," he said. According to Henderson, integration with such applications is a key strategy for the company to not only grow, but improve the overall user experience no matter what tools they're using. "One of the things email is not suited for, but is used a lot for, is a mix of Linkedin requests, Facebook notifications, and that's a pretty bad medium to get notifications; email wasn't built for that. But Slack was built to be the hub for all the tools you use for business," he said. "We're a software development company so it ties in all of the tools we use for software development. " In the calendar year ahead, Henderson said the company plans to launch an enterprise-specific version of Slack to improve communication in larger companies, such as Adobe, which currently has 120 teams using Slack but are not integrated. The new product is expected to also feature single sign-on, integration with active directories, and enable IT to provision and de-provision users. "When we first built Slack, the vision we were building it was for teams; for small teams that's the entire company, and for big companies it's a business unit. "What we've seen is we get a lot of usage within very large enterprises, but because the initial way we designed Slack it works well for a team of a few thousands but it wasn't designed to have 100,000," he said. Last December, the company launched an $80 million capital funding round. This followed a series of former investment rounds: In April 2015 $160 million was raised; $120 million was raised in October 2014; and $42.8 million in April 2014. Additional funding of $17.2 million was raised prior to the launch of Slack when the company was trading as Tiny Speck and raising for Glitch game. The investments have been supported by Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Social+Capital, KPCB, Google Ventures, Horizons Ventures, IVP, Spark, DST, and Index When asked whether the company would considering filing for IPO any time soon, Henderson said there are no immediate plans. "Right now we're focused on growing the business. " Slack joins a growing list of startups opening an Australian office that includes Square, SurveyMonkey , and Dropbox.

2016-03-31 00:20 Aimee Chanthadavong zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

24 Open Benchtable Project gives tweakers a portable test bench Streacom has teamed up with HWBOT and Overclocking-TV to kick off the Open Benchtable Project. The group wants to produce a design a portable and customizable overclocking test bench. Milled from a single piece of aluminum, the table stores all of its mounting hardware, GPU supports, and even its legs in recessed areas on the bench top. Despite its travel-friendly size, the six-pound table can support full ATX motherboards equipped with heavyweight cooling hardware and a full complement of four graphics cards. Prototypes of the bench are being featured on the HWBOT World Tour. Streacom says it has been working with overclockers since 2015 to formulate a design that meets the needs of traveling tweakers. If the basic design doesn't pass muster for a specific purpose, the Open Benchtable folks will be releasing the full blueprints of the final product, allowing third parties to make their own accessories or even improve on the design. Streacom doesn't say how much this product will cost yet, but you can see video of the table being set up on OCTV's Youtube channel.

2016-03-31 00:08 by Zak techreport.com

25 Indian government allows 100 percent foreign investment in ecommerce sector In a big boost to the online retail business, the Indian government has announced permitting 100 percent foreign direct investment (FDI) under the automatic route for retail trading in the marketplace model of the ecommerce sector. However, this is not applicable to inventory- based model of ecommerce. The new policy was issued by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion of the Indian Ministry for Commerce and Industry in a notification two days ago and comes in the wake of persistent requests from ecommerce majors such as Flipkart and Snapdeal to allow 100 percent FDI in the growing industry. According to the notification, the ecommerce marketplace may provide support services to sellers in respect of warehousing, logistics, order fulfilment, call centre, payment collection, and other services. However, such entities will not exercise ownership over the inventory. "Such an ownership over the inventory will render the business into inventory based model," the notification said, and added that the ecommerce firms will not be permitted to sell more than 25 percent of total sales from one vendor or its group companies. The notification also described the marketplace model of ecommerce as an "information technology platform by an ecommerce entity on a digital and electronic network to act as a facilitator between buyer and seller". The move did not go down well with the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), the apex body representing the country's trading community at national level, which has decided to chalk out an action plan on the issue at a meeting to be held in Delhi next week. The confederation fears that the new policy would adversely impact the retail industry, whose annual turnover is said to be around $30 billion (2 lakh crore rupees) and expected to grow 10 times by 2020. Speaking to ZDNet, CAIT national president B C Bhartia felt that the government ought to have released a white paper before taking such a policy decision and accused the government of ignoring the interests of the domestic retail sector. "Unemployment is the biggest problem in the country and the majority of the self-employed depend on the retail trade. But such decisions are bound to impact the livelihoods of these people," Bhartia said. He wanted to know if the government did any study to assess the impact on domestic retail trade in the years to come and also how much investments would come into India. "We have submitted many representations to the governments, present and past, against allowing FDI in the retail sector but our pleas were never considered," Bhartia said, and added that the traders from all over the country will meet from April 4 to 6 in Delhi to decide the future course of action. "However, restricting sales of a vendor to only 25 percent of the sales in the marketplace may prove to be restrictive, more so if the vendor sells high value items. The industry might face difficulties in case of sale of electronic items, where a vendor may be offering exclusive access to certain items or discounts. Marketplaces have no control on how a product is priced and only organise sales where vendors participate," it said in a statement. "This offers consumers with a variety of choices and also attractive prices, we hope that such consumer-friendly practices similar to 'sales' being offered by retailers will not be restricted. We firmly believe that these guidelines will strengthen ecommerce's growth in the country and iron out issues that have been hampering the industry in the past," said NASSCOM. Welcoming the government decision, Snapdeal chief executive Kunal Bahl tweeted : "Great to see the guidelines around 100% FDI in ecomm marketplaces. Glad the govt recognises and supports an industry transforming India! " Aditya Kandoi, co-founder of the startup CareOnGo, which facilitates people to buy medicines on its platform through local pharmacies across India, said that foreign investment was a key component driving Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Make in India" campaign. "By allowing 100 percent FDI in ecommerce marketplace, the government has helped lift the long-perceived bureaucratic mind block around the segment. It will give the necessary push to the spirit of startup culture in general. Furthermore, the 25 percent cap on total sales and well formulated policies will help pave a level-playing field and curb predatory pricing," he said.

2016-03-30 23:50 V L zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

26 Singtel joins Telstra and SubPartners on 20Tbps Perth to Singapore subsea cable Telstra, Singtel, and SubPartners have entered a memorandum of understanding to construct a high-capacity Perth to Singapore subsea cable. The cable, named APX-West, will be 4,500km long, with two fibre pairs providing a minimum of 10 Terabits per second capacity each pair and two-way data transmission. It will replace the slower-speed SEA-ME-WE 3 (SMW3) cable, which currently carries data traffic between the two countries. SubPartners, founded by Australian technology entrepreneur Bevan Slattery in 2012, was formed with the aim of building a subsea cable connecting the west coast of Australia with Singapore. According to Slattery, the cost of operating the cable has been reduced significantly by the sharing of ownership between the parties. "The MOU is a major milestone for the project, with the foundation parties including Singtel, SubPartners, and Telstra committing to purchase the entire available capacity on the system," said Slattery, who is also the CEO of SubPartners. "The APX-West system is a consortium cable with all the major players having access to ownership economics at a fraction of the cost of private cable ownership. This is a unique commercial model for the Perth-Singapore route that will satisfy the ongoing bandwidth requirements of both network operators and internet content hosts. " Thursday's MOU is the second attempt at constructing APX-West; Telstra had initially signed a memorandum of understanding with SubPartners for capacity on the subsea cable more than three years ago, in March 2013. Slattery, who is also the CEO of dark fibre company Superloop and founder of elastic interconnection services provider Megaport , told ZDNet that the APX-West project has since been changed from being a private cable to a freshly designed cable owned by a consortium. "Over the past few years, we have been working with all the major players to make APX-West a reality, and this took quite a bit of effort both in terms of design and commercial offering," Slattery told ZDNet. "The 2016 cable is a consortium cable, meaning owners will have ownership economics on their respective capacity. This has attracted major providers including Telstra, Singtel, and others to join the consortium. " Slattery added that over the past three years, Singapore's role in connecting cities throughout the APAC region has grown, which has led to a jump in the amount of traffic between Australia and Singapore. "The growth of traffic between Australia and Singapore is beyond SMW3's recently upgraded capacity, and it needs to be augmented with this diverse path. Add to that the recent submarine cable outages on cables connecting Australia over the past 12 months, this has crystallised the benefits of this new diverse path to Asia," Slattery explained to ZDNet. "Ultimately, the commercial construct, the reworked design and timing, was right. " The original design for the cable involved a length of 4,600km, with four fibre pairs, 55 repeaters, 48 to 60 wavelengths per pair, and 100Gbps capacity per wavelength. Ooi Seng Keat, vice president of Carrier Services, Group Enterprise at Singtel, agreed that the SMW3 cable needs to be complemented with a faster-speed offering due to the rising use of more data-heavy applications. "The current data bridge between Singapore and Perth is carried by the SEA-ME-WE 3 cable. The APX-West cable will be a new data superhighway to expand data connectivity and capacity between Singapore and Australia, providing network redundancy and the lowest latency from Australia to Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Europe," he said. "Singtel has one of the most extensive submarine cable infrastructures in the Asia-Pacific region. With these capabilities, the Singtel Group, including Optus, can meet customers' growing data requirements for bandwidth-intensive applications such as unified communications, enterprise data exchange, internet TV, and online gaming. " The companies will begin constructing the new cable at the end of July, with completion expected by 2018. Telstra said signing on to construct the APX-West subsea cable will add to its capacity, which is timely after the telco's own Australia-Singapore subsea cable experienced an outage in October last year. The outage had caused severe delays for customers attempting to download or update their operating systems or apps across the iTunes Store and the App Store, as well as when using streaming services Apple Music and Apple Radio. "The MOU is a significant step forward in building what would be a valuable addition to Telstra's subsea network, which is one of the largest in the Asia-Pacific," said Darrin Webb, Telstra's executive director of International Operations and Services. "As consumers and businesses continue to embrace online products and services, such as video streaming and cloud, the demand for international connectivity continues to rise, creating a strong case for building this new cable. " In February, TPG experienced a month-long outage across its Sydney-Guam submarine cable, while the Basslink Interconnector has been down since December , and will not restore services until at least mid June.

2016-03-30 23:17 Corinne Reichert zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

27 Quick take: BMW gesture control I recently spent a week in a lavish BMW 750i xDrive sedan, replete with enough trimmings to bring the grand total to $129,245 (over £80,000 pounds similarly configured or starting at AU$306,692). The car had BMW's gesture control technology, which stirred quite the question: what's a motorist to use this for when a touchscreen already exists? BMW gesture control employs a camera placed in the headliner that recognize five specific hand gestures. The car has four predefined gestures for volume up, volume down, answer a call and decline a call. The fifth gesture, as you may imagine, is customizable, but it's limited to commands that you can already give via other means. I set the fifth gesture for the next track command -- a fitting use given how frequently I toggle between tracks and radio stations. Prior to taking the wheel, I struggled to reason why someone would want to use gestures for basic controls that are available on the steering wheel. The epiphany, it turns out, came after I shamelessly cruised through a McDonald's drive-thru. Given that this is America, and America tends to multitask while driving, it seemed like an ideal scenario to test a fresh input mechanism. As I motored on, I found one hand preoccupied with a warm, succulent McDouble, while the other gripped the steering wheel. You don't want to get grease on this interior As fate would have it, Los del Río's only hit erupted through the car's litany of speakers, placing me squarely between a proverbial rock and hard place – should I attempt to do the Macarena with my hands full, or change the station? I settled on toggling to another channel, but considering just how grotesque my hands were from handling the aforesaid McDouble, I couldn't bring myself to touch the physical control on the car's steering wheel. This, of course, is where gesture controls come in handy. A quick gesture and the radio station changed, therefore saving the controls from my greased digits and fellow motorists from my subpar dancing skills. It's just one man's experience, but the moral is clear: if you're brazen enough to eat greasy foods in a six-figure BMW, gesture control will at least save you a trip to the interior detailer. Article continues below

2016-03-30 23:01 By Tuan feedproxy.google.com

28 28 Microsoft plans to build ad blocker into its Microsoft Edge browser One of Microsoft's biggest gambles in Windows 10 is its decision to turn Internet Explorer into a legacy product, primarily for enterprise customers. Its replacement, Microsoft Edge, has been developing slowly since its version 1.0 release with the first release of Windows 10. But judging from a session at today's Build conference in San Francisco, the pace of development is about to pick up. The feature most power users are awaiting is the availability of JavaScript extensions, similar to those available in Google's Chrome browser. That feature is currently available in Insider preview releases of Windows 10, with one eagerly anticipated extension, AdBlock Plus, already confirmed as an early arrival. But Microsoft's roadmap for Edge suggests that you might not need that extension. Look at item 4 on this slide from a session titled "Microsoft Edge: What's Next for Microsoft's New Browser and Web Platform. " Extensions are number 1 on that list, with the feature listed as "targeted for next edition," meaning the summer 2016 Anniversary Update (code-named Redstone). But item 4 on that list, "Build ad blocking features into the browser," is also being targeted for the next edition. If this feature ships, it will be a much-needed replacement for an Internet Explorer feature called Tracking Protection Lists (TPLs) , which added privacy protection into the browser and, as a side-effect, neatly blocked many ads. TPLs were always controversial, at least in part because at the time they debuted Microsoft had recently purchase aQuantive. That move was an unsuccessful attempt to compete with Google in the online advertising business. It turned out to be a disaster and led to a nearly complete writedown of the acquisition and an exit from the business. The climate has changed now, to be sure. Ad-blocking has moved into the mainstream, with Apple baking it into the newest versions of Safari on mobile devices. The former CTO of Mozilla, Brendan Eich, has launched a startup called Brave, whose chief product is an ad-blocking browser. Google, which derives more than 90 percent of its revenue from online advertising, has, not surprisingly, steered clear so far. It remains to be seen how the new ad-blocking features will work. But with new features expected to arrive in Windows 10 preview builds in the coming weeks, we probably will know soon.

2016-03-30 22:56 Ed Bott zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

29 Refurbished 'iPhone SE' appears in China Ahead of the global launch of Apple's iPhone SE on March 31, some IT outlets in China have been producing fake iPhone SE handsets from the earlier iPhone 5 and iPhone 5S models, according to reports from Hong Kong media. For only 60 yuan ($9.30) in an IT outlet in Huaqiangbei, Shenzhen -- the well-known electronics and parts market selling some never-released electronic products -- the shop owner will engrave the letters "SE" on your iPhone shell and process it to look exactly the same as the new budget iPhone, according to the reports. Many private outlets in the area have also lifted recalled prices for the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5S, which are believed to be utilized as raw materials for making the fakes, the reports added. Regarded as an electronics destination in the country for tech savvies, IT outlets in Huaqiangbei area are also notorious for selling second-hand products as brand new ones, as well as knock-off products at very low prices. The reports warn consumers to look out for the iPhone SE in the area in the future as they could easily be refurbished fakes. Preorders of the new iPhone SE have exceeded 3.4 million units in the country, better than estimations made by Wall Street, according to a Sina news report on Tuesday. However, this unofficial data was drawn from the country's major online retailers such as JD.com and Tmall marketplace platform, and could be misleading as some of these retailers do not require consumers to put money down for preorders.

