ArticlesDC5m United States IT in english 223 articles,created at 2016-11-17 02:06

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4 no-bull takeaways fromMicrosoft joining the LinuxFoundation (6.44/7)

Let’s set aside all talk of flying pigs and skatingrinks in hell.

Microsoft joining the Linux Foundation as aplatinum member was an inevitability, given thecompany’s ongoing embrace of open source, notan aberration. But such a team-up isn’t an endpointto Microsoft’s adventures in open source. Considerit the end of the beginning—the last of the firstnecessary steps Microsoft must take.

Here are four key insights into what this means forMicrosoft as an open source company (what a term,right?), in both the short and long term.

And neither is the Linux Foundation. A lot of theprojects Microsoft has been helping out with underthe Linux Foundation’s umbrella are infrastructureand developer-oriented projects that Microsoft’suser base is interested in leveraging.

One example is the R Consortium. Back in 2015,Microsoft acquired Revolution Analytics , whichprovides a widely used commercial implementationof the R statistical programming language.Microsoft was wise enough to recognize that Rgrows best in the wild, and chose to preserve theopen source underpinnings of the R language and

support the R Consortium that promotes thelanguage and its toolset.

Another Linux Foundation project, the OpenContainer Initiative , is also valuable to Microsoft ina way that simply didn’t exist even a couple of yearsago. Microsoft recently reworked the Windowskernel to support Docker-style containers—not as away to absorb competition, but to avoid being leftbehind by sea changes in software developmentmethodologies.

For Microsoft to be part of the Linux Foundationmeans being involved in all these efforts as well. It’sup for grabs how much “involvement” means“influence,” but the same applies to anyone ofMicrosoft’s size that’s a Linux Foundation member(of which there are more than a few). But inMicrosoft’s case, criticisms about such things willmatter more than they would for anyone else.

In no way does this move constitute a signal thatMicrosoft is preparing to open source its keyproprietary products. The Microsoft Windowskernel, Microsoft SQL Server, some crucial parts of

the Azure stack, and so on—those are all still strongmoneymakers for Microsoft in their currentincarnations. You can expect them to remainproprietary for a good long while.

Other platinum-level members of the LinuxFoundation are equally committed to theirproprietary bits, despite investments they havemade in open source. Case in total point: Oracle isnobody’s idea of an open source innovatorinvesting in Linux for its own sake. Microsoftfollowed—and is still mostly in—this mold.

Maybe there’ll come a day where the cloudgenerates so much revenue for Microsoft it won’tsee the need to keep its bits under lock and key.But that day is still nowhere in sight—and it’s notworth waiting for when there’s so much else goingon in the near term that’s arguably far moreimportant.

A common theme in discussions about Microsoft’sinvolvements with Linux and open source is that it’sbeen a self-serving effort. Over time, though,Microsoft has found more places where its best

interests coincide nicely with those of others—butagain, in pragmatic and transactional ways.

When Microsoft started contributing to the Linuxkernel back in 2008 , it was mainly to ensure thatLinux ran well under Hyper-V. Altruism and the“spirit of open source” had little to do with thedecision. Having Linux run well in more places wasa win for Linux, but Microsoft was hoping it wouldmean at least as much of a win for Microsoft, too.

Fast-forward to today. Many of the plans under theumbrella of the Linux Foundation mesh withMicrosoft’s own efforts, directly or indirectly.Microsoft’s project to run Linux software natively onWindows has the chance to bring users toWindows who would have previously scorned it.Support for containers in Windows means a wholeopen source ecosystem that was previouslyconfined to Linux is now cross-platform.

Most people won’t complain if this winds up beinggood for everyone concerned. But the thing towatch for is whether it’ll be good for Microsoft firstand foremost.

Don’t get this wrong, Microsoft joining the LinuxFoundation would have been pretty muchunthinkable even a short time ago. But it is only oneof many possible steps that Microsoft could stilltake.

One step that hasn’t been taken is for Microsoft toalso join the Open Invention Network , a consortiumintended to neutralize software-patent-basedthreats against Linux. InfoWorld’s Andrew Oliverhas long been skeptical of Microsoft’s attitudestowards open source. He’d like to see Microsoftwalk more like it talks—not just by droppingpending lawsuits involving open source patentsandy swearing off them in the future

There are no signs that this is on the books yet, butone can hope that Microsoft joining the LinuxFoundation is a prelude.

Microsoft Buries Old Animosity byJoining Linux Foundation

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Microsoft joins the Linux Foundation,15 years after Ballmer called it

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Microsoft just joined the LinuxFoundation as a Platinum member

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Microsoft doubles down on Linuxlove, joins foundation

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Microsoft's open source love festcontinues as it joins Linux Foundation

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Microsoft Drops Tech Bombshell AsIt Joins Linux Foundation

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2016-11-16 13:38 Serdar Yegulalp www.infoworld.com

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The best cheap 4K TV deals onBlack Friday 2016 (4.99/7)

This is a great time of year to grab a cheap TV dealand you don't necessarily have to wait for BlackFriday either. Check out the latest seasonaldiscounts in our extensive guide below for cheapHD and 4K TV deals.

The days of paying over a grand for a 40-inch TVare long gone as you can see – you can now pickup 40-inch models for under £200, or even 4K 50-inch TVs for under £400.

Curved TVs have come down in price considerablytoo, and we've discovered some stunning deals on4K Ultra HD TVs. Now is a great time to upgrade,especially with Netflix , Amazon , the BBC and Skyall planning on bringing more 4K content over thecoming months. Check out our guide on Where towatch 4K TV shows and movies.

Our 4K TV deals and HD TV offers feature a widerange of the best TV retailers out there. If you'dprefer to browse their full collections instead of ourhighlights, here are the direct links to their best TVdeals:

We have a selection of the best cheap TV dealsacross multiple size ranges. Directly below, you'llfind our favourite deal of the week.

Currys has gone early with the Black Friday dealsand this is an incredibly cheap TV deal for a HD 32-inch set. This is ideal as a small bedroom TV ormaybe a child's room. It's only 720p, but comes withFreeview built-in and two HDMI slots for a consoleor Smart box.

We did a double-take when we saw all the featuresthis TV packs in for just under £350. That's a greatprice for a 4K TV of this size alone, but it's madeeven better by the inclusion of HDR technology andSmart features.

Wow, that's £100 cheaper than last week'sawesome deal! You can really roll out the premiumfeatures on this 43-inch TV. This 4K Smart TVfeatures HDR (High Dynamic Range) tech for a bitof extra future-proofing, or to enjoy now if you havea new Xbox One S or PS4. We're big fans of theJohn Lewis five-year guarantee too.

Take a moment to think back to how much you paidfor your first 40-inch HD TV all those years ago.Then gaze in awe at this 'basic' 40-inch 1080p setwith 60Hz visuals, costing a mere £199 – probablya fair bit less than that one back in the day. Oh, andit comes with Freeview HD too, just to rub it in.

Here's another super-cheap 1080p HD TV deal, butthis one's even bigger at 43 inches. Freeview HD isincluded too. If you're comparing it with the 40-inchTV above for the same price, just bear in mind that

the refresh rate is only 50Hz on this one, comparedto a more gamer-friendly 60Hz on the Seiki above.

£349 is a great price for a TV of this size, so itssupport for 4K, Smart TV functions and FreeviewHD is a huge trio of bonuses. We've featured thisTV before and it sold out super-fast, so dawdlers bewarned!

Something a little different for you now. In additionto rocking a 4K screen and Smart functions, this TVemits coloured light from the side of the screen ontonearby walls to provide a little extra ambiance inyour room. It's entirely optional, but it certainlysounds interesting going by the reviews we've read.It's £20 cheaper this week too.

Alternatively, you can get a larger 49-inch versionfor just £449 .

Argos is now a huge £200 cheaper than thecompetition with with Ambilight TV deal. This reallyis something a little different. In addition to rocking a4K screen and Smart functions, this TV emitscoloured light from the side of the screen ontonearby walls to provide a little extra ambiance in

your room. It's entirely optional, but it certainlysounds interesting going off the reviews I've read.

If you've been playing the long waiting game for acurved TV deal, today might be your lucky day. This1080p set might be lacking the hip 4K credentials,but rest assured this curved screen is something ofa stunner. It has Freeview HD and Wi-Fi Smart appspacked in too.

Looking for something to enjoy 4K content of Netflixor Amazon Prime? Then take a gander at this reallyrather tidy 4K TV deal. For under £500 you'regetting a premium build-quality 49-inch LG TVwhich also includes Freeview HD. You're getting a£20 discount this week too.

This is one of the cheapest Curved 4K Smart TVswe've seen in ages and that five year warranty fromJohn Lewis is always a much appreciated bonuswhen treating yourself to a 4K screen. Future-facingconsole gamers will be able to take advantage ofthe HDR capabilities on the PS4 Pro or Xbox One Stoo.

Not bothered about 4K? Just want a really big TV at

a super cheap price? Then this is the cheap TVdeal for you. Freeview HD is an unexpected bonusat such a low price.

The 50-inch deal above is good, but this one'sgreat. for just an extra £30 you can get a whopping55-inch wall-beast. If you're not bothered about 4Kyet (playing the smart game and waiting for adecent amount of 4K content to become available?)then this cheap TV deal should keep you going fora few more years. Freeview HD is included, soselect terrestrial channels will sparkle.

This John Lewis deal get a nod despite somesimilar offers this week thanks to their reassuringfive year warranty. Not that this isn't a great priceanyways. a 55-inch 4K picture supported by HDRand Smart features for under £600. Great deal!

This is one of Hisense's premium 4K TV and comesnot just with a 4K picture, Smart apps and FreeviewHD but also 2016's essential feature, High DynamicRange technology. John Lewis will cover it for fiveyears too.

Looking out for 4K TVs with High Dynamic Range

(HDR) is highly recommended if you have a bit ofextra cash to spend over the non-HDR models.Even more so if you're thinking of upgrading to anXbox One S or PlayStation 4 Pro. With a highercontrast between bright whites and dark blacks,you're all set up for an even better picture.

The deal here is all about the size of the TV. Ifyou're not bothered about a 4K picture and justwant a massive 50-inch screen on the cheap, this isthe deal for you. We ran a similar Seiki deal lastweek for the same price, but this one also includesFreeview HD and Smart TV apps. Win sauce.

This is one of the cheapest 4K TVs we've seen ofthis size with High Dynamic Range and should beon the radar of any gamer looking to takeadvantage of HDR 4K gaming. It's £70 cheaperthan recent weeks and the John Lewis five yearguarantee gives it mass appeal for any TV buyer.

Sonic Direct has come to the rescue here, with aprice over £100 cheaper than the next best deal onthis huge 4K TV! Samsung's Nano Crystal Techpushes this TV even further than the one above and

the 1400 PQI (versus 800) provides one of theclearest pictures on the market. HDR (HighDynamic Range) is also present, essentiallymaking most digital cinema projectors seem tameby comparison.

Pricehawk is a Chrome extension that willautomatically find you the cheapest deals for thetech and games items you're shopping for online.It'll also let you know if there are voucher codes youcan use to save even more money!

Black Friday deals on cameras anddrones

cnet.com

Amazon announces even more BlackFriday sales extending through

December 22ndtheverge.com

How to make sure Black Fridaydoesn’t overwhelm your online store

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Score! You can keep saving big onAmazon long after Black Friday is

overfeedproxy.google.com

Here Are Some Early Black FridayDeals That You Can Get Now

hothardware.com

Black Friday mobile phone deals:Save up to £100 on iPhones and

Android smartphonesfeedproxy.google.com

The best Amazon Black Friday deals2016

feedproxy.google.com

Best Android Black Friday 2016deals on tablets, phones and more

itnews.com

2016-11-16 13:30 Brendan Griffiths feedproxy.google.com

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MacBook Pro teardown revealspointless speaker grilles andhard-to-replace Touch Bar

(4.16/7)

If you have a new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar,don’t think that putting your ears closer to the

speaker grilles will make it sound louder. A recentteardown revealed that the grilles are just for show.

According to a teardown of the 13-inch MacBookPro with Touch Bar by iFixit , the speaker grillesdon’t actually align with the internal speakers. Infact, the grilles don’t even go down through thecase, which means that Apple put them next to thekeyboard for purely “cosmetic” reasons. The soundon the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar actuallycomes out through the air vents on the sides.

In the image below, the speakers can be foundinside the orange boxes, however the speaker

grilles on the case are where the red boxes arelocated. See? Not exactly a match.

Another surprise was how difficult it was to removethe Touch Bar while leaving it intact. The folks atiFixit deemed it too fragile, and ended upaccidentally breaking it.

“Our efforts to separate the OLED panel from theupper case resulted in the digitizer separating fromthe display,” read the teardown. Furthermore, theTouch Bar flex cable is routed underneath theupper case, making it more difficult to remove inone piece.

Having the power button be the same as the TouchID sensor on the Touch Bar also adds somecomplications. The Touch ID sensor is paired withthe Apple T1 chip at the factory level, so if there isan issue with the power button, it means you’ll mostlikely have to get the entire logic board replaced.

The teardown also revealed that the SSD storage isnot upgradeable because it is soldered to the logicboard, as is the processor and RAM. The battery isalso glued down, which doesn’t help with repairs

and replacement.

Mingis on Tech: Show-and-tell withthe new MacBook Proscomputerworld.com

Teardown of new MacBook Proshows it's hard to fix

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Teardown shows you'll have a hardtime fixing your new MacBook Pro

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Apple 13-inch MacBook Pro WithTouch Bar Teardown Hits New Low

For Repairability And Upgradeshothardware.com

You won't be able to swap SSDs onthe MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

feedproxy.google.com

2016-11-16 16:50 Oscar Raymundo www.itnews.com

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Google Makes MachineLearning Available ToEnterprise IT (4.11/7)

Machine learning may be right around the corneras part of your IT infrastructure, whether you thinkyou're invested in such a technology or not.

Google wants intelligence emanating from machinedata to be as readily available as the results of a

keyword search.

Now, the company is taking steps to make ithappen.

It's offering machine learning interfaces with openAPIs for independent or enterprise programmers touse with their applications. These include CloudVision API, Cloud Natural Language API, andCloud Translation API.

The search giant is also building data analysiscapabilities into common Google applications, suchas Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. As aspreadsheet accumulates device information, forexample, an Explorer feature can examine itspatterns and generate a chart that describes themfor the period of time contained on the spreadsheet.Google product managers demonstrated thecapability at a machine learning event at Google'sSan Francisco offices Nov. 15.

Machine learning won't be quite as simple toexecute as search, but Google is trying to dispel thenotion that you'll need a platoon of data scientistsbefore you launch your first machine learning

application.

The Cloud Vision API can be used to tap into animage analysis service that can identify manyentities included in the image, such as a car, asailboat, a landmark, or an animal species. Or it cansearch for one face across many images. It cancategorize and catalogue images, following thedirections of an administrator.

Cloud Vision API can also analyze images foremotions on display, doing sentiment analysis thatcan be used in marketing or analysis of the feelingsassociated with logos in various settings.

The Cloud Vision API can be trained by acompany's application for what it wishes to look forin images. It can also sharpen its results withrepeated use, said Rob Craft, group productmanager for the Google Cloud Machine Learningservices, at the San Francisco event.

Google has reduced the price on use of Vision APIby 80%, thanks in part to Google's greater relianceon its custom ASICs, known as Tensor ProcessingUnits, Craft said. The TPUs provide a 10X

improvement in performance per watt of electricityconsumed, he noted.

TPU hardware plugs into the hard drive slot on aGoogle server. It's optimized to process data inTensorFlow data sets. TensorFlow is a softwarelibrary that Google developed for handling machineintelligence data. It's made the library open sourcecode.

The Vision API is now generally available. It's aprimary example of how Google is offering serviceson the Google Cloud Platform that make artificialintelligence and machine learning results moreaccessible.

Indeed, Diane Greene, senior vice president forGoogle Cloud Platform, kicked off the event bysaying Google will "democratize" machine learningthrough its simple-to-use services.

[Want to see how machine learning affects IT?Read What eBay's Machine Learning AdvancesCan Teach IT Professionals .]

Another example is the Google Cloud Translation

API, which is now available in premium form,although it remains in beta. It will become generallyavailable sometime in 2017.

Google employs a neural net service to performtranslations of 103 languages. The process candetermine the speaker's context and producetranslations more likely to make sense thanprevious automated systems could.

"We've done a lot of science in that area," said Craftin an interview after the event. Google is reducingthe price for use of the API for volume users. Thecompany has also posted a list of prices.

Both Amazon Web Services (through its QuickSightannounced a year ago) and Microsoft are alsooffering more AI services through their cloudservices.

Google prototype uses machinelearning to zoom and enhance

photos, CSI-stylefeedproxy.google.com

Google's PhotoScan makes digitizingold photos easy

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Review: Spark lights up machinelearning

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Google's prototype machine learningsoftware lets you enhance low-res

photostheverge.com

2016-11-16 14:05 Charles Babcock www.informationweek.com

5 /223 1.8

Microsoft and Google bury thehatchet in one small way

(3.13/7)

There's no love lost between Google and Microsoft.The two companies have been fiercely competitivewith one another in the public cloud, productivity

and operating system markets.

But now there's one small glimmer of hope in therelationship between the two companies: Googlehas joined the. NET Foundation, to help driveforward the programming language frameworkMicrosoft originated.

Google will be a part of the technical steering groupfor the foundation, which helps guide the future ofthe platform and consults on changes to the. NETroadmap and project release schedule. Thefoundation oversees projects including. NET Coreand the Roslyn. NET compiler.

Google's fellow technical steering group membersinclude Red Hat, Unity and Samsung, whichannounced Wednesday that developers will beable to use. NET Core to develop for its Tizenoperating system.

The group is a set of somewhat strange bedfellowsfor Microsoft, but could help the company keep.NET and the C# programming language relevant ina broader set of circumstances.

Wednesday's news comes a few months afterMicrosoft made. NET Core generally available foruse on Linux and macOS. Before the creation of theFoundation, the programming framework was morelocked to Microsoft-controlled platforms likeWindows.

Julia Liuson, Microsoft's corporate vice president forVisual Studio, said at a press briefing that Googlehas a team dedicated to making sure that its publiccloud platform is compatible with. NET. Thispartnership seems like a way for each of thecompanies to gain something from one another.

That's how IDC Program Director Al Hilwa saw it.He said in an email that the move could beemblematic of an improving relationship betweenMicrosoft and Google.

"I think this is a mark of improving relationshipsbetween the two giants as the two have what eachother craves," he said in an email. "Microsoft ishighly motivated to win startups and other emergingworkloads, which Google technologies likeKubernetes have a lot of traction in, while Google istrying to build its enterprise business, somethingMicrosoft has a lot of traction in. "

It’s unclear, however, if the partnership will lead toan easing of relations between the two companiesin other areas. Windows users, for example, havebeen clamoring for a YouTube app, something thatGoogle has been unwilling to provide.

This partnership is part of a suite of announcementsMicrosoft made at its Connect conference in NewYork on Wednesday. The tech giant alsoannounced that it will join the Linux Foundation asa platinum member, along with a host of product

updates.

Microsoft seeks to grow Azureplatform with products, partnerships

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Microsoft Buries Old Animosity byJoining Linux Foundation

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Google's cloud GPU undercuts,outperforms AWS, Microsoft

infoworld.com

2016-11-16 12:02 Blair Hanley www.computerworld.com

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Snapchat Files for IPO, May GoPublic Next March (3.08/7)

California-based social-network messaging appcould be valued at $20 billion to $25 billion after theIPO takes place.

Snapchat, the social-network messaging app thatturned down an offer three years ago fromFacebook to be acquired for $3 billion , has filed foran initial public offering, Reuters reported Nov. 15.

The wire service said Snapchat, which has about100 million users worldwide, could go public assoon as March and be valued at $20 billion to $25billion, making it the largest initial public offeringsince Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba GroupHolding Ltd's (BABA. N) went public in 2014 valuedat $170.9 billion.

It potentially could be the largest U. S. technology

IPO since Facebook Inc's debut in May 2012 with avalue of $81.2 billion.

Venice, Calif.-based Snapchat has quietly filed itsS-1 form with the Securities and ExchangeCommission under the U. S. Jumpstart OurBusiness Startups Act. Companies with less than$1 billion in revenue can secretly file for an IPO,allowing them to quietly test investor appetite whilekeeping financials confidential.

Snapchat is a mobile app that that lets users, mostlyteenagers—mostly girls (70 percent of Snapchat'susers are female)—add captions to photos orvideos and share them with friends, and then makethe content disappear. Photos can only be sent inthe moment—no uploading later. Young girls takepictures of themselves making silly faces, CarlosDanger types may send more lascivious content,and then poof--the content is gone, unless therecipient grabs a screenshot. About 60 percent ofSnapchat users are age 13 to 24, making it anattractive way for advertisers to reach millennials.

A spokesman for Snap Inc, Snapchat's parent

company, declined to comment.

In 2016 to date, 123 U. S. technology companieshave gone public, raising $7.1 billion, a 58 percentdecline in proceeds and 20 percent drop in thenumber of offerings from this time last year, Reuterssaid.

Snapchat raised $1.81 billion in May, which valuedit at about $20 billion.

Your disappearing Snaps could beworth billions (The 3:59, Ep. 142)

cnet.com

Snapchat parent reportedly headedfor an IPO

infoworld.com

Snapchat 'files for a $25 billion IPO'itpro.co.uk

2016-11-16 18:43 Chris Preimesberger www.eweek.com

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Google AI experiment needsyour cruddy doodles

(3.06/7)

My first round of Quick, Draw went quite well.

Google unleashed a new group of online artificial-intelligence experiments and one in particularstands out as both an addictive game and afascinating window on machine learning.

Quick, Draw challenges you to create a series of

drawings in under 20 seconds apiece. The neuralnetwork tries to figure out what you're drawing asyou go. It learns from its mistakes and seeks toimprove its recognition skills.

I'm no great visual artist, but the AI racked up animpressive 5-out-of-6 score on my first round,correctly identifying grass, a helicopter, a penguin,a remote control and scissors. The one it missedwas a depiction of a feather, which I though wasdecent, but the AI thought it looked more like amouse, ice cream or tennis racquet.

There's an almost addictive thrill to playing withQuick, Draw. The timer counts down and gets moreurgent as the seconds tick by. A voice guesses atyour drawings, making it feel like a browser-basedgame of charades. Sometimes it just gives up,saying "I have no clue what you're drawing. Sorry Icouldn't guess it. " And then you feel like you've letthe poor AI down with your crummy art skills.

In one spectacularly bad round, I drew a kangaroothat looked like a lizard, a sun that looked like anexploded egg, a tornado that looked like a cream

horn and a basketball that resembled a cookie. Butthe neural network doesn't judge. It just makes youwant to play again.

Please behold my kangaroo in all its glory:

You had one job, Amanda.

Google AI releases bizarre tributes toclassic pop with new experiments

theinquirer.net

Google’s musical AI experimentsinclude a rapping smartphone and an

infinite drum machinetheverge.com

Google has put a bunch of AIexperiments on the webfeedproxy.google.com

2016-11-16 15:54 by www.cnet.com

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Want an Amazon Primemembership? Here’s why youshould wait until Friday

(2.33/7)

As Black Friday looms ever closer, thrifty shoppersare already putting their game plan together tosnag the best deals the minute dessert ends onThanksgiving.

To that end, most of them probably already haveAmazon Prime for early access to sales and freetwo-day shipping, but for those that don't haveAmazon's premium tier, this Friday miiiight be the agood time to sign up.

The deal is being extended by Amazon to promotethe November 18 debut of The Grand Tour - theAmazon Prime-exclusive spiritual successor toBBC's Top Gear, starring Jeremy Clarkson,Richard Hammond and James May.

Amazon Prime's unlimited music streaming,unlimited photo storage, free two-day shipping inthe US, access to Amazon Prime Video, andspecial deals could come in handy for some thisholiday, so follow this link on Friday if you want in.

Time to talk limitations: The promotion only appliesto non-Prime members, so it won't work on those re-upping their accounts for another year.

It also won't qualify towards Amazon's bountiesprogram , which rewards cold, hard cash forconverting customers to Prime, should yousuccessfully pass the referral link to someone.

Amazon announces even more BlackFriday sales extending through

December 22ndtheverge.com

Score! You can keep saving big onAmazon long after Black Friday is

overfeedproxy.google.com

The best Amazon Black Friday deals2016

feedproxy.google.com

Amazon offers peek at month ofBlack Friday deals

cnet.com

2016-11-16 17:25 Parker Wilhelm feedproxy.google.com

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Seagate crams a massive 5TBinto a portable hard drive

(2.16/7)

Just in time for the holiday travel season, Seagate'srolling out a device built for on-the-go folks with aninsatiable thirst for more space. Later in November,you’ll be able to pick-up a Seagate Backup Plus

Portable drive with a whopping five terabytes ofstorage capacity. That's enough room to store about1,000 high-definition movies, or three AAA PCgames. (Just kidding, you can probably store twentyor so.)

Seagate is setting the price for the 2.5-inch externalhard drive at $190. It comes in a 0.8-inch thickaluminum case with color options in black, silver,red, or blue, so you can look stylish stashing files atthe airport. The device uses USB 3.0, and Seagatesays you can expect data transfer rates up to120MB/s, which is the standard on Seagate’s

portable and slim drives.

The 5TB Backup Plus uses the same 1TB plattersas the 5TB 2.5-inch internal drive Seagateintroduced under the BarraCuda line in October.Seagate announced its 1TB platter design at CESin January.

Why this matters: More is definitely better when itcomes to storage, and at 5TB this new external abledrive definitely fits the bill. Anyone who plans onshooting a lot of 4K or 360-degree videos could usethis drive for archival storage. You’ve been able toget 5TB or larger external hard drives before this,but they used 3.5-inch hard drives and typicallyrequired an external power source. In other words,they were desktop-bound. This new Seagate drivecan get all its power from the USB connection andis slim enough that it won’t take up too much spacein a backpack.

Seagate Delivers Backup PlusPortable 5TB, The World's Highest

Capacity Mobile HDDhothardware.com

Seagate Backup Plus HDD crams5TB into a 2.5" portable drive

techreport.com

2016-11-16 11:48 Ian Paul www.pcworld.com

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Microsoft makes concessionsto EU over LinkedIn buyout

(2.14/7)

Microsoft has offered concessions to EU regulatorsover its $26 billion takeover deal of social networkLinkedIn, as the firm faces anti-competitionconcerns.

The news follows a meeting between theCommission and Microsoft executives last week atwhich EU antitrust regulators expressed concernsabout the deal, according to Reuters .

It is expected that the EU regulators will considerconcerns from rival bidders before decidingwhether to accept the concessions on the 6December. If rejected, the EU could demand amore in-depth investigation of Microsoft's largestever deal.

The news comes after the EU Commission sentquestionnaires to third parties in October, to assessany concerns they may have over the Microsoftdeal. One question asked whether LinkedIn's datafrom its 433 million users was unique or if it couldbe replicated by other services, according toFortune.

The European Commission's antitrust chiefMargrethe Vestager warned in January thatalthough no issues with competition had beenfound, the regulator would pay close attention todeals among tech firms. Following Microsoft'sannouncement of a LinkedIn buyout, Vestager hassince been examining whether the deal shouldpass regulatory rules within the EU.

However competition lawyer Stephen Kinsella ,whose firm has advised Microsoft on antitrustissues in the past, believes concerns that a buyoutof LinkedIn by the tech giant might make it difficultfor others to create similar services, would"introduce too much uncertainty into the mergerreview process".

"Unless there is convincing evidence that aparticular data set is genuinely both non-replicableand uncontestable, it would place an unreasonableburden on competition enforcers if they werealways obliged to analyse the impact on somerather nebulous 'data market'," said Kinsella, in ablog post.

US rival bidder Salesforce, which lost out toMicrosoft, has raised concerns over the LinkedIndeal, arguing that it is anti-competitive and a threatto innovation. Salesforce is considered one of thoseinterested parties providing feedback to the EUCommission.

Microsoft has argued that the deal is simply aresponse to growing competition from socialnetwork Facebook that seeks to expand into thejob-hunting market using its vast user base,according to Reuters sources.

LinkedIn, a social media network for professionals,generates yearly revenue of almost $3 billion fromjob seekers and employers paying subscriptionfees to connect with others.

Microsoft plans to integrate LinkedIn data into itscurrent family of software packages, to developfeatures such as a "LinkedIn news feed" thatsuggests articles based on current projects and"Office suggesting an expert to connect with viaLinkedIn to help with a task".

Microsoft makes 'commitments' toEU over LinkedIn deal

cnet.com

Microsoft offers concessions toEuropean Commission over LinkedIn

dealcomputing.co.uk

2016-11-16 10:35 Dale Walker www.itpro.co.uk

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Microsoft makes open sourcecommitment with newpartnerships involving Google,Linux, Samsung (2.12/7)

Microsoft Corp. made some of its most significant

strides towards being the more open company thatCEO Satya Nadella often describes on Wednesday,as it joined the Linux Foundation as a platinummember, welcomed Google Inc. to join the. NetFoundation, and partnered with Samsung Corp. for.Net developers to build apps on its devices.

Just a few years ago, the proprietary approach tosource code that the software giant took wouldmake these announcements unthinkable. Buttoday, Microsoft says the partnerships will make itscloud platform, Azure, more flexible in buildingcross-platform apps and services. By embracingopen source standards, Microsoft is allowingdevelopers to code apps in the language of theirchoice and deploy those apps to more platforms.

It’s been Nadella’s message since he took the reinsas Microsoft’s CEO.

By joining the Linux Foundation, Microsoft deepensthe work that it started with. Net core applicationframework available as open source. It also givesthe maker of Windows some level of input over thedirection of the Linux OS. For those familiar with the

history of Microsoft’s relationship with Linux , seethe company take on this new role with thefoundation is an unforeseen twist.

By allowing Google to join its own foundation, the.Net Foundation Technical Steering Group, allowsGoogle to support its own open platform fordevelopers that have embraced the popular. Netcore.

“We don’t think of this as a beginning, we’ve beenworking years on. Net,” said Chris Sells, a seniorproduct manager at Google, speaking on a Q&Apanel at Microsoft’s Connect event in New York.“We’re happy to be part of the technical steeringcommittee… we think of it as a much longer termthing.”

The move will also help Google Cloud Platformsupport enterprises looking to expand their publicand hybrid cloud use, Sells writes in a blog post.Google has a lot of experience with the. Netfoundation, already supporting the code stack on itsinfrastructure and offering libraries for its cloudservices. It’s also built native support for Visual

Studio and PowerShell on Google Cloud Platform.

Still, many were surprised by the announcement.

Samsung will also be supporting the. Net core forits commercial line of products, and gave a previewof its Visual Studio Tools for Tizen at Connect.Tizen is an OS that runs on Samsung’s TVs,wearables, and other mobile devices and IoTdevices.

Microsoft makes 'commitments' toEU over LinkedIn deal

cnet.com

Microsoft's open source love festcontinues as it joins Linux Foundation

pcworld.com

2016-11-16 16:47 Brian Jackson www.itworldcanada.com

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Google Begins Using High-Accuracy Neural MachineTranslation System For EightLanguage Pairs (2.06/7)

The main difference between Google’s previousten-year-old Phase-Based Machine Translationsystem and the new Neural Machine Translationsystem is that it analyzes the sentence as a whole,rather than as the sum of its parts.

Google Translate is tapping intoneural networks for smarter

language learningpcworld.com

Google Translate Hones ItsLanguage Skills With Neural

Machine Translationhothardware.com

2016-11-16 16:22 Systems News www.tomshardware.com

13 /223 0.6

Akamai warns: Look for IoTdevices to attack duringThanksgiving, Christmas

(2.06/7)

The annual holiday uptick in denial of serviceattacks will likely continue this year only this timewith a new devastating weapon: Internet of Things(IoT) devices, according to Akamai.

In its quarterly State of the Internet/Security Report ,the company says certain types of DDoS attacks

are on the rise compared to the third quarter lastyear, both in size and number. That doesn’t bodewell for users of the internet starting next week.

“Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the holiday seasonin general have long been characterized by a risein the threat of DDoS attacks,” the report says.“Malicious actors have new tools—IoT botnets—that will almost certainly be used in the comingquarter.”

That includes the infamous Mirai botnet whosecode has been made public and that is responsiblefor some of the largest DDoS attacks ever –perhaps more than 1Tbps—including two that weremitigated by Akamai .

In past years these attacks have been used to takedown gamer sites at Christmas, just in time tofrustrate people who have just received newgaming platforms. Famously, both Xbox Live andSony Playstation were disrupted by DDoS attacksin 2014.

Mirai has kept a low profile since it knocked DNSservice provider Dyn for a loop last month, but that

doesn’t mean it won’t be back, Akamai says.

The type of person who likely launched that attackis the type likely to use MIrai for a follow-up to the2014 attacks. The Dyn IoT DDoS flood was pinnedon gamers who wanted to take down a gaming site,likely Playstation Network.

According to Lance James, the chief scientist atFlashpoint, the attack was, “teenagers losing theiremotions over videogames,” who “took down morethan even the attackers hoped to take down.”

DDoS attacks in general have been on the rise, theAkamai report says, up 71% over Q3 last year.

The good news is that some forms of DDoS seem tobe on the wane, network time protocol (NTP)attacks in particular.

That’s because the open NTP servers used toreflect and amplify attack traffic are getting cleanedup, so there are few of them off of which to bouncetraffic. The number of attacks has grown over timebut the amount of traffic generated by each hasgotten less. The average size of an NTP attack in

June 2014 was greater than 40Gbps. This June itwas 700Mbps.

When these attacks were on the rise, the vulnerableservers being used to carry them out becameapparent, leading their owners or third partyobservers to take note and secure them. “It appearsthat June was the critical inflection point, when notonly did available NTP reflection bandwidth shrink,but botnet owners pivoted to other protocols fortheir traffic,” Akamai says.

Meanwhile, UDP fragmentation attacks accountedfor nearly a quarter (24.56%) of all DDoS attacksobserved by Akamai in the third quarter. Theseattacks send fraudulent fragmented packets to thetarget server, but they are designed so they cannotbe reassembled. That chews up processor time onthe server, eventually leading to it becomingoverwhelmed.

But Akamai says the recent success of IoT botnetsmeans they will be used more until defenders find away to defeat them. “It is very likely that maliciousactors are now working diligently to understand

how they can capture their own huge botnet of IoTdevices to create the next largest DDoS ever,”Akamai says.

DDoS 'mega-attacks' are on the rise,Akamai warns

theinquirer.net

Mega DDoS attacks on the increase,warns Akamai

computing.co.uk

2016-11-16 07:53 Tim Greene www.infoworld.com

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Google Earth VR lets youexplore our beautiful planet onthe HTC Vive (2.05/7)

As far as technical achievements go, looking at360-degree photos in virtual reality is a pretty lowbar. Hell, you can do it on Google Cardboard , theVR equivalent of a toaster oven. And yet for all itssimplicity, digitally visiting places I’ve been beforeor hope to visit one day or maybe just have afleeting interest in remains one of my favorite VR

activities.

So it might not be the flashiest release of theholiday season, but I was pretty excited to see thatGoogle Earth VR released on Steam this morning,specifically for the HTC Vive. From the description:

Earth VR seems to work best with large, well-knownlandmarks (both natural and man-made) sincethat’s where Google put in the most work with theoriginal program — Manhattan, Florence, the EiffelTower, the Matterhorn, and the Grand Canyon arespecifically called out on Steam, among others.

It looks impressive. The only disappointment at themoment is that Google Street View isn’t included.

Given that Street View utilizes 3D panoramicphotos, VR seems like a natural fit. Hopefully oneday it's added in.

For now though, Earth VR cements Google as oneof (weirdly enough) the Vive’s top developers, withboth this and Tilt Brush being must-seeexperiences. And better yet, Earth VR is free. Getout there and explore.

You can now fly around Google Earthin virtual realitytheverge.com

Google Earth VR Now Available ForHTC Vive

tomshardware.com

2016-11-16 14:02 Hayden Dingman www.pcworld.com

15 /223 1.5

Elon Musk's OpenAI projectstrikes deal with Microsoft

(2.04/7)

Elon Musk's OpenAI project has struck a deal withsoftware giant Microsoft that will focus on "making

significant contributions to advance the field of AI,while also furthering our mutual goal of using AI totackle some of the world’s most challengingproblems".

OpenAI is a non-profit consortium put together byMusk, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and IlyaSutskever. The team has already demonstrated thatits OpenAI Gym will teach computers to think usingvideo games.

Microsoft confirmed as part of the announcementthat its Azure platform will, not surprisingly, be theprimary cloud choice of the consortium.

"OpenAI chose Microsoft due to our deep learningresearch and ongoing commitment to AI, along withAzure’s support for open source technologies andits unique combination of high-performancecomputing, big data and intelligence capabilitiessuch as Azure Batch, Azure Machine Learning andthe Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit (formerly CNTK),"Microsoft said.

OpenAI is one of the first companies to adopt AzureN-Series Virtual Machines, which will be availablemore openly starting in December. These areaimed at deep learning, neural network trainingand high-end visualisation using the Nvidia Grid.

The cognitive toolkit has now been optimised for N-Series machines with Nvidia Tesla GPUs, andPascal-based GPU support on Azure is next on thelist.

The company has also introduced an Azure BotService, which makes it easier to design, build andhost bots on Azure, while Azure Functions can beused to maximise development agility.

Some 50,000 developers are already using the

Microsoft Bot Framework, according to thecompany, and Cortana and Azure features arebeing used to "transform businesses".

OpenAI was set up as a response to concerns thatAI research is led by capitalist forces that couldmake poor decisions that will end up killing punyhumans.

At least this way, all puny humans will die in anegalitarian utopia. With Microsoft aboard, you knowthey really mean it.

Microsoft Aligns With OpenAI ToDrive Benevolent Artificial

Intelligence, Opening New Doors ForPartners - Page: 1

crn.com

Elon Musk's philanthropic not-for-profit OpenAI project partners with

Microsofttheinquirer.net

2016-11-16 11:24 Chris Merriman www.computing.co.uk

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Adobe to pay $1m over 2013security data breach

(2.04/7)

FLASH PROVIDER Adobe is due to pay $1m to sortout that breach in 2013 when around 500,000people had their data stolen and put in the wind.

North Carolina will get the most of the bounty, and itwas that county's Department of Justice that tookthe announcement honours.

"Criminals and hackers are after our personalfinancial data, and businesses and government

must do more to protect it. If a data breach mayhave put your information at risk, act fast to protectit," said attorney general Roy Cooper.

Speaking of acting fast, the Adobe breachhappened three years ago , but that is the blink ofan eye in terms of firms being hacked and thengoing public.

"Under a multistate agreement announced today,Adobe will pay $1m to North Carolina and 14 otherstates and implement new policies and practices toprevent future similar breaches. North Carolina'sshare of the settlement comes to $71,186.75,"explained the official North Carolina DoJ statement.

"The settlement resolves an investigation into the2013 data breach of certain Adobe servers,including servers containing the personalinformation of approximately 552,000 residents ofthe participating states. A total of 52,734 NorthCarolina consumers were affected. "

Collectively the claimants are concerned thatAdobe did not put adequate systems in place to

avoid such a breach. The document added that anumber of people have been affected personallyand financially.

"North Carolina and the other participating statesalleged that Adobe did not use reasonable securitymeasures to protect its systems from an attack orhave proper measures in place to immediatelydetect an attack," said the statement.

"Along with North Carolina, Arkansas, Connecticut,Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland,Massachusetts, Missouri, Minnesota, Mississippi,Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Vermontparticipated in the investigation and settlement. "

We are waiting for Adobe to get back to us withcomment, or at least a response, to our request forits take on this. µ

Adobe uses shared responsibility tomeet security challengescomputerweekly.com

Adobe hit by £800,000 fine over 2013data breach

feedproxy.google.com

2016-11-16 10:54 Dave Neal www.theinquirer.net

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32 IFTTT applets to help youhandle the holidays

(1.28/7)

If you've not yet used or created any IFTTT"recipes," the holiday season is as good a time asany to start. After all, who wants to take valuableattention away from a New Year's Eve celebrationto post a greeting to your social media followers?

If you've never heard of IFTTT, it stands for "If This,Then That. " And it's a free service that connectsother services and invokes automated actions, suchas auto backup of your Instagram photos to GoogleDrive. Automated IFTTT tasks used to be called"recipes," but they are now referred to as "applets. "IFTTT says the new applets offer more functionalitythan recipes and developers can reportedlyintegrate them into their products more easily.

We combed through thousands of IFTTT applets tofind the best options to help you through theholidays. You need a free IFTTT account to them.And you usually need to give IFTTT access to theapps or accounts the applets utilize. The process isrelatively painless, and you can use IFTTT'swebsite or its mobile apps to complete the requiredsteps.

A Best Buy IFTTT applet emails you a daily digest ofnew products that were added to specificcategories at the popular retailer. Categoriesinclude headphones, laptops, and portable orwireless speakers. You also can set the time of dayyou want to receive the email alert.

Another separate applet automatically emails youwhen a particular item is listed for sale on eBay.

No doubt you'll be expecting at least a fewpackages during the holiday season. This IFTTTapplet automatically sends you a smartphonenotification when you receive shipping statusupdates via email, from FedEx, USPS, UPS,OnTrac, DHL or Airborne.

You can also use an applet to automatically addpackage delivery dates to your Google Calendar.

If you own an Amazon Echo or other Alexa-enabled device, you can tell it to add items to yourshopping list by saying, "Add [name of item] to myshopping list. " With this IFTTT applet , wheneveryou ask Alexa, "What's on my shopping list?," youreceive an email (via Gmail) of your entire list. Theemail can be sent to you and up to four morepeople.

You can also use applets to print your Alexashopping list using an HP wireless printer , orbackup the list to Evernote or Wunderlist .

Applets let you automatically receive email thatrounds up new Black Friday posts from Reddit orreceive email with the latest Black Friday news fromThe New York Times .

Applets that collect the latest Cyber Monday postsfrom Reddit are also available.

You're probably going to appear in a few photosbetween now and the New Year. That means thosephotos will likely show up on Facebook, and you'llbe tagged in them. Rather than download all ofthem manually, you can use an applet toautomatically drop them into a designated Dropboxfolder.

You can also use applets to send tagged photos toan iOS Photos album and Google Drive , or send allof your new iOS photos to Dropbox or Google Drive.

Instagram fans will appreciate this applet , whichautomatically downloads Instagram posts to adesignated Dropbox folder. Other IFTTT appletspost your Instagram photos to Tumblr , Flickr ,Google Drive , Evernote , or as native Twitter

photos , as long as you add #twitter to the caption.

You can use an applet to auto-send a HappyThanksgiving greeting to all of your Facebookfollowers, or say Happy Holidays to your LinkedInconnections. Or perhaps you'll be too busy imbibingbubbly to post New Year's greetings on socialmedia. No worries. You can use IFTTT applets topost boozy tidings on Facebook and Twitter.

As a busy day progresses, it's easy to forget aboutthat daily 10,000-step goal. However, you can usean applet to remind you if you haven't hit your Fitbitgoals by a certain time of day. You can specifygoals for which you want reminders, includingcalories burned, floors climbed, distance covered,active minutes and steps. And you can choose thetime of day you want to receive reminders.

Fitbit's Wi-Fi-enabled Aria "smart" scale ($130)automatically adds daily weight and fatmeasurements to your Fitbit account. On the otherhand, Withings's Body scale ($130) measuresmuscle mass, water and bone mass, and thedisplay even shows the day's weather.

If you're a Fitbit user who wants the functionality ofthe Withings scale, an IFTTT applet can bridge thegap, by automatically adding the weight recordsfrom your Withings scale to your Fitbit account.However, you'll still want to use Withings's HealthMate app to check other stats the scale records.

An applet exists to send you weekly Nike+ activityreports via email. You can specify the time of dayand which day of the week you want to receivethem.

This applet reminds you to go to bed early if youslept lightly the night before. For example, if youslept 6 hours last night, as recorded by Fitbit, youautomatically receive an iOS reminder to "go to bedearlier. " Both the target hours and remindermessage are customizable.

Qapital is an app that automatically rounds uppurchases you make using designated accountsand then funnels extra cash into a savings account.You can assign the accounts to specific goals, suchas "Pay off debts" or "Get something. " An IFTTTapplet lets you set Qapital to transfer a designated

amount of money ($1 to $50) whenever you hit yourdaily Fitbit step goal.

32 must-use IFTTT applets to helpyou handle the holidays

pcworld.com

2016-11-16 09:00 James A www.itnews.com

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DJI goes pro with two newcamera drones (1.15/7)

After the launch of the company's most portabledrone yet, the Mavic Pro, DJI has turned itsattention back to the high-end sector, launching twopro-spec drones with some serious camera chops.

The magnesium-alloy Inspire 2 is capable ofspeeds of up to 67mph, and will easily be able totrack a car from a standing start, taking only 4seconds to hit 50mph; and that's not forgetting theflight time of 27 minutes.

The pilot will get a new forward-facing camera toget the best flight view, with footage livestreamed tothe master controller. The camera operator will thenget a separate feed from the gimbal-mountedcamera.

DJI offers a range of Zenmuse cameras for theInspire 2, while it can be purchased as a kit withDJI's latest Zenmuse X5S camera, which features a20.8MP Micro Four Thirds sensors and lensmounts, and is capable of recording 5.2K footage at30fps and 4K at 60fps.

The Inspire 2 is priced at $2,999 / £3,059 for the

aircraft only, while the kit including the ZenmuseX5S camera (and CinemaDNG and Apple ProReslicense key) will be available for $6,158 – UKpricing still to be confirmed.

Building on the success of the Phantom 4, the newPro model sees a welcome boost to the camera,which now features a larger 1.0-inch sensor with a20MP resolution, while DJI claims the camera iscapable of recording almost 12 stops of dynamicrange.

For those wanting to shoot video, it's no surprise tosee 4K featured, with a maximum frame rate of60fps.

The Phantom 4 Pro comes with an all-new compactremote controller, and there's also a Pro+ variant,which has a high-luminance display that promisesto provide a clear and vivid live HD view from themain camera along with the Phantom 4 Pro's flightinfo.

The Phantom 4 Pro will be available at $1,499 /£1,589, while the Pro+ with the high-luminancedisplay controller will retail at $1,799 / £1,819.

Black Friday deals on cameras anddrones

cnet.com

2016-11-16 06:46 Phil Hall feedproxy.google.com

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Is MacBook Pro perfect? No,but it's worth $3,000 to me

(1.09/7)

I'll take the MacBook Pro's Touch Bar over a touchscreen.

There are no traditional USB ports. The keyboard islame. The Touch Bar is a gimmick. There's notenough memory. And worst of all, you have to buy abunch of expensive dongles to match what your oldlaptop could do easily.

Those are some of the complaints dogging Apple'snew high-end laptop, the MacBook Pro. The

detractors have fair points -- and yet I just boughtone without even physically handling it first.

Why? Not because I'm a fanboy. I considered mychoices carefully. Your needs and preferenceslikely will differ -- but if you're in the market for anew laptop, perhaps my reasoning will help youmake your own decision. Keep in mind, this is apersonal take -- here's CNET's official MacBook Proreview.

Here's my background so you can understand

where I'm coming from. I stress out browsers withdozens of open tabs and edit hundreds of photos --sometimes on a tight deadline. Given that I expectto spend at least 40 hours a week for three yearsbehind its screen, I'm willing to pay for an eye-wateringly expensive high-end 15-inch model withthe fastest Intel processor and AMD graphics chipApple offers.

I'm open to other operating systems -- I also use aGoogle Chromebook Pixel and Dell XPS laptopdaily -- but my main machine is a MacBook Pro. It'sthe only one I bring on vacations, business tripsand daily train commutes between my home andoffice.

Last, the Apple unibody chassis is unbeatablysturdy when it comes to enduring the abuse oftravel. My four-year-old 15-inch MacBook Pro, themodel that brought high-resolution Retina screensto personal computing, has been a tank despite mydropping it several times, cleaning its screen with awet paper towel in the airport and scattering trade-show sandwich crumbs on its keyboard.

I like how well Apple packs powerful innards into arugged chassis.

Other Macs aren't for me. I want the large screenand processing horsepower for my photo and videoediting -- a major hobby as well as a professionalneed. The only potential showstopper was thebutterfly keyboard that Apple debuted last year withthe ultraportable MacBook and refined for the newMacBook. After spending a morning with acolleague's MacBook, I decided it was adequate,though my accuracy seemed to suffer a little fromthe diminished tactile feedback.

That left two choices: Get the new MacBook Pro orwait a year or more for something better from Apple.But I need the new Macs' expanded 16GB ofmemory and faster processors now. Some prosneed 32GB or more memory , but Intel hardwareconstraints make that hard for now. And in anyevent, I don't do enough video editing to justify whatwould doubtless be a big price premium.

I'm a big believer in USB Type-C, the smaller newversion of the ubiquitous port. USB-C is smaller,

faster, more versatile, easier to use, and on Apple'snew Mac, supports Intel's higher-speedThunderbolt 3 technology, too. It carries power andvideo, letting your laptop send juice to an externaldrive or draw from an external monitor's plug intothe wall socket.

But my biggest MacBook Pro complaint is that itlacks traditional rectangular USB-A slots as well.USB-C devices will become common, but even fiveyears from now, there will be plenty of old-styleUSB devices in my life.

I'll miss many of the ports on my 2012 MacBookPro, but USB-C is great technology.

Apple was in a bind. USB-C is the future , if not yetthe present, and I suspect Apple will keep thislaptop design for a few years. Also, adding USB-Aports would have made it harder for Apple to makethe new a half pound MacBook Pro a 0.1 inchthinner and 0.4 inches narrower -- improvements Iappreciate. Another option, sacrificing two of theUSB-C ports for USB-A, would have hobbled thelaptop's power, Thunderbolt and video options.

That's why I just bought five dongles for connectingto my three Thunderbolt external drives, myEthernet cable, my camera flash card reader andassorted USB devices. It's a pain, and I'll doubtlesslose or forget one during a crucial moment, butgiven that I want a Mac, what choice do I have?

USB-C also pushed aside Apple's MagSafe powerconnectors, which harmlessly detach whensomebody trips over the cord. I'm not weepy aboutthis change, though. The thinner MagSafe 2 versionalready enfeebled the magnetic link, and over thenext decade, laptops will get even slimmer. And Ican't wait for airport lounges, car chargers,Windows laptops and the rest of the world tostandardize on USB-C power supplies so I don'thave to shell out $79 for an Apple charger.

Any laptop without a touch screen is living in thepast , according to Brian Hall, corporate vicepresident of marketing for Microsoft Surface andother devices. Perhaps, but after nearly four yearsusing the Chromebook Pixel, I still find its touchscreen nice but not necessary. It's handy forscrolling and online forms with lots of buttons, but

not much else given my motor-skills limits whenmoving my finger around at arm's length. I have noneed for a pen, though certainly artists and studentsin lectures might see things differently.

The Touch Bar is more convenient to reach than atouch screen.

Given that touch screens penalize cost, complexityand power consumption, I'm willing to side withApple designer Jony Ive for this round.

I'm reserving judgment on the Touch Bar until I seehow well it works with my escape-key musclememory and with third-party software like GoogleChrome and Adobe Systems Lightroom. But myinstinct tells me it's not a mere gimmick, and I'mconfident controls above the keyboard will be moreconveniently accessible than a touch screen.

The loss of the SD Card slot will make my lifeharder, too. With so many of us relying on phonesthat sync photos wirelessly, it's no surprise. I'll missit, though. But my SLR doesn't even support Wi-Fi,and wirelessly networking often is a hassle forcameras that can.

For now, I'll cope with dongles to transfer my photosand videos.

But my next camera will have Wi-Fi built in.Because even though it's inconvenient sometimes,Apple does push us all into the future a little faster.

Teardown of new MacBook Proshows it's hard to fix

cnet.com

You won't be able to swap SSDs onthe MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

feedproxy.google.com

2016-11-16 09:00 by www.cnet.com

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Android Nougat release date:when you'll get it andeverything you need to know

(1.07/7)

Samsung's latest devices now have beta access toNougat, and the HTC 10 is reported to be receivingthe update soon. Find out which other devices are

getting the newest Android versions.

Android Nougat is Google's big refresh of its phoneand tablet operating system – an OS that's been sothoroughly refined that the company is now morethan halfway through the alphabet with names, atletter 14 of 26.

It won't stop at Android 7.0, either. Android 7.1 beta launched on Nexus devices in October andpossible Android O ideas are being discoveredahead of 2017.

To prepare you for the Nougat updates, here's

everything we know about the new Android 7.0 andAndroid 7.1 Nougat release date and features.

Android Nougat is out right now, but when you'll getthe upgrade is going to depend on your device. Therelease date is rather staggered.

The good news is that it's already available on theNexus 6P , Nexus 5X , Nexus 6 , Nexus 9 , GooglePixel C , and the Nexus Player.

Sadly, if you have a Nexus 5 , you're sadly going tomiss out on Android Nougat upgrade altogether.

Samsung, LG, HTC and other phone makers,meanwhile, have to rework their own version of thesoftware and push it out to users, and that can takemonths.

This hasn't stopped Google from moving on to theGoogle Daydream VR-ready Android 7.1Developer Preview. It launched the beta at the endof October on Nexus phones and the final, stableversion is due by early December.

Samsung is bringing a Android Nougat beta to the

Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge on November 9before launching a final version of the operatingsystem.

It requires downloading the Galaxy Beta Programapp and it's another way for the company to guiltyou into signing up for a Samsung account.

