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Total 72 articles, created at 2016-06-07 06:01 1 Saudi hackers claim Mark Zuckerberg’s social media accounts
(2.06/3) A hacking group based in Saudi Arabia claims to have accessed several social media accounts belonging to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg 2016-06-06 10:15 2KB www.computerweekly.com 2 EnterpriseDB readies Postgres for big data
(1.02/3) apps Database firm EnterpriseDB (EDB) is hoping to encourage enterprises users to pick up its distribution of the Postgres open source database by 2016-06-07 02:25 4KB www.itworldcanada.com 3 IBM Joins R Consortium to Advance the R Programming Language
(1.02/3) In a move to advance data science in the enterprise, IBM has joined the R Consortium to better support the R programming language. 2016-06-07 02:25 4KB www.eweek.com 4 2016 Solution Provider 500: 47 Newcomers Among the companies named to 2016's Solution Provider 500 are 47 companies that are new to the list. 2016-06-06 16:00 1KB www.crn.com (0.01/3)
5 How not to panic in an IT security crisis Every breach of your network or denial of service attack is serious, but it's not necessarily a crisis. A crisis is Sony 2016-06-07 03:33 5KB www.itworldcanada.com 6 CB Insights co-founder muses on what enterprises can learn from startup culture The death of enterprises is a certain reality by not: investing in a startup mentality, executing with agility and promoting exponential change. 2016-06-07 03:33 16KB www.itworldcanada.com 7 #ITWCchats Twitter Chat Recap: Will state- sanctioned hacks make encryption irrelevant? A discussion on the future of privacy Update: Thanks again to Nandini Jolly of CryptoMill Technologies Inc. and Laura Tribe of Open Media, and all other participants of our 2016-06-07 02:25 3KB www.itworldcanada.com 8 Q&A: What are the cloud computing challenges around data sovereignty in Canada? Data access and privacy are often considered key concerns for Canadians enterprises looking at cloud computing to improve operations by having business data hosted by a third party. 2016-06-07 04:42 7KB www.itworldcanada.com 9 Canadian threat exchange vows to give unique value to members Threat intelligence exchanges OK, but most prefer to receive intel rather than give New threat intelligence sharing site to open for all Canadian firms Executives from two of the country's biggest enterprises behind the fledgling Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange say the service will help Canadian organizations 2016-06-07 04:42 6KB www.itworldcanada.com 10 JavaScript has gone bad, beating out macros as top choice for spreading malware and ransomware It’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s edged out macros embedded in Microsoft Office as the number one way to spread malware through 2016-06-07 04:42 3KB www.itworldcanada.com 11 Canada should be prepared for “unprecedented” levels of cyber risk, warns ex- CSIS official If you think that $500 billion in worldwide cyber crime is a problem now, brace yourself. It’s about to get even more 2016-06-07 04:42 4KB www.itworldcanada.com 12 Best 4K Blu-rays If you have invested in a 4K television and a 4K Blu-ray player, these are the absolute essential discs you must buy. 2016-06-07 03:42 654Bytes www.cnet.com 13 Private sector should lead Canada’s cyber security strategy, say experts In the global war against crime Canada is one of a number of countries with a national cyber strategy, aimed at strengthening 2016-06-07 02:25 4KB www.itworldcanada.com 14 Lenovo Expands Networking, Storage, Server Portfolios The company is leveraging partnerships with Juniper, Intel, Nutanix and others to build out its data center infrastructure offerings. 2016-06-07 02:25 5KB www.eweek.com
15 T-Mobile Launches Un-carrier 11 'Customer Thanks' Initiatives The carrier will offer free T-Mobile stock shares, Tuesday specials and a free hour of Gogo WiFi on every Gogo-equipped domestic flight. 2016-06-07 02:25 5KB www.eweek.com 16 Supreme Court Denies Google Request for Review of Class-Action Suit The case involves allegations that the company misled thousands of advertisers in California between 2004 and 2008. 2016-06-07 02:25 4KB www.eweek.com 17 Microsoft Releases Translator App for Amazon Fire Tablet Fire tablet users can now download Microsoft's translation app in the Amazon Underground app store. 2016-06-07 02:25 3KB www.eweek.com 18 Marwan Fawaz to Replace Tony Fadell at Nest Alphabet has selected Marwan Fawaz, a low-key telecom veteran with proven success in the home IoT space, to replace Nest founder Tony Fadell. 2016-06-07 02:25 5KB www.eweek.com 19 American Airlines Expanding In-Flight WiFi to Its New Boeing 737 Jets About 100 of the latest Boeing 737 MAX jets will get in-flight WiFi from ViaSat, which is a competitor of the Gogo WiFi used in other jets. 2016-06-07 02:25 4KB www.eweek.com 20 Rugged Samsung Galaxy S7 Active Smartphone Available June 10 With AT&T Ruggedized versions of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge flagship phones have been rumored for months. An S6 Active model debuted in 2015. 2016-06-07 02:25 5KB www.eweek.com 21 Oracle Returns to Court, Now Facing Off Against HPE DAILY VIDEO: Oracle back in court, this time vs. HPE; ownCloud folds in U. S. as its founder starts new firm; Cortana chats up PCs in latest Windows 10 mobile build; and there's more. 2016-06-07 02:25 7KB www.eweek.com 22 PIPEDA changes should prompt improved security stances and roadmap creation Businesses are data driven, and enterprises are challenged to both leverage data effectively and manage it. This includes securing it, but also 2016-06-07 02:25 6KB www.itworldcanada.com
23 NHL’s digital head on how the league is using the cloud to deliver ‘enhanced stats’ and a better fan experience Hardcore and casual fans alike know the National Hockey League’s (NHL) 2016 Stanley Cup playoff final kicks off on Monday with the 2016-06-07 02:25 5KB www.itworldcanada.com 24 Watch out, Twitch - Facebook Live wants to be the new home of game streaming Sharing your gaming exploits is about to get as easy as posting a status update 2016-06-06 22:33 2KB feedproxy.google.com 25 Celebrate good ideas and unsung heroes with the CanadianCIO of the Year award Do you know a talented CIO who is making a difference in your company or the industry as a whole? Is there 2016-06-06 21:16 3KB www.itworldcanada.com 26 Jay Wilson, former Diablo 3 game director, is leaving Blizzard Wilson says it's time to return to his original passion. 2016-06-06 21:51 1KB www.pcgamer.com 27 Myst artist, BioShock Infinite writer team up for a new adventure called Zed Zed is a surreal first-person adventure that's now on Kickstarter. 2016-06-06 21:50 2KB www.pcgamer.com 28 Ransomware Goes After Manufacturing A Fortinet research report finds that manufacturers are increasingly under attack from ransomware as older vulnerabilities provide easy access. 2016-06-06 18:51 3KB www.eweek.com 29 Intel Targets High-End Analytics with New Xeon E7 v4 Processors The vendor's new chips for four- and eight-socket systems bring performance and memory capacity improvements over the previous generation. 2016-06-06 20:23 5KB www.eweek.com 30 STEM Enterprises Seek High-Tech Solution to Hiring Bias Problem NEWS ANALYSIS: Fighting workplace inequality by eliminating bias in hiring could help ease a perceived shortage of qualified science and technology personnel. 2016-06-06 20:23 4KB www.eweek.com
31 A Delaware judge said the CEO and his partner underpaid when it bought the company for $25 billion, giving legitimacy to arguments made by opponents. A Delaware judge said the CEO and his partner underpaid when it bought the company for $25 billion, giving legitimacy to arguments made by opponents. 2016-06-06 20:23 3KB www.eweek.com 32 6 best USB-C accessories, cables and adapters One port to connect them all 2016-06-06 21:10 4KB feedproxy.google.com 33 FIFA 17: release date, trailer and a peek at the mesmerizing Frostbite engine Gear up for the full reveal at E3 2016 2016-06-06 20:43 1KB feedproxy.google.com 34 Best Mac to buy in 2016: Apple's top iMacs, MacBooks and more Find the Mac that's right for you 2016-06-06 20:36 15KB feedproxy.google.com 35 Valve updates The Lab with leaderboards and more Science is about to get bloody. 2016-06-06 19:59 1KB www.pcgamer.com 36 Vertagear wants to be the Herman Miller of gaming chairs Gaming thrones fit for a king. 2016-06-06 19:35 3KB www.pcgamer.com 37 Surface Pro 5 release date, news and rumors Plus, what we want to see in the fifth Surface 2016-06-06 19:01 7KB feedproxy.google.com 38 Ciber To Sell Netherlands Business For $25M, Stock Skyrockets Stocks soared after the announcement that Ciber plans to sell its 400-employee Dutch business, continuing along the path toward divesting itself of nonstrategic operations. 2016-06-06 18:44 3KB www.crn.com
39 Tesla wants to share your Autopilot data with the government Because sharing is caring 2016-06-06 18:41 1KB feedproxy.google.com 40 35 best PC games: the must-play titles you can't afford to miss Battlestations at the ready 2016-06-06 18:25 26KB feedproxy.google.com 41 New Skywind trailer shows off the latest progress Caves! Mushrooms! Clutter! 2016-06-06 18:01 1KB www.pcgamer.com 42 T-Mobile's latest move is all about free stuff and letting you own a piece of the company Company stock and free gifts - what more to do you want? 2016-06-06 17:41 3KB feedproxy.google.com 43 Mind The Gap: Execs Say Gender Gap In IT Is Closing, But Work Isn't Done Yet The gender gap within the IT industry is narrowing. Women of the Channel executives say that mentoring, creating a personal brand, and promoting a flexible office environment will help close the gap for good. 2016-06-06 17:40 3KB www.crn.com 44 Four top innovators are leaving Cisco Four Cisco Systems executives who led “spin-in” ventures that became important parts of the company have resigned. 2016-06-06 17:09 2KB www.itnews.com 45 CleverIS Technologies launches legacy application transformation, modernization solution Formerly Clip Informatica S/A, CleverIS Helps Organizations Modernize Legacy Applications With Cost Reductions Up To 70% 2016-06-06 16:36 3KB sdtimes.com 46 Red Dead Redemption 2 development, UK release date and gameplay rumours: Red Dead Redemption concept art suggests sequel or remake in the works A new Red Dead game is expected to be in the works, but when is it coming out? Recent map leaks suggest we may not be waiting for much longer! 2016-06-06 16:21 6KB www.pcadvisor.co.uk
47 Ugh, Blizzard games will begin asking you to log in to Facebook to stream them Sorry, Twitch. Move over, YouTube. Overwatch, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, and Starcraft II will be among the games that you can watch friends play over Facebook. 2016-06-06 16:20 1KB www.itnews.com 48 How Intel plans to change servers as it breaks away from PCs Intel is changing the way it approaches server installations with new chip, storage, memory, and interconnect technologies 2016-06-06 16:13 5KB www.infoworld.com 49 Mirror's Edge Catalyst review A gorgeous and exciting free-running sequel that keeps a few of the original game's issues. 2016-06-06 16:01 10KB www.pcgamer.com 50 Guest View: The hidden hazards of squashing Git commits Squashing bugs may mean removing developmental "safety points" and obscuring the origin of features 2016-06-06 15:46 4KB sdtimes.com 51 How I went from zero to overclocking in 30 minutes If you think overclocking is something that only hardcore PC enthusiasts can get into, think again. At Computex in Taipei last week I got the chance to try overclocking Intel's latest processor, the 10-core Broadwell-E chip, and it was a lot of fun. 2016-06-06 14:58 4KB www.itnews.com 52 How to import Excel data to Google Sheets and vice versa: Open Excel in Google Sheets - open Google Sheets in Excel Sheets is Google’s answer to Microsoft Excel. We show you how to move data between the two - how to import Excel data to Google Sheets and vice versa. 2016-06-06 14:55 1KB www.pcadvisor.co.uk 53 Coach will start selling Apple Watch bands June 12 Three models of leather bands, each in three colors, will cost $150. 2016-06-06 13:54 1KB www.itnews.com
54 13% off ThermaCELL Mosquito Repellent Pest Control Outdoor and Camping Lantern - Deal Alert The Thermacell Mosquito Repellent Lanterns effectively repel mosquitoes, black flies, and other biting insects by creating a 15 x 15-foot zone of protection. 2016-06-06 13:33 1018Bytes www.infoworld.com 55 Microsoft Bing Malware Alerts Get More Specific Microsoft has updated Bing phishing and malware warnings to give more detailed information on specific threats. 2016-06-06 13:06 4KB www.informationweek.com 56 LTE equipment party is over, as carrier spending drops For the first time since LTE technology hit the mainstream in 2012, the worldwide market for carrier wireless equipment has declined, according to a report released today by IHS Technology. 2016-06-06 12:42 2KB www.computerworld.com 57 Data Storage Magic: Empowering Applications with Data Fabric Innovation Arthur C Clark once said that “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” You see something happen, but how is a total mystery. New data storage technologies have brought a little of this magic into the datacenter and have the potential to completely change how we... 2016-06-06 12:28 5KB www.computerworld.com 58 Iron Man meets Aquaman as Navy turns to augmented reality Scientists with the U. S. Navy are working to develop an augmented reality display for divers' helmets. 2016-06-06 12:15 2KB www.computerworld.com 59 Bose QuietComfort 35 Wireless Headphones: Music To Business Travelers' Ears Bose has long pitched its active noise-cancellation headphones as the ideal travel companion, but they were always tied down with wires. The new QuietComfort 35 adds Bluetooth to the equation. 2016-06-06 12:05 4KB www.informationweek.com 60 Old School Runescape celebrates the Falador Massacre glitch One of the best all-time MMO bugs. 2016-06-06 11:50 1KB www.pcgamer.com 61 Android gets patches for major flaws in hardware drivers and media server The June batch of Android security patches address nearly two dozen vulnerabilities in system drivers for various hardware components from several chipset makers. 2016-06-06 11:23 2KB www.computerworld.com 62 Tesla Model X autonomously crashes into building, owner claims In the latest of several Tesla vehicle accidents, the owner of a Tesla Model X SUV claims the vehicle suddenly accelerated on its own and crashed into the side of a building. 2016-06-06 11:06 5KB www.itworld.com 63 Researchers built devious, undetectable hardware-level backdoor in computer chips University of Michigan researchers developed an “invisible” backdoor built into computer chip hardware which would be nearly impossible to detect. 2016-06-06 11:02 5KB www.computerworld.com 64 Vodafone partners Afrimax for Zambia Roll- out Vodafone Group, has announced a new Partner Market agreement for Zambia. The Telcom will be working with Afrimax Group, a 4G telecommunications operator in sub-Saharan Africa Vodafone has already partnered with Afrimax to launch 4G services in Uganda, and will be offering customers high speed 4G data... 2016-06-06 10:32 1KB pctechmag.com 65 Nokia’s Open Innovation Challenge 2016 To Develop The IoT For Connected Automotive, Digital Health & More Nokia Corp. has today launched its 4th annual Open Innovation Challenge, focusing now on the Internet of Things (IoT) for public safety, connected automotive, industry 4.0, digital health, utilities, security and smart cities. The challenge is being organized in... 2016-06-06 10:25 4KB pctechmag.com 66 CSG International and MTN South Africa Extend Business Partnership -CSG Systems International, Inc., a trusted global partner to launch and monetize digital services, has announced that the company will extend its managed services agreement with MTN South Africa. The managed services agreement entails system management and support of the carrier’s retail billing operations, credit... 2016-06-06 10:25 2KB pctechmag.com
67 Final Fantasy 12 remaster: The Zodiac Age announced Only for PS4 at present, but history is on our side. 2016-06-06 10:22 1KB www.pcgamer.com 68 Government reaches accord over ESN in National Parks England The Home Office has reached an agreement with National Parks England over the provision of mobile coverage for the emergency services 2016-06-06 09:30 3KB www.computerweekly.com 69 Recruiting Blitz: HPE Rolls Out Red Carpet For Anxious Dell-EMC Partners HPE is using its Discover Conference in Las Vegas this week to not only showcase its biggest technology breakthroughs, but also to bring anxious Dell-EMC partners into the HPE fold. 2016-06-06 09:00 4KB www.crn.com 70 Progressive web Apps and the future of mobile Apps Progressive web Apps and the future of mobile Apps The way we access the web on our mobile devices as always been important to businesses and developers since this to some extent determined how much profit or losses the latter made. Micro suns with their Java Platform, Micro... 2016-06-06 08:28 5KB pctechmag.com 71 Is a cashless society nearer than we think? Most people think of a cashless society is something that is way off in the distant future. Unfortunately, that is simply not the case. The truth is that a cashless society is much closer than most people would ever dare to imagine. In America today only... 2016-06-06 08:05 3KB pctechmag.com 72 Petition condemns Windows 10 upgrade practices, asks EFF to investigate "Microsoft's practices with their newest operating system, named Windows 10, has been ignorantly unethical at best and malicious at worst," wrote the petition organizer, Todd Kleinpaste. 2016-06-06 06:41 3KB www.itworld.com Articles
Total 72 articles, created at 2016-06-07 06:01
1 Saudi hackers claim Mark Zuckerberg’s social media accounts (2.06/3) A hacking group based in Saudi Arabia claims to have compromised the Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest accounts of Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg. The group known as OurMine claimed responsibility in a tweet that has since been removed that said they were “just testing” his security, and invited him to contact them. Developer Ben Hall tweeted a screenshot of Zuckeberg’s hacked Pinterest account that appears to indicate the compromises were linked to the 2012 breach of the LinkedIn database . Initially, 6.5 million LinkedIn accounts were thought to have been compromised, but in May 2016 it emerged that 167 million LinkedIn account details , including 117 million username and password pairs were for sale on the dark web. The hackers also appear to be implying that Zuckerberg had used the same password for multiple social media accounts, which is extremely poor security practice. Security experts continually emphasise the importance of having unique passwords for every online account so that if there is a compromise of one account, no other accounts are affected. Twitter immediately suspended OurMine’s Twitter account and removed the group’s tweets from Zuckerberg’s account, including his apparent response: “No you didn’t. Go away skids” shown in screenshots posted by Endgadget. Pinterest also cleaned up Zuckerberg’s hacked profile page, but not before social media was filled with screenshots of his hacked account. A Facebook spokesperson told VentureBeat that Zuckerberg’s Instagram account was not breached , despite the hackers’ claims. “No Facbeook systems or accounts were accessed. The affected accounts have been re-secured,” the spokesperson said. Although Zuckerberg has thousands of followers on Pinterest and Twitter, the accounts are hardly used, with only three posts on Pinterest and the last tweet dating back to January 2012. Zuckerberg is no stranger to social media account compromise, with his Facebook account compromised by apparent hacktivists in 2011 and by a frustrated researcher trying to report a security flaw in 2013. OurMine is a small group of teenage hackers based in Saudi Arabia, according to a report by Softpedia. Cloud security firm Akamai profiled the group in 2015, noting that the group had graduated from defacing and hacking social media accounts to distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on financial institutions.
Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter, Pinterest accounts hacked pctechmag.com Hackers breach social media accounts of Mark Zuckerberg and other celebrities infoworld.com 2016-06-06 10:15 Security Editor www.computerweekly.com
2 EnterpriseDB readies Postgres for big data apps (1.02/3) Database firm EnterpriseDB (EDB) is hoping to encourage enterprises users to pick up its distribution of the Postgres open source database by tailoring a new release for corporate users. One of the new features sees it integrate with other kinds of databases that handle big data and large-scale web applications, paving the way for companies to make new and old data structures work together more closely. Increasingly, newer kinds of databases are powering the web. Big data ecosystems such as Hadoop mingle with NoSQL databases that store large amounts of information in new ways. Many companies have worked for years with traditional relational databases, but now find themselves needing to work with these new kinds of data structures too. EDB says it has created a suite that gives customers the best of both worlds, with an integration feature that enables it to connect Postgres with Hadoop and NoSQL data structures. The feature is part of a broad repackaging of EDB’s various Postgres- related features into one enterprise-friendly platform. “An open source database like Postgres doesn’t exist in isolation. It needs to meet the same rigorous management standards that enterprises are expecting from Oracle or SQL Server,” said EDB’s senior vice president of products and services Marc Linster. “It’s taking what used to be disparate capabilities, bringing them all together, tying them all together into one alerting, monitoring and management infrastructure.” Much of this is a rebranding exercise; many of the service, support and database management features in the company’s new EDB Postgres platform already existed separately. There are some new parts in EDB’s suite, though, and one of them – the ability to integrate with other kinds of database – is the most interesting. Traditional relational databases store their data in tables, which are linked together in relationships known as schemas. Changing them can easily break an application. If you want to store a new piece of information about a customer, you might have to completely re-create the table describing the customer to add the new field. Databases like MySQL, Oracle, and Microsoft’s SQL Server work this way. So does Postgres. NoSQL works differently, storing pieces of information in simpler, tree -like structures typically using the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) language. Popular NoSQL databases include MongoDB, CouchDB and Cassandra. These databases offer several advantages, one of which is flexibility. Their structures are easy to update with new fields, which developers can add in on the fly. They also really good at storing the large amounts of data found in Web, mobile, and Internet of Things applications. NoSQL databases have their drawbacks, though. They are not designed for atomicity, consistency, isolation and durability in their transactions. These qualities, collectively known as ACID, are necessary when processing transactional information that can’t be lost such as a customer order, for example. Instead, companies might use NoSQL to store information such as click streams, which track which things customers click on websites and how long it takes between each click. They are also great for social graphs, which store mountains of information about what customers like and how they know each other. The EDB Postgres platform now exchanges data not only with the MySQL open source relational database, but with Hadoop, which is a distributed platform for managing big data, and also with MongoDB, one of the most popular NoSQL products. It is using Foreign Data Wrappers, a technology that has long existed in Postgres but which hasn’t been well documented. “We’re calling them data adapters because they allow us to do seamless integration of Postgres with other data sources around Postgres such as MySQL, Mongo and Hadoop,” said Linster. “So you can manage it in Hadoop, but access it, integrate with it and talk to it via the Foreign Data Wrappers that are available as part of EDB’s Postgres distribution.” There are some other enhancements in EDB’s packaged Postgres distribution, including support for the Openstack cloud management system. This will make it easier for companies to deploy it in those environments. This will lead to better DevOps practices, said the firm, by providing the database as a service in cloud environments.
How To Gain Value From Big Data crn.com 2016-06-07 02:25 Danny Bradbury www.itworldcanada.com
3 3 IBM Joins R Consortium to Advance the R Programming Language (1.02/3) In a move to advance data science in the enterprise, IBM has joined the R Consortium to better support the R programming language. The R Consortium , an open- source foundation to support the R programming language and its user community, today announced that IBM has joined the organization as a Platinum member, the highest level of membership available. R is a programming language and software environment for statistical computing and graphics supported by the R Foundation for Statistical Computing. The R language is widely used among statisticians and data miners for developing statistical software and data analysis. The Linux Foundation launched the R Consortium last year. The R language is used by statisticians, analysts and data scientists to unlock value from data. It is a free and open-source programming language for statistical computing and provides an interactive environment for data analysis, modeling and visualization. The R Consortium complements the work of the R Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Austria that maintains the language. The R Consortium focuses on user outreach and other projects designed to assist the R user and developer communities. As a Platinum member of the consortium, IBM joins other Platinum members Microsoft and RStudio and is also a Platinum member of The Linux Foundation. As a Platinum member of the R Consortium, IBM will gain a seat on both the board of directors and Infrastructure Steering Committee (ISC), helping to provide support and technical guidance to the R community. Dinesh Nirmal, vice president of development for next-generation analytics platform and big data solutions at IBM, will join the R Consortium board of directors. IBM is joining the R Consortium to help accelerate the adoption of data science in the enterprise. "We're pleased to welcome IBM to the R Consortium," said Hadley Wickham, the R Consortium's Infrastructure Steering Committee chair, in a statement. "IBM is a longstanding contributor to open source software and has immense expertise in data analytics and computing. " Indeed, as a leader in data analytics and management, IBM has invested in software and technology—such as Hadoop, Spark and R—designed to help enterprises gain insights from data. The company has relied on R, among other data languages, to help create innovations such as its Watson cognitive computing system. "IBM is deeply invested in open source software for computing applications like data science," said Nirmal, in a statement. "And as a long time member of The Linux Foundation, it's a natural fit for us to extend our commitment to collaborative development by joining the R Consortium. The R Consortium is the leading open source community to advance the R language for data analysis and modeling. " The R programming language is one of the most popular languages around, as the big data wave has hit enterprises large and small. Companies are looking for R programmers as the need for big data applications written in R has taken off. According to the TIOBE Index of the most popular programming languages in the world, the R language ranks among the top 20, coming in at No. 16 for the month of June. R slipped three places from the No. 13 rank it held in June of last year. Meanwhile, the R Consortium cited an IDC study that said by 2020, an estimated 1.7 megabytes of new information will be created every second for every human being on the planet. However, less than 1 percent of this data is ever analyzed for meaningful applications. Data scientists, for example, spend up to 70 percent of their time integrating and organizing data before analyzing and applying it toward critical applications like weather modeling or cancer research. Today's news furthers IBM's commitment to advance Spark as the analytics operating system for driving analytics across every business. IBM continues to partner with leading data science organizations, including Galvanize, H2O, LightBend and RStudio, to promote an integrated and unified data science ecosystem. "Millions of data scientists and academic researchers use R language every day and want to collaborate with their peers to share visualization and analysis techniques," said Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation, in a statement. "The R Consortium promotes the sharing of ideas and accelerates findings that make R even better for business, research and academic purposes. " IBM joins R Consortium infoworld.com 2016-06-07 02:25 Darryl K www.eweek.com
4 2016 Solution Provider 500: 47 Newcomers (0.01/3) New In The Neighborhood There is usually a lot of stability on the Solution Provider 500 list, CRN's annual ranking of the largest North American solution providers by services revenue. Last year, there were only 25 companies making their debut. This was down from 62 in 2014 and more than 200 in 2011. The 2016 Solution Provider 500 list saw 47 newcomers. Here we present those companies that are making their debut, including two companies that cracked the Top 50 list. The list is available for purchase by contacting Laurie Condon (East Coast) or Nora Uriarte (West Coast). 2016 Solution Provider 500: The Top 50 crn.com 2016-06-06 16:00 CRN Staff www.crn.com
5 How not to panic in an IT security crisis Every breach of your network or denial of service attack is serious, but it’s not necessarily a crisis. A crisis is Sony Entertainment’s servers being wiped. A crisis is Ashley Madison’s membership being exposed. And sooner or later, warns Chris Williams, chief cybersecurity architect of Virginia-based systems integrator Leidos Holdings, IT leaders in every organization will face a heightened security situation. When that happens, he told infosec pros Wednesday in Toronto at the SC Congress conference, they’d better be prepared – and prepared to keep calm. “Until we embrace the new paradigms of cybersecurity, this (a crisis) is probably going to be a future trend.” The co-author of the textbook “Enterprise Security,” Williams likens what IT will face to playing baseball and it’s raining baseballs – and people will be dropping the ball everywhere. “When you run into a crisis you are going to run off the end of your contingency plans. Your plans will not have accounted for this because it is so dire that your engineers didn’t even consider it was worth thinking about.” That’s when IT leaders have to be open to new ways of thinking – and the sooner the better. “Your organization has been optimized for normal operation, meaning it has been streamlined … to be lean and efficient, which means there is little to no excess capacity to accommodate a crisis.” The organization, – especially middle managers — will be overloaded the leadership gave general direction and will be running around trying to make it happen. They won’t have the bandwidth to make educated decisions, which creates a bottleneck. So lateral communication will be key. Manager won’t have time to give guidance to everyone, because they’ll be running in and out of meetings, so directions will go to one report who will have to spread the word. Among his pieces of advice: –When you think you’re over your head, the scope is more than you can handle in a day or it will cost a lot to recover that’s point to make a preliminary report to senior management. It should include what you know, what you don’t know, what is understood about the attacker, what will be required to stabilize the situation, what required to resolve the situation, what help should be called in immediately to start the response’ –figure out what management needs to know. It will help to make a chart that says what IT’s goals/milestones for recovery are and how far you are right now in achieving it; –if you have to quickly write an RFP to hire a third party for help and are unprepared, don’t be afraid to ask them for help on the terms. A good contractor will understand your situation and say, ‘Here’s what you should be asking of me.’ Better that than a poorly drafted RFP; –money is your friend – in fact it may be the only resource that is easily obtained. Money can buy resources, expertise, free up your staff, buy service to get business restored; –take care of your people. (In fact, he says, if possible use HR or other staff while they wait for their systems to come back online.) They’ll need backup relief, food, daycare, dry cleaning. Make sure they don’t burn out, so establish work schedules and enforce them; —-there will be a tension between security and IT that has to be managed. IT wants everything up. Security wants everything locked down. Manage this by “maximum allowable risk” doing things ‘quick and dirty’ and then build from that to getting back to full operating capacity. There are five factors in crisis operations, he said: Plan (you have to have a plan to get an organization to do something, otherwise you’ll be paralized); Process (need processes for co-ordination and communication. Perhaps a war room). Prioritization (you can’t do everything at once. What goes up first: Operations, infrastructure, contingency systems, communications?) Parallelism (put all available resources to productive work); Sequencing (have to get the network up before the virtual machines). In an interview Williams said the worse mistake organizations make in a crisis is not bringing in help. “They chose not to get help either because they don’t know exactly what they need or subordinates are scared to ask because they know it will cost money or will take work.” Instead they try to work through the crisis, miss goals and the recovery falters. But he also said the CEO, CIO and CISO have to work together to keep business, IT and security recovery risks balanced. A good compromise, he added, is when all three are equally dissatisfied with how the recovery is going, because it’s likely the three areas are balanced. Above all, he said, “Think about crisis planning now, before it’s a crisis.”