2016-03-30 22:38 Cyrus Lee zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

30 Turn your real life into virtual reality with these 360-degree cameras Virtual reality has taken off as one of the most immersive ways to experience media in today's digital age. Whether you're exploring a 3D virtual space or simply turning your head in a 360- degree video, VR is a new frontier for entertainment. While you might think it's impossible for you to create your own VR content without an expensive 3D camera or a degree in video game programming, but all you actually need is a 360- degree camera. As the name suggests, these 360-degree cameras capture footage from every angle and the result is a spherically-shaped video. It's an immersive experience that places you in the center of the action and creates a sense of presence. You can freely look around, rather than passively watching video on a flat plane with the limitations of a fixed perspective. 360-degree cameras have been around long before the Oculus Rift , but thanks to the introduction of recent, budget-priced virtual reality headsets – like the Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard – these enveloping videos have found a home on YouTube. If you want to get started with shooting all-encompassing footage yourself, you'll want to check out these seven cameras. If you want to get into shooting 360-degree videos, one of the simplest devices to use is the Ricoh Theta S. It's a compact, handheld camera that simultaneously captures two images at the same time and merges them into a single, spherical 1080p panoramic video. It does this using a pair of 180-degree lenses on the front and back of the device and a pair of 12 megapixel sensors – though the final stitched image is rendered as a 14.5MP image. On top of recording 25 minute movies, the camera can also livestream VR-friendly video over Wi-Fi. Shooting 360-degree footage is nice and all, but if you want to make the experience even more immersive, the Vuze camera steps in to create 3D VR footage. This boxy, UFO-shaped rig combines the power of eight cameras and lenses to not only capture a 360-degree perspective, but also depth at the same time. 3D VR video is a natural fit for VR headsets, as the added sense of depth matches how our eyes naturally sees things, versus a flat image captured by most other 360-degree camera. What's more, Human Technologies, the company behind the Vuze camera, also claims its device can record 4K footage at a decent 30 frame per second (fps) clip. But, with these cool features comes a higher-than-most price tag. Samsung's entry into the 360-degree camera world was expected, seeing as the electronics firm also produces the popular Gear VR headset. Like other cameras, the Samsung Gear 360 contains two 15MP sensors and fisheye lenses, which can capture 3,840 x 1,920 360-degree videos. The big difference here is Samsung's camera is one of the smallest in the world. Smaller than a baseball, you'll be able to pocket the Gear 360 and bring it just about everywhere to start creating movies to experience in VR. You know 360-degree cameras are making a splash when one of the world's biggest camera companies also takes a crack at the burgeoning space. Nikon introduced the KeyMission 360 as a GoPro rival and on top of being its first action camera, it also features an image sensor and lens combo on the front and back. Each side takes its own shots, then these are combined inside the camera to generate high-definition, 360-degree 4K video. As an action camera, the KeyMission 360 is built to be a bit tougher than your average VR camera and you'll be able to take it down to depths of 30 meters without an external housing. It's also durable on its own and can take a beating against shocks, dust and low temperatures. If you want to get even more extreme with 360-degree video, the Kodak PixPro SP360 4K is your ticket. This dome-shaped rig is a 12MP action camera that can take 360-degree spherical images or 4K HD video at 2,028 × 2,028 and 50fps, much faster than most VR cameras. On the opposite end of things, the SP360 4K can also record slow motion footage at 120fps when you bump down the resolution to 1,280 × 720. Though the GoPro Odyssey is technically less of a single camera and more like a 16 GoPro Hero 4 Black camera system in the form of a wheel-shaped rig, it's one of the most impressive solutions for capturing 360-degree video. First unveiled at Google IO 2015 , the Odyssey was introduced as a developer kit and part of the search company's virtual reality ecosystem called the Jump platform. Although it's aimed squarely at developers to build their own camera rigs and video stitching software, it's also one of the most over-the-top solutions we've seen to create 360-degree video. If you happen to have the cash, you can bet you'll have some of the best looking videos to experience on a VR headset. We're officially off the consumer and even developer path and fully waded into professional- grade 360-degree camera territory. For a whopping 60 grand , you're looking at a VR camera made for Hollywood filmmakers. The Nokia OZO is a blowfish-shaped camera captures stereoscopic 3D video using eight synchronized global shutter sensors – each of which can resolve a 2K x 2K picture on their own. When completely stitched together, every second of video roughly amounts to 1GB of data. Nokia claims users will fill up the included 500GB solid state drive with just 45 minutes of footage. We've seen plenty of instances of virtual reality turned into a theater going experience, and the OZO might be the camera to capture the first movie fully shot for headset users.

2016-03-30 21:00 By Kevin feedproxy.google.com

31 Build 2016: how to watch the live streams and what happened on Day 1 Today, Microsoft showed off what it's been cooking up for Windows, Xbox One and even HoloLens at its annual developer conference, Build 2016. While it's largely aimed at the folks that make the apps you use every day, Microsoft is broadcasting the conference's two major keynotes straight from the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Calif, so that fans (and devs who couldn't make it) can see what's next for Microsoft as it happens. Watching the keynotes is almost painfully easy. Just head to Microsoft's newfangled Build 2016 page , scroll down a bit and press that play button. You can even watch today's keynote on demand from this page. Tomorrow's second and final keynote begins at 8:30am PT (or 11:30am ET, 4:30pm GMT, 1:30am AEST) on that same page. While there was a ton of interesting, exciting news to come out of the first Build keynote, a hefty chunk of it was speaking directly to developers, not the average Joe (teehee). So, here's what happened during Microsoft's Build 2016 Day One keynote that matters to you. Also known as "Redstone" (though, Microsoft hasn't confirmed that), this major update is slated to launch later this summer – hence the name – for not only Windows 10, but for Xbox One as well. The update brings a slew of new changes specific to certain devices. For one, Windows Ink will provide existing apps enhanced controls and optimization when using a stylus, ideally Microsoft's Surface Pen. On stage, enhanced Sticky Notes will recognize handwriting and offer contextual solutions, like creating a calendar event if a word like "tomorrow" is written. Cortana will see major upgrades as well, such as contextual, automated functions based on what you're currently doing within an app. Not to mention that the Anniversary Update will introduce her to Xbox One. Microsoft's Phil Spencer took the stage to talk up Xbox One Dev Mode, promised way back at the 2013 launch of the console and landing as part of the Anniversary Update. This new mode allows any old, retail Xbox One unit to transform into a developer kit with the press of a button. While most of us lay folk won't even bother with this feature, that's not the point. What this does is allows any developer out there to begin creating apps and even games for Xbox One without having to bug Microsoft for a developer kit, as they had to in the past. One of the biggest hurdles to console game making has just been knocked down. We already knew that HoloLens would ship to developers starting March 30, but today's on- stage confirmation and heartfelt exchange between co-creators Alex Kipman and Kudo Tsunoda sealed the deal. The developer kit box was shown off on stage as well, but more important was the demonstration put on by a group of Case Western University doctors. It showed off how 3D rendering and remote participation can enhance the learning experience for would-be doctors and nurses. Despite the Tay debacle, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella carried on with evangelizing the firm's mission to bring Bots – or intelligent agents that live within other apps and services – to the forefront of computing. So much so, in fact, that Microsoft issued a Bot Framework for developers to easily create, manage and deploy said bots to various Windows apps. Furthermore, the company took it one step further with its Cognitive Services suite of tools that can further enhance bots with machine learning capabilities that Microsoft has developed over the years. Speaking of which, Microsoft issued a series of bots (and support for third-party bots) to Skype that you can play around with right now. They include live audio/video to text translation, support for bots to communicate with you directly that Cortana can immediately handle and more. Microsoft also teased that Skype is coming to HoloLens, with gesture drawing support and Cortana's machine intelligence built in. Article continues below

2016-03-30 20:33 By Joe feedproxy.google.com

32 ARLP Gets a 70% Boost in Performance with Disaster Recovery Solution from HPE In the previous data protection post in this series, we told how you can move to HPE storage architecture, and save big money in the process. Well, the proof, as they say, is in the pudding. In this post, we’ll find out how one large industrial organization saved hundreds of thousands in the process. Tulsa, Oklahoma-based coal producer and marketer, Alliance Resource Partners (ARLP) is one of the top five coal producers in the U. S. This publicly held company provides a steady supply of coal to U. S. electric utilities and other heavy industry users. In 2015, ALRP shipped 90% percent of its production to electric utilities. To be sure, the market for coal is very competitive, facing quickly shifting conditions. So timing and market value determine success. ARLP has to be able to count on its ability to tap reliable and highly available data in order to forecast buying and selling patterns to beat out the competition. Though they were an existing HPE customer, ARLP did its due diligence and conducted a competitive evaluation before upgrading its architecture --an existing 3PAR F-Class system. After the review, ARLP determined that staying with 3PAR would ensure it could crunch the data it needed to remain highly competitive. They purchased the HPE 3PAR StoreServ 7400 and HPE StoreOnce 4700 Backup, to ensure performance, as well as added headroom for the future. Tammy Adler, senior database administrator for ARLP, said the new HPE 4-node storage system was just the ticket to boost their ability to scale. “We need flash performance, but only on a few databases, and everything else runs on spinning disks. The hybrid HPE 3PAR StoreServ 7400 combines an affordable price with more than enough flash capability. It saved a half million dollars over the nearest competitor in our evaluation.” Chad Morrison, infrastructure manager at ARLP, said he finds the speed and performance of the 3PAR StoreServ 7400 impressive, across both flash and spinning disks. The added benefit is they get the flash performance where needed. “We’ve encountered many benefits with our new HPE 3PAR StoreServ 7400, such as “6-nines” availability, but the biggest advantage is greatly increased customer satisfaction. All user tasks are 70% faster.” In fact, ARLP is saving nearly $3,000 a month with the new backup system, which delivers three times the storage capacity with a smaller footprint while eliminating the need for two racks and payment of co-location rent. When deciding to upgrade, ARLP knew it wanted to move up to a heavy-duty disaster recovery system. It set its sights on the HPE StoreOnce automated backup and disaster recovery (DR) system. Previously, ARLP used the IBM storage management system and Microsoft data protection manager with manual tape libraries to back up critical data. By moving to HPE StoreOnce with support for Tivoli Storage Manager, the coal producer has significantly reduced the need for tape data protection. Because ARLP headquarters is located in a tornado belt, it’s vulnerable to destructive twisters and occasional earthquakes. By investing in backup proven data protection architecture, they know that if a disaster shuts down its systems, their data is protected. By using the automated StoreOnce systems, ARLP also reduced its exposure to the vagaries of nature, shortening the time-lag between a disaster and restoration. The company installed two HPE StoreOnce 4700s for backup and disaster recovery (DR) at its data center and a remote DR location. Previously, ARLP workers had to travel to an offsite tape vault and then to the DR facilities to find the right tape library to do the restore. The process could take one to three days. Now they can do a restore in an hour or two, ensuring business continuity and financial health. ARLP said that with HPE StoreOnce, it has reduced the costs of using tapes with offsite storage expenses and estimates it has saved $20,000 to $30,000 in the process What’s more, ARLP noted that because the HPE StoreOnce backup tightly integrates with multi- vendor backup applications, workers can handle file replication management across all systems from a single monitor. One of the main reasons it chose HPE StoreOnce was the ability to replicate data after deduplication without rehydrating the data. And with deduplication, they’ve been able to reduce their storage profile from 290TB to 29TB, a tenfold savings! “The fact that we were able to repurpose our HPE F400 as highly compatible DR storage at our remote site was a great demonstration of investment protection in action, and saved us a good deal of money,” noted Morrison. ARLP saved an additional $200,000 by not having to buy new backup software. Finally, when it came time to make the move, ARLP also drew on HPE’s expert support, which made implementation -- all done in-house -- quick and easy. When they needed help, an HPE consultant analyzed ARLP’s backup configurations and then recommended changes in backup design and best practices for TSM, Oracle, and DPM backups. Morrison said he was first introduced to HPE Storage when he purchased HPE 3PAR F-Series primary storage a few years earlier. The performance and functionality of the new 3PAR StoreServ 7400 underscores his appreciation of HPE’s vision and architecture. “HPE proved it has the best storage solutions yet again, further cementing our new confidence in HPE as the leading-edge vendor for our future growth and technology.” How about that for third-party validation! So there you have it, a case study that we hope inspires you and proves that HPE can help you save big money stay ahead of the competition. Read the full ALRP Case Study here. Watch the 10 minute video here . You can learn more about HPE 3PAR StoreServ primary storage and HPE 3PAR StoreOnce Backup solutions.

2016-03-30 19:14 Andrew Dickerson www.computerworld.com

33 Ubuntu (not Linux) on Windows: How it works Yes, Microsoft is going to enable users to run Bash natively on Windows 10 , and yes Ubuntu on the next major Windows 10 update , Redstone. How the heck did they do that? First, Ubuntu parent company Canonical and Microsoft will be running it not on Linux in a container or virtual machine (VM), but on Windows native libraries and programs: Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). WSL was quietly placed in the Windows 10 (build 14251) code in late January. A few days later, a developer worked out that two new subsystems lxcore.sys and lxss.sys , could be bridges for Windows programmers to develop Linux applications. The developer was half right. WSL can be used for that, but its first job is to support an Ubuntu user-mode image. A Microsoft spokesperson explained, "We built new infrastructure within Windows, WSL, upon which we run a genuine Ubuntu user-mode image provided by our great partners over at Canonical, creators of Ubuntu Linux. The result is that you can now run native Bash on Ubuntu on Windows. " This is not a Cygwin variation, noted Dustin Kirkland, a member of Canonical's Ubuntu Product and Strategy executive team. Cygwin's "open source utilities are recompiled from source to run natively in Windows ," said Kirkland. "Here, we're talking about bit-for-bit, checksum-for- checksum Ubuntu ELF binaries running directly in Windows. " Kirkland continued, "A team of sharp developers at Microsoft has been hard at work adapting some Microsoft research technology to basically perform real time translation of Linux syscalls into Windows OS syscalls. Linux geeks can think of it sort of the inverse of "WINE" -- Ubuntu binaries running natively in Windows. Microsoft calls it a "Windows Subsystem for Linux". (No, it's not open source at this time.)" Some people are already saying: "Oh I bet that runs like a 100-meter sprinter on a track of mud. " Wrong. Kirkland claims "it's totally hot. The sysbench utility is showing nearly equivalent cpu, memory, and I/O performance. " WSL isn't ready for prime time yet. A Canonical representative said it's "early days yet -- this is a beta release. " Kirkland added: "The vast majority of the LTP passes and works well. But there are some imperfections still, especially around tty's and the vt100. My beloved byobu , screen , and tmux don't quite work yet, but they're getting close. " This is not a new idea. In fact, it's a downright ancient notion. It goes all the way back to the Windows NT POSIX subsystem. NT Posix was designed to run native Unix -- Linux hadn't been created yet -- binaries on Windows NT. Many people have been asking me "Why!? " Kirkland's answered in an interview, echoing Steve Ballmer, "Developers, developers, developers. Microsoft recognizes that while developers today might run Windows or Mac (or maybe Ubuntu) on their desktop, inevitably those end up spending much of their time in a Linux shell. Before this new feature of Windows 10, Windows users would need to run a VM (resource hungry), ssh to a cloud instance (requires connectivity), or fiddle around with Cygwin (hacky, slow). With this new feature, a Windows user simple presses the Windows start key, and types "bash" or "ubuntu", and they end up in a rich, Ubuntu shell, with access to all of Ubuntu and most of the entire world of apt, running natively, without virtualization or recompilation. " Microsoft Build 2016 Mary Jo Foley's watch list for Microsoft's Build 2016 developer conference. In his blog post, Kirkland continued, "This is an almost surreal endorsement by Microsoft on the importance of open source to developers. [It's] a fantastic opportunity to bridge the world of free and open source technology directly into any Windows 10 desktop on the planet. And what a wonderful vector into learning and using more Ubuntu and Linux in public clouds. " Speaking of the cloud, in the interview, Kirkland, added, "It's well known that Ubuntu is the most popular Linux distro in Azure and other clouds. A native Ubuntu shell built directly into the Windows desktop just makes it that much easier to write code using Visual Studio, vim, or emacs, and then push it to a cloud instance with git, scp, or rsync, and vice versa. Obviously, many of those cloud instances will be Azure Ubuntu instances. " Canonical's founder, Mark Shuttleworth, is excited by this new technology partnership. Shuttleworth said, "The native availability of a full Ubuntu environment on Windows, without virtualization or emulation, is a milestone that defies convention. We are delighted to stand behind Ubuntu for Windows, committed to addressing the needs of Windows developers exploring Linux in this amazing new way. " Interesting in giving it a try? The first Ubuntu image for Windows 10, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, will be available soon. Ubuntu 16.04 LTS , which will be replacing Ubuntu 14.04, will be available on the Windows Store shortly after it's released on April 21.. Since the image relies on code in Redstone, you'll need to be running Windows Build 14251 or later. Microsoft just announced that it will be releasing Windows 10 Redstone 1 , aka "Windows 10 Anniversary Update" or Windows 10 SP1 to me, this summer.

2016-03-30 18:46 Steven J zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

34 Instagram has quickly fixed the disappearing Log Out button After you update to 7.19.1 version of Instagram, which is available now through the Apple App Store, The Log Out button should be back in the Settings menu where it has always lived. Some Instagram users have found themselves unable to log out or switch accounts following the latest iOS update. The Log Out button usually appears at the bottom of the Options menu, which is accessed by tapping the cog icon at the top right of the profile screen. Instagram has said it is aware of the problem and a fix is currently being worked on. We noticed the techradar account was locked after the update, and it only seems to only be affecting iOS at the moment. "We're aware of an issue that's preventing some users from logging out or switching accounts," the Instagram account tweeted. "We're working on a fix. " We've asked Instagram for an update on where it is in the fixing process, and we'll update when we know more. Article continues below

2016-03-30 18:34 By SJ feedproxy.google.com

35 MedStar Health partially restores services after ransomware attack MedStar Health said Wednesday it is restoring computer systems following a cyberattack that reportedly involved file-encrypting malware. The not-for-profit organization, which runs 10 hospitals in the Washington, D. C., area, was hit with ransomware, the Baltimore Sun reported on Wednesday, citing two anonymous sources. MedStar Health officials could not be immediately reached for comment. The organization issued two statements Wednesday, but did not describe what type of malware infected its systems. It said in one statement that its IT team has worked continuously to restore access to three main clinical systems. It said no patient data or associate data was compromised. Ransomware has become one of the most prevalent kinds of malware on the Internet although it has been around for more than a decade. Several medical facilities have come forward over the last few weeks and publicly said ransomware had disrupted their operations. The targeting of medical groups has added a new and dangerous angle to these kinds of cyberattacks because patient care could be directly impacted. MedStar encouraged patients on Wednesday to call doctor offices directly to make appointments, as it was still trying to restore its electronic appointment system. Nonetheless, MedStar said it has been able to keep humming along. Since the attack, it has cared for 3,380 patients a day across 10 hospitals, performed 782 surgeries and delivered 72 babies. "The malicious malware attack has created many inconveniences and operational challenges for our patients and associates," according to a statement. "With only a few exceptions, we have continued to provide care approximating our normal volume levels. " The Baltimore Sun reported the hackers offered MedStar a bulk decryption discount: three bitcoins to decrypt one computer, or 45 bitcoins, roughly US$18,500, to unlock them all. That demand is roughly in line with the attackers who struck Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles. Allen Stefanek, president and CEO of Hollywood Presbyterian, said in a statement the payment was the "quickest and most efficient way" to restore its systems. The ransom note and the Tor hidden website supplied to make a payment was "almost identical" to those who have previously been infected with ransomware called Samsam, the Sun reported. Just days before MedStar announced its troubles, Cisco's Talos group published a blog post on Samsam, which is also called Samas and MSIL. B/C. Craig Williams, Cisco's security outreach manager, wrote "this particular family seems to be distributed via compromising servers and using them as a foothold to move laterally through the network to compromise additional machines which are then held for ransom. A particular focus appears to have been placed on the healthcare industry. " Samsam's operators were using JexBoss, a penetration testing tool for JBoss servers, to get access to networks, Williams wrote. It's unclear how MedStar has been able to restore its systems. But computer security experts closely analyze ransomware and have occasionally been able to find errors in the code that would allow the recovery of the decryption key. Authorities are largely at a loss for how to stop ransomware. Some of the ransomware gangs, believed to be in Eastern Europe or Russia, are far out of the reach of law enforcement. Companies and organizations have generally been advised to frequently back up their systems and ensure those systems are segregated to prevent ransomware from encrypting those files as well. But designing such systems is not easy, and small organizations with less to spend on IT may be more vulnerable.