In the US, you need to have a phone from Verizon,Sprint or T-Mobile. In the UK, your phone needs tobe unlocked.

Sadly, the special Galaxy S7 Edge Olympic Editionand Batman Injustice Edition phones can't get intothe beta. And, no, that Samsung Galaxy Note 7 afew risk takers are clinging onto won't get theupdate.

Samsung's Android Nougat early access programruns until mid-December, so even if you aren'tpicked for this program, you won't have to wait longfor the final version. It's expected to launch soonafter the beta wraps up.

LG technically launched the first Android Nougatphone in early September with the announcement

of the LG V20. But that was a "world's first" title fromwhich only South Korea benefitted at first. The dual-lens camera phone didn't launch in the US untilOctober 28, and it's not even coming to the UK.

LG G5 owners yearning for the update won't havelong to wait. LG's flagship smartphone is getting theOS upgrade in South Korea right now, and othermarkets can expect to download it "in the weeks tocome. "

We don't know the exact Android Nougat releasedate for the LG V10 and LG G4. Both phones areless than two years old, so we'll keep a watch outand update this page when the official newshappens.

Google and Sony surprised us when Sonyannounced that the Sony Xperia Z3 would receivethe developer edition of the Android Nougatsoftware, but oddly the phone won't be getting thefull Nougat upgrade.

However, many of its other Sony phones will get it,including the Xperia Z3+ , Xperia Z4 Tablet , XperiaZ5 , Xperia Z5 Compact , Xperia Z5 Premium ,

Xperia X , Xperia XA , Xperia XA Ultra and Xperia XPerformance. Phew. No specific time frame hasbeen announced, but stay tuned.

If you've bought an HTC phone launched in thepast year or two, you may have access to AndroidNougat soon enough.

HTC has confirmed it will be bring the Googleupdate to the HTC 10 , One A9 and One M9 by theend of the 2016. It has a little more than a month tomake good on that promise.

If you have a HTC One M8 , however, you're out ofluck. HTC told TechRadar that it will not get thelatest upgrade. You're going to have to buy a newphone for this update.

A source has confirmed to Tech Times that theNougat build is stable for the HTC 10 and mayrelease in Europe first.

Motorola has now confirmed which phones it willupgrade to Android 7, and its list of phones is ratherlong.

Android Nougat is coming to the new Moto Z andMoto Z Force , as well as other X-series phoneslike the Moto X Style, Moto X Play and Moto XForce.

Motorola's most recently mid-range G entries lineare also getting the update, Moto G4, Moto G4 Playand Moto G4 Plus , and so are its Droid phones,including Droid Turbo 2 and Droid Maxx 2.

Oddly enough, when Motorola confirmed that theMoto G4 Plus was getting Android 7 software in thefuture, it also acknowledged that the phone will update to Android O well.

That's software Google hasn't even announced yet,and there's no guarantee Android 8 will be namedafter the letter O.

Android Nougat is coming to OnePlus 3. When?Oh, well, we don't know that yet. But the Chinesecompany is certainly teasing the update.

The latest version of Android is being beta testedon OnePlus 3 phones right now, accordingOnePlus founder and CEO Peter Lau's Twitter

video in early October.

Already hard at work on the latest and greatest.#NeverSettle pic.twitter.com/pirsJS3jOD October 4,2016

While this particular video doesn't spell it out, wealso expect to see Android Nougat come toOnePlus 2 and OnePlus X.

Just don't wait around for a software upgrade to theold OnePlus One. It's more than two years old nowand beyond the company's update threshold.

We liked the ZTE Axon 7 because it's looks andplays like a high-end phone with a mid-range price.Now for the true test: how quickly will it get Androidupdates.

Android Nougat is coming to the Chinese phone,according to an obvious tease from an official ZTEnews announcement .

There are no Android Nougat release date detailsattached to this blog post tease, but the team at ZTEpromised Axon 7 to be a Daydream VR-ready

device.

That means the ZTE Axon 7 jump from AndroidMarshmallow to Android Nougat may happen soonafter the VR-focused Android 7.1 update is ready inDecember.

Even the little-known Nextbit Robin is confirmed tobe getting the Android Nougat update.

Stay tuned, as we're going to continue proddingeach manufacturer for information until they fess upto their Android Nougat plans.

We've tested out a bunch of existing AndroidNougat features below, but there's one exciting newtool that isn't part of the regular Android 7.0 update:Google Daydream .

A buried menu for VR helper services in theAndroid N Developer Preview 4, and an equallyburied release note for "Android VR" in UnrealEngine 4.12 beta, hinted at a big push for a GoogleCardboard successor – sure enough, Googleconfirmed its VR intentions during IO.

The Play Store, StreetView, Photos, YouTube andPlay Movies will all support VR, allowing you tojump into games, locations and videos, all viaGoogle's Daydream VR platform. GoogleDaydream View is expected to launch inNovember, but will require even further updatedAndroid Nougat software.

Google Daydream is part of the Android 7.1maintenance update for Android Nougat, and it'sonly compatible with the Google Pixel and GooglePixel XL, though other phones like ZTE Axon 7 (thefirst, non-Pixel Google Daydream phone) willeventually work with the headset and are availableto buy right now.

True multitasking support has finally arrived asexpected , and Split Screen is deservedly thehighlight of Android Nougat on phones and tablets.You're going to be able to open up two apps atonce on your Nexus phone or tablet.

It's a popular feature that Samsung and LG phoneshave incorporated into their Android skins yearsago, so it's nice (and about time) Google is

including the same functionality in its own software.It's easy to launch too – just long press on therecent (multi-tasking) button in the nav bar.

Multi-window support could increase enterpriseinterest in Android tablets and the Pixel C. It's a betthat Apple recently made when it launched similarsplit-screen and picture-in-picture features for iOS9.

Meanwhile Android TV gets picture-in-picturemode, allowing you to continue watching your showin a smaller screen while performing another task.

There's also a Clear All button at the top of themulti-tasking menu on your phone to make it simpleto close all your apps. Then there's a new featurecalled Quick Switch, which lets you jump back tothe previous application with a double tap of therecent (multi-tasking) button in the navigation bar.

You won't have to navigate away from your currentwindow (or, now, windows) just to answer anincoming message. You can just reply within thenotification that appears at the top of the screen.

It worked well enough for the iPhone and iPadwhen the same idea made its debut with iOS 8under the name Quick Reply. But Apple's approachto messages worked strictly with its iMessage app.

Google is opening up Direct Reply Notificationsbeyond Hangouts, and that could mean popularapps like WhatsApp could take advantage of thisconvenient inline messaging feature.

Google is adding a new quick settings menu to thenotifications shade you pull down from the top. It's alot like the one Samsung, LG and every otherAndroid manufacturer seems to use.

Sure, Google stock Android software has hadswitches for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Airplane mode and soforth, but it required pulling the notifications bardown a second time to reveal the quick settingsmenu.

Now the quick settings toggles are here as soon asyou gesture downward once to see notifications.The best news is that all of the buttons are smalland unobstructive, leaving plenty of room fornotifications.

Longtime Nexus users will also be happy to hearthat the quick settings switches can be sorted toyour liking, much like they can on other Androidphones – you won't need the System UI Tuner tomeddle.

For example, we often use MiFi more than AirplaneMode, so Mobile Hotspot icon gets promoted to beone of the five icons along the top of the initial quicksettings on our Nexus 6P.

That little airplane icon is still there for our takeoffand landing needs, but it got the bump to thesecond swipe menu. Sorting is finally up to you,which is really what Android is all about.

Google hasn't done with the way Android Nchanges notifications. It also announced thatnotification cards will be grouped together if they'refrom the same app.

All messages from a specific messaging app, forexample, are bundled together in the notificationshade. These grouped alerts can then beexpanded into individual notifications using a two-

finger gesture or tapping the all-new expansionbutton.

This is basically the opposite of what Apple did inthe jump from iOS 8 to iOS 9, switching fromgrouping them by app to lining them upchronologically. We'll see which method works bestthis autumn.

There's more control over your notifications inAndroid Nougat too, as you can now long-press ona notification to either silence future notifications, orturn them off completely.

One of the (literal) sleeper hits of AndroidMarshmallow has been Doze Mode, Google's craftyway of saving battery life whenever your device isstationary. It's basically a deep standby mode.

Android Nougat is going to step up the company'senergy-saving software efforts by expanding DozeMode so that it thoroughly limits background taskswhenever the screen is turned off.

That's ideal for throwing a phone in your pocket oryour tablet in a backpack, and then retrieving it the

next day or next week without having to recharge itright away. Your "I can't even" face when you pickup your dead Nexus phone the next morning couldbe a thing of the past.

Google says Android Nougat will deliver its biggestleap forward in graphics performance with theintroduction of Vulkan, giving game developersmuch-needed control of the GPU.

That in turn will result in even better graphics andsmoother, faster performance.

If you've downloaded apps from other sources thataren't the Google Play Store, you'll now be able toidentify where the app came from by going into yourSettings, App Info and then Package Installer.

There have also been a number of Android runtimeimprovements, including optimizations to the JITcompiler, which has seen task speeds increasebetween 30% and 600% compared to the previousversion.

Updates are also more seamless, with securityupdates automatically downloaded, and a simple

fresh boot-up of your device will see you run thelatest offering. It's also got rid of that annoying'Android is updating' pop up when you restart afteran update.

Google has confirmed the new 'Launcher Shortcuts'feature that debuted in the second beta for AndroidNougat is ready for pressure-sensitive displaytechnology.

This will make it easier for Android manufacturers tobring 3D Touch-like technology to Androidhandsets, as it's baked directly into the operatingsystem.

Then there are extra security features, such as file-based encryption and Direct boot, which help yourdevice start up faster while running your appssecurely.

Last, and by no means least, Android Nougat bringsupport for Unicode 9, which among other things,will bring with it the introduction of 72 new emoji .

Huawei P10 release date, news andrumors

feedproxy.google.com

iPhone 8 release date, news andrumors

feedproxy.google.com

OnePlus 3T release date, specs andprice

theinquirer.net

2016-11-16 12:33 Matt Swider feedproxy.google.com

21 /223 2.4

Hands on with PS4 Pro: Howdo 1080p displays and PSVRbenefit? (1.05/7)

Last week, Sony unleashed the PS4 Pro — a mid-generation update that’s focused on serving theemerging 4K market. It’s quite a bit more powerfulthan the base PS4, and the one-two punch of HDR

and a high-res output are sincerely impressive for a$400 box. We know that some releases actuallydeliver native 4K, other games will use theingenious checkerboard rendering method to getclose to 4K, and many titles won’t take advantage ofthe extra power at all. Those scenarios are easyenough to understand, but what about everythingelse? Is it even worth buying without a UHD TV?

We wanted to know how updated games look at1080p, how PSVR benefits from a little extra juice,and how well the new hardware handles streamingand video capture. We spent about a week with ourlaunch unit, kicked all the tires, and here’s what wesaw.

If you’re still on a standard 1080p HDTV, thebenefits of the PS4 Pro are subtle. You’re simplynot going to see the same kind of visual pop thatyou get with 4K and HDR. Don’t expect your jaw todrop. With that said, we’ve spent the past week withthe PS4 Pro running on a 1080p set, and the resultshave been almost completely positive. We’venoticed better frame rates in a handful of patchedgames, and the super sampling can be a realbenefit. On the base PS4, Ratchet & Clank looksvery pretty, but the post-process anti-aliasing wassomething of a distraction from the start. With thegame running on the PS4 Pro, those lines look niceand clean — even on older televisions.

It’s also worth mentioning that some games (likeParagon) specifically target 1080p displays on thePS4 Pro, and that extra power is used to addflourishes and finer details. It doesn’t massivelyimpact the game one way or the other, but theupdate is welcome nonetheless. If you alreadyhave a base PS4 that you’re happy with, and youhave no intention of buying a 4K UHD TV anytimesoon, it’s hard to recommend the purchase foranyone but the most fussy among us. If you have a

shiny new 4K television, and you’re looking forsomething to do with it, the PS4 Pro is morecompelling.

The PSVR hardware is fixed. The screen in thatheadset is 1080p, and there’s nothing you can doabout it. The existing hardware certainly has itslimitations, but the base PS4 is keeping it fromreaching its full potential. For example, some PSVRtitles are internally rendering at a lower resolution,and then upscaling for the head-mounted display.And despite Sony’s strict policies about frame rates,many titles are running at just 60Hz, and then usingan implementation of time warping to boost theoutput to 120Hz.

If VR developers decide to target the PS4 Pro, thePSVR will see some significant boosts. We canexpect sharper visuals, a faster frame rate, and lessvisual artifacts. Very few PSVR titles takeadvantage of the additional horsepower right now,but our experiences so far have been good. Distantobjects appear less garbled, and the readabilityseems to be improved.

Just as before, capturing the VR experience ischallenging. In the video above, you’ll see the de-warped “social screen” from a handful of PSVRgames running on the PS4 Pro with a frame ratecap in place. It’s not what you’re really seeing in thehelmet, but it’s the best we can do. If you get theopportunity to demo it for yourself, we’d highlyrecommend it.

Across the board, the ability to capture and streamgames has been enhanced on the Pro.Screenshots can be saved as 4K PNGs, local videoclips last longer, and you can even stream yourgames at 1080p60. Compared with the lacklusterquality of captures from the base PS4, the quality ofPS4 Pro captures is a big step up.

After doing some testing, it seems that the PS4Pro’s 1080p footage is being saved at 30fps (29.97to be exact) with a bitrate in the ballpark of 10Mbps.The original PS4 could only handle 720p at 30fps(29.97) with a bitrate of roughly 5Mbps. Meanwhile,the Elgato Game Capture HD60 that we use forHDMI capture can pull off 1080p at 60fps (59.94)with a bitrate of about 30Mbps. The local recording

on the Pro is far from flawless, but it’ll work well forgamers just looking to share decent footage of theirfavorite games.

With the base model, Remote Play was restricted to720p at 60fps. With the latest hardware, PC andMac users can now hit 1080p60. We’ve done somepreliminary testing over our LAN, and the resultshave been surprisingly good. You’re still going tosee some artifacting, but the latency wasn’t aproblem in the least. If you want to keep your PS4Pro in the living room, but still play at your deskevery now and then, this is a good solution. Justkeep in mind, the PSTV is still limited to 720p, andthe Vita can only handle 540p.

As for live streams, the PS4 Pro still supportsTwitch, YouTube, and DailyMotion. Unfortunately,the quality varies wildly. YouTube will accept up to1080p60, but the compression is still rough. Twitchcan handle 1080p, but 60fps streams are limited tojust 720p. DailyMotion? The best you can get rightnow is 720p30. External streaming solutions likethe Elgato box offer many more options, but theystill sell for around 150 bucks on Amazon.

While many games actually get a performanceboost with the PS4 Pro, some titles seem to besuffering in the frame rate department. For example,The Last of Us Remastered and SkyrimRemastered actually perform worse than the samegames running on the base PS4 — even whenyou’re only on a 1080p display. Why? The gamesare still being rendered at a higher resolution, andthen being downscaled to 1080p. The high qualityanti-aliasing is nice, but that’s cold comfort for thoseof us looking for a frame rate that won’t budge.

The leaked PS4 Neo documents from earlier thisyear make it clear that PS4 Pro titles should, at thebare minimum, hit the same frame rate as therelease on the base console. Sadly, it’s clear thatSony wasn’t as rigorous with that rule as we’d like— even with its own internal studios. Going forward,we’re praying that Sony will actually reject any buildthat runs worse on PS4 Pro during the certificationprocess.

Consider the PS4 Pro before you buythat expensive gaming PC

theverge.com

2016-11-16 14:26 Grant Brunner www.extremetech.com

22 /223 7.1

If you want to win in Battlefield1 you might want to play on aPS4 Pro (1.05/7)

The performance benefits of the PS4 Pro vary from

game to game, but the performance boost it gives toBattlefield 1 are proving uniquely troubling becauseof the competitive aspects of the game.

Eurogamer is reporting that the PS4 Pro version ofthe game runs with up to a 47% frame-rateadvantage, which brings competitive advantagesranging from lower-latency to a smootherexperience.

A large amount of this benefit comes from the use ofV-sync, which is a technique used in games toprevent screen-tearing when the frame-rate drops.

V-sync means that when the game’s frame-ratedrops (which happens more on the original PS4hardware), individual frames can be displayed foras much as 50ms, around three times the targetframe-time of 16.7ms.

Whether this translates into a tangible advantage isa much more difficult question to answer, but thereis some speculation that the game’s 1.04 patcheither reduces or disables the game’s Proenhancements, but Eurogamer’s analysis has sofar not shown any significant changes .

These sorts of problems are new on consoles,where previously everyone playing a game onXbox or PlayStation would be playing againstothers on identical hardware, but they’ve longexisted on the PC platform, where players can usea wide variety of different hardware to play thesame game against one another.

Consider the PS4 Pro before you buythat expensive gaming PC

theverge.com

2016-11-16 06:56 Jon Porter feedproxy.google.com

23 /223 2.0

Should you buy a new TVonline or in the store?

(1.04/7)

Every year more and more people choose to buy aTV online instead of in a store. Yet, there are stillsome some benefits to the ol' brick n' mortar.

So between the two, where is the best place to buya new TV? Here's how both options stack up invarious categories.

Generally speaking, online is going to be cheaper.Most brands, however, have unilateral pricingpolicies (UPP). This means that model you've gotyour eye on is going to be the same price at everyauthorized retailer -- it's the same at Walmart orBest Buy as it is on Amazon. A sale at one meansit's a manufacturer authorized sale, so they'll allhave a sale.

If you've looked at all the major retailers and theyhave the same price, but Bob's Big Screen in Boisehas it for $500 less...it might not be an authorizedretailer. Why would you care? If you don't buy a TVfrom an authorized retailer, the manufacturerdoesn't have to honor the warranty. Buyer beware.

A somewhat sneaky alternative to this is store-specific models. Amazon might have the $1,000TV-X1000 while Best Buy has the $1,200 TV-X1000B. Same (or nearly the same) features, butbecause the models are technically "different," BestBuy doesn't have to match the price.

Still, no harm in asking at the store to see if they'llmatch an online price.

Online is effectively infinite. That said, the bigretailers like Best Buy and Costco are going to carryall the most popular models of the big brands.Unless you're looking for some minor brand orweird size, chances are you'll find what you need ina store.

Most stores can also order what you need (since

they also have websites and huge warehouses).The exception is the store-specific modelsmentioned above.

If you're not exactly sure what TV you want, andhope to decide by looking at them, surprisingly astore doesn't offer much more in this regard thanonline.

Every big retailer has lighting radically differentfrom your home. You're also not likely to bestanding at the normal viewing distance.

Checking out a few of my local stores, I found somemodels a few inches on the floor, others way overmy head. Some rows I was forced to be just acouple of feet away, others I had to step back to seethe TV. All of these factors change your perception.Worse, if you're looking at two TVs , one by yourfeet and the other over your head, how do youcompare?

Some smaller retailers may have darkened showfloors, which makes it slightly easier to judge.

Most mid- and high-end TVs are 4K, but if you're

looking for budget models and are torn between alarge 1080p model and a smaller 4K, don't let youreye fool you in the store. At home, sitting where younormally sit, the difference in resolution will beminimal, if that. Get the larger screen.

My advice: Do your research beforehand, thenjudge the TV at home (given a reasonable returnpolicy). If the TV is well reviewed, and other regularpeople have positive things to say in onlinereviews, and it looks good in your home, guesswhat? You've picked a fantastic television.

As long as the TV isn't too big, or you've got a bigtruck, you can drive it home. That's the biggestadvantage to in-store: instant gratification. Moststores will charge you to deliver it, but specialscome along with free shipping.

Online depends on the site. Amazon offers freeshipping on a lot of TVs, and if you subscribe to itsPrime service, two-day shipping on everything isfree.

It's hard to beat driving a TV back to the store andtelling them where they can stick it (in their

warehouse; what did you think I meant?). Manyretailers have 30-day, no-questions-asked returnpolicies. Some have shortened this to 15 days, andsome even have a restocking fee. Definitely worthchecking out ahead of time. Costco has a prettyliberal return policy (90 days on TVs), if you're amember.

Online varies a lot. Amazon, as usual, is the goldstandard. It has a 30-day return policy with freereturn shipping. Even better, it allows TVspurchased between November 1 and December 31to be returned anytime before January 31.

Be careful, though, as Amazon isn't alwaysAmazon. Many retailers use Amazon as a vehicle tosell their own wares. In these cases, Amazon ismerely a facilitator. As in, you pay Amazon, but youactually bought the TV from Tim's Terrible TVTrader. Their return policy could be anything. Socheck the fine print. There's a middle ground, whereit's "Fulfillment by Amazon," in which the stock maycome from Random Ricky's Retailer, but Amazontakes responsibility.

Costco extends the manufacturer's warranty on TVsto two years. All stores, virtual or physical, will offerextended warranties you can purchase for an extrafee.

Your credit card may offer an extension of themanufacturers' warranty. Certain AmEx and Visacards often offer this.

Some retailers offer paid services that will hook upthe TV for you, but these aren't much bettersometimes.

Specialty retailers and custom installers usuallyhave the know-how and are in the business of high-tech setup and installation, but this knowledge andskill comes at a price.

Even though our tally shows a fairly even balance, Ithink it's fair to weigh selection and price heavierthan the others. So with that in mind, online is adecided winner.

If you're careful to note return policies and warrantyavailability, buying online is an excellent option.The better online retailers (and some are definitely

better than others) will almost always have betterprices and a wider selection. If it's not a big-nameretailer though, make sure you check they'reauthorized by that TV's manufacturer.

Buying in a store certainly offers that instantgratification and the touchy-feely aspect a computerscreen can't mimic (yet), but given the perils of in-store evaluation (as noted above) this hands-onaspect isn't all it's cracked up to be.

I worked in retail for a number of years. Best Buy,Costco and so on have effectively become the retailsales floor for Amazon. People come in, check outthe TV they want (see above!) then buy it online. Soit goes.

It also makes you a jerk.

Be honest, tell them you're probably not going tobuy. Maybe they'll have a special deal to lure youinto buying it there and then. They're not going tokick you out of the store, paint a big red "A" on yourchest, or stone you if you tell them you're notbuying. If they're smart (and not busy), they'llprobably help you anyway, because that's good for

future business.

If you're in the market for a new TV, check outCNET's list of the best TVs .

How to make sure Black Fridaydoesn’t overwhelm your online store

itnews.com

2016-11-16 15:01 by www.cnet.com

24 /223 1.3

: Sony’s PlayStation VR isimmersive, comfortable, andwhen combined with the PS4Pro, incredibly impressive

(1.03/7)

By

Lewis Painter | 31 mins ago

See full specs

£349.99

Price comparision from , and manufacturers

Sony’s PlayStation VR headset has been a talkingpoint ever since it was first revealed in 2014,boasting the ability to provide a great VRexperience without the need for a high-end PC. Infact, the PlayStation VR headset is compatible withany of the 44 million PS4s around the world,according to the company, along with the newlyredesigned PS4 and of course, the PS4 Pro. Afterover two years of waiting, the PlayStation VRheadset is finally here. I’ve spent some time withSony’s PlayStation VR, and here’s what I

experienced. Also see: HTC Vive review

Also see: Best Black Friday Games Deals

After years of secrecy, Sony announced earlier in2016 that the PlayStation VR headset would beavailable to buy around the world from 13 October2016. That date has come and gone, and the VRheadset is now readily available to buy fromseveral retailers – although demand is high.

During the PlayStation VR event at GDC 2016,Sony CEO Andrew House announced that thePlayStation VR headset will set gamers back £349,£200 less than the £549 Oculus Rift andover £400 cheaper than the £759 HTC Vive – infact, HTC’s offering costs over double the amount ofSony’s headset. Users interested in investing in aPlayStation VR headset can pick one up on Amazon for £349.99. Amazon isn't the only optionthough - Zavvi also offers the PlayStation VR for£349.99 , although it’s out of stock at the time ofwriting.

While the price point attracted applause from thosepresent at the event, all was not as it seemed as the

CEO left out one vital piece of information. Yes, thePlayStation VR headset will cost £349 in the UK,but it doesn’t come with a PlayStation Camera, avital element that’s required for VR use. The officialPlayStation 4 Camera costs £39 on Amazon at thetime of writing, which brings the total cost of thePlayStation VR headset to £389 – still a competitiveprice for a VR headset, but not as cheap as firstthought. If buying the headset and cameraseparately isn't for you, you'll be happy to know that Zavvi is offering a PlayStation VR & PlayStationCamera bundle for £399.98 but like with thestandard listing, it’s out of stock at the moment.

It’s the same story with the PlayStation Movecontrollers too, although these aren’t required touse the VR headset as all VR content will becompatible with Sony’s DualShock 4 controller.Despite the fact that the PlayStation Movecontrollers used with the PlayStation VR are thesame controllers used with the PS3, the Movebatons are currently being sold on Amazon for £60.Read next: Complete guide to VR

The PlayStation VR headset is mainly white with

black accents, and is clad with blue lights used totrack the headset in conjunction with a number ofbuilt-in sensors. It’s fairly bulky and before using theheadset for the first time, I assumed that it’d bepretty heavy too – however, I was mistaken.

I was surprised at just how lightweight thePlayStation VR headset was, especially whenconsidering the size. It’s not as sleek and sexy as,say, the Oculus Rift, but it’s lightweight andcomfortable. I experienced no irritation around theedges of the headset where it came into contactwith my skin (with the nose being an issue withsome headsets), even when using the headset forhours at a time.

Why? I’m sure that it has something to do with theplastic headband used by the PlayStation VRheadset, compared to the fabric headbands usedby the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. The solidheadband provides enough support to allow theadjustment of the distance between the display andthe headband. This means that the headset can befastened into place without your eyes beingcovered, then you simply pull the display towards

your eyes when you’re ready to get started.

It also means the headset isn’t tightly fastened toyour face, helping to alleviate sweatiness and skinirritation over time – two common issues in VR. Itmay not seem like a huge point to make, but itshows that Sony has considered all elements ofuse when designing the headset, even the way youput it on and take it off. It also means that glasses-wearers can use the PlayStation VR with noproblem – something I can personally attest to.

Light leakage isn’t much of an issue with thePlayStation VR headset either, as the headsetfeatures several soft rubber flaps around the edgesof the HMD that mould to the shape of your facewhen wearing the headset. This ingenious designfeature allows the headset to stop light leaking intothe headset without it being so close to your facethat it becomes uncomfortable to wear.

Like many other VR headsets on the market, thePlayStation VR headset is wired and must beplugged into a PlayStation 4 console to be used.The cable was long enough for us to sit comfortably

far away from the TV, and as many PlayStation VRgames are to be played sat down, it’s not as muchof an issue as it is with the room-scale tracking HTCVive. The cable features headset controls, muchlike the in-line media controls found on manysmartphone headphones, offering a headphonejack for your headphones along with volumecontrols and a power button.

One complaint about the design of the headset? It’sa bit complicated to put on - at first, anyway. When Ifirst tried to put the headset on, it took me aroundfive minutes (including on-screen prompts showingme how to do it) to properly fasten the headset andalign the display, while I had no such issue with theHTC Vive and Oculus Rift. It means that it’s a littleawkward to show to friends and family at first,however, much like riding a bike, once you find theknack for it, you’ll be able to put it on with ease.

Price comparision from , and manufacturers

OnePlus 3T confirmed | OnePlus 3T UK releasedate, price, preorder & specifications: Theflagship…

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Some games run faster on theoriginal PS4 than Sony's more

powerful PS4 Proextremetech.com

2016-11-16 12:58 Lewis Painter www.pcadvisor.co.uk

25 /223 0.3

Google PhotoScan App BringsYour Past To The Present ByDigitizing Your Old Prints

(1.03/7)

We all have that musty box in our attic filled with theold photographs we never got around to digitizing.The digitization process can be incredibly timeconsuming and costly. However, Google justintroduced its PhotoScan app to make saving thoseprecious photos easier than ever. Why did Googlejust release PhotoScan? According to GooglePhotos Software Engineer Jingyu Cui, “After all thattime in the attic, your photos might need a fewpolishes. Or you might even want to edit that selfiefrom this morning. Getting the right look can take alot of time and with so many editing tools it’s toughto know where to begin.”PhotoScan is a standaloneapp companion to Google Photos. The app candetect a photo’s edges, straighten it, rotate it to theright the direct, and remove glare. The photos canthen be shared to Google Photos so that they canbe better organized, searched, and shared. Googleis also releasing new editing tools for GooglePhotos. Users can simply use “Auto” in order toautomatically enhance the photo through exposure

balance or saturation. There are new tools in “Lightand Color” that allow users to play with highlights,shadows, and warmth. Google has also addedtwelve new filters that edit individual photos basedon brightness, darkness, warmth, or saturation,before applying the style. These filters use machineintelligence to create the best photograph. Googlehas lately been very concerned with photo quality.This past spring it was revealed that Nexus ownerscould save photos at maximum resolution/qualitywithout worrying about sacrificing storage. Thisaddition even included 4K Ultra HD resolutionvideos. Since the launch of Google Photos, it hasamassed 200 million monthly users, 13.7 petabytesof pics, and 24 billion selfies. It would take a person424 years to sift through all the material. PhotoScanis available on the desktop, Android , and iOS

Google's PhotoScan makes digitizingold photos easy

computerworld.com

2016-11-16 10:34 Brittany Goetting hothardware.com

26 /223 4.0

Google Allo gets smarter withits smilies (1.03/7)

Google said Wednesday that some new featuresare coming to Allo, the company's recently releasedchat app.

The biggest new change to Allo is a feature Googlecalls Smart Smiley, which predicts the most relevantemojis and stickers you might need based on the

words you type. For example, if you type outcheeseburger, Allo will present you with thehamburger emoji. Or, you'll get the slice of pizzaemoji by typing the word pizza.

The new feature is the latest to come to Allo, whichwas the first product to showcase the GoogleAssistant, a digital helper akin to Apple's Siri orAmazon's Alexa. The company thinks of theAssistant as the next evolution of Google's iconicsearch engine.

Along with Smart Smiley, the company announcedthat you'll now be able to bring J. K. Rowling's"Fantastic Beasts" into your messages, with a wholeline of themed stickers. Google also said it's noweasier to find new sticker packs in the app. When afriend sends you a sticker from a pack you don'thave, you can tap on the sticker to download thewhole pack.

Finally, to personalize your chats, Google addedthemed backgrounds so you can better illustrateyour mood.

Google says it is starting to roll out these features

Wednesday, but they will become available worldwide over the next few days.

Google Allo is getting a suggestedemoji button

theverge.com

2016-11-16 10:01 by www.cnet.com

27 /223 2.2

AMD adds GPU firepower toGoogle's cloud services

(1.03/7)

For most of the past few years, HPC computing,general purpose GPU computing, and deeplearning have all primarily been an Nvidia play (oran Nvidia-Intel tussle). AMD generally hasn’t hadthe resources to launch a huge effort into thesemarkets, even though its GCN GPUs weregenerally recognized as formidable computeplatforms, particularly against Nvidia’s Kepler

architecture. A recent deal Team Red inked withGoogle could help AMD establish a foothold in thisemerging market, and give its GPU business animportant shot in the arm.

Beginning in 2017, AMD’s FirePro SC9300 x2server GPUs will be deployed to accelerate theperformance of Google’s Compute Engine and theGoogle Cloud Machine. This is the server variant ofthe Radeon Pro Duo that AMD launched earlier thisyear. It’s a dual GPU card with 2x AMD Fiji GPUs,8GB of HBM (4GB per GPU), 1TB/s of total memorybandwidth, and a 300W power draw. It’s not hard tosee why Google might be interested, given Fiji’scompute horsepower, and 28nm hardware isn’t asoutdated on the compute side of things as you

might think. While Nvidia is now baking GP100 intosome supercomputing deployments, its 28nmKepler-derived products are still sold widely in thisspace.

“Graphics processors represent the bestcombination of performance and programmabilityfor existing and emerging big data applications,”said Raja Koduri, senior vice president and chiefarchitect, Radeon Technologies Group, AMD. “Theadoption of AMD GPU technology in Google CloudPlatform is a validation of the progress AMD hasmade in GPU hardware and our Radeon OpenCompute Platform, which is the only fully opensource hyperscale GPU compute platform in theworld today. We expect that our momentum in GPUcomputing will continue to accelerate with futurehardware and software releases and advances inthe ecosystem of middleware and libraries.”

AMD has also announced a deal with Chinesecompany Alibaba to provide GPUs for the e-commerce giant’s data centers. Google’s ComputeEngine is a virtual machine provider that can scaleup depending on customer needs, while its Cloud

Machine Learning program allows customers tobuild machine learning models. These models canbe scaled up as well, analyzed with other Googleservices, and flexibly configured for other usecases, like transitioning from a training model to apredictive one.

AMD also announced a new Radeon OpenCompute Project (ROCm) and has a variety ofdemos set up at SC16, including CUDAapplications running on AMD hardware, Power8servers with AMD FirePro GPUs, an ARM serversystem paired with the RX 460(but not based on itsown silicon), and demonstrations of ray tracing andVR support for HPC applications. The big questionfor AMD is whether this win is a one-time deal, orthe beginning of a new push into the HPC and datacenter market. This is one area where Nvidia hasestablished a clear, unambiguous lead for itself —the company has been working in GPGPU since2007, and while AMD has made some efforts toaddress these spaces, limited funds have requiredit to spend the bulk of its attention elsewhere.

Google's cloud GPU undercuts,outperforms AWS, Microsoft

infoworld.com

2016-11-16 08:30 Joel Hruska www.extremetech.com

28 /223 0.0

Here’s why you should hold offon installing Nvidia’s latestdrivers (1.03/7)

You may have noticed some new Nvidia drivers

have just popped up, but it would seem like the bestcourse of action is not to update right now, as thecompany has acknowledged a number of problemsincluding an issue which seriously messes withmemory clock speeds on certain graphics cards.

Nvidia posted a list of flaws introduced with the375.86 drivers, with the big one being that certainPascal-based cards – some GTX 1060, 1070 and1080 models – end up with their video memorybeing stuck at a clock speed of 810MHz (or aroundthere). Nasty…

There are also problems with a couple of games.Battlefield 1 running with an SLI setup might seesome display flicker and jittery menu text (an issuetrue with AMD cards as well, the company says).

And Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare also has flickeringissues with SLI, and Nvidia says it’s working withthe developer to resolve them. We’ve also seen theodd complaint of blue screen crashes beingcaused, too.

All in all, then, it’s not a great day for Nvidia, orindeed a great year. The the firm has had a rather

impressive track record with its drivers in the past,generally speaking, but that’s rapidly gone downhillin 2016 with a number of full version releaseshitting various hitches of one sort or another.

The 375.86 drivers are designed to optimizegraphics cards for Battlefield 1 and Civilization VI,along with Tom Clancy’s The Division SurvivalDLC, and Steep: Open Beta.

Hopefully they’ll be fixed up pronto, and you’ll beable to get all the good bits without the memory-related messiness or flickering fudge-ups.

Via: Neogaf forum

NVIDIA Releases 375.86 WHQLDriver update

anandtech.com

2016-11-16 08:11 By feedproxy.google.com

29 /223 1.5

Twitter launches Android TVapp for NFL streams and livevideo (1.02/7)

Twitter today introduced QR codes into its apps foriOS and Android, because not having QR codeswas Twitter’s biggest existential threat as abusiness and the main reason that no one everfollowed anyone on the service.

Before now, to follow...

Following letters from Congress requesting theFCC refrain from any “controversial” moves beforeTrump takes office and a new Congress meets, the

agency announced today that it has removed all ofthe major items from a meeting set for tomorrow.

A...

In the days leading up to and following this election,Facebook has been called lots of things — "awebsite," "an internet company," "a major player inthe media universe," "a strange new class of mediaoutlet," a "tech behemoth," a "cesspool of...

A new stick-on wearable sensor uses thesymphony of internal rumblings, whooshing,gurglings, and cracklings to help doctors diagnosedifferent conditions. And this souped-up,miniaturized stethoscope could one day be a wayfor clinicians to...

Highly anticipated Japanese RPG Persona 5 hasbeen delayed by a few months. The English versionwas originally scheduled to launch on Valentine’sDay, but is now slated for an April 4th release. (Itlaunched in Japan back in September.)

“We wanted...

President-elect Donald Trump’s chief strategistseems to think there are too many immigrantsleading Silicon Valley. Steve Bannon, whopreviously served as Breitbart News Network’sexecutive chairman, hinted at some of his views onforeign workers...

Twitter for Android TV bringsstreaming to the biggest screen in

your houseitnews.com

2016-11-16 19:02 Chaim Gartenberg www.theverge.com

30 /223 5.0

40 best PC games: the must-play titles you can't afford tomiss (1.02/7)

With the gap in graphical capabilities growing widerevery day, there's never been a better time to makethe switch from consoles to PC. Unlike consoles, aPC lets you configure your system however you

want it, on just about any given budget, completewith the best processor and graphics card to suityour specific needs.

At the moment, PC is also the only the only place toget native, no-frills 4K gaming, thanks to the latestGPU tech from Nvidia and AMD. Plus, unlike withconsoles, you get the choice between Oculus Rift orHTC Vive in order to immerse yourself in some ofthe best VR game experiences.

Whether you're on mouse and keyboard muttering"boom, headshot! " in your sleep or breakingcombos with a gamepad, PC gaming is all aboutdelivering a personalized experience on a machine

that's uniquely yours, DIY or otherwise.

So, with all the latest drivers installed, boot upSteam and ready your wallet as we've prepared alist of the best games on the platform, currentlyavailable at your disposal.

Disagree with any of our picks? Sound off in thecomments below!

In 1999, theme park simulation game RollerCoasterTycoon grew to become a phenomena – to thepoint where Sony Pictures Animation actuallybought the film rights. 17 years later, FrontierDevelopments (the studio behind RollerCoasterTycoon 3, Thrillville and Screamride) is back with anew property that appears to put the more recentRollerCoaster Tycoon games shame.

Planet Coaster revives the spirit of RollerCoasterTycoon without neglecting the franchise's need forimprovement. Designed for Windows and availableon Steam, Planet Coaster uses a modified versionof the Cobra engine used by RollerCoaster Tycoon3 and Frontier’s other flagship title Elite:Dangerous. Yes, this makes the game prettier than

ever before, but also more functional. You can now,for instance, use keyboard shortcuts to heightencustomization or even build a rollercoasterunderground.

What's more, Planet Coaster lets you downloadcreations from the community if you’re not talentedenough to build them yourself. Best of all, you don’teven need a top-end rig to run the game, even if itdoes help.

Cities: Skylines is SimCity updated for the modernera (and for those dissuaded by always-onlineDRM ), proving a breath of fresh air for would-bemayors. Its core gameplay lets you dig deep intothe various aspects of running a sprawling virtualcity - from economics to macro and micromanagement and land planning. But Cities:Skylines really shines when it comes to mods,which allow you to create custom maps, assets andtools to share with other online players.

Dragon Age: Inquisition places you in the heart of ahuge, vibrant world on a far greater scale than itspredecessors, and it does an excellent job of

making you feel in command. Packing in a huge 90hours (and the rest) of gameplay into its storyline,Inquisition's smart dialogue, compelling plot, savvyprogression system and massive sandbox worldwill have you engrossed for months on end. Thinkthe Elder Scrolls games meets the Diablo franchiseand you're halfway there.

Dragon Age: Insquisition is all about putting you inthe heart of a huge, vibrant world while somehowmanaging a far greater scale than its predecessors.The increased world size doesn't affect the amountof content, however, as there is over 90 hours ofgameplay in its storyline alone. Inquisition – with itsclever dialogue, compelling plot, savvy progressionsystem and massive sandbox world – will keep youengrossed for months on end. The Elder Scrollsmeets Diablo? Count us in.

From the makers (and universe) of World ofWarcraft, Hearthstone is easy to learn, but hard tomaster. Like the MMO its inspired by, Hearthstonecombines classes, characters and a bit of randomfortune when pitting you against eithercomputerized or online opponents. Stick with and

you'll not only be rewarded by improved skill, but byin-game rewards as well. Keep in mind that,though, that while its accessibility might lead toaddiction, don't expect to be a world-classHearthstone champion right off the bat. Practicemakes perfect, right?

Though it's arguably not as difficult as previousentries in the series, From Software's Dark Souls 3takes everything you like about the Souls seriesand combines it with elements found inBloodborne, the developer's more recent game forPS4.

Don't get us wrong -- Dark Souls 3 is no walk in thepark. It still takes skill to master its complex combatsystem, but it plays fair too, inviting more casualgamers to take part in its bleak, fantastical world.Plus, on the bright side, it brings remarkably betterPC optimization than that of the first game.

Pillars of Eternity is a sprawling RPG in the vein ofBaldaur's Gate or Icewind Dale that combineshighly detailed technical combat with hundreds ofhours of gameplay. It has refreshingly low system

requirements on the PC but still looks incrediblethanks to its simple but effective art style, whichharks back to those aforementioned isometricfantasy RPGs of the 2000s. But it's not all aboutnostalgia: Pillars of Eternity has enough interestingcharacters, baddies and clever writing to make it amodern classic of its own.

Grand Theft Auto V is one of the most anticipatedconsole ports to ever hit the PC. You probably didn'tneed telling twice to head back into Los Santos'shugely detailed and interactive world, but it's tentimes more fun with the PC's richer graphics andsmooth 60 frames per second gameplay. Onceyou're done with its 31-hour storyline or had your fillblazing around the city causing chaos, an everexpanding list of GTA V mods - from fine tuning carsor throwing vehicles around with a Gravity Gun -are bound to keep you entertained for some time.

BioShock is a first-person shooter that takesconcepts from Ayn Rand's Atlast Shrugged andtosses them underseas. To be exact, BioShocktakes place in an underwater city called Rapture,free from government regulation, designed for

artists and entrepreneurs to thrive. Of course, not allgoes well in a city where the residents have all thepower and, well, stop what you're doing and play itright now if you haven't already.

You're in for one of the great games if you playBioShock, one that balances story elements withhorror nigh-perfectly. There's a remastered versionout there now, too, which is free of charge if youown the original.

Set 15 years after the events of the first Alien filmfrom 1979, Alien: Isolation is the suspense-packedgame that fans of the franchise have been cryingout for. Playing the role of Amanda Ripley, daughterof Alien protagonist Ellen Ripley, your mission is totrack down and recover the flight recorder of theNostromo spacecraft from the first Alien film whichhas been located aboard the Sevastopol spacestation. First and foremost a stealth game, Isolationramps up the tension by providing you with minimalweaponry. Its excellent graphics shine on high-endPCs and clever AI helps ramp up the dread, leavingyou to quiver when turning every corner.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive remains a fantasticupdate to a timeless classic that continues to live onthanks to its vast online communities. A well-rounded tactical shooter that builds on the simpleTerrorists vs Counter-Terrorists gameplaymechanics of Counter-Strike 1.6 and Counter-Strike: Source, CS: GO updates classic maps suchas Italy and Dust while keeping adding new modesin Arms Race and Demolition. Simpler thanBattlefield but more nuanced than the Call of Dutyfranchise, 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 mostbeautiful outing yet. Its graphically-rich world is eye-popping on high-end PCs, and you'll see plenty of itthanks to a 30+ hour-long campaign. Aside from themain campaign, there are plenty of things to do inKyrat - from hostage rescue and assassinationmissions to escort quests, resource collecting and,of course, avoiding being killed by bullets orrampaging animals. Whether you're tearing acrossthe savanna in a rickety car or slinging grenadesaround like tennis balls, survival has never beensuch a blast.

FTL (Faster Than Light) puts you command ofrunning a spaceship and looking after its crew.Featuring a complex game mechanism thatinvolves maintaining weapons, engines, shieldsand other areas, in addition to tactical combat, FTLcan get extremely in-depth over time. Whetheryou're ordering your crew to quite literally put outfires on deck in the heat of battle, or are navigatingthrough 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 withuntold depth and scary levels of addictiveness.

A 90s classic brought back to life (unlike its mainprotagonist), Grim Fandango Remastered is asuccessful attempt at reviving one of the PC's bestadventure games of all time. Combining writing thatmatches the funniest dark comedies with cleverpuzzles and a still-impressive art style, GrimFandango was the most entertaining work of art totake place in a Mexican setting for years untilBreaking Bad came along. Now with updatedgraphics, sound and better controls, MannaCalavera's adventure has never looked so good.

Four years after its initial release, Skyrim is goingas strong as ever thanks to a vast selection of modsand high-resolution texture packs. Even if you'reonly interested in playing the vanilla version of theRPG, it offers more than 100 hours of gameplay.

Throw in three action packs DLC expansion packs(Dawnguard, Hearthfire and Dragonborn), and itlasts even longer. That Skyrim has been comparedto graphically superior but similar RPG blockbusterThe Witcher 3 is testament to its enduringpopularity. Step into Skyrim and you too can be anadventurer - just try not to take an arrow in the knee.Originally launched as an Arma II mod, DayZ is astandalone zombie shooter with a difference. Notonly do you have to mind the undead whenwandering around its sprawling maps, but otheronline players too. Armed with a lead pipe andcarrying nothing but a backpack and a flashlight,you'll need wits and guile to survive.

Pretty much the opposite of adrenaline-packedzombie fests such as Left4Dead, you'll spent half ofthe time evading the undead and the other using ashovel to fend off any humans who are bent on

trying to steal your last box of matches. And take itfrom us - they will try.

The phrase "build it, and they will come" quiteliterally rings true when it comes to Minecraft, thegame that has been bought by more than 19 millionpeople. The survival-themed sandbox RPG letsplayers build their own worlds or explore others,using the game's multiple block types to constructanything from small huts to extravagant castles andbeyond.

Minecraft's ultimate appeal revolves around itsopen-ended nature. Creative types can build anddestroy to their hearts' content, while solo playerscan concentrate on not being eaten by the zombiehordes that emerge at night. A modern-day classicthat has spawned its own genre, it's not to bemissed.

The Orange Box may be showing its age, but itremains a must-play collection of games -particularly for FPS fans. Half-Life 2, technically stillthe 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 firstgame to intelligently apply physics to its puzzlesand combat set-pieces.

The collection's other titles aren't too shabby either:Portal takes gravity-based puzzles to the extremeby equipping the player with the Aperture ScienceHandheld Portal Device (also known as the PortalGun), which places two portals for objects to passthrough, while Team Fortress 2 continues to gofrom strength-to-strength thanks to the introductionof custom gear and well-balanced team combat.

Gorgeous graphics? Check. Huge explorableenvironments? Check. Enthralling combat? Ofcourse. The Witcher 3 stands tall as one of the mostambitious open-world RPGs yet, combiningSkyrim's unrestrained epicness with Grand TheftAuto 5's scale. While the game has been criticisedfor its inventory niggles, less-than-enthralling plotand not quite matching the graphics shown in itspromo materials, it's so ambitious and jam-packedwith detail that the package lives up to the hype.Huge, beautiful and an absolute time-sink, you'llwant to scour every inch of The Witcher 3's glorious

world.

Id Software's Doom was a phenomena for PCgamers in the 90s. The crudely rendered first-person shooter series was as controversial as itwas beloved, largely thanks to its cutting-edgedepictions of gore and violence that only acomputer could deliver. Parents be damned, thefranchise has made a comeback in 2016 with afresh restart, appropriately titled Doom. Althoughthe multiplayer might not appeal to shooter fansregardless of age, the single player campaign willpit you against demons in Hell for a lengthyexperience that's as bloody as it is satisfying.

Project CARS is a racing simulator that guns forrealism without leaving excitement back in the pitstop, as some racers tend to do. Slightly MadStudios' graphically-stunning title has enough carcustomisation and handling options to keep thekeenest of petrol heads happy. Car types on showrange from F1 to road, retro, kart, Le Mans, GT andmore. Throw in realistic weather effects and drivingassistance by Le Mans driver Ben Collins - formerlyBBC Top Gear's Stig - and the smell of burning

rubber will be floating up your nostrils in no time.

Modelled after the 1984 game Elite, Elite:Dangerous is one of the most ambitious space simsaround. Featuring an in-game galaxy based on thereal Milky Way (how's 400 billion stars for depth?),the ultimate goal is to advance your rankings toElite status by levelling up combat, trading andexploration.

Starting out with a rickety ship and 1,000 credits inyour space suit's back pocket, you'll need to turn topiracy, trading, exploring, mining or bounty huntingto rise through the intergalactic ranks. Doing sotakes time and requires serious graft, but theexperience provides a level of satisfaction that fewother titles can match. And then there's the OculusRift...

From developer Playdead, the same team thatdevised the acclaimed (and platform ubiquitous)Limbo, comes another eerie tale. Like Limbo, Insidefollows another nameless boy in a bleak worldthat's apparently out to get you. Only, this time,there's at least a few shades of color to keep you

from complete despair. It's not clear why, but themute protagonist in Inside is being chased down bywhat appears to a group of shadowy men.

Nothing is explained in either spoken dialogue ortext, so for the most part you're on your own when itcomes to figuring out the story. Nonetheless, Insideis bound to be an instant classic; although,revealing anything about it would inch into spoilerterritory.

Described as "achingly beautiful" by Unity Engineboss John Riccitiello, Ori and the Blind Forestborrows its game mechanics from old-school 2Dgames such as Metroid and Castlevania whileadding a modern twist. If any word can describeOri's atmospheric world, it's alive. You'll have tothink fast and use new abilities gained along theway to bash, stop and manoeuvre your way throughits gorgeous locations, and with no automaticsaving system or easy difficulty level, it's no walk inthe park. As satisfying to master as it is to look at,Ori and the Blind Forest will re-open your eyes towhat 2D games still have to offer.

Grow Home is an experimental PC platformer thatlooks like an "indie" game but is in fact the latestrelease from Rayman developer Ubisoft. Similarlycharming thanks to its distinctive 3D art style, youplay as BUD, the game's robot protagonist, whosemain job is harvest seeds and grow a beanstalk-like 'Star Plant' by grabbing its branches andconnecting them to nearby floating islands in thesky.

There's a fair bit of trial-and-error involved, andwhile having to climb all the way back up againafter a fall is frustrating, grabbing a passing vine atthe last minute by the tips of your fingers can beequally as exhilarating. The ability to move BUD'sarms and legs independently helps put you incontrol - just try not to get them tangled up. Becauseyou will - a lot.

A 2D exploration game set on a boat can't be thatcreepy, right? Wrong. More gothic than a Cradle ofFilth concert, Sunless Sea throws all manners ofjoyless themes your way: death, insanity andcannibalism to name a few. Sailing from port-to-portin the monster-filled underworld of Fallen London,

you'll have to manage fuel and supplies whilebattling sentient icebergs, Zee-beasts and otherwater-dwelling nasties to remain afloat. Top-notchwriting gives Sunless Sea an absorbing storylinethat's up there with history's best text-basedadventures.

Already familiar to millions before they've played aplayed a second of it, Rocket League turns the ageold game of football (or soccer, depending) on itshead. Played with rocket-propelled cars in futuristiclow-gravity environments, the aim is simple: knockthe ball into the opposing team's goal. Doing so isharder said than done because there could be upto three cars on the opposing team trying to stealthe ball off you - or ram you into submission - at anyone time. Gorgeous to look, simple to learn butdifficult to master, Rocket League is the surprisesmash hit of 2015 - and a wonderfully addictive oneat 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 BattleArena) game in June. Featuring a ton of charactersfrom Blizzard games such as Warcraft, World ofWarcraft and Starcraft 2, Heroes of the Storm seestwo teams of five attempt to destroy the other'sbase. When not sounding out enemy units todestroy, its expansive maps give you room to takeon secondary objectives such as finding skulls orunlocking special siege units to help your team.

Accessible to newcomers while packing plenty ofdepth, Heroes' finely balanced gameplaymechanics, shorter matches (compared to Leagueof Legends) and ability-based levelling systemmake it a refreshing alternative to establishedMOBA titles and a fine game in its own right.

The new Metal Gear, which is likely Hideo Kojima'sfinal game in the series, is a hugely ambitious title.Its massive open world setting lets you tacklemissions using stealth, but it won't punish you forgoing in guns blazing - which is often the mosttempting option.

Set nine years after the events of Ground Zeroes,

The Phantom Pain's story unravels through its mainmissions and more than 100 Side Ops tasks. Theaction is interspersed with gorgeous cutscenes,and while you sometimes have to decode annoyingmilitary-babble to understand what's going on,TPP's fast pacing and gorgeous Afghanistansettings never make the game feel like a chore.

A gripping horror game in the vein of Amnesia: TheDark Descent (it's from the same developer), SOMAhas its fair share of "NOPE! " moments. But it's notreally about jump scares; the game's mostcompelling aspect is its philosophical story arc,which unravels as you encounter a series ofconfused robots. Suffering from existential stress,the decaying machines believe they are human.

The tension builds as you venture deeper into theunderwater research facility that you wake upaboard, avoiding murderous creatures, solvingclever puzzles and checking voice memos tounravel the mystery. Expertly weaving elements ofsurvival and psychological Sci-Fi horror, SOMA is alittle less action packed than Alien: Isolation butengages more of the old grey matter. If that's what

you're looking for in a fright-fest, SOMA doesn'tdisappoint.

if you think you've learnt a thing or two about prisonlife watching films like The Green Mile and TheShawshank Redemption over the years, cuff-em-upPrison Architect lets you put your knowledge to thetest. Playing as wardens, you're tasked withkeeping prisoners in check, preventing riots fromboiling over and foiling The Great Escape-styleplots. And yes: it does involve sending men to theelectric chair. Gnarly. Alternatively, a second modecalled Escape lets you unleash your inner Bronsonby hatching a plot to lead your fellow inmates tofreedom. (Until you get arrested again, anyway.)