2016-06-07 03:33 Howard Solomon www.itworldcanada.com
6 CB Insights co-founder muses on what enterprises can learn from startup culture The death of enterprises is a certain reality by not: investing in a startup mentality , executing with agility and promoting exponential change. The change stemming from the Second Machine Age (from MIT professors Brynjolfsson and McAfee) and The Fourth Industrial Revolution (by professor Klaus Schwab founding executive chairman of the World Economic Forum). As enterprises, a transformation of your business model is required. As an example, this is happening with GE and their new multi-modal factory where at one location, they service multiple industries at ten percent of the cost and with 3D printing producing jet engines with a jet fuel nozzle five times more durable and at lower weight. The nozzle used to be made of twenty different parts welded together. Custom equipment breakdowns in the past could take months to fix however with continuous innovation in manufacturing, fixes and new processes are implemented in days. Enterprises are also creating investment funds and internal incubators as evidenced by Lenovo’s recent announcement of their $500 million USD investment fund. This is a hedge against external disruption coming from startups. How do you learn from startups, make the proper investments for competitive advantage and what is the current and future investment landscape? Anand Sanwal provides these answers and more through CB Insights. I caught up with Anand for a chat to gain his advice. I referenced their research in my keynote at the largest international conference on software engineering, ICSE , held late May in Austin Texas with principal funding by the National Science Foundation, the four largest international science organizations in software engineering (ACM, IEEE CS, SIGSOFT, TCSE) and by all the major vendors. Next week I am in Africa as keynote doing the same. Who is Anand Sanwal? Anand Sanwal is the CEO and Co-Founder of CB Insights , a National Science Foundation-backed data platform that provides predictive intelligence into the health of private companies, their investors and the emerging industries they compete in. Customers include Cisco, NEA, Gartner, Marketo, Redhat and Castrol to name a few. Prior to founding CB Insights, Anand managed the $50 million Chairman’s Innovation Fund at American Express. And prior to that he worked at Kozmo.com; one of NYC’s most infamous dot com flameouts. He has degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and in finance and accounting from the Wharton School of Business. To listen to the interview, you can go to the non-profit ACM Learning Center podcasts or click on this MP3 file link in the learning centre Here are extracts from the full interview: Ibaraki : Anand, you managed the $50 million Chairman’s Innovation Fund at American Express. What are some of the lessons that you can share from that time? Sanwal: I would say the biggest lesson from the Chairman’s Innovation Fund [besides getting access to some really interesting technologies, companies and things that were happening at the cutting edge of financial services], was this gem of an idea that eventually came – to see the insight that the private markets [which are massive], are incredibly opaque and there’s an opportunity to fix that. Ibaraki: What experiences shape your decisions today from your work at Kozmo.com? Sanwal: I learned a lot about business fundamentals. The very simplest one is that you can’t buy something for $2 and sell it for $1 and hope that eventually things will work out. There are certain economic rules that you cannot defy and ultimately I think Kozmo tried to defy them for longer than they had runway for and the company ended up failing. Ibaraki: What prompted you to create CB Insights? Sanwal: We saw this idea when managing the Innovation Fund that we were making these very big strategic decisions for the company about where we should go, markets to think about or what areas to innovate in and potentially where to invest, and we were doing it with really incomplete information, so part of it was we saw this market need…. The second part was always wanting to do my own thing…. So the combination of an idea with this desire to start something led me to leave relatively suddenly. A few folks on my team subsequently joined me after leaving and we became the founding team of CB Insights. Ibaraki: Where do you see CB Insights in five years and the predictive insights you can provide for start-ups, investors, established companies, governments, academia, and media? Sanwal: We think with machine learning and data we can help them make better decisions, so to some degree you can think of us like an algorithmic McKinsey. Over the next five years I think it’s realizing that vision and helping our clients generally in the global 5000 make these very important strategic decisions with data not with the traditional gut instinct and Google searches and guys with MBA’s that they are relying on today. Ibaraki: In order, what do you see as the five top emerging industries and why? Sanwal: I think one of the hottest areas right now is artificial intelligence and deep learning…. Digital health continues to be a really hot space…. Other big areas are in what we call frontier tech [things like augmented reality, virtual reality and drones]…. The other one that is sort of related is the area of robotics…. I think the fifth area that there is still a lot of room in and a lot of hype as well is the area of autonomous vehicles. Ibaraki: In order, what do you see as some of the top declining industries and why? Sanwal: I’m hesitant to say that these industries are declining. We tend to look at the data obviously, so when we look at where the money is flowing what we see are shifts in and out of industries…. e-commerce broadly and within e- commerce there’s areas like subscription commerce and flash sales that I think work. That sentiment four years ago was extremely hot but the exits haven’t been borne out…. Ed Tech is another big area where I think there is always a lot of chatter about the massive opportunity within education…. Cyber-security [which may be a little bit surprising], is a really big area but the challenge right now is it is basically over-funded and as a result I’m not sure that there’s a whole lot of opportunities. Ibaraki: What are some of the outlier innovations now that could be very disruptive in five years? In 15 years? Sanwal: I think this idea of artificial intelligence supplied to different industries is going to be incredibly disruptive…. Things like augmented reality, virtual reality and how that gets used [everything from training scenarios to entertainment and travel eventually], these are technology platforms that can re-invent how people interact and consume media and entire industries. I think those are big ones. Drones are another big one in terms of how many diverse applications they have. Ibaraki: What about FinTech – what will dominate beyond 5 years to 15 years? Sanwal: I think this idea of programmatic investing for the consumer to lower fees is one that’s going to take hold for a long time. There are going to be some casualties in these spaces, but there are going to be a lot of interesting companies that come out of that world…. Payments is a big area where I think there is a lot of room for disruption…. The other big one is insurance; a massive industry with billions or trillions of dollars kind of floating around and it really hasn’t been touched by technology in a big way. Ibaraki: What about AI – what will dominate in the future in this whole area of artificial intelligence? Sanwal: It’s hard to know all of the applications in the future…. People are trying to build platforms in technology that are good at enabling AI and I think those enabling technologies are going to be really important. Then there are these more functionally specific AI tools – so there are companies trying to be your personal assistant, or there are companies that are going to try to help you court Facebook, or what other folks are doing like ask a question and we’ll get you an answer. So I think there are going to be these very specific use cases and over time these use cases will get more sophisticated as the technology improves. Ibaraki: Can you profile the investment trends from 2015 and forecast into 2016 and 2017? Sanwal: 2015 was a gargantuan year for funding into start-up companies…. The first 3 Quarters of the year were really up, Q4 was where we saw Sentiment really dip. It happened a bit early but it was driven by a few things…. What happened in Q4 we never called a bubble and I don’t think we are in a bubble. What we are looking at is probably a healthy correction that we are undergoing right now that’s going to persist for a while. That said in the first two months of this year there have been eight new unicorns that have joined the club…. If you are an early stage company it’s probably where you are going to be more challenged. It’s the ones that are a little bit more in the middle of the pack who a year ago would have gotten funding [when the environment was so robust]; they are going to have some challenges in this current environment. So we are going to have more of those companies fail or get acquired for talent or just shut down just because there is less money out there. Ibaraki: One of the things that you’ve been providing through your newsletter is tracking some of these companies’ start-ups with 1 Billion plus valuation. You talked about some of the trends already but can you get into more detail about them? Sanwal: We have 153 unicorns today worth I think 535 Billion dollars – that’s pretty significant value ascribed to these companies [all paper valuation, these aren’t realized valuations of course]. I think what we are seeing amongst these is pretty broad-based. You have enterprise companies, consumer companies and FinTech companies [cross-sector, it’s not just one sector that’s hot]…. You also see diversity in terms of geography. Obviously the Valley remains the epicenter for this type of innovation but there’s a lot happening globally as well. Ibaraki: You see in the news some of the write-downs that I guess the institutional investors or maybe Hedge funds are doing. What’s your take on that? Sanwal: I think some of the markdowns will make sense, but looking at them on a month-to-month basis it’s hard to know how valuable they are until we know what the basis is for making those markdowns. Ibaraki: There are these investors out there and there are start-ups and a number of criteria that go into if they are going to do the investments. Where do you see machine learning [as a tool] in all of this ability to fund start-ups? Sanwal: My honest reaction when I hear about most of the things machine learning applied to start-ups and venture capital is, to be very frank, most of it is vapour. I haven’t seen anybody really do it super thoughtfully. I think it’s good for PR. Ibaraki: What things continue to excite you? Sanwal: We have some really amazing things we are working on and I’m excited about what we have going on here…. The other thing that continues to excite me – there’s a lot of chatter about a bubble every time some banal app gets funded. People say that people aren’t working on hard problems but the reality is that for every one of those there’s also somebody who is trying to do something that is pretty impactful. I’m excited that we get to be at the forefront of tracking that and hopefully advising people using our data on how they can do it better as well…. As the organization grows, I’m excited to see who steps up and becomes a leader within the organization, and there’s a lot of things culturally at CB Insights that I’m excited about and maybe a bit anxious to see how they evolve. Ibaraki: What makes an entrepreneur? Sanwal: I guess somebody who has got enough confidence and the desire to want to try something and leave the safety net of employment, college or wherever they might be to try something out. I think that’s probably the core requirement of an entrepreneur. Ibaraki: What do you look for when highlighting investments? Sanwal: Referring to our research blog and things that we put out…. I think we are trying to help people understand where the world is going. It’s almost less about the investment and more about the underlying trend. I think if we can help shine a light on them that’s part of our job, using data and within that we try to find interesting companies. We start with trying to understand the spaces that we think are interesting and the companies sort of come out of that as a consequence. Ibaraki: What makes a great executive? Sanwal: To be honest, I’m still figuring it out. I think the thing that I’m starting to realize is resource allocation is probably the number one skill that you need to have. I think a lot of people want to hear that term when they think of money, but I think resource allocation is time and attention; these are all things that are finite when figuring out where you are going to be. Ibaraki: Agility is key today whether with a start-up or launching a new product or service within a larger enterprise. The start-up mentality is required. What are the key steps for successful start-ups or for enterprises when producing innovations to keep them competitive? Sanwal: I think with big companies there are two parts: developing a product or technology or a service, and then there is the ‘nail it and the scale it’ part. Fundamentally big companies have to realize they aren’t necessarily good at the nail it part…. When I look at big corporations I think how do they play to their strengths which are in scaling and distribution and marketing and other things? How do they work well with start-ups to bring things to market that will make them more competitive, and how do they track industries and things that are happening that could be disruptive to their business and have that open mindset? I think it’s easy for big companies to dismiss start- ups. I think the big challenge for corporations [besides the structural ones] is really the mindset one. Are they really open to these things or are they going to talk about all the reasons they are better than the start-ups? We hear that a lot. That they have a bigger balance sheet, understand risk management better, have a better brand and all these things, but those are not etched in stone. A lot of companies have had those things and failed so that is something that I think corporations have to be mindful of. Ibaraki: What are the key attributes in individual and teams that produce winning products and services? Sanwal: As a start-up, are you listening to customers? I think there is explicit feedback that customers give you and there is the implicit feedback they give you when they ask questions or when they are using your product. Are you learning from that and building solutions that help solve those problems? I think what is really important is talking to customers about those pain points, versus trying to cook up something in your head that you think they want…. I think it is really important to have access to and have conversations with customers, and ensuring those conversations are happening across different parts of your organization. It’s not just the founders but hopefully the engineers and biz/dev and customer success and collectively getting what I think is a really good perspective of what the customers want. Ibaraki: I know that you have a lot of analysis on start-ups that have failed. Can you talk about that more and some of the attributes of failing start-ups? Sanwal: We analyzed about 150 post-mortems written by founders…. When we surveyed all these post-mortems, interestingly, the number one reason that the founders cited was that they built something the market didn’t want.
2016-06-07 03:33 Stephen Ibaraki www.itworldcanada.com
7 #ITWCchats Twitter Chat Recap: Will state- sanctioned hacks make encryption irrelevant? A discussion on the future of privacy Update: Thanks again to Nandini Jolly of CryptoMill Technologies Inc. and Laura Tribe of Open Media , and all other participants of our Twitter chat today. The recap with some of the most interesting points have been added to the story below. If 2015 was the year of the hack, then 2016 is the year privacy and encryption squared off against national security. We saw it with Apple’s dispute with the FBI over creating backdoors on its iPhone devices , then we saw it with BlackBerry’s compliance with the RCMP in giving the latter its global encryption key for its consumer devices. Now we are seeing it with U. S. Supreme court giving the FBI more hacking powers, potentially to go cross-border. It’s hard to imagine that in the span of months, all the world’s data suddenly seems to be up for grabs. At IT World Canada , we want to have a discussion around the future of data and privacy. When companies and governments can simply demand or hand over data on a whim, is there a purpose to encryption? What becomes of data sovereignty now that cross-border hacking is state sanctioned? The May 31 chat included following guest experts: Join us on Tues. May 31, from 1 to 2 p.m. ET. We’ll be using the hashtag #ITWCchats. If this is your first time participating, check out this video on how to take part in a Twitter chat. The questions are listed below, so feel free to join in with your own answers. See you there. Q1. What is your reaction to revelations of BlackBerry giving the RCMP the encryption key to its consumer devices? #ITWCchats Q2. What were your thoughts on how BlackBerry responded when these revelations were made public? #ITWCchats Q3. Is there something Canadian about how BlackBerry & Rogers complied with RCMP vs how Apple publicly refused FBI backdoor? #ITWCchats Q4. Are we, in 2016, at a tipping point where public/businesses/regulators must directly address boundaries of security vs privacy? #ITWCchats Q5. What, to you, is reasonable access to data by government or law enforcement? What checks & balances are needed? #ITWCchats Q6. How could law enforcement minimize harm? I.e. target individual users of devices/servers/data centres vs. manufacturers? #ITWCchats Q7. Should there be a distinction made between handling consumer data and corporate data, as BlackBerry has done? #ITWCchats Q8. Are governments sending the wrong message by sanctioning hacks? I.e. that encryption is becoming irrelevant? #ITWCchats Q9. Should our or other governments raise data sovereignty concerns over US Supreme Court enabling FBI cross-border hacking? #ITWCchats Q10. How should businesses act in the absence of clear legal boundaries in terms of client encryption, compliance, or advocacy? #ITWCchats
2016-06-07 02:25 Dave Yin www.itworldcanada.com
8 Q&A: What are the cloud computing challenges around data sovereignty in Canada? Data access and privacy are often considered key concerns for Canadians enterprises looking at cloud computing to improve operations by having business data hosted by a third party. This is particularly true in the face of a rising trend of stricter data compliance controls and measures in the face of global data privacy and surveillance news. Cogeco Peer 1’s Ben Young is responsible for the firm’s day-to-day legal activities — including abuse-monitoring and legal compliance, privacy, risk management, and contract management. Young spoke with IT World Canada’s security-focused publication CSO Digital to discuss the data sovereignty issues, trends, and challenges for Canada. What are the data sovereignty challenges? This is a constantly evolving subject. To a certain extent, there are a lot of options out there now that weren’t necessarily there five years ago. Companies are getting much more sophisticated on the vendor and the customer side about both privacy and security issues. And the terms privacy and security should be segregated — they are not the same thing. When we are talking about surveillance, we are talking about a privacy world. But security is something that has really evolved — companies are both asking more questions and demanding more of their service providers. But they are also hiring internal IT experts that can take the security aspects of the solution into their own hands. It’s a challenge for Canadian companies and organizations that are actually concerned about keeping their underlying data in Canada. We see it all the time: it’s dictated by having government clients (for example) or clients who want to avoid U. S. jurisdiction. What are the practical challenges? There are not a lot of providers out there that can and will guarantee data sovereignty. The challenge is actually around trying to keep underlying data physically stored within the Canadian border. And taken one step further, transport and transit services provided natively in Canada is very challenging for companies to guarantee, mostly because of the international presence they have. Often, Canadian companies have a heavy U. S. focus, particularly companies with subsidiaries or affiliates in the States, and the physical transport of the services may rely of third parties who may route it through the U. S., or they may have support staff located abroad. One way to address that is to ask questions: try to incorporate, as much as you can, the company’s stated position in the provider contract. Companies should know what the risks are and should be asking those questions. One other data sovereignty challenge is the Canadian government’s response to privacy and security in general in Canada. Last year, we saw it significantly weakened by the outgoing Conservative government. We saw Bill C-51 weaken the overall principled stance the Canadian government had historically taken on privacy. Why should the Canadian IT sector be at the forefront in the efforts to push for reform around government surveillance? I would argue that everyone should be on the forefront of these efforts and should be political about this. For Canada in particular, the public outcry over Bill C-51 was important. I think even for the Liberal government — who voted for the bill going into the election season — they had an odd position to support the bill and then reform it once they got elected. I think we need to keep the pressure on for the new government to address these issues in a way that the public clearly wants to be addressed. We’ve seen people take to the streets on this; this is a step in the right direction and I think the Canadian IT sector lends a lot of credibility to these types of issues. But we need to keep the pressure on — the government has responded to this historically, and I think will do so again. How do Canadian data residency and sovereignty laws compare to other nations? Is this improving? Canada has traditionally been viewed as having the strongest privacy laws in the world. Especially when it comes to the collection and dissemination of personal information of its citizens. At least in the terms of public perception, the Canadian government has even used its strong privacy protections as a point of pride and even differentiation. You’re hearing a lot in the news about the EU data directive and U. S. Safe Harbour agreement that the Department of Commerce has had in place for years. It’s important to remember that the reason why Canada was not affected by that was that Canada was one of the countries deemed to have privacy protections in place that were at least as strong as what was in place in the EU. This has allowed businesses and other entities to transfer personal information on EU citizens to Canada without having another agreement in place. That is a testament to the strong laws Canada has had in place with respect to the privacy of its citizens. What security best practices do you recommend for organizations looking at a cloud-based platform solution? There’s a new breed of Internet user — this applies to IT organizations — and the market has really responded to this with a host of products, and even revisions to existing products like hosting and colocation services that are really focused on the security aspect. That’s what is demanded of companies these days; this is generally a good thing but it also puts a huge burden on organizations to review and select products that might be right for them. The corresponding trend is that you are seeing organizations hiring professional partners that really understand this and aren’t just reacting to Snowden or the big data breach of the day. These partners really understand what’s right for them. In terms of what practices to recommend, my biggest point is that while it is important to trust your service provider — asking them questions, holding them accountable, and forcing them to publicly disclose what their practices are — it’s misplaced to let this be a substitute for an organization’s own judgment about how to handle security of the data. Organizations need to adopt these security best practices on their own. Should organizations be solely looking at solutions that ensure private data is stored on local servers? There really isn’t one-size-fits-all solution for this. I tend to give a very hedging answer on this, but a lot of businesses and people have specialized concerns about their data. Organizations need to be asking and understanding the underlying threats to the data: is the company even concerned about surveillance tactics? They may not be, and that’s fine. While I obviously take a pro-privacy stance, cost and convenience are certainly valid factors and should be weighed in an IT or organizational budget against the actual or perceived threats to the company’s business model and underlying data. This interview has been condensed and edited. This article first appeared in the May 2016 issue of CSO Digital
2016-06-07 04:42 Ryan Patrick www.itworldcanada.com
9 Canadian threat exchange vows to give unique value to members Threat intelligence exchanges OK, but most prefer to receive intel rather than give New threat intelligence sharing site to open for all Canadian firms Executives from two of the country’s biggest enterprises behind the fledgling Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange say the service will help Canadian organizations of all sizes better fight the mounting amount of malware and breaches they face. Threat sharing “is a powerful tool,” Glenn Foster, senior vice-president and head of technology risk managment and information security at TD Bank , told infosec pros in Toronto on Wednesday at the annual SC Congress conference. He said knows because Canadian banks have had their own private threat exchange for almost two decades. Cyber crime is cheap for nation-states and criminals, he said, in part because they share intelligence — so the private and public sector should too. “With CCTX I think being an enabler for us is going to be extending that value proposition across Canada to all connected entities to really flip that cost curve. So now at the end of the day our job is to make it more expensive for the adversary to be successful in what they’re doing.” Colin Penny, senior vice-president of technology and chief information officer at Ontario’s Hydro One power distributor, said Canadian electric utilities – who have their own threat exchange – can contribute their knowledge about vulnerabilities in network-connected industrial controls to other industries such as manufacturing and transportation. “As with any other complex system we’re only as strong as our weakest link. So it’s very important that and cross-sector collaboration and information sharing across the entire supply chain big and small in our sector brings the bar up for everybody. It’s not about the largest that can afford it should be the most protected, it’s that everybody should be protected.” Both are on the nine-person board of the CCTX, announced last December to give municipalities, regions and the private sector the ability to join a threat exchange that only few – like banks and utilities – have set up. Also meeting the infosec community this week at SC Congress and at the Anti-Phishing Working Group’s Toronto conference was the CCTX’s new executive director Robert Gordon, a former senior official at Public Safety Canada who helped design the government’s cyber threat strategy and a former senior civil servant at the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), the country’s electronic spy agency, and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). Most recently he was a director in the global cybersecurity service at consulting and integration firm CGI. In fact when he was with Public Safety Gordon helped get the private sector companies together to sketch the outline of the exchange when Ottawa heard firms were talking about the idea just under two years ago. Gordon told both conferences the non-profit CCTX expects to go online at the end of this year, largely for enterprise-sized companies who will pay $50,000 a year for service and the right to contribute. In addition to the nine initial supporting enterprises, he hopes to add 20 more by then. Early in 2017 service for small ($5,000 a year) and medium-sized ($20,000) companies will be available. Organizations can join for free and get more limited services. Meanwhile CCTX expects to shortly pick an IT platform that will handle the data exchange and collaboration capabilites, and a managed security service provider that will host it. Still to be worked out before the end of the year are exactly what services will be offered to enterprises and SMB members – and Gordon said CCTX would fail if SMBs don’t see value in it. So far Gordon has said threat data will be exchanged in near-real time through protocols like TAXII and STIX for those that can handle it, with all data will be anonomized – privacy will be an essential element, he added. There will also be threat trend reports and the ability for security analysts to collaborate across sectors, particularly if they are looking at the same threat. For others there will be the ability to form so-called communities of trust for infosec pros, as well as security training courses. For security named members to the exchange will be vetted, with Gordon suggesting the federal government could play a role. Both Gordon and Foster emphasized they expect paying members to contribute to the exchange and not merely take data from it. There are some who wonder if having another source of threat information added to the ones they already subscribe to will merely add “noise” not substance. That was one question thrown at Gordon, Foster and Penny by John Del Grande, director of architecture and information security solutions at President’s Choice Financial, the retail banking arm of Loblaws. Gordon said that CCTX doesn’t want to duplicate the work of other international threat exchanges and analysis centres it will link to, and will provide “unique value.” “The power of CCTX is going to be the communities, the people,” added Foster, with cross-sector communities putting in “sweat equity.” CCTX will also stress Canadian content, he said. In an interview Del Grande said “I’m worried about the noise that comes through because we already have a hard time sorting through all the threat intel that comes in, in terms of what’s valid and what’s not … Now you’ll be getting stuff from cross-industry, which is a good but it’s going to add significantly to more things to filter through, potentially more one-0f things to look at, more false leads. That’s still a concern for me.” Showing value will be “critically important,” Gordon said. “CCTX is taking money from companies, they’d better see some value. So I think broadly defined somehow we’ve got to be reducing the risk factor coming through the door so companies should be getting information they can actually action to reduce that threat.”
2016-06-07 04:42 Howard Solomon www.itworldcanada.com
10 JavaScript has gone bad, beating out macros as top choice for spreading malware and ransomware It’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s edged out macros embedded in Microsoft Office as the number one way to spread malware through email messages: Over the past month, researchers at Proofpoint Inc. have spotted a new trend in malicious email campaigns: attached JavaScript files . Threat actors have been using attached Microsoft Office files with embedded malicious macros for years , said Bryan Burns, the company’s vice president of threat research in a telephone interview. Users have become savvy to the hazards of opening a.exe file attached to emails, but the use of JavaScript – not to be confused with Java – has only ever been used occasionally. Until now. The use of.js files to spread ransomware and malware has spiked dramatically in the past two months, said Burns, with campaigns appearing in unprecedented volumes with hundreds of millions of messages being sent across Proofpoint’s customer base. In the past three months, he said, JavaScript has been the first choice of threat actors to spread malware. Part of the reason is that education has made users much less likely to click on a .exe file – they know better. “The click rates have dropped down to the point where it’s not an effective technique,” said Burns. Couple that education with effective security technology that scans and catches malicious files before they reach the user, and threat actors just aren’t getting the same bang for their buck. Creating an executable is complicated, noted Burns. “It’s difficult to develop malware with.” JavaScript allows malware makers to make efficient use of their time, and it’s easier change their scripts every couple of days to keep ahead of scanning technology. Office files with nasty macros remain the number two vector for threat actors, having become popular a couple of years ago, but Burns said JavaScript has taken over in the past two months in terms of message volume. It’s still the same threat actors, he said, with two primary objectives: getting Trojans into major financial institutions and getting ransomware into enterprises to hold their business files hostage, particularly those likely to use Microsoft Office 365. Burns said the simplest approach to address this malicious JavaScript trend is to block .js files as they would an .exe. file. “We encourage customers to treat JavaScript attachments like they treat an executable.” He said a good email gateway will include a policy engine to support a security stance to defend against JavaScript attacks. “It’s going to be more reliable than making sure your user base does the right thing 100 per cent of the time.” Blocking .js files through messaging platforms is unlikely to affect productivity, noted Burns, as developers who work with legitimate JavaScript files are likely to share them through collaborative repositories. As for why threat actors have chose now to leverage JavaScript, Burns said there’s no way of knowing. “I would love to interview them.” Ultimately, they will use whatever makes installing malware easiest because that’s how they make their living. “If world is adapting, they are going to move to the next thing,” he said. “We definitely see them experimenting with different things.”
2016-06-07 04:42 Gary Hilson www.itworldcanada.com
11 Canada should be prepared for “unprecedented” levels of cyber risk, warns ex-CSIS official If you think that $500 billion in worldwide cyber crime is a problem now, brace yourself. It’s about to get even more intense, said speakers Tuesday at a panel discussion at the Tech Day on Parliament Hill , organized by TechConnex and Northof41. “I’ve never seen it at this velocity and level of complexity in my 30 years in security,” said Ray Boisvert, the president and CEO of I-Sec Integrated Strategies and a senior associate at communications firm Hill & Knowlton Strategies. Boisvert should know. He’s also the former assistant director for intelligence at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). He noted that technology trends are a contributing factor in the escalating level of cyber threats. The proliferation of devices, the Internet of Things (IoT), virtualization and the growth in data are overwhelming our defences, he said. As well, there are increasing opportunities for email cyber fraud based on information collected from social media. Boisvert presented a current snapshot of the impact of cyber crime. He said that 600 million people have been affected, often through the theft of personal identity or a blackmail computer lockdown scheme. “It’s a traumatic event that you never want to go through,” he said. For businesses, 74 per cent have been compromised by cyber events. The health care sector is heavily targeted, Boisvert said, with 81 cent of its executives admitting to a network breach. The tech industry should pay attention to the fact that 90 per cent of executives say they can’t read a cyber security report, he added. This needs to be addressed given that it can take an average of $1 million and five days to recover from a cyber event. At its root, Boisvert said, “the advantage is in the hands of the attacker.” Insider facilitation is a big problem, sometimes deliberate, but also by the unwitting employee who clicks on a suspicious link. However, the most significant threats are by organized crime groups. “It’s a low-risk, high-yield approach. The Internet has been bountiful for them,” he said. Prevention is the first priority to combat cyber threats, said Boisvert, given that about 80 per cent of malware is low level and can be prevented from entering your network. It’s also important to focus on early detection because the average dwell time is over 200 days, a long time for someone to be sitting on your network, he warned. Panel members outlined three priority areas. The skills shortage is an important issue, said Tyson Macaulay, chief security strategist and vice president of security Services at Fortinet. He pointed to the recent attacks reported by the global bank transfer co- operative, SWIFT, where hackers targeted banks in countries with acute skills shortages. Automated solutions could help fill that void, he noted. We need to use data analytics to identify serious threats inside a network, said Patrick Patterson, President and CEO of Carillon Information Security. “If you look back at well known hacks,” he said, “People were drowning in alerts. The question is to determine what’s important.” Analytics can be used, in real time, to sort through massive amounts of data to identify abnormal behaviour in the network. Raising the bar in the use of credentials has to be a priority, said Grant Woodward, Public Safety and Defence Specialist at SAS. “We can make social engineering harder by eliminating the use of usernames and passwords in Canada,” he said. Woodward suggested other approaches should be adopted, such as two-factor authentication, the U. S. standard (FIPS 201), and attribute-based access controls. The federal government has been responding in a coordinated way, according to Erin O’Toole, the Conservative Member of Parliament for Durham. But, he stressed that “vital partnerships” will be a critical area for the new government. “For Canadians, there is more impact on our lives if there are disruptions in our financial services or critical infrastructure,” O’Toole said. The government also needs to examine recent regulatory changes in Europe and the U. S., said Patterson. Canada needs to ensure that it is keeping pace so that businesses are not put in a disadvantaged position. While the rapid growth in cyber attacks is a serious threat, the panelists also noted that there are significant business opportunities for innovative approaches to deal with the problem. “All of us would agree that it will affect our future prosperity as a nation,” said Boisvert.
2016-06-07 04:42 Cindy Baker www.itworldcanada.com
12 Best 4K Blu-rays GoPro, Pixpro, or Ricoh? You can spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a 360-degree camera. We tested three of them to find out what kind of quality and ease of use you can expect at each price point.
2016-06-07 03:42 Ty Pendlebury www.cnet.com
13 13 Private sector should lead Canada’s cyber security strategy, say experts
In the global war against crime Canada is one of a number of countries with a national cyber strategy, aimed at strengthening important departments and working with the private sector to shore up critical infrastructure. But two security experts told a conference Thursday that businesses, not Ottawa, should be leading the charge. But they also laid the blame for the country’s poor cyber security at the executive floor. “We (infosec pros) feel it’s difficult to convince upper management something should be done,” Jason Murray, senior manager for cyber security at consulting firm MNP LLP, told the SC Congress conference in Toronto on Canada’s cyber strategy. “They’re not listening to us. They get it, they just don’t need to do anything about it. “They’re accumulating technical debt. Every year they don’t spend enough on information security they’re adding to the debt and hoping that when the debt comes due they’re not around to take the fall … The market should punish these people, just like they were accumulating financial debt… and they would go out of business.” However, he admitted, few companies – even those suffering huge breaches like Home Depot – lose customers over the long term. But he also complained organizations “are not doing the basic hygene stuff… I go in there (to customers) and assess against the PCI (Payment Card Industry security) framework or the critical controls framework … and they’re scoring 40 per cent at best.” Fellow panellist Peter Sloty, a former Toronto deputy police chief and now an executive director at Deloitte Canada, agreed the responsibility is on the private sector’s shoulders. “If a private entity is having a (digital) hygene factor, that’s leadership from the C-suite, and the shop floor as well. This could cost jobs, it could cost clients, it could cost value and reputation as well.” But both also credited Ottawa with passing a law requiring organizations coming under federal privacy law to notify customers and partners of breaches where there is risk of significant harm to victims. The federal privacy commissioner will also have to be notified. The regulations around breach notification are still being ironed out and it is not expected to come into force until 2017. Breach disclosure “is a great lever” for action, Sloty said. Recently made mandatory in Australia, he noted, it has “put a real burning platform under CEOs” to get security right. Canada’s cyber security strategy includes a wide range of efforts. The Harper government announced an action plan in 2013 which included working with the provinces, municipalities and the private sector to improve IT security in a number of sectors, a plan the Trudeau government has adopted in its first budget. The strategy includes the Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre , a Public Safety Canada web site with many resources and the encouragement of the fledgling Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange (CTTX). The exchange is expected to go live in December. However, Murray said organizations shouldn’t rush to join the exchange if they don’t have the capability to make use of the near real-time data feeds it will offer. He also called for federal funding to help train more infosec professionals. “We need people, we need processes, we need tech, we need all of that.” Sloty called for a host of cyber security centres of excellence across the country. In an interview Murray said there has to be a “carrot and stick” approach to Canada’s cyber security strategy, with mandatory breach notification being one of the sticks.