2016-03-30 18:07 Jeremy Kirk www.computerworld.com

36 Acer Predator Z850 Projector Throws 120-Inch Images at Gamers for $5,000 Forget about that 32-inch monitor you've been eyeing up, Acer's newly available Predator Z850 projector can beam images up to 120 inches on your wall or screen. The question is, are you willing to pay $5,000 for it? That's Acer's bold asking price for what it claims is the industry's first ultra-wide HD laser projector designed for gaming. It also sports a bold design, as do all of Acer's Predator products, this one in particular with a red and black chassis molded with aggressive angles. Acer designed the Predator Z850 to work in cramped spaces. Using mirror-less ultra-short-throw technology, the projector can display images up to 120 inches from as little as 18.5 inches from the screen or wall. "This means no more shadow interference at crucial moments during gameplay," Acer says. The Predator Z850 uses a top-mounted lens and adjustable feet to make it quick and easy to deploy without any drilling or mounting required. Once setup, you can start gaming at an ultra- wide 1920x720 resolution—that's a 24:9 aspect ratio, which is 50 percent wider than 16:9 display resolutions. Courtesy of an advanced laser diode, Acer says the Predator Z850 delivers bright images up to 3,000 lumens along with a 100,000:1 contrast ratio. Acer also claims a wide color gamut but stopped short of saying what percentage of the sRGB color space it covers (or any other metric it wishes to use). If your pocket still feels heavy after extracting $5,000 from it, you can purchase an optional Wireless HD kit for 1080p lossless wireless streaming to reduce cable clutter. The Predator Z850 is available now (or will be soon once retailers update their websites), but will it sell? We haven't tested the Predator Z850, but at $5,000, it's hard to imagine picking one over a much less expensive 4K monitor with all the bells and whistles. Follow Paul on Google+ , Twitter , and Facebook

2016-03-30 16:26 Paul Lilly www.maximumpc.com

37 Apple should set a better example with its supplier report, Greenpeace says Apple says conditions at the factories where its iPhones and iPads are made have improved, but Greenpeace responded that the company should set a better example reporting on its suppliers. “Apple’s latest Supplier Responsibility Progress Report certainly highlights the importance Apple is placing on improving its supply chain, but this year’s report lacks detail on where problems remain and how they plan to address these issues," Greenpeace said. The environmental group acknowledged that policing supply chains is a "major challenge" for large manufacturers like Apple, but it called on the company to provide more clarity about how its suppliers are performing. "We expect a leader like Apple to set a greater example for the industry,” Greenpeace said. Still, Apple said it made progress last year with issues like safety, use of underpaid and underage workers, and worker rights at factories run by its suppliers in China and elsewhere. Apple conducted a record 640 audits at suppliers' facilities in 2015. Only one facility was found employing under-aged labor, Apple said, down from six last year. It reported "significant progress" with suppliers meeting labor and human rights requirements. Many pages in the report are devoted to case studies. One example shows Apple intervening to free a woman from what amounted to "bonded labor. " The feel-good stories highlight Apple's successes, but work remains on some environmental and safety issues, said Gary Cook, senior IT analyst at Greenpeace. The report has a lot of high-level details but lacks some of the fine-grained reporting that Apple has shared in the past, he said. Nor does the company talk about challenges it would like to address in the coming year, for which progress could be measured in next year's report. "It's difficult to measure year-over-year progress, and where the problems and challenges lie and how they're trying to address them," Cook said About 70 percent of Apple's carbon footprint is in its supply chain, in facilities the company doesn't operate. Commitments to ensuring wider use of renewables should be part of future reports, Cook said. But Apple has made improvements in the supply chain and can point to some innovative breakthroughs, he added.

2016-03-30 15:51 Agam Shah www.itnews.com

38 Microsoft says Windows 10 is now running on 270 million devices Microsoft's Get Windows 10 campaign is persistent, aggressive, and occasionally annoying. Annoying enough, in fact, to have spurred a cottage industry in third-party upgrade-blocking tools. But despite those complaints, the program appears to be working. No, Microsoft is not spying on you with Windows 10 Where do people come up with these crazy ideas? Eight months after its launch, Microsoft says its new operating system is being "actively used on more than 270 million devices. " Windows boss Terry Myerson made the announcement today at the opening of Microsoft's annual Build conference in San Francisco. In his remarks introducing Myerson, CEO Satya Nadella said Windows 10 is "off to the fastest start in Windows history" and is being adopted at a dramatically faster pace compared to Windows 7 in the same timeframe, among both consumers and enterprise customers. Microsoft didn't offer any comparisons with Windows 8's adoption rates. Today's milestone represents a major leap since the beginning of the year, when Microsoft announced that Windows 10 was in use on 200 million devices . So what about that goal of having Windows 10 on a billion devices by 2018? Myerson said Microsoft is "on track to reach our ambitious goal of one billion Windows 10 devices in the next few years. " The free upgrade offer for Windows 10 has less than four months to go until its expiration date on July 29, 2016. Assuming that that offer isn't extended, the upgrade momentum will slow substantially beginning in the second half of 2016. Microsoft's announcement today didn't break out adoption rates for enterprise customers. In January, the company said that 22 million of its active Windows 10 users were on devices run by enterprise or education customers. It's unlikely that proportion has changed substantially among notoriously conservative enterprise customers. A relatively small number of those Windows 10 devices are Xbox One consoles and Windows 10 smartphones. But the real momentum for Windows 10 in the next few years isn't going to inspire such favorable comparisons to Windows 7. The pace of PC sales has dropped substantially since its peak five years ago. There's also anecdotal evidence that PC owners are dragging out the replacement cycle. Microsoft says there are 600 million PCs in the installed base that are more than five years old. That factoid led to an amusing war of words between Apple and Microsoft. At an Apple event earlier this month, Apple's Phil Schiller called that number "really sad. " Myerson's response: "We welcome everyone to Windows 10, whether you have a new PC, a five-year-old PC, or a brand new Mac. " Convincing those owners, especially enterprise customers, to upgrade is the real key to Microsoft's goal reaching a billion PCs running Windows 10.

2016-03-30 15:49 Ed Bott zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

39 Apple at 40: Seeing promise in the 'blossoming' home computer market When Apple launched the Apple II in 1977, it was still far from certain that consumers would want or need a home computer. While hobbyists were tinkering with computers they built and programmed themselves, Apple saw a need for something easier, and introduced the Apple II. This article, republished from the May 1, 1978, edition of Computerworld, sets the scene at the time and describes how a young Apple Computer was looking to the future. (DP was an industry term of the day for "data processing. ") By a Computerworld Staff Writer CUPERTINO, Calif. -- As soon as low-cost computers were available in configurations designed for use by consumers, with programming features and language that non-technicians could use, the personal computing market began to grow rapidly, according to Apple Computer, Inc., one of the firms vying for a share of that blossoming market. With more than 100,000 units sold, the personal computer market is finally being recognized as much larger then the original hobby market, a spokesman stated, observing that there have already been forecasts of $2 billion in sales by 1985. Apple, which introduced a self-contained personal computer (Apple II) in June 1977, believes the personal computer will make home life better for middle-income families. The spokesman said such systems will provide for better financial decision making and tighter control over family finances, better protection against fire and theft, better environmental control with attendant energy cost savings and more free time for all family members. Additional benefits, he predicted, will include better educational opportunities, lower cost communications, immediate access to all family records and increased family interaction through the entertainment aspects of the systems. At present, the vast majority of non-business computer users are still considered to be hobbyists, Apple noted, because until self-contained machines like Apple II came along, home computers required some technical understanding to assemble and program them. Now, the self-contained machines can be taken home, unpacked, plugged in and put to work. Considering all the purchases of nonbusiness computers, estimates are that hobby computers accounted for 67 percent of all sales in 1977, Apple noted. The home computer, requiring no technical knowledge or assembly. accounted for only 3 percent of that market, with the other markets accounting for the remaining 30 percent. This is expected to change dramatically in 1978, Apple said. Home computers will take 17 percent of the market while the hobbyist sector will account for 35 percent. The home market will dominate by 1982, accounting for 56 percent of all sales of personal computers, Apple predicted. These figures do not include computer systems sold for entertainment purposes, which are generally considered part of the personal computer market even though they can only offer preprogrammed games. The true home computer, by comparison, provides the capability for entertainment in addition to its other possible uses. This entertainment segment of the consumer market accounted for about 18 percent of the total personal computer market in 1977 and will account for about 29 percent by 1982, Apple said. Apple was founded in January 1976 by Steven Jobs and Steven Wozniak for the purpose of developing and marketing personal computers. The firm's first product, the Apple I, was essentially intended for the knowledgeable hobbyist. Apple received equity financing from Venrock Associates, Capital Management, Inc. and Arthur Rock this March.

2016-03-30 15:34 Martyn Williams www.itnews.com

40 Code Watch: Those who can, code If it were illegal to program a computer, I’d have a machine under the floorboards. I sold my first program when I was 16 years old, in 1980, and with any luck I’ll be making my living this way for another couple decades. I’ve been trying to improve my craft for longer than some readers have been alive, but still the other day I read some code that made me feel like a fraud for even claiming to be in the same field as that programmer. Being a programmer is as close as a human can come to being a magician. You conjure, by concentration and will, a string of arcane symbols that your silicon brazier converts into anything that relies on information. When I was a kid, it was a trope in science fiction that computers were limited to uses of pure, formal logic (“They deal only with 1s and 0s”). Wrong! Our industry is a great unending field of rich soil, and all of our accomplishments are just the first shoots of grass. As I write this, my wife is downstairs, immersed in a virtual fight across a post-apocalyptic wasteland with a group of allies, the nearest of whom is sitting on a couch 3,000 miles away. On a whim, I could stop mid-word in my writing, drive to a cafe, and pick up the sentence by tapping with my thumb on the screen while waiting for a coffee. For that matter, I could dictate while driving and have that stream of text available to me before I made my order (via a subscription to Nuance’s Dragon Anywhere, which I honestly don’t use nearly as much as I intend to). An epic battle is being waged between the greatest Go player of his generation and a system that combines Monte Carlo Tree Search (essentially, a random walk) with deep neural nets (no predefined rule structure or semantics). As far as I can tell, there’s no reason to think that AlphaGo (and similar architectures) cannot grow superhumanly competent simply by competing against variations of itself. Oh, and we also write code to help our companies deliver value. But while non-programmers live in this brave new world, with its digital over- and underlays, only programmers can call the thunder and harness the lightning. In our day-to-day work we get hints of mystery and small hits of reward, but too rarely do we get the unbridled glory of the fans spinning, the console filling up with long lines of “…” to assure us the calculation continues, and then some number astonishingly close to 0 or 1 telling us that, somehow, our code has found a solution that we couldn’t have found in a hundred years. I remember that first astonishment over a program I wrote that solved an optimization problem, but unlike the cliché of never being the same as the first time, equal and greater thrills have come to me over the years (interesting algorithmic challenges are not nearly as common as the textbooks say, but they’re out there!). We are as privileged in our lives as those who witnessed the harnessing of fire, or who lived in the great cities of Europe during the Renaissance. I’ve also had the privilege of sharing my perspective over the years. In the early 1990s, I edited a few programming magazines and worked with Ted Bahr and Alan Zeichick: the B and Z in BZ Media. More than a decade ago they and editor David Rubinstein were kind enough to give me this column and a free hand to write about the challenges and joys of software development. I’m grateful to them, and the eternally patient Adam LoBelia, for their forbearance on some of my topics and my tardiness on some (many) of my deadlines. There’s an old saying that goes, “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.” Or, perhaps, “Those who can’t, write columns and consult.” My deepest thanks go to the readers who have mostly been too polite to stand up and shout “How dare you spout such gibberish?” My impolitic views have occasionally caused some heartburn to management, but Bryan Costanich and other executives at my company have always forgiven my excesses. That works at a small company that has a narrow focus. But, as has been covered in SD Times, my company was recently acquired by a much larger one , where it would be vastly harder to avoid stepping on toes and where people mistaking my stupid opinion for company policy would have greater consequences. So this is my last “Codewatch” column. I still have many opinions about the right and wrong ways of writing software, but it all boils down to this certainty: Those who can, code.

2016-03-30 15:30 Larry O sdtimes.com

41 Acer Chromebook 14 arrives with aluminium chassis and 14- hour battery life PC MAKER Acer has unveiled the Chromebook 14, a premium-looking Chrome OS laptop that claims a MacBook-rivalling 14-hour battery life. Acer, perhaps not best known for premium devices , added the aluminium-clad Chromebook 14 to its laptop line-up this week. This is Acer's first all-metal Chromebook, and the chassis with rounded corners weighs just 1.55kg. The device is one of many firsts, as it's also the first Chromebook with a 14in IPS screen, which is available in 1080p and 1366×768 resolutions. You'll get 14 hours of battery life out of the Full HD model, according to Acer, making it the highest-capacity Chromebook yet, and 12 hours from the 1366x768 version. Acer's Chromebook 14 has an Intel Celeron quad-core or dual-core N3060 processor, and 4GB or 2GB of dual channel LPDDR3 SDRAM. It will ship with a choice of 16GB or 32GB of storage, and has dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi, two USB 3.1 Type-A ports, one HDMI out and an HD webcam. Jerry Kao, president of Acer's Notebook Business Group, is unsurprisingly a fan of the Chromebook 14, and spouted some predictable words about the device. "With its industry-leading battery life of up to 14 hours, the Acer Chromebook 14 is an important new product in Acer’s award-winning Chromebook line," he said. "Customers have a wide range of needs for battery life, size, performance and features, and our line of Acer Chromebooks is expanding to make sure customers get exactly what they want. "The Chromebook 14 is an excellent choice for customers who want a stylish, large-screen Chromebook with long battery life at an attractive price.” If Kao's words have sold it to you, the Acer Chromebook 14 will be available in May for €249. Exact UK pricing and availability details haven't yet been announced. This time last year, Acer boldly claimed that it would be the last man standing in the PC market. However, the latest figures from IDC show that the firm failed to make it onto the top five. µ

2016-03-30 15:21 Carly Page www.theinquirer.net

42 Windows 10 tip: Find any setting in seconds Use the taskbar search box or the one in the Settings app to find any option, even those in the old-school Control Panel. The Settings app in Windows 10 is filled with options, and with each major release it seems to get a few new entries. Unfortunately, some of the settings you're likely to use on any given day haven't made the move and are still buried in the old Control Panel. Don't waste time poking through categories and scrolling through lists in the two separate places. Instead, master these two search secrets, which depend on a simple, little-known fact: The built-in search index includes every option in both locations. The search box at the top of the Settings app (shown on the left side in the illustration here) returns results from Settings and from Control Panel. You can tell the difference by the icon to the left of the result. Click one of the colorful icons and you jump straight to that item in Control Panel.