Five heroes, many Skaven. That's the basicpremise of Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide, ahack-and-slash fest that plays - and feels - a lot likeValve's Left 4 Dead series. With a deep focus onco-operative gameplay, Vermintide's melee-focused combat, random loot, level-basedprogression system and humanoid rat enemiesmake for a refreshing alternative to gunning downendless hordes of zombies.

Although it's fun attempting to talk tactics over voicechat with players online, Vermintide is often toochaotic to try anything other than bashing orshooting the nearest Skaven between the eyes —and that's fine — from giant Ogre Rats to stealthGutter Runners, there's enough variation to keepthings interesting. And if you do start to get getbored, unlike the Skaven, ratcheting up the difficultymakes sure Vermintide won't get long in the toothany time soon.

It's official: Fallout 4 has lived up to the hype.Despite feeling a little bit like Fallout 3 but with nicergraphics at times, its tighter shooting, in-depthcrafting system and well-thought out story make it awholly more enticing affair.

As the Sole Survivor (the first fully-voicedprotagonist 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 mininuke cannon and the fusion cell-powered LaserMusket.

If the Call of Duty series is the poison that dumbeddown the FPS genre with its run-and-gungameplay, then Rainbow Six: Siege is the antidote.Working as a team to out-wit the enemy, Siegeplays out like a thinking man (or woman's) Counter-Strike that doesn't simply encourage cooperation ifyou want to win - it requires it.

When you're not peering down your gun's ironsights, you'll be laying traps, scouting ahead usingdrones, strategising with your teammates andbuilding walls that could keep a herd of dementedbulls at bay. While Siege's heavy reliance ontactical team-based gameplay can prove its biggestweakness if you're hoisted into a server with aparticularly uncooperative bunch, when it doesclick, it provides a level of satisfaction rarely foundin online multiplayer games.

"Console port" is no longer a dirty phrase thanks toefforts like Rise of the Tomb Raider , which gets thetreatment it deserves on PC. Featuring stunningand varied locations, exciting combat and effectivestealth mechanics, Lara's epic outing often feelsmovie-like in its execution and scope.

Crystal Dynamics has kept the soul of the originalgames intact too – there's pistols aplenty, amazingarchitecture and angry animals that would quite liketo gobble you up – meaning you'll never get boredonce you've soaked up Siberia's amazingarchitecture. If you're into adventures, it's easily oneof the best PC games around.

After Microsoft acquired the rights to the Gears ofWar franchise in 2014, it came as no surprise that afull-fledged sequel would be making its way toXbox. What we didn't see coming, however, was acomplete remake of the first game developed fromthe ground up for both Microsoft's console andWindows 10.

Featuring over 3,000 original art assets, revampedmotion capture and a refined control scheme, theoriginal Gears of War is only bettered by itsadoption of DirectX 12 and support for resolutionsup to 4K. If you ever wondered where to start in thiscritically-acclaimed third-person cover shooterseries, look no further than Gears of War: UltimateEdition available on the Windows Store.

Picking up two years after the events of Deus Ex:Human Revolution, released back in 2011,Mankind Divided centers once again around thestory's protagonist Adam Jensen who is nowoutfitted with augmentations that allow him to turninvisible, punch through walls and hack stuff.

Like a more refined Watch Dogs, Deus Ex: MankindDivided proposes a strikingly realistic cyberpunkalternate reality, but doesn't go so far as to make astatement about it. Fortunately, the savory (andstealthy) gameplay makes Deus Ex: MankindDivided's campaign well worth the 30 hourcampaign. For more insight, you can read ourreview here.

Originally created as an entry to the 7 Day FPSChallenge, Superhot's Polish developers wereinspired by a top-down game called Time4Catwhere time only moves when the player does. Theytook this concept one step further and turned it intoa FPS. Falling somewhere between Portal and MaxPayne, nifty reflexes, patience and an eye forpuzzle solving is required.

The aim is to defeat a finite number of enemies bydodging bullets and returning a few yourself. Thegame is now available to buy and download onSteam, but you can head back to where it all beganby playing the flash version of Superhot online forfree. You'll need the Unity Web Player plugin whichis currently not supported by Chrome.

X-Com 2 is one addictive game, and we still can'tput it down. Following up from 2012's XCOM:Enemy Unknown, which reimagined the 1994 cultclassic UFO: Enemy Unknown, XCOM 2 hasdelivered everything we wanted in a sequel.Bigger, deeper, faster and even easier on the eyes,the turn-based tactics game takes place 20 yearsafter its predecessor.

It pits you in control of the Avenger, a convertedalien ship that serves as your mobile base ofoperations used to devise strategy and executefight plans against otherworldly enemies. With agreater focus of stealth, more intelligent alien AIand deeper customization options, XCOM 2 isbound to end up one of our games of the year.

Battleborn is the product of a recent influx of "heroshooter" games. Down to the basics, this means inthe case of Borderlands developer Gearbox's latesthit, you get to choose between 25 characters eachresonating with one of five factions.

The heroes range from hulking giants like ElDragón, who body slam their way to victory, to long-range snipers like Marquis. Unlike Borderlands,Battleborn is all about its three competitivemultiplayer modes, although there's a single-player/co-op-driven story mode to boot.

Anyone familiar with World of Warcraft knows thatit's among the most successful and influentialmassively multiplayer online role-playing games (orMMORPGs) of all-time. Comprising over 12 years ofcontent, with over thousands of hours just waiting tobe invested, there are few better games to spendyour money on than World of Warcraft.

With the new expansion pack, however, dubbed"Legion," you'll not only get access to an entirelynew continent, but Blizzard has completelyoverturned its leveling system as well. Instead of

each zone having a predetermined level, zonesactually adapt dynamically to the level of yourcharacter. This way, no matter where you are in thegame, you'll be able to incur new challengeswithout the endless grinding required by the Worldof Warcraft of yesteryear.

Obduction revives the instruction- and UI-lessexploration of Myst and adapts it to the 21st century,converging inspiration from the more recent trend of"walking simulators" like Firewatch and Everybody'sGone to the Rapture with contemporary puzzlegames such as Jonathan Blow's The Witness.

Hence the name, Obduction features overlyingthemes of science fiction and intentionalmisspellings. Be warned that you may need to jotdown a few notes to solve puzzles, and if you wantan authentic reproduction of how it would havebeen playing Myst in the 90s, refrain from usingonline walkthroughs as a bonus challenge. No, youwon't rack up achievements that way, but thosedidn't exist back then either.

Consider the PS4 Pro before you buythat expensive gaming PC

theverge.com

2016-11-16 18:05 Kane Fulton feedproxy.google.com

31 /223 2.4

Boom Technologies unveils itsnew supersonic jet prototype

(1.02/7)

Back in the late 1960s, British and French airlines

formed an alliance to build a new, supersonicpassenger jet. It would cruise above Mach 2 and flyfrom New York to London in 3.5 hours, comparedwith eight hours for conventional aircraft. Rising fuelprices, incredibly high operation costs, and limitedroutes all combined to make the Concorde difficultto operate, and the aircraft eventually retired in2003. For the past 13 years, we’ve had nosupersonic jets in-service with any airline — butBoom Technologies is hoping to change that. Thecompany has been working on a new supersonicprototype design that would dramatically cutoperating costs and improve efficiency, whilereducing the sonic boom noise that got supersoniccraft banned from overland flights decades ago. Iftheir plan works, we could see a new wave of high-speed jets as early as 2020.

The XB-1 Supersonic Demonstrator (nicknamed the“Baby Boom”) is a one-third scale model of the finalaircraft. The two variants are shown below — thefirst is the prototype, while the lower, larger aircraftis the planned full-size model, with room for up to45 passengers (the Concorde could carry between92 – 128 passengers). The XB-1 is said to be

capable of cruising 10% faster than the Concorde,at Mach 2.2, and could reach London in a bit overthree hours, or fly from Los Angeles to Sydney in 6hours, 45 minutes as opposed to the 15+ hours itcurrently takes.

Vox has published an explainer delving into thehistory of the Concorde and how we might improveon supersonic designs compared with that aircraft.Computer modeling, material advances, and vastlymore efficient jet engines will all have asignificant impact on the vehicle’s operating costsand fuel consumption, while improvements to theaircraft’s design can be used to minimize the soundof sonic booms. The FAA banned the originalConcorde from making overland flights because thesonic booms it created could be in excess of 135decibels — as loud as a jet engine taking off from100 feet away. NASA is working on designs thatcould cut the sound level down to 70 – 79 decibels,and while that’s still loud, it’s equivalent to a carpassing nearby, not a jet engine running at fullblast. For now, Boom Technologies is only planningover-water demonstrations, but if NASA can solvethe sonic boom problem with its own ongoing X-

plane research, it would give the supersonicindustry far more available routes.

We don’t know much about the XB-1’s proposedfuel efficiency or specific design, but Blake Scholl,Boom’s founder, believes he can cut fuelconsumption by 30% compared with the Concorde.The XB-1’s smaller size also means it couldtheoretically be less sensitive to demand drops.One of the reasons the Concorde wasn’t alwaysprofitable is because its operators had difficultyfilling seats on the aircraft. The Concorde alsoburned an average of 8x more fuel per passengermile than its competition of the day.

This efficiency gap could be the hardest issue tosolve and may ultimately limit the XB-1’susefulness. Improving the Concorde’s fuelefficiency by 30% would be an impressive gain, butit would still make the plane far more expensivethan its modern competitors. With just 44passengers on-board, the aircraft’s ticket pricewould be extremely sensitive to fuel prices. IfBoeing has to pay 5% more for fuel, it can spreadthat cost over the 200-400 passengers on any

given long-haul commercial flight. At $5,000 a seat,the XB-1 is already far more expensive than aconventional trip. While the difference isundoubtedly worth it for certain people, whetherthere’s enough of them to justify a major buildingeffort is another question.

CA Technologies Unveils NewDevOps, SaaS, Mainframe Tools

eweek.com

2016-11-16 17:51 Joel Hruska www.extremetech.com

32 /223 2.1

LinkedIn's CEO really lovesSnap's Spectacles

(1.02/7)

Jeff Weiner, the CEO of LinkedIn, is very impressedwith Snap's Spectacles and the way they've beenlaunched through vending machines that appear inlocations for a limited time.

The Spectacles are picture-taking sunglasses thatcost US$130 and interface with Snapchat.

Weiner said he's tried a pair after a friend broughtback several pairs from a vending machine thatwas setup in Big Sur, California, over the weekend.

"I think it’s pretty impressive to see what [Snap CEOEvan Spiegel] has done with that," he said onTuesday, speaking at the Code Enterpriseconference in San Francisco.

Weiner praised Spiegel for turning Snapchat from asimple messaging service into what is increasingly

a mainstream media play. Then, along came theglasses.

"To introduce a hardware product, having neverdeveloped a hardware product, and to do ahardware product that Google tried and a lot of folksrejected by virtue of certain elements of it, I thinkhe’s been incredibly thoughtful," said Weiner.

The LinkedIn CEO was on stage to talk about hiscompany but prompted to speak about the glassesafter a backstage conversation. He praised thevending machines being used to sell them.

They appear with no warning in locations for alimited time and then are moved somewhere else.

"Rather than make it some picture of the future, it isthis really playful, stylish pair of glasses, and thiswhole thing with the vending machine -- to me it feltlike a real-life 'pokestop,'" Weiner said, referring tothe real-world locations in the Pokemon Go appwhere users can collect in-game items.

"You start thinking, why hasn’t anyone else donethis given the success that Pokemon was having? "

he said.

What are Snapchat Spectacles, anddo I have to be a teen to wear them?

theverge.com

2016-11-16 17:44 Martyn Williams www.itnews.com

33 /223 0.0

Eclipse Che hits 5.0 (1.02/7)

The Eclipse Foundation’s Che Project is steppingup to version 5.0. Announced online at the virtualCheConf yesterday, Codenvy CEO Tyler Jewellgave a keynote address that discussed the featuresadded to the platform originally created by hiscompany.

Che 5.0, he said, is seeing milestone releasesevery two weeks, and is slated for completionsometime before the end of the year. Chief amongthem are Docker Store certification, expanded PHP

support, and the new Dev Mode.

Dev Mode turns Che’s server into a productionruntime. As a workspace server and IDE front endall in one, Che also has the ability to performserver-side actions based on developer needs.This now extends to production deployments, whichthe Che server is now capable of staging, injecting

with repository artifacts, and firing up SSH.

(Related: ElectricFlow focuses on containers )

Che 5.0 is also capable of vetting Dockercontainers before they are sent up to the DockerStore. This certification process allows developersto quickly push their verified content to the publiclyaccessible Docker Store.

This is also the first major update to Eclipse Chesince the announcement of support for theLanguage Server Protocol. This protocol allowslanguage supports such as syntax highlighting tobe offered as a service, rather than requiring themto be built into the IDE itself. This means an IDEwith LSP support, but without support for Java orPHP, could quickly add support for thoselanguages over the network via LSP.

Currently, PHP, Java, C# and JSON are thelanguages supported in LSP, but by the first quarterof next year, Sourcegraph is anticipating offeringLSP servers for Go, JavaScript, Python andTypeScript.

Finally, Che 5.0 will include Chedir for reproducibleworkspaces. Using this new command, developerscan quickly fire up an editor and tools in any clonedrepository. This workspace is reproducible and canbe shared with other developers.

Eclipse Che cloud IDE joins Dockerrevolution

infoworld.com

2016-11-16 16:42 Alex Handy sdtimes.com

34 /223 1.3

China to Trump: Why are youblaming us for climatechange? (1.02/7)

I have sunk a couple thousand dollars into a top-of-the-line gaming PC. After a week with the PS4 Pro,I’m beginning to regret it.

PC gaming has secured a monopoly on high-endvisuals by catering to a subset of gamers willing to

spend limitless...

Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, The Daily Showalum’s acclaimed news comedy series on TBS, hasbeen renewed through 2017. Variety reports thatthe weekly show, which regularly skewers politicsand current events with a feminist bent, was pickedup...

In the aftermath of a US presidential election thatseemed to shock at least half the country, manyAmericans are asking themselves how they missedthe popularity of Donald Trump. One answer is aconcept known as the filter bubble: the idea that...

If you’re a fan of artist and designer Ash Thorp,

there’s a good chance you’ve heard him talk about“Lost Boy,” a personal project that looked to blendtogether elements of Akira and Mad Max into somekind of new sci-fi universe. Well, now that...

Fitbit is trying to drum up its appeal to video gamersby adding in-game rewards for those who use itswearable. The fitness tracking company hasannounced an integration with the game NBA2K17, which enables gamers to receive a small in-game...

We all have our own horror stories about rushing tofind a public restroom, but in India, it’s more thanjust locating a toilet — it’s finding one that’s alsoclean enough to use. Roughly 70 percent of Indianhouseholds don’t have access to...

Will Trump let China beat the U.S. insupercomputing?infoworld.com

2016-11-16 15:15 Alessandra Potenza www.theverge.com

35 /223 1.2

Pluto flipped over its ownslushy heart (1.02/7)

A cross-section of Pluto's Sputnik Planitia, showinga subsurface ocean and icy crust nearer thesurface.

Pluto is cold-hearted, but it might not be frozen solidlike we assumed for generations.

New data from NASA's New Horizons missionindicates that an ocean of water and slushy ice liesbeneath the heart-shaped Tombaugh Regio featureon the distant dwarf planet.

The notion of a hidden subsurface ocean on Plutoisn't new, but the research published Wednesday inthe journal Nature suggests that its chilled hearthas been a driving force in shaping the far-off worldand its history.

Researchers propose that Sputnik Planitia, a 1,000-kilometer wide basin within the iconic heart-shapedregion, came to its present location because abuild-up of ice threw Pluto's rotation off kilterenough that the entire thing actually rolled over.They compare the process to a spinning top with awad of gum stuck to it.

"Each time Pluto goes around the Sun, a bit ofnitrogen accumulates in the heart," said Universityof Arizona doctoral student James Keane, whoauthored the research, in a release. "Once enoughice has piled up, maybe a hundred meters thick, itstarts to overwhelm the planet's shape, which

dictates the planet's orientation. And if you have anexcess of mass in one spot on the planet, it wants togo to the equator. Eventually, over millions of years,it will drag the whole planet over. "

Francis Nimmo, professor of Earth and planetarysciences at UC Santa Cruz and lead author of asecond paper on the origins of Sputnik Planitia ,suspects the hidden ocean consists mostly of waterand another substance like ammonia acting as anantifreeze. The slow refreezing process could alsoexplain the fractures seen on Pluto's surface in NewHorizons images.

The findings are just the latest indication from NewHorizons that Pluto is much more dynamic andinteresting than we thought.

"That the movement of volatiles and shifting icearound a planet could have a dramatic, planet-moving effect is not something anyone would havepredicted," Keane said.

If Pluto has been doing planetary gymnastics on ageologic time scale, other objects in the outer solarsystem may also be behaving in unexpected ways.

"When we look at these other objects, they may beequally interesting, not just frozen snowballs,"Nimmo said .

Pluto’s ‘icy heart’ may have tilted thedwarf planet overtheverge.com

2016-11-16 15:07 by www.cnet.com

36 /223 1.1

Why Facebook, Google,LinkedIn and Slack tackle theenterprise differently

(1.02/7)

SAN FRANCISCO — Today's workforce uses agrowing arsenal of tools to achieve variousbusiness objectives, and some of the biggestcompanies in technology are battling to ensurecompanies use their tools in the enterprise. Duringyesterday's Code Enterprise conference,

executives from Facebook, Google, LinkedIn andSlack shared visions for the future of enterprise techand spotlighted differences in their scopes andstrategies.

The four companies approach business fromdifferent backgrounds and with separate strengthsand objectives. The distinctions between themreflect their respective views on the future of workand the extent to which productivity, collaborationand communication should be blended.

Workplace by Facebook, the company's month-oldsocial network for business, is a "communications

platform that is intended to help organizations workbetter," said Monica Adractas, director and head ofWorkplace in the Americas.

Workplace targets businesses of all sizes andsectors, but the company also aims to land dealswith major players in government, banking andother highly regulated industries, according toAdractas. Singapore earlier this month said its143,000 government employees will use theplatform by March, making it the first civil service touse Workplace.

Workplace is a separate and redesigned form ofFacebook that aims to gain the same levels ofloyalty and engagement as the consumer version,said Julien Codorniou, director and global head ofWorkplace. Workplace contends with internal emailand other forums businesses use to communicatewith their employees. "We compete withtechnologies and tools that have been in place for20 years in the sector that nobody is really excitedabout," Codorniou said.

Facebook knows there's a big opportunity in the

enterprise, but first it's focusing on adoption andretention, according to Codorniou. "We need to bethe app that people actually use," he said. "An appthat people love to use, an app you go back toevery day … Yammer sold itself as the Facebook ofthe enterprise. We actually want to be the Facebookof the enterprise. "

Unlike Facebook, Google wants to provide muchmore than a mere communications channel or suiteof productivity tools for business. The technologygiant is transforming its enterprise division to focuson cloud-based infrastructure, data and machinelearning. "There is a lot of work to do," said DianeGreene, senior vice president at Google. "We've allnever worked so hard in our lives. "

Google wants to help companies re-architect andmodernize their applications with data analyticsand machine learning, she said. "There's probablynot a dataset that would not produce a valuableinsight with machine learning. "

Green said Google now competes directly withAmazon and Microsoft, though for different reasons.

Many developers are comfortable with Amazonbecause of their history and familiarity with AmazonWeb Services (AWS), but Microsoft has atremendous legacy and footprint in enterprise, shesaid.

Google did a lot of regulatory compliance workduring the last year, which Greene calls "tablestakes for the enterprise," but it needs to elevate itssales and marketing efforts, she said. The companymust also address concerns businesses haveabout the handling of their proprietary data. "Whenwe get customers' data, it's their data, it's veryprecious data," she said.

Forging relationships with enterprise customers,particularly those that can have the greatestpositive impact, is a key component of Google'sstrategy, as well, Greene said.

Microsoft is in the final stages of its $26.2 billionacquisition of LinkedIn, a company that has well-established relationships with businesses andworking professionals that set it apart from the pack,according to its CEO Jeff Weiner. LinkedIn needs

Microsoft's resources to continue to connectworking individuals and make them moresuccessful in their careers, he said.

"We're essentially doing the same thing but comingat it from different perspectives," Weiner said of theLinkedIn and Microsoft conglomerate. "We canprovide a social fabric within Microsoft's stack andto over a billion customers … and Microsoft hasalways had the ability to reach those customerswith productivity tools that create value. "

The soon-to-be-joined companies are in an"intense competitive landscape" that is exacerbatedby technology that has rendered some jobsobsolete, or at least outdated, according to Weiner."I think it's really important … that we're thinkingabout folks that are going to be displaced," he said."We can do a better job through technology. "

Finally, there's Slack, a startup darling and one oftech's young elite, which finds itself on a collisioncourse with much larger, established companies.April Underwood, vice president of product at Slack,said the company wasn't surprised when Microsoft

Teams , a chat-based workspace that borrowsheavily from Slack's design and user experience,was announced earlier this month. Microsoft'srenewed interest in the market is both "flattering"and a "little scary" because of all the resources itbrings to the table, Underwood said. "We ultimatelyreally feel that this is going to bring more attentionto the category … We believe there's enough roomin the market for more than one player. "

Slack is "for groups of people with a sharedpurpose," and it empowers professionals to dofocused work and increase productivity,Underwood said. Today that's mostly limited topeople who work for the same company, but Slackcould also extend its platform to other people whoshare a common purpose but not a commonemployer.

Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and Slack takedifferent approaches to enterprise out of necessityand due to their respective strengths andweaknesses.

Workplace strives to be the same comforting,

familiar and popular app that 1.18 billion peopleuse every day to communicate and share — but forbusinesspeople. Google is spreading deeper intothe enterprise through major investments in cloudcomputing, machine learning and a renewed focuson the productivity tools in its G Suite. LinkedInwants to expand its reach, and become the sociallayer and common identity across it and Microsoft'sproducts. Slack, the smallest and least restrictedplayer in the group, hopes greater competition willfuel its growth in a more nimble way that largeincumbents simply can't match.

These companies are different on almost everylevel, so it's only fitting that their strategies inenterprise vary accordingly. But all fourorganizations have one thing in common: They aimto make lots of waves in the business world.

Maybe Facebook, Google just needto stop calling fake news "news"

cnet.com

2016-11-16 14:44 Matt Kapko www.itnews.com

37 /223 2.7

Pokémon Sun and Moon arethe perfect getaway

(1.02/7)

Fitbit is trying to drum up its appeal to video gamersby adding in-game rewards for those who use itswearable. The fitness tracking company hasannounced an integration with the game NBA2K17, which enables gamers to receive a small in-game...

We all have our own horror stories about rushing to

find a public restroom, but in India, it’s more thanjust locating a toilet — it’s finding one that’s alsoclean enough to use. Roughly 70 percent of Indianhouseholds don’t have access to...

I’m just recovering from food poisoning likelycaused by bad sushi. So right now, I hate fish —can’t even think of them without gagging. Of coursethis is when I stumbled upon these horrifying videosof thousands of silver bunker fish jiggling...

Pluto’s most iconic feature — its “icy heart” — mayhave been responsible for tipping the dwarf planetover. Scientists believe the 600-mile-wide region offrozen plains known as Sputnik Planitia gainedenough mass over the years, causing Pluto to...

One week after the election, President-electTrump’s White House staff is still being formed, butone familiar name has already surfaced: PeterThiel. The PayPal co-founder has become one ofthe most controversial figures in Silicon Valley,thanks...

United is introducing basic economy, a cheaper —and worse — fare class below economy. First

spotted by The Points Guy, the new offering gets ridof seat assignments and elite-qualifying miles,forbids paid upgrades and flight changes, andbans...

Pokemon Sun and Moon Reviewfeedproxy.google.com

2016-11-16 14:29 Andrew Webster www.theverge.com

38 /223 0.0

US lawmakers balk at call forIoT security regulations

(1.02/7)

The U. S. government needs to pass regulationsmandating internet of things security measuresbefore device vulnerabilities start killing people, asecurity expert told lawmakers.

A massive distributed denial-of-service attack aidedby IoT devices in October “was benign” because a

couple of websites crashed, said Bruce Schneier, aveteran cybersecurity researcher and lecturer atHarvard University. But the next attack may be moredangerous.

With cars, airplanes, thermostats, and appliancesnow connected to the internet, “there’s real risk tolife and property, real catastrophic risk,” Schneiertold two House of Representatives subcommittees Wednesday.

While some Republican committee members

questioned the need for IoT security regulations,Schneier suggested that sellers and customers ofIoT devices have little reason to fix them without apush.

Many IoT devices are low-profit products with littlesecurity built in, no easy avenue to patchvulnerabilities, and no way for customers to knowtheir devices are compromised, he and otherexperts said. And while users replace smartphonesevery 18 months, a compromised DVR may beused for five years, a car for 10, and a thermostatmay be replaced “approximately never,” Schneiersaid.

This leads to a market failure where regulation isneeded, he said. “The market really can’t fixthis,” Schneier added. “Buyer and seller don’t care.”Schneier’s call for IoT regulations is likely to meetresistance in the Republican-controlled Congress,however. Regulations aren’t completely off thetable, but they would be a “knee-jerk reaction” torecent attacks, said Representative Greg Walden,an Oregon Republican. “The United States cannotregulate the world.”

Many IoT devices are manufactured overseas,Walden noted, and U. S. regulations can’t mandatetheir security measures.

In addition, regulations could limit innovation fromU. S. IoT companies and hurt the nation’s chancesto be a world leader in the IoT industry, Waldensaid. “We don’t want this to be an innovation killer,”he added. “I don’t think I want my refrigerator talkingto some food police.”

Other witnesses during Wednesday’s hearingcalled on the U. S. government to push for IoTstandards that the industry can adopt. On Tuesday,the U. S. National Institute of Standards andTechnology released updated guidance onsecuring IoT.

IoT security remains “woefully inadequate” even assecurity experts saw the problems coming,said Kevin Fu, CEO of Virta Labs and a computerscience professor at the University of Michigan. “Weare in this sorry and deteriorating state becausethere’s almost no cost for a manufacturer to deployproducts with poor cybersecurity.”

Fu called for national IoT security standards, morefederal research on IoT security, and a nationaltesting lab for devices.

The U. S. should start with standards and “applypressure” to IoT device makers, added Dale Drew,CSO for Level 3 Communications. “They can beapplied globally, and I think we can get sometraction and momentum before we start regulating.”

U.S. lawmakers balk at call for IoTsecurity regulations

computerworld.com

2016-11-16 13:40 Grant Gross www.infoworld.com

39 /223 2.9

The next versions of VisualStudio are here on Windows --and Mac (1.02/7)

Microsoft's Connect developer conference kicked

off Wednesday with some expected news: The nextversions of the Visual Studio IDE have arrived onWindows and Mac. (Yep, you read that right.)

After a set of leaks from MSDN Magazine onMonday, the company officially confirmedWednesday that it's bestowing the Visual Studiobrand on Xamarin Studio, a C# developmentenvironment for the Mac that the company acquiredearlier this year when it bought the company of thesame name. In addition, Microsoft's confusinglynamed Visual Studio "15" was officially renamedVisual Studio 2017 and given a release candidateat the show.

Microsoft also launched Visual Studio MobileCenter, a portal for developers to access a suite ofservices all aimed at making it easier to createmobile apps.

The moves are part of Microsoft's ongoing push toexpand the reach of its developer tools andimprove their capabilities. The C# programminglanguage and. NET frameworks are widely used,but also compete with a wide variety of otherprogramming tools. By expanding the capabilitiesavailable to developers who already know thosetools, Microsoft is making them more relevant.

The Visual Studio for Mac rebranding doesn'tconfer any new features that weren't alreadyavailable in Xamarin Studio. But Microsoft sees theXamarin name as synonymous with mobiledevelopment, which is only one of the things theMac IDE is capable of. Thanks to Microsoft's opensourcing of its. NET programming framework,Visual Studio for Mac is able to access some of thesame tools and services used by the Windowsversion of Visual Studio, like the Roslyn compiler,

the MSBuild build platform and the IntelliSensecode-completion system.

It will be interesting to see how Microsoft improvesVisual Studio for Mac going forward. The companyhas typically taken a somewhat uneven approachto supporting the Mac with its Office productivitysuite, and there typically isn't feature parity betweenone version of Word and another.

It seems likely that the company won't offer thesame features on Visual Studio for Mac andWindows, but there's still some question about whatthe difference between the two platforms will be.

The Visual Studio 2017 release candidate onWindows is a sign that Microsoft thinks the nextversion of its Windows development environment isnearing completion. It's been around as VisualStudio "15" (yes, with the quotes) for about half ayear after Microsoft Build earlier this year.

On top of its desktop IDEs, Microsoft supports awide variety of different mobile developmentservices, like the Xamarin Test Cloud, which letsdevelopers see how their apps run on a wide

variety of mobile devices, and HockeyApp, a tool fordeploying beta versions of mobile apps. Thecompany is taking all of those tools and rolling themup into the Visual Studio Mobile Center.

The portal could be a boon for both developers andMicrosoft. The tech giant has acquired andlaunched a whole host of differently namedservices, all aimed at helping developers be moreproductive. Giving them a one-stop shop to find allof those tools could increase usage.

All of this news is part of a massive suite ofannouncements that the company made at itsConnect conference. Microsoft also revealed thatit's now a part of the Linux Foundation andannounced that Google joined the. NETFoundation.

The next versions of Visual Studioare here on Windows... and Mac

pcworld.com

2016-11-16 12:40 Blair Hanley www.computerworld.com

40 /223 2.9

Brexit PR: Why is Googlerehashing three-year old UKtech investment 'news'?

(1.02/7)

Google, and various outlets of the technology andwider news press, has today been carrying "news"that Google is planning to open a newheadquarters in London, creating 3,000 new jobsby 2020.

This "news" isn't actually news at all, becauseGoogle already revealed the entire project back in2013 , although back then it was going to cost£650m yet create (quite weirdly) 35,000 jobs. As aresult, Computing , The Inquirer and V3 saw novalue to our readership in covering it.

Sundar Pichai spoke to selected members of themainstream press, including the BBC, in aninterview heavily couched in a feeling that a post-Brexit Britain is still kicking, despite widespreaddoom-mongering from the "Remain" crowd.

While one strand of the announcement was a newdesign for the building compared to its scrapped2013 version, no imagery whatsoever was shownto accompany this "news".

I was pitched a volley of "reaction" quotes myselftoday, by PRs representing a number of techvendors, all assuming I'd cover these events as amatter of course.

"Huge news I'm sure you'll agree" wrote one PR,with all the confidence of a dead-cert pitch, beforeimmediately failing to catch my drift when I said we

weren't covering it.

"It's still news because of Brexit," they insisted,before calling Pichai's words a "restatement ofcommitment to invest" in the UK.

When speaking to the BBC, Pichai did at leastpartly acknowledge the investment had been put inplace much earlier than the Brexit vote (though,admittedly, after it had become Tory policy), bysaying the investment was made "taking intoconsideration" an upcoming referendum.

But in all truth, even if Google wanted to pull thehell out of the UK at this point, and not bother,would it really be able to? Having begun work on a2.4 acre site, could it just abandon the whole lot togather dust? Surely the wheels are now well inmotion for a 2018 office move, and a 2020 opening.The BBC interview went on to discuss, with Pichai,the new, post-Trump debate about "fake news" andhow cutting such dissemination through its ownchannels is "very important" to Google.

Repackaging pre-Brexit sign-offs on new UKfacilities as positive post-Brexit success stories

does not, in my opinion, chime brilliantly with acompany interested in speaking the absolute truth.

Further, a conspiracy theorist could begin askingwhose idea it was to bring up such a specific pieceof three-year-old news in interviews with largemedia outlets?

As the government continues to falter during itspreviously confident march towards Article 50, onecould surmise it could do with all the positive, bigbusiness-backed PR it can find in order to have itsway.

Can AI and 3D printing help the UKsucceed after Brexit?

itpro.co.uk

2016-11-16 12:14 Peter Gothard www.computing.co.uk

41 /223 4.7

Facebook brings Instagramand Messenger together tomake social for businesseasier (1.02/7)

Facebook , Instagram , and Messenger will all beunder the umbrella of a single app soon. Withbusinesses in mind, Facebook is integrating allthree into its Pages Manager mobile app in thecoming weeks, letting manage messages andcomments of all three platforms from one page.

Pages Manager is a free app aimed to help peoplewho manage the Facebook account of businesses.It shows you a specialized view of the pages youadministrate, helping you more quickly managecomments and posts while keeping your personalaccount separate.

With the new inbox, you'll be able to see if anyone'scommented on any of the three pages. You canrespond to inquiries and tap on the name to see theFacebook profile of the person and pastinteractions that person has had with yourbusiness. You'll also still be able to use theInstagram app separately, even if you integrate itwith Pages Manager.

Given that Messenger is already a Facebookapplication and Facebook owns Instagram , theintegration makes sense. If well implemented, itcould prove convenient for the busy socialadministrator.

Facebook’s ‘unified inbox’ will makeit easier for customers to be heard

feedproxy.google.com

2016-11-16 10:42 by www.cnet.com

42 /223 0.5

Nintendo is turning TheLegend of Zelda into anescape room game

(1.02/7)

The company behind productivity app Todoist,which lets you manage your personal and worklives with powerful to-do lists, is adding a newfeature today: an artificial intelligence-poweredscheduler. Now, when you need to set a due datefor the...

Google is switching up the emoji shortcut button onits Allo chat app. Now, instead of just bringing upthe emoji keyboard, the “Smart Smiley” button willbring up a list of suggested emoji and stickers thatare relevant to what you’re typing. For...

Google is in the middle of a big a machine learningpush right now, announcing yesterday a pair of big-

name hires as well as new product roadmap thatwill offer more AI services and support via GoogleCloud. But that’s just the business side of...

I know, I know, that headline is embarrassing. Butyou only had to read it — I had to say it out loud.See, I’m not typing this text, I’m sitting at mycomputer speaking these words...

Pulling up a low-quality image and telling thecomputer to "enhance" the resolution has longbeen the stuff of TV fantasy. But, thanks to machinelearning, we are actually getting much better atzooming into a photo without losing picturequality....

OnePlus is our reigning champion when it comes tothe best value smartphones, so why shouldn't thecompany also own the title for best valueheadphones too?

: Zelda no longer a Nintendo Switchlaunch title, delayed until Summer

2017pcadvisor.co.uk

2016-11-16 09:51 Andrew Webster www.theverge.com

43 /223 0.0

MIT's new MoVR tech cuts thecord on virtual realityheadsets (1.02/7)

BOFFINS AT THE Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology (MIT) have shown off a prototype thatthey claim will enable virtual reality (VR) headsetsto be used wirelessly.

The system, dubbed MoVR, enables untetheredcommunications at multiple gigabits per secondusing high-frequency radio signals.

The challenge of creating wireless VR headsets is

twofold: the battery adds weight and heat andrequires frequent recharging; and extremely highbandwidth is needed to convey the detailed imagesfrom the computer to the headset.

The system developed by the team at MIT'sComputer Science and Artificial IntelligenceLaboratory (CSAIL) uses special high-frequencyradio signals called millimetre waves (mmWaves),technology that may be deployed in 5Gsmartphones.

"It's very exciting to get a step closer to being ableto deliver a high-resolution, wireless VR

experience," said MIT professor Dina Katabi ,whose research group has developed thetechnology.

"The ability to use a cordless headset reallydeepens the immersive experience of VR andopens up a range of other applications. "

Researchers tested the system on an HTC Viveheadset, one of the most popular on the marketowing to its use on PCs via the Steam gamingservice , but said that it can work with any headset.

One problem with conventional wirelesstechnologies, such as WiFi, is that they cannotsupport advanced data processing.

"Replacing the HDMI cable with a wireless link isvery challenging since we need to stream high-resolution multi-view video in real time," saidHaitham Hassanieh, an assistant professor ofelectrical and computer engineering at theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, whowas not involved in the research.

"This requires sustaining data rates of more than

6Gbps while the user is moving and turning, whichcannot be achieved by any of today's systems. "

VR platforms have to work in real time, meaningthat the systems also can't use compression toaccommodate the inadequate bandwidth.

However, mmWaves technology has a number oflimitations, most notably the requirement for aconstant line of sight between transmitter andreceiver.

MoVR therefore uses what CSAIL calls"programmable mirrors" that can reconfigureautomatically to ensure that there is always a line ofsight from the computing device to the VR headset.

"With a traditional mirror, light reflects off the mirrorat the same angle as it arrives. But with MoVR,angles can be specifically programmed so that themirror receives the signal from the mmWavetransmitter and reflects it towards the headset,regardless of its actual direction," said Abari.

Each MoVR device consists of two directionalantennas that are each less than half the size of a

credit card. The antennas use what are calledphased arrays to focus signals into narrow beamsthat can be electronically steered in microseconds.

The next step is to make the devices smaller andtherefore more practical. µ

MIT develops wireless technologyfor VR headsets

computing.co.uk

2016-11-16 08:10 Graeme Burton www.theinquirer.net

44 /223 2.1

Snoopers' Charter 2.0: IP Billpassed by Parliament and willbecome law within weeks

(1.01/7)

THE INVESTIGATORY POWERS BILL (IP Bill),which has been some 10 years in the making invarious forms, has been passed by Parliament.

The so-called Snoopers' Charter was passed by theHouse of Lords today following a final debateexamining various amendments.

The Bill will therefore become law within weeks,legalising a number of secret service activities thatwere ruled unlawful only in October .

Jenny Jones, Green Party member of the House ofLords, claimed that Parliament had "given oursecurity services unprecedented powers to spy onus".

Julian Huppert, the former Liberal Democrat MPwho lost his Cambridge seat in the General

Election last year, criticised the Conservative andthe Labour parties for uniting to push it through.

The law will require internet and phone companiesto store comprehensive records of websites visitedand phone numbers called for 12 months, and toenable police, security services and multiple otherpublic sector bodies to access those records ondemand.

It will also provide the security services with thelegal power to bulk collect personalcommunications data, and give police and securityservices the explicit power to hack into, and bug,computers and smartphones. These powers willlargely require only the approval of the homesecretary.

Privacy International explained why the powers forgovernment agencies to collect "internet connectionrecords" are so far reaching.

"At the very least, they comprise a 12-month log ofwebsites visited, communications software used,system updates downloaded, desktop widgetsused, every mobile app used and logs of any other

device connecting to the internet, such as gamesconsoles, baby monitors, digital cameras and e-book readers," it warned .

Any flaws, known or unknown, could then beexploited to break into any individual's computer orsmartphone, revealing a much wider range ofinformation about people than they might otherwiserealise.

Privacy International added: "They are comparableto a compilation of call records, postal records,library records, study and research records, socialand leisure activity records and location records,and will additionally capture concerns about health,sexual and family issues.

"The agencies would be able to acquire thisintrusive, population-level data in bulk under bulkacquisition powers. "

The Investigatory Powers Act will replace section94 of the Telecommunications Act 1984, which inthe past has been used as an Enabling Actallowing a wide range of electronic surveillance byvarious arms of the state. µ

Cheap Chinese smartphones aresending text messages back to the

mainlandtheinquirer.net

DDoS 'mega-attacks' are on the rise,Akamai warns

theinquirer.net

2016-11-16 13:35 Graeme Burton www.theinquirer.net

45 /223 1.7

9 #LessNoteworthyMoviesthat are so bad, they're good

(1.00/7)

The hashtag games keep coming on Twitter. Thelatest craze: #LessNoteworthyMovies.

The game, which was gaining steam Wednesday,challenges Twitter users to switch around orreplace words in a famous movie title to change thefilm's premise to something much less interesting.

There are a few flops to be sure, but there's a lot ofcreativity here too. I collected a few of my favorites:

Yeah, that definitely takes some of the scare factorout of it.

I feel sorry for the old men, but I think they'll survive

Problem solved!

They never leave you alone about liking them onFacebook.

No point in seeing it then.

Who wants to watch a superhero movie where they

engage in a calm discussion?

I would hope so!

Sounds healthy, but not very interesting.

Okay, wait a second; wicker is pretty exciting! Yeah,no.

Got any more you want to share? Add them to thecomments!

15 tweets about what yourrefrigerator says about you

cnet.com

2016-11-16 18:41 by www.cnet.com

46 /223 1.4

Stephen Hawking sets timelimit for mankind (1.00/7)

Hawking puts a time limit on our survival.

So how long have we got to sort out this mess?

No, I'm not talking about the political system. Onlyour alien invaders can help us with that.

I'm talking about mankind itself. How long can wesurvive before we self-immolate, one way oranother?

Stephen Hawking has reportedly decided to put atime limit on our survival. Speaking at the OxfordUnion on Monday, the celebrated physicist offered

optimistic tones.

As the Independent reports , he offered praise forhuman achievement: "The fact that we humans,who are ourselves mere fundamental particles ofnature, have been able to come this close tounderstanding the laws that govern us and theuniverse is certainly a triumph. "

We have done quite well, haven't we? The sad partis, I suspect, that we think we've done better thanwe have. Our inner doofus still plagues us in manyways.

At heart, though, Hawking believes our planetsimply won't survive what we're doing to it. Whetheror not you believe global warming is real or merelya Chinese invention , the wear and tear on ourworld is clear.

Here's how long we've got according to Hawking: "Idon't think we will survive another 1,000 yearswithout escaping beyond our fragile planet. "

1,000 years seems like quite a long time to me. Somany years to repair things, or mess them up very

quickly.

In January, Hawking explained that the next 100years are the most frightening. There won't, hebelieves, be any Mars colonies before then.

Some, though, believe we'll be at least part-robot in15 years' time. So will Mars colonies matter? Won'twe all be bits of metal and plastic in 2116?

I thought that after the events of recent days andmonths, predictions had become discredited. Lastyear, for example, Hawking said we should fearcapitalism more than robots.

Might that turn out to be accurate?

On Monday, though, he told his audience that -- likeSNL's Hillary Clinton -- the most important thing fortoday's young brains was not to give up.

One way to move forward is to find out what's reallyout there in space. You could lobby the newpresident to reveal everything about Area 51, a USAir Force facility in Nevada where they sayevidence of alien life is kept in secret vaults.

Clinton promised that, if elected, she'd reveal all.Will President Donald Trump?

'Post-truth' declared word of the yearcnet.com

2016-11-16 17:12 by www.cnet.com

47 /223 0.4

New Balance official shoe ofwhite people, say neo-Nazis

(1.00/7)

From fashion statement to political statement?

I had always thought New Balance was the shoe ofrunners and nerds who have unnaturally wide feet.

It seems I may have been wrong.

It's actually the official shoe of white people whodon't like people of other colors.

At least that's where a quite deranged series ofevents seems to have left us.

It all started last Thursday when New Balance's vicepresident of public affairs, Matthew LeBretton,spoke to The Wall Street Journal about thecompany's long-held opposition to the Trans-PacificPartnership trade agreement .

"The Obama administration turned a deaf ear to us,"he said, "and frankly, with President-elect Trump wefeel things are going to move in the right direction. "

Quaintly, New Balance still makes sneakers in theUS.

Trump is against the TPP. He's been vowing tobring manufacturing back to the US from placessuch as China.

Some on social media, however, weren't in themood to hear a sneaker company supportinganything Trumpian.

"I have been wearing New Balance shoes (at$160/pair) for the past 10 years," tweeted romanceauthor Julie Brannagh. "If they support Trump, I'vebought my last pair. "

Romance tends to be cast aside when rancorawaits. Once rancor takes hold, there's no romancein reminding yourself that Hillary Clinton and BernieSanders were against TPP too.

And so people began to post videos of themselvestrashing or burning their New Balance shoes.Boston-based New Balance told its local Globenewspaper , "New Balance publicly supported the

trade positions of Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sandersand Donald Trump prior to election day thatfocused on American manufacturing job creationand we continue to support them today. "

But social media, like Fox News, wouldn't be fairand balanced without an incursion from the otherside. So up popped neo-Nazi site the Daily Stormerto declare : "Your Uniform: New Balance JustBecame the Official Shoes of White People. "

This was accompanied by a charming picture ofsometimes controversial movie star and directorMel Gibson wearing New Balance.

The storming writer suggested that "We will be ableto recognize one another by our sportswear. " I fearthat might introduce one or two Bay Area hipsters tosome difficult company.

New Balance didn't respond to a request forcomment. The company took to Twitter to say that itdoesn't tolerate bigotry or hate. It said LeBretton'scomment had been taken out of context.

A mere squint at the hashtag #NewBalance shows

rival forces gathering and blathering.

But will the brand now be co-opted as a symbol ofracial intolerance? Will it become a sort of secretMasonic handshake of those who believe white ismight is right?

Or was this just another week in social media? Lotsof fire, plenty of trashing and no progress made atall?

'Post-truth' declared word of the yearcnet.com

2016-11-16 16:00 by www.cnet.com

48 /223 2.3

A White House position couldcost Peter Thiel more thanhe’s willing to give up

(1.00/7)

I’m just recovering from food poisoning likely

I’m just recovering from food poisoning likely

caused by bad sushi. So right now, I hate fish —can’t even think of them without gagging. Of coursethis is when I stumbled upon these horrifying videosof thousands of silver bunker fish jiggling...

Pluto’s most iconic feature — its “icy heart” — mayhave been responsible for tipping the dwarf planetover. Scientists believe the 600-mile-wide region offrozen plains known as Sputnik Planitia gainedenough mass over the years, causing Pluto to...

United is introducing basic economy, a cheaper —and worse — fare class below economy. Firstspotted by The Points Guy, the new offering gets ridof seat assignments and elite-qualifying miles,

forbids paid upgrades and flight changes, andbans...

In 2013, the Anna Kendrick comedy Rapture-Palooza had the misfortune of opening exactly oneweek ahead of Seth Rogen’s This Is The End,another absurdist envisioning of Judgment Day.(They even shared a primary cast member: CraigRobinson, in both...

Former Microsoft CEO might have labeled Linux "acancer" 15 years ago, but things couldn't be anydifferent this week. Microsoft, the software giant thathas built its empire on closed-source proprietarysoftware, is joining the Linux Foundation....

I always judge a piece of art by whether I’d put it onmy wall. Let me be clear: I cannot afford art, butwhen I go to museums, I like to picture the Picassosand Monets hanging around my dream house. Astartup called Electric Objects knows people...

Twitter suspends major alt-rightaccounts

theverge.com

2016-11-16 13:26 Russell Brandom www.theverge.com

49 /223 11.1

Best Android games 2016: ourtop picks (0.04/7)

While the 'free-to-play' market has taken a bit of abeating of late due to gamers falling out of love with

the use of in-app payments, the world of mobilegaming is still an exciting one.

Whether you want games that will just last thelength of a commute, or want to be lost in a port ofGTA where you spend hours mowing downpedestrians and making money out of murder, thereis a game on here for you.

This constantly updated list is a mixture of free andpaid for games, and also that one in between -some in-app payments honestly aren't really thatbad. If by the end you think we have missedsomething special off of the list, let us know and wewill see if it is worthy of inclusion further down theline.

Of course we properly play each game we test - soyou can have confidence in our selection.

One of the most exhilarating games on mobile,Impossible Road finds a featureless white ballbarreling along a ribbon-like track that twists andturns into the distance. The aim is survival – and themore gates you pass through, the higher yourscore.

Once the physics click, however, you’ll figure outthe risks you can take, how best to corner, and whatto do when hurled into the air by a surprise bump inthe road.

The game also rewards ‘cheats’. Leave the track,hurtle through space for a bit, and rejoin – you’ll geta score for your airborne antics, and no penalty forany gates missed. Don’t spend too long aloftthough - a few seconds is enough for your ball to beabsorbed into the surrounding nothingness.

It’s mundane existence meets WarioWare in Crap!I'm Broke: Out of Pocket , which finds a protagoniston the breadline having to earn cash by way ofdrudge-work minigames.

This might be a little too close to home for some, butOut of Pocket dresses everything up in an eye-catching angular art style and a kind of absurditythat makes everything breezy - if frantic - fun, evenwhen washing dishes and flipping burgers.

In part, this is down to the novelty factor - the way inwhich you scrub plates by rubbing the screen, or

tap burgers you hurl into the air. But with successhinging on careful management of your own foodreserves, combined with efficiency and speed in thejobs you take on, Out of Pocket adds depth throughsheer risk versus reward.

So this one proves immediately accessible, yetoffers plenty of ongoing challenge to anyonewanting to keep cracking their high score.

There’s a disarmingly hypnotic and almostmeditative quality to the early stages of Mini Metro.You sit before a blank underground map of a majormetropolis, and drag out lines between stations thatperiodically appear.

Little trains then cart passengers about,automatically routing them to their stop, their verymovements building a pleasing plinky plonkygenerative soundtrack.

As your underground grows, though, so does thetension. You’re forced to choose betweenupgrades, balance where trains run, and make swiftadjustments to your lines. Should a station becomeovercrowded, your entire network is closed.

(So...not very like the real world, then.)

Do well enough and you unlock new cities, withunique challenges. But even failure isn’t frustrating,and nor is the game’s repetitive nature a problem,given that Mini Metro is such a joy to play.

A massive upgrade over the developer’s ownsuperb but broadly overlooked MegaCity , ConcreteJungle is a mash-up of puzzler, city managementand deck builder.

The basics involve the strategic placement ofbuildings on a grid, with you aiming to rack upenough points to hit a row’s target. At that point, therow vanishes, and more building space scrolls intoview.

Much of the strategy lies in clever use of cards,which affect nearby squares – a factory reduces thevalue of nearby land, for example, but anobservatory boosts the local area. You quickly learnplonking down units without much thought messesup your future prospects.

Instead, you must plan in a chess-like manner –

even more so when facing off against the computeropponent in brutally difficult head-to-head modes.But while Concrete Jungle is tough, it’s also fair –the more hours you put in, the better your chances.And it’s worth giving this modern classic plenty ofyour time.

There are varied mobile takes on limbless wonderRayman's platform gaming exploits. The 1995original exists on Android in largely faithful form, butfeels ill-suited to touchscreens; and RaymanAdventures dabbles in freemium to the point itleaves a bad taste.

But Rayman Jungle Run and Rayman Fiesta Runget things right.

They rethink console-oriented platformers as auto-runners – which might sound reductive. However,this is more about distillation and focus thanoutright simplification.

Tight level design and an emphasis on timingregarding when to jump, rebound and attack forcesyou to learn layouts and the perfect moment totrigger actions, in order to get the in-game bling you

need to progress.

Both titles are sublime, but Fiesta Run is marginallythe better of the two - a clever take on platformingthat fizzes with energy, looks fantastic, and feelslike it was made for Android rather than a 20-year-old console.

A decidedly dizzying take on platform games, CircaInfinity exists in a sparse world of concentric circles.Your little stick man scoots around the edge of thelargest, and a prod of the action button when he'satop a pizza-slice cut-out flips him inside the disc.

He can then make a leap for the bobbing circlewithin, at which point the process repeats.

Only the next disc may be patrolled by any numberof critters intent on ejecting the stick man from theirparticular circle.

A few levels in and you might wonder whetherklocki has taken the notion of a relaxing puzzlegame a bit too far.

It's easy almost to the point of being a sedative,

merely having you swap tiles on a flat plane, inorder to fashion complete pathways. But klocki is asmart cookie, very gradually introducing newconcepts so slowly you barely notice; but prettysoon you find yourself immersed in rich andcomplex tests.

Later levels have you battle three-dimensionalshapes, switches, and tiles that rotate; and despitethe minimal aesthetic and noodly audio, it neverreally gets old. The game is, however, quite short -a few hours and you'll probably be done.

Still, the low price-tag ensures klocki remains greatvalue, especially if you take the time to savour itscharms rather than blazing through its challengesat breakneck speed.

The Room is a series about mysteries withinmysteries. It begins with a box. Fiddling with dialsand switches causes things to spring to lifeelsewhere, and you soon find boxes within theboxes, layers unravelling before you; it's thevideogame equivalent of Russian dolls meetscarpentry, as breathed into life by a crazed inventor.

The Room's curious narrative and fragments ofhorror coalesce in follow-up The Room Two , whichexpands the 'boxes' into more varied environments– a séance room; a pirate ship. Movement remainsrestricted and on rails, but you're afforded a touchmore freedom as you navigate your way through astrange clockwork world.

The Room Three is the most expansive of them all,featuring intricate, clever puzzles, as you attempt tofree yourself from The Craftsman and his island ofderanged traps and trials.

Get all three games, and play them through inorder, preferably in a dark room when rain'spouring down outside for best effect. It's a terrifyingand - ultimately - infuriating experience that willhave you toying with the idea of having to go onlinefor walkthroughs until you finally crack the mystery.

There are some clues, but generally these are verygentle hints at best.

You might moan about trains when you're againwaiting for a late arrival during your daily commute,but think yourself lucky reality doesn't match Train

Conductor World. Here, trains rocket along, oftentowards nasty head-on collisions. It's your job todrag out temporary bridges to avoid calamity whilesimultaneously sending each train to its properdestination.

From the off, Train Conductor World is demanding,and before long a kind of 'blink and everything willbe smashed to bits' mentality pervades. For a path-finding action-puzzler - Flight Control on tracks, ifyou will - it's an engaging and exciting experience.

The developers of Osmos HD call it an 'ambientarcade game'. It's a strange description, but apt,since Osmos is often about patience and subtlety.You guide a 'mote', which moves by expelling tinypieces of itself. Seemingly floating in microscopicgoop, it aims to munch motes smaller than itself,expand, and reign supreme.