2016-06-07 02:25 Howard Solomon www.itworldcanada.com
14 Lenovo Expands Networking, Storage, Server Portfolios The company is leveraging partnerships with Juniper, Intel, Nutanix and others to build out its data center infrastructure offerings. Lenovo officials are continuing to partner with other tech vendors and software makers as they expand the company's data center infrastructure portfolio. The company on June 6 unveiled new server, storage, networking and hyperconverged infrastructure offerings that expand on executives' strategy to make the Chinese tech vendor a larger player in the $87 billion data center technology space through a combination of in-house development and outside partnerships. Lenovo has looked to accelerate its capabilities in the space since buying IBM's x86 server business two years ago for $2.3 billion, a move that immediately made the company the world's third-largest server maker. Company officials are looking to create a portfolio of data center solutions that use partnerships from established tech vendors and startups and Lenovo's own products to bring emerging technologies to customers. "This dramatically expanded portfolio is a powerful demonstration of Lenovo's commitment to creating purposeful data center innovation in a truly open ecosystem," Tom Shell, senior vice president of Lenovo's Data Center Product Group, said in a statement. Many of the new offerings will be on display at the company's TechWorld event in San Francisco June 9. Lenovo is quickly growing out its capabilities in the storage segment of the market. The company launched a new software-defined storage (SDS) appliance program called StorSelect, starting with systems created through partnerships with Nexenta Systems and Cloudian to bring their SDS software to Lenovo's x86 server hardware systems. The new DX8200N will use Nexenta's open-source SDS software to support unified file and block storage for scale-up deployments, leveraging all-flash, hybrid and spinning drives. It builds on a partnership with Nexenta that Lenovo officials announced in March, when they first said Lenovo was integrating Nexenta's products into their x86 servers. The DX8200C is an object-based storage appliance that will use Cloudian's SDS software and will target large scale-out environments. Both systems will begin shipping in the third quarter. Separate from the StorSelect program, Lenovo officials announced the V- Series lineup to 12Gb storage-area network (SAN) offerings, which will feature the company's first Lenovo-branded midrange storage systems. The V3700 V2 and V5030 are hybrid and all-flash SAN offerings that will begin shipping this month. Lenovo also is pushing to expand its networking capabilities, which includes a new network operating system and a new reseller agreement around Ethernet switches with Juniper Networks. The two companies in March announced they were teaming up to develop hyperconverged data center s ystems that will combined Lenovo's strength in x86 systems and Juniper's networking expertise. Now Lenovo will resell Juniper's EX2300 and EX4550 Ethernet switches and the QFX10002-72Q data center spine aggregation switch as part of lineup of integrated systems that will include Lenovo's data center access products. Those will be available in the third quarter. The two vendors also jointly published a virtualized data center reference architecture that is designed to enable customers to more easily build solutions that use products from both Lenovo and Juniper. In addition, Lenovo released Lenovo Cloud NOS, a network OS that brings resiliency, programmability and cloud-level scalability to customer networks, according to officials. Customers can start downloading its June 17. In hyperconverged infrastructure, Lenovo is leveraging its partnership with Nutanix , which sells software for hyperconverged environments, to expand its portfolio of HX series appliances based on its x86 server products. The new appliances, which will run Nutanix's Xpress software, include the HX1000 Series for remote office/branch office (ROBO) settings and the HX2000 Series for small and midsize businesses (SMBs), which was first announced in May. In addition, Lenovo officials said the company is integrating its latest servers into the HX3000 Series of hyperconverged appliances aimed at virtual desktop infrastructures (VDI) and smaller virtualized workloads and the HX5000 Series, which is optimized for server virtualization environments. They will be available in the third quarter. Lenovo also is upgrading its x3850 and x3950 X6 servers with Intel's latest Xeon E7 8800/4800 v4 processors, which the chip maker also announced June 6. The new chips support up to 12TB of memory, which means systems powered by them fit well in mission-critical environments running such workloads as in-memory applications, large virtualization projects and big data analytics, officials said. They will be available this month. The four-socket x3850 X6 will use Intel's Xeon E7-8890 v4 chips on Windows, which will bring more than 33 percent better performance over the previous Lenovo system. In addition, Lenovo also unveiled the ultra-dense ThinkServer sd350, a 2U (3.5-inch), four-node system for software-defined workloads. The new system offers a combination of high density, efficiency and affordability.
2016-06-07 02:25 Jeffrey Burt www.eweek.com
15 T-Mobile Launches Un-carrier 11 'Customer Thanks' Initiatives The carrier will offer free T- Mobile stock shares, Tuesday specials and a free hour of Gogo WiFi on every Gogo- equipped domestic flight. T-Mobile has launched its latest Un-carrier event, which it calls " Stock Up ," to offer a free full share of the carrier's common stock to all existing and new customers to thank them for their business, as well as the potential to earn up to 100 free stock shares a year by recommending the company to friends and family members. The company unveiled the Stock-Up Un-carrier event on June 6 in a nationwide online simulcast, along with several other Un-carrier 11 benefits, such as a T-Mobile Tuesdays app that lets customers take advantage of special offers and prizes from third-party vendors, and a free hour of Gogo in-flight WiFi connectivity to T-Mobile customers on all Gogo-equipped domestic flights in the United States. The company's Un-carrier initiatives, which it has been unveiling for several years, are designed to show customers that T-Mobile is not a stodgy mobile carrier, which is how the company identifies its key competitors, AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. T-Mobile CEO and President John Legere announced the "Get Thanked" Un-carrier 11 moves. The stock share giveaway "could turn millions of T- Mobile customers into T-Mobile owners—something no other publicly traded company has done before," Legere said in a statement. "The Un- carrier is offering a full share of T-Mobile U. S. (TMUS) common stock to millions of existing and new customers. And customers can grow their ownership up to 100 shares a year by doing what they're already doing— recommending T-Mobile. " Customers who receive recommendations must switch to T-Mobile to grant the free share to the individual who made the original recommendation. The primary user of a T-Mobile account will be eligible for the offer, the company said. Any new T-Mobile Simple Choice customers who switch to T-Mobile starting June 7 will also automatically qualify for a full, free share of T-Mobile U. S. stock when they open a new postpaid consumer smartphone account. In addition, T-Mobile is giving customers who have been with the company for five or more years two full shares for each customer they get to switch to T-Mobile until 2017. "For me, there's no higher praise than hearing a customer say they recommend T-Mobile to family and friends, so we wanted to get this right," said Legere. "And, what better way to thank you than sharing in the future of our company? Now, T-Mobile customers own the place. " Also unveiled was the new T-Mobile Tuesdays app, which "thanks T-Mobile customers with free stuff and epic prizes" every Tuesday through partnerships with brands such as Gilt, Domino's, StubHub, Wendy's, VUDU, Fandango, Legendary Pictures, Universal Pictures, Lyft and more, according to T-Mobile. Under the program, for example, T-Mobile customers will be eligible for a free takeout medium two-topping Domino's pizza, a free small Wendy's Frosty and a free movie rental from Walmart's VUDU video on-demand service each week, according to T-Mobile. "Until further notice, we're treating our customers to dinner and a movie—all to say 'Thank you,'" said Legere. Other offers will continue to be announced , he added. Other prizes will include larger awards, such as a trip on a party bus to a private screening of Warcraft along with 40 friends and all the candy, popcorn and soda they can handle; a trip for two to Las Vegas to stay at Mandalay Bay with tickets to see UB40 at the Mandalay Bay Beach and roll VIP style at Luxor's LAX Nightclub; and a trip to MLB All-Star week in San Diego for two with exclusive access to the Home Run Derby press conference and batting practice to see the top players up close and personal, according to T-Mobile. "Get ready for a gratitude adjustment, America," said Legere. "This Un- carrier move is all about giving you a good thanking. No strings. No gotchas. Just 'thank you for being a customer.'" The free hour of Gogo WiFi on every Gogo-equipped flight applies to smartphone use, according to T-Mobile. Texting on Gogo remains free for Un-carrier customers for the entire flight under existing benefits. T-Mobile's previous Un-carrier events have brought unlimited video streaming, unlimited music streaming, rebates to switch carriers, roll-over monthly data and more for the company's customers. In November 2015, T- Mobile unveiled its then-new Binge-On free unlimited video streaming to all customers who had at least a 3GB monthly data plan, according to an earlier eWEEK story.
2016-06-07 02:25 Todd R www.eweek.com
16 Supreme Court Denies Google Request for Review of Class-Action Suit The case involves allegations that the company misled thousands of advertisers in California between 2004 and 2008. The U. S. Supreme Court will not review Google's appeal of a decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that had granted class-action status to a lawsuit claiming the company misled thousands of California advertisers. The court's refusal June 6 to consider Google's petition means the case could move ahead as a class-action suit as decreed by the appellate court last year. The lawsuit involves online ads placed via Google's Adwords advertising service between 2004 and 2008. Adwords is a service that Google offers, which allows advertisers to bid for and place ads in search results when someone uses a specific keyword or phrase, or on Websites that might contain keywords of interest to the advertiser. The program gives advertisers a way to specify when and to whom their ads should be delivered based on keywords, the maximum amount they are willing to pay for placing the ad and their total overall budget for a campaign. When signing up for the service, advertisers have the opportunity to indicate the category of Websites on which they would like their ads to be displayed. But they do not always know all the places where their online ads will end up actually getting placed. The lawsuit, filed in 2008, accused Google of deliberately not informing advertisers that their ads could end up getting placed on domains that were still only under development, or on error pages that might have happened to contain keywords pertinent to the advertiser. The plaintiffs argued that advertisers ended up paying more than they should have for ads placed on such low-value sites and demanded restitution from Google. The U. S. District Court for the Northern District of California, which first heard the case, refused to grant the plaintiffs the class-action status they wanted for the lawsuit. The court held that any potential claims that advertisers might have had against Google were individualized and specific to their situations and could not be lumped together into a single class action against the company. Upon appeal, the appellate court for the Ninth Circuit overturned the lower court's decision and held that the injuries claimed by the plaintiffs had enough in common to justify class-action status. In a 21-page ruling last September, the appeals court reversed the denial of class certification and remanded the case back to the district court. It was Google's request to review the Ninth Circuit's ruling, which the Supreme Court declined to consider this week. Google has claimed that the appellate court's decision in the case would make it easier to file class-action lawsuits in the Ninth Circuit court's jurisdiction than in another jurisdiction in the country. The company has argued that the court's interpretation of the law paves the way for class- action damages to be based on "generalized proof, derived from the average experience of class members," rather than on actual damages suffered by members of a class. It is a position that has garnered some support from others as well. Technology giant Intel, for instance, has filed an amicus brief in the case supporting Google's position. Like Google, Intel too has argued that the Ninth Circuit's reasoning in certifying a class is dangerous and could create a situation where financially crippling lawsuits could be brought against large companies by plaintiffs who suffer little to no injuries. "The Ninth Circuit has directed the district court to certify an immense plaintiff class of hundreds of thousands of advertisers who purchased millions of different Google ads over nearly four years—including untold class members with no legal injury at all," Intel noted in its brief. Allowing a class action to proceed in a situation where not everyone suffered any injury is also unconstitutional, the chip maker argued. The Pacific Legal Foundation, a public interest legal organization in California, also filed a brief in support of Google in the case.
2016-06-07 02:25 Jaikumar Vijayan www.eweek.com
17 Microsoft Releases Translator App for Amazon Fire Tablet Fire tablet users can now download Microsoft's translation app in the Amazon Underground app store. Microsoft Translator is available on Amazon Fire, the online retailer's line of Android-based tablets. Users can download the software onto their devices using the dedicated Amazon Underground app store. It's not the first time Microsoft is providing translation services to the Amazon device ecosystem. "Microsoft Translator has been available for translating passages of Kindle eBooks since 2012. Now, with the new Microsoft Translator app, you can also use your Amazon Fire to translate the world around you," stated the software giant in a June 2 announcement. A more tablet-friendly version of the app was also released to the Google Play store for owners of the various Android-powered computing slates on the market. Like its counterparts on iOS and Android, the Microsoft Translator app on Amazon Fire tablets uses optical character recognition (OCR) technology to translate signs, menus and other written items travelers may encounter using a device's camera. The feature also works with images collected from social media or sent in an email or text. A total of 50 languages are supported. Users can type or speak phrases they wish to have translated. Real-time conversation translation is supported for a handful of languages (English, Arabic, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, French, German, Italian and Spanish). The app also supports downloadable language packs , which enable users to access the bulk of the company's translation services without an Internet connection. Typically, the app connects to Microsoft's cloud to generate language translations, which may incur expensive data charges if users travel abroad. Language packs for the app's offline translation engine allow users to avoid international roaming charges or wander into areas with limited connectivity options. In February, Microsoft originally released nine language packs. Over the past few months, that number has grown to more than 40 languages. Microsoft isn't the only one making it easier for jetsetters to venture off the beaten path. Google Translates Any Android App Last month, Google announced that it had enabled an offline mode on the iOS version of its Google Translate app, a feature that had already been available in the Android app. Google said it compressed its language packs by 90 percent to about 25MB apiece, allowing users to reclaim valuable storage space on their phones. With the recent addition of the Filipino language pack, Google Translate supports a total of 52 offline language packs. In a more ambitious move, Google added a Tap to Translate feature to Android ("Jellybean" or version 4.2), essentially bringing Google's translation services to any app. Instead of copy/pasting content into a separate translation app or Website, when users highlight and copy content, the Google Translate icon will pop up. Tapping it will automatically generate a card with the translated text. Tap to Translate works with all of 103 languages supported by Google Translate. In April, the search giant celebrated a big milestone: 10 years of Google Translate. Since its debut, the technology has gathered half a billion users, said Google.
2016-06-07 02:25 Pedro Hernandez www.eweek.com
18 Marwan Fawaz to Replace Tony Fadell at Nest Alphabet has selected Marwan Fawaz, a low-key telecom veteran with proven success in the home IoT space, to replace Nest founder Tony Fadell. Marwan Fawaz has yet to change his LinkedIn profile, but the executive adviser and former CEO of the Motorola Home business is the new CEO of Nest. Nest co-founder Tony Fadell announced his departure, and Fawaz's appointment, in a June 3 blog post . "Marwan's extensive technology and engineering knowledge, his experience with global service providers, as well as his background in connected home platforms will be valuable in continuing our trajectory, especially in scaling the business, working with our partners, and supporting our enterprise channels," Fadell wrote. "I have no doubt that the company will continue to flourish under his guidance and can't wait to see the innovations currently in development brought to market. " Fadell was famously part of the Apple engineering team that created the iPod. He created Nest in 2010 with Matt Rogers, a fellow Apple engineer, and in January 2014 they sold the company to Google for $3.2 billion , before Alphabet was created in 2015 as Google's parent company. Fadell wrote that the time was right for him to leave, and departing would give him "time and flexibility to pursue new opportunities to create and disrupt other industries. " He added that he will continue to be an adviser to Alphabet and its CEO Larry Page—and that Nest will no doubt continue to flourish. "When Matt Rogers and I founded Nest six years ago, neither one of us imagined the company and products would take off as quickly as they did. We hit the ground running and—along with the rest of the Nest team— haven't paused since. " They have experienced some bumps in the road, though. In June 2014, Nest acquired video monitoring company Dropcam for $555 million—a transaction that Dropcam founder Greg Duffy later publicly wrote that he regretted, pushing back against an article in The Information that described a corrosive culture at Nest and an exodus of employees, and in which Fadell is quoted as calling the Dropcam team inexperienced. "The ~50 Dropcam employees who resigned did so because they felt their ability to build great products being totally crushed," Duffy wrote in a March 29 post on Medium. "… On the surface, Dropcam might have looked like a little gadget company. But we and our customers knew it was more. " Ezra Gottheil, a principal analyst with Technology Business Research, says he's seeing lots of "dashed expectations" in the consumer Internet of things (IoT) market. "I think this is because it is not one market or even two—it is a collection of markets," Gottheil told eWEEK. "The thermostat market is separate from the video monitoring market, etc. Each kind of device has the potential for innovation, essentially because WiFi is ubiquitous and the components are cheap. But for each one, the potential for adding value is different, and the market and sales channels are different. " Fawaz isn't a typical Google hire. Aside from Motorola Home—which Fawaz effectively slimmed down and sold to cable television vendor Arris Group for $2.35 billion in 2013—his resume isn't littered with household names. He also doesn't have a Twitter account and doesn't seem to have publically commented on his new job. Fawaz was the CTO and executive vice president of strategy at telecom Charter Communications for nearly five years. Currently, he's on the boards of home security company ADT; Synacor , a mobile portal; and CSG International, a telecom billing and revenue growth company. "Fawaz's leadership track record makes him an excellent choice to become Nest's CEO. But his relationships with service providers—SPs, as noted in Fadell's goodbye note—suggest that he is also likely to lead the company in a significantly new direction," Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, told eWEEK. "If Nest is to find a spot in the still-emerging IoT for the Home market, it needs to find muscular partners that will promote its solutions as IoT endpoints," King continued. "SPs are ideally positioned to support those efforts, a point that underscores the importance of Fawaz's past experiences and telco industry ties. " Fawaz is also the founder and a managing partner at Sarepta Advisors in the Denver area. According to Fawaz's LinkedIn account, Sarepta helps executive teams "successfully navigate and make decisions in increasingly competitive and changing environments. " The IoT market is "increasingly defined by industrial and business use cases, not consumer products," Pund-IT's King added. The decision to replace Fadell with Fawaz suggests Alphabet "fully understands that dynamic and the need for a leadership change to effectively pursue its goals. "
2016-06-07 02:25 Michelle Maisto www.eweek.com
19 19 American Airlines Expanding In-Flight WiFi to Its New Boeing 737 Jets About 100 of the latest Boeing 737 MAX jets will get in-flight WiFi from ViaSat, which is a competitor of the Gogo WiFi used in other jets. American Airlines will outfit its new Boeing 737 MAX jet fleet with satellite WiFi Internet services from ViaSat, which the companies say will provide users with in-flight WiFi experiences that are comparable to their in-home services. The deal, which was announced by the companies on June 3, will allow American Airlines passengers to use their smartphones, tablets and portable computers to access the Internet and stream movies, videos, television and music , as well as upload pictures to social media, email large files and more, according to American and ViaSat. "The new American planes will tap into the power of ViaSat's advanced high capacity Ka-band satellite system , which will include ViaSat-1, ViaSat-2 and ViaSat-3 satellite platforms, and has more capacity in orbit than any other in-flight WiFi provider," according to ViaSat. "American will leverage ViaSat's first two generation satellite platforms" for now, and then will gain the capacity of the upcoming ViaSat-3 class satellite platform, which is expected to launch in 2019. Using the ViaSat systems, the company says it will "be able to deliver the fastest, highest quality in-flight internet service to each connected device on a plane. " The upcoming Boeing 737 MAX aircraft with the ViaSat in-flight internet system are scheduled to begin to go into service in September 2017. ViaSat today provides Internet services to nearly 700,000 residential and business users via high-speed satellite connections, according to the company. The ViaSat network also today provides connections to thousands of simultaneously connected aircraft, each with dozens to hundreds of connected devices. "Our satellite bandwidth enables an 'at home' Internet experience that can serve everyone on the plane and empowers innovative business models for airlines and their passengers," Mark Dankberg, the chairman and CEO of ViaSat, said in a statement. "We are delighted and honored to have the opportunity to work with American Airlines and help fulfill their goal of delivering the best in-flight WiFi experience throughout their fleet. We believe we are now approaching the end of an era where passengers have paid very high prices for very slow connections. Our agreement highlights a significant initial step for American to deliver an onboard WiFi experience every passenger will want to use. " The American Airlines deal with ViaSat will include about 100 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft , according to a June 3 story by The Chicago Tribune. American Airlines has about 150 other planes that use in-flight WiFi services from ViaSat competitor Gogo. Another 134 planes owned by the airline will be upgraded to Gogo's latest and faster 2Ku WiFi services, the Tribune reported. An American Airlines spokesman, Casey Norton, told the Tribune that "the airline has about 150 other aircraft using Gogo's older service, which are scheduled for retirement and won't be upgraded. " Another 400 aircraft owned by American are also slated to get upgrades to satellite service in the future, but those deals have not yet been announced, the story reported. "It's all about delivering a better product for our customers as fast as possible," Norton told the paper. "Having two suppliers allows us to get more bandwidth to our customers faster than using one supplier alone. " American had sued Gogo in February, asking for court approval to end its existing WiFi agreement because it was not satisfied with the in-flight Internet speeds offered by Gogo, the Tribune reported. "At the time, American said it could receive faster Internet service from ViaSat, and asked the court to confirm a provision in its contract with Gogo allowing the airline to renegotiate or terminate its deal if it could find better service. American dropped the suit later that month after Gogo said it would submit a bid to install its faster satellite service on American's fleet. "
2016-06-07 02:25 Todd R www.eweek.com
20 Rugged Samsung Galaxy S7 Active Smartphone Available June 10 With AT&T Ruggedized versions of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge flagship phones have been rumored for months. An S6 Active model debuted in 2015. Samsung's ruggedized version of its flagship Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge smartphones will be available starting June 10, exclusively through AT&T. The handset follows the ruggedized Galaxy S6 Active that launched in mid- 2015, but gains a bevy of improvements from the latest Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge phones. The upcoming Galaxy S7 Active, which was announced by AT&T and Samsung on June 6, has a shatter-resistant and water- resistant 5.1-inch Super AMOLED Quad HD touch- screen display and meets IP68 certification to withstand water exposure of up to 5 feet for 30 minutes. Aimed at users who work and use their phones in hostile environmental and physical conditions, the S7 Active also meets MIL-STD- 810G specifications for dirt, dust, temperature, shock and salt resistance. The 5.1-inch display is the same size as the one found on the Galaxy S7 handset. Starting June 10 the Galaxy S7 Active can be obtained through AT&T stores or online for $26.50 a month for 30 months (total payments $795) on an AT&T Next plan or for $33.13 a month for 24 months (total payments $795.12) on an AT&T Next Every Year plan. The Galaxy S7 Active also features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of memory, 32GB of onboard storage, a microSD card slot for expandable storage up to 200GB, a 4,000mAh battery and fast charging capabilities. It runs on the Android Marshmallow operating system. The S7 Active includes many of the features of the latest Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge handsets, including a 12-megapixel rear-facing camera with Dual Pixel technology for great images even in low light conditions, a fingerprint sensor for security and the Samsung Knox defense-grade mobile security platform to protect user data. The handset also includes an always-on display, a customizable "Active" key that can be set to call up an oft-used function, a 5-megapixel front-facing camera and WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, near- field communications connectivity capabilities. The GSM smartphone, which is available in Sandy Gold, Titanium Gray or Camo Green colors, is 5.85 inches long, 2.95 inches wide and 0.38 inches thick; it weighs 6.52 ounces. "The Samsung Galaxy S7 Active is one of the best Galaxy devices ever, and it can only be found at AT&T," Jeff Bradley, senior vice president of device marketing and network services at AT&T, said in a statement. "We've worked with Samsung to design our most stylish active smartphone of the past four years, and it can still handle your daily grind whether you're a multi-tasking mom, an outdoorsman at the lake, or a contractor on a jobsite. " Rumors of the anticipated S7 Active smartphone began earlier in 2016, according to a previous eWEEK story. The possibility of the Galaxy S7 Active was mentioned in a changelog for Samsung's Level app, which allows users to configure and control their headphones for their smartphone, according to the report. Both the flagship Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge are already water-resistant and dust-resistant, but both lack military-grade drop, shock and dust resistance. Samsung's earlier Galaxy S5 smartphone was water-resistant, but the feature was dropped for the S6 and S6 Edge in 2015. None of those three phones are dust-resistant. The original Galaxy S6 Active smartphone was unveiled by Samsung in mid-2015 and was offered in the U. S. by AT&T, according to an earlier eWEEK story. The S6 Active was built for smartphone owners who are tough on their phones. The handset is water-resistant down to 5 feet for less than 30 minutes. The phone model includes an IP68-certified casing that creates a phone that active consumers can use safely, even when exposed to harsh conditions. The Galaxy S6 Active has 32GB of storage and is available from AT&T for $695. Samsung's latest S7 and S7 Edge smartphone debuted in March. The Galaxy S7 features a 5.1-inch quad-HD Super AMOLED display (2,560 by 1,440), while the Galaxy S7 Edge features a 5.5-inch quad-HD Super AMOLED display (2,560 by 1,440). Both models include always-on displays for the time and other information. Both also are powered by Qualcomm quad-core 2.15GHz and 1.6GHz processors for U. S. users and include 4GB of LPDDR4 memory, 32GB of built-in storage and microSD expansion slots that support storage cards up to 200GB. The Galaxy S7 has a 3,000mAh battery, while the Galaxy S7 Edge is equipped with a 3,600mAh battery.
2016-06-07 02:25 Todd R www.eweek.com
21 Oracle Returns to Court, Now Facing Off Against HPE DAILY VIDEO: Oracle back in court, this time vs. HPE; ownCloud folds in U. S. as its founder starts new firm; Cortana chats up PCs in latest Windows 10 mobile build; and there's more. Latest Videos Sponsored Videos LG Stylus 2 Plus Phone Coming Soon to North America DAILY VIDEO: LG Stylus 2 Plus smartphone delivers more power, better screen; OnePlus 3 smartphone... Sirin's $14K Luxury Solarin Smartphone Boasts High Security DAILY VIDEO: Sirin's Solarin smartphone boasts high security and a $14,000 starting price; hackers... ARM's New GPU, CPU Designed for Virtual Reality, Mobile Gaming DAILY VIDEO: ARM takes aim at VR, AR, mobile gaming with new GPU, CPU; Asus debuts 3 ZenFone models,... Apple Plans to Open Siri App to Outside Developers: Reports DAILY VIDEO: Apple reportedly to open Siri platform to developers; Windows 10 preview build... Phishers Massively Increase Web Pages Built to Hide Cyber-Attacks DAILY VIDEO: Phishers creating more noise to fool defenses; Blockchain could be most significant... Microsoft Announces Layoffs as It Refocuses Its Smartphone Business DAILY VIDEO: Microsoft lays off 1,850 as it shrinks its... Apple to Deliver Thinner, Lighter MacBook Pro Models: Analyst DAILY VIDEO: Apple to deliver thinner, lighter MacBook Pro models:... Apple Works to Fix iOS Update That Bricked iPad Pro 9.7 Tablets DAILY VIDEO: iOS update causes new bricking problem, this time with iPad Pro 9.7; Microsoft sets the... Apple Starts Store Renovation Campaign With San Francisco Outlet DAILY VIDEO: Apple Stores getting revamp, starting with new store in San Francisco; Microsoft wants... Facebook Hosts Conservative Leaders to Air Political Bias Allegations DAILY VIDEO: Facebook, conservative leaders discussed bias... Intel Processors, Storage Enhancements Set New Dell Servers Apart Dell’s latest Intel-based PowerEdge servers bring new levels of operational efficiency and... Dell PowerEdge R630: Incredible Density Across a Range of Resources The Dell PowerEdge R630 is a mainstream 2S/1U rack server that delivers incredible density across a... Save on Operating Costs for Scale-Out Workloads With the introduction of the Dell PowerEdge FM 120x4, Dell and Intel are bringing to market a server... Dell PowerEdge R730xd: Storage Density for Clouds, Big Data and More The Dell PowerEdge R730xd, also based on Intel Xeon processors, is one of the world's densest... Dell PowerEdge T630: Versatility for ROBO Environments and More The Dell PowerEdge T630 is a mainstream 2S/5U rack-mount tower server with a versatile mix of... Introduction to the 13th Generation Dell PowerEdge Servers video Dell's latest generation of Intel-based PowerEdge servers has the power and flexibility to solve all... Meet Some of the 13th Generation Dell PowerEdge Servers video Dell’s latest Intel-based PowerEdge servers bring new levels of operational efficiency and... Management Features of the 13th Generation Dell PowerEdge Servers video Today's businesses need to innovate to compete. If your IT talent is spending too much time... Innovative Features in the 13th Generation Dell PowerEdge Servers video Dell PowerEdge servers powered by Intel processors include a number of innovative features designed... Virtualization, Convergence and Cloud with Dell PowerEdge Servers video Agility is a competitive edge that Dell's PowerEdge servers can deliver thanks to dense, storage... Read more about the stories in today's news: Oracle Back in Court, This Time vs. HPE ownCloud Folds in U. S. as Its Founder Starts New Firm Cortana Chats Up PCs in Latest Windows 10 Mobile Build AMD Takes Aim at Intel in PCs With New APUs Today's topics include Oracle's latest legal dispute with Hewlett Packard Enterprise, ownCloud's discontinuation of its U. S. operations, Windows' release of a mobile build of Windows 10 that allows Cortana-based interactions between smartphones and PCs and AMD's unveiling of its latest generation of APUs for PCs. Oracle's $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems in 2010 opened a lot of doors for the enterprise applications vendor, but the deal has led Oracle into the courtroom. Soon after buying Sun in 2010, Oracle sued Google, claiming the search giant violated copyright laws when it used some 11,000 lines of Java code in its Android mobile operating system. After six years of litigation, in which Oracle officials said they planned to ask for $9.3 billion in damages, a federal district court jury in San Francisco on May 26 ruled in favor of Google, handing Oracle a stunning defeat. Just days after that ruling, Oracle found itself back in court. This time, however, it was with Hewlett Packard Enterprise. HPE officials are seeking $3 billion in damages resulting from Oracle's threat in 2011 to discontinue supporting Intel's Itanium chip platform with its database technologies. Open-source cloud file storage, sharing and synchronization vendor ownCloud Inc. is shutting down in the United States amid internal turmoil. At the same time, Frank Karlitschek, founder of the ownCloud project, is forking the code to create a new company called Nextcloud. Karlitschek started the ownCloud project in 2010 to enable users to set up their own cloud storage services in a manner similar to what Dropbox enables. In 2011, ownCloud Inc. was formed with the support of Karlitschek and CEO Markus Rex, in a bid to build a business around the ownCloud technology. Microsoft released Windows 10 Mobile build 14356 to the Windows Insider fast ring last week, allowing participants in the early-access program to test some of Cortana's new cross-device capabilities. "Cortana will now surface your phone notifications and critical alerts, including messages from messaging services, SMS or social media as well as missed calls from any Windows 10 phone or Android device, to your PC, so you never miss a beat while staying focused on your PC," announced Dona Sarkar, the new head of the Windows Insider Program. Build 14356 is an early step in enabling seamless Cortana-based interactions between Windows 10 smartphones and PCs. Advanced Micro Devices and Intel both came to the Computex 2016 show last week in Taipei, Taiwan, with the PC in mind despite efforts to grow their respective businesses in emerging areas in hopes of reducing their dependence on the contracting market. Officials with both chip makers said that despite several years of declines in PC shipments globally, the systems are still core to what they do now and their roadmaps for the future. For their part, AMD officials came equipped with a full lineup of the company's 7 th -generation A-Series chips, which they said bring significant performance and power efficiency improvements over their "Kaveri" predecessors and can challenge Intel's Core processors in the PC space.