2016-03-30 15:19 Ed Bott zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

43 Hands-on with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay in a 2016 Chevy Tahoe

Every once in a while Weber Shandwick representatives invite me to "influencer" events where I get the chance to talk with folks in the wireless industry and get some hands-on time with different products. A few weeks ago I was asked if I wanted to test drive a GM vehicle for a few days. I don't plan to start writing automobile reviews here on ZDNet, but I did select a vehicle with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay support so I could test out the tech. It was my first exposure to both of these in-car technologies and I came away with a good understanding of them. I've always wanted to simply plug in my phone and use it to power my in-car navigation and entertainment experience so it's great to see automobile manufacturers finally embracing this idea. I grew up in the foothills of Mount Rainier, driving trucks and jumping stumps. I selected a big rig for my test, the 2016 Chevy Tahoe , because I like driving large trucks and also had my college daughters home for Easter weekend so needed the seating provided by the Tahoe. Introducing Roadshow Welcome to Roadshow, CNET's essential destination for car owners, buyers and enthusiasts. The 2016 Chevy Tahoe 4WD LTZ that I tested has a full retail price of $68,065. The Tahoe looks great, provides a smooth ride on the roads, is extremely comfortable, has some impressive safety features, and powers the latest mobile technology. Safety features include blind spot mirror indicators, backup camera and sensors, front collision avoidance system, and a lane keep assist system. The blind spot indicators and rear camera were my favorite and I plan to look for these in my future car purchases. The fully adjustable seats have an integrated heating and cooling system, the steering wheel can be heated up, the brake pedal can be adjusted to fit the driver, you can charge your phone wirelessly on the center console rest (although I couldn't get this working), all the rear seats can be controlled with buttons just inside the rear lift gate, and the windshield wipers will turn on when they sense rain. The Chevy Tahoe comes with the Chevrolet MyLink system that lets you perform various actions via voice or via the large eight-inch touchscreen display. You can use the system without your phone connection to navigate, control the audio experience, and manage the included WiFi hotspot for your passengers. There is also an integrated entertainment system so a DVD can be played on the rear monitor while passengers use wireless headphones to enjoy the audio. The large display can be raised with a button so you can place your phone inside a hidden compartment with an included USB port to connect and power your phone. There are multiple USB and power ports throughout the vehicle too. I liked that the environmental system was controlled via buttons and knobs rather than through the touchscreen. While you can connect your phone via Bluetooth in order to make calls to your contacts through the vehicle speaker system, in order to use Apple CarPlay or Android Auto you need to connect your phone to the vehicle through one of the USB ports. This makes sense as you don't want to kill the battery on your phone while driving and USB provides a more reliable, consistent connection. I plugged in my Apple iPhone 6s Plus via a Lightning cable to the front USB port. On the Chevy system you will see the projection button change to Apple CarPlay. Tap this and an Apple display with eight icons will appear. The touchscreen icons are labeled phone, music, maps, messages, now playing, podcasts, audiobooks, and At Bat and appear as two rows of four. Podcasts and audiobooks provide direct access to Apple's apps of those same names. The time and iPhone signal strength indicator appear to the left of the eight icons, along with a button to jump back to the GM Link system. Pressing and holding the steering wheel mounted voice control button now launches Siri so you can perform Siri actions without ever taking your hands off the steering wheel. Phone gives you access to your favorites, recent calls, contacts, keypad, and voicemail. Music launches Apple Music with the same For You, New, Radio, Playlists, and My Music options you are familiar with in Apple Music. You can have your messages read out loud and reply to or initiate messages with your voice. When a new message comes in while connected to Apple CarPlay Siri will announce the message and offer the option to have it read out loud. The GM system has navigation, but through Apple CarPlay you can choose to use Apple Maps too. The same experience provided by your phone is present on the vehicle display. The 2016 Major League Baseball season hasn't yet started, but preseason games appeared in the MLB At Bat application. Many people enjoy listening to radio broadcasts in their cars and this At Bat app provides quick and easy access to your favorite team(s). CarPlay supports other third party applications, but these are the only ones I currently have on my iPhone. Keep in mind that Siri, navigation, and audio streaming will consume your wireless carrier data, unless you connect to the included GM WiFi hotspot. The Google Now cards interface is what appears when you first launch Android Auto, but you can access other functions from the bottom row of options so that maps, messages, media, and phone functionality is similar to Apple CarPlay. Google Maps appears on the large display and is controllable via voice commmands. Android Auto will also predict a destination based on your calendar, email, or texts, which makes it quite useful to quickly choose a destination before you start the vehicle and drive off. When you launch the music player, you are given a choice if you have installed compatible apps. Google Music is the default, but I also found that PocketCasts is supported too. Thus, I was able to listen to the MobileTechRoundup podcast while driving. Despite being installed on my iPhone, PocketCasts did not appear as an option on the iPhone in Apple CarPlay. Messaging works similar to Apple CarPlay, but Android Auto also supports third party messaging services so you can use apps such as Hangouts, Skype, WhatsApp, and more. While I only spent five days using these two systems, CNET has spent several months with both and offers up its take on these two dashboard systems on the CNET Roadshow. The Apple CarPlay experience was simpler and the accessibility provided through the Siri voice system made it an overall better vehicle experience. When it comes to in-car systems, the simple UI of iOS looks to be a better approach as the driver and passenger are able to more easily navigate the interface. I prefer to use Google Maps, even on my iPhone, and the ability of Android Auto to suggest destinations and commuting information mean that Android Auto is better for navigation. I also like that Android Auto supports more third party apps. Both systems advance mobile technology in the vehicle and I look forward to the day when I own a car where I can plug in my phone and maintain the same connection without compromising my safety or that of others. If I had to choose just one, I would go with Apple CarPlay and its Siri integration.

2016-03-30 15:13 Matthew Miller zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

44 Square's new APIs expand merchant access to processing, hardware features Square has decided to unshackle its software and hardware platforms in a bid to boost its payments processing volume. The San Francisco-based company announced on Wednesday the launch of Build with Square, a set of APIs that will enable sellers (and the developers who work for the sellers) to incorporate various aspects of the Square ecosystem into their business without committing to the whole package. For instance, brick-and-mortar merchants who require custom payments software can now use the Register API to process payments through Square and use some piece of the company's hardware. Previously, merchants had to sign up for Register, Square's point-of-sale software, in order to have access to the processing and hardware features. It's worth noting, however, that the Register API will only work for an iOS-based point-of-sale. Square is also offering an e-commerce API, which allows merchants operating a self-hosted website to process online payments through Square. This could come in handy for merchants already using Square in-store but not online, as it will enable them to consolidate metrics from both their online and physical footprints into one place. Up till now, Square required online merchants to use its own online store product, or work with one of Square's third-party partner companies, in order to use Square for checkout. For Square, the APIs reflect a broader shift taking place within the Jack Dorsey-founded company. Square initially launched in 2009 as a hardware company pushing technology to enable mobile payments, but its portfolio has broadened over the years to include a range of revenue-generating software and services. These APIs mark a big step in the revenue department, as they could help convince larger companies, online stores and retail chains with complex software requirements to use Square as an alternative to other payments processing providers.

2016-03-30 15:05 Natalie Gagliordi zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

45 Barbie maker Mattel falls prey to Chinese phishing attack but gets its money back BARBIE PRODUCER Mattel managed to save itself a $3m hole in its finances after foiling a phishing attack from China. We have asked Mattel to confirm an Associated Press report and are waiting for a PR Barbie to snap into action. Perhaps they have a Ken around the place who might be able to pull things into order. Usually is it Barbie that gets the firm into trouble. Associated Press said that there was a lot of excitement at Mattel after a finance executive approved a payment to a new Chinese manufacturer at the apparent behest of her recently installed CEO Christopher Sinclair. It turns out that the exec was actually reacting to the whim of a Chinese hacker. Despite checking policy and protocol she sanctioned the payment and the money went East. Mattel reportedly flew into action, rang a police hotline of some kind and set about trying to get the money back. But the company apparently failed, according to the report, and was told that the money had already gone. As we say, we have asked Mattel to comment but suspect that it won't rush forward to admit that it was taken for a fool. Mattel should know that it is not alone in being taken like this, and many other companies have been caught out by savvy emailers and taken to the cleaners , Chinese or otherwise. However, Mattel persisted and came across some rather good luck. While Europe was celebrating with chocolate and buns, the Chinese were also having a holiday. Associated Press said that Mattel was able to use this time, a kind of bank holiday, to stop the financial transaction. Local police marched on the relevant bank and ordered the receiving account frozen. This left nowhere for the Mattel money to go but home. Which it did. The report quoted from official Mattel documents in which the firm thanked the local police for their timely help. µ To hear more about security challenges, the threats they pose and how to combat them, sign up for the INQUIRER sister site Computing's Enterprise Security and Risk Management conference , taking place on 24 November.

2016-03-30 14:58 Dave Neal www.theinquirer.net

46 ​Cloudera highlights public cloud push at analyst day Hadoop is going mainstream, it's increasingly moving into the cloud, and it's delivering solid business value. These are three key themes that were highlighted this week at Cloudera's third annual Analyst Day in San Francisco. Cloudera shared strong evidence of broad adoption and business value through panels that dug into the details of real-world deployments. Here's a short list of the types of applications seen across five industries: Cloud Computing: Moving to IaaS Infrastructure as a Service providers make a very compelling argument for businesses to stop running their own data centers and simply purchase server capacity on-demand and scale up and down as needed. This is our deep dive on IaaS strategy and best practices The four themes that cut across all industries are driving customer insights, improving products and services, reducing risk and modernizing IT infrastructures. On this last point, Cloudera said that only 15% of its 850-plus enterprise customers have deployed its software on public clouds, but that's where it's seeing the fastest growth. "Data that's born in the cloud wants to stay in the cloud," observed Cloudera Chief Strategy Officer, Mike Olson, and that trend will accelerate as IoT scenarios flourish, he added. Cloudera plans to ramp up in this areas with Cloudera Director, an automated cloud deployment tool and abstraction layer that hides the complexities and differences among various clouds and deployment options including Amazon Web Services, Google, OpenStack and VMWare. With Cloudera Director 2.0, released in January, Cloudera added a cluster cloning feature and the ability to automatically grow and shrink clusters to save money. There was a bit of a disconnect between what Cloudera talked about in its market observations and strategy overviews and what it detailed in its product roadmap (which was largely under NDA). For example, there was no signal of new cloud deployment capabilities beyond Director 2.0, other than supporting Microsoft Azure as a deployment option. And despite all the talk of industry specific use cases, Cloudera executives only vaguely alluded to blueprints, templates, and frameworks -- from Cloudera and from partners -- that give customers a starting point on proven applications. It's nice to hear about vertical use cases, but Cloudera has much more work to do on broad platform acceptance before it can go too far down the vertical-industry path. At one point during the day Cloudera described its technology as being "fast and easy," but that discussion reminded me of SAP couching its next-generation ERP suite as being "simple. " When I questioned execs about the use of these terms, Chief Strategy Officer Mike Olson qualified that Hadoop is fast and easy as compared to relational database approaches when trying to solve high-scale data challenges. He also pointed to efforts Cloudera has made to simplify deployment with tools like Navigator Optimizer and Cloudera Director, which speed and ease analysis and optimization of SQL workloads and cloud deployment, respectively. At other points during the day Cloudera execs talked about the time and money the company has to invest to help clients move from proof-of-concept projects to broad and fruitful production use. And it also discussed how it's now employing extensive automated testing to ensure the quality of its software distribution, which is now includes more than 25 open source components. In short, "fast" and "easy" are not terms I would associate with Hadoop. But "proven," "value driving" and even "industry standard" work for me and for the many companies that now rely on the platform.

2016-03-30 14:53 Doug Henschen zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

47 Researcher develops algorithm that turns Tweets into tweets A Brazilian audio researcher has created an evolutionary algorithm that converts the world of Twitter into realistic birdsong. In a journal published by the International Journal of Arts and Technology, José Fornari of the Interdisciplinary Nucleus for Sound Communication (NICS) in São Paulo, who also happens to design soundscapes, spent several years honing this idea for the ultimate generative soundscape. Firstly, he had to create "instantiations of a computer model that emulates a bird syrinx". In other words, he created realistic-sounding clusters of synthesised birdsong, that would then combine in evolving patterns. For the second part, in order for the birdsong to evolve, he used the data from Twitter to become the heartbeat of the birdsong. As we know Twitter ebbs and flows with the important trending topics of the day, it never repeats the same day's chatter twice. This meant it was a perfect tool to turn what would normally be a looping soundtrack, into an always-evolving sequence. This idea has been in development for a few years, and you can see José Fornari give a great TED Talk on his research and work below: We've reached out for further comment and will update with perhaps the main question, "Why? ", when we hear back. Via EurekaAlert Article continues below

2016-03-30 14:03 By SJ feedproxy.google.com

48 'Routine' demands for encrypted data go far beyond Apple, raising questions All Writs Act orders for assistance from tech companies. (Image: ACLU) The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has identified 63 cases in which the government has sought a court order demanding Apple or Google access to devices during investigations. A range of government departments filed requests with the courts, including the Justice Dept., the FBI, the Secret Service, Homeland Security, and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). US government pushed tech firms to hand over source code If source code gets into the wrong hands, the damage would be incalculable. By invoking the All Writs Act, passed in 1789, the government can compel a company to comply with a court order even if it's not covered by existing law, so long as the request isn't impossible. It was most recently used in a public showdown against Apple in an effort to force the company to unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. Apple also faces similar demands in New York -- a case it recently won, but also now in dozens more, according to compiled requests collected by the ACLU. Google didn't say how often it complies with orders filed under the All Writs Act, or when it contests them, according to Reuters . "The FBI wants you to think that it will use the All Writs Act only in extraordinary cases to force tech companies to assist in the unlocking of phones," said Eliza Sweren-Becker, an ACLU attorney, in a blog post on Wednesday. "Turns out, these kinds of orders have actually become quite ordinary," she said. But it does raise the prospect that the government's use of the All Writs Act may not be limited to Apple's case. And exactly where it stops remains unclear. Given that in Google's case, it may face challenges turning over some data given the customization on its Android platform, would it defer responsibility to device makers, such as HTC, LG, Samsung, and others? And, given that it's not just data that's stored on devices but apps that provide end-to-end encryption, it's possible that companies like WhatsApp, Telegram, and soon-to-be Snapchat and other apps could face similar demands. We reached out to Google but did not hear back at the time of writing.

2016-03-30 14:01 Zack Whittaker zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

49 How Microsoft is serious about supporting Linux and cloud rivals with OMS When Microsoft first announced its new Operations Management Suite (OMS) cloud monitoring service last May, it wasn't the case that handling Linux systems was an afterthought, but the tools certainly didn't have parity with what you could do for Windows Server. At the time, Jeremy Winter, who runs the OMS team, talked about Linux as being "on our roadmap to come" with the first option being deploying Microsoft's own management agent into a Linux VM – which could be on AWS or VMware, not just Windows Server or Azure . In the old Microsoft days, things might have stayed at that level, like a cloud version of the System Center approach. But the way Microsoft approaches cross-platform is rather different now and even veterans of System Center like Robert Reynolds understand that Microsoft needs to fit in with the existing Linux ecosystem, and that's why the Linux agent for OMS is now a plugin to the popular Fluentd, even though Microsoft had originally experimented with an agent for the Linux systemd service manager. "When we started the preview, we had our own management agents," Reynolds explains, "but the Linux community said to us 'we already have agents deployed, there's already an open agent infrastructure'. So we worked with the community to find out which agent they preferred, which one they thought would be the long-term choice and the majority of people we're working with have adopted Fluentd, so we went with that. " And in a move that would have once been unusual but is quickly becoming ' business as usual ' at Microsoft, the OMS plugin for Fluentd is being open sourced. "We're Microsoft, so there's scepticism," admits Reynolds. "We're going to earn it. Part of earning that support and trust in the Linux community is being part of it, so that's how we're making decisions for Linux support and how we're delivering them. " There's already support for connecting to existing open source monitoring services like Nagios and Zabbix from OMS. "We have the ability to plug in to those existing data streams. So instead of having to go replace an entire infrastructure or technology that's already there, things like Nagios and Zabbix we can immediately connect to and start to pump the data in from. " The OMS team has also started working on allowing customers to create custom logs and environments – that work will continue through the next year, he says. But the willingness to work with the Linux community has already led to what he calls "steady growth – 10% and more a month – in on-boarding Linux machines" since the Fluentd plugin came out last October. There's the same commitment to supporting VMware and rival clouds like AWS and OpenStack. "With our backup service in OMS, we support VMware backups, so machines running on VMware can be backed up from one VMware environment to another VMware environment that's running on-premises, and we managed to simplify a lot of the technology that's needed there. "That also allows us to do VMware to Azure to give you failover sites. And we did RedHat support so that you can have VMware and RedHat instances that are being protected to Azure. " The same approach applies to managing virtual machines, wherever they are. "There are two ways to think about a bunch of VMs ," he points out. "We can go and put agents in them, but the other option is that the platform itself will provide some monitoring and manageability and we can plug into that instead. In AWS, for example, that's CloudWatch, and over time we'll connect to those APIs and be able to collect data and analyse that. " For alerts, you can already use a webhook to send an OMS alert to a range of services. "You can just cut and paste the webhook URL from PagerDuty, Zendesk, Slack; anything that supports webhook. And that's a big, big list. " "The notion of making sure that it's truly on any operating system is key," says Reynolds. "If you want to get the 100% view, at the right level of fidelity, into your environment, this is where we're bringing all this data together. "