This is easy enough when other motes don't fightback, but soon enough you're immersed in a kind ofpetri dish warfare, desperately trying to survive asvarious motes tear whatever amounts to each-other's faces off.

And then occasionally Osmos throws a furthercurveball, pitting you against the opposite extremein scale, dealing with gravity and orbits as planet-like motes speed their way around deadly floating'stars'.

In Her Story , you find yourself facing a creakycomputer terminal with software designed by asadist. It soon becomes clear the so-called L. O. G.I. C. database houses police interviews of a womancharged with murder.

But the tape's been hacked to bits and is accessibleonly by keywords; 'helpfully', the system onlydisplays five search results at once.

Naturally, these contrivances exist to force you toplay detective, eking out clues from video snippetsto work out what to search for next, slowly piecingtogether the mystery in your brain.

A unique and captivating experience, Her Story willkeep even the most remotely curious Androidgamer gripped until the enigma is solved.

You probably need to be a bit of a masochist to get

the most out of Snakebird , which is one of the mostbrain-smashingly devious puzzlers we've ever seteyes on. It doesn't really look or sound the part,frankly - all vibrant colors and strange cartoon'snakebirds' that make odd noises.

But the claustrophobic floating islands the birdsmust crawl through, supporting each other (oftenliterally) in their quest for fruit, are designed veryprecisely to make you think you've got a wayforward, only to thwart you time and time again.

The result is a surprisingly arduous game, but onethat's hugely rewarding when you crack aparticularly tough level, at which point you'll(probably rightly) consider yourself some kind ofgaming genius.

There's something of a children's animation vibeabout Warp Shift , with expressive Pixar-likeprotagonist Pi floating about brightly colored boxes,aiming to find an exit that will take her a step closerto home.

At first, it's a bit too simple. You slide boxes, tap tomake Pi scoot about, and sit there smugly, wrinkling

your nose at how easy it all is.

But Warp Shift gradually starts clobbering you withadditional tests: colored doors that must be linedup; a cuboid chum to rescue and lob at the exit;switches; move limits to attain enough stars tounlock subsequent stages.

The mix of enchanting visuals, familiar mechanicsand gently stiffening challenges proves stimulatingand captivating.

You initially get the feeling Rush Rally 2 is treadinga fine line, unsure whether to steer towards beingan arcade game or a simulator. It certainly lacks thedemented rocket-like speeds of an Asphalt 8, butRush Rally 2's more measured gameplaynonetheless gradually reveals a sense of fun.

Sure, the standard rally mode can be sedate,although the game's nonetheless happy tofrequently catapult your car up a hillside when youmess up a turn. And then there are weird missions,such as dodging missiles as you negotiate hairpinbends (Colin McRae never had to deal with suchthings.)

But when belting along in Rally Cross mode, RushRally 2 suddenly clicks. You'll use other cars asbrakes and spin off into the gravel, before gunningthe engine and blazing back into the thick of it.Even then, this racer's a more challenging andthoughtful affair than most, but it's just as gleefullyexciting when you're bombing down the finalstraight, and take the chequered flag by fractions ofa second.

It's always the way: you're minding your ownbusiness when - BOOM! - you're suddenlypropelled into a gargantuan space maze. At leastit's the way if you're Captain Cowboy. This smartarcade title comes across like seminal classicBoulder Dash in space. You dig through dirt, grabdiamonds, and avoid being crushed by boulderswithin the asteroid.

There are also floaty space bits, nasty space laserturrets, space bus stops and a space disco. At least,we're told that's the case, because we've neverfound the last of those things; but we'll keep trying,because Captain Cowboy is superb.

(The trailer is also one of the best we've seen, sowatch it and then buy the game.)

One of the most gorgeous games around,FOTONICA at its core echoes one-thumb leapygame Canabalt. The difference is FOTONICA hasyou move through a surreal and delicate Rez-like3D vector landscape, holding the screen to gainspeed, and only soaring into the air when you lift afinger.

Smartly, FOTONICA offers eight very different andfinite challenges, enabling you to learn their variousmulti-level pathways and seek out bonuses to rampup your high scores. Get to grips with this dreamlikerunner and you can then pit your wits (and thumbs)against three slowly mutating endless zones.

You might narrow your eyes at so-called 'realism' inmobile sports titles, given that this usually means 'agame that looks a bit like when you watch telly'. ButTouchgrind Skate 2 somehow manages to evokethe feel of skateboarding, your fingers becomingtiny legs that urge the board about the screen.

There's a lot going on in Touchgrind Skate 2, and

the control system is responsive and intricate,enabling you to perform all manner of tricks. It's notthe most immediate of titles - you really need to notonly run through the tutorial but fully master andmemorize each step before moving on.

Get to grips with your miniature skateboard andyou'll find one of the most fluid and rewardingexperiences on mobile. Note that for free you getone park to scoot about in, but others are availablevia IAP.

The bar's set so low in modern mobile gaming thatthe word 'premium' has become almostmeaningless. But Leo's Fortune bucks the trend,and truly deserves the term. It's a somewhat old-school side-on platform game, featuring a grufffurball hunting down the thief who stole his gold(and then, as is always the way, dropped coins atprecise, regular intervals along a lengthy, perilouspathway).

The game is visually stunning, from theprotagonist's animation through to the lush, variedbackdrops. The game also frequently shakes things

up, varying its pace from Sonic-style loops toprecise pixel-perfect leaps.

It at times perhaps pushes you a bit too far — lateon, we found some sections a bit too finicky anddemanding. But you can have as many cracks at asection as you please, and if you master the entirething, there's a hardcore speedrun mode thatchallenges you to complete the entire journeywithout dying.

We're not sure what's going on in NO THING , but itdoesn't look good for anyone living in its strangeworld. Apparently set in both 1994 and the future,this 'surreal arcade trip' has you attempting todeliver an important message to the Queen of Ice.

Getting to her involves staying on pathways thatweave their way through abstract and fragmentedlandscapes comprising office furniture, tower blocksand blank-faced people.

It's all unsettling and the weirdness is matched by akind of brutality rarely seen outside of the sharplines of Super Hexagon.

Even early levels are merciless, punishing a singleslip up, and forcing you back to the start. This canbe hugely frustrating, but perseverance reapsrewards, not only in bludgeoning your way throughNO THING's ten levels, but also in finding out a littlemore about this fascinating digital dystopia.

Most online play pits you against other people, butDreii is all about cooperation. The aim is to buildstructures from geometric shapes, having themreach a pre-defined point for a set period of time,whereupon you can move on to the next task.

That sounds deathly dull, but Dreii's many quirkstransform a basic building blocks game into amesmerizing experience. First, your character is astrange patterned levitating creature, which grabsshapes with a fragile tether. On early levels,controlling everything is tough enough, but whenyou have to carefully stack shapes and battle galesand water, Dreii becomes a hugely challengingexperience.

The online component is a slice of genius. Hangaround a level for a short while and someone else

will likely drop in to lend a hand. Communication islimited to just a few stock words, but you'll soonform your own language with your temporaryfriends.

You can then wiggle your levitating beast to try andget across that you're thrilled at completing aparticularly fiendish task or frustrated that asausage-fingered buffoon has just demolished acarefully constructed tower.

At its core, Forget-Me-Not is Pac-Man mixed withRogue. You scoot about algorithmically generatedsingle-screen mazes, gobbling down flowers,grabbing a key, and then making a break for theexit.

But what makes Forget-Me-Not essential is howalive its tiny dungeons feel. Your enemies don't justgun for you, but are also out to obliterate each otherand, frequently, the walls of the dungeon,reshaping it as you play.

There are tons of superb details to find buriedwithin the game's many modes, and cheapskatescan even get on board with the free version ,

although that locks much of its content away untilyou've munched enough flowers.

If there was any justice, Forget-Me-Not would havea permanent place at the top of the Google Playcharts. It is one of the finest arcade experiencesaround, not just on Android, but on any platform -old or new.

One thing we didn't see coming was the resurgenceof the text adventure on mobile devices. But Lifelineis even simpler than the likes of Infocom's early1980's classic Zork, mechanically being little morethan a branching Choose Your Own Adventurenarrative.

But the way it's executed propels it into must-haveterritory. Lifeline begins with a plea for help, andyou're soon drawn into a tale of desperate survival,with your choices dictating whether a strandedastronaut will live or die.

Great writing soon has you wrapped up in the story,and clever use of time makes everything feel all themore real. For example, you may leave your remotefriend to trek across a massive crater. In a typical

game, you'd immediately discover how they got on;here, they might respond hours later, or, moreominously, not at all.

Giving you a sense of the emptiness and vastnessof space, and the risks in exploring the void, isn'teasy for a bite-sized survival game, but LastHorizon somehow succeeds.

The idea is to leave your broken world behind,roam the galaxy in your rocket, and 'harvest' livingworlds. Doing so loads information into yourterraforming kit, for when you reach yourdestination.

During your journey you battle massive suns,asteroids, black holes, alien lifeforms, and lots ofgravity. This is simple fare - more Lunar Landerthan EVE Online - but it has a great sense ofatmosphere. And although repeating the first threeflights can be a little tiresome if you keep dying(hint: be more patient), Flight X mode's procedurallygenerated maps provide great replay value.

If you're fed up with racing games paying moreattention to whether the tarmac looks photorealistic

rather than how much fun it should be to zoomalong at insane speeds, check out Horizon Chase.This tribute to old-school arcade titles is all aboutthe sheer joy of racing, rather than boring realism.

The visuals are vibrant, the soundtrack is jolly andcheesy, and the racing finds you constantly battlingyour way to the front of an aggressive pack.

If you fondly recall Lotus Turbo Esprit Challengeand Top Gear, don't miss this one. (Note thatHorizon Chase gives you five tracks for free. Tounlock the rest, there's a single £2.29/US$2.99IAP.)

Old-school 8-bit platformers just don't work ontouchscreens, due to pixel-perfect gameplay thatdemands tight, tactile controls. I Am Level 's geniusis in fusing the core elements of such games(Spectrum-style graphics, single-screen puzzle-oriented challenges, and an explorable map) withmodern mobile thinking.

Thus, each of your efforts builds on the previousone, and your rotund avatar gets about by youtilting your device or pinging him across the screen

using springs and flippers. It's essentially Jet SetWilly meets pinball and it's fantastic.

Sadly, developer Stewart Hogarth passed away in2015, at the far too young age of 34. So snap thisone up before it vanishes forever, and play a fewgames in tribute of a talented games creator.

Apparently many millions of years before angrybirds existed there were jovial Egz , emerging fromEarth's primordial soup and jumping about likeidiots. Sadly for the Egz, everything else wants tosmash them to bits. Cue a fast-paced platformgame/fling 'em up where you guide your Egz fromstarting point to goal, trying to avoid gettingcracked.

Egz has some great level design, and keepsadding new ideas as you progress, such as zip-lines to slide along, bubbles to float you into the air,and bouncy surfaces to hurl an Egz against.

An XP system used to power-up an Egz or bringback a dead one is a bit harsh, but forces you totake care and think about what you're doing ratherthan just hurling Egz about without a care.

(A top tip: if you do find yourself needing toresurrect an Egz, hatch a new one and use thethree built-in mini-games to relatively quickly getthe XP required.)

Some games have a kind of razor-sharp focus, butLost in Harmony is very much the other kind — asort-of endearing mess that somehow comestogether the more you play, to the point you won'twant to put it down.

Ambitiously (and perhaps foolishly), it attempts tomarry endless runners and Ouendan-style rhythmaction, often at the same time. Underpinningeverything is a heartfelt story about two friends, andtheir journeys through some eye-popping dream-like environments.

As the skateboarding hero zooms into the screen,friend clinging to his back, the scenery periodicallywarps and folds, revealing all manner of craziness,from futuristic Manga-style cities to Tetris blockswhizzing by. It might feel disjointed at times, butstick with Lost in Harmony and you'll be rewarded.

(Note: this game is a free download, with a£2.99/$3.99 IAP then required to access the fullstoryline.)

The shard's of Jennifer's memories are scatteredabout the world of Lost Journey , and it's up to youto collect them, largely by bounding about platformsin small puzzle-oriented levels that are not thatmuch bigger than the screen. The twist — or, moreaccurately, flip — is that you can invert the level atany point. On doing so, pits become hills, givingyou the means to reach previously inaccessibleplaces.

Anyone looking for speedy Mario-style larks mightfind Lost Journey's take on platforming rathersedate. But if you're keen on more thoughtfulplatform fare, it's a very good buy; and theatmospherics and visuals certainly make for anaesthetically pleasurable time as you try to helpJennifer find her lost self.

There's a great sense of freedom from the secondyou immerse yourself in the strange and futuristicworld of Power Hover. The robot protagonist has

been charged with pursuing a thief who's stolenbatteries that power the city.

The droid therefore grabs a hoverboard andscythes across gorgeous minimal landscapes, suchas deserts filled with colossal marchingautomatons, glittering blue oceans, and a deadgrey human city.

In lesser hands, Power Hover could have beenutterly forgettable. After all, you're basically tappingleft and right to change the direction of ahoverboard, in order to collect batteries and avoidobstacles. But the production values here arestunning.

Power Hover is a visual treat, boasts a fantasticsoundtrack, and gives mere hints of a story,enabling your imagination to run wild. Best of all,the floaty controls are perfect; you might fight themat first, but once they click, Power Hover becomes ahugely rewarding experience.

(On Android, Power Hover is a free download; toplay beyond the first eight levels requires a single£2.29/$2.99 IAP.)

It turns out what makes a good snowman is threevery precisely rolled balls of snow stacked on top ofeach other. And that's the core of this adorablepuzzle game, which has more than a few hints ofTowers of Hanoi and Sokoban about it as your littlemonster goes about building icy friends to hug.

What sets A Good Snowman apart from its manypuzzle-game contemporaries on Android is a trulypremium nature. You feel that the developer went togreat efforts to polish every aspect of theproduction, from the wonderful animation to puzzlesthat grow in complexity and deviousness, withoutyou really noticing — until you get stuck on aparticularly ferocious one several hours in.

This one's all about the bling - and also the notbeing crushed to death by falling rocks and dirt.Doug Dug riffs off of Mr Driller, Boulder Dash andDig Dug, the dwarf protagonist digging deep underthe earth on an endless quest for shimmeringgems. Cave-ins aren't the only threat, though - thebowels of the earth happen to be home to asurprising array of deadly monsters.

Some can be squashed and smacked with Doug'sspade (goodbye, creepy spider!), but others aremade of sterner stuff (TROLL! RUN AWAY!).Endlessly replayable and full of character, DougDug's also surprisingly relaxing - until the dwarfends up under 150 tonnes of rubble.

There are plenty of great pinball games for Android,but Pinball Arcade is a bit different. Rather thanreworking an old PC hit or going nuts withanimatronics and effects that simply wouldn't workin the real world, this app seeks to become a fullyplayable digital museum - essentially (legal) MAMEfor pinball.

You get Tales of the Arabian Nights for free, andone other table is regularly unlocked for unlimitedplay. They all look superb and work especially wellon 7-inch tablets and above. Importantly, the tablesalso play like the real thing, whether you grab old-school classic Black Hole, the creepy and weirdBride of Pin•Bot, or more modern fare like TheAddams Family.

If you ever thought a certain videogame plumber

could do with a taste of his own medicine, Kill thePlumber should appeal. Across dozens of single-screen levels, you control knock-off Goombas,Thwomps and Boos, trying to stop fake-Marioreaching the flag. There's a distinctly indie -sometimes slightly clunky - feel to proceedings, butKill the Plumber pleasingly keeps things freshthroughout, regularly shaking up its puzzles and thewee critters you use to duff up the so-called hero.

Occasionally, things get a bit demanding from aprecision standpoint, but it's rewarding to crack aparticularly tough level. Android owners also getone-up on iOS fans, with the proper characters asoriginally designed by the developer and notwatered-down replacements to appease Cupertino-based censors.

This is one of those 'rub your stomach, pat yourhead' titles that has you play two games at once. Atthe top of the screen, it's an endless runner, withyour little bloke battling all manner of monsters, andpilfering loot. The rest of the display houses what'sessentially a Bejeweled-style gem-swapper. Thekey is in matching items so that the running bit goes

well - like five swords when you want to get allstabby.

Also, there's the building a boat bit. Once a runends, you return to your watery home, whichgradually acquires new rooms and residents. Somemerely power up your next sprint, but others helpyou amass powerful weaponry. Resolutely indieand hugely compelling, You Must Build a Boat willkeep you busily swiping for hours.

Poor Hendrik: an ill wind blew away his brand-newhouse and his hair, and the only thing he has left isa pair of teleporting shoes. You must find thescattered remains of his home, along withuncovering the mystery of the wind. This meansusing the power of a single digit to teleport yourway through 120 levels set across four differentworlds.

Yes, we're in one-thumb platform-game territoryagain, but Blown Away 's elegant teleport mechanic(essentially, tap where you want to go) feels freshand exciting. Each level is a carefully crafted puzzleto solve, requiring precision movement and timing

as you teleport about and quickly recharge yourshoes' batteries by marching along for a bit. Notethat you get 30 stages for free, and can buy the restof the game with a single $2.49/£2.14 IAP.

If you're having a bad day at the office, spare athought for the CEO in The Executive. He's justwatched his employees transform into werewolves,and now it's his job to save the world from theirdastardly schemes.

Having apparently been to CEO Fight Club, he'sfortunately well-versed in beating up scarycreatures, and so he zooms about 120 quickfirelevels, kicking werewolves in the face, leaping fromfloor to floor, and pausing only to invest in a miningcompany that over time rewards the world's mostpunchy businessman with new skills. It's all utterlyludicrous, but loads of fun.

Pro Pinball for Android is a remastered take onTimeshock!, bringing the original table bang up todate with high-quality graphics and lighting,touchscreen controls, and a top-notch soundtrack. Itstill plays wonderfully, and we can only hope loads

of people buy it, enabling the developer to bringother Pro Pinball tables to mobile.

The term 'masterpiece' is perhaps bandied abouttoo often in gaming circles, but Limbo undoubtedlydeserves such high praise. It features a boy pickinghis way through a creepy monochrome world,looking for his sister. At its core, Limbo is a fairlysimple platform game with a smattering of puzzles,but its stark visuals, eerie ambience, and superblevel design transforms it into something elseentirely.

You'll get a chill the first time a chittering figuresneaks off in the distance, and your heart will pumpwhen being chased by a giant arachnid, intent onspearing your tiny frame with one of its colossalspiked legs. That death is never the end — eachscene can be played unlimited times until youprogress — only adds to Limbo's disturbing nature.

People who today play mobile classic Canabaltand consider it lacking due to its simplicity don'tunderstand what the game is trying to do. Canabaltis all about speed — the thrill of being barely in

control, and of affording the player only the simplestcontrols for survival. ALONE… takes that basicpremise and straps a rocket booster to it.

Instead of leaping between buildings, you're flyingthrough deadly caverns, a single digit nudging yourtiny craft up and down. Occasional moments ofgenerosity — warnings about incoming projectiles;your ship surviving minor collisions and slowlyregenerating — are offset by the relentlesslydemanding pressure of simply staying alive and notslamming into a wall. It's an intoxicatingcombination, and one that, unlike most games inthis genre, matches Canabalt in being genuinelyexciting to play.

From a gaming perspective, the most importantaspect of touchscreen devices is that they give younew ways to play, but relatively few developers takefull advantage, instead choosing to ape traditionalcontrols. Framed is an exception, flinging youheadlong into an animated comic of sorts. Your aimis to improve the fortunes of a spy, fleeing from thecops — and worse.

Panels are dragged about and rotated, and newideas regularly appear, including you having tocarefully shift scenes on the page at exactly theright moment. This is a stylish and finite affair thatends before it gets old, leaving you satisfied butnonetheless hoping for more.

Developer Rovio has done quite a lot of aggressivewhoring of the Angry Birds franchise, but thisspace-based fork of the simplistic physics gameseries is really worth a try.

For one, it introduces some new play concepts, withthe planet-based levels requiring different tactics,plus the puzzles generally need a bit more of athoughtful approach than the chuck-it-and-see ofthe originals.

Has a bit of an 'indie' vibe about it this one, withBadland offering a weird, dark and gloomy world, inwhich you fly about in control of a… blob thing.

Your blob gets bigger and smaller, splits into loadsof mini clones, and generally baffles you aboutwhat might lie around the next corner. We like a bitof a surprise, and this is full of them.

It's not often you see a game about the "joy ofcultivation", and Prune is unlike anything you'veever played before. Apparently evolving from anexperimental tree-generation script, the game hasyou swipe to shape and grow a plant towardssunlight by tactically cutting off specific branches.

That sounds easy, but the trees, shrubs and weedsin Prune don't hang around. When they're growingat speed and you find yourself faced withpoisonous red orbs to avoid, or structures thatdamage fragile branches, you'll be swiping in afrantic race towards sunlight.

And all it takes is one dodgy swipe from a sausagefinger to see your carefully managed plant verysuddenly find itself being sliced in two.

A very, very pretty game, this. Monument Valley isbased around the weird sort of impossiblegeometric shapes popularised by artist M. C.Escher, with its colourful maps bending and rotatingin ways that appear to defy the laws of nature. Youwalk on walls, flip them, turn them into floors, avoidcrows and marvel at how beautiful it all looks.

It's a short journey, but a joyful one. If you hanker formore when protagonist Ida's quest is complete,further adventures are available via IAP.

The developer calls this a " multidirectional shoot'em up " presumably because describing it as a"Geometry Wars clone" might have got him in a bitof legal trouble.

Regardless of its origin, it's a superb shooter withsome bizarre game modes and controls that workexceptionally well on touch devices.

We get moaned at a lot for putting too many silly,quirky little games about shapes and animals andorganising letters of the alphabet in this list. Sohere's one about men with guns shooting eachother in 3D.

Modern Combat 5 , the latest in Gameloft's mobilehomage to grown-up home console FPSfranchises, in which you gun about the place aloneor in online multiplayer matches.

If you're not already familiar with Blizzard's

Hearthstone then consider this a warning: it getsvery, very addictive. A card game from the makersof World of Warcraft, Hearthstone sees you buildingdecks from won or purchased cards to then battleagainst friends and strangers.

It's a surprisingly complex game that demandsmeticulous strategy. You can play and enjoywithout paying a penny, but there are options to buybooster packs and add-on quests should you wantto.

No one dies of disease in Whale Trail. It's a sweetflying sim, which sees you float about in the cloudshaving a lovely time, collecting things, boosting andgenerally being quite happy about it. The cheeryvibe is broken a bit when adverts and in-apppurchase requests pop up, but it's happy enoughbefore the money men turn up.

One of the PC "indie" world's big name smasheshas arrived on Android, with the existential platformgame yours to... enjoy. Or at least attempt tounderstand. You could call Thomas Was Alone a"platform game" if you wanted to be mean and

disrespectful, but it's more about offering anatmospheric and thoughtful journey through anabstract world.

A bit like a piece of art, but let's not get into thatdebate here. I'm not being paid by the word.

Angry Birds maker Rovio proves it's not a one-trickbird-pony with this, a bizarre and quirky physicsgame. You have a toolbox at your disposal, used tobuild a flying and/or driving machine, which thenhas to trundle its way through a level. It's silly, but atleast attempts to shove out some new ideas ratherthan just flinging birds around.

This is the good stuff. So many mobile games makethe claim of being console-quality, but GeometryWars 3: Dimensions is a rare title that fully delivers.Like its predecessors, this is a twin-stick shooter, afight for survival against waves of deadly neon foes.But as its name alludes to, Dimensions dispenseswith flat arenas, instead wrapping play areasaround geometric shapes. It's disorienting as acube in space you're traversing lurches about, andexhilarating as you barely avoid the legions of

ships lurking beyond an edge.

With 15 grids and 12 modes, along with anextensive single-player quest, Dimensions easilymanages to be the finest game of its kind onmobile.

The tower defense genre is heaving on Android,thanks to the poke and press play mechanics beingideally suited to touchscreen play. Radiant Defenseis a great example of the simplified strategyconcept, presenting its war action in a futuristicneon style that looks awesome on any phone withthe grunt to do it justice.

Kariosoft's made a big thing for itself by using itsmanagement style of game across variousscenarios, with this sporting event being one of thebest. You take control of a club, then stress aboutsignings, money, tactics and more.

It's slightly robbed of some fun via a desire to usein-app purchases to squeeze money out of players,ironically mirroring the state of the game it takesinspiration from.

Of all the attempts to play with the conventions ofnovels and story-led gaming on mobile, 80 Days isthe most fun. It takes place in an 1872 with adecidedly steampunk twist, but where Phileas Foggremains the same old braggart. As his trusty valet,you must help Fogg make good on a wager tocircumnavigate the globe in 80 days. This involvesmanaging/trading belongings and carefullyselecting routes.

Mostly, though, interaction comes by way of apacey, frequently exciting branched narrative, like aChoose Your Own Adventure book on fast-forward.

A late-2015 content update added 150,000 words,two new plots and 30 cities to an adventure thatalready boasted plenty of replay value — not leastwhen you've experienced the joys of underwatertrains and colossal mechanical elephants in India,and wonder what other marvels await discovery inthis world of wonders.

As accessible as it is charming, Tiny Thief is aperfect fit for mobile, with a simple tap used to bothmove and interact with objects as you navigate

increasingly intricate levels trying to completeobjectives (which as the name suggests usuallyinvolve stealing things), while staying hidden andsolving puzzles.

The gameplay might be simple but the humour andimagination should keep a smile on your face forthe duration. Better yet, you can play half the gamefor free...though the remaining levels will cost you.

Lara Croft games have landed on Android to rathervariable results. The original Tomb Raider justdoesn't work on touchscreens, and although LaraCroft: Relic Run is enjoyable enough, it'sessentially a reskinned Temple Run.

Lara Croft GO is far more ambitious and seriouslyimpressive. It rethinks Tomb Raider in much thesame way Hitman GO reimagined the Hitmanseries.

Croft's adventures become turn-based puzzles, setin a world half-way between board game andgorgeous isometric minimalism. It shouldn't reallywork, but somehow Lara Croft GO feels like a TombRaider game, not least because of the wonderful

sense of atmosphere, regular moments of tension,and superb level design.

The weird little physics game is one of Android'smost popular franchises, with this updateintroducing a few new tricks and weapons. It's thesame sort of experience as its earlier chapters,though, with players swinging ropes to throwsweeties around its colourful screens. Masses oflevels and a mid-to-high fun level.

Piloteer teaches you to be careful what you wishfor. If you thought a cool future would be blastingabout on a jetpack, be mindful of the heroine of thisgame, who spends most of her time crashing head-first into the scenery.

To be fair, her jetpack controls are more than atouch twitchy, which combined with the ragdollphysics may well make you want to send yourdevice for a quick flying lesson itself. Butperseverance reaps rewards as you gain at leastsome modicum of control. Seldom will you havebeen so excited about making a gaming charactertake off and successfully land a few steps to the

right.

If you've played Laser Dog's previous efforts, PUKand ALONE…, you'll know what you're in for withHoPiKo. This game takes no prisoners. If it did takethem, it'd repeatedly punch them in the face beforecasually discarding them. HoPiKo, then, is not agame to be messed with. Instead, it feels more likea fight. In each of the dozens of hand-crafted tinylevels, you leap from platform to platform via deftdrags and taps, attempting to avoid death.

Only, death is everywhere and very easy to meet.The five-stage level sets are designed to becompleted in mere seconds, but also to break yourbrain and trouble your fingers. It's just on the rightside of hellishly frustrating, meaning you'll stopshort of flinging your device at the wall, emergingfrom your temporary red rage foolishly determinedthat you can in fact beat the game on your next go.

Old-ish people who played the original Re-Voltrace series on the games hardware of yesteryearwill be bang up for this, even though it looks a littlerough around the edges. Re-Volt 2: Multiplayer is a

refresh of the radio-controlled car racer, nowupdated with multiplayer options for the sociablemodern player. Free to download and get going,with only some unlockables masked by an in-apppurchase requirement.

This is bonkers. Spaceteam uses the Androidhardware to the max to build a properly innovativemultiplayer-only game, where between two andfour players come together to shout exciting spaceterminology at each other while battling the controlpanel of an exploding ship. It's very silly, likesomething that only came out on the Wii in Japan.

If it needs pigeon-holing, Toast Time is bestdescribed as a combat platform game. Thing is,you're only a toaster, and your weapon is… toast.So it's sort of a toast-based physics simulation aswell, with the kickback from the toast knocking thetoaster around the screen and requiring constantcompensation. Because there's a clock that needsprotecting and… it's best you play it. It's good.

Quite possibly one of the best uses of the mobilephone accelerometer tech there's ever been, this,

with motion control sending your fishing line downto the depths of the sea while you avoid fish. Then,on the way up, it's how you catch them. That's whenit goes ridiculous, as the fisherman chucks them upin the air - and you shoot them to bank the money.Silly, but a must play.

Another mobile classic. Super Hexagon has twocontrols -- rotate left and rotate right. That's all youneed to navigate the endless maze that spins out ofthe screen, in one of the mobile world's hardest,coolest, best-sounding and most moreish games.We order you to buy it. You literally have to.

The sort of silly maths game you might've played inyour head before mobile phones emerged toabsorb all our thought processes, Threes! reallydoes take less than 30 seconds to learn.

You bash numbers about until they form multiplesof three and disappear. That's it. There are stacks offree clones available, but if you won't spare theprice of one massive bar of chocolate to pay for alovely little game like this that'll amuse you forweek, you're part of the problem and deserve to rot

in a freemium hell where it costs 50p to do a wee.

The build 'em up phenomenon works brilliantly wellon Android, thanks to the creator of the desktoporiginal taking the time to do it justice.

It's a slimmed down interface you see here with on-screen buttons, but the basics are all in and theSurvival and Creative modes are ready for play --as is multiplayer mode over Wi-Fi.

The entire back catalogue of solo indie creatorOrangePixel is worth exploring, but his latest is thebest yet. It's a stylish 2D dungeon explorer, withmasses of quests, classes and secret areas tounlock. Plus it supports a wide range of Bluetoothcontrollers for easier play if you've got a compatiblelump of buttoned plastic.

An exciting new genre all of its own when itappeared, Flight Control created the world of thetop-down air traffic control simulator. Literally threemillion times more exciting than it sounds, it'splayed by swiping 2D aeroplanes into runwaylanding slots, avoiding collisions and scoring forsuccessful landings. Perfectly suited to touchscreen

play.

Since Pac-Man graced arcades in the early 1980s,titles featuring the rotund dot-muncher havetypically been split between careful iterations on theoriginal, and mostly duff attempts to shoe-horn thecharacter into other genres. CE DX is ostensibly theformer, although the changes made from theoriginal radically transform the game, making iteasily the best Pac-Man to date.

Here, the maze is split in two. Eat all the dots fromone half and a special object appears on the other;eat that and the original half's dots are refilled in anew configuration.

All the while, dozing ghosts you brush past join aspectral conga that follows your every move. Theresult is an intoxicating speedrun take on a seminalarcade classic, combined with the even moreancient Snake; somehow, this combination ends upbeing fresh, exciting and essential.

The "Story" that started Kairosoft's domination of thesimplistic business world sim, Game Dev Storysees you take charge of a software house and

attempt to create a smash game. The sweet pixel-art characters then battle with the complexities ofdesign and the stresses of arbitrary internet reviewsfrom people who haven't even played it (ahem), inthe pursuit of a money-making smash.

Quite possibly the greatest 2D shoot 'em up of alltime, the Android conversion of Raiden is every bitas impressive as the original. A choice of controlschemes, display and difficulty settings make it alittle more manageable on touchscreens, plus,seeing as this is the Legacy edition, you getRaiden, Raiden Fighters, Raiden Fighters 2 andRaiden Fighters Jet.

After making a splash on iOS, Fallout Shelter is nowavailable on Android for all you Wasteland nuts.Create a vault and fill it with post-nuclear-warsurvivors, expanding your underground property,levelling up your dwellers, and sending them out toexplore the surface left behind.

The game that kickstarted the endless runner genreon mobile, Canabalt is far simpler than many of itscontemporaries, but therein lies its genius.

Canabalt is refined and focused: it's all aboutrunning, jumping and surviving — at speed. Andthat last bit's what few people realise — Canabalthas always been about flying along at breakneckpace, getting through scrapes by the skin of yourteeth, adrenaline pumping all the while.

The classic 2D puzzle platformer that wowed thesimpler folk of the 1990s with the very occasionalbit of 3D, has arrived in perfect form on Android.This 20th anniversary edition has the originalgraphics plus the option of an HD refresh, butwhat's really about is getting to play one ofgaming's most loved classics. On your phone. For afew quid. Madness.

Seem to remember people thought this was quitegood. For the price of a drink you can own one ofthe largest and most highly-rated video games of alltime, to pop in and out of on your mobile phone.On-screen controls are never going to suit a gamelike this, but they are at least fully customisable - soyou can get it how you like it.

Sort of a Minecraft… platform… puzzle 'em up,

Terraria players dig and mine and fight their waythrough randomly generated worlds. Resourcesmake weapons and houses, weapons and housesmean you stay alive, plus there's Wi-Fi multiplayersupport that has it nearing parity with the versionsold on desktops.

Not the easiest thing to play using on-screenbuttons, but the fact this exists at all is a marvel. It'salso a glorious conversion, with Sega finally takingthe time to do the best Sonic justice.

It's been remastered into widescreen and supportsa wide range of Bluetooth controllers so, even if youdon't yet own one, you'll be able to enjoy it fullywhen you eventually do.

The 3DS game made its way to mobile some timeago with Scribblenauts Remix , and was laterjoined by Scribblenauts Unlimited. Remix, however,comes at a lower price, making it a perfect entrypoint for newcomers. The premise is this: think ofsomething, type it into the text editor, and there's agood chance it will appear.

Scribbnauts is half platformer, half dictionary, and

it's up to your imagination to solve a series ofpuzzles.

Cars. Cars going round corners and sometimesdown straight bits. That's what you get here, in thisnice looking recreation of the old PlayStation racefavourite. On Android, Colin McRae lets users racefour cars including Colin's classic Ford Focus, carsyou get to smash around 30 separate race stages.Based on the beloved Colin McRae Rally 2.0 fromthe PS2, you really can't go wrong.

This cult classic from an earlier wave of the bighome consoles has been converted beautifully toAndroid, capturing the slightly odd and amusingadventure perfectly - and with an interface thatreally works on today's touchscreens. It's an "indie"game from before there were indie games, silly andwith some excellent and challenging puzzles.

Very old and very good , the Worms series led theway when it came to making strategy games fun.The comedy combat action is turn-based, withplayers alternating at having pop shots at eachother with their weaponry. This slower pace means

it's ideal for online and local multiplayer, as the oddglitch doesn't ruin the experience.

The strategy titan has a hefty price tag attached to iton Android, but that's OK as the immense challengeit contains is likely to burn for longer than the sun.

The first Baldur's game, this faithful reworking of the1998 classic also includes several of the PCgame's post-release expansion packs, just in casethe standard 60-hour marathon quest isn't hardcoreenough for you.

Telltale has made a name for itself with story-drivenepisodic games and The Wolf Among Us is one ofits best. Essentially a hard boiled fairy tale, youcontrol the big bad wolf as he hunts a murdererthrough the mean streets of Fabletown.

Don't let the fairy tale setting fool you, this is aviolent, mature game and it's one where yourdecisions have consequences, impacting not onlywhat the other characters think of you but also wholives and who dies. Episode One is free but theremaining four will set you back a steep £9.59 /$14.99 / around AU$18. Trust us though, you'll want

to see how this story ends.

Large, deep games are still relatively rare onAndroid, but you can add one more to the list withThe Banner Saga. This Viking-inspired tactical RPGgives you control of over 25 different charactersacross 7 different classes as you battle your waythrough beautiful hand drawn environments andmake decisions both in and out of combat whichaffect the story.

There's a lot to it, but its turn-based nature meanscontrols are never a problem and you can take it atyour own pace.

Best gaming PC: 7 of the top rigs youcan buy in 2016

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50 /223 5.6

The 10 best PCs of 2016:which computer should youbuy? (0.03/7)

Though not as prevalent as it once was, thetraditional PC tower is still alive and kicking. Evenwith the rise of devices pundits speculated would"replace" the PC, buying a desktop means avertingdead batteries and replacing parts individuallywhen they stop working. It also means updatingdrivers for specific components, even when itmeans putting your machine at risk.

PCs, unlike laptops and tablets, are modular bydefault and durable by extension. With that in mind,are a wide variety of form factors to choose fromwhen shopping around for a new PC. The ease ofuse associated with all-in-ones is sure to appeal tosome while others will prefer the inexpensivemedia devices crafted for the living room known asmini PCs.

With the exception of our Apple examples, whichnaturally bear macOS 10.12 Sierra , and theChromebase, which ships with Chrome OS, youcan expect any one of the PCs on this list to nativelybolster Windows 10 which, although it's sloweddown these past couple of months, is now perfectlycapable of combatting viruses like ransomware onits own.

Here we've listed 10 of the best PCs, ordered fromhighest to lowest in terms of pricing and specs.Keep in mind that our list is subject to change asnew computers, like HP's tiny workstation , maketheir way to market.

A stylish all-in-one with a stunning screen

The iMac is known for its essentialism. Easy-to-usehardware combined with the famed accessibility ofmacOS makes for a nigh-perfect computingexperience. A built-in screen, speakers and802.11ac wireless networking are onlycomplemented by the fantastic Magic Keyboardand Magic Mouse 2. All you need is a power cableto get it up and running.

There's quite a range of iMacs, starting at £899(around $1,365 or AUS$1,943) for an entry-level21.9-inch model with a dual-core processor that'sjust enough for basic tasks, up to 27-inch iMacswith quad-core processors and even the optional5K display. If you want a faster, quieter and morereliable storage option, you can opt for a hybridsolid state drive as well.

Even on the low-end model, the IPS display isbright and vivid, with a clever design where theedges of the aluminum chassis are thinner thanmany standalone monitors. And as standard, theiMac runs macOS, although Apple makes it veryeasy to install Windows alongside if you want tocontinue using your existing Windows software.

Still stylish, still stunning, but compact too

Boasting a vibrant Retina 4K display that's packedwith color, Apple's new 21.5-inch iMac is a smallbundle of aluminum joy. Its display's massive, 4,096x 2,304 pixel-resolution is great for surfing the webin comfort with multiple windows side-by-side in ElCapitan's Split View in addition to image and videoediting, watching 4K video content and just abouteverything else.

As expected from an Apple computer, it's a typicallywell-built machine that, in true iMac tradition, barelytakes up more space on your desk than a largerlaptop. Apple is bundling the 4K iMac with a superbset of accessories, too including the latest versionsof its Magic Mouse 2, Magic Trackpad 2 and its all-new Magic Keyboard.

Just make sure you upgrade the standard spinninghard drive to a 1TB Fusion Drive (or even better, the256GB SSD) if you want to shell out a bit more cashto eliminate lengthy loading times.

This slim mini-tower is a decent performer

Sure, it’s not quite as small as a PC like the AcerRevo Build or an Intel Compute Stick, but you canconfigure a Dell Inspiron Dekstop as a mini-tower,and therefore, it won’t take up too much spaceeither on a desk or underneath it.

With a black design and a silver trim, Dell has goneto some length to make this standard PC chassislook quite sleek and a bit more exciting than a mereblack box. As standard, it has a dual-core Intel Corei3 Skylake processor rather than a Celeron, and8GB of memory – so it's a lot more capable than theRevo Build.

For an extra bit of cash, you can upgrade theprocessor to a quad-core Intel Core i5-4460 andthe graphics card to a discrete Nvidia GeForce 730or an even more powerful AMD Radeon HD R9, fora decent all-round performance boost.

The cheapest way you can go Mac

The Mac mini exhibits the luxury of an Appledesktop without the price tag to match. Starting at amere $499 (£399, AU$779), the Mac mini isbarebones yet affordable. Though it ships without

the otherwise expected Magic Mouse andKeyboard peripherals, getting to choose your ownaccessories is, at the very least, liberating.

And, while it hasn't been updated in quite sometime on the hardware front, the Mac Mini's Haswell-based i5 processor still chugs along nicely. Plus,with Iris Graphics onboard, you'll get a bit morejuice than expected. Combined with 500GB ofstorage space and 4GB of RAM, the Mac mini isarguably the best starting point for OS Xnewcomers even if a contemporary makeover islong past due.

With an aluminum shell and simplistic industrialdesign, the Mac mini represents Apple at its verycore. Where it mainly lacks, however, is inperformance. Luckily the option for a Fusion Drive,which marries the power of both HDD and SSDtechnology, somewhat makes up for thisinadequacy. A configuration sporting 8GB of RAMis an option too, but if you don't want to shell out theextra cash, the base model will do just fine.

A compact desktop for everyday computing

Asus is a unique PC maker in that it offers a widerange of computers for a variety of different types ofusers. You typically won’t find in a mini PC with thismany configuration options that no matter whichone you opt for, the underlying computer remainsthe same.

The VivoMini UN45 may look like one of Asus’ DVDburners, but in reality, it’s a full-fledged desktop thatcan be used as a companion for watching 4Kmovies in your home theater or it can even beconnected normally to a monitor or a TV.

Moreover, the UN45 bears an M.2 SSD regardlessof which model you opt for, ranging from 32GB to128GB. However, if you don’t mind the reduction inperformance and configure your VivoMini UN45with an Intel Celeron N3000, you’ll get the liberty ofa fanless design that’s completely silent even whenthe CPU is under full load.

A stackable media PC with plenty of storage

The Acer Revo Build is one of the few desktopcomputers you can actually take advantage of onthe go in addition to with your at-home setup.

Featuring upgradeability that’s as easy as stackingLincoln Logs, the Revo Build is both the perfectmedia PC and a stellar charging station for yourother devices.

Unfortunately, that’s assuming you shell outenough for the most expensive configuration, whichcomprises an Audio Block for built-in sound output,a 1TB hard drive block and even a graphics blockfor Ultra HD video. The Revo Build packs in notone, but three USB ports, an SD card slot and evenDisplayPort. Plus, if your phone is up to task, youcan even utilize wireless charging.

It's a prettier, if less-beefy, Mac Pro

The HP Pavilion Wave is the latest in a trend ofdesktops posing as entirely different hardware. Thistime it’s a speaker, thanks to a partnership withBang & Olufsen, and the HP Pavilion Wavesucceeds where others have failed. Rather thanmuddling the audio quality exerted from the Wave’sonboard speaker system, HP and B&O Play havedevised an audio fabric that actually improves onsound quality and looks good doing it.

At the same time, the HP Pavilion Wave managesto future-proof itself with Bluetooth 4.2 capabilities,three standard USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, DisplayPortand even a single USB Type-C port.

Unfortunately, there’s a sheer lack of upgradeabilitythat comes with the territory of buying a PC like this.That wouldn’t be such a problem if the parts it camewith were more impressive, but the HP PavilionWave tops off at a Core i5 processor and 8GB ofRAM with no option for an SSD in sight.

The tiny computer that can

When we reviewed the original Intel Compute Stick,we were undeniably disappointed by its lacklusterperformance and ostensibly unnecessary fanintegration. Well over a year later, Intel hasaddressed both of these complaints with one majorchange: the switch to the company’s Core M-seriesprocessors.

Whether you’re appeased by the Core m3 or youneed the slight bump in power exhibited by theCore m5, the Intel Compute Stick offers a solution.Of course, it’s still not ideal to pack a fan into a tiny

dongle, especially when the Core M CPUs weredesigned with noise elimination in mind.

But, the Intel Compute Stick still maintains a costlow enough to where it may not matter if it doesn’trun completely silent. Its tiny form factor andpowerful (for the price) CPU is enough to tide youover nonetheless.

Read the full review: Intel Compute Stick

A micro PC which you can mount on the back ofyour display

Lenovo is in the business of, well, business and theIdeaCentre 710 is no exception. Stacked with oneof the most powerful Skylake processors on themarket combined with a discrete GPU of yourchoosing as well as your preferred hard drive andsolid state drive pairing, the Lenovo IdeaCentre710 is one of the best work PCs on the market.

It’s especially great if your job requires high-endgraphics rendering such as 3D animation or videoproduction. Although it’s far from being a gamingPC without limits, the IdeaCentre 710 can handle

some light- to medium-weight gaming. Don’t expectto run Battlefield at the highest settings in 1080p,but the IdeaCentre 710 is still far more capable thanit has any right to be – and without beingovershadowed by a hefty price tag.

The only complaint we have is that for such a high-quality machine, the Lenovo IdeaCentre 710 shipswith Windows 10 Home rather than Windows 10Pro, so you’ll need to upgrade manually if you wantthe option to full remote control of your PC or theoption to defer updates.

An easy to use and excellent value all-in-one

Chromebooks are Google's reaction to cheaplaptops that can barely run Windows 10 but, forwhatever reason, still do. As such, there's noreason the Chromebook operating system, ChromeOS, can't be applied to all-in-one PCs as well.That's the logic behind Acer's Chromebase 24, apowerful performer with some nifty additives.

Being an all-in-one, it bears the same benefits asApple's far more expensive iMac – no need forloose cables spread across the floor. The speakers

(of which there are two, along with four mics) arebuilt into the display, which itself extends from thecomputer it contains.

Chrome OS is cleverly designed to work with filesstored in the cloud rather than locally, as GoogleApps substitutes Microsoft Office. It takes somegetting used to, but once you do get into the swingof things, the Acer Chromebook 24 works, and itworks well.

Best gaming PC: 7 of the top rigs youcan buy in 2016

feedproxy.google.com

2016-11-16 14:06 By feedproxy.google.com

51 /223 0.0

CA CEO: "The old investmentmap is failing" (0.01/7)

Agility will be key to the success of the fourthindustrial revolution, according to CA Technologies'

CEO Mike Gregoire, who said that the industrystands "at the centre of a global businessrevolution. "

Speaking at the company's annual conference CAWorld in Las Vegas today, Gregoire emphasisedhow much traditional business models havechanged, and said that the pace of this change isonly likely to increase in the future.

"In the old days, you set your strategy and executedit over years. Competitive advantages wereachievable aver long periods of time," he toldattendees. "Today, time is compressed. The oldinvestment map is failing. "

"In the old model, you might take two years todevelop a product that has a five-year lifespan.Today, with technology changing so fast, that five-year lifespan might be two, or even less. Thatmeans you have to innovate faster, withcompressed lifecycles. "

While Netflix, Uber and AirBnB are traditionally theposter-children for the app economy, Gregoirepointed to Tesla and Dominos as key examples towatch and emulate. Half of Dominos sales nowcome through online platforms, he revealed, andexperimentation around new innovations such asemoji and voice-control ordering have propelledthe company to impressive levels of growth.

Business agility is about more than just technologyand tools, however, according to Gregoire. Hepointed out that it also involves a substantialcultural change. Companies need to be 'built tochange', he said, and adopt new attitudes to thefundamentals of business.

"Inside these built-to-change companies,management is different," he said. "For one, thing,

they bet on people. Teams are celebrated, not theindividual. The vibe is collaborative, nothierarchical. Processing is in parallel, not linear. "

"If you want to build a company that's built to last,you'd better built it to change. A company thatunderstands the value of risk taking, a companythat seeks step-changes, instead of incrementalimprovements... an agile company: top to bottom. "

"The old investment map is failing",says CA CEOitpro.co.uk

2016-11-16 16:54 Adam Shepherd www.itpro.co.uk

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The best free FTP client 2016 (0.01/7)

It may feel like something of a blast from the past,but file transfer protocol (FTP) software still has itsplace.

Once an essential tool in every webmaster's toolkit,FTP clients can be used to upload, download andtransfer files between PCs and web servers. Many(if not most) web hosts now provide online websitecreation tools that eliminate the need for an FTPclient, and a large proportion of WYSIWYG HTMLeditors also include upload capabilities. Despitethis, however, FTP is far from dead.

While used far less than in the past, FTP clientsoffer an unparalleled level of control over not onlythe upload and download of files, but also theaccess permissions for files and folders. Thesoftware may not be as popular as it once was, but

there's a still a wide choice out there. Here's ourpick of the best.

One of the best known free FTP clients out there,FileZilla has earned itself a great reputation overthe years - and for good reason. If you're using it toupload large files to your website (or to any server,for that matter), you'll appreciate not only the securetransfer option, but also the ability to pause andresume uploads and downloads.

For anyone who works with multiple sites orservers, bookmarking is a great timesaver. Themulti-pane interface might seem a little excessive tostart with, but it's something you soon get used to,and it makes to very easy navigation of remotesites. What's particularly pleasing, however, is thefact that the interface is incredibly customizable, soif there's something you don’t like, you can probablychange it. A word of warning, however - watch outfor the bundled software so you can opt out of itduring the installation if you want to.

Download here: FileZilla

A cut-down version of Core FTP Pro, Core FTP LE

still has a great deal to offer, and it should be morethan capable of handling your file transfer needs.

Core FTP LE looks a bit dated, but that's unlikely tobe a deciding factor when you're picking an FTPclient, and there are plenty of different views to workwith according to your preferences. What is a slightproblem, however, is the nag screen that remindsyou every time you start the program that it cannotbe used for commercial purposes.

Some features are exclusive to the Pro version,such as thumbnails, enhanced FTP scheduling andencryption and decryption, but Core FTP LE isn'tshort of useful extras. With browser integration,remote file editing, pause and resume of filetransfers and support for proxies, firewalls, andhtaccess and htpasswd editing, it's highlyaccomplished free FTP client that's well worthchecking out.

Download here: Core FTP LE

FireFTP is a little different from the other FTP clientsin this roundup because it is not a standaloneapplication. Instead it is a plugin for Firefox,

bringing FTP functionality to Mozilla's web browser.This is a bog bonus if you are an existing Firefoxuser, but is it reason enough to switch browsers ifyour allegiances lie elsewhere?

Although you might feel that using a browserextension as an FTP client would mean makingcompromises, FireFTP is on a par with all of theother tools in this roundup. The beauty of thisparticular FTP client is that it is cross-platform -- ifyou can install Firefox, you can install FireFTP. Youcan use it to manage multiple sites, and drag anddrop support is present even though this is anextension. Importantly, there is SSL/TLS encryptionand remote editing, as well as folder comparison forchecking what changes you are yet to upload.

Download here: FireFTP

Like Core FTP LE, Free FTP is getting on a bit, butthat's no reason to overlook it. This free client wasdeveloped by CoffeeCup Software - a softwarecompany best known for its superb free HTMLeditor - so being a few years old isn't a problem inthe slightest.

Although this isn't an FTP client aimed at powerusers, it has everything you need for day-to-day filetransfers, including SSH transfers, file editing, andpermission editing.

The interface is customizable, but it is also plaguedby ads that encourage you to upgrade to a paid-forversion of the program. If you can turn a blind eye tothis, you'll get on well with the program even if notevery feature is completely intuitive. As well asmore hardcore features such as the terminal, FreeFTP includes a great option for anyone with awebsite -- one-click backup with the Archivefeature.

Download here: Free FTP

One of the great things about WinSCP is that it isavailable not only as a standard, installableprogram, but also as a portable app. This is greatfor anyone who regularly finds themselves workingon different computers, as the software can bepopped onto a USB drive and moved from machineto machine complete with all your files and settings.WinSCP is still being actively developed and

updated, so don't be put off by its retro looks; it's asuperb modern FTP client.

The name derives from the fact that the programsupport not just FTP and SFTP, but also SCP.Switching to Commander view provides access to awealth of advanced options, but this does make theinterface a little cluttered and overwhelming; it's adelicate balancing act between power andusability.

Download here: WinSCP

Best free iPad games 2016feedproxy.google.com

2016-11-16 12:58 By feedproxy.google.com

53 /223 4.8

Meet Cisco’s Founders Forummembers (0.01/7)

Cisco has acquired 193 companies over its history,

Cisco has acquired 193 companies over its history,

and in an effort to retain as much talent from itsbuyouts as possible, the company has created aFounders Forum consisting of 46 entrepreneurswho started and/or led businesses Cisco haspurchased. These creative minds meet quarterly toshare ideas. Here is a sampling of the members,who are listed alphabetically by acquired companyname.

MORE: 4 Cool Action Items From Cisco IdeationSession | Cisco Founders Forum: One creativeway to keep & energize acquired talent

Currently: Product Manager, Innovation Labs and

Emerging Products

Previously: CEO & Co-Founder of Assemblage(collaboration tools)

Acquisition: June 2014

Currently: Director of Customer Success & LancopeOperations

Previously: COO & CFO of Lancope (networkbehavior analytics/threat visibility/securityintelligence)

Acquisition: December 2015

Currently: Lead Evangelist for Cisco CloudCollaboration Technologies

Previously: CEO and Co-Founder ofCollaborate.com (mobile collaboration)

Acquisition: December 2013

Currently: VP & GM for Spark Call, HCS, HybridCalling, Spark for Developers & Tropo

Previously: CEO of Tropo (cloud API platform forembedding real-time communications in apps)

Acquisition: May 2015

Currently: Kamity is Senior Director, Head ofCisco’s Container Products; Padala is PrincipalEngineer, Chief Architect of Cisco’s ContainerProducts

Previously: CEO & Co-Founder (Kamity); CTO &Co-Founder (Padala ) of ContainerX (containermanagement/integration)

Acquisition: August 2016

Currently: Strategy, Product Management andDesign for Cisco’s Service Provider Video BusinessUnit

Previously: CEO of 1 Mainstream (cloud-basedvideo)

Acquisition: November 2015

Currently: EVP of Engineering and Operations of

OpenDNS

Previously: Founder of Reactivity (web servicessecurity)

Acquisition: August 2015

Currently: Engineering Manager of Search

Previously: CEO & Co-Founder of Synata(advanced on-premise and cloud search)

Acquisition: March 2016

Currently: Senior Director, Security Business GroupPreviously: CEO & Co-Founder of ThreatGRID(malware analysis/threat intelligence)

Acquisition: May 2014

Cisco Founders Forum: Onecreative way to keep & energize

talentitnews.com

2016-11-16 11:39 Bob Brown www.itnews.com

54 /223 0.0

ZapBox: $30 'mixed reality'headset sets sights onMicrosoft HoloLens

(0.01/7)

AUGMENTED REALITY (AR) firm Zappar haslaunched the ZapBox, a $30 (around £25) mixed-reality (MR) headset that has its sights set firmly onMicrosoft's HoloLens.