2016-06-07 02:25 eWEEK Staff www.eweek.com
22 PIPEDA changes should prompt improved security stances and roadmap creation Businesses are data driven, and enterprises are challenged to both leverage data effectively and manage it. This includes securing it, but also understanding and complying with legislation. The Digital Privacy Act has amended some aspects of Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), including introducing a new data breach notification requirement that is not yet in force. Bernice Karn , a partner at Cassels Brock in Toronto, said the amendments of have been talked about for some time; consultations were due to wrap up at the end of May. PIPEDA was intended to be reviewed every five years since being introduced more than 15 years ago, but she said this is the first major review since its inception. Changes have already been made to address some of PIPEDA’s gaps, said Karn. For example, there had never been a proper way to deal with the handling of personal information business transaction, such as a customer list or employee information when a business is being sold. There were no provisions in PIPEDA on how to transition that information to the buyer, she said; now there are steps. One key element of PIPEDA being hammered are guidelines around breach notification and what forms regulations should take. (Alberta is currently the only province in Canada to have generally applicable mandatory data breach reporting requirements for all private sector organizations.) Even then, said Karn, it’s murky as the PIPEDA amendment is pretty broad. “It puts a lot of discretion in hands of the organization that was breached.” Organizations have to make significant judgement call, she said. “It’s a hard thing to figure out. Not every data breach is all that serious.” Regardless of the legislation is, Karn said organizations need to treat a breach like managing any other crisis. “You need a process in place to handle this that involves being able to identify when a beach happens, bring the right people to the table to contain the problem and mitigate the situation.” For most organizations, it’s not a question of if they will experience a breach, she said, it’s a question of when. The process they take should include a post mortem to they can learn from it. “It’s a loop. You repeat the loop every time.” And that loop may contain litigation, Karn said. A lot of organizations didn’t take PIPEDA seriously when it came out. “Fifteen years later, we are realizing there is value in personal data,” she said, and that means having a privacy policy and best practices in place is essential. “You have to pay more than lip service than a plain vanilla policy.” Karn, who leads her firm’s IT contracting practice, said some organizations are minimizing their risk of a breach by limiting the personal information they collect if possible. “If they don’t have to see it, they don’t want to see it.” But in the world of social media, personal information is currency, she said, with the paradox being the general public is never happy with untoward use of their information, but willing to share reams of it online. For IT departments, the challenge is to have visibility at the board level of the organization, said Karn, and turning their minds toward issues around privacy and cybersecurity. Ideally, an enterprise should have a subcommittee established conversant areas related around privacy, and more broadly, employees to need have training around the handling of personal information. Kevin Lonergan, analyst with IDC Canada, also agrees that training is an important piece of the puzzle and that the best way for organizations to comply with PIPEDA and amendments to the Digital Privacy Act is to reduce the possibility of a breach. But most enterprises, he said, have ways to go. “In terms of IT security maturity, many organizations are not at the step where they have a response plan. Many don’t know they are being breached.” The research firm conducts an annual survey to understand the security maturity of organizations, said Lonergan, and while there are improvements year of year, many have a ways to go. The survey places organizations in four buckets, with the lowest in maturity dubbed “defeatists.” These are companies that know they have breaches, have low confidence in their security and need to spend more money but have budgets constraints. “They are kind of stuck.” “Denialists” are similar, but have a little more confidence and do spend money on security technology. “The problem they don’t have the training or best practices,” said Lonergan. “They don’t really have a risk management plan in place. They don’t have security roadmap in place.” Further up the ladder in terms of maturity are “realists,” who experience a less than average number of breaches, are spending and training more, but still don’t have a roadmap or plan going forward. At the very top are “egoists,” who have very high confidence in their security technology, have investment in training, and have a roadmap in place. Lonergan said more than half of organizations surveyed end up in the first and second bucket, and don’t have a risk management process in place. “Things are going in the right direction,” he said. “Each year organizations become more concerned about security.” That includes an increase of budgets. “One of the biggest drives, has been the media attention we’ve seen from high profile breaches.” That being said, breaches are becoming routine and not hitting home as much, said Lonergan, so hopefully the PIPEDA changes will spur enterprises to continue the security spending momentum and create roadmaps. “Organizations should worry about improving security stance,” he said. “If they lower the likelihood of being breached, the less likely they have to have to deal with PIPEDA.”
2016-06-07 02:25 Gary Hilson www.itworldcanada.com
23 NHL’s digital head on how the league is using the cloud to deliver ‘enhanced stats’ and a better fan experience Hardcore and casual fans alike know the National Hockey League’s (NHL) 2016 Stanley Cup playoff final kicks off on Monday with the Eastern Conference champion Pittsburgh Penguins against the Western Conference champion San Jose Sharks squaring off for hockey supremacy. But as excited as someone like Chris Foster is for the NHL finals, he’s already thinking about next season. Foster is the NHL’s digital business development director and is responsible for boosting fan engagement on digital channels including mobile apps and social media. “For me, playoffs planning ends in February,” Foster told IT World Canada . “What I’m focused on now is our Centennial that’s coming up.” Indeed, the coming 2016-2017 season officially represents NHL’s Centennial Celebration and Foster is currently heading up a project to capture the entire official statistical history of the professional league — including every box score dating back to the NHL’s inaugural 1917-18 season. When the NHL last year announced a multi-year North American partnership with enterprise application vendor SAP SE, it was with an eye on improving its cloud capabilities and also how it approached hockey statistics, said Foster. With more than a century of stats, the league required an enterprise relational database that was fast and able to conduct performance analysis in real-time to help better target its digital strategy initiatives. Specifically, the NHL is using the SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud service to enhance its hockey analytics site NHL.com/Stats , which has gone through several iterations to capture data points on a granular level. This includes using the open platform-as-a-service to provide a “personalized and interactive experience for fans” with real-time analytics around active player comparison tools, player performance prediction tools, team power indexes and “enhanced stats” around shot attempts (SAT), unblocked shot attempts (USAT), shooting plus save percentage (SPSV%) and more. Foster was at SAP’s 2016 Sapphire conference in mid-May to learn more about the SAP HANA cloud solution enhancements, including extensions for SAP S/4 HANA and also the SAP Digital Boardroom product that claims to deliver visual answers and analytics in real time. “As advanced as the HANA system is, there are some unique challenges when it comes to setup and integration,” he said, adding that overall he’s been happy with the platform and how it fits into the organization’s future plans. The SAP platform provides the back end technology that allows the NHL to focus on improving user engagement and the stats experience: “We couldn’t do that before.” Foster is as passionate about the game as he is about his job; he notes that this current project around the historical digitization of game sheets and back filling stats is something that all fans of the game will be interested in, including himself. He excitedly pulled up a digitized game sheet of a 1926 game between the New York Rangers and the Chicago Blackhawks on his laptop during the interview. The technology enables the NHL to create a box score for every game ever played; by capturing every power play goal and winning play —the platform will be able to backfill career records of every player who has ever donned skates in an NHL rink, he said. Enhanced hockey statistics are serious business for aficionados; Foster notes the evolving site is designed to grow its user base. Keeping hockey fans engaged on digital platforms represents unique challenges, Foster said. It’s about providing a consistent experience regardless of whether the team is U. S. or Canada based, an Original Six team or in a town not typically known for its deep hockey presence. “There is a challenge talking to different voices. Hometown fans love their teams, they are tribal and passionate…. We do want to have that one-on- one conversation where you are talking to different fanbases. We look at it on a macro level where we are promoting all of the players,” he added. Once the complete archives of the NHL’s statistics are fully integrated, new tools and functionality of NHL.com/Stats, including advanced filtering and visualizations, will be applied to the entire league’s history, Foster said. Looking at the future, the NHL has tentative plans to take advantage of the HANA platform to roll out sensor technology in player jerseys, including the power of HANA to collect new metrics including puck speed or distance traveled by players. So as the Penguins’ all-star captain Sidney Crosby gets set to face-off with Sharks’s vet centre Joe Thornton tonight, Foster offers there’s nothing like the NHL playoffs. And using enterprise technology, Foster is hoping that that deeper digital engagement ensures that it stays that way. “I truly believe that the NHL is the best live experience around, especially in the playoffs. There is nothing like it.”
2016-06-07 02:25 Ryan Patrick www.itworldcanada.com
24 Watch out, Twitch - Facebook Live wants to be the new home of game streaming Facebook and Blizzard Entertainment are teaming up, with the gaming giant announcing today that it will implement the social network into its biggest games - a move that may also give Facebook Live , Facebook's take on in-the- moment video, a major feather in its cap. More interesting, however, is Blizzard's eventual plan to let players "Go Live" with just one press of a button, directly beaming their current gaming session to Facebook Live for their friends to spectate, comment, and even subscribe to directly from their News Feed. Not only will Blizzard's "Go Live" feature make judging your friends' play skills as easy as checking your Facebook, but it also gives the live video service a much-needed strategy for competing with the likes of streaming giants like Twitch and YouTube Gaming - accessibility. By having streams take place directly on the News Feed, finding an audience for your latest raid could be as easy as pressing 'play' because - let's face it - we're constantly checking our Facebook enough as is. Having the action all take place on your Feed also bypasses the need to redirect your friends to an outside site or get the message out whenever you go live - two hurdles that budding young let's-players tend to face when starting out. Should other publishers take the bait and incorporate their own version of "Go Live," Facebook's livestream platform could easily become a worthwhile competitor to Twitch and YouTube - or at least make streaming more appealing to hobbyists who'd prefer not to turn it into a day job. Blizzard has yet to announce exactly when its streaming features will air, but we already can't wait to show our buddies when we finally make a Play of the Game in Overwatc - even if it means making them witness a few embarrassing misplays in Hearthstone as well. Article continues below
2016-06-06 22:33 By Parker feedproxy.google.com
25 Celebrate good ideas and unsung heroes with the CanadianCIO of the Year award Do you know a talented CIO who is making a difference in your company or the industry as a whole? Is there a CIO in your business network flying under the radar that deserve a little attention? Is there an innovative company that embraces IT in a way that simply amazes you? If the answer is yes to any of these three questions, then now is the time to show a little love and submit a nomination for the CanadianCIO of the Year Award or the Information and Technology Association of Canada’s (ITAC) Ingenious Awards. “The CIO is the unsung hero in many companies,” says ITWC CIO Jim Love. “With both technical and business demands changing the role dramatically, they have little time to seek the limelight.” That’s why CanadianCIO offers up the annual opportunity for the community to nominate the best and the brightest CIOs for recognition at the Ingenious Awards, a celebration that brings together the senior leadership from IT firms across the country. The CanadianCIO of the Year Award is co-presented by ITAC and CanadianCIO (published by IT World Canada) to recognize overall excellence among Canada’s community of Chief Information Officers. This award has two recipients: one for the private sector and one for a public sector CIO. The Ingenious Awards celebrates excellence in the use of information and communications technology (ICT) by organizations in all walks of Canadian life to solve problems, improve performance, introduce new services and grow businesses. Ingenious Nominations Categories : Last year’s winners The 2015 CanadianCIOs of the year were Lydia Lee, CIO of University Health Network and Eugene Roman, CTO, Canadian Tire Corp. Profiles of all past winners appear in the CanadianCIO Hall of Fame The 2015 ITAC Ingenious Awards recognized visionary leaders who used the power of ICT to solve health care problems, help move ideas from campus to commerce, keep our roads safer and moving efficiently with smart technology, connect students in northern communities to educational advantages of students in southern Canada and improve top athletic performance. ITWC is proud to partner with ITAC and the CIO Association of Canada (CIOCAN) on the Ingenious Awards Program to encourage Canadians who work in business, government and other public sector organizations and not-for-profit entities to share their achievements through the use of technology. Nominations for both awards programs are now open. The deadline for submissions is June 30. The Ingenious Awards gala will be held Nov. 8 in Toronto.
2016-06-06 21:16 Steve Proctor www.itworldcanada.com
26 Jay Wilson, former Diablo 3 game director, is leaving Blizzard Jay Wilson, the former game director of Diablo 3 , announced on Twitter today that he is leaving Blizzard, and the videogame industry, at the end of this week. “Sad to say after 10 of the best years of my life this will be my last week at Blizzard, and in the games industry,” Wilson wrote . “I'm leaving to pursue my original passion, writing. It's what I was doing when I fell into this job, and I've always wanted to return to it.” I will dearly miss my friends at Blizzard. They've been the best, most dedicated, most passionate group of people I've ever met. June 6, 2016 Wilson's time at Blizzard wasn't without controversy. He took heat for Diablo 3's real-money auction house, despite sounding in the pre-release days as though he viewed it primarily as a player-positive service rather than a profit-making venture. But he acknowledged at GDC 2013, a year after Diablo 3 came out, that the auction house “ really hurt the game ,” a comment he made just a few months after leaving the Diablo 3 team to work on Project Titan, the canceled MMO that eventually morphed into Overwatch. He also has an “Additional Design” credit on the World of Warcraft expansion Warlords of Draenor. Prior to joining Blizzard, Wilson worked as a designer at Relic on games including Company of Heroes and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War. 2016-06-06 21:51 Andy Chalk www.pcgamer.com
27 Myst artist, BioShock Infinite writer team up for a new adventure called Zed Obduction, the spiritual successor to Myst, is coming in July , not quite three years after Cyan raised more than $1.3 million in funding on Kickstarter. Eagre Games, founded and headed by Myst artist Chuck Carter, isn't aiming for nearly that kind of budget for Zed, which debuted on Kickstarter last week, but it still promises a game “with deep roots in the Myst adventure-puzzle genre.” Zed, which is being written by BioShock Infinite writer Joe Fielder, has its own distinct visual style, but appears set to serve up a very Myst-like experience: Players must explore a bizarre world and solve strange puzzles as they help “an aging and dying dreamer leave behind a lasting legacy for his granddaughter.” “The dreamer is confused by your presence. He can help or hinder your progress by putting challenging obstacles in your path—he needs your help but at times doesn’t understand why you are there,” the Kickstarter pitch states. “As you learn his story, the truth about his past and his final masterpiece is revealed in the dreams you explore; a personal creation of one man’s disintegrating mind. Help the dreamer fulfill his final task and unleash Zed to the world.” Eagre acknowledged that the Kickstarter goal of $48,000 is a tiny amount for a game budget, but said that “being a small Central Maine studio allows us to keep studio costs low and ensures that all money we receive from this campaign will be spent wisely.” The team has already spent a year working on the game at its own expense “during the quiet hours of the night,” and said the Kickstarter is meant to cover “the most basic costs of future production.” A “vertical slice” preview of Zed is available from the Kickstarter page and while it's very brief (and the puzzles utterly perfunctory), it does very nicely demonstrate the game's visual style. Start your kicks at your own risk, as always, but Zed, like Obduction, is definitely one that I'd like to see succeed. The campaign runs until July 1 and has so far raised about $21,000 of its goal.
2016-06-06 21:50 Andy Chalk www.pcgamer.com
28 Ransomware Goes After Manufacturing A Fortinet research report finds that manufacturers are increasingly under attack from ransomware as older vulnerabilities provide easy access. The scourge that is ransomware is spreading in the manufacturing sector, according new research from Fortinet. Over the course of seven months, from Oct. 1, 2015, to April 30, 2016, Fortinet recorded 8.63 million attempted attacks against 59 manufacturers around the world. The attacks were mostly aimed at the larger manufacturers, with 78 percent of them targeting manufacturing organizations with 1,000 or more employees. Also of note is that out of the 8.63 million attacks, 29 percent were from a Trojan called Nemucod, which carries ransomware as part of its malicious payload. Ransomware has been a growing concern in 2016, with the FBI warning in May of a significant uptick in activity. Among the high-profile ransomware incidents have been a series against hospital operations that quite literally have put lives at risk. There are a number of reasons why ransomware attacks on the manufacturing sector are successful, not the least of which is because they take advantage of known exploits. Fortinet's Q1 2016 Cyber Threat Assessment Program (CTAP) report, which examines the period from Jan. 1 to April 30, 2016, reported that the Necurs botnet is the most prevalent in manufacturing at 41.46 percent, followed by Conficker at 17.7 percent. Conficker is notable because it's a worm that first attacked Microsoft systems back in 2008 and was patched by Microsoft in that same year. Yet despite the fact that Conficker was patched seven years ago, it's still a problem in manufacturing. "Most exploits are still attacking solved problems," John Maddison, senior vice president of products and solutions at Fortinet, told eWEEK. "It's those who do not patch who are most at risk. " A lot of solved problems are ultimately exploited, according to Maddison. Looking specifically at application vulnerability exploit attempts in the manufacturing sector, Fortinet found that 82.8 percent of attempts were against CVE-2015-6125, which is a Microsoft DNS caching vulnerability that Microsoft patched as part of its December 2015 Patch Tuesday update. In its advisory, Microsoft stated that the vulnerability could allow remote code execution if an attacker sends specially crafted requests to a DNS server. Coming far behind in second place, in terms of manufacturing sector application vulnerability exploit attempts, is the combination of CVE-2014- 7169 and CVE-2014-6278, better known as Shellshock. The Shellshock vulnerabilities were patched in September 2014. Even older than Shellshock and Conficker is the third place vulnerability (at 4.34 percent), identified as CVE-2007-1365, an OpenBSD IPv6 fragment buffer overflow issue. There are a number of things that manufacturers should be doing to help limit the risks of ransomware and attacks. Fortinet suggests that an organization should be protecting, monitoring and segmenting all of its data. The segmentation piece is of particular importance as a "flat" (non- segmented) network provides an attacker an easier path to move around a network from an initial point of compromise. Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at eWEEK and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.
2016-06-06 18:51 Sean Michael www.eweek.com
29 Intel Targets High-End Analytics with New Xeon E7 v4 Processors The vendor's new chips for four- and eight-socket systems bring performance and memory capacity improvements over the previous generation. Intel is launching the latest version of its high-end Xeon E7 server processors with its eye firmly on the growing data analytics needs in the enterprise. Officials with the chip maker on June 6 unveiled the Xeon E7-8800/4800 v4 product families that are built on the company's "Broadwell-EX" core architecture and offer significant gains in such areas as performance and memory capacity, and target scale-up server environments. While the 14- nanometer chips can be applied to a broad range of mission-critical applications, such as data-intensive workloads such as online transaction processing (OLTP), supply chain management and enterprise resource planning (ERP), the primary aim is to make it easier, faster and more affordable for enterprises to collect and analyze in real time the massive amounts of structured and unstructured data being generated and to turn those analyses into actionable business decisions. The new Xeon E7s, which primarily target four- and eight-socket servers, will enable organizations to drive down overall capital and operation costs by getting more work done per system, therefore needing fewer systems, officials said. That will be important as the not only the amount of data grows, but also as the number of sources of that data proliferates. "Data is only valuable if the money you get out of it is more than what you had to put in to get it," Frank Jensen, performance marketing manager for Intel's Data Center Group (DCG), said during a workshop about the upcoming Xeon E7 v4 processors in March. Systems vendors agree, as top OEMs—including Dell, Lenovo and Fujitsu —announced new and upgraded servers that will be powered by the new processors. The new chips come fewer than three months after Intel rolled out theeat latest iterations of the midrange Xeon E5 processors. The Xeon E5-2600 v4 chips are aimed at workstations and servers, with features that will enable businesses to more easily adopt cloud computing environments and managed the compute demand coming from mobile computing devices. With the new Xeon E7s, Intel officials are looking to drive the development of high-performing, highly-reliable servers that will enable enterprises manage the tidal wave of data coming at them, particularly from new sources such as the Internet of things (IoT). Trying to gain insight from data is nothing new, according to Ed Goldman, enterprise segment CTO of DCG. However, it is growing fast—67 percent expected growth between 2015 and 2020—he said. "Analytics has been around for a long time," Goldman said during the March workshop. "As soon as applications began to exist, people have been analyzing them. " However, the rapid growth in data is "significant to the portfolio and it's significant to what's going on in the market," he said. The new Xeon E7 v4 chips offer up to 24 cores per chip, more than the 18 cores on their predecessors. They also offer more instruction threads—48 for the new processors, to 36 to the Xeon E7 v3 chips—and up to 60MB of last-level cache. The previous chips offered up to 45MB. The 8800/4800 families include eight chips for a range of system types, as well as two chips optimized for the enterprise database market segment and another optimized processor for high-performance computing (HPC). The new processors also come with an array of new and enhanced features around virtualization, security, performance and RAS (reliability, availability and serviceability), officials said. They said the new chips not only offer improved performance when compared with the previous generation Xeon E7 processors, but also when tested against IBM's Power architecture. Benchmark tests show a 24-core Xeon E7 v4 bringing as much as 1.3 times the scaling of an 18-core predecessor. In addition, the deliver twice the memory support—up to 24TB—and twice as many analytics queries as the previous version. Intel officials also said enterprises can use fewer systems with the new chips to get the same amount of work done. A hundred 10-core, four-socket E7-4870 v1 processors can be replaced by 33 24-core, four-socket E7-8890 v4 chips, saving up to 92 percent in network and maintenance costs, 73 percent in power and cooling costs and 67 percent in software licensing, they said.
2016-06-06 20:23 Jeffrey Burt www.eweek.com
30 STEM Enterprises Seek High-Tech Solution to Hiring Bias Problem NEWS ANALYSIS: Fighting workplace inequality by eliminating bias in hiring could help ease a perceived shortage of qualified science and technology personnel. Some years ago I was standing on the bridge of a Perry-class frigate off the coast of Cuba as I listened to a couple of my fellow officers quietly plot to make sure a young lieutenant failed her Surface Warfare qualification. In their view the fact that she was female was reason enough to consider her unqualified. To their obvious disappointment, the officers evaluating the aspiring young officer saw that she performed brilliantly, and she got her qualification. Move forward a few years and the same general attitude has afflicted the technology industry and jobs that are technology related. But times have changed, and overt bias isn't as socially acceptable to the extent it was a few years ago. But that doesn't mean employment bias has disappeared, just that it's moved into the shadows. It's not talked about openly, but instead is still part of the hiring culture. As Michelle Maisto covered in her article on tech industry hiring , gender bias is having a significant negative effect on attempts by such companies to recruit and retain employees with the skill level necessary to keep their businesses healthy. And there's more than just gender bias. Companies are also passing over qualified applicants because they're not the right age or the right race or sometimes the right marital status. And in many cases, the bias can be the result of assumed membership in a group of people that isn't favored. In a new study released by the National Bureau of Economic Research, field researchers sent resumes in response to employment ads in Chicago and Boston. The resumes were randomly given names that seemed to indicate that they were from members of white, African American or Hispanic applicants. The resumes with "white" sounding names had a callback rate 50 percent higher than the others. While the jobs in this study weren't specifically technology related, the results appear to still be valid because many of the resumes contained accomplishments and schools attended that are common to technology applicants. This means, according to the study, that a white applicant might need to send out 10 resumes to get a callback, while others needed to send out 15. In the long run, this will tend to eliminate the number of people in those overlooked groups who would go on to other jobs. While it appears that the universities in the U. S. actually produce enough graduates in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) specialties to meet demand, many are not being hired. Despite objections to this finding from some who claim that the numbers are fake, or that at least in their company there's plenty of diversity, the fact is that the bias exists, not necessarily on the surface and certainly not as a result of overt corporate policy, but it's there. In many cases, real diversity is derailed at several levels. In some cases, the job description will tend to discourage specific groups from applying for a particular job. In others, midlevel hiring managers simply want someone who looks like and presumably thinks like them, usually in the name of fitting into the corporate culture. Perhaps more insidious are the many times that the right people are hired, but then they're not given a chance to advance in their careers.
2016-06-06 20:23 Wayne Rash www.eweek.com
31 A Delaware judge said the CEO and his partner underpaid when it bought the company for $25 billion, giving legitimacy to arguments made by opponents. As Michael Dell and other executives of his namesake company continue to push their $67 billion bid to buy data storage giant EMC, they earlier this month had their attention brought back to the contentious 2013 buyout by the CEO that took Dell private. A judge in Delaware's special corporate court ruled that the $25 billion buyout of Dell by Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners was too low, saying the company at the time was worth more than $31 billion. The ruling by Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster validated the arguments made at the time by activist investor Carl Icahn and other shareholders—such as financial services company T. Rowe Price—that Michael Dell and his partners were trying to benefit themselves by shortchanging stockholders. They mounted a vigorous campaign to derail the buyout, extending the process for months and forcing the CEO to increase the amount of the proposal. However, in the end, Michael Dell and Silver Lake got the necessary number of shareholders to back the deal. Michael Dell said he needed his company to go private in order to accelerate its transformation from a PC maker to an enterprise IT solutions and services provider that could better compete with the likes of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM and Cisco Systems. The company for the past several years has aggressively built up its capabilities in such areas as data center infrastructure, software, security and the cloud. Going private would give Dell the leeway to be more long-term in its planning rather than having to worry about reporting its financial numbers every quarter, opening itself up to the scrutiny of financial analysts. According to the Wall Street Journal , the judge's ruling is a good moral victory for Icahn and others, but most likely will have minimal impact. Dell will owe some ex-shareholders that had challenged the deal about $35 million, but T. Rowe Price—which mistakenly voted in favor of the deal despite being vocal in its opposition—will lose out on about $190 million for its 30 million shares, the newspaper said. Dell expects to close the deal for EMC within the next few months. Dell officials recently said that the proposal had two major hurdles to overcome: the approval by Chinese antitrust regulators and the EMC shareholder vote. They said they are confident that China will soon follow the United States and European Union in OK'ing the merger.