2016-03-30 14:00 By Mary feedproxy.google.com

50 Nintendo NX UK release date, features, pricing and spec rumours: Leaked image Nintendo NX controller appears and will it be more powerful than the PS4? There have been rumours concerning a new Nintendo console on the internet for quite some time. That’s mainly thanks to a December 2014 Associated Press interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario and other iconic Nintendo games, who stated: “While we’re busy working on software for the Wii U, we have production lines that are working on ideas for what the next system might be.” See also: Nintendo Wii U review There wasn’t much else mentioned about the next gen console until Nintendo’s press conference on 17 March 2015, where the company announced that they were going to be creating mobile games for smartphones and tablets . As well as announcing the venture into mobile gaming, Nintendo’s late Chief Executive Santoru Iwata said "As proof that Nintendo maintains strong enthusiasm for the dedicated game system business, let me confirm that Nintendo is currently developing a dedicated game platform with a brand-new concept under the development codename 'NX'. " Before anyone could ask for further information on the new console, Iwata continued "It is too early to elaborate on the details of this project, but we hope to share more information with you next year (2016). " This sentiment of keeping quiet was later reiterated by Nintendo President of America Reggie Fils-Aime while on stage at Nintendo’s E3 conference. He remarked “We'll talk more about our next system, code-named Nintendo NX, more in 2016”. It makes sense for the company to start teasing a new console, as the Wii U seems to be Nintendo’s worst performing console ever, selling only 10 million units in the two and a half years that it's been on sale. Let's compare that to the PlayStation 4 , which has been out for around a year and a half but has sold over 18.5 million units worldwide. 2016 is finally here, so what do we know about the next generation Nintendo console dubbed “NX”? Read on and find out. Latest update (18/03/2016): Updated to include a leaked photo of the upcoming Nintendo NX controller. See also: Nintendo confirms games for smartphones and tablets With Iwata stating that more information about the new console wouldn’t be released until this year, we’re assuming that the NX will have a 2016 launch. Why? Simply because it looks like the Wii U isn’t doing as well as Nintendo had hoped, and it gives the company a chance to generate some interest around the new console before launch, without waiting so long that the hype dies down again. However, since this announcement, Iwata has sadly died, and it remains to be seen whether the executive shake-up will impact the console’s release date plans. Interestingly, Nintendo has announced that the upcoming Zelda game for the Wii U isn’t coming out until 2016. Zelda developer Eiji Aonuma said that the development team has “discovered several new possibilities for the game” and would like extra time to “bring all these ideas to live”. Could the company be waiting to announce Zelda so that both the game and the NX can be released at the same time? Nintendo has a habit of releasing a Zelda or Mario game alongside a new console, with the only exception being the launch of the Nintendo DS (in Europe, anyway). Alternatively, an article by DigiTimes claimed that Nintendo is starting production of the next- generation Nintendo NX console as soon as October 2015 with a July 2016 launch date, and is looking to ship 20 million units in its first year of production. However, an analyst at Forbes disagrees with the report, claiming that the schedule is “insanely fast” and he coins a later release date, possibly Christmas 2016 or even 2017 depending on how much work has been done on the console thus far. Update (25/01/2016): Ahead of Nintendo officially revealing information regarding the upcoming Nintendo NX system, it looks like GameStop may have let the cat out of the bag – in terms of a release date window, anyway. While there is no confirmation that the Nintendo NX will go on sale in 2016 (Iwata only stated that the company would talk about it in 2016, not release it) a recent GameStop survey seems to have confirmed that we’ll be seeing the console in 2016. In the survey, first picked up by Go Nintendo, GameSpot asks its customers if they’ll be buying the Nintendo NX (or a new Nintendo console) alongside the likes of PlayStation VR, HTC Vive and Oculus Rift within the next 12 months. Of course, you can’t buy something that isn’t available for purchase so it could be seen as confirmation that the Nintendo NX will see a 2016 launch – although, this could just be an educated guess by the company based on rumours. See also: New Nintendo 3DS & 3DS XL review - The New 3DS is everything the original should have been Nintendo has always done extremely well with not competing with the likes of Sony and Microsoft, and instead breaking away from what other gaming manufacturers are producing. Think back to the Nintendo Wii – when the Wii was first announced, it was welcomed by excited consumers because they hadn’t seen anything quite like it before, and its technology that both Microsoft and Sony are still trying to perfect. Nintendo described the NX as a “brand new concept” which could mean anything given Nintendo’s track record. Talking about the NX, the late Iwata said: “if you only expand upon existing hardware, it's dull”. He followed up the comment with “In some shape or form, we're always thinking about how we want to surprise players as well as our desire to change each person's video gaming life.” With that being said, there are rumours that the new Nintendo console will come with a completely new control method. This is mainly because the screen-controller hybrid that shipped with the Wii U hasn’t taken off like the company had planned, with many developers not using the hybrid controller to its full potential. There are also counter rumours that suggest the next generation Nintendo device will have a similar design to the current Wii U, but with improved capabilities. Nintendo introduced a way for gamers to play games directly from the controller without the need for a TV, using the inbuilt touchscreen display. It’s a popular feature, especially with homes that share a TV because it allows gamers to carry gaming when somebody else wants to watch TV. But what about if you could leave home and carry on playing? As it stands, you have to be within proximity to the Wii U to play your game via the controller screen. Rumours suggest that Nintendo could be upping the ante, so to speak, working on a way to allow gamers to carry on playing even if they’re not at home. If Nintendo manufactures a console that has gameplay that rivals the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 and also allows you to play directly on the controller when you’re away from home, that could be a winning combination. Sony offers Remote Play on the PS4 via a PS Vita but there’s a split second of lag, which in some games makes the difference between life and death. Microsoft also recently released a similar feature for Windows 10 and Xbox One, though you have to be on the same network to be able to stream gameplay. Update (25/01/2015): The game streaming idea has gathered traction in 2016, with reports claiming that the Nintendo NX system will allegedly work with smartphones, PCs and possibly even the PlayStation 4. The reports point towards a tweet by WSJ reporter Takashi Mochizuki as a source, where he reiterates a claim made by David Gibson regarding a console/handheld hybrid that could boast some kind of integration with other systems. This was followed up by a leaked marketing survey by research firm GfK, which revealed some rather juicy information about the Nintendo NX hardware. Interestingly, it's noted that the unannounced console supports 4K video streaming at 60fps, along with local rendering at 900p and 60fps, and that “ gameplay flows between Nintendo NX console and Nintendo NX handheld device ” pointing towards some kind of game streaming service. It also suggests that the handheld devices and the console could be two separate entities, enabling the handheld device to be used independently from the console – however, that’s just speculation. We’ve got more information about possible controller designs below. When it comes to the internal mechanics of the new console, there’s not much online. There is some speculation that the NX will use an AMD SoC, namely the x86 APU, just like the Xbox One and PS4. If it were true, it’d make it the first time that all main manufacturers would use the same chipset. Could AMD’s CFO Devinder Kumar have been referencing to the NX when discussing upcoming AMD products? “I will say that one is x86 and the other is ARM, and at least one will be beyond gaming … They [the customers] are going to announce it and then … you will find out that it is AMD’s APU that is being used in those products” he said. However, with this being said, another report claims that the Nintendo NX won't be as powerful as the PS4 (which means we can wave bye-bye to this ). The report is based on tweets from Liam Robertson of Unseen64, a man with a great track record when it comes to insider info. He claims that the NX is “definitely not aiming to compete with the likes of PS4 on a power level”. You can see his tweet below: When asked by @RunJumpStomp “What makes you say that?” he simply replied “Talking to the right people :)”. Until Nintendo officially announces the NX, no one can be completely sure of its spec, but judging by Robertson’s track record and past Nintendo consoles, we think he’s on the right track. Update 30 March 2016: Contrary to the above, an unvarified user on Reddit (who claims to be an AAA developer with an NX devkit), says it will be "a little bit above the PS4 in power". They also added that "games that are a little choppy on PS4 would definitely run a bit smoother on the NX. " See also: PS4 vs Xbox One There isn’t much to go on, in the way of design of the console itself. When the upcoming console was teased it was referred to as a ‘new concept’, which could mean an entirely new design. Opposing that are rumours that it’ll have a similar design to the Wii U, but with enhanced capabilities. The Nintendo NX controller, on the other hand, isn’t quite as elusive. While we haven’t got our hands on any leaked material of the controller, we’ve found reports of patents filed by Nintendo recently that look suspiciously like controllers. The first patent from the US Patent Office displays hardware that looks similar to the Wii U controller, with two control sticks and a (presumably touchscreen) LED display in the centre, although there are a handful of noticeable changes. The first change is the lack of buttons – while the Nintendo Wii controller features A, B, X and Y buttons, the new controller features only two. As well as this, the left and right shoulder buttons have been replaced by two scrollable wheels, which would provide an interesting way to interact with your games. It’s also worth noting that this could be the console itself as it has been speculated that the Nintendo NX could be a portable device. While the above patent looks okay, the second patent looks much cooler and offers some interesting functionality. As seen in the photos below, the controller looks like it’ll use motion and touch controls, and shies away from physical buttons used in current flagship consoles (similar to mobile gaming). It’s not completely touchscreen-enabled though, as the controller also feature two shoulder buttons, two thumbsticks along with some kind of card slot (possibly to store games to play on the move? Who knows.). As with the first patent, the standard A, B, X & Y buttons are all absent from the Nintendo NX controller. While no one is sure, it's theorised that instead of seeing standard A, B, X & Y buttons, they’ll be contextual and you’ll see an attack button displayed instead. It’ll provide developers with an interesting way for gamers to interact with their games not seen on the likes of the PS4 and Xbox One. While this may help people make the transition from mobile gaming to console gaming, we’re not sure that seasoned gamers will be onboard with this idea. With games that require split- second reactions, it’s good to be able to feel the buttons underneath your fingers, allowing muscle reflexes to kick in when needed instead of looking down and possibly missing a virtual button – it’s one of the reasons that we, personally, dislike mobile games that provide multiple on-screen controls. Update (18/03/2016): While we were initially sceptical about the above controller patent, a recent leak may prove it to be more than just an idea. A snapshot has appeared online apparently giving us our first glimpse at the Nintendo NX controller which if true, looks amazing. The picture comes from Reddit, although Dual Pixels is also taking credit for the find. The photo itself seems to showcase a controller with a design closely mirroring the patents that appeared back in 2015 - in fact, they're so similar that we're slightly suspicious that this isn't the real deal and is instead a render based on the patent. It seems we're not the only people not entirely convinced, as Destructoid ran a software analysis to determine whether the image had been Photoshopped. Interestingly, the software noted that it hadn't been heavily doctored and so, could be a genuine leak. The most interesting part of the photo is the combination of on-screen and physical controls, with two physical joysticks embedded in an LCD or OLED display surrounded by (faint) software buttons. The same Reddit user which claims the NX performance is slightly above the PS4 (see above) also says the controller doesn't have an oval screen - at least not in the devkit. "Ours is a standard rectangle. Has physical buttons with a screen behind them. It doesn't have a form shifting screen, nor does it have a touchscreen with haptic feedback," they said. "However, that fake does get a couple things right. It does have scroll wheel shoulder buttons, but in addition to them it also has two regular shoulder buttons labeled ZL and ZR. It also has a headphone jack in the bottom of the controller. " Lastly they said: "The controller is sort of a game system in its own, but it's not a replacement for the 3DS. It works like a companion app on a phone, and you can take it with you and control some things from your game, like how the VMU on the Dreamcast let you take a Chao with you and train it. " Once we have more information, we’ll be sure to update the article so make sure you check back soon. While there are no real rumours surrounding the price of the new Nintendo console, we can speculate about its price by looking back at previous console launches. Nintendo aims for its consoles to be cheaper than the competition – look at the DS and Wii. The Nintendo DS was only £99.99 when it came out and the Wii, even with the breakthrough motion technology it offered, was only £179.99. Nintendo knows where the sweet spot lays with regards to pricing its consoles, whether it’s handheld or tethered to your TV. Based on this, we can only assume that the next Nintendo console will be cheaper than Xbox One and PlayStation 4, possibly around the £200 mark. So, what kind of games can we expect on the next-generation Nintendo NX console? According to one report , Nintendo is said to have started talking to third-party developers about the system at this years E3 event. Apparently the developers reacted positively to the concept shown to them at E3, but no details about the concept device have been leaked. The only games to have been officially confirmed for the Nintendo NX thus far are Dragon Quest X and Dragon Quest XI, courtesy of Square Enix. DQX was originally released for Wii U, 3DS and PC whereas the newer DQXI will be headed to not only the Nintendo NX, but also the PS4 and 3DS. Nintendo on the other hand, has kept tight lipped regarding its upcoming Nintendo NX titles (as promised) but with a less-than-amazing E3 announcement, many gamers are starting to wander whether the company has given up developing for the Wii U, and is instead turning its efforts towards making games for the NX. Read next: the most anticipated game releases of 2016

2016-03-30 13:58 Lewis Painter www.pcadvisor.co.uk

51 Dolcer Bluetooth speaker review: a multifunctional speaker with a 5200mAh power bank By Christopher Minasians | 30 Mar 16 £28.99 inc VAT At an affordable price of £28.99 , the Dolcer Bluetooth speaker faces some stiff competition such as the Inateck BP2001 , iClever IC-BTS02 and Lumsing B9 , among many others in the market which cost around the same price as the Dolcer. See also : Best budget Bluetooth speakers 2016. Within the speakers packaging you'll find a Micro-USB cable, an auxiliary 3.5mm interconnect cable and a manual. The speaker has an elegant full-metallic body construction, which is finished with a brushed grey aluminium design giving it a weight of 399g – a slightly heavy speaker to comfortably carry around, but given its small form factor of 74x111x53mm the Dolcer can be considered portable. At the top of the speaker there is a circular four-button control wheel, which allows you to increase and lower the volume, play/pause music, answer/reject calls and enable its power bank functionality. We were disappointed not to find a way to cycle through music, forcing you to use your device to control your music collection. The centre of the wheel presents a small blue light which signals when Bluetooth has been enabled. Around the wheel, there are four blue lights which indicate the battery level of your speaker. At the back of the speaker there’s an on/off switch, which is used to power the Bluetooth speaker. Dolcer have cleverly designed the speaker, whereby you can use the power bank feature by a click of the power logo on the control wheel and yet have the Bluetooth speaker in the off switch position. This enables you to charge your device, without having to play music through it. In order to use the speaker’s audio drivers you’ll need to have the speaker positioned on the on position. Around the back you’ll also find a USB port to externally charge your devices using the in-built power bank, a Micro-USB to charge the Dolcer, an auxiliary 3.5mm jack and the NFC contact point. It should be noted that when the auxiliary jack is connected it immediately disables the Bluetooth connection. Under the speaker you’ll find rubber feet which prevent the speaker from bolstering around while being played. The speaker connects through an auxiliary 3.5mm jack and via Bluetooth 4.0 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate). The Dolcer’s EDR functionalities allow it to connect a little faster to your device, while the Bluetooth 4.0 technology give you a good signal transmission which enables you to use the speaker at around 15-20m from its source. Battery life is good, as the speaker utilises its own power bank to power it for a quoted 32 hours playback. However, do remember that the battery life decreases quite rapidly if you are charging your device and using a Bluetooth transmission to play music. We felt a little let down by the overall sound quality and volume of the Dolcer speaker. We felt the speaker would be suitable for small rooms, where you’ll be able to listen to music at a loud volume. When taken out of its comfort zone and used in a large room or as a living room speaker, the Dolcer struggles to fill a room. Moving on to its sound quality, we found the Dolcer to be cut-off in the sub-bass regions whereby the bass rumble was subdued. The mid-bass has a decent impact, but lacks refinement and control. The highs are rolled off at the top-end, but still provide good sparkle. Our biggest disappointment was its soundstage which was close-sounding, lacking depth and width to the drivers’ audio output. Given its price point, we don’t expect the speaker quality to be fantastic, but felt that the Dolcer was trying to do too much in a confined space and unfortunately not performing that well in comparison to its competitors. The Dolcer Bluetooth speaker is an elegantly designed speaker, which sports Bluetooth 4.0, NFC functionalities, call functionalities and an in-built 5200mAh power bank allowing you to charge a device. However, the speaker is let down by its overall sound quality. Build 2016 as it happened: Windows 10 Anniversary Update, Hololens applications, Cortana, smarter… 1995-2015: How technology has changed the world in 20 years Draw with this new pen and it records the artwork to your phone 9 steps to try if your iPhone, iPad or iPod won't turn on: How to unbrick an iOS device that…