At 25 quid, the ZapBox doesn't have all of the bellsand whistles seen on Microsoft's AR headset, butthe firm claimed that, unlike HoloLens, it's the firstdevice that makes mixed-reality accessible andaffordable for all.

Caspar Thykier, Zappar CEO and co-founder, said:"Here at Zappar, our goal has always been to makeAR, VR and now MR available to everyone.

"We've worked tirelessly to ensure all elements ofZapBox, from app to cardboard components, aresimple and affordable but most importantly deliverawe-inspiring experiences. This all started whenwe said to ourselves: 'Could we make Magic Leap,Magic Cheap?’ ZapBox is our answer to thatquestion. "

ZapBox comprises a cardboard headset, cardboardcontrollers, a set of 'pointcodes' and a companionapp.

This app displays a live feed from yoursmartphone’s camera, and overlays virtual objectsusing the bundled pointcodes - markers that youattach to surfaces so that ZapBox can work out your

position in the room.

They'll be a bunch of bundled experiences atlaunch, including a painting app for creatingdoodles in 3D space, a mini-golf game, axylophone, a Mars exploration experience and adancing mini-game described as "Wii Fit meetsbrain training. "

ZapBox is also fully open to developers, andZappar is giving backers full access to Zappar'sSDK, ZapWorks, which is designed to alloweveryone from hobbyists to professional designersto create content for ZapBox.

"Using our ZapWorks platform we’re empoweringthe creative community so they can make their ownexperiences and easily share them with ZapBoxusers, straight into the ZapBox app - there’s noneed to submit and manage separate appsubmissions for each piece of content," the firmsaid.

ZapBox supports most smartphones, butrecommends a screen of at least 4.5in with aresolution of 720p. It works with the iPhone 6 and

above (excluding the iPhone SE), and work withAndroid devices running Android 4.1 or later.

ZapBox is available to back on Kickstarter , withlimited early bird pledge levels starting from $25,which includes a cardboard headset, handheldcontrollers and pointcodes, ready for delivery by 20March. The firm is looking to reach $30,000 infunding. µ

OnePlus 3T official with Snapdragon821, 3,400mAh battery and, er,

Android 6.0theinquirer.net

2016-11-16 10:01 Carly Page www.theinquirer.net

55 /223 2.1

Enterprise Uganda set toshine a light on ICT andEntrepreneurship at GEWConference (0.01/7)

As part of the Global Entrepreneurship Week,Enterprise Uganda has put the focus on InformationCommunication Technology to highlight the dualrole that ICT plays in the entrepreneurshipworkspace.

“ICT is one of those silent key success factors for abusiness these days. Every business needs ICT tosurvive and grow. Be it in marketing through socialmedia or book keeping or even clearcommunication, entrepreneurs cannot do withoutICT. ” Says Mrs Mary Odongo of Enteprise Uganda.

“The second factor of ICT in business is that in itself,

it is business. We have different entrepreneurs whohave a made a living out if ICT. Both softwaredevelopers and hardware specialists are making itas ICT entrepreneurs.”

Against this background , Enterprise Uganda hasorganised a series of events and talks to showcaseICT. One of the panels at the GEW conference willbe dedicated to discussing the opportunities andchallenges that ICT provides to small businessesand young entrepreneurs. The National IT Authoritywill provide free internet wifi to entrepreneurs toshow them to use it grow their businesses. As thecost of ICT software and equipment falls,sophisticated ICT tools are no longer only availableto big multinational organisations. These tools arenow affordable and sometimes free to anyone whoknows about them. There will be a number oforganisations at the entrepreneurship conferencewho will be providing ICT solutions toentrepreneurs.

“We shall give away ten free accounting packagesto ten lucky entrepreneurs and SMEs at the GEWconference,” says Audrey , CEO of Victorium

Holdings.

In addition, Enterprise Uganda has partnered withNFT Mawazo, Makerere to provide a full day of ICTrelated trainings to entrepreneurs on Saturday 19 thNovember. The first event is a talk entitled “3 GreatApps from Uganda ” which will feature three apps atdifferent stages of development and the challengesfaced at each stage by the developers.

The second event is Digital Training forentrepreneurs provided by ICDL which will providefree training to aspiring entrepreneurs on differentICT packages and skills they can be leveraging intheir business.

The third event will be a training by NFT on howyouth start the process of becoming ICTentrepreneurs.

The final event of the day will be a mobile labtraining by Kibo Foundation on how to use ICThardware in business.

“These initiatives are not stopping with GEW,” saysBusinge Abid Weere of Enterprise Uganda. “We are

forming a super-group of innovation hubs whereentrepreneurs can go to look for ICT solutions andwhere ICT entrepreneurs can go for guidance. Thegroup will be headed by the three innovation hubsof Venture hub bugolobi , Innovations VillageNtinda and NFT MAwazo Makerere.”

The GEW conference is on the 17 th and 18 thNovember 2016 at Mulwana Hall , UMAshowground.

Enterprise Uganda gears up forGlobal Entrepreneurship Week

Conferencepctechmag.com

2016-11-16 04:46 Jeddy Genrwot pctechmag.com

56 /223 1.4

Dell Data Protection SecureLifecycle Thwarts Cyber-Threats

Daily Video: Dell data protection defends againstexternal, insider threats; Microsoft OutlookCustomer Manager helps SMBs track tasks,contacts; Microsoft data center bets big on windpower; and there's more.

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Read more about the stories in today's news: DellData Protection Defends Against External, InsiderThreats Microsoft Outlook Customer ManagerHelps SMBs Track Tasks, Contacts Microsoft DataCenter Bets Big on Wind Power Revamped GooglePlay Music to Use Machine Learning to SuggestSongs

Today's topics include Dell’s introduction of its Data

Protection Secure Lifecycle security product,Microsoft’s release of the Outlook CustomerManager for small businesses, Microsoft’s deal witha wind power generation company to providerenewable energy for its Wyoming data center andhow Google is implementing machine learning inits Play Music service.

Dell is expanding its data protection softwareportfolio with a new encryption tool that promises tohelp organizations protect data as it moves acrossdevices and companies.

The new product, announced Nov. 15, is called DellData Protection Secure Lifecycle, and has some ofits roots in data protection software that Dell gainedthrough its 2012 acquisition of Credant.

Internal threats can come from employees orpartners that might not have malicious intent, butcould still potentially be a risk to inadvertently leaksensitive data. Hansen explained that Dell itself hasa real need to maintain secure data lifecycle as thecompany builds its roadmaps and collaborates withexternal partners.

Microsoft today took the wraps off OutlookCustomer Manager, a new software tool for Office365 small business customers that enables them tokeep track of their customer communications andengagement directly within the email client.

While viewing an email from a customer, OutlookCustomer Manager collects emails, calls, meetings,Office files, deadlines, tasks and other relatedcontent into a timeline. It appears as an additionalpane in the Outlook interface, right alongside theinbox.

The new tool is being billed as a major time-saver,helping busy entrepreneurs reclaim hours lost todigging up customer information as they go abouttheir workweek.

Microsoft's quest to build a "responsible cloud" tooka gusty turn today. Currently, 44 percent ofelectricity consumed by Microsoft's cloud datacenters comes from renewable energy sources.

By 2018, the Redmond, Wash. technology gianthopes to bump that figure up to 50 percent, a goalthat has become more attainable with a new energy

deal announced today.

Brad Smith, president and chief legal officer atMicrosoft, announced a 237-megawatt wind energypurchase, the largest deal of its kind for thecompany. It will allow Microsoft's Cheyenne, Wyo.data center to run completely on renewable energy.The bulk of the electricity, or 178 megawatts, isproduced at the Bloom Wind Project in Kansas, aspart of a 10-year agreement with Allianz RiskTransfer. The Happy Jack and Silver Sage windfarms, both located in Wyoming, are supplying theremaining 59 megawatts.

Google uses machine-learning technologies inmultiple applications including Translate, Photosand Inbox by Gmail. Starting this week, thecompany's Google Play Music streaming servicewill begin to use it, as well.

Google's newly revamped Google Play Music willleverage machine learning techniques to discernan individual listener's music tastes andpreferences. The app will then combine otherfactors like time of the day, user location, activity

and weather to suggest what it judges to be themost appropriate music for that situation.

Google Play Music will serve up different,customized playlists depending on whether thelistener is at work, relaxing at home, working out,flying, or in the library.

2016-11-16 19:20 eWEEK Staff www.eweek.com

57 /223 2.3

SSL Labs To EncourageModern Crypto Adoption With2017 Grading Changes

SSL Labs , a security grading website that’s wellknown among developers and operators ofwebsites that use HTTPS encryption, announcednew plans to tighten up its grading rules for 2017.The group behind it hopes this will encourage morewebsites to adopt more modern encryption.

SSL Labs gives websites that use HTTPSencryption grades based on the encryptionprotocols and algorithms they use. For instance, if

they use 15-year-old deprecated protocols, smallencryption key sizes, or protocols that can behacked, they may receive an "F", whereas if theyadopt the latest, strongest encryption and protocols,they may get an A or A+.

This sort of grading is making it a little easier forwebsite developers to analyze at a glance just howstrong their website’s encryption is. At the sametime, it encourages them to strive for better grades,which leads to better security for their websites andfor their users.

With TLS 1.3 around the corner, and with all therecent weaknesses found in TLS protocols, Qualys ,the cloud security company behind the SSL Labs, isplanning to implement new changes for its gradingto better represent the new environment. Thatmeans sites that want to get an A or A+ in 2017 willhave to adopt more modern protocols if they want tomaintain their existing high grades.

For starters, sites that still use the two-decade-old3DES protocol with the TLS 1.1 protocol or higherwill be limited to grade C. However, if they keep the3DES cipher suite at the end of their cipher suitelist, which should minimize the times it’s used, thewebsites will not be penalized.

Those who hope to get an A will have to useforward secrecy, or key rotation, for their site’sencryption. This security feature was quicklyadopted post-Snowden revelations, because it’s arelatively effective way to reduce the damage doneby sophisticated attackers who want to employmass surveillance. Instead of having to steal aservice’s encryption key every two years, they mayhave to steal it every two weeks, or even more often

than that, depending on how websites configuretheir forward security.

AEAD (Authenticated Encryption with AssociatedData) cipher suites will be required for the A+grade. Currently, SSL Labs doesn’t grade the useof AEAD suites in any way, but it wishes to correctthis. This change also matches the arrival of TLS1.3 , which uses nothing but AEAD suites such asChaCha20-Poly1305 and AES-GCM. Qualys alsonoted that AEAD suites will eventually be requiredfor grade A, as well.

Over the past couple of years, we saw severaldowngrade attacks that took advantage of protocolsonce mandated by the U. S. government underexport controls, or simply outdated protocols thatwere still in use for no good reason.

A new defense that protects against downgradeattacks and was introduced last year is called “TLSFallback Signaling Cipher Suite Value (SCSV) forPreventing Protocol Downgrade Attacks.” Sincethen, over 66% of servers already support it.

The SSL Labs test will now require its support if

websites want to get A+. Qualys called outMicrosoft’s IIS server software for not yet supportingthis protection feature. As TLS 1.3, which is moreprotected against downgrade attacks, becomesmore adopted, Qualys believes it would eventuallyeliminate the requirement to support thisTLS_FALLBACK_SCSV feature.

All websites that use sub-128-bit ciphers will begiven grade F. Servers that continue to use the RC4cipher will be capped at C. As most web browsershave already promised, the use of the SHA1hashing function will no longer be seen as securestarting in 2017, and SSL Labs will reflect thisindustry agreement, as well.

Qualy is already looking forward to a few morechanges that would arrive in the “mid-term.” Theseinclude:

2016-11-16 19:00 Security News www.tomshardware.com

58 /223 3.8

Frontier DevelopmentsReveals 'Planet Coaster'Launch Trailer Ahead OfRelease

In a little over a year , Frontier Developments, theteam behind Elite: Dangerous , has finishedanother game called Planet Coaster. Unlike themassive spaceflight sandbox game, Planet Coasteris more down to earth (pun intended) where you’rein charge of creating your own theme park. Thegame doesn’t come out until tomorrow, but thedevelopers created one more trailer to celebratethe launch.

Planet Coaster Laumch Trailer

Planet Coaster is based on three principals: create,manage, and share. When you first see your park,it’s obviously empty. However, you can sculpt theterrain to fit your needs and build sidewalks, shops,and rides from scratch. You can also grab assetsfrom other players if you don’t want to spend toomuch time creating the park.

Once your theme park is up and running, you’llhave to manage it. This includes hiring workers tokeep the park clean and creating different rides sothat attendees of all ages are happy when they visit.You’ll also need to create some revenue so a fewwell-placed shops will let people buy souvenirs orfood.

The shift to a theme park simulator after a game likeElite: Dangerous might seem strange, but for thedevelopers, the timing is perfect. When weinterviewed senior producer Rich Newbold andlead designer Andy Fletcher at Gamescom , theduo said that the rise in popularity in the simulationgenre as well as the advancements in game

creation meant that Frontier Developments waswilling to give them creative freedom to make a newtheme park simulation title.

2016-11-16 18:40 Gaming News www.tomshardware.com

59 /223 1.9

Antivirus Vendors AreWatching Kaspersky,Microsoft Battle Closely -Page: 1

As Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab looks to take onMicrosoft for alleged antitrust violations, some otherantivirus vendors say they are watching thesituation closely to see if they also need to step in.

Late last week, Kaspersky Lab came out swingingagainst Microsoft, saying that its latest operatingsystem updates allegedly prioritize WindowsDefender over third-party antivirus vendors in a waythat shuts them out illegally. In a blog post , CEOEugene Kaspersky accused Microsoft of "graduallysqueezing independent developers out of theWindows ecosystem," something he said was to the

detriment of customers who want more effectivesecurity solutions.

On Friday, the Russian antitrust authority openedan investigation into the issue, saying it will lookinto whether Microsoft violated country laws thatprohibit companies from using their market positionto prevent competitors from operating against them.

[Related: Kaspersky Takes Aim At Microsoft,Alleging Antitrust Violations Around Anti-Virus AndWindows 10 Updates ]

In an email to CRN, Symantec General Managerand Executive Vice President, Norton, Fran Roschsaid the company has been watching the evolvingsituation with Microsoft very closely.

“We’ve been looking into this situation for monthsand what we’re seeing is concerning for consumerchoice and protection," Rosch said.

Rosch said customers are demanding best-in-classsecurity solutions and should be allowed thefreedom of choice when it comes to selectingvendors.

"We believe that consumers should have theflexibility to freely choose their security solutions.Norton is taking action to ensure our customerscontinue to have the best protection and securityperformance available," Rosch said.

In an email to CRN, Sophos Senior Vice President,Enduser Security Group and Network Security

Group Dan Schiappa said that U. K.-based Sophos,which sells anti-virus solutions among many otherproducts, will be watching the situation betweenKaspersky and Microsoft closely.

“I am sure there is more to this story than meets theeye – on both sides. We will watch with interest,"Schiappa said.

2016-11-16 18:35 Sarah Kuranda www.crn.com

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Twitter adds QR codes forsome reason

Following letters from Congress requesting the

FCC refrain from any “controversial” moves beforeTrump takes office and a new Congress meets, theagency announced today that it has removed all ofthe major items from a meeting set for tomorrow.

A...

In the days leading up to and following this election,Facebook has been called lots of things — "awebsite," "an internet company," "a major player inthe media universe," "a strange new class of mediaoutlet," a "tech behemoth," a "cesspool of...

A new stick-on wearable sensor uses thesymphony of internal rumblings, whooshing,gurglings, and cracklings to help doctors diagnosedifferent conditions. And this souped-up,miniaturized stethoscope could one day be a wayfor clinicians to...

Highly anticipated Japanese RPG Persona 5 hasbeen delayed by a few months. The English versionwas originally scheduled to launch on Valentine’sDay, but is now slated for an April 4th release. (Itlaunched in Japan back in September.)

“We wanted...

President-elect Donald Trump’s chief strategistseems to think there are too many immigrantsleading Silicon Valley. Steve Bannon, whopreviously served as Breitbart News Network’sexecutive chairman, hinted at some of his views onforeign workers...

Prince’s estate is suing Roc Nation for copyrightinfringement, claiming that Tidal does not havepermission to stream large portions of Prince’scatalog. The lawsuit, first reported by theStarTribune, accuses Jay Z’s company of illegallyadding 1...

2016-11-16 18:26 Casey Newton www.theverge.com

61 /223 1.6

FCC cancels meeting plansafter Congress tells them toprepare for Trump

In the days leading up to and following this election,Facebook has been called lots of things — "a

website," "an internet company," "a major player inthe media universe," "a strange new class of mediaoutlet," a "tech behemoth," a "cesspool of...

A new stick-on wearable sensor uses thesymphony of internal rumblings, whooshing,gurglings, and cracklings to help doctors diagnosedifferent conditions. And this souped-up,miniaturized stethoscope could one day be a wayfor clinicians to...

Highly anticipated Japanese RPG Persona 5 hasbeen delayed by a few months. The English versionwas originally scheduled to launch on Valentine’sDay, but is now slated for an April 4th release. (It

launched in Japan back in September.)

“We wanted...

President-elect Donald Trump’s chief strategistseems to think there are too many immigrantsleading Silicon Valley. Steve Bannon, whopreviously served as Breitbart News Network’sexecutive chairman, hinted at some of his views onforeign workers...

Prince’s estate is suing Roc Nation for copyrightinfringement, claiming that Tidal does not havepermission to stream large portions of Prince’scatalog. The lawsuit, first reported by theStarTribune, accuses Jay Z’s company of illegallyadding 1...

Imagine if every newspaper came with a mandatoryT-shirt. Suddenly, that tabloid you paged throughout of curiosity becomes part of your identity. Youhave to explain to friends that despite being awalking billboard, you don’t actually agree with...

2016-11-16 18:22 Colin Lecher www.theverge.com

62 /223 1.8

46% off VIAIR 85P Portable AirCompressor - Deal Alert

Maintaining proper tire pressure improves gasmileage and the lifespan of your tires, and also cutsdown on the likelihood of a blowout or theunexpected flat that may leave you stranded. TheViair 85P is a small 12-volt portable air compressorwith a built-in LED work light that lets you inflateyour vehicle's tires quickly and quietly by simplyplugging it into your vehicle's power port (cigarettelighter adapter). It's small enough to keep in your

trunk, and features a 10-foot cord, a built-inpressure guage, and a max working pressure of60psi. It averages 4.5 out of 5 stars from over 1,300people ( read reviews ). Currently discounted 46%off its list price of $69.93, putting it at just $38. See itnow on Amazon.

2016-11-16 18:20 DealPost Team www.infoworld.com

63 /223 0.4

The Chevrolet Colorado ZR2employs Formula 1 shockabsorber tech

LOS ANGELES — The 2017 Chevrolet ColoradoZR2 should be equally at home going off-road ordriving around town, thanks to special shockabsorbers that have been used in Formula 1 racingand just four other production cars before this. Theshocks use multiple chambers that are tuned for off-road driving on rocks where long suspension travelis necessary, and on paved roads where comfort isimportant if the Colorado is to be used for day-to-day driving. The ZR2 edition was unveiled thisweek at the opening of the Los Angeles Auto Show.

The Colorado ZR2 uses a shock absorber

technology called DSSV, or Dynamic SuspensionsSpool Valve, damper technology, developed by aToronto engineering firm, Multimatic. It’s Chevy’sentry in the resurgent market for midsize pickuptrucks.

The suspension on most cars comprises a spring ateach wheel that holds the vehicle up (the black coilin the adjacent photo), and a damper, or shockabsorber. When the car hits a bump, the springcompresses then rebounds. (Technically, the springis the component that absorbs the shock.) Thecylindrical shock absorber has a piston, or valve,inside. Holes drilled in the piston let the shockabsorber fluid flow through the piston, then backagain, and damp (not dampen) the oscillation of thesprings. Bigger holes let the fluid flow throughquickly and make for a smoother ride. But thesuspension might reach the end of its travel and thevehicle bottoms out (not good for the car and yourspine on a bumpy unpaved road at speed); smallerholes resist resist motion better at the expense of acomfortable ride. That’s the case with the mostcommon shock absorber, using what’s called adeflected disk valve.

The DSSV shock absorber uses a precision-machined spool valve instead. Chevrolet says twospool valves (per shock absorber) are tuned for apliant ride for on-road conditions and for off-roaduse under extreme conditions (that is, not justdriving 10 mph on a dirt road). At the front wheels, athird cylinder deals only with suspension rebound,extending to full height after hitting a bump. Thatgives the ZR2 four force-velocity curves (velocity ofthe shock absorber piston) for tuning versus two fora traditional shock, six curves for the front wheels.The Multimatic shocks use aluminum bodies forheat dissipation and to reduce the vehicles’sweight.

Chevrolet said the Multimatic shocks make moresense for the on- and 0ff-road personality than theMagneride shocks pioneered by GM’s partssupplier affiliate Delphi 15 years ago; Magnerideshocks control stiffness by charging metallicparticles in the shock fluid. When angled or turnedsideways, the shock can go almost instantly fromsoft to firm to stiff. The Multimatic DSSV shocks aremechanically controlled; no electronics involved.

For the ZR2 introduction, Chevrolet built a miniatureoff-road obstacle course at a run-down warehouseon the edge of LA’s arts district. (Parts of theDiCaprio-Damon-Nicholson 2006 movie TheDeparted were filmed there.) I rode shotgun in aColorado ZR2 with a diesel engine. There werelarge speed bumps where front then rear axleswere stressed, alternating bumps where eachwheel was affected, a simulated railroad crossing(more like a launch pad), a hill climb with rollersplaced so traction fell from four to two wheels toone, and offset obstacles. With the speed bumps,the ZR2 hit hard as the front shocks compressedand I expected to hit my head on the roof onrebound, but it never happened. Between theobstacle sections on the dirt-and-packed gravelparking lot, the ZR2 felt as docile as a pickup notintended for serious off-road work.

The hill climb ramp was so steep — 30 degrees ofelevation — that the Colorado’s big hood obscurednot just the ramp but even parts of the evening sky.When we started to lose traction, my test driverstopped briefly and pressed a button (photo right)under the center stack head unit that locked the

front wheels. When the rear wheels started to slip,he pressed the adjacent button and locked them.When a third set of rollers made all but a singlewheel slip, he locked front and rear wheels and weeffectively did a single-arm chin-up to reach the topof the ramp.

Oddly, the Colorado did not have a front camera,something that has become popular for trucks thatgo off-road. It beats having the passenger gettingout and telling you whether or not you’re headedstraight when going up a hill. As with any other-road vehicle, you’ll need a guide to see whenyou’re going over big individual rocks unless youconsider yourself lucky. As Car and Driver editorDavid E. Davis once noted years ago: Four-wheeldrive means you can go farther in the woods beforeyou get stuck.

Chevrolet’s goal is to build a premium midsizepickup that is equally capable of going off-road,carrying a payload, or daily commuting. There arecab configurations that make both front and rearseat passengers comfortable on longer trips. TheZR2’s only compromise is that it will carry a

noticeable price premium. Pricing won’t be set untiljust before first shipments in a couple months.

The ride height was raised two inches, the track(width of the centerlines of the wheels) increased3.5 inches, it was outfitted with 31-inch (tire notwheel) diameter Goodyear Duratec off-road tiresthat will be noisier on paved roads, skid plates wereadded, and the front bumper was reshaped to avoidgetting hung up approaching obstacles. You caneven order a kit to move the spare tire from underthe truck to the cargo bed. Inside, the traditionalColorado options are available, including 4G LTEWi-Fi.

The new generation Colorado is the second best-selling midsize pickup, behind only the ToyotaTacoma, and may hit 100,000 sales this year. (Thebigger Chevrolet Silverado pickup has five timesthe sales.) Midsize pickups are experiencing acomeback in sales and most models have beenrefreshed or fully renewed in the past two years:Tacoma, Colorado, Nissan Frontier, HondaRidgeline, and GMC Colorado (essentially similarto Colorado). Compared to passenger cars, these

midsize pickups are pretty full-size with lengths thatcan go over 200 inches with crew cab or long bedvariants.

The Colorado ZR2 appears poised to be the singlepickup truck off-roaders need that will also keepfamily members happy when driving on road.According to Mark Reuss, a GM executive vicepresident, “You can go rock crawling on Saturday,desert running on Sunday, and comfortably drive towork on Monday.”

2016-11-16 18:16 Bill Howard www.extremetech.com

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Power to the people: Solarpanel sales to soon surpassleasing

Direct ownership of solar power panels willovertake third-party ownership next year as moreconsumers are choosing to buy, rather than lease,their panels.

According to GTM Research's latest report, U. S.

Residential Solar Financing 2016-2021 , 55% of allU. S. residential solar capacity installed in 2017 willbe purchased by customers paying either in cash,or through a solar loan financing arrangement; thatnumber is expected to grow to 73% of all solarsystems installed in 2021.

Residential TPO Penetration and Installations byOwnership Type from 2001 through 2021

Third-party ownership through leases and powerpurchase agreements (PPAs) hit a five-year low of56% in the first half of 2016. Solar leasing andPPAs, which in 2014 represented 72% of all solar

installations, has been declining and is nowexpected to represent about 45% of all systemsinstalled in 2017.

GTM had previously predicted that direct ownershipof rooftop solar systems wouldn't surpass third-partyoptions until sometime after 2021.

From 2017 through 2021, consumers are expectedto spend $24.7 billion on purchasing their solarpower systems, much of which will need to befinanced with a loan, GTM said.

One popular loan comes through the government'sproperty-assessed clean energy (PACE) program; itcan be used for both solar and energy-efficiencyimprovements and is repaid as an assessment onthe customer's property tax bill.

Thirty-three states and Washington, D. C. havepassed PACE-enabling legislation, according toGTM, but there are active residential PACEprograms only in Florida, Missouri and California.California by far has the largest number of residentsusing the PACE program, which accounts for 10%of residential solar systems financed through a

loan.

The Mosaic company has also become an earlyleader in the loan market, "but we are far fromknowing which companies will dominate that spaceand which will disappear altogether," GTM said.

Vikram Aggarwal, CEO of solar system marketplaceEnergySage , has said his company's data showsthat consumers are trending away from leasing infavor of owning their solar systems, "either with aloan or with cash. "

Founded in 2009, EnergySage is similar to Expediaor Kayak in that it's a free online service that allowsusers to input their information and retrievestandardized quotes for a service -- in this case, theinstallation of a rooftop solar system. EnergySagemakes money from fees paid by solar suppliers andis part of a nascent industry that includes other,smaller players such as Geostellar Inc.

This week, EnergySage announced its firstCommunity Solar Marketplace , which allowsproperty owners and renters to research and signup for community solar farms. Like its rooftop panel

purchasing marketplace, the Community SolarMarketplace allows consumers to locate andcompare costs for multiple community solar projectsin their area.

Community solar farms, which parse out cleanenergy to a group of shareholders, have emergedas the next largest solar market in the U. S.

Over the next two years, community solar is poisedto see its market size increase seven-fold, and by2020 it will be expanding by half a billion wattsannually, according to GTM Research.

Not everything, however, is sunny for the solarindustry, and the downturn in PPAs and leases hashurt businesses that relied on them.

Workers from SolarCity install rooftop photovoltaicpanels.

After growing at more than 50% annually four yearsin a row, the U. S. residential solar market is facingnew challenges and is expected to see a slowergrowth rate of 16% this year.

Growth has slowed among all solar installationcompanies, but more so for the nation's top threeproviders: SolarCity, Vivint Solar and Sunrun.

For the first time since 2013, the three leaders willtogether install less than half the market's solarpower systems as their growth slows to just 12%.Growth among the remaining solar powerinstallation market will slow to 36% year-over-year,GTM said.

SolarCity and Vivant Solar -- the first and secondlargest solar installers in the U. S. -- have reliedheavily on PPAs and leases to grow their business.

The Raffaele Road Solar Project is a 5.7MWphotovoltaic solar project developed by BlueWaveCapital and the Clean Energy Collective at a formersand-and-gravel quarry in Plymouth, Mass. Theproject is producing 7.4 million kWh of clean energyevery year, with the City of New Bedford as theofftaker.

Until the second quarter of this year, nearly 100% ofVivint Solar's business was through PPAs andleases. But the company began offering Mosaic

loans in Utah and has expanded the loan productto all of their markets.

Vivint still installs more solar power than its closestcompetitor, Sunrun -- but the gap is closing and by2017, Sunrun is expected to become the secondlargest installer in the U. S.

Direct ownership by consumers, however,continues to drive a robust market.

"Despite declining costs and slowing growth, thetotal size of the overall market in dollar terms will be50% larger over the next five years than it has beenover the previous five years," GTM said.

2016-11-16 18:11 Lucas Mearian www.itnews.com

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Nutanix targets VMware withnetworking features

Nutanix is directly targeting competitor VMware withits latest product announcement: software-definednetworking. The vendor announced someenhancements to its software last week that make it

easier to configure network policies using software,and show administrators what’s happening insidethe virtual and physical networks in a Nutanix-controlled box.

Hyperconvergence traditionally focused oncollapsing storage and compute hardware togetherin a tightly-integrated architecture. Instead of havinga separate storage area network (SAN) to managea virtualized pool of storage, hyperconvergedappliances put the storage alongside thecomputing resource on each node.

This effectively returned to a direct-attached storagemodel, in which the storage was as close to thecompute server as possible. The difference is thatthe hypervisor controlling the nodes pools theirstorage together so that data can be distributedbetween all of them.

“The data store just gets bigger when you add anode,” explained Richard Fichera, vice-presidentand principal analyst serving infrastructure andoperations professionals at Forrester.

Adding storage to a SAN typically takes detailedconfiguration by a specialist storage administrator,but things are different with software definedstorage, he added. “It takes 15-30 minutes to add anode and half a dozen mouse clicks and then yousuddenly doubled your storage.”

Software-defined storage (SDS) takes care of thestorage pooling, but the network managing thecommunication between the virtual machines is stillconfigured on a largely manual basis. Collapsingthe network functionality into software is the nextpart of the challenge, and that’s what Nutanix

started doing last week.

Prabu Rambadran, senior director of product andtechnical marketing for Nutanix, has a vision ofbreaking down all of the silos that currently exist indata centre infrastructure.

“Compute, storage, virtualization, networking, all ofthese things are problems that have to be solved,”he said.

The company is including APIs in its Acropolishypervisor software that enable it to update third-party hardware such as top-of-rack switches andfirewalls. The idea is to define networking policiesin these devices via software, based on key eventsin the application lifecycle. When an application isdeployed, administrators may want to set anetworking policy that all its queries are routedthrough a firewall service, for example.

The API capability will ship in version 5.0 of itssoftware, and a subsequent release will support thestringing together of network services that can beused to create network flows for specificapplications. These workflows will be managed via

the Prism software.

In the next version of its Prism hypervisor, thecompany will also provide a network visualizationfeature that lets administrators see how virtualmachines are connected via the physicalnetworking cards in the system and the virtualswitches that each node uses to routecommunications.

The company is also planning to include support formicrosegmentation in a forthcoming version ofAcropolis. In a blog post on the topic, Rambadranpointed out that applications are becoming smallerand more modular. This is his hat-tip to theburgeoning microservices trend, in whichapplications are carved up into small parts that theninteract with each other over the network.

This modular application structure creates potentialsecurity risks as virtual servers exchange trafficbetween each other (known in datacentre parlanceas ‘east-west’ traffic). The networking within theNutanix-controlled box will be able to monitor andapply policies to this traffic using software firewalls.

SDN is already something that VMware hasexplored in the NSX networking product that shipsas part of its EVO Rail hyperconverged unit.

“With things like NSX you can start doing software-defined networking which will help them usestandard network interconnects to make themsmarter,” said John Abbott, founder and researchvice president at 451 Research.

SDN in products like these will enableadministrators to avoid the networking bottleneckproblems that can emerge as you scale out asystem with more nodes, he added.

2016-11-16 18:04 Danny Bradbury www.itworldcanada.com

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These 10 epic PC gamingsetups will turn you absolutelygreen

If you're a true PC games fan, you understand andrespect the pride in a player’s setup, even if youdon’t feel it yourself. If a gamer wants to show off

where they get in their frags and in what kind ofstyle, that’s fine.

That was the same kind of logic we went into"researching" this article with. That is, until we wereberated with enough of this beautiful neon imagery(Instagramery?) to feel the very same shade ofgreen you’re about to.

So, this collection below isn’t really designed tohelp you so much as it is to make the feeling worse… so that you go out, upgrade and give us moreawesome rigs to look at. We know, we’re awful –but, at least this vicious cycle of consumerism lookspretty!

Happy Halloween! � Being alone at home at thistime is creeping me out though #happyhalloween#halloween #pcmr #pc #pcgaming #pcmasterrace#battlestation #gaming #gamer #custompc#pcbuild #instatech #desktop #workstation #tech#technology #setup #inspo #inspiration #mydesk

A photo posted by @leylosim on Oct 31, 2016 at1:25pm PDT

And here's another angle of my gaming setup, whatdo you guys think?. #dell #gaming #gamingsetup#gamingpc #corsair #msi #ekwaterblocks #corei7#5820k #asus #rog #cleansetup #logitech #xspc#setupwars #setupoftheday #deadspace#deadspace3 #deadspace2 #rgb #rgbled #red#themarker #techade

A photo posted by @stanlerd11 on Nov 7, 2016 at6:41am PST

Finished this #custompc #transformers#bumblebee #watercooled #watercooling #pc#pcbuild #wallpc #computer

A photo posted by A photo posted by

@marksmanguy on on Oct 21, 2016 at 7:08pm PDTBora jogar? YouTube:youtube.com/hardwareextremeoficial Fallow:@hardwareextremeoficial #pcmr #pcmasterrace#pcbuild #battlestation #gamingpc #gamingsetup#setup #pcgaming #pcmodding #modding#computer #pc #custompc #gamer #gamers#hardware #gamingroom #pcgamer #pcgaming#jogos #hardware #hardwareextreme

A photo posted by @hardwareextremeoficial onNov 15, 2016 at 5:02pm PST

today I'm happy to announce that I have completedmy Purple Setup and I'm going to show you a seriesof photos in multiple part you can upload the pic inyour channel and spread it around you have myblessing ^_^—————————————————— part 1——————————————————#Battlestation #TechAde #officialsetups#pcgaming101 #bestgamingsetupz #pcgaming#trademarkedsetups #dreamsetups #pccrazy#pcmasterbuilds #gloriouspcsetups#pc_gaming_setups #topgamingsetup #PC

——————————————————

A photo posted by @yazeed_2d on Oct 26, 2016 at10:05am PDT

THE XENØN OFFICE - VIDEO IN BIO #xenonbuild#xenonoffice #pcsetups #pcbuilds #pclust#extremepc #sleekbuilds #nzxtbuilds#battlestations #minimalisticsetups

A photo posted by @johannesklemets on Jul 4,2016 at 5:47am PDT

Got a new desk ,painted the room got a new carpetsome lamps and more LED lights My PC Specs andPeripherals 1) Corsair 780t white full tower case 2)Intel i7 5820 processor 3)Asus x99 pro 3.1motherboard 4)G-skill 16gb DDR 4 ram 5)EVGAGeforce GPU gtx 980ti Acx 2.0 SC with bp 6)CorsairH110i cpu liquid cooler 7)2 x Samsung evo 250 gbssd 8)2 x Western Digital green 1tb hdd 9)CorsairRM 1000 power supply 10)RGB LED light strips11)Linnmon desk from ikea 12)LG 34UC87ultrawidemonitor 13)glorious PC gaming race whiteextended mouse pad 14)Razer deathadderChroma gaming mouse 15)Corsair K70 RGB

gaming keyboard 16)Alvengen Lamp from Ikea17)Segate 1 Tb External HDD with power 18)Alexdrawers from Ikea 19)Audio Technica ATH-M50X20)PS4 controller 21)Xbox one controller 22)Alexadd on unit from Ikea 23)LG sound bar NB354024)Vettora Chair 25)RGB Bulb #pcbuild #mancave#gamer #pcgaming #instatech #corsair #razer#nvidia #gforce #Asus #intel #ikea #gamingsetup#ultrawidemonitor #pcmasterrace #like4like#likeforlike #follow4follow #officialsetups#trademarkedsetups #followforfollow #gaming #pc#battlestation #gamingpc #gamers #games #rgb#pcgaming101 #minimalsetups

A photo posted by @sarz_92263 on Jul 30, 2016 at4:59pm PDT

I did it for the manga ☺� #lavalamp #anime #manga#gamingsetup #hatsunemiku #nzxt #NZXTBUILDS

A photo posted by @immarteeen on Oct 9, 2016 at4:14pm PDT

Cleared out the man cave and bought a new unitfor the PC to sit on. Need some black paint now tofinish the homemade rig. #custompc #iracer

#iracing #playseat #homemade #blancpain #ducati#ducati999rider #thrustmaster #t300 #triplescreen#twitch

A photo posted by @ducati999rider on Oct 31,2016 at 1:36am PDT

New video - The $35,000 Racing Simulator - Linkon my instagram profile page, go check out themadness ���

A photo posted by @unboxtherapy on Oct 15, 2016at 2:23pm PDT

2016-11-16 17:57 Joe Osborne feedproxy.google.com

67 /223 1.0

Apple's Jony Ive says theiPhone almost didn't happen

Apple Chief Design Officer Jonathan Ive (center)shares a laugh with actor Stephen Fry during alaunch event in September.

What would the world be like without an iPhone?We apparently came very close to an existence

without Apple's hit device.

In an interview published Tuesday by Dazed ,Apple's chief design officer Jony Ive said theproduct could have fallen through.

"There were multiple stages while we were workingon the phone when solving problems wasn'tinevitable and we really did have concerns that itwasn't viable, that it wasn't going to work," Ive said.

The iPhone became influential technology he said,

but it grew from a fragile idea. Still, that ideaprovided a roadmap to success for Apple.

"Ultimately we are able to develop hardware andsoftware together to create a singular experience,"he said.

Ive said there are plenty of ideas that Apple hasprototyped but couldn't finish because some part ofthe technology isn't fully developed yet. "So we putthings to one side, knowing that at some point wewill carry on working on them again," he said. "It'snot a question of this being right, it's just a questionof when it's right. "

Ive recently told CNET that the secret sauce inApple products isn't just creating something new;it's the push to improve.

"We don't limit ourselves in how we will push -- if it'sto a better place," Ive said. "What we won't do is justdo something different that's no better. "

2016-11-16 17:46 by www.cnet.com

68 /223 0.0

39% off LOOP InternationalTravel Plug with USB Chargingand Power Bank - Deal Alert

If you travel internationally, or know someone whodoes, this may be one to consider. LOOPElectronics travel adapter is an all-in-one travelplug that not only keeps you powered in over 150countries, but also includes dual USB chargingports and a battery backup (power bank) for whenyou need power or charging but can't locate a plug.The adapter has a built-in fuse, is made of fire-resistant materials, and comes with an 18-month

warranty. It currently averages 4 out of 5 stars from230 customers ( read reviews ). With a regular listprice of $40, it's currently discounted to just $24.45.See this discounted travel plug now on Amazon tolearn more and explore buying options.

2016-11-16 17:31 DealPost Team www.infoworld.com

69 /223 1.2

Facebook won’t call itself amedia company. Here’s how itcan still support journalism

A new stick-on wearable sensor uses thesymphony of internal rumblings, whooshing,

gurglings, and cracklings to help doctors diagnosedifferent conditions. And this souped-up,miniaturized stethoscope could one day be a wayfor clinicians to...

Highly anticipated Japanese RPG Persona 5 hasbeen delayed by a few months. The English versionwas originally scheduled to launch on Valentine’sDay, but is now slated for an April 4th release. (Itlaunched in Japan back in September.)

“We wanted...

President-elect Donald Trump’s chief strategistseems to think there are too many immigrantsleading Silicon Valley. Steve Bannon, whopreviously served as Breitbart News Network’sexecutive chairman, hinted at some of his views onforeign workers...

Prince’s estate is suing Roc Nation for copyrightinfringement, claiming that Tidal does not havepermission to stream large portions of Prince’scatalog. The lawsuit, first reported by theStarTribune, accuses Jay Z’s company of illegallyadding 1...

Imagine if every newspaper came with a mandatoryT-shirt. Suddenly, that tabloid you paged throughout of curiosity becomes part of your identity. Youhave to explain to friends that despite being awalking billboard, you don’t actually agree with...

There’s a good chance you haven’t heard of Nier,an action role-playing game released in 2010.Despite coming from Square Enix — the companybehind genre mainstays like Final Fantasy andDragon Quest — the game didn’t sell particularlywell, and...

2016-11-16 17:25 Catherine Buni www.theverge.com

70 /223 4.3

Hyundai, WaiveCar team up tooffer Ioniq EV car sharing forfree

Who's gonna turn down a free car for two hours?

Hyundai partnered with WaiveCar to make thishappen. WaiveCar is an all-electric car sharingcompany that operates on advertising dollars,

thanks to a roof-mounted digital display and vinylwraps. In the Ioniq EV's case, it's all Hyundai-related. 4G connections allow the billboards totarget ads based on time and location.

This partnership will bear fruit in early 2017, whenLos Angelinos can pick up and drive an electricIoniq absolutely free of charge. The drive is limitedto two hours, but if you're willing to pay about $6 perhour, you can keep going beyond those twofreebies. The cars are picked up and dropped off atdesignated points around Los Angeles.

This is Hyundai's first massive car-sharing effort,and it could pay off handsomely. With 150 free-to-drive electric Ioniqs rolling around Los Angelescovered in Ioniq advertisements, it'll get themessage out to a ton of people. WaiveCar hasplans to expand to three additional cities in thefuture, as well, using another 250 Ioniqs. Savesome for the dealerships!

2016-11-16 17:20 by www.cnet.com

71 /223 5.3

Hyundai's next Ioniq is a fullyautonomous concept

There's a whole lot going on in this picture, so makesure to enlarge it to get a better look at all thesystems working together on this concept.

In addition to the LiDAR, there are blind spotsensors, adaptive cruise control radar, an array ofcameras and a GPS antenna. All these componentscombine to give the Ioniq concept proper hands-offautonomy.

This concept will help drive the future of self-drivingHyundais. The automaker is currently working on itsown autonomous operating system, which it hopeswill use less computing power than currentlyrequired. That would help lower the price and makeautonomy affordable for a greater number ofbuyers.

Hyundai recently received a license to operateautonomous vehicles in Nevada. Thus, it will beoffering drives in two different autonomous Ioniqconcepts at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las

Vegas this coming January. Hyundai claims thecars are ready to deal with everything fromstoplights to off-leash dogs. The automaker iscurrently testing five different autonomous vehiclesin South Korea, as well.

2016-11-16 17:20 by www.cnet.com

72 /223 2.5

Amazon Web Services OffersTo Handle Billing For SoftwareVendor Partners - Page: 1

Amazon Web Services is looking to make software

developed by its technology partners moreaccessible by allowing customers to pay thosethird-party vendors through AWS' consolidatedpublic cloud bills.

On Wednesday, the industry's leading cloudprovider launched SaaS Subscriptions, an offeringon the AWS Marketplace that handles metering andbilling for software that AWS customers purchasefrom vendors hosting their products on AWSinfrastructure.

AWS introduced several different plans for meteringthe software spend, all based on consumptioninstead of subscription costs. "For example, you canbuy security services on a per-host basis, logprocessing on a per-GB-ingested basis, geocodingon a per-request basis, or caching on a per-GB-cached basis," wrote Jeff Barr, chief evangelist forAWS, in a blog post. "Usage charge for the servicesthat you consume will appear on your AWS bill. "

[Related: AWS Doesn't Disappoint In Amazon's Q3Earnings ]

More than 20 application developers offering a

range of products – from application developmentand monitoring, to security, databases, storage, andtax solutions – have signed up to participate inSaaS Subscriptions, Barr said.

Customers of those ISVs can manage procuringand paying for software on the AWS Marketplace,consolidating bills to Amazon and its third-partytechnology partners.

The new billing option will prove beneficial for bothcustomers and partners, said Jeff Aden, executivevice president of marketing and strategicdevelopment at 2 nd Watch, an AWS partner basedin Seattle.

"It follows a model that we offer for managed cloudservices where customers only pay for what isbeing managed, versus a percentage of AWSspend," Aden told CRN. "It should lead to lowerprices and increased adoption. "

The initial ISV partners participating in the programinclude: Alert Logic, Aspera, Avalara, Bitium,Cloudinary, Cloudyn, Datadog, Datapath, Dome9Security, Druva, HERE, NetApp, New Relic, Pitney

Bowes, Qubole, Dynatrace, Signiant, Solano Labs,Solodev, Sumo Logic, and Trend Micro.

More ISV partners are on their way, Barr said in hisblog.

2016-11-16 17:20 Joseph Tsidulko www.crn.com

73 /223 1.1

This temporary tattoo canlisten to your heart

Highly anticipated Japanese RPG Persona 5 hasbeen delayed by a few months. The English versionwas originally scheduled to launch on Valentine’sDay, but is now slated for an April 4th release. (It

launched in Japan back in September.)

“We wanted...

President-elect Donald Trump’s chief strategistseems to think there are too many immigrantsleading Silicon Valley. Steve Bannon, whopreviously served as Breitbart News Network’sexecutive chairman, hinted at some of his views onforeign workers...

Prince’s estate is suing Roc Nation for copyrightinfringement, claiming that Tidal does not havepermission to stream large portions of Prince’scatalog. The lawsuit, first reported by theStarTribune, accuses Jay Z’s company of illegallyadding 1...

Imagine if every newspaper came with a mandatoryT-shirt. Suddenly, that tabloid you paged throughout of curiosity becomes part of your identity. Youhave to explain to friends that despite being awalking billboard, you don’t actually agree with...

There’s a good chance you haven’t heard of Nier,an action role-playing game released in 2010.

Despite coming from Square Enix — the companybehind genre mainstays like Final Fantasy andDragon Quest — the game didn’t sell particularlywell, and...

In 2012, Donald Trump tweeted that climate changewas a concept invented by China to make USbusinesses less competitive. Four years later,Trump was elected president of the United States— and so China decided to address thepreposterous claim,...

2016-11-16 17:15 Rachel Becker www.theverge.com

74 /223 2.3

HPE Execs Under Pressure ToGrow Channel Business -Page: 1

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is strongly encouragingits executives focused on the channel to getpartners involved in more sales, according to VicePresident and General Manager Scott Dunsire.

“I’m getting a ton of pressure inside the company to

take our channel business from what it is today,about 70 percent, to closer to 90 percent,” Dunsiresaid.

Dunsire spoke at the recent Best of BreedConference in Atlanta, where he reassuredpartners that one year after HP’s split, the companyis more dedicated to the channel than ever. Theconference was organized by CRN's parent, TheChannel Company.

“We built our business on partners. We’re not

wavering for that. We’re only going to build ourbusiness through the channel more,” he said.

The channel model makes sense for HPE, whichhas taken on agile new markets.

“When you look at just the pressure that we have inregards to margins with our field selling costs, wecan’t afford to have 10,000 salespeople. But whenwe leverage the sales community we have theopportunity to go after much more of themarketplace,” Dunsire said.

“We’re going to be narrowly focused with our directsales team on the top 200 accounts, that leaves alot of business out there,” he said.

2016-11-16 17:03 Meghan Ottolini www.crn.com

75 /223 3.7

Lucid EV makes a cameo, andcamo'ed, appearance in LosAngeles

Here's where you can get it

The tiny $60 Nintendo entertainment system iscurrently sold out in most places, but you still mayable to snag one...eventually. Here are the placesgiving gamers hope, and those that have shut downsales.

2016-11-16 23:33 Wayne Cunningham www.cnet.com

76 /223 0.0

FAA tests antidrone tech atDenver International Airport

Drones over airports: a serious threat to safety, saysthe FAA.

Random drones buzzing over airports. If you thinkthat sounds like a terrible idea, then the FederalAviation Administration agrees with you.

To find the best tools to keep drones from messingwith your takeoffs and landings, the FAA is testingdrone-detection technology at the DenverInternational Airport, the agency said Wednesday.It's one of six tests the agency will run in an 18-

month program at various locations in the US.

"Unmanned Aircraft Systems that enter theprotected airspace around airports can poseserious threats to safety," the agency wrote in apress release published Wednesday .

The FAA didn't give details on what the drone-detection technology involves. The agency iscoordinating with other government authorities andindustry partners to run the tests, and will use thedata gathered to recommend standards for drone-spotting going forward.

"These standards will guide the selection of drone-detection systems for airports nationwide," the FAAsaid in its announcement.

The FAA has taken a wary approach to drones ,requiring, since December 21, 2015, that all dronesbe registered with the agency. What's more, peoplewho want to use small drones for commercialpurposes must petition the FAA and hold atraditional pilot's license. Those regulations wereeased slightly in June so that businesses couldoperate drones if the pilots had a remote pilot

airman certificate instead.

2016-11-16 16:55 by www.cnet.com

77 /223 0.0

Pro 140 completes theMasterLiquid CLC quartet

Some of you may have already read our review ofthe Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 240 and 280CLCs. If you have, and you'd like the same basicelements in a 140-mm form factor, Cooler Masterhas just the thing: the MasterLiquid Pro 140.

The Pro 140 comes with an aluminium radiator

packed with square-shaped fins. Cooler Mastersays the fin shape should help with heat dissipationcompared to standard designs. A pair of MasterfanAir Pressure five-bladed fans rest at both the frontand back of the radiator in a push-pullconfiguration. The radiator connects to the pumpwith a pair of tubes sheathed in nylon webbing.

Much like the bigger models, the Pro 140 is quiteeasy to install. A metal base and four bolts ensurethat buyers can do the necessary work armed onlywith a single screwdriver. The Pro 140 will clamponto Intel sockets from LGA 775 and newer, andAMD sockets as far back as FM1 and AM2. TheMasterLiquid Pro 140 isn't showing up in CoolerMaster's store yet, but its price shouldn't be too faroff from the Pro 120's $99.99.

2016-11-16 16:54 by Bruno techreport.com

78 /223 0.6

Persona 5 has been delayeduntil April 4th

President-elect Donald Trump’s chief strategist

seems to think there are too many immigrantsleading Silicon Valley. Steve Bannon, whopreviously served as Breitbart News Network’sexecutive chairman, hinted at some of his views onforeign workers...

Prince’s estate is suing Roc Nation for copyrightinfringement, claiming that Tidal does not havepermission to stream large portions of Prince’scatalog. The lawsuit, first reported by theStarTribune, accuses Jay Z’s company of illegallyadding 1...

Imagine if every newspaper came with a mandatoryT-shirt. Suddenly, that tabloid you paged through

out of curiosity becomes part of your identity. Youhave to explain to friends that despite being awalking billboard, you don’t actually agree with...

There’s a good chance you haven’t heard of Nier,an action role-playing game released in 2010.Despite coming from Square Enix — the companybehind genre mainstays like Final Fantasy andDragon Quest — the game didn’t sell particularlywell, and...

In 2012, Donald Trump tweeted that climate changewas a concept invented by China to make USbusinesses less competitive. Four years later,Trump was elected president of the United States— and so China decided to address thepreposterous claim,...

I have sunk a couple thousand dollars into a top-of-the-line gaming PC. After a week with the PS4 Pro,I’m beginning to regret it.

PC gaming has secured a monopoly on high-endvisuals by catering to a subset of gamers willing tospend limitless...

2016-11-16 16:52 Andrew Webster www.theverge.com

79 /223 0.9

Trump’s chief strategist SteveBannon suggests having toomany Asian tech CEOsundermines ‘civic society’

In the days leading up to and following this election,Facebook has been called lots of things — "awebsite," "an internet company," "a major player inthe media universe," "a strange new class of mediaoutlet," a "tech behemoth," a "cesspool of...

A new stick-on wearable sensor uses the

symphony of internal rumblings, whooshing,gurglings, and cracklings to help doctors diagnosedifferent conditions. And this souped-up,miniaturized stethoscope could one day be a wayfor clinicians to...

Highly anticipated Japanese RPG Persona 5 hasbeen delayed by a few months. The English versionwas originally scheduled to launch on Valentine’sDay, but is now slated for an April 4th release. (Itlaunched in Japan back in September.)

“We wanted...

Prince’s estate is suing Roc Nation for copyrightinfringement, claiming that Tidal does not havepermission to stream large portions of Prince’scatalog. The lawsuit, first reported by theStarTribune, accuses Jay Z’s company of illegallyadding 1...

Imagine if every newspaper came with a mandatoryT-shirt. Suddenly, that tabloid you paged throughout of curiosity becomes part of your identity. Youhave to explain to friends that despite being awalking billboard, you don’t actually agree with...