2016-06-06 20:23 Jeffrey Burt www.eweek.com
32 6 best USB-C accessories, cables and adapters What the port Gods giveth, they taketh away – so the saying goes. USB-C is the newest port on the block having found a way into everything from Apple's 12- inch MacBook to Dell's XPS 12 and even gaming desktops and smartphones. It's a jack of all trades that rolls power, output and connectivity into a single cable; so when you find out that the next version of your favorite laptop now comes with two ports, rather than five, you'll probably find that USB-C has joined the party. The new port has been around for a short while now, allowing a number of compatible accessories to creep onto the market. From massive external hard drives to mini storage thumbdrives, portable monitors to hubs, there's a growing collection of neat accessories that are a perfect fit for your new USB-C machine. Here we round up the best of them. MacBook fans were sad to see that Apple's MagSafe power connector didn't make it into the 12-inch MacBook. Griffin has set a wrong right with its BreakSafe Magnetic USB-C Power Cable, which safety detaches the power cable when it's yanked out of the socket. It works by connecting a small 12.8mm plug to the MacBook's power port, which then magnetically connects to its six-foot cable. With the MacBook being as thin it is, it's good to know that you won't smash it to smithereens by accidentally lassooing its power cable around your ankle. Get it from: Griffin Portable monitors are finally going to get some time in the spotlight thanks to USB-C, which allows them to connect to your computer with a single cable. The 15.6-inch MB169C+ is everything you could want in a model: thin, light, lag-free (thanks to Thunderbolt 3's speedy 40Gbps transfer rate) and rocking a Full HD display. The idea is that you slip it into your bag when on the road and hook it up to your laptop for extra screen space - a particular Godsend when paired with Apple's 12-inch MacBook that tops out with a scaled resolution of 1,680 x 1,080. Whether it's watching a 1080p movie, squeezing in more spreadsheet rows or having a dedicated chat window open, you'll find a use for it. Get it from: Amazon What it lacks in functionality, the Satechi USB Type-C to Type-A converter more than makes up for in convenience. Predominately designed for the 12-inch MacBook's silver and gold finish options, the dongle is a quick fix for when you desperately need to connect a standard USB devices with no compatible ports available. Plus, given the price of only $10, you could theoretically get one for every USB device you keep on-hand, alleviating the pain of being an early adopter. Satechi's adapter, therefore, could make the switch to the 2016 MacBook from, say, a MacBook Air a much easier pill to swallow. Get it from: Amazon USB-C comes in particularly handy when it comes to hooking external hard drives such as the Seagate Innnov8. With just a single cable needed to both power the drive and connect it to your laptop, there's no need for a bulky mains power adapter. It's just as well too, because the Innov8 is a monster in terms of both size and capacity. Its massive 8TB of storage makes it a great fit for backing up anything from movies and music to entire Steam game libraries. Transferring files to and from the Innov8 is quick and seameless, with the unit's sequential read and write speeds reaching up to 203MB/s and 32MB/s respectively during our testing. Great stuff all round then, but you'll need a large backpack to cart it around and a strong spine to to manage its considerable weigh Get it from: Seagate Newer laptops like Apple's 12-inch MacBook and Dell's XPS 13 come with USB-C connections, rather than the traditional USB-A type, which means transferring data from your old thumb drives is a no-no. SanDisk's handy Dual USB Drive Type-C storage drive, which comes with 32GB of storage, has both types of connection allowing you to easily transfer data from one device to another. It will plug into any device with a USB-C connection, from laptops to desktop PCs and even newer smartphones. Android device owners can also take advantage of SanDisk's data management app. Get it from: Amazon The 12-inch MacBook's single port is either innovative or annoying depending on how you see it. Only being able to connect one peripheral or device is at least a little bit frustrating at the best of times, which is why Hyper launched the Type-C 5-in-1 Hub. It docks into the MacBook's single USB Type-C port to provide multiple connections, including USB Type-C (with pass-through charging for daisy-chaining USB-C devices), an SDXC slot, micro SDXC and two USB 3.0 Type-A connections for plugging in your older peripherals. Get it from: Hyper
2016-06-06 21:10 By Kane feedproxy.google.com
33 FIFA 17: release date, trailer and a peek at the mesmerizing Frostbite engine One of the biggest game reveals of the year will take place in just over a week, but today we learned crucial details about the forthcoming FIFA 17, plus saw its tantalizing reveal trailer. Let's get some important info out of the way: The FIFA 17 release date is September 27 for North America, and its global release is slated for September 29. It's headed to Xbox One , PS4 , PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. EA Access and Origin Access members with an Xbox One or PC can play the game before anyone else, though there's no info yet on when that will happen. Marked all that down in your calendar? Cool. EA also revealed that for this edition, it's utilizing the powerful Frostbite engine to bring a stunning, real-life essence to the game play. As you can see in the trailer below, the result of FIFA fueling up on Frostbite is crisp, clear graphics that are a far cry from the game's blocky early days. A full FIFA 17 unveiling takes place June 12 at the EA Play event coinciding with E3 2016. It's important to note that while FIFA 17 will be available on legacy systems, Frostbite will only work on the newer consoles and PC. Watch the reveal trailer below and catch a glimpse of the frighteningly good Frostbite engine at work. Article continues below
2016-06-06 20:43 By Michelle feedproxy.google.com
34 Best Mac to buy in 2016: Apple's top iMacs, MacBooks and more Buying a new Mac isn't as easy as picking out a new iPhone. With a phone you only have to worry about cost, color, and capacity, but when upgrading your computer you need to consider portability, power, speed, storage, screen size, pixels, expansion needs and more. So while Apple's Mac lineup is fairly streamlined and straightforward, there's still a lot to consider. If you decide you want a desktop, there's the Mac mini , iMac and Mac Pro to choose from. If portability is your primary concern, you have the 12-inch MacBook , MacBook Air , MacBook and MacBook Pro. Even if you pass on the build- to-order options, there are dozens of possibilities ranging from $499 (about £325/AU$646) all the way up to $3,999 (about £2,610/AU$5,181). A new Mac is a long-term investment. You don't want to be stuck with the wrong one for years and years, so we sorted through every option for every model to help pair you with your perfect match. Head to the next page as we dive right in. A cylindrical tower of power See more Mac Pro deals The Mac Pro was cutting-edge when it launched in late 2013, and it's still one of the most advanced PCs money can buy - though an update wouldn't go amiss. The new design, which made the machine much smaller and compact, introduced Thunderbolt, the high-speed connectivity option to the desktop, and a range of other high-end features that users wanted. The most expensive Pro model can have a 12-core processor, 64GB of RAM, and 4 terabytes (4,000GB) of SSD storage without breaking a sweat. From here, users can add their own graphics cards, more memory, and run four displays. The machine has power and performance to spare, with quad-core Intel Xeon E5 processors, dual AMD FirePro graphics cards, and super-fast PCIe-based flash storage. And its distinctive 9-inch-high cylindrical form fits great on any desk. Of course, the Pro's price tag matches its performance - ranging from $2,999 (£2,499/AU$4,399) to around $10,000 depending on your storage, memory and processing needs - but it's as future-proofed as any Mac you'll find. Even if OS X were to transform into some kind of a Multitouch hybrid in five years, today's Mac Pros will surely be able to handle it. The Mac Pro, unlike all of Apple's other desktops or laptops, is meant to be played with, expanded, and customised by people who work in film or music studios. Because of this, the Pro is unlike any of Apple's other machines and, as such, doesn't get updated as often by the company. Apple has been under pressure to update the Mac Pro in recent times, however, as the iMac becomes more and more powerful. The next version of the Pro will most likely not come in 2016, however. Apple's biggest iMac puts everything on display See more 27-inch iMac with 5K Retina display deals If you want the big screen of an iMac with the precision of a Retina display then there's only one iMac for you: the iMac with 5K Retina display. It comes with a choice of two quad-core Intel Core i5s at 3.3GHz and 3.5GHz respectively, a 1TB hard drive or Fusion Drive, and it's so pretty we want to marry it. If you're dropping more than a grand and a half on an iMac you might as well go the whole hog and get the faster, Fusion Drive-packing model, packing a 5K Retina Display, 3.5GHz processor and Fusion Drive for £1,849 ($2,299). For designers and video creators looking to make the move to ultra pixel- heavy content, the 5K iMac pairs an illustrious display with a heaping deal of screen real estate to boot. It may not have the expandability of a Mac Pro, but hey, at least you don't have to worry about buying a separate monitor. Apple is unlikely to change anything big on the 27-inch iMac with 5K Retina display in 2016, making way for other models—like the Pro or Mini—to get the limelight. A gorgeous 4K display on a compact all-in-one See more A gorgeous 4K display on a compact all-in-one deals If 27 inches is too much for you, Apple's 21.5-inch 4K iMac is much smaller but packs and equally sharp display. It goes toe-to-toe with the 27-inch 5K iMac's when it comes to pixel density, and it similarly supports the DCI P3 colour gamut that allows for accurate, vibrant colour. The 4K iMac starts at £1,199 ($1,499) and can be upgraded with features such as a faster processor, more RAM and faster (and more capacious) storage. It's not that much more affordable than the entry-level 27-inch iMac once you've ramped up the configuration, so it's worth bearing in mind whether spending the extra money would be worth getting hold of a larger display and much more powerful graphics capabilities. If those aspects aren't important, Apple's smaller iMac is still a capable machine and packs one of the best 4K screens around. And, if you don't need an Ultra HD display, check out the 1080p model. As with the 5K iMac, it's highly unlikely that Apple will launch a new 4K model in 2016. It will, however, benefit from an upgrade to OS X 10.12, OS X El Capitan 's successor, which is likely to launch around October. Due a redesign, but still the most capable MacBook See more 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina deals The name may suggest a high-priced machine, but the MacBook Pro is far more affordable than the desktop tower that shares its surname. If you're looking for more of a desktop replacement than a road companion, it's definitely the way to go. We don't recommend the cheapest model, however. While it does have a zippy 2.5GHz i5 processor, we aren't wowed by the laptop's 13-inch non- Retina screen, 5400-rpm hard drive and 7-hour battery life. At $1,099 (£899/AU$1,549), we'd either get the upper-end Air for the same price or chip in another $200 to go Retina. The extra money also buys double the RAM, three additional hours of battery life, a Force Touch trackpad, and Iris graphics. You'll give up quite a few gigs of storage (125GB vs 500GB), but the upgrade to a flash drive makes the tradeoff much more palatable. You can spend even more for extra storage and a few megahertz, but most users will get what they need for $1,299 (£999/AU1,799). At the very top of Apple's laptop lineup is the 15-inch model, and it earns its premier spot. Packed with a 2.2GHz or a 2.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, a Force Touch trackpad, and 16GB of RAM, it's a screamer whether you're editing videos in Final Cut Pro or making music with Garageband. Starting at $1,999 (£1,599/AU$2,799), this model is significantly more expensive than its smaller sibling but worth every penny. And the $2,499 (£1,999/AU$3,499) step-up brings more than the usual storage and chip bump; Apple has also crammed in AMD's Radeon R9 M370X graphics card, which makes this the only laptop advanced enough to power a 5K display. 2016 will likely be a slower year for the Pro as the other Mac laptops, especially the Air, play catchup. The Pro was the first Apple laptop to get the Retina display in 2012 and has continued to cater to users who want a lot of power on-the-go ever since. Check out our MacBook Pro 2016 release date, news and rumors article for all of the latest information on potential upcoming models. Intel has a new range of processors out, called Skylake, and these may make it into the laptop in 2016. However, Microsoft has had problems with its Surface Book and Pro models—both of which compete with the MacBook Pro—and so Apple may be wary about adopting the chipsets. Over the next year, Intel may figure out the quirks, however. The competition from Microsoft, among others, may also force Apple to update the Pro quicker, bringing newer and faster components to the laptops as they come out, rather than in the months after. The company is unlikely to switch from its once-yearly schedule for updates, however. Small, but perfectly formed See more 12-inch MacBook deals Apple's 2015 MacBook refresh wasn't for everyone and, despite being rosier and "goldier" than ever, that contention hasn't changed with this year's upgrade. While both models supplanted the MacBook Air as the lightest and smallest laptop, the extra portability came with compromises. Most notably, Apple replaced the standard USB 3 and Thunderbolt 2 ports with the brand-new USB-C protocol. While it's cool that a single cable can now handle both power and all sorts of data transfer, Mac users who are used to plugging in a variety of devices may find themselves frustrated picking through the various hubs and adapters required to complete even the most basic tasks. There's also the keyboard. When the PowerBook debuted in 1991, Apple caused a stir by pushing the keys closer to the screen to create a natural palm rest and room for a trackball. Apple has attempted to change the game once again with the new MacBook, this time by re-engineering every key to be thinner and far less springy to the touch. It feels quite a bit different than any other laptop we've ever used, so we recommend trying one at an Apple Store before making a decision. If those two concerns (and the loss of the glowing Apple logo) aren't an issue for you, the MacBook is pretty great. Even though its 1.1GHz, 1.2GHz dual-core or 1.3GHz Intel Core M processor has nowhere near the power of the Pro or even the Air, the laptop is more than capable of running iMovie, Photos, and even Photoshop with ease, much thanks to the smooth-as-butter OS X El Capitan. It's also easy on the eyes with a stunning design that's available in silver, space gray, gold in addition to a new rose gold finish, and it comes packed with the latest in portable technology, from the 2304x1440 retina display to the Force Touch trackpad. An affordable $1,299 (£1,049/AU$1,799) gets you 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD and an improved 10-hour battery. While it's too early to start speculating on what's in store for the next MacBook hardware, this year's model was the tock to last year's tick, meaning it didn't get quite the performance boost it deserved. Even with the welcome touch of an elegant new color option, the MacBook could undoubtedly benefit from a set of full-on Core i processors. Check out our 12-inch MacBook release date, news and rumors article for all of the latest updates on potential upcoming models. For now, though, Apple has the iPad Pro, which weighs 1.57 pounds and measures 6.9mm thick, for those who don't want the power of a Mac, meaning that the MacBook needs to be more powerful to remain attractive. However, because it runs iOS, the iPad Pro isn't compatible with certain apps, namely legacy programs designed for OS X, meaning that there is still a market for a laptop that can also be transported easily. Apple also has to consider the MacBook Air, which has either an 11- or 13- inch screen (albeit possibly not for long), and is aimed at professionals who are on-the-go but need a powerful laptop. It's now possible to grab big Air for less See more 13-inch MacBook Air deals The MacBook Air is in an interesting spot. While it's still one of the most popular and well-known notebooks around, the launch of the slimmer, lighter new MacBook has stolen some of its thunder, and we have to assume one of two things: either a major update is in the works, or it will soon be made obsolete by an expanding MacBook line. Still, we wouldn't recommend going for the 11-inch MacBook Air, which is well past its sell-by date. But until then, we wouldn't discourage anyone from buying it. The MacBook Air will still give you all-day battery life, USB 3 and Thunderbolt ports, and an SDXC card slot. Even without a Retina display or Force Touch trackpad, it's a very capable machine, with a 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 128GB flash drive. Either model can be had for less than a grand, and with identical specs, choosing between the two sizes comes down to preference, with just $100 separating the $899 (£749/AU$1,249) 11-inch version and the $999 (£849/AU$1,399) 13-inch one. The MacBook Air, which launched in 2008 and was then updated in 2010, is in need of a refresh—and the rumours suggest Apple is going to give it one. Check out our MacBook Air 2016 news, release date and rumors article for all of the latest information on potential upcoming models. The Retina display, a branding term Apple gives to its highest-resolution displays, has not yet made it onto any of the Air models and the internals— which are currently made up of Intel's Broadwell CPUs from 2014—need a refresh for 2016. The Air currently occupies an awkward, but necessary, spot in Apple's lineup between the Pro—which is aimed at people who don't want to do intensive tasks (like Photoshop) but do want to write or edit photos—and the MacBook. The Air is Apple's best selling model, according to supply chain estimates, and continues to be the cheapest way of getting a laptop with a glowing Apple logo on the back. The company is evidently not obsessed with keeping it bang up-to-date, but the refreshes slated for 2016—including a Retina display, updated internals, and better battery—will keep it new, and powerful, enough for most users. Apple's most affordable Mac See more Mac mini deals The Mac Mini is Apple's cheapest computer and has, for a long time, been its least powerful. However, thanks in large part to Intel's processor technology, the desktop can be used for heavier tasks and Apple has brought the low-end model up to a decent specification. The desktop is popular both because of its price—which undercuts the cheapest MacBook Air by $400—and its design, which is small, sleek, and simple. The Mini comes in three variants: a $499 option with a dual-core i5 CPU, a spinning hard drive, and 4GB of RAM; a $699 option with a more powerful processor, an SSD, and 8GB of RAM; or a $999 model which is comparable to the iMac at the same price. The top-of-the-line Mac mini bumps the processor up to 2.8GHz and adds a Fusion Drive in place of the 5400-rpm spinner, but at $999, we wouldn't recommend it. If you're willing to spend over a thousand dollars on a desktop computer, you'll be better served by moving up to an iMac. In the UK, the Mac mini runs from £399 to £799, while in Australia it starts at AU$699 and tops out at AU$1,399. The Mac mini's internal hardware is nearly a year and a half old, and Apple could be looking to update it so that its low-end users get a decent experience when running OS X, which became more graphically intense with OS X 10.11 El Capitan, the newest version. The 2016 model would likely include Intel's Skylake chips, which would yield big performance improvements, alongside other, newer internals, like RAM and an SSD option for the low-end model. Article continues below
2016-06-06 20:36 By Kane feedproxy.google.com
35 Valve updates The Lab with leaderboards and more The Lab, the collection of VR “experiments” that Valve rolled out in March , is all about science. But as today's big update asks, “What's science without a little competition?” And not competition in the sense of being the first to have new research published in a peer-reviewed journal. No, the type of competition we're talking about here is a bit more, shall we say, hands-on. The update adds global leaderboards to the Longbow, Xortex, and Slingshot games, so you can “prove to the world that you're the best at science.” The games themselves have been changed as well: Longbow will now throw unlimited waves of enemies at you, each faster and more likely to be armored than the last, and will reset exploding barrels and cauldrons every eight waves; Xortex has a new game mode called Xortex Infinite, “with progressively more frantic action” and a powerful bomb in place of the laser; and Slingshot has been rebalanced to offer “new core calibration career opportunities,” with “bigger, better barrel explosions [and] a host of scoring adjustments to help you solidify your place as a world class calibrator.” The update will also add support for subtitles and text localization, and make other additions and improvements that you can read about in the full patch notes . We spent some hands-on time in The Lab at GDC shortly after it was revealed, which you can see (because it's a video) right here. The Lab requires a VR headset—it is a VR demo, after all—but if you happen to have one, it's a freebie on Steam.
2016-06-06 19:59 Andy Chalk www.pcgamer.com
36 Vertagear wants to be the Herman Miller of gaming chairs I spotted a new company called Vertagear at Computex this year, and it is determined to put your butt on one of its chairs. Up until now, DXRacer was essentially the only name on the PC Gaming scene. However, more choices are usually better. Vertagear reps tell me the company's chairs are much higher quality than any other in their class. My first impression is that they're telling the truth. I've sat in a couple of DXR chairs in the past, and although they're initially comfortable, they're either not as adjustable, and or not made with the same eye for detail. I spent some time examining the material and stitching on Vertagear's offerings and they appeared well made. Interestingly, Vertagear said these chairs are pre-production, and pointed out that some seams weren't actually meeting company standards yet. Without being shown the areas, I would have missed them. Right now, Vertagear is only talking about two models for sale, the racing style SL4000, which is the racing style chair show in white, and its office-like chair called the Triiger, which comes in 3 different models: 350SE, 350, and 275, starting at $600 for the 275. Right now I sit on an Aeron, but I can see myself sitting on a Triiger, which has some unique features. Adjustments are done via levers on either side of the arm rest for things such as height, lean position, lean position lock, and tension. I found this to be far more convenient than those on the Aeron, which costs a significant amount more if purchased new. The racing style SL4000 doesn't have arm-side switch mechanics but does have similar features as well as an auto-tension mechanism for back-lean. The chair will control its resistance based on your weight. I'm about 160 pounds and 5 feet 9 inches (about 1.75m) tall, and found the auto tension to be be suitable for my body. Obviously, it's hard for me to test someone else's body size. The only thing I felt was missing from the SL4000 was the ability to make the backrest do a follow-return lean when it's furthest back- lean had a position lock for maximum lean distance. Materials on both models feel high quality, and the accents on the Triiger series are made of genuine leather. There's very few plastic bits on the chairs. For comparison, the wheel base, covers, and other parts on a DXRacer are made of plastic, while the SL4000 and Triiger use aluminum. Those who are interested in the racing style SL will also be happy to know that Vertagear built in small table accessories for joystick use. The company plans to build a full line of attachable accessories to support a full line of flight-sim joysticks as well as racing wheels and foot pedals. The SL also lets you hide your cables when you're using VR headsets by running them through a covered section of the backrest.
2016-06-06 19:35 Tuan Nguyen www.pcgamer.com
37 Surface Pro 5 release date, news and rumors The impressive (if a bit troubled) Surface Pro 4 is only a few months old, so naturally we technology lovers are already thinking about the fifth edition of Microsoft's laptop-killing tablet. In fact, rumors of a Surface Pro 5 release date are already floating around the internet. The keyword there is "rumors", as none of those reported are citing trustworthy sources, if any at all. Not to mention that folks are also clamoring across message boards, like Reddit, for their most desired features and improvements. (Can you guess the most popular one? It slant rhymes with "lottery".) And you can bet that the techradar editors have been chatting about that very same thing. We'll get to our wishlist shortly, but first, let's talk rumors. Microsoft's Panos Panay unveiling the Surface Pro 4 in October 2015 Unfortunately, all we have to go off of, as far as published reports are concerned, is a baseless rumor started by Release Date Portal that suggests the device will launch either in June 2016 or October 2016. Since then, several outlets – including The Times of India – have picked it up. However, there is – at the very least – a precedent for both of those purported launch windows. Microsoft announced the Surface Pro 3 back in May 2014, with most models being available in late June of that year. Last year, the Surface Pro 4 was announced in October 2015 and hit shelves later that same month. If Microsoft were to pick a time to release its fifth Surface Pro device, chances are that it would go with one of those windows – with October being even more likely. It would be a shock if Microsoft were able to shrink its product cycle to make a June 2016 release much less an October one. Contrarily, there is evidence indicating that we might not see a Surface Pro 5 until much later than this. As reported earlier this year, the second major update to Windows 10 was delayed until Spring 2017 to correspond with a new hardware launch. This could actually make sense, too, considering each of the previous two Surface Pro iterations came later in the product cycle than the last. Moreover, Intel's confirmation that its 14-nanometer Kaby Lake processors won't come out until the tail-end of 2016, according to Tech Times. Given Microsoft's history with Surface Pro launches, it wouldn't be out of character for Redmond to push back the hardware a few months, allotting itself time to get comfortable with the Kaby Lake architecture. We doubt the Surface Pro 5 will look terribly different from the previous In case you haven't noticed in the phone market, the prices of later iterations of modern tech products doesn't change all that drastically – if at all – between releases. Applying that logic to the eventual Surface Pro 5, it's likely that the device will start at $899 (£749, AU$1,349) and escalate from there depending on the configuration and accessories you choose. Is there any chance that the final price will differ? Of course, there is. Would it be smart for Microsoft to deviate too far from the standard it has set? Nope. Regardless, the ball is in Microsoft's court here, and the company will naturally preserve its bottom line if pricier new features are implemented as standard. Image Credit: Patently Mobile One piece of the puzzle regarding every new Surface is how Microsoft will upgrade its Surface Pen stylus accessory that comes bundled with each tablet. Patently Mobile recently uncovered a patent filed by Microsoft for a stylus that features a rechargeable battery system. Specifically, the patent details a magnetic charging dock built to give the new Surface Pen its juice, seemingly with connectors meant for a Surface Dock mounting. Such a venture makes a lot of sense for Microsoft, as the iPad Pro 's Apple Pencil currently has this exact edge over the Surface Pen, able to charge by awkwardly connecting to the tablet via its Lightning port. Microsoft's Panos Panay revealing the Surface Pro 3 in May 2014 Look, as much as we've been impressed by the Surface Pro 4, firmware issues aside, there will always be room for improvement. (That would be the case even if it had earned our Editor's Choice award.) From the screen size and resolution to the hardware inside, we have a few ideas for how Microsoft could craft an even better Windows 10 tablet. This is a bit of low-hanging fruit, but countless customers have lamented the Surface Pro 4's battery life – regardless of issues with its "Sleep" mode. We rated the device for 5 hours and 15 minutes of video playback. That's well below Microsoft's promise of 9 hours of video playback, but we all know that few, if any, laptops actually meet their promised longevity. Our video playback figure is in line with the average laptop, though it's a far cry from what its nemesis, the MacBook Air , can produce. Ideally, and realistically, we'd like to see at least 7 hours of battery life reliably from the next Surface Pro tablet. That would put it closer in line with the MacBook Air as well as competing tablets, like the iPad Pro. Can the screen get much sharper? Why yes, it can With the Surface Pro 4, Microsoft managed to oust countless rivals in both the laptop and tablet spaces when it comes to screen resolution. With a razor-sharp 267 ppi (pixels per inch) already at 2,736 x 1,824 pixels within a 12.3-inch screen, it's not as if the Surface Pro 5 needs to be much sharper. However, if the next Surface Pro were equipped with, say, a 4K (3,840 pixels wide, at least) screen, that would rip its productivity and entertainment capabilities wide open. Film and photo editors could work at the native resolution that's increasingly becoming the norm, while average Joe's (teehee) could finally watch Netflix in 4K on a tablet. That said, the realm of super sharp resolutions might be reserved for the Surface Book range at this point. So, why not up its size a bit? The Surface Pro 4 is big enough for almost all tasks, but it's still not the established default size for most laptops: 13.3 inches. Understandably, the point is for the Surface Pro to straddle both sides of the ever-eroding line between laptop and tablet. However, maybe the iPad Pro is onto something with its 12.9-inch display. Plus, granted the resolution doesn't bump up too much alongside a size increase, the extra space could allow for a battery life boost. Now, imagine if the next Surface rocked USB-C We saw the latest Google Chromebook Pixel and MacBook be two of the first devices to adopt the latest in USB technology, only for a growing number of smartphones, tablets and laptops to hop on board since then. The reversible, versatile port (or two?) may be just what the Surface Pro 5 needs to alleviate the product line's slight input/output problem. A single USB 3.0 port and a proprietary charging port aren't going to cut it for much longer. It helps that Microsoft has already well-tested the USB-C port within its new Lumia phones, so it's practically a no-brainer to apply that same tech to the Surface line. If scuttlebutt is to be believed, we're about seven months out from a release – plenty of time for the rumor mill to fire up. Stay tuned to this space in the coming months for the latest on things Surface Pro 5. Article continues below 2016-06-06 19:01 By Joe feedproxy.google.com
38 Ciber To Sell Netherlands Business For $25M, Stock Skyrockets Ciber continues along the path toward divesting itself of nonstrategic operations, saying Monday that it plans to sell its 400-employee Dutch business, and sending the channel partner's stock skyrocketing. The Greenwood Village, Colo.-based company -- No. 43 on the CRN 2016 Solution Provider 500 -- said offloading Ciber Netherlands to Milwaukee-based ManpowerGroup is part of a broader plan to focus on its core business in the IT staffing, implementation, app modernization, consulting and managed services spaces. "We feel there are great opportunities in the IT services space, but we can't be everything to everyone," Scott Kozak, Ciber's senior director of investor relations, told CRN. "The company wants to invest in growth areas for business. " [Related: Ciber Cutting Staff, Will Propose Divesting Some Business After Sales Plummet ] Kozak said Ciber, in the past year, has gone from more than 500 "option buckets" to just 50, to become leaner and more focused, and hopes to get down to just 15 buckets in the coming months. The company is looking to exit businesses with poor-quality revenue -- such as those offering low margins, those that are heavily reliant on subcontractors or those that are more susceptible to litigation, Kozak said, as well as some ancillary businesses associated with the 66 acquisitions Ciber made between 1995 and 2010. Wall Street appeared to be ecstatic about the announcement, sending Ciber's stock soaring 30.6 percent, to $1.56 per share, during trading Monday. The deal was announced before the market opened. ManpowerGroup will pay $25 million for Ciber's Dutch operations, subject to the retention of certain Netherlands customers six months after closing. The deal is expected to close in mid-June after regulatory approval. ManpowerGroup was impressed by Ciber's portfolio of Dutch IT projects, particularly as it relates to SAP deployments. The deal should significantly bolster the company's IT capabilities in the Netherlands, according to Jilko Andringa, president of ManpowerGroup Northern Europe. "A lot of skills are needed and scarcity is happening," Andringa told CRN. "We see the client need to find partners to fix the skill gap. " ManpowerGroup plans to retain the Ciber brand, cross-sell its existing brand to Ciber's customers in the country (and vice versa) and expand IT services in the Netherlands, Andringa said. ManpowerGroup has collaborated with Ciber on previous projects in the country, according to Andringa.