2016-03-30 13:58 Christopher Minasians www.pcadvisor.co.uk

52 Snoopers' Charter could cost local police forces £1bn UGLY BELLIGERENT old goat the so-called Snoopers' Charter won't just be a pain in the privates. It will also come at a considerable cost to the already thinly stretched blue line of local police forces. The Don't Spy on Us coalition, which includes the Open Rights Group and Privacy International, has suggested a figure of £1bn based on the experience in Denmark. The group said that the Home Office would take the costs on the chin , which only seems fair, and that police officers may be due some overtime. The real lesson from Denmark is perhaps that a similar snooping scheme was dropped on cost grounds. If Don't Spy on Us can't convince you on privacy grounds, perhaps it will in monetary and boys in blue terms. It already has some support from 999 Letsby Avenue. "This highly controversial plan to record everything that all of us do on the internet was already facing serious problems," said Lord Paddick, Liberal Democrat spokesman on home affairs in the House of Lords and former deputy assistant commissioner at New Scotland Yard. "It is unclear that it is even possible given the quantity of data involved, or how much use it would really be to the police. Sensitive personal information that could reveal everything about our lives would be vulnerable to theft by hackers, thieves, blackmailers and hostile foreign governments. "Now that we have a professional estimate that it would cost well over £1bn in set-up costs alone, and could be easily circumvented by criminals for just a few pounds a week, apart from anything else, this represents appallingly bad value for money. "Speaking as a former senior police officer, we need a much more reasonable and proportionate response and [to] spend the remaining money on more community policing. " The Danish government shelved proposals to monitor citizens' web browsing history after discovering that it would cost as much as £105m. The figure was arrived at by Ernst & Young, a name that may carry some weight in the Commons. However, home secretary Theresa May is really keen on looking at your internet history , so who knows whether the Home Office will take the advice? "The government is trying to force ISPs to collect all of our internet connection records but refuses to listen when they express concerns about the cost and feasibility of the proposals," said Eric King, director of Don't Spy on Us. "As in Denmark, the government should commission an independent cost analysis to clarify the true cost of collecting Internet Connection Records. There is no evidence that collecting ICRs makes us safer. " µ

2016-03-30 13:43 Dave Neal www.theinquirer.net

53 Scholarship Opportunity Are you interested in studying ICT4D at MSc level? The 2016 Development Informatics Scholarship worth 24500 USD (82.6 million UGX) is available for developing countries applicants to the one-year MSc ICT4D Programme; creating ICT4D champions. Applicants apply first for the programme. On receipt of an offer, they send a scholarship application statement by end April 2016. The scholarship covers all tuition fees including overseas fieldwork. Degree awarded: Master of Science Duration: 12 months (full-time); 24 months (part-time) Entry requirements Applicants should have a Bachelor’s degree with a minimum classification of Second Class Honors Upper Division (2:1) or its international equivalent. Admission of candidates who do not meet this criterion may be approved if satisfactory evidence of postgraduate study, research or professional experience can be provided. Full entry requirements Number of places/applicants Approximately 100 applications are received and 15 new students registered on the course. How to apply The deadline for applications is the 31st August 2016; later applications are considered at our discretion. Follow the link for more details. For further assistance, you can contact School’s admissions office at +0161 306 1312 or via their email: [email protected]

2016-03-30 13:40 PC Tech pctechmag.com

54 EE TV review: YouView rival has a great app and clever features but lacks on-demand services By Chris Martin | 30 Mar 16 See full specs Free on contract from £4.95 per month As well as its mobile phone network and home broadband, EE offers a TV service to rival the likes of YouView. Here's our EE TV review. See also : Best media streamers 2015. Update March 2016: EE has announced new features for the EE TV including the ability to manage and set recording while out of the house, like YouView. Furthermore, Recordings To Go allows users to download any Freeview content to mobile devices as soon as it has aired. Downloads will have no expiry date, either. An outspoken black box, the EE TV is available from £4.95 per month when you sign up to EE TV and Home Broadband. This jumps to £12.95 per month after 6 months and there's a line rental of £16.40 per month, too. If you're already a customer then you'll need to sign up to a new 18 month contract. If this sounds like a lot then you do get the EE TV box itself for free and the price includes your broadband and your phone line so it's not so bad. The EE TV is a Freeview box so if you have a regular TV aerial then you get non-subscription access to more 70 regular and 13 HD channels – just remember you still need a TV license. Set-up is quick and simple and you can choose to connect the box to the internet vie Ethernet or Wi-Fi. What you will also need to do is make an important choice. One of the tricks the EE TV has up its sleeve is the ability to record four channels simultaneously but you need to choose this or a feature called Replay. Replay allows you to choose up to six favourite channels and the box will make programs on these channels from the last 24 hours (you can also choose 18, 12 or 6 hours) available to you. You can also start watching a show from the beginning if you happen to switch the TV on a little late. Both work really well and we'd recommend going for this option unless you really need to record more than two channels at once. This is a different approach to YouView which allows you to watch anything from the previous seven days on the guide, but only if it's available on a catch-up service and it will simply link you to the right place. Speaking of catch-up services (and paid for ones), the EE TV box can't match YouView on this front with a narrower choice. You get some decent offerings like BBC iPlayer, Demand 5 and Sky Now TV. Others include Deezer, Wuaki.tv, YouTube and Hopster but that means there are some key omissions such as ITV Player, All 4 and Netflix. YouView also has others such as UKTV and Quest. Some of the blow is made up by the EE TV app which we'll talk about in a bit. Before we get to that, let's look at the remote control and the user interface. The remote is compact, simple and effective, made from a comfortably soft rubber/plastic. There's little else to say about that but the user interface is a somewhat more unorthodox. There's an EPG (electronic program guide) but this isn't the regular screen on the EE TV. Instead you get a bright and colourful homescreen which is split up into sections horizontally – a bit like the Xbox user interface. The main screen is Live TV where you get a large section showing you the last viewed channel plus others round the edge. You've also got screens to display On Demand, Recording and Replay (if you chose that option). All of which you can dive further into to get more details and control. When watching live tv you can press up or down on the remote to see what else is on other channels. This is displayed at the left side of the screen in a vertical list. Meanwhile you can see what's on after the show you're watching with left or right. This is displayed along the bottom of the screen. As you might expect, you can record whichever shows you want and put them on series record from the guide or just when you're watching something. There's plenty of space for recordings with a 1TB drive inside, just bear in mind that the Replay feature uses some space to work. We found the box and interface nippy and responsive which is good but the EPG frustratingly loads the grid every time you move around – even if you scroll down a page and then straight back again. One of the key features of the EE TV is what the app can do – which you can download on iOS or Android. Connected to the same network at the device, the app finds the box and you're away. You get a similar interface to the one you use on the TV which means you can do a lot more than the YouView app which is essentially the EPG so you can send recordings to the box. With the EE TV app you can watch live TV, watch recordings and make use of the Replay feature. And and any moment you can choose to switch to the big screen in Chromecast fashion – you can do it in either direction and it's called 'Flick' and 'Fetch'. Being able to watch all this content on your phone or tablet is a real boon and means you don't need to worry about having the right app on board. It essentially gives you full access to everything you would do on the TV. You might think that only one person can have this handy access but you can actually have up to four people streaming content to mobile devices at once which should be no, or at least fewer, arguments about what to watch. Each user can also have their own favourite shows and view recordings they scheduled so you don't all need to browse the entire library every time. The app also has controls for the box if you are watching on the TV, in case you lose the remote control (or want to fight over what to watch). We did find the app crashed a bit when we tested it on Android. If you're happy to be an EE customer for TV, broadband and phone, the EE TV box is a good deal. This box offers a great Freeview experience and has a large 1TB drive. Key features include the ability to stream to mobile devices around the house at the same time so will be a great choice for families wanting to watch different things. However, it lacks some big name on- demand services so this is where YouView beats it. Build 2016 as it happened: Windows 10 Anniversary Update, Hololens applications, Cortana, smarter… 1995-2015: How technology has changed the world in 20 years Draw with this new pen and it records the artwork to your phone 9 steps to try if your iPhone, iPad or iPod won't turn on: How to unbrick an iOS device that…

2016-03-30 13:38 Chris Martin www.pcadvisor.co.uk

55 Salesforce wins $100 million Health & Human Services deal Salesforce said Wednesday that the U. S. Department of Health & Human Services has awarded the company a $100 million blanket purchase agreement for subscriptions. The deal likely means that Health & Human Services units will be able to add Salesforce subscriptions via central purchasing. Before the deal, Health & Human Services didn't have a centralized purchasing agreement in place. Now the agency has more buying power and a model to roll Salesforce out in new areas. For Salesforce, the bulk subscription deal is another data point highlighting how the company is landing large deals for its platform. The deal with Health & Human Services follows a similar arrangement with the General Services Administration, which awarded a $503 million blanket purchasing agreement to the company. Salesforce has been increasingly targeting verticals such as healthcare and financial services. The government build out is another pillar for the company. Last month, Salesforce projected fiscal 2017 revenue between $8.08 billion and $8.12 billion. For fiscal 2016, Salesforce signed 600 deals worth more than 7 figures.

2016-03-30 13:17 Larry Dignan zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

56 MacBook review Update: It's more than a year since Apple launched the 12-inch MacBook, so is a successor on the way? Check out our 12-inch Retina MacBook (2016) article for all of the latest release date, news, rumors. Original review follows... Knock it for its USB Type-C port. Bash it for its wimpy horsepower. But don't even try to deny that Apple's new MacBook is one of the most attractive, impressively-engineered laptops that the world has ever seen - there's simply nothing quite as slick out there. Even though it combines the portability of Apple's MacBook Air with the Retina MacBook Pro's high pixel-density Retina display, the new MacBook doesn't resemble either product line – or Apple's older, polycarbonate white MacBook of the same name, for that matter. The new MacBook brings the shiny shiny Instead, it feels like an entirely new species of otherworldly laptop that has more in common with an iPad Air than a ThinkPad. Flip open the lid, and you're transported into the best-looking OS X Yosemite playground yet – one that goes wherever you go. But it's far from perfect: the new MacBook's sole USB Type-C port and moderately-powered Intel Core M processor mean that many of this playground's games are off-limits, and while some will find its unique keyboard more fun than a revolving roundabout, it will make others sick with frustration. Divisive and sickly sweet, the new MacBook is the notebook equivalent of Marmite. Personally, I love the stuff (and like the new MacBook a lot), but whether it's for you depends on how much you're prepared to compromise. Want one of these but aren't prepared to plunk down quite this much? Apple is now selling refurbished 12-inch MacBooks for a rather sizable discount (at least relatively) in the UK and US. The entry-level, refurbished 12-inch MacBook goes for a much lighter £889 – 15% off, to be exact. The model packing a 1.2GHz CPU, 8GB of memory and a 512GB flash storage drive goes for £1,099 refurbished, a saving of £200. In the US, the low-end model carries a $1,099 price tag when refurbished (a $200 discount), and the 1.2GHz model calls for $1,359 ($240 cheaper than it normally sells for) after being prepped for re-sale. Of course, your chances of scoring a refurbished MacBook depend entirely upon what Apple has in stock in either region, so your milage may vary on this one. But, if you're looking out for savings on a brand new MacBook, check out our page for the best cheap MacBook deals for February 2016. You'll find deals on just about every other MacBook model there, too. Also, for those growing bored of OS X El Capitan , Apple issued a new beta version of the operating system recently, allowing you to play with new features before they make it into an official update. So long as you're enrolled in the Apple Beta Software Program , you can now enjoy toying with password-protected notes and throwing Live Photos directly into Messages. Two qualities stand out above all else when it comes to the new MacBook: thin and lightweight. Apple has managed to squeeze its components into an incredible aluminum body that measures just 0.35cm at its thinnest point and 1.31cm at its thickest. Its thinness is in part due to Intel's fan-less Core M CPU, which is passively cooled and runs whisper quiet. There's no fan inside, which enabled Apple's engineers to make its chassis slimmer. The new MacBook is an ideal option if you're frequently sharing a room with light sleepers – particularly compared to noisier, fan-based notebooks sporting Intel's Core-series chips. The Apple logo's there - but it no longer glows Another factor that's helped Apple achieve the new MacBook's svelte dimensions is its dramatically thinner keyboard, which uses an Apple-designed butterfly mechanism instead of a traditional scissor type underneath the keys. And while we're on the topic of thin, the new MacBook's bezel is slimmer than ones on previous MacBooks and is complemented by a matte strip along the bottom that bears the MacBook logo. It's available in three colors: Space Grey, Silver and Gold. Everything about the new MacBook's design screams premium, which is what you're shelling out for at the end of the day – you can almost forget what's housed inside. Of course, we've been here before. The original MacBook Air , which was more portable than other notebooks at the time but came with fewer ports, cost an arm and a leg when it first came out - and history has repeated itself with the new MacBook. Starting at £1,049 (US$1,299 or AUS$1,799), the entry-level MacBook comes with 256GB of flash storage and is powered by a 1.1GHz (Turbo Boost to 2.4GHz) dual-core Intel Core M flash storage, 8GB of RAM and Intel HD Graphics 5300. Rising to £1,299 (US$1,599 or AUS$2,199), the top-end model comes with a slightly faster 1.2GHz chip (Turbo Boost up to 2.6GHz) and 512GB flash storage. Pixels? What pixels The nearest alternative price-wise is Apple's less portable but more capable 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina that starts at £999 (US$1,299 or AUS$1,799). That gets you a 2.7GHz (Turbo Boost to 3.1GHz) dual-core Intel Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, 128GB flash storage and Intel Iris Graphics 6100. If you're not too bothered about a Retina display, the top-end 13-inch MacBook Air costs the same price and comes with a 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 CPU (Turbo Boost up to 2.7GHz), Intel HD Graphics 6000, 4GB of memory and 256GB flash storage. If you're in the Windows camp, the number of Core M-powered alternatives are growing all the time. Of those, the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro , Asus T300 Chi and Asus UX305 share the new MacBook's traits of slimness and portability. (Plus, it's aligned rather closely in terms of power with the Surface Pro 4 .) Joe Osborne also contributed to this review

2016-03-30 13:17 By Kane feedproxy.google.com

57 SCO vs IBM: 13-year-old Linux dispute returns as SCO files new appeal NOW-DEFUNCT UNIX VENDOR SCO, which claimed that Linux infringed its intellectual property and sought as much as $5bn in compensation from IBM, has filed notice of yet another appeal in the 13- year-old dispute. The appeal comes after a ruling at the end of February when SCO's arguments claiming intellectual property ownership over parts of Unix were rejected by a US district court. That judgment noted that SCO had minimal resources to defend counter-claims filed by IBM due to SCO's bankruptcy. In a filing, Judge David Nuffer argued that " the nature of the claims are such that no appellate court would have to decide the same issues more than once if there were any subsequent appeals ", effectively suggesting that the case had more than run its course. On 1 March, that filing was backed up by the judge's full explanation, declaring IBM the emphatic victor in the long-running saga. " IT IS ORDERED AND ADJUDGED that pursuant to the orders of the court entered on July 10, 2013, February 5, 2016, and February 8, 2016 , judgment is entered in favour of the defendant and plaintiff's causes of action are dismissed with prejudice," stated the document. Now, though, SCO has filed yet again to appeal that judgment, although the precise grounds it is claiming haven't yet been disclosed. SCO is being represented by the not-inexpensive law firm of Boise, Schiller & Flexner, which successfully represented the US government against Microsoft in the antitrust case in the late 1990s. Although SCO is officially bankrupt, it's unclear who continues to bankroll the case. Its one remaining "asset" is its claims for damages against IBM. Meanwhile, despite the costs of the case, IBM has fought SCO vigorously, refusing even to throw a few million dollars at the company by way of compensation, which would encourage what remains of the company to pursue other, presumably easier, open source targets. µ

2016-03-30 13:16 Graeme Burton www.theinquirer.net

58 KLM Passengers Can Use Facebook Messenger For Check In KLM Royal Dutch Airlines believes integrating with Facebook Messenger, which has some 800 million users worldwide, is the next logical step for its business. KLM passengers won't need to download or use a separate app on their phone when checking in. They can instead rely on an app they likely already have: Messenger. However, KLM passengers will still need to book their flight on KLM.com. Passengers will also need to accept the Messenger plugin on KLM.com at the time of booking. Once the flight is booked, passengers can receive their booking confirmation, check-in notification, boarding pass, and flight status updates all through Messenger. Passengers with questions can contact KLM support via Messenger at any time. The service supports 13 languages at launch, including Dutch, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, Norwegian, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Thai. Facebook first launched Messenger for Business about a year ago. The idea is that messaging apps are ubiquitous and fairly sticky. People invest in using them and rely on them not only for basic communications, but for broader socializing. For example, about four out of every five passengers on US flights already have Facebook Messenger installed. Facebook believes Messenger for Business can help how companies and their customers communicate. Social media has become an important tool for many consumer-facing businesses. People have grown accustomed to reaching out to companies via Facebook and Twitter for support and other issues. Extending the toolset to Messenger offers businesses another avenue through which to solve problems and share information. Are you prepared for a new world of enterprise mobility? Attend the Wireless & Mobility Track at Interop Las Vegas, May 2-6. Register now! "You have so many different channels to communicate with services and businesses and all of those things are imperfect, but they all bring something," said David Marcus, vice president for messaging products at Facebook, in a statement provided to USA Today. "What we have been able to do is bring the best of each of these methods inside one conversation that happens in Messenger. " Facebook is working with only a handful of early partners to bring Messenger to businesses. KLM's deployment is among the first to face the public in such a big way. KLM hopes Messenger will reduce pain points for customers, who will be able to view all their travel details in a single conversation thread. In order to spur adoption, the airline is offering free tickets to those who take advantage of Facebook Messenger to check in to a flight.