There’s a good chance you haven’t heard of Nier,an action role-playing game released in 2010.Despite coming from Square Enix — the companybehind genre mainstays like Final Fantasy andDragon Quest — the game didn’t sell particularlywell, and...

2016-11-16 16:49 Ashley Carman www.theverge.com

80 /223 1.2

Partners Predict SalesConflict As Dell EMCRemoves Quest SoftwareFrom Its Channel Program -Page: 1

Dell EMC's relationship with Quest after its sale ofthat software business doesn't include the channel,and solution providers said they're being put in aposition of potentially competing with Dell EMC'sdirect sales teams for Quest business.

"They didn't set up a two-tier reselling relationshipwith Quest," said an executive at a Dell EMC

solution provider that works with Quest. "They say[Dell EMC] clients will still be able to buy Quest, butwhat they mean is that direct teams will sell Quest.Quest is not available through [Dell EMC's channelprogram], and the Quest people are taking a hardline. "

The result is that solution providers who werepreviously able to sell Quest software as part oftheir Dell line cards will now have to join Quest'schannel program if they want to continue thatrelationship. Solution providers are concerned theywill have to compete with Dell EMC sales reps inthe field for Quest business in Dell EMC accounts.

Related: Dell Exec Says A3 Printer Market 'IsDeclining', Touts New Bargain Enterprise PrintersAnd The Partners To Sell Them

"A customer can either buy through a solutionprovider as a partner of Quest, or through Dell EMCas a partner of Quest, and making that decision istricky politically," the solution provider executivesaid.

Dell EMC confirmed that Quest products won't beavailable through the company's channel program,but will be sold by Dell EMC direct sales teams.

A Quest spokesman said in an email that Quest,which provides a wide variety of software for datamanagement, security, back-up and recovery andother functions, would bring Dell EMC partners intoQuest's Partner Circle channel program at theirequivalent level and with all of their currentcompetencies and accreditations intact.

Quest declined to comment on how it intends tomanage competition between Dell EMC salesteams and Quest solution providers that also work

with Dell EMC.

Some solution providers said that while the newarrangement may hurt the bottom line, they canalso understand the Dell EMC's rationale.

"My guess is, come next quarter, the data protectionpart of EMC will be given more precedence" overQuest solutions, "and that makes sense," said aDell EMC solution provider executive that workswith Quest.

Scott Harper, vice president for data center andhybrid IT at Softchoice, a Toronto, Ontario-basedsolution provider, said Softchoice is the largestreseller of Quest software in Canada and the moveto sever the business from Dell EMC's programseems to be in line with existing corporate strategy.

"Why wouldn't they operate as a stand-alone [entity]and develop their own channel program? " Harpersaid. "They're a stand-alone entity now, similar toVMware. [VMware] is stand-alone. [VMware has] itsown channel, its own channel program, its ownlicensing. I would assume Quest would do thesame. "

2016-11-16 16:46 Matt Brown www.crn.com

81 /223 4.5

Acura's Precision Cockpitconcept is all about thescreens

Sometimes, the simplest things are the mosteffective.

With all the technological doo-daddery in theautomotive industry, it's getting harder to find

interior designs that are simple, elegant and easy tounderstand. Acura 's Precision Cockpit conceptbucks that trend.

Considered the follow-up to the Acura Precisionconcept car that arrived at last year's Detroit AutoShow , the Precision Cockpit gives us an ideaabout the next generation of Acura interiors. Itborrows a whole bunch of inspiration from the NSX,including the mode switch, steering wheel andseats.

The look is plain, but in a good way. There's ahealthy amount of wood, leather and Alcantarasuede, but the various angles of the dashboarddon't scream out for attention. The LED ambientlighting keeps it classy but still modern.

The real meat and potatoes of the concept lies in itsscreens and touchpad. The gauges are gone, andin their place is a 12.3-inch screen. A secondscreen sits atop the dashboard, providing yourusual collection of infotainment features. Eachdriving mode gets its own color theme.

The touchpad used to control the system rests

below the mode switch. It uses something Acuracalls "absolute positioning," mimicking atouchscreen without having to pull the screen itselfwithin the driver's limited reach. Every spot on thetouchpad correlates to a spot on the dashboardscreen.

Since it's a futuristic concept, it packs graphicalrepresentations of autonomous features. Thescreens can display other cars that the system'sees' on the road, and it also detects pedestriansand cyclists, using artificial intelligence to chart outthe presumed path of whatever's in front of the car.

Acura's Precision Cockpit also gives us a look atthe next generation of its infotainment system. ThisAndroid-based system looks super clean, far betterthan the admittedly clunky system used currently.Acura expects it to slowly become reality over thenext few years.

2016-11-16 16:45 by www.cnet.com

82 /223 1.4

Prince’s estate sues RocNation for copyrightinfringement

Highly anticipated Japanese RPG Persona 5 hasbeen delayed by a few months. The English versionwas originally scheduled to launch on Valentine’sDay, but is now slated for an April 4th release. (Itlaunched in Japan back in September.)

“We wanted...

President-elect Donald Trump’s chief strategistseems to think there are too many immigrantsleading Silicon Valley. Steve Bannon, who

previously served as Breitbart News Network’sexecutive chairman, hinted at some of his views onforeign workers...

Imagine if every newspaper came with a mandatoryT-shirt. Suddenly, that tabloid you paged throughout of curiosity becomes part of your identity. Youhave to explain to friends that despite being awalking billboard, you don’t actually agree with...

There’s a good chance you haven’t heard of Nier,an action role-playing game released in 2010.Despite coming from Square Enix — the companybehind genre mainstays like Final Fantasy andDragon Quest — the game didn’t sell particularlywell, and...

In 2012, Donald Trump tweeted that climate changewas a concept invented by China to make USbusinesses less competitive. Four years later,Trump was elected president of the United States— and so China decided to address thepreposterous claim,...

I have sunk a couple thousand dollars into a top-of-the-line gaming PC. After a week with the PS4 Pro,

I’m beginning to regret it.

PC gaming has secured a monopoly on high-endvisuals by catering to a subset of gamers willing tospend limitless...

2016-11-16 16:41 Micah Singleton www.theverge.com

83 /223 3.1

How to Build a Threat HuntingTeam to Bolster Cyber-Security Operations

Enterprise cyber-security in 2016 means going on

the offensive. Perimeters are penetrated constantly,both internally and externally. Building an effectivethreat-hunting team can improve a network'sdefense quantifiably, in part by freeing securityoperators from being inundated with alerts andfocusing teams on investigating the real potentialthreats in their network. Defining the roles andresponsibilities related to hunting is an importantpart of hunt preparation and executing a successfulhunt philosophy. The hunt team itself usually ismade up of Tier-3 security operations center (SOC)personnel and incident responders, but many otherindividuals and teams also must be involved, ashunting can't succeed without their participationand involvement. However, building a hunt teamdoesn't necessarily mean adding to your securitybudget. While some enterprises may havededicated hunt teams or add third-party solutions totheir security operations, there are low-budget orno-budget ways to reposition your existing team asan effective threat-hunting unit. In this eWEEK slideshow, Endgame Chief Technology Officer JamieButler explains how to build a hunt team and whatto consider during the process. Endgame providescyber-security and ransomware security software.

2016-11-16 16:20 Chris Preimesberger www.eweek.com

84 /223 0.0

What A Trump PresidencyCould Mean For Net Neutrality,Cybersecurity And TelecomConsolidation - Page: 1

Changing Tides

Republican President-elect Donald Trump willenter the White House on January 20 and he'sexpected to set in motion several changes for thecountry. While IT was not a major talking point forthe Trump campaign, Trump did come out againstspecific mergers, such as the pending AT&T andTime Warner deal. He also gave some broadcomments and opinions on cybersecurity, includingcriticism regarding encrypted data.

While it is still largely unknown exactly how Trump'spresidency will impact the IT space, industrypundits believe that a Republican candidatebacked by a majority Republican Congress willhave far-reaching effects on the tech and

telecommunications sectors. Here are five IT andtelecom issues that could be impacted by the newadministration.

2016-11-16 16:18 Gina Narcisi www.crn.com

85 /223 2.4

The state of solar power looksbright in 2017 (+video)

By 2017, solar power capacity in the U. S. will havenearly tripled in less than three years, according tothe U. S. Department of Energy.

Combined wind, utility-scale and distributed solarpower accounted for more than 66% of all newcapacity installed in the U. S. last year. Already,more than twice the number of Americans -- about209,000 -- work in the solar industry compared withcoal and by 2020, that number will double to more

than 420,000 , according to the Solar EnergyIndustry Association.

The U. S. residential solar market has grown in 15of the last 16 quarters. That's largely due togovernment incentives, such as the recentlyrenewed solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC) andcreative financing programs like leases and powerpurchase agreements (PPAs) that allowhomeowners and businesses to install solar panelswith no money down. (But they do require ownersto lock into 20-year contracts.)

PPAs allow businesses or homeowners pay a fixedrate for the electricity they get from their solarpanels, which is typically is 30% to 40% lower thanwhat they'd pay a utility for power.

With those savings, solar power use is seeingdouble-digit increases annually in businesses,homes and electrical utilities. In 2016 alone, the U.S. is expected to reach 25.6 billion watts orgigawatts of electrical generating capacity -- allfrom converting photons from the sun intoelectricity. And this year, for the first time in history,

solar exceeded natural gas for new energyinstallations.

According to the Sierra Club's " Ready for 100 "campaign, which details how clean energy's pricehas fallen 94% in the last eight years due to hugestrides in research and investment, 20 major U. S.cities have committed to a goal of reaching 100%renewable energy use in the next 15 to 20 years.

Burlington, Vt., Aspen, Colo., Columbia, Md. andGreensburg, Kans. have already achieved 100%clean energy and are powering their cities todaywith entirely renewable sources.

More than a dozen U. S. cities have committed tousing 100% renewable energy.

By 2021 the U. S. solar market is expected to pass100 gigawatts of total power generating capacity.While 100 billion watts is a staggering number, it'sstill only a sliver of what the U. S. produces eachyear: about 4 trillion kilowatt hours of electricity.

So solar still represents less than 1% of allelectricity generated in the U. S., and all

renewables -- including wind, hydroelectric andgeothermal -- generate only about 14% of thenation's power, according to the U. S. EnergyInformation Administration. The rest comes mostlyfrom natural gas (33%), coal (33%) and nuclearpower plants (20%).

While solar and other forms of renewable energystill amount to a relatively small percentage of allpower generated here, it is the fastest growingenergy source, a fact that also extends to marketsworldwide, where renewable energy capacities areexpected to increase by 2.6% per year through2040. With that kind of growth, renewable energy isexpected to supply 80% of U. S. electricity by 2050,according to the National Renewable EnergyLaboratory, the government's primary agency forrenewable energy research and development.

While starting from a relatively low base, utility-scale solar generating capacity will have increasedfrom 10 gigawatts at the end of 2014 to 27gigawatts in 2017. That is an average annualgrowth rate of 39%, the highest among sources ofrenewable electricity generation.

By 2040, coal, natural gas and renewable energysources will provide roughly equal shares -- from28% to 29% of world electricity generation -- atremendous change from 2012, when coal provided40% of all power generation, according to theEnergy Information Administration.

Businesses are also spurring consumers to buy intosolar, making them offers that are hard to refuse.

Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Tesla, recentlyannounced the culmination of years of work to bringtogether the company's all-electric car businesswith its lithium-ion battery systems and rooftop solarpanels -- a business collaboration it has hadthrough SolarCity.

Tesla just announced that it and soon to beacquired SolarCity will begin producing four typesof solar roof tiles next year that can be tightlyintegrated with its home battery storage system --Powerwall. Once a home has a roof made entirelyof solar tiles, which look much like standard asphaltand slate shingles or terra cotta tiles, it will be ableto get 100% of its energy from the sun, including the

electricity needed to charge an electric car.

Until Tesla made its announcement, only two othercompanies manufactured solar shingles in the U. S.

In his news conference to announce the solar tiles,Musk noted that four to five million new roofs go upin the U. S. every year -- and 20 times that numberare built worldwide. That is where Telsa will marketthe new solar roofs: for new construction or totalroof replacements.

If you've already got a serviceable roof, Tesla oranother solar installation company can sell yousolar panels, which may not be as comely but servethe same power generating purpose.

Consumers are also increasingly moving awayfrom long-term leasing or PPAs in favor of simplypurchasing their rooftop solar.

As factories ramp up production of rooftop panelsand adoption increases, prices for installationshave plummeted.

Rooftop solar systems that cost as much as a luxury

car five to 10 years ago now cost about the same asan economy car, or about $15,000 to $18,000, onaverage. And the return on investment for a solarsystem is now estimated to be about 7.5 years. Theresult: more people are gravitating toward solarownership, according to EnergySage, an onlinemarketplace that offers homeowners andbusinesses standardized quotes for solarinstallations from numerous companies.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk holds a French-style slatesolar shingle up against against the image of acompleted rooftop.

Even if consumers borrow money to pay for a solarsystem instead of buying it outright, they'll still reap40% to 80% of the cost savings while paying off theloan, Vikram Aggarwal, CEO of EnergySage.

While on average a solar lease or power purchaseagreement will save a consumer about 30% of theper-kilowatt price charged by the solar systemprovider, purchasing a system allows thehomeowner or business to reap 100% of the taxincentives and electricity that comes from rooftop

solar.

According to GTM Research, outright ownership ofsolar systems is expected reach 46% by 2020.

With the introduction of new roofing products byTesla and an ever-more appealing price point forthe technology, 2017 will likely be a turnkey year forgenerating power from our sun.

2016-11-16 16:16 Lucas Mearian www.computerworld.com

86 /223 3.2

Holiday shoppers: You'llspend more on tech this year

Here's the thing about being the biggest technologywebsite with the most tech reviews on the internet:We know quite a bit about how people shop andwhat they want, especially around the holidays. Ifyou're 35 or younger, for example, we know thatyou're more likely to ask for a smartwatch than a TVor a tablet if you have to choose just one tech gift.

For the past many years, we've conducted a holidayshopping survey to find out what people who read

CNET -- in other words, anyone interested in tech --think about how they'll spend their holidayshopping cash.

This year, the CNET Holiday Shopping Study is big.During October 2016, we asked more than 1,000US-based CNET readers a wide range of questionsto get a sense for how much you'll spend this yearand what you want to buy. We also asked aboutwho gets the gifts you buy and some questions tofigure out how your age affects your spendingpatterns. (Because millennials want nothing more

than to hear more reporting on their consumerbehaviors. Right, millennials?)

Speaking of millennials, it turns out that -- and thisprobably won't surprise you -- shoppers betweenthe ages of 20 and 35 will spend less ($620) thanyour average holiday shopper, who's planning tospend $810 (up $10 from last year). Youngershoppers usually have less disposable income andfewer children and relatives to buy for, so smallermillennial budgets don't surprise us. But here's thefunny part: More than any other part of thepopulation, millennials plan to spend money onthemselves this holiday season. A whopping 75percent of shoppers under 35 plan to buy presentsfor themselves compared to 64 percent of the totalaudience.

The millennial differences don't stop there. Forty-seven percent of millennials plan to spend more ontechnology this year than last, while only 64 percentof total survey respondents plan to spend more ontech. And when it comes to what you all want toreceive this winter, shopping lists vary radically byage.

Tablets top the tech wishlist overall when we askedyou all to name all the gifts you want. Thirty-sixpercent of you want them, just ahead of wirelessheadphones at 31 percent. Tablets are also themost popular gift to receive among millennials with45 percent indicating that they would like to receiveone, ahead of wireless headphones and phones ,both 40 percent.

But when we asked everyone to name they gift youwant if you can choose only one, the results lookdifferent. Overall, phones come out on top with 12percent, just ahead of PCs and TVs , each with 11percent, then tablets (10 percent) andsmartwatches (8 percent). Millennials are muchmore likely (+50 percent) than other generations toname phones when asked to chose one item, butless likely to name TVs. And millennials digsmartwatches: 12 percent name them as theirsingle tech gift choice -- more than TVs (9 percent)or tablets (7 percent).

Overall, our survey says good things for the techindustry. Despite slowing growth in some techcategories (including tablets ), a broad swatch of

shoppers are ready to spend a little more this year.

2016-11-16 16:11 by www.cnet.com

87 /223 1.1

Who makes the most reliablehard drives?

For the last few years, Backblaze has releasedquarterly reports on its hard drive reliability andreplacement rates. Backblaze is a provider of cloudbackup services and uses its own custom storagesolutions (dubbed Drive Pods) to hold hundreds ofgigabytes of data in each pod. This month, thecompany detailed a significant shift in its owndeployment practices. Over the last three months,

Backblaze has swapped out 3,500 2TB HGST andWestern Digital hard drives for 2,400 Seagate 8GBdrives. This resulted in a net drop in drivedeployments, though it also delivered a significantincrease in total storage capacity.

We’ve collected Backblaze’s reliability informationin the slide show below. All slides can be clicked onto enlarge them and open them in a new window.

The trends here match what we’ve observed inprevious quarters, and there aren’t any significantchanges to report to relative drive rankings. Whenyou check drive failure rates, however, makecertain to reference the number of hours the driveshave been in operation as well. Drives with fewerthan 100,000 recorded hours is a sign thatBackblaze never deployed very many of thosedrives to start with. Some of the high failure ratescould be explained by small sample sizes — thesmaller the sample size, the greater the chance thatbad luck will skew the data. Even if we only look atthe drives with 500,000+ hours of use, however, westill see significant failure variation in betweenfamilies and manufacturers. Western Digital’s 3TB

drives fail far more often than HGST’s, whileSeagate’s 4TB drives have a much higher failurerate than its 6TB drives.

Backblaze has explained before that it can toleratea relatively high failure rate before it starts avoidingdrives altogether, but the company has been knownto take that step (it stopped using a specific type ofSeagate drive at one point due to unacceptablyhigh failure rates). Current Seagate drives havebeen much better and the company’s 8TB drivesare showing an excellent annualized failure rate,though they’ve also only been in operation for a fewweeks.

As always, Backblaze’s data sets should be takenas a representative sample of how drives perform inthis specific workload. Backblaze’s buying practicesprioritize low cost drives over any other type, andthey don’t buy the enterprise drives that WD,Seagate, and other manufacturers positionspecifically for these kinds of deployments. Whetheror not this has any impact on consumer drive failurerates isn’t known — HDD manufacturers advertisetheir enterprise hardware as having gone through

additional validation and being designedspecifically for high-vibration environments, butthere are few studies on whether or not theseclaims result in meaningfully better performance orreliability.

Backblaze’s operating environment has very little incommon with a consumer desktop or laptop andmay not cleanly match the failure rates we wouldsee in these products. The company readilyacknowledges these limitations, but continues toprovide its data on the grounds that having someinformation about real-world failure rates and howlong hard drives live for is better than having noneat all. We agree. Readers often ask which harddrive brands are the most reliable, but thisinformation is extremely difficult to come by. Moststudies of real-world failure rates don’t namebrands or manufacturers, which limits their real-world applicability.

2016-11-16 16:10 Joel Hruska www.extremetech.com

88 /223 2.8

Facebook's Like button is abuilt-in filter bubble

There’s a good chance you haven’t heard of Nier,an action role-playing game released in 2010.Despite coming from Square Enix — the companybehind genre mainstays like Final Fantasy andDragon Quest — the game didn’t sell particularlywell, and...

In 2012, Donald Trump tweeted that climate changewas a concept invented by China to make USbusinesses less competitive. Four years later,Trump was elected president of the United States— and so China decided to address the

preposterous claim,...

I have sunk a couple thousand dollars into a top-of-the-line gaming PC. After a week with the PS4 Pro,I’m beginning to regret it.

PC gaming has secured a monopoly on high-endvisuals by catering to a subset of gamers willing tospend limitless...

Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, The Daily Showalum’s acclaimed news comedy series on TBS, hasbeen renewed through 2017. Variety reports thatthe weekly show, which regularly skewers politicsand current events with a feminist bent, was pickedup...

In the aftermath of a US presidential election thatseemed to shock at least half the country, manyAmericans are asking themselves how they missedthe popularity of Donald Trump. One answer is aconcept known as the filter bubble: the idea that...

If you’re a fan of artist and designer Ash Thorp,there’s a good chance you’ve heard him talk about“Lost Boy,” a personal project that looked to blend

together elements of Akira and Mad Max into somekind of new sci-fi universe. Well, now that...

2016-11-16 16:07 Adi Robertson www.theverge.com

89 /223 4.3

Apple AirPods could comenext month

It looks like we may be getting Apple's wirelessAirPods in time for the holiday season. An officialCzech Apple retailer has updated its AirPod listing

with an expected December ship date.

The AirPods were unveiled at Apple's Septemberpress event as an accessory that pairs wirelessly tothe iPhone 7 and 7 Plus , both of which lack audiojacks. However, the AirPods missed their Octoberrelease date. Apple fans have been left in the darkas to when they'll be able to grab the AirPods, withthe official Apple listing saying nothing more than"currently unavailable. "

The Czech retailer Alza currently has the AirPodsavailable for preorder. The December ship was firstnoticed by Czech tech publication Letem SvetemApplem , giving us reason to expect a worldwidelaunch sometime next month. Even though Alza isan authorized Apple retailer, the AirPods are stillunavailable in the Czech Apple Store.

Look how happy you could make someone bygiving them a pair of AirPods for the holidays.

While there's still no official word on the exactrelease date, a December release would make theAirPods available during the holiday shoppingseason. Other headphones that take advantage of

Apple's W1 chip, like the Beats Solo3 and the BeatsPowerbeats3 , are on the market now. View ourbest Bluetooth headsets of 2016 here.

The AirPods will go on sale for $159 / £159 /AU$229. Apple did not immediately respond toCNET's request for comment.

2016-11-16 15:55 by www.cnet.com

90 /223 0.0

Amazon wants you (and yourparents) to ditch Spotify

Amazon Music Unlimited family plans cost thesame as Apple Music's.

Sharing is caring, and Amazon hopes you careenough about its streaming music service to shareit with your family.

Amazon Music Unlimited , Amazon's response tostreaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, isnow available as a $14.99-a-month subscription forup to six people.

The service, which debuted in October withdiscounted pricing for Prime members and Echo -only plans, is available in the UK , but as of rightnow the family plan is US only.

Amazon's streaming service doesn't have as manyexclusives as Apple Music , or as big of a musiclibrary as Spotify, but if you're a Prime member, it'sa cheaper deal. The addition of a family plan, whichis priced the same as many others , competitivelyincreases its appeal in the crowded streamingscene.

2016-11-16 15:48 by www.cnet.com

91 /223 2.6

Square Enix wants to turn cultclassic Nier into somethingmuch bigger

In 2012, Donald Trump tweeted that climate changewas a concept invented by China to make USbusinesses less competitive. Four years later,Trump was elected president of the United States— and so China decided to address thepreposterous claim,...

I have sunk a couple thousand dollars into a top-of-

the-line gaming PC. After a week with the PS4 Pro,I’m beginning to regret it.

PC gaming has secured a monopoly on high-endvisuals by catering to a subset of gamers willing tospend limitless...

Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, The Daily Showalum’s acclaimed news comedy series on TBS, hasbeen renewed through 2017. Variety reports thatthe weekly show, which regularly skewers politicsand current events with a feminist bent, was pickedup...

In the aftermath of a US presidential election thatseemed to shock at least half the country, manyAmericans are asking themselves how they missedthe popularity of Donald Trump. One answer is aconcept known as the filter bubble: the idea that...

If you’re a fan of artist and designer Ash Thorp,there’s a good chance you’ve heard him talk about“Lost Boy,” a personal project that looked to blendtogether elements of Akira and Mad Max into somekind of new sci-fi universe. Well, now that...

Fitbit is trying to drum up its appeal to video gamersby adding in-game rewards for those who use itswearable. The fitness tracking company hasannounced an integration with the game NBA2K17, which enables gamers to receive a small in-game...

2016-11-16 15:35 Andrew Webster www.theverge.com

92 /223 5.3

The Stelvio is a Ferrari SUVwith an Alfa Romeo badge

When Ferrari was spun off from Fiat, manywondered if the independent company would need

to build highly profitable and highly in-demandSUVs to stay afloat. I don’t know if Ferrari will buildan SUV (company brass insist it won’t), but now Iknow what that mythical Ferrari SUV would looklike: the Alfa Romeo Stelvio , unveiled today at theLA Auto Show.

It’s part three of the Alfa Romeo reboot that began afew years ago with the incredible 4C sports car andwas followed with the Giulia sports sedan. Alfa saysit’s the fastest SUV in its class, with an estimated 0–60mph time of 3.9 seconds in the top-levelQuadrifoglio trim. The company went so far as toclaim that it will be the fastest SUV ever to traverseGermany’s famed Nürburgring — it’s the fastest incompany simulations, but it apparently hasn’t yetmade the journey to Nürburg for an on-track recordattempt.

The Quadrifoglio Stelvio, which is named ayou’resefter Stelvio pass in Italy, sports a 510-horsepowerFerrari-inspired 2.9-liter twin-turbo V6, with sister-company Maserati’s Q4 all-wheel drive systemdistributing the power to all four wheels. The base-level 280 horsepower turbocharged four-cylinder

unit should give plenty of pep, though, and is aimedright at the Porsche’s new entry-level Macan.

If Ferrari isn’t interested in building an SUV, it maynot matter. The Alfa Romeo Stelvio could satisfy theSUV-desires of prancing horse fans around theworld.

2016-11-16 15:32 Jordan Golson www.theverge.com

93 /223 4.2

Partners: Sprint, T-MobileCould Merge Under ARepublican Administration -Page: 1

The recent election of Donald Trump is resurrectingrumblings within the telecommunications industryregarding a merger possibility between two of thelargest wireless providers in the U. S., Sprint and T-Mobile.

President Barack Obama's administration blocked Sprint's previous merger attempt with T-Mobile. TheFederal Communications Commission (FCC), led

by current Chairman Tom Wheeler who wasappointed by Obama in 2013, expressed concernsover any consolidation that would eliminate one ofthe four major wireless competitors.

Wheeler is expected to step down followingTrump's inauguration, and Jeffrey Eisenach, atelecom consultant and known critic of Wheeler'spolicies -- including net neutrality -- is said to be hissuccessor. Eisenach is on Trump's transition teamand is already helping to select new FCC members.With power changing hands, the regulatoryenvironment could favor more telecomconsolidation, partners say.

[Related: Partners: Trump Could 'Relax' NetNeutrality And Threaten Telecom Consolidation ]

A majority-Republican Congress typically indicatesa friendlier environment for big business mergers.Republican politicians tend to be more for marketsregulating themselves, as evidenced by theirstance against net neutrality, according to onesolution provider executive that requestedanonymity.

The solution provider, which partners with severalwireless providers including Sprint, pointed toSprint's stock climbing 12 percent and T-Mobile'sstock also rising by 3 percent the day after theelection.

"I think we are going to see even more megatelecom mergers go through in an environment thatdoesn't believe in regulation. I think that laissez-faire attitude is certainly reflected in Trump'stransition team," said Natasha Royer Coons,managing director of San Diego-based TeraNovaConsulting Group, a telecom expense managementprovider for wireless solutions that partners with

both Sprint and T-Mobile.

However, Coons said that if T-Mobile and Sprint,the number three and number four U. S. wirelessproviders, decided to merge, there would be littleimpact for partners.

"I do like competition. I think it keeps companiesdelivering high-quality services for great prices,[but] I'm not against mergers that make sense andprovide a more seamless delivery of services," shesaid.

A merger between the two wireless providerswouldn't necessarily diminish competition forbusinesses and consumers, partners said. "Mobilityis being redefined, so I'm not sure that customerswould be hurt if Sprint and T-Mobile merge," theanonymous executive added.

For its part, Sprint's CEO Marcelo Claure indicatedin August that if the regulatory environment werefavorable, the Overland Park, Kansas-based carrierwould still be interested in merging with Bellevue,Wash.-based T-Mobile.

2016-11-16 15:20 Gina Narcisi www.crn.com

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Partners: Cisco's IoT StrategySet To Unleash ServicesOpportunities, Help ThemForge New Ties WithOperational TechnologyVendors - Page: 1

Cisco Systems is putting its Internet of Thingsstrategy into higher gear, aiming to leverage itsmassive networking footprint and next-generation

technologies to take IoT devices to a new level. Thestrategy will unleash rich services opportunities forchannel partners by enabling them to tap into anoperational technology market hungry for turnkeyIoT solutions, according to Cisco's IoT leader,Rowan Trollope.

"This is the biggest thing, in my opinion, to happento Cisco's business probably in 20 years," saidTrollope on stage at Cisco Partner Summit 2016,referring to the services opportunities becomingavailable in the operational technology market.

The San Jose, Calif.-based networking giant's planis to create an intelligent network tailor-made for theIoT market, then directly tie Cisco's network intoevery IoT device possible. "We're actually going toneed to talk to the device makers and give them aset of tools and APIs and some code, somecertificates, to allow them to participate in thenetwork so that the network and the [IoT device] canoperate as one," said Trollope, senior vicepresident and general manager for Cisco's IoT andApplications business.

[Related: Cisco IoT Leader: The 'Network MustBecome Automated' For IoT ]

Cisco is creating a Certified Device Program whereany type of IoT device that needs connectivity to thenetwork will have to become certified by Cisco. Thisrevamped IoT effort aligns with Cisco's next-generation Digital Network Architecture (DNA) andTetration Analytics platform.

To help channel partners sell IoT offerings andservices more easily and effectively, Cisco has builtinternal teams -- including an Industries ProductGroup and Digital Transformation Practice – taskedwith creating and customizing Cisco technologiesfor specific IoT vertical industries such asmanufacturing and smart cities.

The strategy can be broken down into three steps,Trollope said. " Evolve the network. Create a newbusiness and an engagement with 'things' makersin a way that we haven’t ever done before and,finally, take that to market and to the customertotally differently with [partners]," said Trollope.

So can this strategy of combining Cisco's next-

generation technologies with IoT products work?And can Cisco successfully lead its more than60,000 channel partners to make the jump into theoperational technology marketplace to reapuntapped services opportunities? Partners andanalysts say they believe if anyone can do it, it'sCisco.

"There's a real need for intelligence in the networkto recognize devices and adapt appropriately," saidRobert Keblusek, CTO of Sentinel Technologies, aDowners Grove, Ill., Cisco Gold partner. "I'munaware of any robust standard in this space, andmany IoT devices lack embedded security elementsand don’t communicate with the network on thepolicies needed for optimal communications. … IfCisco can help drive this, I believe it will benefiteveryone. "

Keblusek said the market for partners to add valueto operational technology organizations throughservices is "open and very large. "

Research firm Gartner predicts that IoT will supporttotal services spending of $235 billion in 2016, up

22 percent from 2015. "IoT services are the realdriver of value in IoT," said Gartner analyst Jim Tullyin a report regarding the IoT market.

2016-11-16 15:18 Mark Haranas www.crn.com

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Honest Trailer for 'FindingDory' even makes the narratorcry

The Honest Trailers narrator is a pretty hardened

movie critic at this point, since his job is to point outall the goofs, lame money grabs and embarrassingmoments of major films. But one film made eventhis battle-hardened disembodied voice breakdown in (OK, fake) tears: " Finding Dory. " TheHonest Trailer was published Tuesday to pair withthe film's home-video release.

"Finding Dory" answers a bunch of questions noone ever really had, the trailer points out, including"who wrote the 'Just Keep Swimming' song" (Dory'sparents) or how she learned to speak whale(childhood pal Destiny).

Maybe the best part of the Honest Trailer is when itgives spot-on nicknames to the various castmembers, including Dora the Ignora for Dory,Finding Hank (Coming Summer 2022) for Hank,Annoying Orange for Nemo's whiny dad Marlin,Emo for Nemo and more. (Don't miss the skeweringof mopey Anakin Skywalker and his hatred ofsand.)

It also points out that the film's characters couldn'thave survived its plot without gallons and gallons of

improbable conveniently placed water, appearingin a janitor's bucket or flower vase just when theywere gasping for breath.

But this is one of the stellar kid-movie franchises,and even an Honest Trailer has to be honest aboutthat. "Damn you, Pixar! " the narrator curses at onepoint. "Even your B-material makes me cry! "

2016-11-16 15:13 by www.cnet.com

96 /223 1.4

Scientists push for 2020launch of asteroid deflectiontest

A group of scientists recently got together to figureout what would happen in the event of anunavoidable asteroid impact, but just because youplan for the worst doesn’t mean you can’t hope forthe best. The ESA and NASA are pushing for a2020 mission to test technologies that could help usdeflect an object before it smacks into Earth. Wedon’t know how many large, Earth-threateningasteroids are out there in the depths of space, butit’s not a matter of if one will hit Earth. It’s a matter ofwhen.

The joint European-US Asteroid Impact andDeflection Assessment (AIDA) is still in the planningstages, but it could launch in 2020. The ESA will

decide in several weeks whether or not it will moveforward with the mission. Thus, experts in planetaryscience and space exploration have issued a letterin support of the mission.

AIDA is actually composed of two missions. On theEuropean side is the Asteroid Impact Mission (AIM).Meanwhile, NASA is prepping a mission known asDouble Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). Bothmissions would fly probes to the binary asteroidsystem Didymos. These objects are set to passwithin 6.8 million miles of Earth in 2022. That givesscientists an unique opportunity to test asteroidredirection technologies in real life rather than insimulations.

Didymos is the name of the larger of the two objectsin this system. It’s about 2,600 feet (800m) indiameter. The smaller orbiting asteroid is known asDidymoon and is a mere 560 feet (170m) across.The AIM mission would head for Didymoon todeploy a lander and await the arrival of the DARTprobe. DART’s mission is to hit Didymoon with animpactor at high speed. AIM will then monitor theeffect this has on Didymoon’s orbit around

Didymos. This is the sort of technique humanitymight use to deflect a potentially dangerous object,assuming it was found far enough in advance.

There are a lot of variables to be accounted forbefore the AIDA missions can be launched. Forexample, astronomers have not been able tocharacterize the surface of Didymoon due to itssmall size. The lander has to be designed to copewith extremely low gravity — the escape velocity ofDidymoon is just 0.13 mph. You might recall theharpoon system that was supposed to tether thePhilae lander to comet 67P failed. The stakes areeven higher here. If the AIM lander bounces off thesurface, it would float away.

The authors of the letter of support are hopeful itcan make a difference. There’s no margin for errorhere; the mission has to launch in 2020 for aDidymos rendezvous to be possible. That meansfinal mission design needs to start soon.

2016-11-16 15:09 Ryan Whitwam www.extremetech.com

97 /223 5.5

Firefox 50 released

Firefox has hit a new milestone in terms of releases:Version 50 is now available for download. Firefox50 offers better startup times, download protection,and new keyboard shortcuts (among otherfeatures). You can see a full list of changes in theofficial Firefox 50 release notes.

Emil Protalinski reports on Firefox 50 forVentureBeat:

Mozilla today launched Firefox 50 for Windows,

Mac, Linux, and Android. The new version, whichwas delayed by a week to improve startup times,also includes download protection for moreexecutable file types and new keyboard shortcuts.

…Firefox 50 was supposed to launch on November8 but was delayed to today after a developerdiscovered the browser’s SDK module system is “aperformance disaster.” More specifically, addonswere spending over four seconds in a specificfunction before doing any actual work. A few issueswere behind the overall performance problem, andall were addressed to improve startup time.

Next, Firefox now has download protection formany more executable file types on Windows, Mac,and Linux. At the same time, the browser will rejectstylesheets, images, or scripts if their type does notmatch the context in which the file is loaded. This isa big security improvement; while MIME sniffing(scanning the content of a file to detect the actualformat and handle it appropriately) increases thespeed of the web experience for most users, it’s avector for attackers to exploit.

Firefox 50 also adds two new keyboard shortcutoptions. You can now set a preference to haveCtrl+Tab cycle through tabs in recently used order(as opposed to just the order in which they wereopened). Meanwhile, Ctrl+Alt+R (command+alt+ron Mac) opens the page in Reader Mode.

More at VentureBeat

Linux redditors reacted to the release of Firefox 50in a long thread:

As far as WebGL, they could make it 100% for allplatforms by using mesa’s software renderer. Thisis what Chrome does with SwiftShader and it worksgreat on my family’s ancient 10yr old PC. Its CPU isdecent but the IGP is worthless. This is a real issuefor old machines since some educational gamesrequire it. Fortunately Chrome had me covered.

Still not WebP image support. That’s the next bigfeature I’m looking forward to.

My experiment with Chromium is going well. It useslots of RAM but is speedy and stable in use. I’vebeen using uBlock and now I have uMatrix in place

of NoScript and I really like it.

Just a question from a Windows pleb that sometime ago installed CentOS on my laptop for on thego use. I usually use Edge on my desktop. I find itloads pages faster than chrome without the “pageunresponsive” error messages I get every fewmoments due to my internet being 15kbps DL.

More at Reddit

Linux gamers have been enjoying a plethora ofgreat titles over the last few years, thanks torenewed interest by developers in Linux as agaming platform. Now Feral Interactive is gettingready to release Total War: Warhammer for Linuxlater this month.

Marius Nestor reports for Softpedia:

Feral Interactive, through Rajitha Ratnam, informsSoftpedia today, November 15, 2016, that the UK-based video game publisher will launch the Linuxport of Total War: Warhammer on Steam onNovember 22, 2016.

Developed by Creative Assembly and published bySega, Total War: Warhammer is a TBS (turn-basedstrategy) game that features real-time battles andtactics. The game is set in a world of legendaryheroes, flying creatures, and giant monsters, andpromises to offer users the same gameplay as inthe rest of the Total War series.

Total War: Warhammer launched only for theWindows platform about five months ago, on the24th of May, and it looks like it’s now coming toLinux, SteamOS, and Mac OS X operating systemsas well. Feral Interactive already put together aminisite with the recommended systemrequirements and other useful information forpotential buyers.

More at Softpedia

Here’s the official trailer for the game:

People have always compared Android phonesand iPhones. But what happens when a dedicatedAndroid user spend a month with the iPhone 7Plus? Will he switch from Android to the iPhone 7Plus?

Anshel Sag reports for Forbes:

It’s been a month since I got the Apple iPhone 7Plus. Full disclosure, I have never owned an Appleproduct in my life. Okay, I had an iPod shuffle forabout a week or two and ended up returning it. Ihad experiences with Apple computers as a child ina suburban elementary school but never owned aniPhone, iPad, MacBook or anything of the sort. Ihave been a lifetime Google Android user, andbefore that a Microsoft Windows Mobile user (yeah,I know). So, my first experience with an Appleproduct that I bought and used has been extremelyinteresting. That includes the utter shock and awethat came out of people’s mouths after I told themthat I got an iPhone. I feel like a lot of the reasonswhy I never switched to Apple have gone awaywhile others remain.

My primary purpose of buying an iPhone 7 Pluswas Apple’s move towards a dual cameraarrangement that promised to be the best camera,ever. In addition to that, the Apple A10 Fusionprocessor tickled the Android performance-

obsessed side of me. For many years, I hadobserved Apple’s SoCs continually crush thecompetition in a multitude of benchmarks, and thisproved to be Apple’s greatest leap in performance,especially with a 4-core arrangement. Apple alsobumped the RAM from 2GB in the 6S Plus to 3GB inthe iPhone 7 Plus, which should theoretically makemultitasking even better and smoother on theiPhone.

In the end, I have enjoyed using the iPhone 7 Plusand am still using it as my primary device today.However, my commitment to things like GooglePlay Music and the Google app ecosystem stilldraw me back towards Android. This is the similargravitation that you see many Apple users makingafter they’ve toyed with the idea of an Androiddevice. The interesting part for me, however is thatApple when paired with Google services delivers apretty good experience. I do lose some of myGoogle integration, but I gain other things as well.

I believe that I will continue to carry the iPhone 7Plus as my secondary phone along with whateverAndroid device I am using as my primary at the

time. The iPhone 7 Plus is by far the most attractiveiPhone that I have ever seen Apple release thatcould cause Android users to switch. I believe thatsome users have already done so with the currentmarket dynamics. Hopefully Apple finds new usecases for the dual camera on the iPhone 7 Plus andcreates even more added value to the phone than ithas already.

More at Forbes

2016-11-16 15:09 Jim Lynch www.infoworld.com

98 /223 3.0

Full Frontal with SamanthaBee was just renewed through2017

In the aftermath of a US presidential election thatseemed to shock at least half the country, manyAmericans are asking themselves how they missedthe popularity of Donald Trump. One answer is aconcept known as the filter bubble: the idea that...

If you’re a fan of artist and designer Ash Thorp,

there’s a good chance you’ve heard him talk about“Lost Boy,” a personal project that looked to blendtogether elements of Akira and Mad Max into somekind of new sci-fi universe. Well, now that...

Fitbit is trying to drum up its appeal to video gamersby adding in-game rewards for those who use itswearable. The fitness tracking company hasannounced an integration with the game NBA2K17, which enables gamers to receive a small in-game...

We all have our own horror stories about rushing tofind a public restroom, but in India, it’s more thanjust locating a toilet — it’s finding one that’s also

clean enough to use. Roughly 70 percent of Indianhouseholds don’t have access to...

When Pokémon Go launched in July, theaugmented reality app accomplished what fewother games had managed before: it got millions ofpeople out into the real world, exploring theirsurroundings and working together. The communalexperience was...

I’m just recovering from food poisoning likelycaused by bad sushi. So right now, I hate fish —can’t even think of them without gagging. Of coursethis is when I stumbled upon these horrifying videosof thousands of silver bunker fish jiggling...

2016-11-16 15:06 Kwame Opam www.theverge.com

99 /223 0.8

The author of The Filter Bubbleon how fake news is erodingtrust in journalism

If you’re a fan of artist and designer Ash Thorp,there’s a good chance you’ve heard him talk about

“Lost Boy,” a personal project that looked to blendtogether elements of Akira and Mad Max into somekind of new sci-fi universe. Well, now that...

Fitbit is trying to drum up its appeal to video gamersby adding in-game rewards for those who use itswearable. The fitness tracking company hasannounced an integration with the game NBA2K17, which enables gamers to receive a small in-game...

We all have our own horror stories about rushing tofind a public restroom, but in India, it’s more thanjust locating a toilet — it’s finding one that’s alsoclean enough to use. Roughly 70 percent of Indian

households don’t have access to...

When Pokémon Go launched in July, theaugmented reality app accomplished what fewother games had managed before: it got millions ofpeople out into the real world, exploring theirsurroundings and working together. The communalexperience was...

I’m just recovering from food poisoning likelycaused by bad sushi. So right now, I hate fish —can’t even think of them without gagging. Of coursethis is when I stumbled upon these horrifying videosof thousands of silver bunker fish jiggling...

Pluto’s most iconic feature — its “icy heart” — mayhave been responsible for tipping the dwarf planetover. Scientists believe the 600-mile-wide region offrozen plains known as Sputnik Planitia gainedenough mass over the years, causing Pluto to...

2016-11-16 14:54 Casey Newton www.theverge.com

100 /223 0.3

Watch Lost Boy, a gorgeousand gritty cyberpunk shortfilm

Fitbit is trying to drum up its appeal to video gamersby adding in-game rewards for those who use itswearable. The fitness tracking company hasannounced an integration with the game NBA2K17, which enables gamers to receive a small in-game...

We all have our own horror stories about rushing tofind a public restroom, but in India, it’s more thanjust locating a toilet — it’s finding one that’s alsoclean enough to use. Roughly 70 percent of Indian

households don’t have access to...

When Pokémon Go launched in July, theaugmented reality app accomplished what fewother games had managed before: it got millions ofpeople out into the real world, exploring theirsurroundings and working together. The communalexperience was...

I’m just recovering from food poisoning likelycaused by bad sushi. So right now, I hate fish —can’t even think of them without gagging. Of coursethis is when I stumbled upon these horrifying videosof thousands of silver bunker fish jiggling...

Pluto’s most iconic feature — its “icy heart” — mayhave been responsible for tipping the dwarf planetover. Scientists believe the 600-mile-wide region offrozen plains known as Sputnik Planitia gainedenough mass over the years, causing Pluto to...

One week after the election, President-electTrump’s White House staff is still being formed, butone familiar name has already surfaced: PeterThiel. The PayPal co-founder has become one ofthe most controversial figures in Silicon Valley,

thanks...

2016-11-16 14:52 Andrew Webster www.theverge.com

101 /223 1.6

CA Launches New PrivilegedAccess Management,Identity And AccessManagement Updates At CAWorld - Page: 1

CA Technologies is boosting its security portfolio,rolling out enhancements to its privileged accessmanagement and identity and access management

portfolios Wednesday at CA World in Las Vegas.

The new offerings include CA Threat Analytics forPAM, which adds behavioral analytics to itsprivileged access management offering, as well asnew controls to step up authentication, recording oralerting if an anomaly or threat is detected.

While many other vendors are enhancing theirprivileged access management offerings as thetechnology gains steam with customers, NickNikols, senior vice president of productmanagement, security, said the CA offering will setitself apart by targeting the data collection to theoffering itself, rather than taking a more open-ended data collection approach. That will make it"much more meaningful out of the box," he said, aswell as add value to existing deployments.

[Related: 5 Things That Shape The SecuritySolution Provider Of The Future ]

CA also rolled out the CA Identity Service, which isthe New York-based company's first foray intoidentity-as-a-service. Nikols said the new offeringwould give CA partners and customers more

flexibility in how they deploy identity and accessmanagement offerings, whether it be on-premise, inthe cloud or in a hybrid model.

Ed Pascua, senior vice president of strategicalliances and channel at Atlanta-based SimeioSolutions, said the new offerings are all aboutflexibility as Simeio builds a full set of securitysolutions for its customers. The new identity-as-a-service offering, for one, will allow Simeio tosupplement its own on-premise identity-as-a-service offering, which uses CA technology andincludes a full breath of capabilities and services, oroffer a more lightweight identity-as-a-serviceoffering for customers who don't want that high-touch of a solution, he said.

Pascua said the updates to the privileged accessmanagement offering are also a step in the rightdirection for CA, saying the addition of analytics is"huge" and will be a "differentiator out there" in anincreasingly competitive market. "It just makes theproduct a lot more competitive," Pascua said.

Nikols said security is one of the core strategy

pillars for CA, with a focus on enabling what hecalled "digital transformations," helping customersnavigate through adding security to an agiledevelopment process and making them moreefficient.

"The whole point of this is to make and helpbusinesses achieve their goals and move forwardwith their digital transformations in a secure andagile way," Nikols said. "You don’t have tocompromise on security if you do it right. You canhave security and you can have the agility totransform your business at the same time. "

To achieve that, Nikols said CA is following a paththat focuses on securing the data itself and who hasaccess to it, rather than taking a network orendpoint security approach. He said that approach,in combination with other vendor offerings, isespecially important as it is integrated into a mobileand cloud-focused world.

"This is an enabling capability by bringing securityinto the process, if you will, and making security apart of every step along the way, rather than trying

to deal with this at the perimeter and at theendpoint. That's the nature of what we're doinghere," Nikols said.

The CA Threat Analytics for PAM and CA IdentityService offerings are immediately available.

2016-11-16 14:43 Sarah Kuranda www.crn.com

102 /223 2.5

NBA 2K17 will rewardplayers for staying activewith their Fitbits

We all have our own horror stories about rushing tofind a public restroom, but in India, it’s more than

just locating a toilet — it’s finding one that’s alsoclean enough to use. Roughly 70 percent of Indianhouseholds don’t have access to...

When Pokémon Go launched in July, theaugmented reality app accomplished what fewother games had managed before: it got millions ofpeople out into the real world, exploring theirsurroundings and working together. The communalexperience was...

I’m just recovering from food poisoning likelycaused by bad sushi. So right now, I hate fish —can’t even think of them without gagging. Of coursethis is when I stumbled upon these horrifying videosof thousands of silver bunker fish jiggling...

Pluto’s most iconic feature — its “icy heart” — mayhave been responsible for tipping the dwarf planetover. Scientists believe the 600-mile-wide region offrozen plains known as Sputnik Planitia gainedenough mass over the years, causing Pluto to...

One week after the election, President-electTrump’s White House staff is still being formed, butone familiar name has already surfaced: Peter

Thiel. The PayPal co-founder has become one ofthe most controversial figures in Silicon Valley,thanks...

United is introducing basic economy, a cheaper —and worse — fare class below economy. Firstspotted by The Points Guy, the new offering gets ridof seat assignments and elite-qualifying miles,forbids paid upgrades and flight changes, andbans...

2016-11-16 14:39 Anisa Purbasari www.theverge.com

103 /223 1.5

Google’s launching a toilet-locator tool to combat India’ssanitation problems

When Pokémon Go launched in July, theaugmented reality app accomplished what fewother games had managed before: it got millions ofpeople out into the real world, exploring theirsurroundings and working together. The communalexperience was...

I’m just recovering from food poisoning likelycaused by bad sushi. So right now, I hate fish —can’t even think of them without gagging. Of coursethis is when I stumbled upon these horrifying videosof thousands of silver bunker fish jiggling...

Pluto’s most iconic feature — its “icy heart” — mayhave been responsible for tipping the dwarf planetover. Scientists believe the 600-mile-wide region offrozen plains known as Sputnik Planitia gainedenough mass over the years, causing Pluto to...

One week after the election, President-electTrump’s White House staff is still being formed, butone familiar name has already surfaced: Peter

Thiel. The PayPal co-founder has become one ofthe most controversial figures in Silicon Valley,thanks...

United is introducing basic economy, a cheaper —and worse — fare class below economy. Firstspotted by The Points Guy, the new offering gets ridof seat assignments and elite-qualifying miles,forbids paid upgrades and flight changes, andbans...

In 2013, the Anna Kendrick comedy Rapture-Palooza had the misfortune of opening exactly oneweek ahead of Seth Rogen’s This Is The End,another absurdist envisioning of Judgment Day.(They even shared a primary cast member: CraigRobinson, in both...

2016-11-16 14:33 Natt Garun www.theverge.com

104 /223 0.6

IT users review 6 softwaretest management tools

Software teams use test management tools to plan

and track the quality assurance (QA) process —whether the tests are manual or automated — andthen manage projects to eliminate the softwaredefects uncovered by the tests.

Six of the top test management solutions, accordingto enterprise users in the IT Central Stationcommunity, are HPE Application LifecycleManagement (ALM), Tosca Testsuite, SmartBearTestComplete, Microsoft Team Foundation Server(TFS), HPE Quality Center (QC) and IBM RationalPerformance Tester.

[ Also on CIO.com: Free report ranks 100 enterprise

IT products based on user reviews ]

But what do enterprises really think about thesetools? Here, users identify some of their favoritefeatures, but also give the vendors a little toughlove.

To continue reading this article register now

Learn More Existing Users Sign In

2016-11-16 14:30 IT Central www.computerworld.com

105 /223 0.0

Why Manufacturers AreParticularly Vulnerable toCyber-Attacks

Cyber-threats are a concern for companies in anyindustry around the world. But a recent study byDeloitte’s Center for Industry Insights reported thatthe manufacturing industry “is particularlyvulnerable to cyber-risks.” Its study, which includesinterviews with 35 manufacturing executives and225 survey responses from industry executives,shows that cyber-security threats are especially

worrisome in manufacturing. When a maliciousparty successfully hacks an organization—something that’s happening far too often—theaffected companies could face millions of dollars inlosses. In the manufacturing industry, that meansmillions of dollars of lost production and revenue.What’s worse, executives reported they don’t havethe right people to protect their networks and datafrom cyber-attacks and, in many cases, they’re ill-prepared to defend against potential securitybreaches. As a result, the manufacturing industryhas a particularly urgent need to build up its cyber-defenses. This slide show will discuss the key

findings from the Deloitte survey to explain why.

2016-11-16 14:25 Don Reisinger www.eweek.com

106 /223 4.0

What will the office of thefuture really look like?

Are you really prepared for what the future of theoffice will look like? Thankfully, cognitivetechnologies such as IBM’s Watson are.

There's good news too. You're not alone in this newdawn of doing business and being productive, so

it's important to reflect on and respond to whatassistive technologies are out there. After all, whenyou're equipped with the right tools andtechnologies, your time can be freed up for othervalue-added tasks. You'll find yourself in thefortunate position of not having to choose betweenkeeping the lights on an innovating...

Join us for our exclusive webcast to discuss the roleof cognitive and the office of the future and how thetwo can be combined to drive business success.

The webcast will be moderated by IT Pro contributing editor Stephen Pritchard. He'll bejoined on the day by Quocirca founder andprincipal analyst Clive Longbottom and StuartMcRae, an executive collaboration evangelist atIBM. With great speakers like these, it looks set tobe a fanastic discussion.

Talking points will include:

We also want to hear what you have to say soabsolutely encourage questions on the day.

The event will take place on Wednesday 7th

December at 11 am. To register for the event, signup here.

2016-11-16 14:21 IT Pro www.itpro.co.uk

107 /223 2.3

These videos of thousands ofdead fish clogging a LongIsland canal will haunt yourdreams

Pluto’s most iconic feature — its “icy heart” — mayhave been responsible for tipping the dwarf planetover. Scientists believe the 600-mile-wide region offrozen plains known as Sputnik Planitia gained

enough mass over the years, causing Pluto to...

One week after the election, President-electTrump’s White House staff is still being formed, butone familiar name has already surfaced: PeterThiel. The PayPal co-founder has become one ofthe most controversial figures in Silicon Valley,thanks...

United is introducing basic economy, a cheaper —and worse — fare class below economy. Firstspotted by The Points Guy, the new offering gets ridof seat assignments and elite-qualifying miles,forbids paid upgrades and flight changes, andbans...