2016-06-06 18:44 Michael Novinson www.crn.com
39 Tesla wants to share your Autopilot data with the government Hot on the heels of Tesla's announcement that it collected data for 780 million miles of the semi- autonomous usage, Elon Musk shared it offered to give that data to the US Department of Transportation (DoT) and other auto manufacturers. While sharing the Autopilot program data with the DoT would help regulators better understand autonomous vehicles, sharing the millions of miles of information with other manufacturers may speed up development of the technology itself. Neither Tesla nor the DoT confirmed whether the information was transferred. "... Regulators will take, I think, at least another year which will depend on what part of the world you are in," Musk said. "Because they want to see billions of miles of data to show that it is statistically true that there is a substantial improvement in safety if a vehicle is autonomous versus non- autonomous. " This is all prior to the release of an unconfirmed, but highly expected, Level 4, fully-autonomous vehicle from Tesla within the next year and on the road in less than two. "I think we are basically less than 2 years away from complete autonomy, safer than a human," Musk continued. A Level 4 autonomous vehicle is all-autonomous. Anyone of any age would be able to enter their destination and get there without a driver's license. Musk states regulators want the technology to be somewhere between two and ten times safer than a human driver. Source: electrek Article continues below
2016-06-06 18:41 By Deanna feedproxy.google.com
40 35 best PC games: the must-play titles you can't afford to miss The PC is either making a comeback or never went away in the first place, depending on who you ask. Whichever camp you're in, a deluge of triple-A titles, virtual reality and (whisper it) decent console ports make picking the PC over the Xbox One or PS4 a no- brainer. Thanks to the popularity of Valve's Steam platform, finding and downloading the best PC games is easier than ever before. Whether you're a mouse-and-keyboard diehard who mutters "boom, headshot! " in their sleep, or a joypad-wielding adrenaline junkie, the PC has no shortage of blockbuster and indie titles to help you waste away the hours. We've rounded up the best PC games out there today. If you don't agree, let us know in the comments below.. There's nothing quite like a sequel to a 90s classic to really get our juices flowing. Released in 1998, System Shock 2 was one of the defining survival horror games on the PC that decade. The main antagonist from that game, the psychopathic AI SHODAN, is returning for System Shock 3. Little else is known about the third game in the series, which is being developed by Otherside Entertainment, other than it could feature VR support. As if System Shock 2 wasn't scary enough without it... If Pillars of Eternity (which currently sits fourth in our list of Best PC Games) whet your appetite for old-school RPGs, Torment: Tides of Numenera looks set to continue the nostalgia-fest. The spiritual successor to Planescape Tournament (it's being written by that game's designer, Colin McComb), Tides broke the then-Kickstarter record for surpassing a million dollars in funding in just seven hours. Based on the pen-and-paper game Numenera, which is set a billion years in the future, expect Tides to be heavily story- driven and terrific to look at thanks to its living and breathing environments set in the Ninth World. Few games are unique these days, but Studio MDHR's charming run and gun title Cuphead just might be deserving of the label. Featuring a visual art style borrowed from 1930s Disney cartoons (think Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie), it's a romantic blend of old and new-era entertainment. Adorable and even a bit disturbing due to its screen-filling bosses (most of which are drawn with deranged facial expressions), Cuphead has us thirsty for more. A procedurally generated space exploration game with over 18 quintillion planets might seem ambitious, but a group of 15 developers at Hello Games believes this is possible with fully 3D graphics and a vibrant universe to boot. When it arrives in August, you can expect to explore endlessly, limited only by the amount of fuel in your spacecraft as well as how far it can travel before you need to start saving up for a new ship. By investigating planets and gathering information for a galactic database called The Atlas, you'll accumulate an in-game currency called 'units' which can then be used to acquire new swag. One of the most celebrated arena-shooters of all time, Unreal Tournament brushed Quake 3 aside to claim the online shooter crown back in 1999. It's remained a firm favourite with FPS fans ever since, leading to a remake being announced in 2014. Developed in Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4, Unreal Tournament brings back classic weapons including the Flak Canon, Pulse Rifle and Mini-Gun. The first high-resolution map, Outpost 23, looks nothing short of stunning and is sure to give UT die-hards m-m-m-m- monster thrills. Cities: Skylines is SimCity updated for the modern era, proving a breath of fresh air for would-be mayors. Its core gameplay lets you dig deep into the various aspects of running a sprawling virtual city - from economics to macro and micro management and land planning. But Cities: Skylines really shines when it comes to mods, which allow you to create custom maps, assets and tools to share with other online players. See the best PRODUCT NAME deals Credit: PC Gamer Dragon Age: Inquisition places you in the heart of a huge, vibrant world on a far greater scale than its predecessors, and it does an excellent job of making you feel in command. Packing in a huge 90 hours (and the rest) of gameplay into its storyline, Inquisition's smart dialogue, compelling plot, savvy progression system and massive sandbox world will have you engrossed for months on end. Think the Elder Scrolls games meets the Diablo franchise and you're halfway there. Credit: PC Gamer A card game from the makers of World of Warcraft, Hearthstone is easy to learn, but hard to master. Like Blizzard's famous MMO, Hearthstone combines classes, characters and a bit of tactical luck when throwing you into battle against computerised or online opponents. Stick with it and you'll be rewarded by its tactical, deep gameplay. Though available on iOS and Android, its low system requirements, excellent presentation and great sound effects mean it's best experienced on the PC. Though it's arguably not as difficult as previous entries in the series, From Software's Dark Souls 3 takes everything you like about the Souls series and combines it with elements found in Bloodborne, the developer's more recent game for PS4. Don't get us wrong -- Dark Souls 3 is no walk in the park. It still takes skill to master its complex combat system, but it plays fair too, inviting more casual gamers to take part in its bleak, fantastical world. Plus, on the bright side, it brings remarkably better PC optimization than that of the first game. Pillars of Eternity is a sprawling RPG in the vein of Baldaur's Gate or Icewind Dale that combines highly detailed technical combat with hundreds of hours of gameplay. It has refreshingly low system requirements on the PC but still looks incredible thanks to its simple but effective art style, which harks back to those aforementioned isometric fantasy RPGs of the 2000s. But it's not all about nostalgia: Pillars of Eternity has enough interesting characters, baddies and clever writing to make it a modern classic of its own. See the best PRODUCT NAME deals Grand Theft Auto V is one of the most anticipated console ports to ever hit the PC. You probably didn't need telling twice to head back into Los Santos's hugely detailed and interactive world, but it's ten times more fun with the PC's richer graphics and smooth 60 frames per second gameplay. Once you're done with its 31-hour storyline or had your fill blazing around the city causing chaos, an ever expanding list of GTA V mods - from fine tuning cars or throwing vehicles around with a Gravity Gun - are bound to keep you entertained for some time. See the best PRODUCT NAME deals Set 15 years after the events of the first Alien film from 1979, Alien: Isolation is the suspense-packed game that fans of the franchise have been crying out for. Playing the role of Amanda Ripley, daughter of Alien protagonist Ellen Ripley, your mission is to track down and recover the flight recorder of the Nostromo spacecraft from the first Alien film which has been located aboard the Sevastopol space station. First and foremost a stealth game, Isolation ramps up the tension by providing you with minimal weaponry. Its excellent graphics shine on high-end PCs and clever AI helps ramp up the dread, leaving you to quiver when turning every corner. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive remains a fantastic update to a timeless classic that continues to live on thanks to its vast online communities. A well-rounded tactical shooter that builds on the simple Terrorists vs Counter- Terrorists gameplay mechanics of Counter-Strike 1.6 and Counter-Strike: Source, CS: GO updates classic maps such as Italy and Dust while keeping adding new modes in Arms Race and Demolition. Simpler than Battlefield but more nuanced than the Call of Duty franchise, it's a shooter for those who like to run, gun and think - if only a little bit. Ubisoft's latest shooter marks Far Cry's most beautiful outing yet. Its graphically-rich world is eye-popping on high-end PCs, and you'll see plenty of it thanks to a 30+ hour-long campaign. Aside from the main campaign, there are plenty of things to do in Kyrat - from hostage rescue and assassination missions to escort quests, resource collecting and, of course, avoiding being killed by bullets or rampaging animals. Whether you're tearing across the savanna in a rickety car or slinging grenades around like tennis balls, survival has never been such a blast. See the best PRODUCT NAME deals FTL (Faster Than Light) puts you command of running a spaceship and looking after its crew. Featuring a complex game mechanism that involves maintaining weapons, engines, shields and other areas, in addition to tactical combat, FTL can get extremely in-depth over time. Whether you're ordering your crew to quite literally put out fires on deck in the heat of battle, or are navigating through asteroid fields, FTL is as much about long-term progression and satisfaction as it is quick fixes. Don't let its indie stylings fool you: this is game with untold depth and scary levels of addictiveness. A 90s classic brought back to life (unlike its main protagonist), Grim Fandango Remastered is a successful attempt at reviving one of the PC's best adventure games of all time. Combining writing that matches the funniest dark comedies with clever puzzles and a still-impressive art style, Grim Fandango was the most entertaining work of art to take place in a Mexican setting for years until Breaking Bad came along. Now with updated graphics, sound and better controls, Manna Calavera's adventure has never looked so good. Four years after its initial release, Skyrim is going as strong as ever thanks to a vast selection of mods and high-resolution texture packs. Even if you're only interested in playing the vanilla version of the RPG, it offers more than 100 hours of gameplay. Throw in three action packs DLC expansion packs (Dawnguard, Hearthfire and Dragonborn), and it lasts even longer. That Skyrim has been compared to graphically superior but similar RPG blockbuster The Witcher 3 is testament to its enduring popularity. Step into Skyrim and you too can be an adventurer - just try not to take an arrow in the knee. See the best PRODUCT NAME deals Originally launched as an Arma II mod, DayZ is a standalone zombie shooter with a difference. Not only do you have to mind the undead when wandering around its sprawling maps, but other online players too. Armed with a lead pipe and carrying nothing but a backpack and a flashlight, you'll need wits and guile to survive. Pretty much the opposite of adrenaline-packed zombie fests such as Left4Dead, you'll spent half of the time evading the undead and the other using a shovel to fend off any humans who are bent on trying to steal your last box of matches. And take it from us - they will try. The phrase "build it, and they will come" quite literally rings true when it comes to Minecraft, the game that has been bought by more than 19 million people. The survival-themed sandbox RPG lets players build their own worlds or explore others, using the game's multiple block types to construct anything from small huts to extravagant castles and beyond. Minecraft's ultimate appeal revolves around its open-ended nature. Creative types can build and destroy to their hearts' content, while solo players can concentrate on not being eaten by the zombie hordes that emerge at night. A modern-day classic that has spawned its own genre, it's not to be missed. The Orange Box may be showing its age, but it remains a must-play collection of games - particularly for FPS fans. Half-Life 2, technically still the most recent game in Valve's franchise (excluding its Episode 1 and 2 add-ons), remains a modern masterpiece and is famed for being the first game to intelligently apply physics to its puzzles and combat set-pieces. The collection's other titles aren't too shabby either: Portal takes gravity- based puzzles to the extreme by equipping the player with the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device (also known as the Portal Gun), which places two portals for objects to pass through, while Team Fortress 2 continues to go from strength-to-strength thanks to the introduction of custom gear and well-balanced team combat. See the best PRODUCT NAME deals Gorgeous graphics? Check. Huge explorable environments? Check. Enthralling combat? Of course. The Witcher 3 stands tall as one of the most ambitious open-world RPGs yet, combining Skyrim's unrestrained epicness with Grand Theft Auto 5's scale. While the game has been criticised for its inventory niggles, less-than-enthralling plot and not quite matching the graphics shown in its promo materials, it's so ambitious and jam-packed with detail that the package lives up to the hype. Huge, beautiful and an absolute time-sink, you'll want to scour every inch of The Witcher 3's glorious world. Id Software's Doom was a phenomena for PC gamers in the 90s. The crudely rendered first-person shooter series was as controversial as it was beloved, largely thanks to its cutting-edge depictions of gore and violence that only a computer could deliver. Parents be damned, the franchise has made a comeback in 2016 with a fresh restart, appropriately titled Doom. Although the multiplayer might not appeal to shooter fans regardless of age, the single player campaign will pit you against demons in Hell for a lengthy experience that's as bloody as it is satisfying. Project CARS is a racing simulator that guns for realism without leaving excitement back in the pit stop, as some racers tend to do. Slightly Mad Studios' graphically-stunning title has enough car customisation and handling options to keep the keenest of petrol heads happy. Car types on show range from F1 to road, retro, kart, Le Mans, GT and more. Throw in realistic weather effects and driving assistance by Le Mans driver Ben Collins - formerly BBC Top Gear's Stig - and the smell of burning rubber will be floating up your nostrils in no time. See the best PRODUCT NAME deals Modelled after the 1984 game Elite, Elite: Dangerous is one of the most ambitious space sims around. Featuring an in-game galaxy based on the real Milky Way (how's 400 billion stars for depth?), the ultimate goal is to advance your rankings to Elite status by levelling up combat, trading and exploration. Starting out with a rickety ship and 1,000 credits in your space suit's back pocket, you'll need to turn to piracy, trading, exploring, mining or bounty hunting to rise through the intergalactic ranks. Doing so takes time and requires serious graft, but the experience provides a level of satisfaction that few other titles can match. And then there's the Oculus Rift... Frozen Cortex is a tactical future sports game with oodles of depth and heaps of style. Players take turns to commandeer teams of five robots across randomly generated maps, scoring points by successfully carrying or passing the ball to the end line. Tactically demanding and Chess-like in execution, it can be exhilarating to watch the action unfold as robots play out defensive or offensive runs depending on their commander's style of play. There's more than a shade of American Football to it, with online bouts providing the biggest thrills as you bluff and double bluff your way through human opponents to earn new robots (and new abilities) as you progress. As stylish as it is clever, Frozen Cortex's art style makes it a particular delight for anyone old enough to remember the Amiga classic, Speedball 2. Described as "achingly beautiful" by Unity Engine boss John Riccitiello, Ori and the Blind Forest borrows its game mechanics from old-school 2D games such as Metroid and Castlevania while adding a modern twist. If any word can describe Ori's atmospheric world, it's alive. You'll have to think fast and use new abilities gained along the way to bash, stop and manoeuvre your way through its gorgeous locations, and with no automatic saving system or easy difficulty level, it's no walk in the park. As satisfying to master as it is to look at, Ori and the Blind Forest will re-open your eyes to what 2D games still have to offer. Grow Home is an experimental PC platformer that looks like an "indie" game but is in fact the latest release from Rayman developer Ubisoft. Similarly charming thanks to its distinctive 3D art style, you play as BUD, the game's robot protagonist, whose main job is harvest seeds and grow a beanstalk-like 'Star Plant' by grabbing its branches and connecting them to nearby floating islands in the sky. There's a fair bit of trial-and-error involved, and while having to climb all the way back up again after a fall is frustrating, grabbing a passing vine at the last minute by the tips of your fingers can be equally as exhilarating. The ability to move BUD's arms and legs independently helps put you in control - just try not to get them tangled up. Because you will - a lot. A 2D exploration game set on a boat can't be that creepy, right? Wrong. More gothic than a Cradle of Filth concert, Sunless Sea throws all manners of joyless themes your way: death, insanity and cannibalism to name a few. Sailing from port-to-port in the monster-filled underworld of Fallen London, you'll have to manage fuel and supplies while battling sentient icebergs, Zee-beasts and other water-dwelling nasties to remain afloat. Top-notch writing gives Sunless Sea an absorbing storyline that's up there with history's best text-based adventures. Already familiar to millions before they've played a played a second of it, Rocket League turns the age old game of football (or soccer, depending) on its head. Played with rocket-propelled cars in futuristic low-gravity environments, the aim is simple: knock the ball into the opposing team's goal. Doing so is harder said than done because there could be up to three cars on the opposing team trying to steal the ball off you - or ram you into submission - at any one time. Gorgeous to look, simple to learn but difficult to master, Rocket League is the surprise smash hit of 2015 - and a wonderfully addictive one at that. Read: 8 real-life footballers in Rocket League: which one are you? As inevitable as sandals in summer, Blizzard finally launched its first MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) game in June. Featuring a ton of characters from Blizzard games such as Warcraft, World of Warcraft and Starcraft 2, Heroes of the Storm sees two teams of five attempt to destroy the other's base. When not sounding out enemy units to destroy, its expansive maps give you room to take on secondary objectives such as finding skulls or unlocking special siege units to help your team. Accessible to newcomers while packing plenty of depth, Heroes' finely balanced gameplay mechanics, shorter matches (compared to League of Legends) and ability-based levelling system make it a refreshing alternative to established MOBA titles and a fine game in its own right. The new Metal Gear, which is likely Hideo Kojima's final game in the series, is a hugely ambitious title. Its massive open world setting lets you tackle missions using stealth, but it won't punish you for going in guns blazing - which is often the most tempting option. Set nine years after the events of Ground Zeroes, The Phantom Pain's story unravels through its main missions and more than 100 Side Ops tasks. The action is interspersed with gorgeous cutscenes, and while you sometimes have to decode annoying military-babble to understand what's going on, TPP's fast pacing and gorgeous Afghanistan settings never make the game feel like a chore. A gripping horror game in the vein of Amnesia: The Dark Descent (it's from the same developer), SOMA has its fair share of "NOPE! " moments. But it's not really about jump scares; the game's most compelling aspect is its philosophical story arc, which unravels as you encounter a series of confused robots. Suffering from existential stress, the decaying machines believe they are human. The tension builds as you venture deeper into the underwater research facility that you wake up aboard, avoiding murderous creatures, solving clever puzzles and checking voice memos to unravel the mystery. Expertly weaving elements of survival and psychological Sci-Fi horror, SOMA is a little less action packed than Alien: Isolation but engages more of the old grey matter. If that's what you're looking for in a fright-fest, SOMA doesn't disappoint. if you think you've learnt a thing or two about prison life watching films like The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption over the years, cuff-em- up Prison Architect lets you put your knowledge to the test. Playing as wardens, you're tasked with keeping prisoners in check, preventing riots from boiling over and foiling The Great Escape-style plots. And yes: it does involve sending men to the electric chair. Gnarly. Alternatively, a second mode called Escape lets you unleash your inner Bronson by hatching a plot to lead your fellow inmates to freedom. (Until you get arrested again, anyway.) Five heroes, many Skaven. That's the basic premise of Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide, a hack-and-slash fest that plays - and feels - a lot like Valve's Left 4 Dead series. With a deep focus on co-operative gameplay, Vermintide's melee-focused combat, random loot, level-based progression system and humanoid rat enemies make for a refreshing alternative to gunning down endless hordes of zombies. Although it's fun attempting to talk tactics over voice chat with players online, Vermintide is often too chaotic to try anything other than bashing or shooting the nearest Skaven between the eyes — and that's fine — from giant Ogre Rats to stealth Gutter Runners, there's enough variation to keep things interesting. And if you do start to get get bored, unlike the Skaven, ratcheting up the difficulty makes sure Vermintide won't get long in the tooth any time soon. It's official: Fallout 4 has lived up to the hype. Despite feeling a little bit like Fallout 3 but with nicer graphics at times, its tighter shooting, in-depth crafting system and well-thought out story make it a wholly more enticing affair. As the Sole Survivor (the first fully-voiced protagonist in the Fallout series) in Boston's post-apocalypse wasteland, you'll take on Feral Ghouls, Raiders, Syths and Bloodbugs and more with high-powered weaponry that includes the Fat Man mini nuke cannon and the fusion cell-powered Laser Musket. PC gamers can take Fallout 4 to even greater highs through a growing number of mods. They range from the Enhanced Wasteland Preset, which makes the wasteland look more vibrant on beefy PCs, to the sensibly named Fallout 4 Configuration Tool, which makes the game run smoother on wimpier PCs. If the Call of Duty series is the poison that dumbed down the FPS genre with its run-and-gun gameplay, then Rainbow Six: Siege is the antidote. Working as a team to out-wit the enemy, Siege plays out like a thinking man (or woman's) Counter-Strike that doesn't simply encourage cooperation if you want to win - it requires it. When you're not peering down your gun's iron sights, you'll be laying traps, scouting ahead using drones, strategising with your teammates and building walls that could keep a herd of demented bulls at bay. While Siege's heavy reliance on tactical team-based gameplay can prove its biggest weakness if you're hoisted into a server with a particularly uncooperative bunch, when it does click, it provides a level of satisfaction rarely found in online multiplayer games. "Console port" is no longer a dirty phrase thanks to efforts like Rise of the Tomb Raider , which gets the treatment it deserves on PC. Featuring stunning and varied locations, exciting combat and effective stealth mechanics, Lara's epic outing often feels movie-like in its execution and scope. Crystal Dynamics has kept the soul of the original games intact too – there's pistols aplenty, amazing architecture and angry animals that would quite like to gobble you up – meaning you'll never get bored once you've soaked up Siberia's amazing architecture. If you're into adventures, it's easily one of the best PC games around. Originally created as an entry to the 7 Day FPS Challenge, Superhot's Polish developers were inspired by a top-down game called Time4Cat where time only moves when the player does. They took this concept one step further and turned it into a FPS. Falling somewhere between Portal and Max Payne, nifty reflexes, patience and an eye for puzzle solving is required. The aim is to defeat a finite number of enemies by dodging bullets and returning a few yourself. The game is now available to buy and download on Steam, but you can head back to where it all began by playing the flash version of Superhot online for free. You'll need the Unity Web Player plugin which is currently not supported by Chrome. X-Com 2 is one addictive game, and we still can't put it down. Following up from 2012's XCOM: Enemy Unknown, which reimagined the 1994 cult classic UFO: Enemy Unknown, XCOM 2 has delivered everything we wanted in a sequel. Bigger, deeper, faster and even easier on the eyes, the turn-based tactics game takes place 20 years after its predecessor. It pits you in control of the Avenger, a converted alien ship that serves as your mobile base of operations used to devise strategy and execute fight plans against otherworldly enemies. With a greater focus of stealth, more intelligent alien AI and deeper customization options, XCOM 2 is bound to end up one of our games of the year. Battleborn is the product of a recent influx of "hero shooter" games. Down to the basics, this means in the case of Borderlands developer Gearbox's latest hit, you get to choose between 25 characters each resonating with one of five factions. The heroes range from hulking giants like El Dragón, who body slam their way to victory, to long-range snipers like Marquis. Unlike Borderlands, Battleborn is all about its three competitive multiplayer modes, although there's a single-player/co-op-driven story mode to boot. I mean, who doesn't want to play a game where your character is quite literally referred to as a badass within the actual canon?
2016-06-06 18:25 By Kane feedproxy.google.com
41 New Skywind trailer shows off the latest progress The good folks at The Elder Scrolls Renewal Project have released a new Skywind trailer that shows off some of the latest work that's gone into bringing the great Elder Scrolls RPG Morrowind into the great Elder Scrolls engine Skyrim. “Everything shown is but a small fraction of work done on Skywind over the last few months,” the YouTube description states, noting that the video is taken from a “private developer alpha” and, as such, is subject to change. “Music, voice acting, sound effects, quest implementation, bug fixes, etc. couldn't be shown properly in this video, but are being developed alongside the visual progress.” It's a gorgeous trailer, and the prospect of playing a version of Morrowind that doesn't look like it was hot stuff 14 years ago is powerfully appealing. But I can't let it go without leveling some sort of complaint, and in this case it's the music: Nice enough as a generic RPG tune, but it's really got more of an Oblivion vibe than Morrowind. Other selections from the soundtrack are definitely more on-the-money, though: You can listen to bits and pieces courtesy of Soundcloud. There's still no word on when Skywind will be ready for release, but you can follow along with the development (and join in if you're so inclined) at tesrenewal.com , and read our recent feature on the modders who keep recreating Morrowind right here .
2016-06-06 18:01 Andy Chalk www.pcgamer.com
42 T-Mobile's latest move is all about free stuff and letting you own a piece of the company "We're going to thank you like you've never been thanked before. " In what may be the most inviting/awkward way to start a Monday, T-Mobile CEO John Legere announced the Uncarrier's latest industry- disrupting moves are all about showing gratitude to customers. Uncarrier 11 (for those of you keeping track at home) introduces a few ways T-Mobile is rewarding customers for their magenta-hued loyalty. The first, pretty groundbreaking way: It's giving customers a literal piece of the carrier, turning "T-Mobile customers into T-Mobile owners," as Legere said. Customers can claim one full share in T-Mobile starting tomorrow and over the next two weeks. The offer is only available to the primary account holder on post-paid consumer accounts, though new customers who switch to T- Mobile can put their name down for one as well. Die-hard T-Mobile users who've been with the carrier for at least five year will receive two full shares. As of this writing, a T-Mobile share was valued at $43.54 (it actually went down following the Uncarrier 11 announcements, though its stock price has been on the rise). Anyone who recommends someone to T-Mobile who ends up opening an account will receive more shares, too, and customers can earn up to 100 shares a year. According to T-Mobile, there are no fees for selling or transferring your share within the first year of owning it. T-Mobile will cover associated fees in that time, and you can even cash in your share, if you so choose. As for how many shares T-Mobile actually expects to give away, the company said it could be as many as 1 million, or more. If you're a T-Mobile customer, you can claim your share through the new T- Mobile Tuesdays app, available for iOS and Android. In addition to offering a piece of the T-Mobile pie, the carrier is thanking all customers - excluding those on Metro PCS - with gifts and prizes up for grabs in the T-Mobile Tuesdays app. Every Tuesday, T-Mobile will unleash a fun bag of gifts, including movie tickets, Domino's pizza and Wendy's Frosties. Tomorrow's prize includes pizza, a milkshake and a ticket to Warcraft, so if you're jonesing for some fatty food and a seat to see the summer's hottest blockbuster, download the app ASAP. Surprise gifts from a new partner will join these recurring gifts weekly, and users can play games to win "epic" prizes as well. One lucky duck will win a mega prize, like a trip to MLB All-Star week and a hiking experience to Machu Picchu in Peru. T-Mobile is working in partnership with several companies to offer these gifts and prizes, though it assures its not selling customer data in exchange for their participation. As a sort-of add-on token of appreciation, T-Mobile is giving customers a full hour of Gogo internet free when they fly. That offer takes off on June 13. The companies are also activating iMessage, Google Hangouts, WhatsApp and Viber for T-Mobile customers who take to the skies. Legere said during a call with reporters that he expects Uncarrier 12 and 13 to take place this year, so stay tuned for more from T-Mobile. Article continues below
2016-06-06 17:41 By Michelle feedproxy.google.com
43 Mind The Gap: Execs Say Gender Gap In IT Is Closing, But Work Isn't Done Yet The technology industry is making strides toward narrowing the gender gap and promoting greater diversity within the once male-dominated IT industry, but the work is far from over. The numbers are, in part, encouraging. According to a poll of 100 female executives leading up to The Channel Company's recent Women of the Channel West event in Napa, Calif., there is still a gap in how women view their working environments. The research found that 75 percent of women in management positions believe they are treated equal to males on the management team, and 77 percent reported experiencing no hindrance related to their gender. At the same time, however, 77 percent of women in non-management roles still believe their male counterparts are being paid more and 82 percent of these respondents think that women are held to higher standards than male co-workers. [ Power 100: The Most Powerful Women Of The Channel 2016 ] "That to me is still a gap," Lisa MacKenzie, partner and senior vice president of The Channel Company, said during the opening keynote of the event. The good news is the pipeline for getting women and girls into tech careers is growing, thanks to STEM programs geared toward young girls and increased visibility into various IT career paths at the college level, believes Brooks McCorcle, president of AT&T Partner Solutions. "The pipeline is robust, but the facts support that we still have a ways to go —it's a work in progress," McCorcle said. With more women coming into technology, the focus needs to shift to elevating more women into the top levels of leadership, Tina Gravel, senior vice president of global channel and strategic alliances at Waltham, Mass.- based Cryptzone, said. In the Fortune 500 in 2015, only 22 of the companies had female CEOs, or around 4.4 percent of the overall list. While women are climbing the ranks, Gravel said she would still like to see more women in the top leadership and strategic roles. "It's certainly a lot more women than when I started, but it's amazing that it hasn't progressed more," Gravel said. However, some companies are already defying that trend, appointing female executives to their top channel leadership roles. Verizon Enterprise Solutions now has Janet Schijns at the helm of its global channel partner program. Schijns said she hopes to encourage more women in the technology industry to break into leadership roles. "I think it's important to all of us that women are in leadership positions in an equal proportion to males. It's about having balanced diversity," she said.
2016-06-06 17:40 Gina Narcisi www.crn.com
44 Four top innovators are leaving Cisco Four Cisco Systems executives who led “spin-in” ventures that became important parts of the company have resigned. The longtime leaders decided to leave the company on June 17 because of “a disconnect regarding roles, responsibilities and charter” after a new Cisco business unit was announced, according to an internal memo posted Monday by CEO Chuck Robbins and seen by IDG News Service. The move was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Engineers Mario Mazzola, Prem Jain and Luca Cafiero, and marketer Soni Jiandani, nicknamed “MPLS” after their first initials, started several companies with Cisco’s backing that later were absorbed back into the networking giant. The companies included Andiamo Networks in storage, Nuova Systems in data-center switching and Insieme Networks in SDN (software-defined networking). The four resigned after Cisco announced the formation of the Networking & Security Business Group, which will handle engineering for routing, switching and security products, the memo said. David Goeckeler, a 16- year Cisco veteran, leads the group. Starting June 17, the Insieme business unit will also become part of it. Cisco brought the four on board when it bought LAN switching vendor Crescendo Communications in 1993, the company’s first major acquisition. More than once, Cisco invested in startups spearheaded by MPLS and then acquired those companies. That was under former CEO John Chambers, who stepped down last year after 20 years leading the company. He is still Cisco’s chairman, and MPLS continued to report to Chambers after Robbins succeeded him, sources told Network World last August. In a statement on Monday, Robbins praised the outgoing executives. “I want to recognize Mario, Prem, Luca, and Soni for the countless contributions they have made to Cisco. I have personally learned so much from them, and they will always be an important part of Cisco’s engineering story,” he said. “Their legacy will live on through our ongoing innovation and the talented engineering leaders they have mentored.” Robbins has made major changes in Cisco’s leadership as he puts his own mark on the 32-year-old company. Sanjiv Ahuja, leader of the service- provider business, resigned in March.
2016-06-06 17:09 Stephen Lawson www.itnews.com
45 CleverIS Technologies launches legacy application transformation, modernization solution Today, CleverIS Technologies launched a unique and adaptive solution capable of executing projects of modernization, migration or transformation of legacy applications up to 50% faster than traditional solutions. Through an ownership transfer from Clip Informatica S/A in Brazil, CleverIS now offers these proven and powerful migration and transformation solutions in North America. The CleverIS product services solution re-platforms, re-writes, re-hosts, re- designs or transforms part or entire legacy applications – from business rules and database language definitions to introducing a new graphical user interface – without the need for experts, detailed legacy documentation or prior experience. “We are excited about the ownership transfer of Clip Informatica S/A. They have a very mature solution with a complete portfolio to support any type of legacy application modernization,” said Julia Ito, CEO of CleverIS North America. “With CleverIS solutions, organizations can now securely plan the modernization or migration of their most critical legacy applications.” Clip Informatica has migrated over 200 million lines of code in the past 15 years, helping organizations of all sizes to leverage the investment and knowledge deposited into existing core applications and enabling them to adopt innovation, thus sustaining their competitive advantage. “We leveraged knowledge and experience accumulated over the years and transformed it into a robust product services solutions. Whether migrating from Mainframe to Linux, or re-writing COBOL applications into Java or adopting a new. NET or Java interface, we know what it takes to get the job done,” said Ademilson Lubke, CEO of Clip Informatica. “I am very confident that now as CleverIS we will continue to help customers achieve greater value and extend the life of their prior investments.” “Clip Informatica migrated our entire mainframe platform to an IBM Power System I. The migration was done successfully, resulting in a 70% cost reduction in processing time and with no downtime to our end users,” Edgardo Chacc, Managing Director of Operations and Technology of Itau Bank Chile. “The experience and commitment of Clip Informatica to seek out the right solution proved to be the key to our success. Clip Informatica provided a first class migration service and we look forward to working with CleverIS in the future.” CleverIS is committed to providing a world-class portfolio of solution services that helps organizations modernize and migrate legacy applications, adopt new technologies and use innovation to increase their competitive advantage.
2016-06-06 16:36 SD Times sdtimes.com
46 Red Dead Redemption 2 development, UK release date and gameplay rumours: Red Dead Redemption concept art suggests sequel or remake in the works Red Dead Redemption was a hugely popular game boasting over 13 million players, all of which are still hoping for a Red Dead Redemption 2 – and after years of waiting, it looks like a sequel (or is that prequel) might be coming to PS4 , Xbox One and PC. While the rumour front had been quiet for a number of years, a recent leak hints to some progress in development. Here, we discuss all the evidence that points towards the development of Red Dead Redemption 2, along with speculation about its release date. Read next: Most anticipated games of 2016 At the Cowen and Company Analyst conference way back in May 2014, CEO of Red Dead Redemption Developer Take-Two, Strauss Zelnick, suggested that the Red Dead franchise is likely to get a new game in the future. " It seems quite obvious that Red Dead is a permanent franchise, " he said, adding " the risk of just [releasing more games] is that you end up just bulking up your release schedule and that isn't really what consumers want. Consumers want better, not more. " Red Dead Redemption, an open-world western action-adventure game, was released in 2010, and we've been eagerly awaiting a new instalment in the franchise since then. Prior to that, the original game in the Red Dead series, called Red Dead Revolver, was released in 2004. With a six-year gap between Red Dead Revolver and Red Dead Redemption, we imagine (see: hope) that means we should be seeing a Red Dead Redemption 2 announcement during 2016. The biggest evidence to suggest that Red Dead Redemption 2 is coming at some point in the future comes from Rockstar Games, which said back in 2012 that it had plans to release a new game in the series. Read next: The best PS4 games of 2016 " We don't always rush to make sequels but that doesn't mean that we won't get back to them eventually, " the games company said. " Stay tuned for further announcements about the future of the Red Dead series. " Four years later and we’re still waiting for those announcements, but as soon as we hear them we'll be updating this article to share them with you. Of course, it’s worth noting that the game probably won't be called Red Dead Redemption 2, but Red Dead (insert another word here). There has been some talk of the name Red Dead Rebellion, but this is unconfirmed at the time of writing. Until we know the new name, we'll keep it as Red Dead Redemption 2 for the purpose of this article. Update (06/06/2016): An image has appeared in the Red Dead Redemption subreddit that suggests Red Dead Redemption 2 is indeed in development. Why? A piece of concept art from the game was pulled from an ex-Rockstar employee's webpage used to showcase previous work, and is dated August 17, 2015. Of course, there's always a chance that the below image along with another (listed as R2D2) are both fakes created by fans, but reddit user KDotMatrix has a more interesting theory. “Note the chromatic aberration on the poles and other objects in the image, a small point of contention in GTA 5. Chromatic aberration has become increasingly prevalent in modern triple-A games as of late. Here’s a screenshot that shows the effect in the PC version of GTA 5. This was also present on the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game. “Chromatic aberration wasn’t present in [Red Dead Redemption], as it was running on an older version of the RAGE engine. Therefore, this most likely isn’t concept art from that time period.” Some speculate that the concept art could be from a HD remake of Red Dead Redemption (which we would also be on board for!) but combined with the below map leak, there could be something more to this. We're hoping for an announcement at E3 2016, and we haven't got long to find out. Read next: PS4.5 release date, spec and feature rumours For years, all hopes of Red Dead Redemption 2 being developed was based on obscure quotes during interviews, however that all changed in April 2016. Why? An image of what is claimed to be a map of Red Dead Redemption 2’s game world has appeared online. The image was originally posted on NeoGaf , but the original poster quickly removed it – but not before it was saved and reposted everywhere online. The image (click to enlarge) depicts a large area featuring the Gear Plains, home to Blackwater, where the first Red Dead game was situated. This suggests, to us at least, that the map will be much larger than the (already) huge maps of previous Red Dead games. It’s also worth pointing out the islands dotted around the outskirts of the mainland, indicating that the player will either be able to swim or take a boat to new locations. There are rumours that suggest Red Dead Redemption 2 may, in fact, be a prequel to the earlier game, and the map seems to support this theory. Why? Due to the lack of a railroad anywhere on the map, which played an integral part of Red Dead Redemption. It’s worth noting that there is a mention of a “railroad” in the map key, which suggests that we could be looking at an unfinished map. It’s also worth noting that New Bordeaux is also featured on the map, the area that Mafia 3 is set in (although some time later, in 1968). Mafia 3 was distributed by Rockstar’s parent company Take-Two Interactive, so some kind of crossover may be possible – although we can’t imagine how. TechRadar claims that " a source close to the development of the new Red Dead game has confirmed to us that the map is indeed the real deal. ” According to the site, the image is a “ very recent art direction map ” showcasing the different environments in the game. Read next: PS4 vs Xbox One review Here’s the downside. Despite execs from Rockstar and Take-Two all but confirming the existence of Red Dead Redemption 2, and even after the leak of the ‘genuine’ game map, there is still no official word on Red Dead Redemption 2. We can speculate that we’ll hear something (or possibly even get our hands on it) in 2016, as past Red Dead releases have been around six years apart, with Red Dead Redemption being released back in 2010. All we can do for now is hope, but make sure you check back regularly as we’ll be updating this article as soon as we have new information. Read next: Everything we know so far about PlayStation VR
2016-06-06 16:21 Lewis Painter www.pcadvisor.co.uk
47 Ugh, Blizzard games will begin asking you to log in to Facebook to stream them We all know what a Facebook login on a social game means—spamming your friends with requests to play in return for “energy” or some other feature allowing you to keep on playing. Blizzard’s new strategy is almost, but not quite, that bad. “Adding Facebook Login will pave the way for new social functionality in Blizzard games while highlighting Facebook’s capabilities as a platform for sharing, viewing, and discussing AAA game content,” the two companies said in a statement. Facebook and Blizzard already worked together on a joint Instagram/Facebook campaign to launch the game, so the partnership had already been established. Guess not.