2016-03-30 13:05 Eric Zeman www.informationweek.com

59 OpenText CEO: 'One does not upgrade to digital' Every company is an information company today, and transforming for the digital era requires looking beyond the ERP systems that have played such a central role in the corporate world over the past few decades. That's according to Mark Barrenechea, CEO and CTO of OpenText, which makes enterprise information management (EIM) systems. Enterprise resource planning technology allowed companies to automate back-office processes and reduce their general and administrative expenses from 20 percent down to 5 or 6 percent, Barrenechea explained in an interview last week. EIM, however, "will ultimately transform those same companies into information companies," he said. It goes without saying that Barrenechea is biased -- unabashedly so. But it's an "educated enthusiasm," he says. With 30 years of tech-industry experience under his belt -- including executive stints at Silicon Graphics International, CA and Oracle -- Barrenechea has seen his share of disruptions and transitions. He ranks today's digital era among the most disruptive. All that is enabling previously unimagined business models. At the same time, there's also a generational shift occurring with the arrival into the workforce of millennials, who bring a new set of priorities. "Certain things are clear," Barrenechea said. "They're not going to take two years to deploy an app: If the CIO can't do it, they'll build a lightweight one or find a SaaS provider and get it up in a day. " With its sights set on the Fortune 10,000, OpenText wants to enable companies' transformations, and Barrenechea bills the company's soon-to-be-launched Release 16 as "the world's first digital platform. " "Transformation is a powerful word and needs to be used sparingly and correctly," he said. But in the digital context, it's the right one: "One does not 'upgrade' to digital. "

2016-03-30 13:05 Katherine Noyes www.itworld.com

60 Google gets into the landline business with Fibre Phone Google is branching further into the telco realm with the launch of Fibre Phone, a POTS service for Google Fibre broadband customers. Having semi-launched fibre-optic broadband and mobile phone services, advertising giant Google is dipping its toes further into the telecommunications waters with the limited launch of a landline telephone service. Google Fibre, announced way back in 2010 and still not available in the UK with only limited US regions receiving coverage, is Google's answer to throwing more eyeballs at its adverts: offering high-speed, low-cost unmetered internet connectivity on which it can monitor every last drop of data that passes through. Its panopticonic plans were expanded in April last year when it launched a mobile network to match , and now it's taking the logical next step: landline connectivity. Dubbed Fibre Phone, the new service is available exclusively on Google Fibre connectivity and relies on converting in-home plain-old telephone service (POTS) devices to connect via IP over the broadband line. To this end, a conversion box is supplied to users which allows for existing handsets to be used on Fibre Phone while the assigned number can also be used on smartphones, tablets, and laptops while you're out-and-about. According to the announcement by Google's John Shriver-Blake, adding Fibre Phone to an existing Google Fibre account will cost an additional $10 per month, which includes unlimited local and national calls.

2016-03-30 13:02 Published on feedproxy.google.com

61 Best VR controller: HTC Vive vs Oculus Rift vs PlayStation VR vs Gear VR Virtual Reality (VR) is the most hyped technology of 2016, and in the coming months we'll see early adopters spending huge amounts of money on huge glasses to strap to their heads. But there's more to VR than what you see. There's how you move around, how you interact with objects and how you go pew-pew-pew when you're playing a VR shooter. Each of the big consumer VR players has a slightly different approach to controllers, and those differences can make for surprisingly different VR experiences. Let's discover what the options are and explore all this in more depth. The Vive's wireless controllers remind us of slightly less gaudy PlayStation Move sticks, and they're essentially redesigned Steam Machine controllers made for stand-up rather than sit-down play. The controllers are motion-tracked and include a trackpad with haptic feedback, a two-stage finger trigger, squeeze buttons and a home button. They're wireless and should last for around four hours on a single charge, and they can be tracked around a 15 x 15-foot room. That's three times larger than the space tracked by Oculus VR. The Vive's controllers are very accurate and definitely make the VR experience more realistic, but some early testers found them a little uncomfortable for smaller hands and the need to hold them like handles might not be ideal for sufferers of RSI. The Vive controllers have one big advantage over some rivals – they're bundled with every system. That means developers can be 100% confident that they're the controllers people have sitting around, and they can design their apps accordingly. That isn't the case for other VR platforms, some of which don't have dedicated controllers at all. Oculus calls its controllers Oculus Touch, and they look rather like somebody sawed a DualShock controller in half and stuck handles on each bit. Each controller has action buttons, a thumbstick and an analogue trigger, a grip button and motion tracking, and early testers report that they're both comfortable and accurate, feeling more like a traditional gamepad than other options. The controllers can be tracked around a 5 x 5-foot space, enabling you to control VR by ducking and diving as well as waving your hands around. There's a big problem, though, and that's timing: the Touch controllers won't be ready when the Oculus Rift ships, and that means they're optional – like the Kinect became with the Xbox One. Remember how every Xbox owner rushed out to get one? Exactly. That's a worry for developers, because it means that they can't be certain any given user will have Touch controllers, and it's a worry for consumers if developers don't see Oculus Touch as a key part of the system. There are signs of that happening already – while the rival Vive system can also be played with a standard game controller, most of the VR demos we've seen for the platform so far have used the magic wands. On Oculus, more demos have used the Xbox One controller. Sony's VR controller has been hiding in plain sight for years – it's the Move, which launched in 2009. Sony hasn't been time travelling; it developed the Move with VR in mind, even though it didn't have a VR product. That's good, because lots of us are already familiar with Move, but it's bad because Move lacks the flexibility and VR-ness of dedicated VR controllers such as Oculus Touch. Where those controllers feel like extensions of your hands, Move feels like it always did – like you're waving a couple of remote controls around. You could always use a DualShock 4 instead, but while that's a great gaming controller it doesn't deliver the same immersion as two separate hand controllers. Surprisingly enough, it feels like playing any other PlayStation game. It's becoming apparent that Sony is approaching VR from the opposite direction to HTC and Oculus. Their systems are designed solely for VR, but Sony's taking an existing system – the PS4 – and adding VR to it. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but Sony admits that its focus on making an affordable mass market product means that rivals may well deliver a better overall VR experience. The Gear VR doesn't actually have its own controllers – users are simply connecting third-party gamepads to control their virtual apps – but Samsung's working on this: its Rink controllers were demoed at CES 2016 in January and supplemented with a video that raised more questions than it answered. The Rink controllers look like big plastic knuckle dusters and seem to rely on an additional head- mounted sensor, presumably there to track their motion, and the demo suggested that the Gear VR will be able to mimic individual fingers rather than just whole hands – so for example you might type on a virtual keyboard. It's unclear whether Rink achieves that through individual sensors on the controllers or through watching your hands via the additional sensor, but it's a clever idea – wiggling your fingers is a lot more intuitive than trying to remember which button you're supposed to press. It's all very exciting, but it does seem rather far off too; the video shows that the system is clearly still very laggy, fairly imprecise and quite crash-prone. So far Rink feels more like a preview of Samsung's thinking than a product that's close to shipping any time soon – and that's underlined by the fact it's coming from Samsung's Creative Lab, aka C-Lab, which creates experimental devices that may not make it into production. In this feature we've concentrated on the big four of consumer VR, but of course there are plenty of other systems available or in development for virtual/augmented reality. Meta Glasses and Microsoft Hololens (pictured) overlay virtual imagery on the real world. Fove's headset will use eye tracking to enable the system to "see" what you're focusing on. Leap Motion offers gesture control for VR and desktop apps alike, while Sulon Q manages to cram a Windows 10 PC with voice and gesture support into a VR headset. And finally, Google Cardboard turns Android phones into headsets via the magic of paper. The VR market's getting awfully crowded already, often with incompatible systems, and that's something OSVR hopes to address – for gamers, anyway. With backers including Razer, Leap Motion, Intel and Gearbox Software, OSVR hopes to forge a common standard for VR gaming to avoid fragmentation, incompatibility and consumer confusion.

2016-03-30 13:00 By Gary feedproxy.google.com

62 Preorder iPhone SE: New iPhone SE UK release date, price, full specifications, performance benchmarks - 4in iPhone is more iPhone 6s than iPhone 5s with top performance and camera Apple has confirmed its new 4in iPhone as the iPhone SE (Special Edition), which is available to preorder now and goes on sale from £359 on 31 March. More iPhone 6s than iPhone 5s , this mini iPhone has the power Apple A9 processor and includes a 12Mp iSight camera. Here's everything you need to know about the iPhone SE UK release date, price and specifications. Plus: Apple's iPhone SE launch as it happened. Also see: iPad Pro 9.7in UK release date, price and specifications . The iPhone SE is available to pre-order now, and will go on sale on 31 March. At first it will be available in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Singapore, the UK and the US, but it will be available in 110 countries by the end of May. Apple has confirmed that it won't be opening its stores early in the UK for the iPhone SE release, unlike past launches that saw special opening hours. See also: iPad Air 3 release date, price and specs rumours . The 16GB iPhone SE will cost £359 in the UK and $399 in the US, and the 64GB iPhone SE will cost £429 in the UK and $499 in the US. It will be available in space grey, silver, gold and rose gold. You can pre-order the new iPhone SE direct from Apple now. It’s available in Silver, Gold, Space Grey and Rose Gold. The 16GB option is £359 while the larger 64GB option is £439. If you buy direct from Apple, the phone will come unlocked so you can use it on any UK network. EE says all handsets bought from EE direct channels will support EE’s WiFi Calling service and 4G Calling (VoLTE), and the iPhone SE is available to pre-order from EE from 24 March. Vodafone says c ustomers who opt for the iPhone SE on Vodafone’s ultrafast 4G network can also enjoy Vodafone’s Data Test Drive for the first two months of their contract, meaning they can get to grips with their new iPhone SE without any limitations on their UK data usage. Furthermore, Vodafone’s Wi-Fi Calling service will be available on the iPhone SE, making it possible to stay connected anywhere there is Wi-Fi – from a basement flat to the London Underground. Pre-order here. O2 allows you to register your interest in the iPhone SE, which will be available in all colours here in a similar way to EE. Carphone Warehouse allows you to pre-order here , while you can do the same at Mobiles.co.uk here . And Three points out that those who buy the iPhone SE from them will benefit from its Feel At Home policy (no roaming charges in selected countries), 4G at no extra cost, and a six-month free Deezer subscription. It will be stocking all four colours of the new iPhone. According to Apple, you'll be able to buy official accessories for the iPhone SE including leather cases in black and midnight blue (£29 inc VAT), and Lightning Docks in colour-matched metallic finishes for £39 inc VAT, both from Apple’s retail stores and Apple.com/uk . The iPhone SE looks very much like an iPhone 5s with the familia 4in Retina (326ppi) display, but with a new rose gold option, matt chamfered edges and a stainless steel Apple logo. On the inside, though, it's very much a smaller iPhone 6s and, according to Apple, it's the most powerful 4in phone ever. With the same 64-bit Apple A9 processor and M9 motion co-processor as the iPhone 6s, the iPhone SE is twice as fast as the iPhone 5s on raw performance, and three times as fast for graphics. And that's not all that's fast. With the addition of 802.11ac Wi-Fi the iPhone SE can support download speeds up to 433Mbps. It also supports faster 150Mbps LTE with more bands, plus Wi-Fi calling. There have also been some improvements to battery life, with the iPhone SE beating the iPhone 5s' runtime for audio (50 hours vs 40 hours), video (13 hours vs 10 hours), Wi-Fi- and LTE browsing (13 hours vs 10 hours), and 3G talk time (14 hours vs 10 hours). With a new NFC chip inside and the Touch ID fingerprint scanner the iPhone SE also supports Apple Pay for making mobile payments. Read more about how you can take advantage of this in our Apple Pay guide. In common with its bigger brother, the SE features a 12Mp iSight camera with Focus Pixels and a True Tone flash. There's a new image signal processor and support for 4K video recording and panoramic images up to 63Mp, plus Apple's Live Photo feature. The photo below will give you some idea of what the iPhone SE's camera is capable of. At the front the iPhone SE has a Facetime HD camera with a new Retina Flash, that lights up the screen three times brighter for taking the ultimate selfie. The iPhone SE runs the new iOS 9.3 operating system. We should make it clear that we have not yet benchmarked the iPhone SE. However, it has the same hardware as the iPhone 6s, and according to Apple should perform the same (therefore we assume the iPhone SE must have 2GB of RAM like the 6s, although Apple has not confirmed this). Below are our benchmark results from our iPhone 6s review. The iPhone 6s scored 2511 in single-core mode and 4404 in multi-core mode in Geekbench, putting it just behind the processing power of the Galaxy S6, which scored 4438 points. It beat the HTC One M9 by a whopping 626 points, scoring 3778 points, which would normally be an acceptable score. However, it’s in the graphics department that the iPhone 6s really flexes its muscles. We ran two GFXBench tests – T-Rex and Manhattan, the same tests that our colleagues use when testing Android devices, and compared the results. Samsung’s Galaxy S6 managed a respectable 30fps in T-Rex and 14fps in Manhattan, while the iPhone 6s scored a whopping 59fps in T-Rex and 56fps in Manhattan. Colours: Silver, Gold, Space Grey, Rose Gold Display: 4in Retina (1136x640, 326ppi) LED-backlit widescreen Multi-Touch display, 800:1 contrast ratio, 500cd/m2 brightness, fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating Processor & graphics: 64-bit Apple A9 processor with M9 motion co-processor Storage: 16GB/64GB Operating system: iOS 9.3 Primary camera: 12Mp iSight camera with five-element lens, sapphire crystal lens cover, f/2.2 aperture, Focus Pixels, True Tone flash, Live Photo, Panorama up to 63Mp, Auto HDR for photos, 4K video recording at 30fps, slow-mo and time-lapse recording Selfie camera: 1.2Mp Facetime HD camera with f/2.4 aperture, Retina Flash, 720p video recording Connectivity: 802.11ac Wi-Fi (up to 433Mbps), 4G LTE (19 bands, up to 150Mbps), Bluetooth 4.2, A-GPS and GLONASS, NFC (for Apple Pay) Battery life: Up to 14 hours 3G talk time, 13 hours 4G/Wi-Fi internet, 13 hours video, 50 hours audio, 10 days standby Sensors: TouchID fingerprint scanner, three-axis gyro, accelerometer, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor Dimensions: 123.8x58.6x7.6mm Weight: 113g The iPhone SE is expected to be a cross between the iPhone 6 and 6s in specification, but come in a smaller iPhone 5s case with a 4in screen. In fact, according to 9to5Mac it will be identical to the 5s with matt edges. GSM Arena says it will feature some features of the iPhone 6s, such as a 12Mp camera with 4K video recording, but not its 3D Touch tech. One way to work out how the phone might look ahead of launch is to look at cases made for it. Mobile Fun has already started receiving iPhone SE cases and recorded the below video comparing the X-Doria Defense 360 and Bump Gear cases to an iPhone 5s. PC Advisor was in mid-March contacted by Nick, founder of Beeep, as he unveiled a hands-on with an iPhone SE the company had come across in the 'wild' at Huaqiangbei Shenzhen, China. The video below shows the iPhone SE as a rounded iPhone-type phone, which is what we expect to see launched by Apple. As stated in the video, the iPhone wouldn't power on, so we suspect it to be a copy or pre-production model of the iPhone SE. Furthermore, the Rose Gold version seemed to be a little different than an authentic Apple iPhone 6s. On 10 March 2016, there have been sources that have confirmed UK carriers (such as Vodafone) are running down of iPhone 5s stocks, ahead of the 4in iPhone SE launch. On 9 March 2016, accessory company Spigen has released some new cases for the 4in iPhone. Images were shared with MacRumors, which suggest an iPhone 6 looking phone. OnLeaks have also shared some photos of iPhone SE cases which also indicate that the new 4in iPhone will have rounded edges. On 29 February 2016, a few image renders were created by Martin Hajek , who combined the various different rumoured iPhone SE designs and created interesting 3D renders (see below). If you're interested in more image renders, they can be also found here (see image below). On 24 February 2016 images leaked from OnLeaks , suggest that prototypes of the new 4in iPhone that were tested by Apple. According to the image above, we Apple seem to be testing iPhones which look very similar to the iPhone 5s' design and yet also incorporates certain iPhone 6/6s design elements. The most interesting part of these leaked images is the fact that both versions come with a 3.5mm headphone jack and furthermore, the speaker design seems to have shifted from an uneven 5s design, to a more symmetric speaker design. Might we finally see dual downward- firing stereo speakers from Apple? This would be a great addition for those looking to improve the overall sound quality and loudness of the iPhone's sound output. An image render from OnLeaks have leaked, suggesting the two prototypes pictured are extremely similar to the iPhone 5s' design and yet has certain elements of the iPhone 6 line's design. This suggests Apple has utilised their old iPhone design and thrown in hardware found in the 6/6s line. From the leaked renders, the images seem to suggest that the 3.5mm jack is still present and that Apple was thinking of two separate speaker designs, whereby the newest image seems to suggest a smaller, more symmetric speaker design. Might we see dual downward-firing speakers from Apple? Time will tell. For the sake of comparison, we have left the older rumours below. Previously, there was an image floating around the internet (see below), which suggested a leaked photo of the iPhone SE. We cannot verify if this is the actual phone itself and it has now been suggested that the iamge is fake. As with any rumour, take it with a pinch of salt, as earlier in 2016 a video of the iPhone SE was supposedly leaked and genuine, but then later turned out to be fake. On 27 January 2016, we were informed by Mobile Fun of their Ringke Fusion case in Smoke Black and Crystal View that's been listed on their site for £14.99. The interesting part to note here is not the availability of the cases, but rather the new 4in iPhone being named on Mobile Fun as the iPhone 6c and not the presumed iPhone SE. So far, no pictures are provided of the cases, so we cannot get an inkling on the look of the iPhone. Finally, according to a Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei (via AppleInsider ) , Apple started its production for the 4in phone over a year ago. Little is known if Apple was only making prototypes or the final product. Follow Marie Brewis on Twitter.