In 2013, the Anna Kendrick comedy Rapture-Palooza had the misfortune of opening exactly oneweek ahead of Seth Rogen’s This Is The End,another absurdist envisioning of Judgment Day.(They even shared a primary cast member: CraigRobinson, in both...

Former Microsoft CEO might have labeled Linux "acancer" 15 years ago, but things couldn't be anydifferent this week. Microsoft, the software giant that

has built its empire on closed-source proprietarysoftware, is joining the Linux Foundation....

I always judge a piece of art by whether I’d put it onmy wall. Let me be clear: I cannot afford art, butwhen I go to museums, I like to picture the Picassosand Monets hanging around my dream house. Astartup called Electric Objects knows people...

2016-11-16 14:21 Alessandra Potenza www.theverge.com

108 /223 2.9

Report looks into Androiddevice customization, KonyMobility Platform, and Googlemakes exploring AI easy—SD Times news digest: Nov.16, 2016

The Application Developers Alliance hasconducted a story on Android device customizationand consumer choices, and they found that appstend not to be exclusively used, and almost allAndroid users customize their phone and theirhome screen. The report also found that most

Android users prefer their new devices to come withapps “ready to go” and preloaded.

This means that there is a significant amount ofcompetition in the mobile app industry, and it canbe difficult for developers to get their apps on thehome screen of devices, according to the report.Also, the study found that many Android usersdownload a lot of apps. Some prefer basic functionsof apps, like e-mail, and others prefer as many appsas the device may hold. About 32% havedownloaded more than 26 additional apps on theirdevice, with 6% downloading more than 60 apps.

The full report is available here .

Kony’s updates its Mobility Platform Kony, an

enterprise mobility company, introduced newupdates to its Kony Mobility Platform, including anew omnichannel technology called Kony Nitro.

The new technology makes it easy for appdevelopers to build hybrid and web apps that workacross all devices and operating systems.Developers will be able to use visual design anddevelopment tools so they can deliver new apps totheir users. Instead of having to learn a newsolution, developers can use the Kony platform to“blend together” native, web and hybridapplications, according to the company.

Kony Nitro’s cross-platform JavaScript API allowsenterprises to use resources and open support fortechnologies like Angular, Cordova, and third-partyservices like JavaScript frameworks, according tothe company. Kony Nitro also comes with newcapabilities like flexible app development, 100%access to native Android and iOS features, andmore open web standards.

More information can be found here .

Amazon QuickSight generally available Amazon

announced its fast, cloud-powered businessanalytics service called Amazon QuickSight is nowgenerally available for all customers. For thoseuploading Excel files, connecting to databases andaccessing third-party applications, QuickSight candeliver fast and responsive query performance tousers.

QuickSight offers a two-month free trial with aperpetual free tier for one user in an account with1GB of SPICE capacity, according to an AWSupdate. Once a user has built in a dashboard, theyare able to access QuickSight via their browser oriOS mobile app. Then users can share their insightswith their team.

Google makes it easier to explore AI Google wantsto make it easier for anyone to explore AI. In orderto open up AI to everyone, the company hascreated a site called AI Experiments, whichshowcases simple experiments so anyone can playaround with the technology.

“The experiments show how machine learning canmake sense of all kinds of things—images,

drawings, language, sound and more,” wroteAlexander Chen, creative director at Google’sCreative Lab. “They were made by people with alldifferent interests—web developers, musicians,game designers, bird sound enthusiasts, datavisualizers—with everyone bringing their own ideasfor how to use machine learning.”

Coders will be able to make their own experimentswith AI Experiments since many of the projects arebuilt with things like TensorFlow or Cloud VisionAPI. Developers can submit something they madeby visiting AI Experiments , and more experimentsfrom Google Arts & Culture can be found here.

2016-11-16 14:12 Madison Moore sdtimes.com

109 /223 3.7

IBM Launches GlobalHeadquarters for SecurityServices

IBM's new security services headquarters opensalong with a dedicated "cyber range" for cyber-threat simulations as well X-Force Incident

Response and Intelligence Services

IBM is officially opening its new global securityheadquarters in Cambridge, MA, providing a newbase of operations for the company's $2 billion ayear security business.

Along with the new headquarters, IBM is openingwhat it calls the industry's first "commercial CyberRange," which is a cyber-threat simulator to trainclients who to deal with cyber-threats. IBM is alsolaunching a new Incident Response andIntelligence Services (IRIS) team.

"We officially formed the IBM Security business unitin 2015 and had many facilities in Cambridge andaround the world," Marc van Zadelhoff, GeneralManager, IBM Security, told eWEEK. "This newheadquarters will help physically consolidate ourteams in Boston and provide a central location formany of our core assets and resources, supportingcollaboration in an agile work location. "

Van Zadelhoff added that the commercial CyberRange is the center piece of the new office. Henoted that it is the first physical cyber range for thecommercial sector and it's a permanent facility, nota service offered via the internet.

"It is a full-fledged cyber-security simulator wherewe work with clients to help them experience anddefend against the latest strains of malware andattack schemes," Van Zadelhoff said. "The cyberrange helps the entire C-Suite and Boards ofDirectors manage a cyber-attack. "

While the Cyber Range is a key feature of the newIBM global security headquarters, it's not the onlyone. Van Zadelhoff said that there are a variety of

other resources, including a Dark Web lab whereresearchers will be able to study the dark web withnew tools and technologies. Additionally there is anew, agile workspace with a state of the artcustomer briefing center; and a new globaltelevision studio for crisis communication training.

IBM is also launching its X-Force IncidentResponse and Intelligence Services (IRIS) today inan effort to further help organizations deal withsecurity breaches. IBM has been steadily growingout is security services in recent months, adding theX-Force Red team effort in September.

"It's (IRIS) an elite team that is net new andcomplementary to IBM X-Force Red," Van Zadelhoffsaid. "The IRIS team is focused on response,whereas our X-Force Red team is focused on pen-testing. "

The market for incident response services is acompetitive one with FireEye, Rapid7 andTrustwave among the many vendors active in thespace. Van Zadelhof emphasized that IBM isfocused on agility in response—containing the

incident quickly to reduce the cost of a data breach.

"Our investments in incident response this yearhave now positioned us to be the leader in theemerging response market," Van Zadelhof said."This is attracting top talent like the new IBM X-Force IRIS consultants, many of whom formerlyworked at those firms that have worked on some ofthe top breaches in the headlines over the pastdecade. "

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at eWEEKand InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter@TechJournalist

2016-11-16 14:05 Sean Michael www.eweek.com

110 /223 5.6

Amazon will now deliver yourMorrisons groceries in anhour

The partnership between Morrisons and Amazonhas expanded yet again, now enabling Prime Nowcustomers to choose from thousands of groceries

from the supermarket chain and have themdelivered in under an hour.

There’s a small catch, though; if you want yourgroceries to arrive in under an hour you’ll have topay an additional £6.99. If you’re willing to take atwo hour delivery slot, however, there’s noadditional charge. Well, apart from the annual £79cost of that Amazon Prime membership that'srequired to use the service.

Morrisons began delivering goods through Amazonin June of this year and already offers a selection ofgroceries through Amazon Fresh in London. Thisnew agreement will expand the range available byaround 10,000 items and will see Morrisons have

its own dedicated “Morrisons at Amazon” section onthe Prime Now app, alongside pharmacy chainJohn Bell Croydon and wine merchant SpiritedWines.

At launch, the service will only be available tocustomers in select Hertfordshire and Londonpostcodes for whom orders will be picked at a localMorrisons store by the supermarket’s staff anddelivered from there by Amazon.

Morrisons might have been relatively late to thegame when it comes to online grocery delivery butthis partnership with Amazon has proven to be asavvy decision for the company and these one hourdelivery times will only give it an even bigger edge.

2016-11-16 14:00 Emma Boyle feedproxy.google.com

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Park Place Buys Ardent ForMore Data Center Expertise -Page: 1

Cleveland-based Park Place Technologies bought

Ardent Support Technologies, Dover, N. H., for anundisclosed sum, the companies said this week.Ardent provides third-party maintenance for datacenter hardware.

Park Place provides third-party maintenance forstorage, servers and data center networks byoffering post-warranty maintenance services. ParkPlace was founded in 1991 as a hardware resellerand now has, including the Ardent acquisition,about 475 employees and 6,500 customers across90 countries, according to Park Place COO ChrisAdams. The company's early days, including itsjourney from reseller to MSP, are covered in this

2006 CRN interview.

"They've been a strategic partner of ours for severalyears providing expertise on specific platforms thatwas a little deeper than what we previously had,"Adams said of Ardent. As a company that isgrowing and providing 24-hour support tocompanies all over the globe, "you want that kind ofdepth," he told CRN.

Third-party maintenance is a fragmented butquickly growing market in North America, Adamssaid. The ability to provide global services is astrategic advantage, especially for customers whosimply want one number to call and one companyto support the dozens of different platforms in theirdata centers around the world.

Solution providers often partner with third-partymaintenance companies to provide ongoingwarranty support for hardware that often costs lessthan what is provided by the OEMs.

Those relationships are growing, too, and, in lessthan five years, Gartner predicts that 80 percent ofNorth American VARs will have active commission-

based sales with at least one independent third-party maintenance provider.

Against that backdrop, Park Place has emerged asone of the few providers big enough to competewith Charlotte, N. C.-based Systems MaintenanceServices and Santa Barbara, Calif.-basedCurvature, two of the largest names in this space.

In a Gartner report published in March, Ardent waslisted as having revenue of less than $10 millionand Park Place's revenue was listed at north of$100 million. "We did have some customer overlapand [Ardent] had been growing to a point wherethey were starting to compete with us. They're in ourindustry so we picked up the revenue andeffectively removed a competitor," Adams told CRN.The company's customers range from small andmidsize businesses to Fortune 500 organizations togovernment, higher-education and health-careinstitutions. Park Place supports storage, serverand networking equipment across vendors such asBrocade, Cisco Systems, Dell EMC, Hitachi,Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM, Juniper Networks,NetApp and Oracle. Gartner's report on third-party

maintenance providers said two-thirds of Ardent'srevenue came from supporting Dell EMC, HPE andNetApp products.

Park Place is now majority-owned by GTCR, aChicago-based private equity firm that also holdsstakes in network operator Zayo Group and XIFIN, acloud software and services company. Park Placewas one of CRN's Triple Crown Winners in 2016,meaning the company appeared in the 2016 CRNSolution Provider 500, Fast Growth 150 and TechElite 250 lists.

Park Place's Ardent acquisition is the company'ssecond strategic buy this year. "We've got a veryrobust pipeline," Adams said. He notes that GTCR'sbusiness model is to find growing companies ingrowing markets and that means Park Place won'tbe sitting still. "I expect that next year we'll doanother two or three acquisitions," he said.

2016-11-16 13:58 Phil Harvey www.crn.com

112 /223 3.2

The 2017 Nissan Rogue:Rogue One Limited Edition ismore than a badge

I'm partial to the white one, myself.

The changes are purely aesthetic. The exteriorfeatures LED headlights, a black grille and lowertrim piece, black rear door trim, black roof rails andD-pillar badges for both the Rebel Alliance andGalactic Empire. There's also "Rogue One"

branding on the front doors. It's available in just twocolors -- black and white.

Inside, there are unique carpeted floor mats,illuminated doorsills with the Star Wars logo andinterior accent lighting. The cup holders featureAlliance and Empire logos, as well.

That's not all, though. Along with all those visualupgrades, buyers receive a proper Star Warscollectible -- a full-size Death Trooper helmet. Ifyou're keen on this film franchise, the helmet alonemight pull your attention toward this package.

Adding this package to the Rogue costs $1,990,and it's only available on one specific trim -- the2017 Rogue SV, equipped with the Sun and SoundTouring Package, which adds a panoramicmoonroof and a Bose audio system. It's available ineither front-wheel or all-wheel drive. It's packing thesame engine as always, a 170-horsepower I4.Blind spot monitoring and push button start are bothincluded, as well.

Nissan will build just 5,400 Star Wars-themedRogues -- 5,000 for the US, and a paltry 400 for

Canada.

2016-11-16 13:45 by www.cnet.com

113 /223 7.1

Holiday Gift Guide 2016:TechRadar’s top tech toys togive this season

Can it really be that time again? Leaves are falling,holiday lights are going up, and that chill in the airsays yet another holiday season is upon us. Andyou know what that means: It’s time to make thosegift lists and get shopping!

The mere thought of holiday buying can send a chilldown your spine if you fear long lines and sold-outmerchandise. Never fear: if you’re in the market forthe coolest tech toys of the season, you’ve come tothe right place.

Whether it’s just for the kiddos, precocious teenagerin the family, or adults who are still big kids at heart,this guide is stuffed with fun, engaging and all-around awesome tech toys to give this holidayseason.

Where little ones are concerned, there’s only onemashup better than peanut butter and jelly, andthat’s the holidays and presents. You don’t have tobe a parent to know just how bonkers youngstersbecome when they see those wrapped-up gifts, andthe more toys, the better!

Drones are all the rage these days, so it was just amatter of time before someone designed oneexpressly for the littlest members of the family.

This is an affordable model that features one-touchtakeoff and landing, as well as auto-pilot mode to

ease youngsters into taking flight.

It’s also smartphone-ready for shooting photos orvideos as the lucky lad or lass who receives thisdrone sends it soaring to the skies.

Although it’s a somewhat niche item since aPlayStation 4 is required, this is one epic newadventure, and especially perfect if you're alsoplanning to purchase a new Sony console for youryoungin'.

Skylanders Imaginators follows the exploits of Eon,who must call upon all Portal Masters and thegreatest mystic warriors in Skyland to combat Kaos.Players can create an ultimate team of over 30Skylanders, enlisting 10 different battle class typesto defeat Kaos.

The starter pack includes Master King Pen andGolden Queen figurines, as well as the CreationCrystal that will truly bring kids' imaginations to life.

Arriving just in time for the 2016 holiday season,Mattel is taking the classic Barbie Dreamhouse weknow and love and ushering it into the technology

age with a modern makeover.

Although the asking price may sound steep, thishigh-tech dollhouse connects to your home’s Wi-Fito enable Siri-style speech recognition, allowingyour little one to speak more than 100 commands.

Open the door, raise the elevator, even change thestairs into a fun slide - there are six rooms and 15total locations around the Dreamhouse tocustomize, and you can even record new sounds togreet Barbie for different occasions.

If your kid is even a casual fan of Pokemon, Mario,or other Nintendo favorites and doesn’t alreadyown one of these games, there’s a good chance it’son their wish list this year.

Faster than the original model, the New Nintendo3DS XL is equipped with face-tracking 3D andoffers built-in support for games that takeadvantage of amiibo and NFC.

The handheld also includes enhanced C Stickcontrol for shifting the in-game camera, givingplayers more options of how they view the game

unfolding before their eyes. This is the perfect toy tokeep your kids occupied with Nintendo classics forhours - good for you and them.

It’s often hard to know what to buy the teenagers inyour life, but thankfully, this one’s easy as teenslove technology. There are plenty of great gadgetsto put a smile on even the dourest of juveniles.

Now this is the kind of thing that makes us wish wecould go back and relive our younger years all overagain!

With non-toxic PLA filament and a child-safe printbed that doesn’t use heat, this compact 3D printerwill spark your teenager’s imagination like neverbefore. Not only is it affordable, but themanufacturer offers a ton of free resourcesincluding design software, a gallery of ready-to-print 3D objects, and an educational curriculumyour teen's school can also participate in.

If you have an early teen who loves to draw, they’llgo absolutely out of their minds when they see howfun and easy it is to use this 3D printing pen.

Available in a rainbow of five different colors, the3Doodler Create is kind of like a hot glue gun onsteroids, but with the precision to draw vertically,horizontally, or right off the page.

Teens need just turn it on, insert one of 50 includedplastic strands (there are more than 65 colorshades in a variety of material types, also soldseparately), and start doodling whatever theirimagination allows.

There was a time not so long ago when every teenwanted a train under the tree, a hobby that oftencontinued into a full-blown adult obsession usuallyrelegated to a garage or basement.

Like just about everything else, train sets havemade the high-tech transition, and this Bluetooth-equipped locomotive offers wireless control overspeed, direction, lighting, and sound using an iOSor Android device from up to 100 feet away.

This HO scale electric train set is ready to run out ofthe box with four cars and enough track to encircleeven the largest Yuletide timber.

Your teen may not know what a turntable is, butthey most certainly know what a DJ does.

Now they can get the party started with this easy-to-use starter controller that includes all the basics,including a light show built directly into the back ofthe unit. Affordably priced, the compact chassisfeatures dual scratch platters and slider controls, aswell as eight multi-function pads for loops orsamples.

Using the built-in sound card, would-be DJs canpractice alone with headphones, or connect toexternal speakers to really pump up the jams.

Why should kids have all the fun? We’ll cap off ourtech toy holiday guide with a look at some of thebest stuff you can wrap up for a loved one (oryourself *wink wink*) this holiday season.

This one is for the gadget lover in the family whohas everything. Ehang’s latest unmanned aerialvehicle isn’t exactly an impulse buy, but it doesshoot 4K video with a 93-degree wide angle field ofview.

If that’s not enough, the drone also wirelesslytransmits a first-person virtual reality view to theincluded VR goggles, allowing the wearer to seewhat’s being shot in real-time, as well as provide away to control the camera angle by moving yourhead.

It’s so easy to use you’ll be out of the box and up inthe air in less than five minutes, but, to be honest,most of that time will probably be spent installingthe free control app on your iOS or Android device.

For decades now, game consoles have broughttears of joy to children all over the world - and morethan a few adults as well. Since the NintendoSwitch won’t be making its debut until next spring,your choices are similar to last year.

Sony’s PlayStation Pro delivers faster frame ratesand super-sharp action combined with a fullterabyte of internal storage.

Not to be outdone, Microsoft’s updated Xbox One Shits the same price point or less (around £299.99 inthe UK) but doubles the internal storage to 2TB,and can even play Ultra HD Blu-rays in stunning 4K

quality. Either way, your Christmas vacation will bewell spent.

Virtual reality is gradually spilling over intomainstream acceptance, and something tells usthere will be more VR headsets unwrapped thisholiday season that ever before.

Our pick of the litter is the HTC Vive , which offersgamers an exhaustive catalog of more than 500titles on SteamVR to become totally immersed in.

This is room-scale VR at its best - the front-facingcamera keeps the real world close at hand, alongwith notifications from a connected compatiblesmartphone.

The headset, wireless controllers, and basestations are all included, so you’ll only need acompatible Windows computer to bring it to life.

Although technically marketed to a younger crowd,the mere mention of something as futuristic asholograms is sure to spark the interest of tech-minded adults who own everything else.

This kit uses “Instant Hologram” film to create 3Dlaser holograms in an hour or less using step-by-step instructions. One kit is equipped to make up to20 different bright, clear holograms using self-developing plates that don’t require chemicals ortraditional processing - and the fun doesn’t have tostop there, because refills are sold separately.

2016-11-16 13:43 By feedproxy.google.com

114 /223 4.5

G. Skill Adding A Cherry MXSpeed Silver Keyboard, Too

G. Skill has quietly put up a product page for aCherry MX Speed Silver version of its KM570keyboard.

The company has but two keyboards --the KM780and KM570--but it has numerous iterations of both.It recently announced that its lower-end keyboard,the KM570, has Cherry MX RGB switch options ,and now it’s getting a Cherry MX Speed Silverversion, too.

Cherry first announced the new switch back in April, timing the announcement with the release of the

thusly-equipped Corsair K70 RGB Rapidfirekeyboard. The Speed Silver switches are linear,like Reds, and they have the same 45g actuationforce, but they feature a reduced actuation point(1.2mm instead of the common 2mm) and have ashallower total travel of 3.4mm versus the standard4mm.

G. Skill priced the new version of the KM570 at$110, which is $10 higher than its standard CherryMX versions and $10 less than its Cherry MX RGB-equipped models. It appears to otherwise beidentical to the standard Cherry MX KM570keyboards.

2016-11-16 13:40 Peripherals News www.tomshardware.com

115 /223 2.6

10 best new phones comingin 2017

The best new phones coming in 2017. We look atthe best new phones that you must see before youupgrade, including the best new Android phones,best new iPhones, best new Windows phones, best

new Samsung phones, best new Sony phones,best new HTC phones, best new LG phones andmore. Also see: The best new tablets you can'tafford to miss in 2016.

Before we get on to the best phones coming outnext year, there are still a few to come in 2016 thatyou won't want to miss, including Xiaomi's Mi Note2 and Mi Mix and the OnePlus 3T. We'll outlinethese in the next couple of slides, then move on tothe best of what's to come in 2017.

Also see: Best Black Friday Phone Deals

OnePlus has confirmed a new OnePlus 3T phonefeaturing the 2.35GHz Snapdragon 821 processor.

The Snapdragon 821 promises a 10 percentperformance boost over the Snapdragon 820, plusincreased energy savings.

The new OnePlus 3T also features a 13 percenthigher-capacity battery, now at 3,400mAh and withsupport with Dash Charge, though it fits into thesame chassis as the OnePlus 3 with no extraweight.

It's available in a new Gunmetal colour and there'sa 128GB storage option, plus there are someenhancements to the camera. While the primary16Mp Sony camera gets an EIS upgrade and newsapphire glass protection, the front 8Mp camerahas been swapped out for a 16Mp Samsung fixed-focus camera.

Read more about the OnePlus 3T here .

The Mi Mix is one of the most extraordinary phoneswe've seen in recent years, with a 6.4in edgelessdisplay and a super-high 91.3 percent screen-to-body ratio. Given the loss of the top bezel you'll findthe selfie camera at the bottom right of the phone'schin, while an ultrasonic distance sensor hides

behind the display and replaces the proximitysensor. Most clever of all, rather than an earpieceyou get ‘cantilever piezoelectric ceramic acoustictechnology’ to transmit sound.

Other specs are decent too,with a Snapdragon 821processor, up to 6GB of RAM and up to 256GB UFS2.0 storage.

The Mi Mix has an RRP of RMB 3499 for the 4GBof RAM, 128GB storage model, and RMB 3999 forthe 6GB RAM, 256GB storage model with 18k goldtrims around the camera and fingerprint sensor,though you will pay more than the straight Sterlingconversion of £422.37 and £482.69 .

GearBest is listing the 4GB RAM Mi Mix for £517.53/ $658.99, though it is currently on pre-order andwill ship after 15 December. The 6GB RAM, 256GB,18K model is not currently listed on the site.

Read more about the Mi Mix here .

The Mi Note 2 is the latest phablet flagship fromXiaomi, and this dual curved-edge screen phonecouldn't come at a better time given the recent

discontinuation of the Galaxy Note 7. With curvedglass front and back, it looks just like it.

Inside the specs are good, with a 2.35GHzSnapdragon 821 chip, up to 6GB of RAM and up to128GB UFS 2.0 storage. There's a 22.56Mp rearcamera and an 8Mp snapper at the front, and a4070mAh battery with QC3 support to keep it allgoing. Better still the Global model supports all UK4G bands!

The Mi Note 2 is available via GearBest. Click herefor more info on the Mi Note 2.

Apple is set to go big on the iPhone's 10thanniversary, which could go some way to make upfor this year's relatively minor upgrade. Acombination of design and hardware changesshould make the iPhone 8 the most radical newiPhone to date.

The iPhone 8 could be the iPhone with which JonyIve finally gets his own way: an iPhone thatresembles a single sheet of glass with an edge-to-edge OLED screen. According to an Apple supplier,at least one of the company's new iPhones for 2017

will have a glass body. The TouchID scanner isthought to be hidden within the glass, while thephysical Home button will be gone.

Other rumours suggest the iPhone 8 will featurewireless charging for the first time, and possiblebiometric features such as facial recognition or irisscanning. It'll run the Apple A11 processor andmotion co-processor, and be devilishly fast.

Click here for more iPhone 8 rumours.

(Image via ConceptsiPhone .)

LG is rumoured to ditch its modular design for theG6 and potentially adopt a new glass front and rear.In common with the Samsung Galaxy S-series withwhich it competes it is likely to feature fast wirelesscharging and see a processor and graphics bumpto ready the phone for VR.

One of the most interesting rumours about the LGG6 is that it will feature a new type of iris scannerthat uses the same sensor as the phone's frontcamera, a space- and cost-saving measure that ismade possible through use of a special filter.

Read more about the LG G6 here.

Surface Phone rumours have been few and farbetween, leading some to think it's nothing morethan a myth. But it was recently revealed by Wiredthat Microsoft Corporate VP Panos Panay hasbeen working on a prototype of a new phone.

Should it truly exist, the Surface Phone is expectedto arrive in 2016, with a 5.5in Quad-HD AMOLEDdisplay, 4GB of RAM, 64- and 128GB storageoptions (with microSD support), a 64-bit Intelprocessor and 21Mp rear- and 8Mp front cameras.The Surface Phone could also get a Surface Penand a USB-C port.

There will be a Microsoft event on 26 October, soit's possible that if the Surface Phone really doesexist it will be announced here.

OnePlus has just announced its OnePlus 3T, whichis an upgraded version of the OnePlus 3 with aprocessor and battery boost, plus a new selfiecamera. It's an improvement sure, but OnePlus 3fans won't be in a rush to upgrade.

More exciting for OnePlus fans, then, will be theOnePlus 4 expected in April/May 2017. Rather thanthe Snapdragon 821 this phone will likely get theSnapdragon 830. We could also see the 5.5in full-HD display upgraded to a Quad-HD model.

Other rumours suggest the OnePlus 4 will comewith 8GB of RAM, a 21- or 23Mp camera and a3,500- to 4,000mAh battery with Dash Charge. Onething we're sure of is that it will run Oxygen OS, acustom UI that will be based on Android 7.0Nougat.

Read more OnePlus 4 rumours here .

Following the Note 7 problems there are a lot ofwhispers about Samsung at the moment. Thefailure of the Note 7 has badly bruised itsreputation, and it's hurt its bottom line. Some say itwill look to mend its reputation by announcing theNote 8 in February 2017 alongside the Galaxy S8,while others say it will drop its Note line altogether.

We don't think Samsung is about to give up on itssecond annual cash cow just yet, though it will

need to do something to put consumers at ease.Given that there is already a Galaxy Note 8 (a 2013tablet), and the Note's specifications are edgingever closer to the Galaxy S-series edge handset,we think Samsung may look to shake things up a bitand change its branding of its phablet family.

Should Samsung go ahead as normal with itsAugust big-screen phone launch, we'd expect tosee a 5.7in Quad-HD or SuperAMOLED screenwith S Pen support, a powerful processor and RAMcombo capable of the very best mobile VRexperience, a dual camera, waterproofing andmore.

Read more about the Galaxy Note 8 here .

Samsung traditionally holds an Unpacked event inwhich it unveils its new S-series flagship the daybefore MWC. In 2017 this tradeshow runs from 27February to 2 March, so we expect to see a newGalaxy S8 on Sunday 26 February 2017. Expect itto go on sale in early March 2017.

For its now-discontinued Galaxy Note 7 Samsungmerged its 'Edge' and standard models, so perhaps

we'll see the same with the merging of the GalaxyS8 and S8 Edge. We think there will still be twoGalaxy S8 models, but it will only be the sizedifferentiating their screens. In which case the S8edge might instead be known as the S8 Plus, orsimilar. In any case you should expect more of thesame metal and glass front/back design itintroduced last year in the S6 and in 2016 hasextended to the A-series.

When it arrives, you can expect the S8 to be thefastest phone money can buy, with a top-of-the-range processor and 6GB of RAM. There will morethan likely be a super-high-resolution 5.1in screen -Samsung may even move up from Quad-HD toUltra-HD, which is all the more likely given theimportance being placed on VR in the next AndroidOS - Android Nougat - which this phone will run.

Now that Samsung has discontinued its Note 7, it'sgoing to want to make the Galaxy S8 an absolutebelter to mend its reputation.

Read more rumours on the Galaxy S8 here.

HTC 11 UK release date: April 2017

HTC has launched its new phones at MWC inrecent years, but skipped the show in 2016 andheld its own event to unveil the HTC 10 (pictured).We expect its sucessor to be launched in April 2017and to have the upgrades you'd expect: a fasterprocessor, more RAM and - hopefully - betterbattery life.

You can read more rumours on the HTC 11 here.

Sony neglected to announce the Sony Xperia Z6 atMWC 2016, instead revealing a new Xperia Xfamily comprising the Sony Xperia X and SonyXperia XA. But this doesn't mean the Sony XperiaZ6 is dead: never say never, says the company,which has since clarified that it isn't ruling out thepossibility at some point in the future.

You can read the latest rumours on the Sony XperiaZ6 here .

Now we'll take a look at some of the best phonesthat have already gone on sale in 2016.

The cat is finally out the bag, and Apple has

unveiled its iPhone 7 to the world. There are somewelcome changes in the new iPhone, for examplethe new stereo speakers and IP67 waterproofing,as well as the faster performance available from theApple A10 Fusion processor. However, the muchrumoured dual-lens camera made its way only tothe iPhone 7 Plus (see the next slide).

We're less pleased by the loss of the headphonejack (you now need to use a pair of Lightning-connected headphones or use the adaptorsupplied in the box with your old ones). And whatsounded fantastic at the launch event - that Applewould keep the iPhone 7 at the same price as theiPhone 6s but with double the storage capacity -turned out to be true only in the US. In the UK theentry-level iPhone 7 is £60 more expensive thanwas the 16GB iPhone 6s, and the price gapincreases for the other models.

Read more about the iPhone 7 here .

With previous iPhone launches the Plus model hasalways been simply a larger version of the standardiPhone, but with a larger, higher-resolution screen

and a bigger battery. That's still the case, althoughwith the iPhone 7 Plus you also get a secondcamera at the rear, with a 56mm telephoto lens.This allows it to feature a 2x optical zoom.

Read more about the iPhone 7 Plus here.

Apple confirmed its iPhone SE during a specialevent on 21 March. The phone went on sale on 31March at £359 (16GB).

The rumours turned out to be true, and while theiPhone SE looks vey much like an iPhone 5s, butwith matt chamfered edges and a shiny stainlesssteel Apple logo, on the inside it's very muchiPhone 6s.

Headline features include the Apple A9 processorand M9 motion co-processor, plus a 12Mp iSightcamera that can also capture 4K video.

Read our iPhone SE review here.

The first phones 'Made by Google' (and actuallymade by HTC, but we won't worry about the details)are the new Google Pixel and Pixel XL. The Pixel

XL will be especially interesting now that Samsunghas discontinued its Galaxy Note 7 after it wasunable to rectify the battery issues.

The Pixel and Pixel XL are in many respects thesame phone, with a larger, higher-resolutionscreen, a higher-capacity battery and the price tagseparating the two.

Headline features include the new GoogleAssistant, which allows for natural dialoguebetween Google and a user to get the informationthey need, a 12.3Mp camera that has won thehighest ever rating from DXOMark Mobile and issupported by unlimited cloud storage for youroriginal resolution (even 4K) video and photos,support for VR built-in and the new Google Duovideo-calling app.

Read more about the Google Pixel and Pixel XLhere.

HTC on 12 April unveiled its HTC 10, successor tothe HTC One M9. It continues to major on sound,but the BoomSound stereo speaker setup looks alittle different at the front, with the tweeter at the top

and woofer on the bottom edge of the phone.

In common with the LG G5 it's a QualcommSnapdragon 820-powered smartphone with 4GB ofRAM, but it's slightly faster-clocked at 2.2GHz. HTChas also upgraded the screen to a 5.2in Quad-HDSuper LCD 5 screen, and implemented a fingerprintscanner.

The HTC 10 is priced in line with the Galaxy S7 at£569, and available to buy now.

Read our HTC 10 review here.

On 6 April Huawei unveiled its new flagship P9alongside a P9 Plus. You can re-live the launchevent in our Huawei P9 launch live blog.

The rumours were very much on the money, savefor the naming scheme - there's no P9 Lite or P9Max in sight. As expected, there's a new dual-camera system produced in collaboration withLeica. Unlike other dual-lens cameras, one sensoris RGB and the other monochrome. This and thenew super-accurate fingerprint scanner found in theMate 8 are highlights.

Performance is excellent with the octa-core Kirin955 processor inside, alongside 3GB of RAM and32GB of storage (that's in the standard P9 - the P9Plus has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage).

The Huawei P9 and P9 Plus are aluminiumunibody handsets with full-HD displays - the P9 hasa 5.2in IPS panel, while the Plus is fitted with a5.5in Super AMOLED screen.

The Huawei P9 is now available to buy in the UK,while we hope the P9 Plus will be coming soon.

Read our Huawei P9 review and Huawei P9 Plusreview here.

It's not long since we welcomed the LG G4 , but theLG G5 was announced by the company on 21February. It's the company's first modular-designsmartphone, which can be transformed into a digitalcamera or Hi-Fi player. It features a sleekaluminium unibody with a slide-out battery.

In common with the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7Edge the LG G5 has an always-on screen (here

5.3in), which makes it easier to check the time ornotifications at a glance. Another innovative featureis the two cameras on the rear - one with an extra-wide 135-degree lens.

Key specs include the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820processor, 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage (withMicroSD up to 200GB), a 2800mAh removablebattery and Android Marshmallow. The G5 comesin Silver, Titan, Gold or Pink, and will be availableto pre-order in March for an April release.

The LG G5 costs £529 and went on sale on 8 April2016.

Read our LG G5 review here.

Successor to the LG V10 (which never actuallymade it to the UK), the V20 is set to be LG's secondflagship of the year. More importantly, it is the firstphone to run Android Nougat out of the box and, asLG itself teased before the launch, has a stellaraudio experience shipping with a 32-bit Hi-Fi QuadDAC and B&O earphones.

As suspected, the V20 is not - like the company's

LG G5 - a modular phone. However, the 3,200mAhbattery is removable, which will please many users.It also supports Quick Charge 3.0 over USB-C.

It's powered by the flagship-level QualcommSnapdragon 820 processor and 4GB of LPDDR4RAM. There's 64GB of storage, plus up to 2TBexpansion possible through microSD.

As before two screens feature, with a secondaryalways-on screen sitting above the 5.7in Quad-HD(256x1440, 513ppi) IPS Quantum Display mainpanel to offer alerts and notifications at a glance.

Read more about the LG V20 here.

The Moto G is hardly a flagship phone, but it standsout as one of the best budget options with a goodall round spec, design and performance. Asexpected, Motorola unveiled a new version of theMoto G (the Moto G4) and Moto G Plus on 17 May.

Those names might lead you to believe the newMoto G4 Plus is a larger version of the Moto G;actually it's just a premium version, with a 16Mp(rather than 13Mp camera), a fingerprint scanner

and potentially more RAM, depending on whichstorage model you purchase.

Both phones feature a 5.5in full-HD screen, aSnapdragon 617 chip, Adreno 405 graphics and a3,000mAh battery.

The Moto G4 went on sale in early June at £169 viaAmazon, Argos and Tesco Mobile, while the G4Plus was an Amazon exclusive at £199 from mid-June.

Read more about the Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plushere.

It came as no surprise when Motorola announcedtwo new phones at the Lenovo Tech World Show inearly June, and it was even less surprising that theywere called Moto Z rather than Moto X (althoughMotorola insists this is a new- rather thanreplacement line). But while we were expecting anew Moto Z Play and Moto Z Style, we actually gota new Moto Z and Moto Z Force.

These are indeed the modular phones the rumourswere referring to, with new 'Moto Mods'. These

snap on to the back of the phone like a rear cover,attaching themselves using high-powered magnets.Moto Mods will be compatible with future Moto Zphones, too.

The first Moto Mod is the JBL SoundBoost, whichturns the Moto Z into a tiny boombox. There's alsothe Moto Insta-Share Projector, which can create ascreen of 70in, a Power Pack and Moto Shells.

The Moto Z is claimed to be the world's thinnestphone at 5.2mm, and has a metal aluminium andsteel body with a 5.5in Quad-HD AMOLED screen.There's a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor,4GB of RAM and 32- or 64GB of storage. There arelots of other features too but, interestingly, noheadphone jack - you'll need to use an includedadaptor with the USB-C port.

The Moto Z Force is a tougher version of the samephone with a second-generation shatterproofscreen, which makes it slightly thicker at 7mm. Plusthere's a higher-capacity battery and a higher-specified 21Mp rear camera with laser- and phase-detection autofocus.

The phones will be available in the US in thesummer (known as the Moto Z and Moto Z ForceDroid), but won't hit the UK until September. Pricesare still to be confirmed.

Read more about the new Moto Z and Moto Z Forcehere.

Things on Kickstarter are often a complete load ofrubbish but the Nextbit Robin is a success storywhich we're looking forward to seeing in the flesh.

The firm was founded in 2012 and its key staff havebeen involved with Android since the beginning.Collectively, they've worked on launching phonesincluding the G1, Nexus and HTC One M8 and M8.

The phone arrived in February 2016 with a pricetag of $399, the 'cloud-first' smartphone has adifferent approach to most other Android devices onthe market. There is on-board storage but thephone will automatically optimise by doing thingslike moving unused apps and photos to the cloud.

Read our Nextbit Robin review here.

The OnePlus 3 was unveiled on 14 June 2016, andfor the first time is available to buy without an inviteimmediately after the launch. Prices start at £309.

The OnePlus 3 features a new metal design - albeitwith the same Alert Slider key on the side - in whichit houses a 5.5in full-HD AMOLED screen. There's awhopping 6GB of RAM that works with theQualcomm Snapdragon 820 chip to make this avery powerful phone indeed.

There's no microSD slot, but plenty of storage with64GB onboard. The fingerprint scanner remains,and NFC returns - woohoo! 16Mp rear and 8Mpfront cameras are just two more of the OnePlus 3'simpressive specifications given that low, low price.

For more details read our OnePlus 3 review or seeour OnePlus 3 UK release date, price, new featuresand specification article.

Samsung has officially unveiled its Galaxy S7 andS7 Edge. Samsung fans will be pleased to knowthe handsets see the return of both a MicroSD slotand waterproofing, and although it's not removablethe battery has been bumped up to 3000mAh in the

S7 and 3600mAh in the S7 Edge. Also see:Samsung Galaxy S7 review.

Both phones feature a Quad-HD SuperAMOLEDscreen - the S7 at 5.1in and the Edge at 5.5in - andthese feature new always-on (except when it's inyour pocket or at night) technology, making it easierto check the time or read notifications at a glance.

Inside these Android Marshmallow phones you'llfind either the Exynos 8890 or QualcommSnapdragon 820, depending on the market. You'llalso get 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. Alsosee: Samsung Galaxy S7 vs Samsung Galaxy S7Edge.

The camera has been downgraded to 12Mp, butlarger pixels and a f/1.7 aperture will allow it toreceive 95 percent more light. This is also seen atthe front for the 5Mp selfie camera, and Samsungsays the S7 is the first phone with a Dual Pixelsensor.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge areavailable to buy at £569 and £639 respectivelyfrom Samsung, and are also available from UK

mobile operators. See best Galaxy S7 deals.

Read our Samsung Galaxy S7 review andSamsung Galaxy S7 edge review here.

In mid-May Sony announced the Sony Xperia XAUltra, a new model in the X family with a 6in edge-to-edge screen. It's set to be the mother of all selfiephones, with a 16Mp front-facing camera that hasboth an LED flash and optical image stabilisation.

In other respects the XA Ultra has a largely mid-range spec, with an octa-core MediaTek MT6755processor, 3GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and a2700mAh battery with Quick Charge support. It willbe available in Graphite Black, White and LimeGold.

Pre-orders have not yet begun for the new SonyXperia XA Ultra, though Mobile Fun has set up apage on which you can register your interest for theupcoming XA Ultra .

Learn more about the Sony Xperia XA Ultra here.

Sony unveiled a new model in its X-series at

September's IFA tradeshow, known as the SonyXperia XZ. It's got a monster 23Mp camera at theback, and flagship-level specs such as theSnapdragon 820 chip, 3GB of RAM and 32GB ofstorage. Sony also claims of bettery battery life andnew adaptive fast charging.

The Xperia XZ boasts a 5.2in screen surrounded bya metal casing available in a range of colours:Forest Blue, Mineral Black and Platinum. Its edgesare curved in what Sony calls a "Loop Surface"designed to make the phone appear seamless andfit comfortably in your hand. It's water-resistant, butnot waterproof.

Read more about the Sony Xperia XZ here.

It might be a 'Compact' phone, but the new miniXperia X's specs are far from insignificant. There's ahuge 23Mp camera at the rear (5Mp at the front),plus a generous 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage(plus microSD support up to 256GB) propping up ahexacore Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 chip (2x1.8GHz, 2x 1.4GHz). A fingerprint scanner is builtinto the power button on the side.

The resolution is just 1280x720, but stretched overa 4.6in LCD panel it should be plenty clear at319ppi. This is a pocketable phone, just129x65x9.5mm and 135g.

Read more about the Sony Xperia X Compact here.Xiaomi chose MWC 2016 as the platform to unveilits new flagship, the Mi 5. It's a beast of asmartphone, which Xiaomi claims achieved astaggering 142,084-point score in AnTuTu. Thatscore was made possible by a combination of theQualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor (withAdreno 530 graphics and Quick Charge 3.0support) and up to 4GB of RAM.

Other specifications of interest include a 5.15in full-HD IPS screen, a 16Mp camera with optical imagestabilisation and support for 4K video, a 3000mAhbattery, a fingerprint scanner and the MIUI 7operating system, which is based on AndroidMarshmallow.

Xiaomi phones aren't officially available in the UK,but they are obtainable from suppliers such asGeekbuying , which lists the 32GB/3GB, 64GB/3GB

and 128GB/4GB models for sale at £294.58,£334.81 and £387.98 respectively. The Mi 5 wenton sale on 1 March 2016.

Before you buy this phone, though, note that Xiaomihas recently announced its Mi5s and Mi5s Plus -we're awaiting our sample so keep your eyes outfor our review.

Read our Xiaomi Mi 5 review here.

Xiaomi Mi Max UK release date: Summer 2016

In common with the Moto G and Moto X phonescovered earlier in this round-up, the new Xiaomi MiMax isn't a flagship. However, it is exciting for thefact it will be the first phone to run MIUI 8.9 (whichwe have a hunch will be released on 13 August),and the fact it is an absolute beast with a 6.44inscreen.

Xiaomi phones aren't sold in the UK, but Gear Besthas already confirmed it will ship the Mi Max to theUK for £355.10. That's for the top-end model, withthe Snapdragon 652 chip, 4GB of RAM and 128GBof storage.

The Mi Max can also support up to 128GB ofadditional storage via microSD, but it does so at theexpense of its dual-SIM dual-standby functionality -both cards require the same slot.

Read more about the Xiaomi Mi Max and MIUI 8.0new features here. Plus keep an eye out for our MiMax review coming in the next couple of weeks.

Also check out the best smartphones of 2016 , best Android phones of 2016 , best WindowsPhones of 2016 , best budget phones of 2016 , best cheap 4G phones of 2016 , best phablets of2016 , best selfie smartphones of 2016 and Bestkids' phones 2016 .

2016-11-16 13:36 Marie Brewis www.pcadvisor.co.uk

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Innovation Minister planseducation push to solveCanada’s IT skills gap

TORONTO – The federal government does nothave a monopoly on good ideas.

That was the first message delivered by NavdeepBains, Canada’s minister of innovation, science,and economic development at Google Canada’sGo North startup conference on Oct. 28, and thefoundation of his speech, in which he presented theleading priorities that Canadians have suggestedfor the Liberal government’s innovation agenda.

“For several months, we’ve held dozens ofroundtable discussions… and invited Canadians toshare their ideas with us online and through socialmedia,” he said, noting that the government hadreceived more than 1300 submissions regarding itsinnovation agenda and that many of these ideaswill help shape the Liberals’ future mandate.

So which ideas have proven most important toinnovation-minded Canadians? Bains shared

three:

It’s no secret that Canada’s ICT sector is expectedto have 180,000 unfilled jobs – the so-called skillsgap – by 2019, and industry and governmentleaders both recognize that filling these positionswill require a significant investment in the country’sworkforce, Bains said.

“We want to make sure we’re bringing people of alldisciplines together, because that’s when the magichappens,” he said. “There’s not a single industrythat technology doesn’t touch anymore…. [and] inCanada we’re simply not keeping pace withdemand.”

To close the talent gap, the government isconcentrating its efforts on three key areas, Bainssaid: science, technology, engineering, and math(STEM) and entrepreneurial training; incentives forcompanies to increase workforce diversity,especially women; and immigration.

“As the father of two girls, I have to say that nocountry can afford to leave half of its brainpower onthe sidelines,” he said, to loud applause. “And yet

today, less than one in three computer andengineering graduates is a woman. That’s simplynot good enough.”

In particular, Bains emphasized the importance ofgiving students entrepreneurial training, which hesaid would help them both integrate into themodern job market and expand it themselves; andof mid-career training, which he called essential ifCanada wanted its workforce to remain competitive.“Basic training should start very, very early, andcontinue throughout an employee’s career,” hesaid. “Children as young as my daughters, who aresix and nine… should be taught to code at thesame time they are learning how to read and writein English and French.”

Bains also emphasized that the government isputting its money where its mouth is by providing $2billion to help university and college campusesacross the country build state-of-the-art researchfacilities.

As for immigration, Bains said he that many abusiness leader had told him the government’s first

priority should be figuring out how to incorporatethe best talent the world has to offer into its ranks.

“Bringing in top talent does not take away jobs fromCanadians. It actually has a multiplier effect,” henoted. ”One key hire can attract many others andcreate many more jobs.”

Canada is very good at starting companies, but notat scaling them, Bains told the Go North crowd –appropriate, given that representatives from morethan 500 startups were attending the conference.

“Not many people know this about Canadians, butwe truly are a nation of entrepreneurs,” he said.“We start over 70,000 new companies every year.”

But when it comes to building high-growth firms –companies that employ hundreds or thousands ofworkers and post 20 per cent or more growth threeyears in a row – we’re decidedly less skilled, Bainssaid.

“If you look at the Canadian economy, I would saythat maybe three to five per cent [of companies] arewhat we define as high-growth,” he said. “We have

to scale up.”

For its part, the government plans to leverage itspurchasing power to help, he said.

“In other countries governments use theirpurchasing power to help companies scale up, andthe entrepreneurs I’ve heard from wonder whyCanada can’t do more of the same,” Bains said.“They tell me it makes a huge difference when thegovernment of Canada is an early adopter ofinnovation, and it also helps to have thegovernment as a marquee customer when thesenew entrepreneurs go abroad in search of newclients.”

Another reason so many Canadian companies postflat numbers might simply be inertia, Bains said –many are satisfied with modest gains.

Others have been less than prepared for just howmuch digital technology is disrupting industriessuch as mining, agriculture, retail, and finance, hesaid.

“I’ve heard this from many of you – just as we are

digitizing our economy, and just as we’reembarking upon this fourth industrial revolution, weneed to look at these emerging technologies andhow they’re going to impact so many industries,”Bains said.

The third theme that has repeatedly risen in thegovernment’s innovation-related discussions withCanadians involves harnessing emergingtechnology, Bains said, noting that in his opinionone of the most effective contributions governmentscan make is setting “big horizon” goals such asclimate change initiatives and supportingcompanies in their efforts to achieve them.

“Make no mistake – driving economic growththrough innovation is a daunting challenge,” hesaid. “It means setting ambitious goals, learningfrom failure, and never quitting…. Entrepreneursunderstand that. But government needs tounderstand that.”

Presently, he noted, Canada ranks 22 among theworld’s 34 most advanced economies when itcomes to research and development spending,

while corporate spending on ICT workers is onlyhalf that of the United States.

However, he said, the government is doing its partto encourage innovation through research,investing more than $1 billion over the next fouryears to develop clean technology, and $900 billionto support 13 “cutting-edge” research projectsacross the country in emerging fields such asmachine learning, big data, and clean energy.

“We are betting big on Canada to compete in theseareas,” he said. “Why? Because they have thepotential to create spinoff entities across all sectorsof the economy.”

For too long, Bains said, Canada has relied ontrade and high commodity prices to boost itseconomy during periods of weakness – and intoday’s free trade-driven, resource-light, anddigitally disrupted economy, that’s no longerenough.

“Canada has gained so much over the past half-century, but we won’t automatically do the sameover the next half, especially if we stay the course,”

he said. “Low growth does not have to be Canada’sdestiny. We don’t have to accept these pressuresas limitations. We can see them as opportunitiesand seize the future.”

“Our government is prepared to think big, aim high,and act boldly, just like an entrepreneur,” he said.

2016-11-16 13:32 Eric Emin www.itworldcanada.com

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Every version of SQL Server2016 now gets its full featureset

Microsoft packed SQL Server 2016 with newadvanced features that are supposed to help itcompete with a host of other database software. Butsome of the advanced capabilities in the relationaldatabase software were restricted to the mostexpensive Enterprise edition. That's about tochange.

The first service pack for SQL Server 2016 will givedevelopers a consistent set of features across the

Express, Standard and Enterprise editions. Thatmeans it's possible to build an app that relies on afeature like in-memory OLTP and test it with the freeExpress edition, then use the same code with aSQL Server 2016 Enterprise edition database.

Starting Wednesday, developers will only need topay for the more expensive versions of SQL Server2016 if they need additional performance, becausedifferent versions restrict what sort of hardwarepeople can use. In order to get the most power outof SQL Server, people will still need to pay for theEnterprise edition.

Still, this goes to show the competitive pressure inthe relational database market. Microsoft has tofend off both public cloud competitors, open sourcealternatives and other on-premises vendors. It'sgood news for customers who want to have aconsistent programming experience, without payingfor an Enterprise license.

Microsoft General Manager Rohan Kumar saidduring a press roundtable that the move was drivenby reduced usage of the advanced features.

The decision has been welcomed by customers.

"With SQL Server 2016 SP1, we can run the samecode entirely on both platforms and customers whoneed Enterprise scale buy Enterprise, andcustomers who don’t need that can buy Standardand run just fine," Nick Craver, the architecture leadat online programmer-community Stack Overflow,said in a press release. "From a programming pointof view, it’s easier for us and easier for them.”

The release is part of Microsoft's massive Connectnews avalanche. The company also unveiled itsfirst technical preview of SQL Server on Linux ,

which will allow developers to try out Microsoft'srelational database service on the popular opensource operating system.

2016-11-16 13:22 Blair Hanley www.computerworld.com

118 /223 3.1

SSH Provides 'Under TheRadar' Revenue Plays ForSecurity Solution Providers -Page: 1

SSH keys, the means of securing identification on aserver through public-key cryptography, has

remained largely "under the radar for many years,"according to SSH Communications Security CEOTatu Ylonen, but he said increased awareness incompliance and security across various verticalspresent opportunities for security solution providers.SSH Communications Security, which has globalcorporate headquarters in Helsinki, Finland, butoperates in the U. S. through its Massachusetts-based offices, is "present in over 90 percent of alldata centers," and SSH is used "extremely widely,"according to Ylonen.

“It’s pretty much everywhere -- half of the world'sweb services are using SSH,” he said.

In this age of seemingly endless data breaches,leaders in compliance and regulation in everyindustry from finance to health care have beguncracking down on boundary control and firewalls.

Solution providers can gain additional revenueimplementing SSH on top of firewall integration,and deployment is simple.

"Just for controlling external access with SSH byvendors outsourcing partners – manufacturing

vendors, IoT vendors – that can give 30 [percent] to50 percent revenue for a firewall integrator on top ofwhat they get from the firewall itself," Ylonen said.

"They can get that revenue from the existingcustomer base, giving them more value, givingmore benefit to the customers," he added. "And,there’s also very interesting services opportunitiesaround SSH key management. "

2016-11-16 13:21 Meghan Ottolini www.crn.com

119 /223 4.4

Amazon offers Primediscount to honor 'GrandTour' show launch

A car "crashed" into the ground at a promotionalevent for the new show in Berlin.

The old "Top Gear" team of Jeremy Clarkson,Richard Hammond and James May reunite thisFriday to the delight of gearheads everywhere in anew auto-focused series from Amazon called "TheGrand Tour. " To celebrate the occasion, Amazon's

introducing a new skill for Alexa and offering itsPrime service at a discount.

Amazon Prime normally costs $100 a year. Startingat 12 a.m. ET Friday, you'll be able to sign up for ayear of Prime for $80 if you're a first-time user. (Inthe UK that's a discount from £79 to £59.) Thepromotion lasts all day Friday until 11:59 p.m. PT.Prime gives you access to lots of streaming videocontent, as well as music and free shipping.

Alexa, the automated assistant built into popular

devices like the Amazon Echo , is excited about"The Grand Tour" too. When you enable the Alexaskill via the app, your Echo will provide teasers onThursdays before the weekly "Grand Tour" episodeand offer a chance to play trivia about the episodeon Saturdays. You can win a gift card if you play,and unlock extra video content if you get thequestions right.

Even if you're not a car person, the $20 discountmakes this as good of a time as any to jump intoPrime if you haven't already -- though I'm bummedthe discount doesn't apply to current customers.

2016-11-16 13:11 by www.cnet.com

120 /223 2.2

29% off Hubsan X4 RC QuadCopter with Camera - DealAlert

Lets start here: the Hubsan X4 quadcopter is just$37 after the current 29% discount on Amazon,where it averages 4 out of 5 stars from over 500people ( read reviews ). So if you've been thinking

about buying a quadcopter, you don't have a wholelot to lose on this one. The X4 is lightweight anddurable, with an optional protection ring includedthat's designed to keep it safe through theinevitable crash. A 6-axis flight control system withadjustable gyro sensitivity make it very easy to fly,and there's an expert mode that allows for flips. Iteven has a camera onboard that records to microSDHC. Of course it's no DJI Phantom 3 , but Irepeat: the Hubsan X4 is $37. See the discountedHubsan X4 now on Amazon.