2016-06-06 16:20 Mark Hachman www.itnews.com
48 How Intel plans to change servers as it breaks away from PCs From PCs to servers, Intel is trying to redesign the way computers operate. We've already seen how PCs are changing, with 2-in-1 hybrids and tiny Compute Sticks, but some of the chip maker's groundbreaking technologies will initially appear in servers. The PC market is in decline, and the chipmaker has cut unprofitable products like smartphone chips. Intel is redirecting more resources to develop server and data center products, which are already money makers for the company. Intel is also focusing on markets like the Internet of Things, memory, silicon photonics, and FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays), all of which have ties to the fast-growing data center business. Intel has cut about 12,000 jobs in the transition away from smartphone chips and PCs. Employees have bought into the company's new strategy, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said during a speech at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference last week. Many innovations and "dramatic changes" are coming over the next two to three years, especially on the data center side of the business, Krzanich said. "We have a lot of good work to do," Krzanich said. Intel has pushed a concept called the Rack Scale architecture, which is meant to bring configuration flexibility and power efficiency to server installations. The idea is to decouple processing, memory, and storage into separate boxes on a rack. More memory, storage, and processing resources can be installed at the rack level than on individual servers patched together, and shared resources like cooling could help cut data center costs. Intel's OmniPath fabric, a superfast interconnect technology, is viewed by Krzanich as the centerpiece of new server technologies. It will provide the protocols for CPUs to communicate at faster speeds with components inside a server and at the rack level. In the future, Intel envisions data transfers happening over beams of light, which will speed up OmniPath. OmniPath will accelerate workloads like analytics and databases. It will be available through network controllers on Intel's upcoming Xeon Phi supercomputing chip code-named Knights Landing, but the ultimate goal is to bring the interconnect closer to the CPU. "There are workloads that can be taken from software that's working in memory to software that's working right on the silicon, right next to the CPU, with a direct link through the OmniPath fabric," Krzanich said. Using beams of light for speedy data transfers is the idea behind silicon photonics, another technology that's a priority for Intel. Silicon photonics will replace traditional copper wires, and bring faster data transfers across storage, processing, and memory components on racks, Krzanich said. After delays, Intel has said it will ship modules to implement silicon photonics later this year. Xeon chips will always be important to Intel, but the chipmaker is also looking at speedy co-processors called FPGAs to quickly perform specific tasks. Intel believes a killer combination of CPUs and FPGAs, which can be easily reprogrammed, could speed up a wide range of workloads. FPGAs are already being used by Microsoft to speed up the delivery of Bing search results, and by Baidu for faster image search. Intel believes FPGAs are relevant for artificial intelligence and machine learning tasks. Intel also plans to use FPGAs in cars, robots, drones, and IoT devices. Intel acquired FPGA technology through the $16.7 billion purchase of Altera last year. The company's next step is to pack an FPGA alongside its Xeon E5-2600 v4 server processor on a modular chip. Ultimately, FPGAs will be integrated on server chips, though Intel hasn't provided a timeline. Intel is also developing a new type of storage and memory called 3D Xpoint, which the chipmaker claims is 10 times denser than DRAM, and 1,000 times faster and more durable than flash storage. Krzanich described 3D Xpoint as being a "hybrid between memory and storage. " The technology will first come to gaming PCs under Optane-branded SSDs, but will branch out to servers in the form of flash storage and DRAM modules. The emerging technologies from Intel may require companies to change their server architectures from top to bottom. But as long as the servers deliver cost-performance benefits, the technologies will be adopted, Krzanich said. Intel hasn't yet provided a cost estimate for the investment, and it hasn't described how racks infused with new technologies could be implemented alongside existing server installations. Intel will continue selling regular server CPUs, but it may take time for customers to adopt the new technologies until they are proven. Intel held a 99.2 market share for server processors in 2015, but that may fall next year as AMD releases new server chips and the adoption of ARM servers potentially grows.
2016-06-06 16:13 Agam Shah www.infoworld.com
49 49 Mirror's Edge Catalyst review What is it? Long-awaited sequel to the first-person free-running game. Expect to pay: $60/£50 Developer: DICE Publisher: EA Reviewed on: i5-3570K @ 3.40GHz, 16GB RAM, GTX 970 Multiplayer: No Link: www.mirrorsedge.com I’m delighted that I’ve lived long enough to see a second Mirror’s Edge. The first game is one of those curios that seemed like such a weird thing for a big publisher to make: a free-running game set in a whitewashed dystopia, made by a team best known for shooters where the guns are somehow the worst bit. I was hoping Catalyst would make the first game feel like a tech demo by comparison and it does—this feels like a far more complete and refined version of the ideas in the 2008 original, though not every one of its issues has been totally fixed. Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst is, like its predecessor, a first-person platformer focused on free-running. The big switch-up this time is that it’s set in a seamless open world playground, rather than a series of linear levels. Far from being an open world in the mold of GTA, though, this is sort of like a Zelda-style large hub, with new areas opening up over time as your toolset expands. Introduced in Catalyst is the magrope, a sort of grappling hook that attaches to specific points in the world. Acquiring this, and upgrading it, offers new ways to get around the city. While Catalyst is as intricate, complex and exhilarating when it comes to platforming as its predecessor was, a flawed new combat system sadly holds the game back from being the perfect version of Mirror’s Edge I was hoping for. For those who loved the free-running in the first Mirror’s Edge, that all returns as you remember it, more or less. While acquiring Faith’s full moveset from the first game takes about an hour to unlock within the game’s new tech tree, this’ll give your muscle memory time to readjust to how fast Mirror’s Edge is. It’s been almost eight years, after all. Running up walls, sliding under pipes and performing saving rolls from great heights still requires precise timing and sharp instincts—this is exactly what I loved about the first Mirror’s Edge, and it’s all intact. There’s nothing else quite like it. I kick Assassin’s Creed a lot when talking about this series, but I can’t help it: I think there’s so much more merit in a platforming-heavy game that requires skill, rather than one where you press just a couple of buttons to leap through an entire world. If you actually have to concentrate while you’re running through a world, you appreciate your surroundings more, and it actually feels rewarding just to travel from one place to another. I think the relative difficulty of platforming in Mirror’s Edge means it’s one of those series that’s always destined to be misunderstood by some players—yet for those who get it, nothing else will be able to provide the same rush. Catalyst recaptures that, aided enormously by a lovely open world that starts small-ish then gets pretty big. Areas are divided into districts that unlock over the course of the story, each coloured a little bit differently, with some nice variation in architecture and props. The gorgeously purple and very posh Regatta Bay looks like a slice of Ilium from Mass Effect, while the Development Zone is basically a grotty construction site; other areas strongly recall levels from the first Mirror’s Edge. Collectively, it’s stunning, as close to capturing a futuristic city experience as I’ve seen in a game, and it feels like a much more detailed version of that world you’ve just had linear snapshots of before. Travelling between these districts feels great, thanks to the way DICE conveys player movement through visual effects and sound design. Bolting through the city at an unbroken full speed, it feels a bit like running through the star gate in 2001: A Space Odyssey—a hypnotic swirl of constantly shifting colour, with Faith gliding through it. The only issue is that the dull story usually insists on having one of Faith’s buddies yammer over you exploring these places, which takes a bit away from the city’s mystique. The magrope is a neat addition—swinging across a freeway at rush hour suddenly made me realise I’ve wanted a first-person Spider-Man game my entire life. I just wish there were more places you can use it. There aren’t many points in the world it latches onto, which is no doubt an attempt to avoid stealing the focus from the free-running. Slightly less convincing is an upgrade you get later in the game to clear new paths with the magrope by pulling panels down from walls—a timed platform puzzle or two aside, it feels like an arbitrary addition. Going open world was the right move. The map is full of optional stuff to do —delivering parcels, or time trials, or even creating time trials and climbing challenges yourself using the simple in-game social tools—but I recommend leaving this stuff until after you’ve finished the game. A lot of it is filler, but speedrunners will lap it up. Alongside the 10-11-hour main story, there are several sidequests to pick up, as well as a few excellent tower climbing challenges that open up fast travel points. The latter are a bit like those puzzle environments in Assassin’s Creed II, and involve skipping over tripwires and making particularly tricky jumps to reach the top of the tower in Portal-like interiors. Trip a wire, and you won’t be able to escape without fighting a few guards, too. And since fighting anyone in Mirror’s Edge Catalyst isn’t terribly fun, you’ll really feel like you’re being punished for messing these optional asides up. In 2008, Mirror’s Edge was chewed out for its flawed combat system, which relied on disarming enemies and very basic melee attacks, as well as firing guns. Well, guns are gone, which may be welcome news—but everything else is a little more mixed. The combat is, at its most basic, superior to the first game. It works in two ways: if Faith is running at full speed, a quick tap of the light attack button will knock an enemy out of the way and she can keep running. In that sense, it’s functional and there to facilitate your free- running arsenal, and feels like the sort of thing that would’ve made a lot of sense in the first game. Faith is protected by something called a focus shield, which means you’re safe from gunfire any time you’re running at full speed. Slow down too much, and enemies will be able to take chunks off her health, but keep sprinting and you’ll be okay. If you find there’s no option but to fight, there’s a melee system where you can punch and kick enemies in different directions of your choosing, while dodging their attacks at the same time. You can make guards tumble off buildings, as well as into each other, which damages two opponents at once. At first this new system seems cool—running across rooftops then booting a guy down to his death before escaping quickly can feel exhilarating, and it makes Faith feel like a superhero as the law enforcement pursues her, GTA-style. But after a few fights, I started to get tired of how low energy the scraps felt, and the annoying enemy types that spam you with cheap attacks. The tech tree adds little of note to your arsenal throughout the game, except a cool scramble attack that temporarily frazzles enemies, as well as a few damage boosts to the different enemy types in the game. Why not incorporate Faith’s magrope to pull an enemy towards you for an easy knockout blow? That’s the sort of fun thing games normally do. The combat wouldn’t be so bad if you could skip every fight—almost all of the time, you can—but there are at least three mandatory encounters during the story (two take place in the exact same area). And they’re by far the worst parts of Catalyst. In each instance, you’re dropped into enclosed environments with no escape, where you basically have to run in circles to build up momentum in order to land attacks. It doesn’t work—it’s really bad. One of Faith’s cooler moves is a Mario-like jump attack where she can land on an enemy from a height, doing a lot more damage than punching or kicking. In non-optional fights, this move is your friend, but it’s fiddly to work out how close you need to be to an enemy in order for it to actually activate, and missing one of these attacks can be enough of an error to find yourself shot dead and repeating the same section again. The sentinel, a type of elite unit introduced later in the game, is the ultimate bullshit in Catalyst: an overpowered foe with near-psychic physical attacks who takes an absolute age to beat down. On two occasions I found myself fighting multiple sentinels at once—I was sprinting around the same room again and again, trying to work up enough momentum to knock them out. It felt like it took forever, and seems like the opposite of what Mirror’s Edge is supposed to be about. It’s frustrating, because these three fights comprise about 20-30 minutes of the entire 10-hour story, but they’re bad enough to overshadow a few of the game’s better levels. I’m surprised that these ended up in the game when the original Mirror’s Edge drew such criticism for its combat. I’d absolutely be giving Catalyst a better score without them. These moments aside, the story route is packed with levels that are clearly superior to the first game. Catalyst takes you to a load of places outside of the main open world hub. One chapter where you’re tasked with destabilising the earthquake supports of a skyscraper, before making a fraught escape, is one of the best single-player levels I’ve played in years. The missions mix together breathtaking sights with high-pressure set pieces incredibly well. Now I’m clear of the story, too, I’m looking forward to just spending more time in that world—in a game that’s mostly about running, I find myself stopping often just to look at this amazing city skyline from different angles. Aside from some annoying stuttering and lip-syncing issues with the cutscenes, in-game it runs beautifully at 1080p 60fps on both my 970-powered work PC and my less powerful 780-powered build at home. That’s why, despite the missteps with combat, and another storyline that is just too dry to get invested in even with well-produced cutscenes, I still recommend Catalyst. It’s annoyingly close to being the ideal Mirror’s Edge game, but retains a few of its predecessors’ issues, even if those problems have manifested in different forms. If you loved the first game as much as I did, there’s so much to enjoy about running around this big, gorgeous playground—I just wish DICE had stuck the landing.
2016-06-06 16:01 Samuel Roberts www.pcgamer.com
50 50 Guest View: The hidden hazards of squashing Git commits Since the introduction of GitHub’s awesome new “squash and merge” functionality, there’s a whole lot more squashing going on. With UI-level access to this Git power-user feature, more teams are squashing commits to make code review easier and provide a cleaner-looking history in tools like gitk or SourceTree. But squashing for the sake of creating a cleaner history comes along with some non-trivial downsides that are often overlooked. Hazards of squashing So what happens when “squash and merge” becomes policy for all incoming work, or when developers are encouraged to liberally edit their history for ease of code review? While this can definitely make for easier code review and a more visually appealing Git history, it’s also doing two problematic things at the same time: To better illustrate this, imagine a development workflow where we can see a series of iterative contributions on feature branches, followed by the merging of that work into a main branch. That might look something like this: There’s a nice level of detail here: We can see features branches walking their way toward completion, followed by a merge into the main branch. Now contrast this with the type of detail you’d get on a team that automatically squashes all features as they’re merged in: This cleaned-up view of history does make it a bit easier to focus on larger branch events, and since these commits are squashed, each one of these “final product” features can be viewed in a repo browser as a single body of work, which can be a huge time-saver. The problem here comes when we get a “bad” commit—say, a commit that introduces an undetected bug that then makes it into production. The lack of granularity in the version history makes diagnosis and mop-up problematic, effectively increasing the surface area of the problem: In a complete history, Git bisect can more accurately narrow down the specific problem commit. The merged commit can be reverted and the bulk of the work cherry-picked into a working version in short order. In the squashed version, bisect will tell us that the bug was introduced at some point in feature 4, leaving a fair amount of forensics undone if this is a large feature. Once the bug is located, the time to fix it could increase significantly, especially when the problem is non-trivial (as can be the case with more complex “structural” bugs). Lack of proper version history here will make the bug harder to find and costlier to fix. Keep squashing tactical Part of what makes squashing a poor default practice is that it’s somewhat at odds with other things Git tends to encourage. Git as a VCS excels at helping engineers move quickly: branching is cheap, committing frequently is encouraged, and there are lots of great Git power-user features that make it very easy to recover. So while there’s nothing inherently bad about squashing commits, and tactical squashing is a valuable thing , it’s important to remember that squashing is an inherently destructive act—one that removes development breakpoints. If overused, squashing can significantly increase the cost of finding and fixing flaws when things go awry. (Related: GitHub ships Electron 1.0 ) While a clean version history and ease of code review are important, both of these are essentially UI-level concerns, arguably better handled by development tools specific to those purposes. Taking advantage of native Git functionality can offer a non-destructive alternative: performing a “git diff master…branch” (e.g. a net diff between master and branch) will have the exact same output as a squashed commit, displaying the sum total of changes between the two branches without any permanent effect on version history. Squashing definitely has its proper place in a Git workflow, but it’s better used as a way to clean up leftovers after an experiment-heavy implementation. Be wary of erasing version history as a regular practice; it’s a pretty invasive approach to use as a UI convenience, and can end up having hidden costs long after code is checked in.
2016-06-06 15:46 Travis Kimmel sdtimes.com
51 How I went from zero to overclocking in 30 minutes If you think overclocking is something that only hardcore PC enthusiasts can get into, think again. At Computex in Taipei last week I got the chance to try overclocking Intel's latest processor, the 10-core Broadwell-E chip, and it was a lot of fun. Thanks to Intel's XTU (Extreme Tuning Utility) overclocking app, doing some basic overclocking was easy. But beware: If you're the type of person who likes a challenge and enjoys tinkering with computers, it can get addictive fast. Overclocking is the process of running a processor and other components faster than their rated speed. It's done to get more performance for heavy- duty applications like gaming and video processing, and there's even a competitive side to it, with international rankings and competitions. To get started, you need a motherboard and processor than can be overclocked. Among Intel chips, that means a processor that ends in a "K" or "X. " Intel's XTU provides a point-and-click interface for overclocking that can be used to tweak numerous internal settings to get every last bit of power. Overclocking a PC using Intel's XTU application When I first sat down at the PC, I used XTU to run a benchmark to find out the basic performance, which was 2,142 points on the XTU scoring system. This is the number of times the motherboard's internal clock is multiplied to get the speed for the processor. The computer I was using had an initial internal clock of 100MHz and a basic multiplier of 35x, so the chip was running at 3.5GHz. A few clicks of the mouse had the multiplier at 42x and the chip running at 4.2GHz. I had also adjusted the voltage being applied to the chip core so that it could handle the extra power, but I needed to be careful that I didn't apply too much and overheat the chip. With this initial adjustment, it all seemed stable enough, so I ran the benchmark again: 2,577. That's a 20 percent boost in performance with nothing more than a few clicks. I kept increasing the multiplier and the benchmark kept rising. At 43x I managed 2,608, and at 44x it was at 2,651 -- a 24 percent increase from the starting point. Things started going wrong at 45x when I experienced a blue screen. Something wasn't performing well, so I rolled back to 44x and set my sights on other adjustments. A blue screen of death experienced while overclocking a PC Based on advice from an overclocking expert, I next focused on the clock frequency and took it up to 101MHz. That had the effect of pushing the chip to 4.44GHz and resulted in a benchmark of 2,683. Then I adjusted the amount of cache memory used by the processor and got a higher score: 2,717 -- a 27 percent increase from my starting point. The blue screens were becoming more frequent and the adjustments I was making were becoming finer and more exotic. But it was also becoming more fun as I started to battle with the system for stable performance. A small change I made in one place had an effect on another side of the performance, and it was getting to be much more of a game to keep pushing the benchmark number higher while preventing the machine from crashing. I could see how this has become a competitive electronic sport. My benchmarks were in competition, and I ended up in 28th position in the Asia amateur qualifier competition of the overclocking World Series. The winner had managed to push the processor to 4.58GHz. To get to the top of the league, overclockers turn to liquid nitrogen poured directly onto the chip to keep it cool while they push it even harder. My system was a more modest water-cooled setup. After about 30 minutes of trial and error, I decided to call an end to my overclocking career -- at least for now.
2016-06-06 14:58 Martyn Williams www.itnews.com
52 How to import Excel data to Google Sheets and vice versa: Open Excel in Google Sheets - open Google Sheets in Excel Sheets is Google’s answer to Microsoft Excel. We show you how to move data between the two - how to import Excel data to Google Sheets and vice versa. Also see: How to get free Microsoft Office 2016 • Head to docs.google.com/spreadsheets and log into your Google account • Click on the large + icon to start a new spreadsheet • Click on File, Import… • Select the Upload tab in the pop-up window, then drag a file to the box or click the blue button to browse to it • In the next pop-up window select to Replace spreadsheet (you can alternatively choose to create a new spreadsheet or a new sheet. Click Import • In Google Sheets select the File menu then choose Download as… • Select the Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) option • The document will download to your desktop or wherever is your default location for downloads • Now open Excel • Go to File, Open • Browse to and select the Sheets document on your drive, then click Open Read next: How to find your lost Windows or Microsoft Office product key Follow Marie Brewis on Twitter
2016-06-06 14:55 Marie Brewis www.pcadvisor.co.uk
53 Coach will start selling Apple Watch bands June 12 Expect at least part of Apple’s WWDC keynote on June 13 to cover Apple Watch news: Even if Apple doesn’t unveil a second-generation Apple Watch itself, there will be new bands. One band, the Apple Charms Leather Strap, is made from “ glovetanned ” leather with little metal charms that attach to a leather loop just below the watch face. (You might want to refrain from busting out random jumping jacks, to keep the metal pieces from banging the watch’s glass face or metal bezel.) That strap has “hand-creased edges and hand-tacking at stress points for durability,” (which, same), according to the hidden page’s sales copy. That band will come in three colors: black, white, and “saddle” (brown). 9to5Mac dug a little deeper and found evidence of two more bands, an Apple Tea Rose Applique Leather Strap and an Apple Wild Beast Camo Leather Strap. Those also come in three colors, and feature die-cut flowers and a printed camoflague pattern, respectively. Coach is saying these all come in “women’s sizes” only, which would seem to imply just the 38mm size, not the 42mm, although that isn’t completely confirmed. The straps will be sold in select Coach stores in California, New York, and Nevada (we’re guessing Vegas).
2016-06-06 13:54 Susie Ochs www.itnews.com
54 13% off ThermaCELL Mosquito Repellent Pest Control Outdoor and Camping Lantern - Deal Alert The Thermacell Mosquito Repellent Lantern effectively repels mosquitoes and other biting insects in a 15 x 15- foot zone. It has no open flames, operates on a single butane cartidge, and is perfect for a deck, porch or campsite. It averages 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon and is currently discounted to $34.90. See it now on Amazon.
2016-06-06 13:33 DealPost Team www.infoworld.com
55 Microsoft Bing Malware Alerts Get More Specific Microsoft has refined phishing and malware warnings in Bing to provide more detailed information. The search engine will now tell users and webmasters about specific problems on each suspicious website. Bing has always provided malware alerts but previously delivered generic warnings to cover all different types of threats. This update helps users understand each security risk and the potentially harmful effects. It also gives webmasters stronger insights through their dashboards so they can understand why their site was flagged and more efficiently address issues. [Microsoft: HoloLens supports Outlook email, calendar apps .] This update calls attention to phishing websites -- fake sites designed to look like real ones -- before users are tricked into sharing their usernames, passwords, or credit card information. When users click a suspiciously "phishy" website, an alert will appear warning them the site could steal sensitive personal or financial information. Users are recommended to select another result, but may choose to proceed to the website anyway. Webmasters are also updated on security risks through the dashboard. After they perform the necessary fix or fixes, they can opt for a review to ensure the cleanup was effective. Microsoft acknowledges the difference between malicious sites, which infect devices upon visitation, and websites that may link to other harmful webpages. Its previously generic warning has been refined to indicate which sites are safe as long as links are not clicked. "Warning! This site might lead you to malicious software that can harm your computer," states the updated alert. Again, users are urged to visit an alternative website, but can choose to proceed. With respect to differentiating the two types of dangerous websites, this update brings more detail to the Bing webmaster dashboard. Additional information is provided on the specific binaries causing their website to be flagged. Webmasters can select "View" under Additional Details to learn more about which specific links are leading to malware. Users will continue to see warnings until malicious links are removed. Microsoft notes not all sites are intentionally harmful and, like their users, are vulnerable to being hacked. It says it aims to address the problem with this update. "By refining our generic malware warning, our hope is that users are more informed and webmasters are able to clean their sites more efficiently," wrote Chad Foster, Bing program manager, in a blog post on the news. This is the latest in a series of updates to Microsoft's search engine this year. The team has been putting effort into improving Bing to more effectively compete with other search engines. In April, we learned Cortana could no longer be used to browse search results in third-party browsers or search engines. Microsoft also restricted use of its personal digital assistant to Bing and its Edge browser. Previously, users could leverage workarounds to view results in Google Chrome, Firefox, and other third-party services. Given the user base for Windows 10, this update could easily boost Bing's usage and generate more ad revenue for Microsoft. The new OS has already given Redmond a search advertising boost, and limiting Cortana to Bing could lead to further revenue growth. Microsoft is also working on a new digital assistant called the Bing Concierge Bot , which will reportedly be able to communicate with users over Skype , WhatsApp, SMS, Messenger, and Telegram. The "productivity agent" will function similar to a human assistant by completing tasks and running errands on a user's behalf.
2016-06-06 13:06 Kelly Sheridan www.informationweek.com
56 LTE equipment party is over, as carrier spending drops For the first time since LTE technology hit the mainstream in 2012, the worldwide market for carrier wireless equipment has declined, according to a report released today by IHS Technology. The decline, moreover, is a sharp one, the report said – the global market for macrocell infrastructure dropped by 18% in the first quarter of 2016, down to $10 billion overall. The mobile infrastructure sector in general was down 8% in the same time frame, and LTE equipment specifically dropped by 23% on a quarterly basis. The downturns were seen across the globe, with only Japan, Mexico and North America in general working against the trend. Among the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), only India has been a relatively strong market for carrier hardware over the past year, but it also saw a downturn in the first quarter of 2016 thanks to issues of available spectrum and agreements among national carriers, according to IHS. In counterpoint, however, the market for the software that runs on carrier hardware continued to expand, the researchers said, driven largely by LTE Advanced upgrades. Software sales grew by 17 percent over the past year to reach $15.2 billion, and IHS predicts that the trend will continue, with annual sales of software for 2G/3G/4G radios to reach $23 billion by 2020. Among hardware vendors, the report found that Ericsson was the top seller of 2G/3G/4G radios in the first quarter of 2016, with Huawei in second place and the newly combined Nokia/Alcatel-Lucent entity in third. Nokia/ALU was top, however, of the LTE market, with Huawei again in second place.
2016-06-06 12:42 Jon Gold www.computerworld.com
57 Data Storage Magic: Empowering Applications with Data Fabric Innovation Some applications demand very high speed but only handle relatively small data sets; others have less stringent speed requirements, but the order in which data is written to storage is very important. Other types of apps generate large volumes of data but rarely need to access it. The needs for each of these types of applications are totally different, and planning for those needs practically requires a crystal ball: What hardware will meet current needs? Will that hardware support future needs? What will those needs be? What protocol should you use? Will the data be structured or unstructured? How can you possibly plan infrastructure investments responsibly when the landscape is constantly changing? The unfortunate answer is that you can’t. Good IT managers do their best to keep up with the state of the industry and make the most of their budgets, but infrastructure sprawl is an inevitable output of unpredictable workloads. Disparate hardware systems get added to datacenters in a scramble to meet varied application (and budget) requirements and the result is complexity. Managing that complexity requires human middleware as technicians manually map app characteristics to the correct protocols and tune hardware to fit. The process is unwieldy, inefficient, and ultimately unsustainable. More to the point, it relegates IT into a reactive role, always scrambling to respond to demands from the business, instead of being a strategic partner in generating value. We have lots of choices to make when it comes to storage infrastructure, but choice isn’t always a good thing. Sometimes it is just a distraction. Do you honestly care about whether apps store data structured or unstructured, what storage protocol they use, or what the hardware looks like? No, you don’t. You just want it to work. The truth is that a lot of these concerns are more about vendors trying to differentiate their offerings than about serving your needs as a consumer. The distinctions are a red herring and are largely a waste of your time. So how do you design a storage infrastructure that supports all of the apps you need to run and doesn’t bog you down in complex manual interventions? Software-defined storage (SDS) offers a partial solution to the problem by disaggregating storage intelligence from hardware, but this only scratches the surface of what is possible. A complete solution would make the minutiae of storage operations completely invisible. By combining SDS with hardware technologies like high-density server platforms, persistent memory, multi-core processors, and high bandwidth Ethernet networks, it is now possible to build an intelligent datacenter that provisions storage with the flexibility to do just that. Developing a common approach to storage across the business will allow you to build a data fabric that simplifies management and enables applications regardless of their particular needs. Data fabric is an industry term. Several companies are using it, although in slightly different ways. HPE’s point of view is that a true data fabric must be independent of the underlying hardware form factor and software-defined storage deployment model (including bare metal, hypervisor embedded, or containerized). Think about the smartphone in your pocket for a moment. What is “smart” about it is that so much of its function is completely transparent to you as a user. You don’t need to worry about how your phone stores data or in what formats. Often you don’t even know where the data gets stored, be it internal memory, an SD card, or the cloud. You just know that it works, and you are probably relieved not to have to think about it any more than that. Applying that notion to your datacenter for a moment, today you are involved every step of the way. Using conventional technologies and methods, you do have to worry about how your apps store data, where, and in what formats. It is both complex and time consuming, but imagine if all of that could be abstracted away, just like on your smartphone. While some have promised, no vendor has ever combined best-in-class server, storage, and networking in a way that can meet the needs of any application workload, on any form factor, using any media. Until now. That’s exactly what we are doing with data fabric. The result is a faster, more responsive datacenter with no need to fear what the future might bring. It’s about real-time and late binding of the right storage with all of the right attributes to deliver on business requirements. At HPE, we are not in the app business, but we are in the business of making apps better. Look for more information about data fabric from HPE, this week, during the HPE Discover technology tradeshow in Las Vegas, June 7-9.
2016-06-06 12:28 Milan Shetti www.computerworld.com
58 Iron Man meets Aquaman as Navy turns to augmented reality Scientists with the U. S. Navy are working to develop an augmented reality display for divers' helmets that would enable them to see photos, sonar readings and texts while working under water. The futuristic-looking helmet offers a bit of Iron Man- meets-Aquaman in what the Naval Surface Warfare Center calls "next- generation" technology. William Hughes III, lead engineer at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Panama City Division, demonstrates the Divers Augmented Vision Display during a lab simulation. Dubbed the Divers Augmented Vision Display, the augmented reality technology is embedded directly inside the helmet. "By building this [heads up display] directly inside the dive helmet, instead of attaching a display on the outside, it can provide a capability similar to something from an Ironman movie," Dennis Gallagher, the Navy's Underwater Systems Development Project Engineer, said in a statement. "You have everything you visually need right there within the helmet. " The smart helmet has been demonstrated to about 20 military divers so far. The Navy expects to conduct in-water simulation testing in October, with expanded field testing set for 2017. The military has not specified when the helmets could be in actual usage. According to the Navy, the new helmet is expected to be used by military divers doing underwater construction, searches and salvage operations. It also could be used by first responders and commercial divers. The technology is designed to aid divers by giving them visuals of exactly what they're looking for, mapping information and messages from the surface. The military also noted that it is working on sensors, particularly video systems and sonar, that individual divers could use in murky conditions with the data being fed directly into the smart helmets. "We constantly engage with the operators; if there is a vision they have, we can make it happen," Gallagher said. "By having this type of positive on-the- spot feedback, you know you're going down the right road. "
2016-06-06 12:15 Sharon Gaudin www.computerworld.com
59 Bose QuietComfort 35 Wireless Headphones: Music To Business Travelers' Ears There's nothing quite like settling into your airplane seat, slipping on some noise-cancelling headphones, and snuffing out the din of fellow passengers, flight attendants, and the dull roar of airplane engines. I've relied on the Bose QuietComfort 15 headphones for years. Silencing the ambient sound of an airplane for your own music, movies, or TV shows can help alleviate the stress of air travel -- until the person in the window seat needs to use the restroom and you get tangled in the cable of your headphones. Bose's new QuietComfort 35 noise-cancelling headphones have one major benefit over the company's previous efforts: They're wireless. The QC35s are similar to Bose's QC25s. These over-the-ear headphones completely envelop your years to provide maximum comfort and sound reduction. They add Bluetooth with the A2DP stereo profile and Bose's proprietary codec to create the best possible sound. Pairing is made easy thanks to NFC, and Bose's Android/iOS Bose Free Connect app can help manage the QC35s. Microphones, buried inside and outside the earcups, are able to detect outside noise and issue the opposite audio signal in a fraction of a millisecond. Bose says the QC35s also have a revised digital equalizing system to help keep sound levels balanced. A rechargeable lithium ion battery provides 20 hours of playback, which is on par with competing devices from the likes of Beats and Plantronics. The right earcup includes a remote for jumping tracks, controlling volume, and answering calls. Like many over-the-ear Bluetooth headsets, the QC35s include a 3.5mm backup headphone jack and a case in which to carry them around. The QC35s come in black or silver and are available for $350 starting Monday, June 6. Bose introduced three other sets of headphones, including the SoundSport Wireless, SoundSport Pulse, and QuietControl 30. The SoundSport Wireless is an in-ear Bluetooth headset for fitness buffs. It includes Bose's "Stay-Hear" wingtips to help them remain in place even during vigorous exercise. Interestingly, the SoundSport Wireless doesn't offer passive sound reduction -- it allows some ambient noise to reach year ear. This might be for safety reasons. It is sweat and water resistant, and includes a microphone and remote for answering calls and managing playback. Bose says the call quality for phones is unsurpassed, and its Bluetooth connection is more reliable than most. The SoundSport Wireless is good for six hours of playback, which is in line for this segment. It costs $150 and is also available starting today. [Check out these eight tools for road warriors .] The SoundSport Pulse, available in September for $200, adds an in-ear heart rate monitor to the SoundSport Wireless. Battery life drops to five hours, but most other features are similar to the SoundSport Wireless. Both of these are sold with a simple carrying case, but for $50 more you can pick up a charging case from Bose. Last up is the QuietControl 30 headphones. These are neckband or necklace style, which means the battery and controls rest around your neck and short wires send the earbuds to your ears. The QuietControl 30s will include active noise cancellation and boast 10 hours of battery life. A protective case is included, as are three different eartip sizes. The Quiet Control 30 will go on sale in September for $300. Bose's new collection of wireless headphones is compelling, but the phones are competing in a crowded market. Bose has always offered premium products, and it charges a premium price to match.