2016-03-30 13:00 Marie Brewis www.pcadvisor.co.uk

63 UK firms failing to make use of security and collaboration tools RESEARCH FROM HP Inc has found that organisations can talk a good arse-covering but can't always back it up with actual positive action and protection. Yes. UK businesses are a bit foolish, according to the research, and do not make the most of the tools and the technologies offered to them. For example, HP, over half of all decision makers could only admit that their workers used video conferencing tools at least two times a week. Presumably, they use them all the time at HP. Slightly better numbers are found when survey respondents were asked about security, and an impressive 90 percent said that the security of the devices that come their way are a concern. The other 10 percent probably don't go into the office very often. Three-quarters of these chattering masses reckon that a well-designed PC would increase job satisfaction. We wonder how the other quarter would feel about using a machine that had spiders for keys and a screen made out of screaming banshees and writhing eels. "The way that we're seeing our customers use their business devices is continuing to evolve and is resulting in greater collaboration, mobility and productivity for users," said John O'Reilly director of corporate, enterprise and public sector and personal systems at HP Inc. "However, this new way of working also presents a real challenge for IT decision makers in ensuring that their devices remain secure whilst being able to provide beautiful, stylish products that match the productivity and design demands of their employees. " Where people have expressed dissatisfaction with hardware it has been down to poor or unattractive design and short battery life. These would try anyone's patience. It might surprise you to know that design is favoured over battery life, which suggests something about the end user that presumably the survey did not want to get into. Security talk is a lot more forthcoming, though, and HP Inc reckons that the UK is less worried about attacks and breaches than its European peers . "In the UK, IT decision makers are much less likely to see device security as a major concern (49 percent) compared to other European countries (69 percent)," said O'Reilly. "They are also less likely to have ever suffered a device security breach, with only 40 percent falling victim to an attack, compared to the 49 percent average across Europe. "Whilst this may come as a relief, UK IT decision makers should not underestimate the importance of secure devices across their networks, particularly against the backdrop of increasing cyber security breaches in recent years. " µ To hear more about security challenges, the threats they pose and how to combat them, sign up for The INQUIRER sister site Computing's Enterprise Security and Risk Management conference , taking place on 24 November.

2016-03-30 12:55 Dave Neal www.theinquirer.net

64 TODO Group comes to the Linux Foundation The Linux Foundation is unveiling plans to help organizations utilize and release open-source software. The foundation announced it will host the TODO Group, a cross-industry effort to focus on establishing best practices, tools and programs to support corporate open-source engagement. “From carmakers and banks to retailers and hospitals, every industry relies on open-source software, and every company is an Internet company,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation. “The TODO Group reaches across industries to collaborate with open-source technical and business leaders to share best practices, tools and programs for building dependable, effective projects for the long term.” (Related: Linux declares focus areas for its Open Mainframe Project ) According to the foundation, while open source has become the de facto standard for software development, there is still a need for more education around development, IP, training and certification, and governance. The TODO Group was established in November 2014 as an initiative to make open source easier for everyone by providing clear guidelines on how projects are maintained and giving companies confidence in using them in their systems. Members of the TODO Group include Box, Dropbox, Facebook, GitHub, Google, HPE, Khan Academy, Microsoft, Square, Stripe, Twitter, Walmart Labs and Yahoo. As part of the news, the TODO Group is also announcing new member participation, which includes Autodesk, Capital One, Netflix and SanDisk. “Driving continued open-source growth requires professional management and investment by companies of all kinds,” said Guy Martin, director of open-source strategy at Autodesk. “We are excited to join the TODO Group to share and collaborate on best practices in this critical area of open source.”

2016-03-30 12:54 Christina Mulligan sdtimes.com

65 Razer releases Ripsaw video capture box Razer's new Ripsaw offers 1080p60 video capture over USB 3.0, and is being targeted at game streamers. Razer, the rapidly diversifying gaming peripherals maker, has announced its entry into the world of streaming hardware with the launch of an external video capture card: the Razer Ripsaw. Designed to connect to a Windows 7 or higher host system via USB 3.0, the Razer Ripsaw offers the ability to capture 1080p video at 60 frames per second from its HDMI input, or analogue signals from its component inputs. Regardless of source, the video is then passed through the system to an HDMI output for connection to an external display, while the host system can use packages including Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) or XSplit to capture the footage for live streaming or local storage. ' Razer has been involved with the streaming scene since the beginning of game broadcasting, with top streamers using our hardware through the ages to get the unfair gaming advantage in front of audiences, ' crowed Min-Liang Tan, Razer's chief executive and and co-founder, of the launch. ' We're excited to design a game capture card that meets the exacting needs of broadcasters and to also give newcomers a perfect tool to help them possibly become the next Syndicate or Pewdiepie. ' While it's possible to capture video directly on a PC with no external hardware, the use of an external capture card can improve performance and also adds compatibility for capturing footage from games consoles and other external systems. Despite the additional hardware in the 130mm x 86mm x 17mm black box, however, the Ripsaw's system requirements are pretty demanding: the capture system will need an Intel Core i5-4440 or better processor and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 or better graphics card - or a Core i7-5810MQ and GeForce GTX 870M for laptop use - along with at least 4GB of RAM. The Razer Ripsaw is available now, priced at £149.99.

2016-03-30 12:49 Published on feedproxy.google.com

66 10 best monitors and displays on the market 2016 Ten years ago, monitors were nothing more than necessary accessories. Today, they can be luxury items that dramatically improve all aspects of computing and content consumption. There are so many types of monitors that suit so many different needs. Screen resolution, response time, panel weight: everything should be considered when choosing a personal device or an enterprise fleet. Unfortunately, all of these specs can be confusing. We've compiled this roundup to help you sort through the abundance of options available. See more Philips Brilliance BDM3490UC deals The Philips Brilliance's BDM3490UC is the best cinematic monitor we've tried yet. This massive panel has a bright and attractive IPS display with wide viewing angles, which makes it great for watching movies or being productive on the desktop. Its extra-wide 21:9 curved form factor is especially great for gaming even in the absence of G-Sync or FreeSync frame-smoothing tech. The Brilliance is also a little cheaper than rival cinematic 21:9 panels, which certainly doesn't hurt. Acer Predator X34 See more Acer Predator X34 deals Cinematic monitors are a great alternative to 4K ones when it comes to gaming. In fact, you might say they're even better due to their ultrawide 21:9 aspect ratio. The Acer Predator X34 certainly looks the part, featuring an eye-catching aluminium bezel and angular, crow's foot- shape stand. It comes with a number of gaming mod cons in tow, including Nvidia's G-Sync frame-smoothing tech, an immersion-boosting curved shape and fantastic color reproduction that brings games to life. Short of strapping on a virtual reality headset, the Predator X34 is about as immersive as gaming gets. Thin bezels feature on this well-connected QHD monitor See more Philips 258B6QJEB deals In terms of price, size and sharpness, QHD often hits the sweet spot, and Philips' 258B6QJEB is one of the most stylish 25-inch models arouund. Packing a pixel-resolution of 2,560 x 1,440, it provides more than enough room on the desktop to get productive, and because the monitor is compact it won't take up much room on your desk. It's versatile too thanks to its built-in rotate and height adjustability Philips loaded the 258B6QJEB with an abundance of connectivity options that include two USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports (one with a high-current output), VGA, DVI-D, DisplayPort, HDMI, a 3.5mm audio-in and headphone output sockets. Get ready for ultra high-def on your desktop See the best Samsung UD590 deals A 4K display that's factory-calibrated for great colour accuracy and image quality, which makes it ideal for digital designers, CAD/CAM engineers or videographers who aren't put off by the high-price tag. Great for work, games, and movies – but it's costly See the best LG UltraWide 34UC97 deals The LG's curved design, high resolution and huge diagonal make it a high quality replacement for single 4K panels or a pair of 1080p screens, and the form factor means it's tempting for work, games and movies. A bezel-less beauty See the best Acer S277HK deals A gorgeous IPS screen and bezel-free design make the S227HK a stunning display by itself or an even more impressive and immersive member of a multi-monitor setup. What this professional monitor lacks in style it makes up with exceptional picture quality See the best Viewsonic VP2772 deals A rich set of features, great picture quality out of the box and hassle-free setup make the VP2772 an attractive monitor. A superb display, but you're paying through the nose for a mere 24-inches See the best Dell UltraSharp UP2414Q deals A fantastic monitor that's a little ahead of its time in terms of GPU and operating system support. Big, bold and accurate colours from a TV-sized monitor See the best Acer B326HUL deals Acer's larger-than-life B326HUL comes with great colour accuracy out-of-the-box, easy-to-use menu controls and good build quality, but its above-average response time, lack of MHL and price point may make you want to look elsewhere. Aimed at CAD/CAM professionals, this feature-packed 27-inch monitor delivers See the best BenQ BL2710PT deals A feature-packed and well-connected monitor that offers plenty for the asking price. It may not be exciting to look at and the menu controls suffer from a lack of labeling, but these are minor caveats that don't detract from an overall worthy investment. Article continues below 2016-03-30 12:40 By Kane feedproxy.google.com

67 Foxconn finalises Sharp buyout at $3.5 billion Foxconn has finally agreed its Sharp acquisition following a last- minute delay, taking 66 per cent of the company for $3.5 billion. Hon Hai Precision, more commonly known as Foxconn, has finalised its delayed bid to acquire Sharp, and the information which caused the halt has led to a significant discount: the deal has dropped from $4.3 billion to $3.5 billion. News that Foxconn, a company which builds electronics for everyone from Apple to Samsung as well as a small quantity of own-brand hardware, was looking to buy Sharp came out when the latter company announced the deal in late February this year. No sooner had the company cheerily confirmed the acquisition, though, did Foxconn develop a serious case of cold feet due to the receipt of ' material new information ' on Sharp which meant Foxconn having to ' postpone any signing of a definitive agreement until we have arrived at a satisfactory understanding and resolution of the situation. ' Details of exactly what the new information was were never released, but it has had a major impact on the terms of the acquisition: while Foxconn is still going ahead with the deal, it is doing so for $3.5 billion - $800,000,000 less than the original agreement. For that, Foxconn will take a 66 per cent controlling share in Sharp. ' I am thrilled by the prospects for this strategic alliance and I look forward to working with everyone at Sharp, ' claimed Terry Gou, Foxconn's founder and chief executive, of the agreement. ' We have much that we want to achieve and I am confident that we will unlock Sharp’s true potential and together reach great heights. '

2016-03-30 12:39 Published on feedproxy.google.com

68 Microsoft March madness is over: Disappointments and successes, just like the basketball tourney We've reached the end of March and thus the end of my March madness month with Microsoft experience. I hung in there as long as I could, but made a few changes along the way and dropped one of the devices from daily usage. The easiest part, of course, was using a Windows computer all month long. I returned the Dell XPS 12 2-in-1 eval unit because I wasn't using it as I continued with the Surface Pro 4. The Dell Latitude 6430 served as my work computer and continues its daily role in my engineering office. The Surface Pro 4 functioned as my primary home and travel computer, but let me down enough that I almost went back to my curved display Surface Pro 3. The Pro 4 continues to fail to work with a couple of the latest Type Covers and won't even work with them after a reset. Thankfully, I have an older Type Cover that works when I undock it and my Bluetooth keyboard while its docked. Speaking of docking the Surface Pro 4, I just returned the new Surface Dock after experiencing display and connection failures on a daily basis. Thanks to the recommendation of a reader, I learned you can use the older Surface Dock accessory without the plastic adapter, that you cannot find anywhere to purchase. The Surface Pro 4 fits in just fine and with it I have not had display connection issues. I started out with the Microsoft Lumia 950 XL and then bought a Display Dock after some readers requested I try out Continuum on the go. Both the Lumia 950 XL and Display Dock were returned in mid-March because I found the Lumia 830 to be a better piece of hardware and Continuum just had limited appeal as a technology demo. The Lumia 830 turned out to be a real champ and thanks to Windows 10 universal apps and some supportive developers I was able to enjoy the USAA, American Express, Garmin Connect, and other daily apps. The apps are not all as functional and capable as what we see on iOS and Android, but if you wanted to go with Windows 10 Mobile I don't think you are giving up as much as you were in 2015. The Microsoft Band 2 was worn for three weeks and for several runs, but trying to wear it for daily activity, run tracking, and sleep tracking ended up requiring irregular charging times so I gave up on it last week. It's fine as a data gathering device, but I'm finding a wearable that can go for multiple days is the one I tend to use more than any other. I'm now using an evaluation Garmin Fenix 3 HR and about ready to use the money spent on the Lumia 950 XL to buy one of these instead. To summarize my month-long experiment, I ended up returning the Lumia 950 XL, Display Dock, and new Surface Dock while the Microsoft Band 2 is back in my wearable desk drawer. The Lumia 830 will join the Band 2 while I move on to the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and iPhone 6s Plus for my phone needs. I plan to keep using the Surface Pro 4, but if I can't figure out the problem with the Type Covers then I may just go back to my Surface Pro 3 and return the Microsoft loaner. You can definitely survive, and thrive, with an all Microsoft mobile strategy and with the continued release of Windows 10 universal apps for mobile the app gap is closing quickly.

2016-03-30 12:21 Matthew Miller zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

69 25 caffeine-laced foods to replace coffee CXO A tour of Samsung's 837 digital marketing playground in New York City CXO Six key trends for Brazilian CIOs in 2016 CXO 15 major lessons tech companies learned this year

2016-03-30 12:19 zdnet.com.feedsportal.com

70 Can we trust tech with our health? Apple Health, Fitbit and other gadgets are bordering on medical devices these days. Smartphones are amazing devices. They’ve evolved from that first iPhone to become our indispensable companions which we rely on for just about everything. Some phones are even fitted with heart-rate sensors, but all be used to monitor your steps, runs and then – at night – how well you sleep. See also: how tech can help you get fit The raw numbers are useful enough, but it’s the beauty of tracking progress over days and weeks that gives you a real insight into whether you’re improving your fitness or sleeping better. Some apps will even give you tips and insights, while others let you log everything you eat and drink – ideal if you’re watching the calories. Over the last couple of years, other apps and gadgets have appeared which go beyond monitoring your heart rate. Apple’s Health app, for example, wants to give an accurate answer to the “How are you?” question by adding in blood sugar, cholesterol and other information to activity data. You can also buy inexpensive Bluetooth accessories which will measure your blood pressure such as Xiaomi's iHealth and it surely won’t be too long before you’ll be able to do blood tests at home. Activity trackers are also getting more advanced: the Basis Peak measures perspiration along with heart rate and REM sleep using sensors: This ‘quantified self’ is great if you’re trying to get fit or if you need to monitor an existing condition and with the extra data you can now get from gadgets, you can get a heads-up that you’re coming down with something before you start to feel ill. But can you really trust cheap gadgets or a free app? If you’re sick, one of the worst things you can do is to Google your symptoms. Invariably, you’ll find a variety of sites all saying different things. Just like weather forecasts, you’ll either believe the one giving the best outcome (it’s nothing serious) or, if you’re a hypochondriac, the worst. It’s similar when you rely on data to self-diagnose: there's a danger it might be wrong. And that’s why activity tracker companies have thus far steered clear of using the fitness data to give you any medical advice. Jawbone is one of the only companies which attempts to interpret sleep and heart rate data, but even then, it merely tells you that you might want to consider going to bed a little earlier and more general advice about unusually high heart rates. There are two problems here. The advice might tell you that you’re ill or at risk when you’re not – leading to unnecessary stress – but even worse is if the data shows that you’re healthy when you really need to be making an appointment to see your GP. And you as a user are not the only factor in play: manufacturers and software developers need to cover their own backs. See also: 20 best fitness trackers to buy Fitbit, for example, was recently dragged into the courtroom after several customers complained that the heart-rate measurements were wildly inaccurate. The company countered that the devices were more accurate overall than most cardio equipment at the gym, and that they weren’t intended to be medical or scientific devices. This, perhaps, is the crux of the matter: is the app or gadget sold as a medical device or not? If it is, you should expect it to give accurate measurements and – if relevant – health advice. For gadgets sold in the UK, the government states that they must display “CE markings which must be accompanied by the identification number of the notified body that has acted under the relevant conformity assessment procedure”. Even then, we wouldn’t recommend placing your full trust in data and measurements. Use them as a guide, by all means, but if you think you have any kind of health problems, go and see a doctor. 2016-03-30 12:06 Jim Martin www.pcadvisor.co.uk

Total 70 articles. Created at 2016-03-31 12:02