2016-06-06 12:05 Eric Zeman www.informationweek.com
60 Old School Runescape celebrates the Falador Massacre glitch Old School Runescape is marking the 10-year anniversary of one of the all- time best MMO bugs: the Falador Massacre. The Falador Massacre started with a house party. Player Cursed You had become the first person in Runescape to max their Construction skill and invited a few dozen friends round to mark the occasion. Things got rowdy, as such events tend to, and people took to the combat ring for some sparring, which flagged them for PvP as intended. However, when Cursed You kicked them from the house, the PvP flag remained. The horde of revellers marauded through Falador, killing everyone in their path. Plaintive cries of "Bank your items" echo to this day. In remembrance, the Old School Runescape team have set up a tournament server—World 666—that makes Falador a battleground once more. mod_ronan writes , "We are currently experiencing some issues relating to some of the legacy code in Old School. In particular, on world 666. We aren't sure how to fix it, and it appears to be getting worse. Stay safe. We are working on a fix. "
2016-06-06 11:50 By Angus www.pcgamer.com
61 Android gets patches for major flaws in hardware drivers and media server The June batch of Android security patches addresses nearly two dozen vulnerabilities in system drivers for various hardware components from several chipset makers. The largest number of critical and high severity flaws were patched in the Qualcomm video driver, sound driver, GPU driver, Wi-Fi driver, and camera driver. Some of these privilege escalation vulnerabilities could allow malicious applications to execute malicious code in the kernel leading to a permanent device compromise. Similar high-risk flaws were fixed in the Broadcom Wi-Fi driver, NVIDIA camera driver, and MediaTek power management driver. These vulnerabilities can give regular applications access to privileges or system settings that they shouldn't have. In some cases, the flaws allow kernel code execution, but only if the attacker compromises a different service first to communicate with the vulnerable driver. These flaws are a warning that chipset makers should put more effort into testing their code, which typically consists of drivers that run in the most privileged areas of the OS. In addition to fixing 21 vulnerabilities in system drivers for various hardware components from several chipset makers, Google fixed more than a dozen flaws in the mediaserver component. One critical, 12 high-risk and one moderate flaw were fixed in mediaserver, a component that handles audio and video file processing on Android. Google has been working hard to strengthen mediaserver for the past year. One critical vulnerability was patched in libwebm, which could allow applications to execute code in the context of the mediaserver process that has special privileges. In addition, a high-risk flaw was fixed in the SD card emulation layer, a moderate one in the Framework UI, and one in the activity manager. Google released updated Android firmware images and over-the-air updates Monday for its supported Nexus devices: Nexus 5, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6, and Nexus 6P. The company has also notified device manufacturers about these issues on May 2 so they can prepare their own firmware updates. The patches will be released to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) over the next 48 hours so that community-developed Android firmware and other projects that rely on the AOSP code can integrate them.
2016-06-06 11:23 Lucian Constantin www.computerworld.com
62 Tesla Model X autonomously crashes into building, owner claims The owner of a brand-new Tesla Model X SUV said the car suddenly accelerated at "maximum speed" by itself, jumped a curb and slammed into the side of a shopping mall while his wife was behind the wheel. The owner of the Model X, Puzant Ozbag, said the vehicle had been delivered only five days earlier to his home in Irvine, Calif., where the accident also took place. He said his wife had not activated any self-driving features at the time of the crash. The damage to the front end of the Model X and the shopping mall building in Irvine, Calif. "My wife is 45 years old and has had a driver's license almost 30 years and has a clean record. It's not like she's a 90-year-old person who's going to press the gas pedal instead of the brake," Ozbag said in an interview with Computerworld. "She's been to that shopping center a millions times. It's a mile and half away from our house," he added. Puzant, who wasn't in the SUV at the time of the crash, said it was fortunate that the vehicle's front wheels were turned slightly left as his wife was pulling into the parking space because if they'd been straight, the Model X would have plowed into a nail salon and could have killed someone. Puzant originally posted about the accident on a Tesla Model X forum . The accident, which occurred at about 2:30 p.m., injured his wife's arm and caused major damage to the SUV's front end. His wife's arm was burned during the crash, likely from the airbags being deployed, and remains swollen today, Puzant said. Puzant said he contacted Tesla directly after the accident and was told to have the vehicle towed to a storage area until a repair facility was open today to receive the SUV. Today, Tesla's roadside assistance contacted Puzant and said they were "downloading" data from the vehicle to discover what may have happened. Another angle of the Model X after it jumped a curb and crashed into the side of a shopping mall. "I don't' know if they're going to acknowledge if it was their fault," Puzant said. Tesla did not immediately return a request for comment from Computerworld. Released by Tesla last September after several delays, the Model X is a full-size, all-electric SUV with rear gull-wing doors. Since its release, Tesla has admitted to problems with the gull-wing doors opening properly and even filed a lawsuit against car parts manufacturer Hoerbiger Automotive Comfort Systems for not producing satisfactory parts. Hoerbiger has denied any responsibility for the problems. Like the Model S sedan, the Model X has Tesla’s "Autopilot" feature that allows it to perform some advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) functions, such as automatic lane-keeping, adaptive cruise control and automatic braking. The vehicle can also change lanes automatically once the turn signal is turned on. If the Model X accident turns out to have been caused by a faulty autonomous vehicle system, it would not be the first reported by a Tesla owner. Last month, a Model S owner from Utah reported that his sedan started itself and rammed into the back of a trailer bed after he'd placed the vehicle in park and gone into a store to run an errand. Puzant Ozbag's Model X on the tow truck after the accident. The Model S's owner, Jared Overton, said he'd even stopped outside the vehicle to talk to someone for a few moments before going into the store. Five minutes later, Overton said he emerged from the store to find his Model S's front end under the rear of the trailer. The windshield was smashed during the crash, Overton told KSL News. Tesla said it reviewed Overton's Model S data logs and stated that the accident was the result of the vehicle's "Summon" feature being activated right after Overton exited the car. The Summon feature automatically parks a vehicle once a driver exits it and it can also bring the car from the garage to your front door when you want it. Overton refuted Tesla's findings and said he had placed the car in park and had not initiated the self-parking feature. Puzant said he's still waiting on Tesla to get back to him about how they'll be handling the repairs to the vehicle, but he wants a new car considering that his was only five days old. He called on the company to investigate whether it's a systemic problem. "This is a major problem and Tesla should stop deliveries and investigate the cause of this serious accident," Puzant said. A spokesperson for the Irvine Police Department said the crash at the 4800 block of Irvine Boulevard occurred around 1:50 p.m. and damaged an elevator shaft. The spokesperson also said the cause of the accident is under investigation.
2016-06-06 11:06 Lucas Mearian www.itworld.com
63 Researchers built devious, undetectable hardware-level backdoor in computer chips Oh goody, just what we need, more devious and undetectable surveillance in the form of an “invisible” backdoor built into computer chip hardware. I’m completely creeped out after reading “A2: Analog Malicious Hardware” ( pdf ), which won as “best paper” at the 37th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy. University of Michigan Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science researchers didn’t just dream up this undetectable hardware-level backdoor; they built it. The researchers don’t call it “surveillance,” but we’ll get back to that. A2 is a “new style of fabrication-time attack” which leverages “analog circuits to create a hardware attack” that is “small, stealthy, and controllable.” The “remotely-controllable privilege escalation” attack would be nearly impossible to detect. In the words of Yonatan Zunger , Head of Infrastructure for the Google Assistant, “This is the most demonically clever computer security attack I’ve seen in years.” This is not a hidden backdoor in software, but a malicious modification, a backdoor added to hardware, to a microchip. Tainted supply chains have long been a concern, since most chips are fabricated overseas by third- parties. If added to a chip, it works like a capacitor, storing energy, such as each time you visit a website that contains hidden, malicious code – perhaps JavaScript since it seems to be all over the interwebs. Once triggered, after the capacitors store up enough electricity to be fully charged, it would “flip-flop,” or be switched on, to give an attacker complete access to whatever system or device that contains the backdoored chip – be that a PC in a corporation, a personal laptop, a smartphone or an IoT device. “Once the trigger circuit is activated, payload circuits activate hidden state machines or overwrite digital values directly to cause failure or assist system-level attacks.” The researchers added, “Since the goal of this work is to achieve a Trojan that is nearly invisible while providing a powerful foothold for a software-level attacker, we couple our analog triggers to a privilege escalation attack. We propose a simple design to overwrite security critical registers directly.” “Experimental results show that our attacks work, show that our attacks elude activation by a diverse set of benchmarks, and suggest that our attacks evade known defenses,” the researchers wrote. Even if you know hardware, are comfortable taking electronic devices apart, it’s not like the modification is visually obvious; on the contrary, it’s virtually invisible. If you think it would be detected by testing, then think again; the researchers said that “attackers can craft attack triggers requiring a sequence of unlikely events, which will never be encountered by even the most diligent tester.” University of Michigan researcher Matthew Hicks told Wired that governments may have already come up with this attack. “By publishing this paper we can say it’s a real, imminent threat. Now we need to find a defense.” With the feds wanting a backdoor into encryption, and basically any app and online site, this seemed like it could be leveraged for more than cyber- espionage by nation-state attackers. Couldn’t it also be used for surveillance? Then again, surveillance may have come to mind based solely on the order of which I read news. Before reading the research paper, I found out that by researching ISIS, such as for an article, you could land on the no-fly list. Although President Obama was actually responding to a gun shop owner about Second Amendment rights during PBS NewsHour , he added: I just came from a meeting today in the Situation Room in which I got people who we know have been on ISIL web sites, living here in the United States, U. S. citizens, and we’re allowed to put them on the no-fly list when it comes to airlines, but because of the National Rifle Association, I cannot prohibit those people from buying a gun. This is somebody who is a known ISIL sympathizer. And if he wants to walk in to a gun store or a gun show right now and buy as much — as many weapons and ammo as he can, nothing’s prohibiting him from doing that, even though the FBI knows who that person is. Surely that doesn’t mean lurking, or even actively trolling ISIS puts you on some FBI watchlist as well as the no-fly list, but it would be nice for that to be more fully explained. You’d think there has to be more to it, but a person can land on the NSA’s radar and watchlists just by being privacy-conscious , using Tor or by visiting the Linux Journal which the feds consider to be an “extremist forum.” Although Google's Zunger suggested “state-level actors” would be most interested in the “demonically clever,” undetectable hardware-level backdoor, he added, “I don't know if I want to guess how many three-letter agencies have already had the same idea, or what fraction of chips in the wild already have such a backdoor in them.” Whether it was used for insidious surveillance or a slick, sic attack, it’s a fairly scary scenario. The researchers outlined possible new testing technologies which could be developed to detect the “undetectable” analog malicious hardware backdoor.
2016-06-06 11:02 Darlene Storm www.computerworld.com
64 Vodafone partners Afrimax for Zambia Roll-out Vodafone Group, has announced a new Partner Market agreement for Zambia. The Telcom will be working with Afrimax Group, a 4G telecommunications operator in sub-Saharan Africa Vodafone has already partnered with Afrimax to launch 4G services in Uganda, and will be offering customers high speed 4G data services under the ‘Vodafone Zambia’ brand. Vodafone Zambia will offer a range of connectivity products at retail and through direct sales channels, including 4G and Wi-Fi mobile data services, fixed internet and a suite of office solutions. “We are delighted that Zambia will be joining the Vodafone Partner Market community as the next stage in our agreement with Afrimax for sub-Saharan Africa” said Vodafone Partner Markets Chief Executive Stefano Gastaut. “We look forward to bringing the best high-speed 4G data services to consumers and businesses in Zambia.”
2016-06-06 10:32 Ephraim Batambuze pctechmag.com
65 Nokia’s Open Innovation Challenge 2016 To Develop The IoT For Connected Automotive, Digital Health & More Nokia Corp. has today launched its 4th annual Open Innovation Challenge, focusing now on the Internet of Things (IoT) for public safety, connected automotive, industry 4.0, digital health, utilities, security and smart cities. The challenge is being organized in partnership with private venture firm Nokia Growth Partners, which this year announced a USD 350 million fund for investments in IoT companies. In the coming years, IoT will bring novel ways to simplify people’s lives, make industries more efficient and bring new business opportunities for operators and enterprises. Bell Labs Consulting recently predicted that the number of IoT connected devices is expected to top 46 billion by 2020. All these connected devices will drive diverse IoT use cases including smart cities that will be more sustainable; smarter and faster healthcare and public safety applications that will save lives; and more responsive and intuitive smart grid networks. The Nokia Open Innovation Challenge 2016 is a call for the next big ideas and new business models for these exciting IoT domains. During the challenge, entries will be assessed by Nokia and industry experts for their innovation, impact and business potential. The winners will be able to join Nokia’s Innovation Accelerator Program to incubate their ideas within Nokia, access Nokia’s global market and network with investors. In addition, the top three teams will share incubation prize money of up to 100,000 euros (about 113,409 USD, 381.3million UGX). Submissions will be accepted between June 6 and August 15, after which they will be assessed and the top 15 teams will be invited to a two-day concept development workshop with Nokia experts in Paris in October. The final judging and the awards ceremony will be held right after the workshop. The Challenge is open to all innovators, startups, organizations, academia and individuals across the world who are developing the technologies of the future to improve lives and able to demonstrate a working prototype for their idea. “Digitalization is the next industrial revolution, and the automation of everything will drive the next phase of human possibilities. The Nokia Open Innovation Challenge 2016 is looking for the next best ideas for connecting people and things.” said Marc Rouanne, Chief Innovation and Operating Officer for Nokia. “For innovators and startups, it is a great opportunity to tap Nokia’s global presence and meet venture firms to see how we can work together to build tomorrow’s technologies that will help save lives, improve our environment and make our lives better,” he added. Managing Partner of Nokia Growth Partners, Bo Ilsoe, said in a statement, “Aside from the grand prize, the Nokia Open Innovation Challenge is a unique gateway for IoT companies to access new potential partnerships, meet investors, receive advice on their business ideas and meet fellow entrepreneurs.” “We are pleased to sponsor the competition once again.”he concludes. Nokia’s vision is to expand the human possibilities of technology to improve people’s lives, helping them thrive by enabling a programmable world where billions of people, things, sensors and devices are connected. At Mobile World Congress 2016, Nokia outlined its approach for leading the development of next-generation 5G and IoT technologies which includes a diversified portfolio of applications, platforms, security solutions, connectivity solutions and services across numerous industry verticals. IoT use cases are paving the way for the adoption of future technologies like 5G.
2016-06-06 10:25 Nathan Ernest pctechmag.com
66 CSG International and MTN South Africa Extend Business Partnership – CSG Systems International, Inc. , a trusted global partner to launch and monetize digital services, has announced that the company will extend its managed services agreement with MTN South Africa. The managed services agreement entails system management and support of the carrier’s retail billing operations, credit vetting and number portability. This new five-year agreement extends CSG’s responsibilities to all of the proprietary and bespoke platforms currently in use by MTN. “The extension of the business relationship with CSG International will go a long way towards helping MTN to simplify and streamline our operations, while ensuring that we improve the quality of the services we provide to our customers,” said Benjamin Marais, chief information officer, MTN SA. CSG and MTN have a long-standing partnership that spans over a decade. In 2014, MTN appointed CSG to provide its deep domain expertise of technology and processes, as well as knowledgeable resources for MTN’s wholesale business operations. “Around the world, CSG’s mission is to help our clients simplify their operations, maximize their value, and innovate for the future. Our evolving relationship with MTN is a perfect example of how we are achieving that goal year in and year out,” said Phillip Yoo, president of CSG International’s Global Carrier Business. “As MTN’s business continues to develop and transform, CSG is prepared to offer the people, processes and technology they will need for success.”
2016-06-06 10:25 Ephraim Batambuze pctechmag.com
67 Final Fantasy 12 remaster: The Zodiac Age announced There's good reason to think it won't be confined to Japan either: all the screenshots are in English, including the subtitles. And where's the risk in bringing it West when all the localisation work is done? Enthusiasts will be pleased to hear that this version will use the International Zodiac Job System for levelling. Characters are assigned permanent roles within the party, dramatically changing their skill progression. Contrary to its name, the IZJS version of FF12 was released only in Asia, although there was an unofficial English patch. PC players are spoiled by emulators of course— you can already play Final Fantasy 12 in 4K if you have the discs to hand. The artwork scales remarkably, let down only by the blurry interface. Is that enough to make you buy The Zodiac Age?
2016-06-06 10:22 By Angus www.pcgamer.com
68 Government reaches accord over ESN in National Parks England The Home Office has signed a joint accord with National Parks England to ensure a vast swathe of the country is not left behind when it comes to mobile coverage for the emergency services. The deal sets out how EE – which won the contract to provide the new Emergency Services Network (ESN) under the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) in 2015 – will be able to fulfil its obligation to cover the entire country. Up to now, blue light services have relied on a private radio network , which is to be phased out over the next few years. Because the ESN will use mobile phone masts, it has become necessary to ensure that new infrastructure needed to support it will not blight some of the most beautiful landscapes in the country. “National Parks have always been about finding pragmatic, long-term solutions to the many competing demands on land,” said Jim Bailey, chair of National Parks England and the North York Moors National Park Authority. “Ensuring modern telecommunications infrastructure is no different. The stunning landscapes and towns are the lifeblood for our rural economies, and we are delighted the Home Office is committed to working with National Parks to protect them. This is a welcome sign that we hope will be replicated by other government departments.” With National Parks from Sussex to Northumberland covering 10% of England, National Parks England said it was important that residents and visitors could benefit from the same enhanced emergency services responsiveness as the rest of the country; that the innate qualities of the National Parks were protected; and that collaboration between the Home Office, its contractors and National Parks England was supported. The two parties have committed to a number of objectives to ensure the ESN roll-out can go ahead as wanted. Notably, the accord provides for options to minimise “adverse landscape effects”, such as mast and site sharing, and consideration of alternative network designs and innovative proposals where masts are not practical. “I am pleased to have signed this Joint Accord with National Parks England, which will help deliver the emergency services’ new communications network. This critical national infrastructure will be sympathetic to the character of national parks in England,” said Mike Penning, minister for policing, fire and criminal justice and victims. “It will enable the three emergency services to operate enhanced services inside national parks using modern 4G voice and fast data service communications.” The ESN is expected to be mostly up and running by the end of 2019, although it will come into effect bit-by-bit as existing communications contracts with radio operator Airwave expire . It will operate across England, Scotland and Wales. Besides the police, fire and ambulance services, the ESN will be used by the National Crime Agency, the British Transport Police, Ministry of Defence Police, Civil Nuclear Constabulary, National Police Air Service and a number of other government and local public safety bodies.
2016-06-06 09:30 Networking Editor www.computerweekly.com
69 Recruiting Blitz: HPE Rolls Out Red Carpet For Anxious Dell-EMC Partners Hewlett Packard Enterprise is using its Discover Conference in Las Vegas this week to not only showcase its biggest technology breakthroughs, but also to bring anxious Dell-EMC partners into the HPE fold. As part of the Discover Conference, which runs from June 7-9 at the Venetian Palazzo, HPE has invited several hundred Dell-EMC partners to private meetings, product demonstrations and dinners -- all aimed at getting those partners to sell the HPE product portfolio. The HPE program, which internally is called Smart Choice, includes special accommodations so partners can move into the HPE channel program at the same level they are at with Dell-EMC. "We have a very good program at Discover where we are welcoming all those [Dell-EMC] partners and we'll tell them the benefits of partnering with us," said HPE CEO Meg Whitman in an interview with CRN. "Those EMC partners are worried about how much R&D EMC is going to get in the future. And EMC has grown through acquisitions. Trust me, there is not going to be any capital available for acquisitions for a while. " [Related: HPE CEO Meg Whitman On The CSC Deal, Beating Cisco, Recruiting Dell-EMC Partners And Why VMware Becomes 'Almost Irrelevant' ] Whitman's comments come on the heels of Dell's offering of $20 billion in bonds last month -- above the $16 billion initially planned -- to finance the $67 billion acquisition of EMC and VMware, the largest merger in IT history. Dell has plans to take on as much as $49.5 billion in debt to finance the acquisition. Whitman has drawn a sharp contrast between HPE's move to drive more innovation as a smaller and more nimble company while Dell is moving to get bigger and take on debt. "They have got a lot of sorting out to do and a lot of cost takeout," said Whitman of Dell-EMC. "You have to think of them, I think, in many ways as being owned by private equity so it is a cost takeout play. That actually may be good from a financial perspective. We'll see how good it is for partners. " Several EMC partners, who did not want to be identified, said they are anxious to get closer to HPE because of the potential disruption both with Dell-EMC product portfolio integration and with the potential for channel conflict and confusion in the field once Dell moves to integrate EMC and VMware. "All the EMC shops are open for discussions," said an EMC partner, who did not want to be identified. "HPE is definitely more focused and stable. There have been a lot of changes at EMC. We don't even know who our EMC channel rep is. They change so much that we can't keep up with it. From a solution provider perspective, there is a lot of confusion around Dell, EMC, VMware. You have to make it easy for your clients to make buying decisions and you can't do that with the craziness and confusion around the Dell-EMC merger. " Another top executive for an EMC enterprise partner, who did not want to be identified, said there is a lot of channel "fear, uncertainty and doubt" around the Dell-EMC union. "We are worried about turnover in the field and how this deal is going to affect our Cisco sales," said the executive. The top executive said it is critical to have a strong relationship with HPE to drive sales growth in a market where Dell-EMC is likely to be dealing with channel conflict issues in the wake of the merger. "Dell-EMC needs to make sure that customers don't use Dell-EMC direct sales reps as a battering ram to drive down prices," said the executive. 2016-06-06 09:00 Steven Burke www.crn.com
70 Progressive web Apps and the future of mobile Apps Progressive web Apps and the future of mobile Apps The way we access the web on our mobile devices as always been important to businesses and developers since this to some extent determined how much profit or losses the latter made. Micro suns with their Java Platform, Micro Edition, or Java ME also known as J2ME was among the first of such technologies that changed the way we accessed the web on our mobile devices. J2ME introduced mobile Apps to our mobile devices. The platform was very popular since it employed the Java language which was both open source and known by a number of users, however in-spite its popularity, due to number of factors J2ME did not quite revolutionize the way we accessed the web. The iPhone App Store opened on July 10, 2008 marked the start of the revolution of the way we use the web on mobile devices, this was followed by the launch of the iPhone 3G in 2011. The iphone 3G was a game changer since it had support for the app store and was very superior to the Nokia N and E series that used native browsers and J2ME apps. The Google play store formerly android market opened in 2008 but was not relevant until 2014 when the boom in android phone usage and quality started to rival the iphone and the blackberry. The apple store and Google pay store had a total of about 250 billion downloads by 2014. The figures showed the money potential that mobile app development had for both the developer and marketing departments of companies. The growing trend of mobile app development meant that we saw a decline in visits to traditional mobile websites and hence mobile web development was no longer a lucrative business to the developers and business owners as time went on, some businesses started to shut down their mobile websites in favor of custom made apps. But the question still remains is developing a mobile app better than a mobile website? As of 2015, the app store had approximately 1.5 million apps and 1.9 million for the google play store. BBC notes that a large chuck of these are “Zombie apps” which just lie in the store but have never been downloaded. In 2015, a study by comScore noted that a phone user only uses about 3 apps frequently. One should also note that there more than 4 mobile platform so if you intend to reach all your possible Claudine, you need to develop for the all platforms this means a stretch in your budget. On the other side, web developers have been busy, with frameworks such as bootstrap, material design, Nodejs and polymer among others, mobile websites have evolved. Most of the functionality of native apps like notification can now be archived through a web app. Introducing progressive web app . We preferred native apps over websites since they were on our home screen, they loaded fast and we could us them offline. Now with progress web apps, your website can do all this. And t he fact that its a website means that you only have to worry about developing once for all platforms and you can save other resources for marketing. Progressive web apps are also install-able but without straining the users’ memory which comes in handy since users have concern over the the storage on their devices. Fipkart lite one of the first progressive app has reported a 35,000 new visitors to their website every day and 15,000 returning visits every day. Flipkart had late last year shut down their mobile website due to low traffic until now. For developers progressive web apps should bring more joy since they use the technologies that all web sites use, html, css and JavaScript. And unlike native apps, web apps don’t require special IDEs like android studio and SDKs, notepad++ can do the trick. Its also now clear that mobile websites are not only for marketing, or if your aim is to deliver content and establish a broad mobile presence that can be easily shared between users and found on search engines but can now offer some of the functionality of a native app. As of now, progressive web apps are supported by most browsers including chrome, Mozilla Firefox and safari. Microsoft has also reported plans to include support for progressive web apps and so has Opera. in conclusion, Progress web apps offer a lot of promise to web developers to recapture the market that had been taken over by native apps. As progressive web apps continue to grow to include feature such as access to users hard like camera, mobile apps might start to decline in popularity. Business owners and developer should start thinking about progressive apps unless its absolutely needed to develop a native app.
2016-06-06 08:28 Ivan Sempijja pctechmag.com
71 Is a cashless society nearer than we think? Most people think of a cashless society is something that is way off in the distant future. Unfortunately, that is simply not the case. The truth is that a cashless society is much closer than most people would ever dare to imagine. In America today only 7% of all transactions are carried out using cash. It should also not be a surprise that most governments around the world are favoring a cashless society as the following reasons explain; Cash is expensive to print, inspect, move, store and guard Counterfeiting Counterfeiting is always going to be a problem as long as paper currency exists. Cash if favored by criminals because it does not leave a paper trail. Eliminating cash would make it much more difficult for drug dealers, prostitutes and other criminals to do business. More government control Most of all, a cashless society would give governments more control. Governments would be able to track virtually all transactions and would also be able to monitor tax compliance much more closely. The Banks And they are not alone, The big banks want a cashless society because it is much more profitable for them. The big banks earn billions of dollars in fees from debit cards and they make absolutely enormous profits from credit cards. And since these are the people that control our finances, they will not force such a system on us all at once rather the big banks and the governments of the industrialized world are doing all they can to get us to voluntarily transition to such a system. Once 98 or 99 percent of all transactions do not involve cash, eliminating the remaining 1 or 2 percent will only seem natural. Is Uganda ready for a cashless society? And for Uganda and Africa, entrepreneurs are coming up with all ways to make mobile payment, and mobile banking easier. As of today, you can transact between you mobile money account and almost any bank account. Also with services like World Remit , you can receive money from around the world. This trend might be the basis of Uganda and Africa’s’ cash less society. “It amazing how you can pay for all your utilities and most services using mobile money”. The raising innovations in the mobile payment arena and the rate at which the masses embrace these innovations is a sure indicator that the country is on a fast track to cashlessness. For entrepreneurs and innovators, the cashless society space in Africa still has a lot to offer, and the users will always love the convince that a cash less society breeds.
2016-06-06 08:05 Ivan Sempijja pctechmag.com
72 Petition condemns Windows 10 upgrade practices, asks EFF to investigate A petition launched Friday asks the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to investigate Microsoft's aggressive moves to convince and cajole users into upgrading to Windows 10. The request was launched on Change.org , a popular online petition website, and by early Monday had garnered more than 470 signatures. "Microsoft's practices with their newest operating system, named Windows 10, has been ignorantly unethical at best and malicious at worst," wrote the petition organizer, Todd Kleinpaste, who listed media accounts of the company's upgrade strategy. "Reports everywhere state that people are being tricked or forced into upgrading to Windows 10 from their current, preferred version of Windows. " [ Emphasis in original.] While Kleinpaste threw in a kitchen sink's worth of complaints -- not just about the upgrade process but also Windows 10's telemetry settings and Windows Store policies -- the bulk of those signing the petition focused on Microsoft's attempts to get users to upgrade. "It's like someone changing your underwear while you sleep! " said wag Brian Tatman on Monday. "Microsoft 'encouragement' to GWX went WAY too far," added Alan Pugh. "A PC at our remote site got upgraded without my consent which broke the network connection, meaning that the computer is now useless to me. " "The number of clients we've had to assist in recovering from surprise updates has only increased over the last 6 months, and while it certainly has provided a certain amount of job security, the cost to individual users across the world has got to be staggering," added James Allerd today. "Please sign this petition to draw the EFF's attention and ask them to investigate Microsoft for unethical business practices," wrote Kleinpaste, the petition's organizer. The EFF was not immediately available for comment. Even before Windows 10's release in July 2015, Microsoft had been taking unprecedented steps to boost the new operating system's uptake, ranging from offering a free upgrade to planting the Get Windows 10 (GWX) app on millions of Windows 7 and 8.1 systems. The GWX app initially let customers "reserve" a copy of the upgrade, but has mutated since then to pre-load the necessary files on PCs, replace itself if deleted, and most recently, to schedule the upgrade itself. That scheduling has been the latest Microsoft maneuver to raise customers' hackles, notably because the notification assumes user approval when someone clicks the red "X" to close the frame. That interpretation runs counter to decades of practice and Microsoft's own design guidelines. Because the free upgrade offer will expire on July 29, many expect that Microsoft will stop dunning customers by disabling the GWX apps. The company, however, has declined to confirm that.
2016-06-06 06:41 Gregg Keizer www.itworld.com
Total 72 articles. Created at 2016-06-07 06:01