2016-11-16 13:05 DealPost Team www.computerworld.com

121 /223 1.2

F5 readies ADCs for publiccloud

F5, considered the market-share leader inapplication delivery control (ADC), on Tuesdayreleased new versions of its flagship BIG-IP productthat make it easier to use the company’s loadbalancer, firewall and other application deliveryservices not only in data centers but in the publiccloud.

The maturation of BIG-IP represents a broader shift

among ADC vendors to embrace the public cloud.Traditionally these ADC products have beenoptimized for applications that are hosted oninfrastructure controlled by customers. As more andmore applications shift to the public infrastructureas a service cloud, vendors have evolved theirproducts to work in those environments too.

“With digital transformation and an increase pace ofinnovation come new challenges,” says F5 SeniorVice President of Public Cloud Calvin Rowland.“Companies are deploying more applications thanever at a rate never seen across infrastructures thatare perceived to be, and in many cases are muchmore complex than traditional environments. Yetapplications are expected to perform the sameway.”

Investment analyst firm MorningStar estimates F5holds a 50% share of the ADC market .

F5 announced a new version of its BIG-IP platformthat Rowland says has “investment protection” forcarrying the platform into the public cloud. Whencustomers buy a license for the company’s latest

Big-IP iSeries, the license works in the publicclouds from Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Oracleas well. It comes with new programmabilityfeatures, it now supports the node. JS programminglanguage and there are new integrations withprivate cloud platforms including from OpenStack,Cisco and VMware. BIG-IP iSeries starts at $17,995for the i2600 model and is available immediately.

Other F5 news includes a new partnership, effectiveimmediately, with vendor Equinix, one of theleading companies in cloud exchange platforms.Equinix data centers around the world hostcustomer collocated infrastructure and typicallyserve as an on-ramp to using the public cloud.Through the partnership, F5 ADC services will beavailable natively from Equinix facilities.

F5 also laid out plans for future developments. NewApplication Service Proxies are designedspecifically for use in the public cloud. Theseproducts are more simple to use and have a lighterweight footprint, making them ideal for distributedenvironments, Rowland says. An ApplicationConnector feature discovers cloud-hosted

instances and automatically connects them back tocustomers’ existing on premises infrastructures. F5also has plans to support application containers infuture ADC release. Application Connectors willcome packaged with sales of BIG-IP iSeries, withsome additional licensing costs for use in the publiccloud. The proxies and container integrations willbe free and all new features are expected to beavailable in the first quarter of the company’s nextfiscal year.

F5’s top competitors such as A10, Citrix NetScaler,and Radware are fresh off their own pivots toembracing the cloud. A10, for example, earlier thisyear purchased cloud-based ADC vendor Appcitoand is in the process of integrating those productsinto its platform.

2016-11-16 13:04 Brandon Butler www.computerworld.com

122 /223 1.6

Barnsley Council maximisesadoption of mobile appsthough staff consultation

Barnsley Council has helped its frontline staff get to

Barnsley Council has helped its frontline staff get to

grips with business apps and technology foreveryday work processes, such as leave requests.

This has been part of the Metropolitan BoroughCouncil’s ongoing digital transformation. SAPsoftware has featured in that, and Chantele Smith,ICT technical specialist at the council, is presentingon its use of Fiori apps for its human resources(HR) function at the 2016 SAP UK and Ireland usergroup conference in Birmingham on 20-22November.

She will talk about Barnsley’s “Fiori journey” andthe obstacles her team has overcome in improving

user experience.

“The project has been to ‘Fiorify’ internal processesthat have been paper based and manual,” saysSmith.

HR and payroll processes were in the first phase ofthe programme, which began in 2014, starting witha customised version of the Fiori leave request appand an app for submitting overtime requests.

Phase two concerns more HR functionally,including a team calendar app and a custom appfor banking flexible time, in addition to normalleave. A further app, called Arch, is being built withan external supplier to cover special leave, such asperiods of sickness.

The Fiori apps building team at Barnsley has beenlearning how to improve the user experience (UX) ,both before and after going live.

“We faced challenges we did not anticipate in termsof employee take-up and their ability to use theapps,” says Smith. “A lot of users who deal with thepublic face-to-face on a day-to-day basis, such as

care workers, don’t use digital technology. So theydon’t have the skills required to go ‘ digital bydefault ’.”

“So what we did to engage them was veryimportant,” she says. “We had drop-in sessionsinitially, where employees could come along withany device they had. We would give instructions onhow to install and use the apps. But that was notreally capturing enough people. So we ranworkshops on the various services.”

Spending a bit of time with users helped them toovercome some of the fears they had. “Iam passionate about helping those who strugglewith new technologies. It’s not that they don’t wantto learn, it’s more that they fear they can’t do it,” shesays.

That the users are able to use their own mobilephones and tablets is important for adoption, saysSmith. “That’s how we want them to use thetechnology. People don’t always have their workdevice with them, so they can book leave whenthey are not in the office.”

Other benefits include improvements to the datacollection process. “Previously, not everything wasrecorded on SAP since it was paper based,” shesays. “That means improved reporting and reducedexpenditure, with the saving on paper.”

Smith’s advice for her peers is to gain a clearunderstanding of users’ needs by talking to asmany groups of people as possible beforedevelopment starts, and to use as big a pilot groupas possible.

“Don’t be afraid to give time,” she adds. “A lot ofemployees have appreciated the time we’ve givento bring them up to speed.” ..... ... .. ....... ..... ..

2016-11-16 13:00 Business Applications www.computerweekly.com

123 /223 1.5

United Airlines’ new basiceconomy fares ban carry-onbaggage

In 2013, the Anna Kendrick comedy Rapture-Palooza had the misfortune of opening exactly one

week ahead of Seth Rogen’s This Is The End,another absurdist envisioning of Judgment Day.(They even shared a primary cast member: CraigRobinson, in both...

Former Microsoft CEO might have labeled Linux "acancer" 15 years ago, but things couldn't be anydifferent this week. Microsoft, the software giant thathas built its empire on closed-source proprietarysoftware, is joining the Linux Foundation....

I always judge a piece of art by whether I’d put it onmy wall. Let me be clear: I cannot afford art, butwhen I go to museums, I like to picture the Picassosand Monets hanging around my dream house. A

startup called Electric Objects knows people...

The update came on October 10th, 2016.

“Rain has been sporadic. A couple of inches a fewweeks ago. It was enough to cause [the] grass tojust grow like crazy. So I mowed around the cups aweek or so ago. [I] haven't been able to get in andclean...

Electric and hybrid-fuel cars will be required toproduce noise when traveling at low speeds undera new rule issued by the US National HighwayTraffic Safety Administration. This is to preventthese vehicles from injuring pedestrians,especially...

A virtual reality version of Google Earth is nowavailable for free on the HTC Vive, letting usersexplore reconstructed cultural treasures, globallandmarks, or (for some) their own homes in VR.Google Earth VR has been in development forsome...

2016-11-16 12:57 Micah Singleton www.theverge.com

124 /223 1.2

Feel like you’re in hell? Letthis forgotten Anna Kendrickcomedy guide you

United is introducing basic economy, a cheaper —and worse — fare class below economy. Firstspotted by The Points Guy, the new offering gets ridof seat assignments and elite-qualifying miles,forbids paid upgrades and flight changes, andbans...

Former Microsoft CEO might have labeled Linux "acancer" 15 years ago, but things couldn't be anydifferent this week. Microsoft, the software giant thathas built its empire on closed-source proprietary

software, is joining the Linux Foundation....

I always judge a piece of art by whether I’d put it onmy wall. Let me be clear: I cannot afford art, butwhen I go to museums, I like to picture the Picassosand Monets hanging around my dream house. Astartup called Electric Objects knows people...

The update came on October 10th, 2016.

“Rain has been sporadic. A couple of inches a fewweeks ago. It was enough to cause [the] grass tojust grow like crazy. So I mowed around the cups aweek or so ago. [I] haven't been able to get in andclean...

Electric and hybrid-fuel cars will be required toproduce noise when traveling at low speeds undera new rule issued by the US National HighwayTraffic Safety Administration. This is to preventthese vehicles from injuring pedestrians,especially...

A virtual reality version of Google Earth is nowavailable for free on the HTC Vive, letting usersexplore reconstructed cultural treasures, global

landmarks, or (for some) their own homes in VR.Google Earth VR has been in development forsome...

2016-11-16 12:56 Nov Est www.theverge.com

125 /223 0.5

Barnes And Noble Unveils$50 NOOK Tablet 7 ToExtinguish Amazon’s Fire

The device, called the NOOK Tablet 7, features —you guessed it — a 7-inch IPS display with aresolution of 1024x600 (171 ppi). 8GB of storage isonboard, although a microSD slot can

accommodate another 128GB for your medianeeds. Other hardware features include dual-band802.11a/b/g/n wireless, micro USB 2.0 connectivity,3.5mm headphone jack, 5MP rear camera and a2MP front-facing camera.

Barnes & Noble hasn’t officially outed the processorthat is running the show, but there’s reportedly aMediaTek MT8163 SoC paired with a Mali-T720GPU under the hood. The onboard 3,000 mAhbattery is good enough for 7 hours of battery life.The NOOK Tablet 7 runs Android and thankfullyincludes full access to the Google Play Store(something that the Amazon Fire can’t claim withFireOS , a forked version of Android).

Barnes & Noble is taking pre-orders for the NOOK 7Tablet right now for $49.99, and the device willactually be available on November 25 th. Given thatits specs match up pretty favorably to the 7-inchAmazon Fire , which is also priced at $49.99, wecould see both tablets vying for the attention ofbargain shoppers this holiday season.

Amazon definitely has name recognition with its

Fire, but you can’t easily dismiss the appeal of theNOOK Tablet 7 having full access to the GooglePlay Store.

2016-11-16 12:52 Brandon Hill hothardware.com

126 /223 1.1

GDPR boom time for ‘dataprotection officers’ - at least75,000 required worldwide

The European Union's forthcoming General DataProtection Regulation (GDPR) will require therecruitment of "at least" 75,000 data protection

officers to enable organisations to keep on top oftheir new legal obligations.

The GDPR will come in on 25 May 2018, and therewon't be any grandfathering of existing contracts -organisations will need to be 100 per centcompliant from day one, or risk fines up to four percent of turnover.

But according to the International Association ofPrivacy Professionals (IAPP), the GDPR will requirethe widespread and large-scale recruitment of dataprotection officers - typically lawyers specialised indata protection law - in order to stay on top of thenew EU law.

"Because the EU's 28 member states togetherrepresent the world's largest economy and the toptrading partner for 80 countries, many companiesaround the globe buy and sell goods to EU citizensand are thus subject to the GDPR," claims the IAPP.

One of the requirements of the GDPR is that anyorganisation conducting large-scale processing ofpersonal data must have a data protection officer

who is independent from the organisation. Hence,companies across the world will now need toconsider how to introduce such a role into theirbusiness, including the extent of their authority, towhom they will report and how the role will operate.Earlier this year, the IAPP claimed thatorganisations in Europe and the US would requireat least 28,000 data protection officers, andsuggested that this was a conservative estimate.

Now, the IAPP, using the same methodology,believes that as many as 75,000 data protectionofficer roles will be created in response to theGDPR, not just in the EU and US, but across theworld.

"The data protection officer requirement isborrowed from a similar programme Germany hashad in place for a decade, and other economies,including France and Sweden, for example, havethe concept of the data protection officer wellestablished. Still, it's a new concept almosteverywhere outside the EU and is bound togenerate some confusion," suggested the IAPP.

The data protection officer requirement is coveredunder Article 37 of the GDPR, which states thatsuch specialists will need to be "designated on thebasis of professional qualities and, in particular,expert knowledge of data protection law andpractices". Their tasks are designated under Article39 of the GDPR.

Using a standardised methodology, the IAPPestimated the number of data protection officers thatwill need to be recruited among organisations inthe EU's top 10 trading partners, as well as othermajor trading partners.

The US, according to the IAPP, will need to find9,000 data protection officers with anunderstanding of data protection laws across theEU, while China will need to find 7,568, Switzerland3,682 and Russia 3,068. "Where will these 75,000DPOs come from? Many companies remain in await-and-see mode," admitted the IAPP.

The EU's Article 29 Working Party, the dataprotection umbrella group that includes the UK'sInformation Commissioner's Office (ICO), will

release guidance regarding compliance with thedata protection role in December.

It has been suggested that the bureaucratic burdenof GDPR - not to mention a raft of other EUdirectives and regulations - will benefit the largesttechnology and internet companies, especially inthe nascent cloud computing space .

2016-11-16 12:43 Graeme Burton www.computing.co.uk

127 /223 2.5

Eddie Redmayne stars inheart-wrenching pro-Hufflepuff PSA

Please, spare a kind thought for the Hufflepuffs.Eddie Redmayne, star of the soon-to-open HarryPotter spinoff " Fantastic Beasts and Where to FindThem ," took time out from his publicity tour torecord a heartfelt PSA in defense of the sweetwizards of Hogwarts' Hufflepuff house.

Redmayne's character Newt Scamander was amember of Hufflepuff before being expelled from

the wizarding school.

Redmayne declares his pride in Hufflepuff despitebeing called boring and "beige. " The actorcounters that criticism with what he sees inHufflepuffs: loyalty, fierce friendship andcompassion. Redmayne takes care to point out thataction star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is aHufflepuff ( really, it's true ).

They may not have the glamour of Harry Potter'sGryffindor, the mod-goth cool of Slytherin or the

undeniably nifty name of Ravenclaw, butHufflepuffs have heart and don't mind using the "f"word in defense of their good name.

MTV released the PSA on Monday. "FantasticBeasts and Where to Find Them" opens in theatersthis week.

2016-11-16 12:41 by www.cnet.com

128 /223 6.2

Virtual Instruments acquiresXangati

Virtual Instruments , the leader in infrastructureperformance management, today announced it hasacquired Xangati, a hybrid cloud and virtualization

performance management company. Theacquisition creates the industry’s first application-centric infrastructure performance managementplatform that is real-time, cross-domain, andempowers IT teams to ensure applicationperformance and availability as they digitallytransform their businesses.

Xangati’s products enable a self-healing, self-optimizing hybrid data center, complementingVirtual Instruments’ deep expertise and experiencein IT infrastructure performance analytics. Together,the offerings deliver unparalleled applicationinfrastructure performance and availabilitymanagement by providing comprehensive,correlated real-time insight for any server, networkinterconnect or data store across the entire datacenter.

Virtual Instruments and Xangati address a gap inexisting application and infrastructure performancemonitoring approaches by providingcomprehensive visibility and actionable analysisacross the compute, network and storageinfrastructure in the modern hybrid data center. The

combination of Virtual Instruments and Xangatigives IT teams control of application performancedelivery and infrastructure spend within private orpublic clouds on legacy or hyperconvergedplatforms.

The Xangati acquisition is the second significanttransaction in 2016 for Virtual Instruments. Earlierthis year, the company merged with leading storageperformance analytics provider Load DynamiX.Virtual Instruments continues to see widespreadand increasing demand.

“Our mission is to create a world where applicationsand infrastructure perform better together, and thisacquisition supports that goal for our Global 2000customers. By adding Xangati’s monitoring andadvanced analytics expertise to Virtual Instruments’capabilities, we are even better positioned to helpcompanies assure performance, increaseavailability, and optimize the cost of application andservice delivery,” said Philippe Vincent, CEO ofVirtual Instruments.

“The combination of Virtual Instruments, Load

DynamiX and Xangati has now created a companywith the scale, expertise and capabilities to lead themarket for next-generation performance andavailability solutions,” said John Kim, managingpartner of HighBar Partners, lead investor in VirtualInstruments.

“EMA Research shows that more than 90 percent ofenterprises are unable to predict or reliably monitorapplication performance within today’s complexhybrid infrastructure environments. VirtualInstruments has been a leader in application-centric storage infrastructure monitoring andperformance analysis for many years and with theacquisition of Xangati, the company now owns allthe critical parts to offer a single solution forproactive virtualization, server, network, storageand cloud performance management,” said TorstenVolk, managing research director, EnterpriseManagement Associates.

As a result of the acquisition, Virtual Instruments willenhance its existing capabilities in infrastructureperformance monitoring with:

Deeper visibility into key environments:

Advanced analytics:

“IT architects, applications delivery andinfrastructure operations teams need a holisticapproach to proactively ensure the performanceand availability of their constantly evolving hybriddata centers,” said Jagan Jagannathan, founderand chief technology officer of Xangati, and nowchief innovation officer of Virtual Instruments. “Nowthat Xangati is part of Virtual Instruments, theseteams will have a shared view into how changes inapplication behavior and infrastructure affectapplication performance, complementingapplication performance management (APM)solutions. This unparalleled visibility across thedigital landscape will help enterprises scale andadapt.”

“We have been using the Xangati products as thefoundation of our NovaMonitor real-time networkinfrastructure monitoring service for our customers,which has allowed us to offer differentiated high-value services,” said Jason McGinnis, president of

NeoNova, a leading provider of subscriber andnetwork solutions for regional broadband providers.“The combination of Virtual Instruments andXangati is compelling as it will enable us to offer abroader range of monitoring services with completeend-to-end infrastructure visibility.”

More information on the acquisition can be found atwww.virtualinstruments.com .

2016-11-16 12:41 SD Times sdtimes.com

129 /223 2.2

Hands on with Lenovo'sunique Yoga Bookconvertible tablet: Is it timefor an Android laptop?

One of the best things about the Android andWindows ecosystems is the wide variety ofinnovative products brought to market. Many ofthem don’t survive for long, but some, likeMicrosoft’s Surface, persist and eventually thrive.Lenovo is hoping the same is true of its uniqueYoga Book clamshell-style convertible; it’s a

combination mini-laptop and tablet. Available witheither Windows 10 ($549.99) or Android 6.01($499.99), the Yoga Book is a small, sleek tablet,with a permanently attached front side called aCreate Pad.

I tested the Android version of the Yoga Book. TheCreate Pad half of the Yoga Book is first andforemost a well-implemented, pressure-sensitiveWacom tablet. As with most desktop tablets, youwrite or draw on the tablet and the result appearson the screen. That’s a different experience thanwriting directly on the screen, the way you do with aMicrosoft Surface, Samsung Note, or Wacom Cintiq.You can use “Any Pen” mode to make the displaysensitive to the included Real Pen stylus, but it isn’t

pressure sensitive and tracks more slowly thanwhen it is used on the intended Create Pad surface.

Otherwise, the display surface is touch-sensitive,like a typical tablet. Having the writing surfaceseparate does have a couple of advantages. First,your hand doesn’t get in the way of what you arewriting and drawing. Also, because the displaydoesn’t need the extra depth needed for Wacomintegration, it can be very thin, avoiding the issue ofparallax, and tracking your writing nearly perfectly.

Beyond being a nicely integrated tablet, the CreatePad has two more tricks up its sleeve. First, asimple button press turns it into what Lenovo calls aHalo Keyboard. In that mode, outlines of all thekeys are illuminated on the same Create Padsurface. The surface is still glass, though, so thereis no key travel, and no way to know where to placeyour fingers without looking. The system does havestrong haptic feedback, so you at least know whenyou’ve activated a key.

Unfortunately, not having physical keys makes itdifficult to do more than hunt-and-peck typing on

the keyboard. In my experience, this is a little fasterthan hunting and pecking on-screen — becausethe keyboard is lying flat — and has the advantageof not taking up real estate on the display. However,I didn’t find it any faster than using a “swipe-style”keyboard on Android. In short the Halo keyboard iscertainly not a complete replacement for having asmall Bluetooth keyboard for heavy-duty typists.

The other trick of the Create Pad is that you canactually write on it using a paper overlay and ink —as long as you do it with an ink refill in the includedReal Pen. In this mode, the tablet acts a lot like aLivescribe pen and notebook. You activate the pencapability, then write or draw whatever you wantwhile it is digitized in real time. If you use theincluded Note Saver application, it is easy to savepages and create new ones. If you want to do thiswith another application like OneNote, you’ll haveto do that for yourself using the software’scommands. The Note Saver app itself is areasonably good note taking app. But it onlyexports raster images (JPG or PDF), and if it is likemost other proprietary note-taking apps I’ve used,it’s likely not to last long enough to be a reliable

archive for anything important. Personally, I’d muchrather see tight integration with a couple of industry-leading options like OneNote and Evernote.

In a unique twist designed to make scribblingeasier, Lenovo ships the Yoga Book with amagnetized pad that simply sticks to the Create Padsurface to make it easy to take paper notes.However, you can’t close the Yoga Book with thescratch pad inside, so you’ll have to store itsomewhere else. More importantly, the tabletdoesn’t offer a place to store its large stylus or itstiny ink refills. One bright spot is that the stylus canbe magnetically attached to the Yoga Book itself.But it’s not a strong attachment, so you need tokeep a careful eye on it.

To help it make its claim to being a multi-taskingworkhorse, Lenovo has added a fairlystraightforward multi-window capability. It centersaround allowing apps to run in phone mode in awindow, or in true tablet mode. It works pretty well,and in many ways is easier to use than Samsung’sclumsy version. It reminds me of Jide’s Remix OS.But it isn’t true multi-window, and now that Android

Nougat is out, is really only a stop gap.Unfortunately, it sounds like it will be at least early2017 before Lenovo puts Nougat on the YogaBook, so in the meantime if you want to use multipleapplication windows, then expect the capability tobe somewhat limited.

For a small tablet, the Yoga Book is awesome formultimedia. It starts with the rock-solid watchbandhinge that makes it easy to view media at anyconvenient screen angle. The bright, clear screen isonly 1080p, which is nothing special these days,but totally adequate for most videos and movies.For more resolution you can use the micro HDMIport to drive an external monitor at up to 4K. As faras sound, the unit features Dolby ATMOS, a verygood headphone amplifier, and speakers that arequite good for such a small device. It came in handyon the airplane, and when I wanted to multi-task bystreaming the World Series while I was supposed tobe paying attention to a conference session.

To round out the media features, the unit accepts amicroSD card. I loaded a 256GB 633x Lexar cardup with a couple hundred gigs of music and

movies, and it performed flawlessly. Unfortunately,the microSD slot relies on a tool to open it, and atray to hold the card, so you’re unlikely to want toswap it very often.

The ideal customer for the Yoga Book is someonewho wants flexibility in how they create — using astylus, an ink pen, or a keyboard — in a small formfactor, and who can live with a just-adequate keyboard. Along with that, you canexcellent product build quality, a sleek design, anda surprisingly good multimedia experience. Keep inmind, though, that the unit doesn’t have anystandard USB ports, so directly connecting flashdrives, SD cards, or cameras isn’t possible.

If the Yoga Book sounds like a winner, you need todecide whether you you want the $500 Androidversion or the $550 Windows 10 version. Most ofthe differences are pretty obvious, but some are alittle more subtle. For example, many applicationsthat are available on both Windows and Androidare more powerful on Windows. Adobe’s popularLightroom has a variety of brushes that work wellwith a stylus on Windows (and Mac), but the

Android version is more limited, with no support forbrushes. Lenovo says the hardware is the samebetween the two, but so far there isn’t any knownway to load Windows onto the Android version.

Now read: Best laptops for engineers andengineering students: When work requires a realworkstation

2016-11-16 12:30 David Cardinal www.extremetech.com

130 /223 0.0

Electric Objects’ new EO2display put cool internet art inmy sad bedroom

United is introducing basic economy, a cheaper —and worse — fare class below economy. Firstspotted by The Points Guy, the new offering gets ridof seat assignments and elite-qualifying miles,forbids paid upgrades and flight changes, andbans...

In 2013, the Anna Kendrick comedy Rapture-Palooza had the misfortune of opening exactly oneweek ahead of Seth Rogen’s This Is The End,another absurdist envisioning of Judgment Day.(They even shared a primary cast member: CraigRobinson, in both...

Former Microsoft CEO might have labeled Linux "a

cancer" 15 years ago, but things couldn't be anydifferent this week. Microsoft, the software giant thathas built its empire on closed-source proprietarysoftware, is joining the Linux Foundation....

The update came on October 10th, 2016.

“Rain has been sporadic. A couple of inches a fewweeks ago. It was enough to cause [the] grass tojust grow like crazy. So I mowed around the cups aweek or so ago. [I] haven't been able to get in andclean...

Electric and hybrid-fuel cars will be required toproduce noise when traveling at low speeds undera new rule issued by the US National HighwayTraffic Safety Administration. This is to preventthese vehicles from injuring pedestrians,especially...

A virtual reality version of Google Earth is nowavailable for free on the HTC Vive, letting usersexplore reconstructed cultural treasures, globallandmarks, or (for some) their own homes in VR.Google Earth VR has been in development forsome...

2016-11-16 12:28 Ashley Carman www.theverge.com

131 /223 7.7

10 best 2-in-1 laptops 2016:best hybrid laptops reviewed

Whether they're 2-in-1 or hybrid, convertible laptopsare all the rage these days. They're a response tothe question, "Why buy a laptop and a tablet whenyou could have both in the same device? "

Made possible by detachable designs, some 2-in-1s involve removing their displays from the

keyboard bases while others take a moreconvertible route. Instead of splitting your laptop inhalf, the hinge can be rotated 360 degrees andthen clam-shelled as a thicker tablet.

Generally speaking, hybrid laptops are pricedbetween $700 (about £450, AU$800) and $2,000,though you can find one for much cheaper if youwouldn't mind settling for a Chromebook such asthe HP Chromebook Flip .

Swiftly approaching the third year of Windows 10 ,despite struggling to keep up with its predecessors,hybrids are becoming as commonplace astraditional laptops and tablets. With that in mind,we've procured a list of the best 2-in-1s of 2016below.

A thoughtfully refined 2-in-1 convertible

Whereas the Lenovo Yoga Pro 3 had a winningdesign paired with less than stellar performance,the Yoga 900 is power without compromise.Complete with more powerful Intel Core iprocessors and a larger battery pack, the Yoga 900turns out to be Lenovo's best convertible yet.

Better yet, this 2-in-1 can effortlessly compete withmost Ultrabooks on the market and even Microsoft'sacclaimed Surface Book laptop. Even though theextra power only adds to the weight and girth of theYoga 900, it still manages to pull off a slenderphysique and flexible frame allowing for easyfolding back into tablet mode.

Without taking a huge toll on the price, the LenovoYoga 900 is undeniably deserving of the top spoton our list.

The ultimate Windows 10 hybrid laptop

In 2015, Microsoft made some noise in announcingthe company's first laptop, the Surface Book. Andwhile there's still work to be done, particularly in itsill-advised 3:2 aspect ratio and 13.5-inch screen,the Surface Book is still one of the best inconvertible laptops around.

In its tablet, or Clipboard, mode it's already amongthe most powerful and thinnest Windows 10devices on the market. Dock it onto the keyboardbase, however, and you're in for a real treat; that is,

assuming you opt for one of the discrete GPUconfigurations, which add more power to theSurface Book's lower half.

Thin, light and handsome

With Kaby Lake now ruling the roost in terms ofCPUs, HP decided it’s high time to flip the switch onits Spectre 2-in-1. With an overhauled keyboardand suave new logo, the HP Spectre x360 holds itsown against anything Apple can show, but it alsodraws a few influences. The four-speakerarrangement, reminiscent of the iPad Pro , ensuresuser-facing sound regardless of its orientation.Meanwhile, the new x360 dual-wields USB-C portsfor faster charging and data transfers.

The battery life in the Spectre x360 exceeds 8hours whether you’re using it in laptop or tabletmode, though it’s (potentially) undermined by thelack of an SD card slot this time around.Fortunately, like with many things USB-C replaces,there’s an adapter for that.

Capable, versatile and affordable to boot

Though Samsung is known for its phones morethan its notebooks, this is one convertible worthtaking for a spin. Equipped with a Skylake i7 CPUand discrete Nvidia graphics, the SamsungNotebook 7 Spin is nearly as fashionable as aMacBook Pro, but for roughly half the cost. It has allthe trackpad real estate you could ask for combinedwith a snazzy, full-size keyboard – number padincluded.

The difference is that the Samsung Notebook 7Spin is equipped to flip… inside out. Though it’sconfined to a full HD 1080p display, it’s HDR-enabled, which beautifully separates the Notebook7 Spin from the pack. Plus, as long as you’re not inthe market for a MacBook, it has an SD card readerand proper USB 3.0 It doesn’t exactly pushboundaries on the graphics front, but the SamsungNotebook 7 still manages to succeed in an areawhere so many other 2-in-1s have failed: offeringsublime value for rather competent specs.

The most affordable Windows 10 convertible

The Windows 10 convertible landscape isn't cheap

unless we're talking about the Pavilion x2. This 10-inch hybrid neatly packages a surprising amount ofgoods considering its small size. It comes outfittedwith an HD screen and more than enough power toget you through a simple day of web browsing (andeven some light photo/video editing).

What's more, when you're ready kick back withsome streaming media, you can pop off the 10-inchhood for an equally impressive standalone tabletexperience. If you're looking for something with a bitmore screen real estate, however, there's always a12-inch model available as well.

An attractive, versatile package

Though there's nothing remarkably distinct aboutthe Dell Inspiron 13 7000, there's no denying it's asturdy device that nigh-perfectly balances theworlds of both performance and style. What's bestabout the Inspiron 13 is its ability to camouflageitself as a conventional laptop. Bend that suckerback like you're about to break the screen right offthe hinge, though, and you'll be greeted by aflexible tablet design accompanied by shrieks of

terror from surrounding colleagues.

Students and freelancers cranking out last-minuteassignments in the wee hours of the night will bedelighted to hear that the Inspiron 13 7000'skeyboard, at least according to Dell, is indeedwaterproof. We wouldn't advise, say, resting yoursteaming hot cup of joe on its alphanumerics, but ofcourse it's a welcome feature.

Impressive usability

If you're looking for something more resistant than aSurface Pro but with minimal added weight, the HPElite x2 1012 G1 is a top contender. Featuring abacklit keyboard, Wacom "Active" pen support, andThunderbolt 3, the HP Elite x2 1012 G1 is asversatile as it is good looking.

And that goes without mentioning the 12-pointstress test the tablet underwent through production.That's right, HP claims that its Elite x2 1012 G1 canendure drops, bumps and temperature shifts thatwould leave other tablets on the market dead in thestreets. Though its cost might seem extravagant fora device with only a 1080p display, but the HP Elite

x2 1012 G1 is better seen than heard about.

The lightest 2-in-1 laptop

The Lenovo Yoga 900S feels like a direct responseto Apple's 12-inch MacBook. The 12.5-inch display,the USB-C port and even the Intel Core-m chip onthe inside reeks of the controversial, yet incrediblylightweight MacBook. It's a response, however, thatbrings with it a few notable advantages overCupertino's solution.

For one, you get access to full-size USB 3.0 ports inaddition to the Type-C interface. The highest endversion ships with an m7 processor and 1440pdisplay and it costs less than MacBook'scomparatively specced built-to-order model.Unfortunately, you'll also have to deal with asmaller trackpad and a similarly inadequatekeyboard, but otherwise the Yoga 900S is animpeccable value.

This 15-inch hybrid is more portable than you think

If the 13-inch Spectre x360 is too small for yourworkload, the Spectre x360 15 is an excellent 2-in-

1 laptop that stands out with its thin, all-metal bodyand heavy contrast display. Featuring a vivid 15-inch IP touchscreen, it’s only bettered by theinclusion of an optional UHD 4K panel.

Surprisingly, the x360’s battery life is unfettered byits high resolution display, although that could be aresult of the screen’s weak backlighting effect.Unfortunately, while the smaller x360 has beenupgraded to Intel’s latest Kaby Lake chips, the HPSpectre x360 15 is complacent with Skylake untilfurther notice. You’ll get the newest, fastest techavailable for a lower price if you don’t mind a dropin panel size.

Asus' thin and gorgeous 2-in-1 laptop

If you're looking for a 2-in-1 machine with portabilityto boot, there aren't many devices that beat theAsus Transformer Book T300 Chi. This 12.5-inchconvertible is one of the thinnest in its class andtaking the screen off the keyboard base transformsthe T300 Chi into a true Windows tablet.

Though the device is powered by a low-wattageprocessor, it packs enough punch to drive a 4K

display, managing to get you through all your dailytasks. Sadly, the Transformer Book T300 Chi'sbattery life is a little on the short side and you'llhave to cope without full-size USB and HDMI ports,but otherwise this is an excellent and affordablehybrid.

2016-11-16 12:25 Kevin Lee feedproxy.google.com

132 /223 0.5

The story of Foamhenge, asubreddit about a rock on astyrofoam cup

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I always judge a piece of art by whether I’d put it onmy wall. Let me be clear: I cannot afford art, butwhen I go to museums, I like to picture the Picassosand Monets hanging around my dream house. Astartup called Electric Objects knows people...

Electric and hybrid-fuel cars will be required to

produce noise when traveling at low speeds undera new rule issued by the US National HighwayTraffic Safety Administration. This is to preventthese vehicles from injuring pedestrians,especially...

A virtual reality version of Google Earth is nowavailable for free on the HTC Vive, letting usersexplore reconstructed cultural treasures, globallandmarks, or (for some) their own homes in VR.Google Earth VR has been in development forsome...

2016-11-16 12:22 Lizzie Plaugic www.theverge.com

133 /223 2.9

Electric cars are nowrequired to make noise at lowspeeds so they don’t sneakup and kill us

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There are 37 options, but harassment issues arestill a concern

Snapchat Spectacles, the mysterious and incrediblyhyped hardware from Snap, Inc., have arrived.Vending machines for the video camerasunglasses are springing up around the country,first in California and Oklahoma, and who knowswhere else next....

Concern about the prevalence of fake orsensationally biased news sources has escalatedin the days following the presidential election, withmany citing it as a factor (some even the primarycause) of Donald Trump’s win.

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2016-11-16 12:21 Andrew J www.theverge.com

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In pictures: a history ofNexus phones and tablets

The Google Nexus range, in many ways, helped

revolutionize the mobile market in much the sameway that the Apple iPhone has.

The Nexus devices may not have set the worldalight in terms of sales, but they served as importantreference points for Android manufacturers - andsome of them have been rather good.

The Google Nexus One was not the first Androidphone to market, that was the T-Mobile G1. Withmanufacturers still seemingly unconvinced aboutcreating devices for its new mobile OS, Googleintroduced the Nexus One to show developers justwhat the software could do.

Google had never planned on making the Nexus

series into a staple of the annual smartphone diet.The original Nexus One handset was designed togive Android a push in the right direction, andnothing more. It obviously worked, as Android nowholds over 85% of the mobile market worldwide,according to IDC.

Perhaps buckling under industry pressure to followthe Nexus One up with more, and more impressivehardware, the guys at Mountain View made asecond. And a third. And then a fourth, a fifth, asixth. And what's that? You get the idea - they justkept on coming.

Google also decided to take this "one off" into thetablet market, showing the world how it feels tabletsshould be made and helping to popularize thesmaller form factor.

But all good things come to an end, and in 2016that's exactly what happened to the Nexus line -which has now been reborn as the Pixel.

Join us, as we take you through the journey ofGoogle's Nexus phone and tablet range andbeyond.

Partnering with HTC, the Nexus One was based onthe Desire - the very first phone to win our coveted5 star review. It had some competition at the time,having to win over fans from the likes of Symbian,BlackBerry, and those that had fallen in love withthe iPhone 3GS.

$529 (around £420/AU$700) bought you a single-core 1GHz processor, backed with 512MB RAMand 4GB of storage (and a microSD slot believe itor not). It also packed a 3.7-inch 480 x 800 screento show off Android 2.1 Eclair - that's consideredtiny by today's standards, but wasn't back then.

A 5MP camera sat on the back, giving the NexusOne a lot to shout about given that the 3GS camewith 3.2MP. To keep things running was a1400mAh battery, which gave the Nexus One up to7 hours 3G talk time.

Things had changed by the time the seconditeration of Google's smartphone, the Nexus S ,launched less than a year later at just over £400(around $500/AU$670).

Google moved to partner with Samsung to launchAndroid 2.3 Gingerbread. Google neededSamsung's impressive weaponry to fight it out withthe iPhone 4 , the biggest competitor to the Nexus Sat the time.

The Nexus S was based heavily on the SamsungGalaxy S , although came similarly specced to theNexus One. A single-core 1GHz processor, 512MBRAM and 5MP camera were all familiar, but storagewas given a boost to 16GB, though the microSDcard slot was cut.

The screen was also improved (although the 480 x800 resolution was stretched to 4 inches), withSamsung's Super AMOLED technology in use. Thebattery was boosted too, to 1500mAh for a similartalk time. NFC also made its first Nexus appearancehere.

By the time the Galaxy Nexus had launched,another phone had garnered our 5 star review, theSamsung Galaxy S2. At £429 (roughly$540/AU$720), it aimed to challenge the iPhone 4S, a phone that was making waves as it improved

greatly on the iPhone 4.

Paired with Samsung again, Google looked to getsome of the S2 magic into the Galaxy Nexus. Thismeant a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAMand 16GB of storage. The camera got a boost, butwas still measured at 5MP, and the battery was now1750mAh.

As with all Nexus launches, the Galaxy Nexusheralded a new version of Android - Android 4.0 IceCream Sandwich , displayed proudly on a 4.65-inch 720 x 1280 Super AMOLED display.

Google decided to move across South Korea for itsnext Nexus iteration, with LG taking up the reins forthe Google Nexus 4 handset. Things were lookinga little more difficult for LG, with the market nowpopulated with the iPhone 5 , Samsung Galaxy S3and HTC One X.

LG was desperate to get back into the smartphonemaking market, so its partnership with Googleseemed ideal, giving birth to a device sporting a768 x 1280 4.7-inch screen, 1.5GHz quad-coreprocessor, 2GB of RAM, 8 or 16GB of storage and

an 8MP camera.

The Nexus 4 launched with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean ,and a 2100mAh battery, giving it 15 hours of 3G talktime. Perhaps the biggest game changer was the$299/£239/AU$349 price tag, that unfortunately hasyet to revolutionise mobile market pricing in the waywe might have hoped.

The Google Nexus 5 was comfortably the bestNexus smartphone to date when it landed inOctober 2013. Billed as "the best that Google has tooffer", it certainly made waves.

LG was the partner of choice once more, and theNexus 5 welcomed the arrival of Android 4.4 KitKat.With a beefed up 2.26GHz quad-core processor,2GB of RAM and a 4.95-inch 1080p display theNexus 5 was taking on the likes of the HTC One,Samsung Galaxy S4 , iPhone 5S and LG's own G2 -but at a price point which made it supremelyattractive.

Smartphones have been growing larger and larger,but the Nexus 6 marked Google's first foray intogenuine phablet territory. The Motorola-

manufactured phone boasted a 6-inch, AMOLEDdisplay with a dreamy 1440 x 2560 pixel resolution.Inside there was a 2.7GHz quad-core processor,3GB of RAM, and 32GB or 64GB of onboardstorage. A 13MP camera and a whopping3,220mAh Qi wirelessly chargeable batteryconfirmed that there was nothing small about thisphone.

Unfortunately, that extended to the price tag, whichproved a bit hefty for some Nexus fans at$649/£499/AU$869 for the 32GB model.

Android 5.0 Lollipop also debuted on the Nexus 6and it was the first smartphone to work withGoogle's Project Fi, a wireless network thatswitches seamlessly between Wi-Fi and LTE.

The Nexus 5X, launched in 2015 and made by LG,was actually a step down from the Nexus 6, but witha lower price tag too it wasn’t aimed at the samemarket - this was a mid-range Google phone.

That meant a plastic body, a 5.2-inch 1080p screenand just 2GB of RAM, but it still impressed, with arespectable Snapdragon 808 processor, a

fingerprint scanner and a decent 12.3MP camera,with solid low-light performance.

For the money, the Nexus 5X was an attractiveoption for anyone who wanted a taste of stockAndroid Marshmallow and couldn’t stretch to aflagship.

For those who did have the money to spare, therewas the Nexus 6P, which launched alongside theNexus 5X in 2015.

This was a completely different proposition, withHuawei at the helm rather than LG, high-end specsrather than mid-range, and a price tag to match.

The phone had a premium metal body too, andwhile an ugly camera bulge and a not-quite top tieramount of RAM held it back from perfection, theNexus 6P was still one of the best phones of 2015,and at 5.7 inches certainly one of the best phablets.As it happened it was also the last phone to holdthe Nexus name, not that we knew that was goingto be the case at the time, but it was a strong end toGoogle’s first smartphone hardware experiment.

The Nexus line might be dead, but Google-brandedphones aren’t. In 2016 the company debuted thePixel and Pixel XL, which, names aside, share a lotin common with Nexus, sporting pure Googlesoftware, matched with hardware made by anothermanufacturer (in this case HTC).

But these have even more of Google imprinted onthem than the Nexus range, with HTC’s brandingnowhere to be seen and a unique Androidexperience, powered by Google Assistant.

Like Nexus phones they run the latest version ofAndroid (currently Nougat) and will be first in linefor updates, but Google Assistant is currentlyexclusive to them, taking Google Now andextending its reach and capabilities.

They’re also more ambitious than any Nexushandsets, with both the 5.0-inch Pixel and 5.5-inchPixel XL sporting high-end specs, including aSnapdragon 821 processor, 4GB of RAM, and acamera Google claims is best-in-class.

They also both sport a premium metal and glassbuild and an eye-watering price, with Google

seemingly seeing them as true, mainstreamflagships and even iPhone rivals. Arguably, theydon’t quite live up to Google’s ambitions, but they’rea strong start to a range which could break out ofthe niche that Nexus built.

With the iPad carving out a market, that could wellhave been argued to be its own, the lack ofGoogle's official presence was noticeable.

This was exacerbated by the rise of cheap Androidalternatives often running phone software, andAndroid Honeycomb only appearing on third partydevices like the Motorola Xoom 2 .

That all changed when Google and Asus took onthe likes of the iPad and the Amazon Kindle Firewith its very own Nexus tablet, the original Nexus 7.Launching at the cheap price of £159 (around$200/AU$260) for the 8GB version, Google lookedto undercut the iPad.

For your money, you got a 800 x 1280 7-inchscreen, a 1.2GHz quad-core Tegra 3 processor,1GB of RAM, a 4,325mAh battery and a 1.2MP frontfacing camera. There was no rear sensor. It also

brought Android 4.1 Jelly Bean to market.

By this point, Google's only foray into the tabletmarket was at the smaller sized, budget end of themarket. This left the gap for the iPad 4 (briefly theiPad 3 as well) to continue to grow the full sizedtablet market. Third party devices were stillstruggling to compete.

Despite the New York launch being cancelled dueto Hurricane Sandy, the Nexus 10 managed tolaunch online. The Samsung made device packedan eye-popping 10-inch 1600 x 2560 screen,1.7GHz dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM and twocameras (5MP on the rear and 1.2MP on the front).

It also came with 16 or 32GB of storage (nomicroSD) and a 9000mAh battery, whileundercutting the equivalent iPad 4 by around$100/£80/AU$130.

The tablet market had changed drastically since thelaunch of the original Nexus 7, with Apple decidingthat it too wanted to get a slice of the smallercheaper tablet pie in the form of the iPad Mini .

This meant that Google had to go back to thedrawing board, and came up with the Nexus 7(2013). RAM was doubled to 2GB to sit alongsidethe 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, with thesame 1.2MP camera on the front, and a 5MPsnapper now sat on the back.

The screen also became full HD, with the 7 inchesnow containing 1200 x 1920 pixels. The new Nexus7 also launched Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. The batterywas a little smaller, at 3,950mAh, but still providedup to 9 hours use.

No one really expected the Nexus 9 , but it slippedcomfortably into place between the 7 and 10.Google had collaborated with HTC on phonesbefore, but never a tablet.

The Nexus 9 sported an underwhelming 8.9-inchdisplay with a resolution of 1536 x 2048 pixels.There was also a 2.3GHz dual-core processor, an8MP camera, 16GB of storage, and some front-facing BoomSound speakers.

It didn't have a single feature to really get peopleexcited, but as a whole package the Nexus 9 was

fairly well-received. It's also likely the last Nexustablet, with the impressive Pixel C taking the reinsin 2015, just as Pixel phones replaced Nexushandsets in 2016.

2016-11-16 12:12 By feedproxy.google.com

135 /223 0.4

How the short story thatinspired Arrival helps usinterpret the film’s majortwist

The most recent update came on October 10th,2016.

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Electric and hybrid-fuel cars will be required toproduce noise when traveling at low speeds undera new rule issued by the US National HighwayTraffic Safety Administration. This is to preventthese vehicles from injuring pedestrians,especially...

A virtual reality version of Google Earth is nowavailable for free on the HTC Vive, letting usersexplore reconstructed cultural treasures, globallandmarks, or (for some) their own homes in VR.Google Earth VR has been in development forsome...

Amazon isn’t just starting Black Friday early thisyear, it’s extending it far beyond Thanksgivingweekend until December 22nd. The companyclaims that you’ll be able to “find new deals as oftenas every five minutes” on Amazon’s website forthe...

There are 37 options, but harassment issues arestill a concern

Snapchat Spectacles, the mysterious and incrediblyhyped hardware from Snap, Inc., have arrived.Vending machines for the video camerasunglasses are springing up around the country,first in California and Oklahoma, and who knowswhere else next....

2016-11-16 12:06 Nick Statt www.theverge.com

136 /223 3.2

Successful Analytics Is AllAbout The Infrastructure:Podcast

Few areas of enterprise computing have had thebusiness impact of analytics. Since the earliestimplementation of information technology in thecorporation, executives and managers have usedprocesses and technology to analyze businessactivity in the hopes of doing better in the future.

From the IT department's perspective, getting

analytics right is one of the most important jobsthere is. That means getting the analyticsarchitecture right -- a critical task for ITprofessionals.

Unfortunately, many companies are trying to do thecritical business analysis of today (and tomorrow)with yesterday's analytics architecture. According toClaudia Imhoff, there's no way you can get analytics

right if you have the wrong architecture. Explainingwhy that's so -- and what to do about it -- makesImhoff an InformationWeek Expert Voice.

Claudia Imhoff is an internationally recognizedexpert on analytics, business intelligence, and thearchitectures to support these initiatives. Imhoff hascoauthored five books has written more than 150articles for technical and business magazines. Sheis also the founder of the Boulder BI Brain Trust , aconsortium of independent analysts andconsultants. You can follow the group on Twitter at#BBBT.

In this conversation with InformationWeek executiveeditor for technical content Curtis Franklin, Imhoffbegan by talking about the three broad categoriesof analytics -- descriptive, diagnostic, and predictive-- and why most companies are still stuck on theoldest and most basic form of descriptive analytics.

She then turned to what enterprise IT needs to do toadd more valuable analytics to its portfolio, andwhere in the architecture these additional analyticssteps should be taking place.

[See 7 Ways IT Pros Can Boost Data AnalyticsSkills .]

The discussion continued with an examination ofthe missteps to avoid when implementing analyticsand the considerations that should be taken indeciding between different components anddesigns for different analytical purposes.

Finally, Imhoff talked about the differences betweenthe analytics tools available to larger and smallerorganizations and whether it's possible for smallercompanies to use analytics to compete moresuccessfully with larger players.

This latest episode in the Expert Voice series hasinformation for CIOs and for hands-on managers. Ifyour executive committee is looking to you and yourdepartment to answer the critical what/why/howlong questions of business, then this conversationshould be on your "must listen" list.

2016-11-16 12:06 Curtis Franklin www.informationweek.com

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16 Massive M&A DealsReshaping The Channel:October 2016 - Page: 1

Head In The Cloud

Solution providers were champing at the bit lastmonth to get a bigger footprint in cloud, with five ofthe 16 acquired companies specializing in cloudservices, hosting or communications.

Vendor-specific expertise was also highly sought,as was industry specialization around banking and

finance, government services, and oil and gas.

Eight of the acquired companies are based in theNortheast, three are based in the Midwest, two arebased in the South and overseas, and one is basedon the West Coast. Eight of the acquiringcompanies appear in the top 65 of 2016 CRNSolution Provider 500 rankings.

Acquisitions are ordered on the following slidesbased on the total number of employees at the firmbeing acquired.

2016-11-16 11:55 Michael Novinson www.crn.com

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Facebook admits to moremeasurement mistakes

Facebook's having trouble with accuracy. InSeptember, the company admitted tooverestimating video views in reports to advertisers.Now, the company has found a bug showing morediscrepancies in Facebook's reporting to itsbusiness clients.

To be fair, Facebook has admitted to the problemsvia a blog post and promises to fix them. Theprimary issue this time: Facebook hasoverestimated the amount of people that actuallyview a post. Apparently, the bug doesn't affectbusinesses that have paid to have specific contentpromoted, but businesses that want info aboutcontent without promotion -- called "organic reach. "In calculating organic reach over the course ofmultiple days, Facebook counted users who havevisited the same content multiple times instead ofjust new users, inflating the numbers by an

estimated 33% over seven days and 55% over 28days.

Facebook's promised the fix the problem in thecoming months, and to update organic reachstatistics to add "viewable impressions. "Previously, without paying for promotion,companies could only see if content popped into acustomer's feed. Now, they'll know if the contentactually appeared on the customer's screen.

The blog post discussed a number of other issues,including bugs involving referral clicks and anotherissue involving video views.

In the post, Facebook also announced a move toregain trust by increasing third party verification ofits reporting -- partnering with Nielsen and others.

Facebook did not immediately respond to a requestfor comment.

2016-11-16 11:53 by www.cnet.com

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Simple, Inexpensive MixedReality Kit Coming FromZappar

We got Cardboard for VR--a simple, unbelievablyinexpensive viewer for virtual reality--so why notsomething similar for mixed reality (MR), too? Withits $30 ZapBox ( the Kickstarter is now live ), that’swhat Zappar is shooting for.

Zapbox uses your existing smartphone, acardboard HMD with a head strap, two hand“controllers,” a lens adapter for your smartphone

camera, and a small pile of paper markers.

Simply put, you start by peppering a space with themarkers--this is how you get positional tracking--and then you drop your phone into the HMD. Youget a view of the real world via a live feed from thesmartphone’s camera, and as you look towards themarkers, the camera--augmented by the lensadapter--reads them and produces images.Because the controllers also have markers, they gettracked, too, and you can use them to interact withthe augmented realities you see.

The markers, though limiting in some ways, are amasterstroke, because they enable a form ofpositional tracking and require no activeelectronics.

You may recognize Zappar from our past coverageof its simple but effective AR technology, and thecompany has harnessed it for mixed realitypurposes--except that instead of waiting a fewseconds for your phone to read a zap, it picks upthe data from the markers in what promises to bereal time.

ZapBox demo

At launch, the ZapBox will come with a handful ofexperiences developed internally by Zappar,including:

However, Zappar’s pride and joy is the softwareplatforms that enable you to make your own apps,games, experiences, content, and so on. ZapWorksStudio is now free for non-commercial use;otherwise, you’ll need to peruse pricing, etc. here .

ZapBox will work with iPhone 6 or later models (butnot the iPhone SE), as well as Android phonesrunning Android 4.1 or later (Android 5 or later isideal) with a gyroscope and at least 4.5-inch 720pdisplay. For reference, the whole kit is compatiblewith Google Cardboard apps. One even could,technically, hack a Google Cardboard HMD to dothe same thing the ZapBox HMD does.

Before anyone breathlessly compares this $30 MRdev kit to the $3,000 HoloLens MR dev kit, let’s tapthe brakes a bit. From the video above and whatwe’ve seen ourselves of Zappar’s technology, theZapBox is sure to be a fun and powerful-for-its-price

MR tool. But it in no way compares to the HoloLensas an MR solution any more than a go-kart and anF1 race car are similar just because they both havefour wheels and a steering wheel. (That is not todenigrate the go-kart; if your blood is red, you knowthat go-karts are awesome. But they’re not asawesome as an F1 car.)

The HoloLens is an engineering triumph,employing a unique projection system and a thirdtype of processor (a proprietary one at that,developed internally by Microsoft) that enables jaw-dropping experiences on an untethered device thatruns on essentially a mobile-class CPU. TheZapBox uses a smartphone, some clever software,a cheap HMD, and paper markers to simulatemixed reality. F1 versus go-kart.

The ZapBox is also limited in that it does requiremarkers, which means any space in which youenjoy mixed reality is going to literally be dottedwith pieces of paper. Further, it all runs throughZappar’s proprietary app; even though the app iscompatible with most smartphones, you have toopen it to experience the mixed reality.

It also currently supports only ZapWorks, instead ofmore powerful tools like Unity and Unreal, althoughit is not technically limited in this way. Dependingon how things shake out with adoption, it’s possiblethat you could build just about anything with anytool and run it through ZapBox, so long as thatexperience uses the markers. Zappar also toldTom’s Hardware that “ We are exploring thepossibility of extending ZapWorks to supportexporting content for other MR or VR hardwaresuch as HoloLens.”

Just as it’s foolish to overstate what the ZapBox cando, it would be shortsighted to dismiss it as a toy. Itis to mixed reality what Google Cardboard was tovirtual reality, and both have the same goal in mind:to democratize XR.

ZapBox is not an end, it’s a beginning. Zapparwould be the first to say as much. “ The idea is toopen up the creation of mixed reality content toanyone, rather than just those that can afford a$3,000 HoloLens Development Edition,” a Zapparrepresentative told Tom’s Hardware. “We’verealized we can do this using only passive physical

components combined with existing smartphones.”

So, then, think of ZapWorks as just that: It’s aremarkably inexpensive way to enjoy, play with,learn about, and develop for mixed reality.

Some of the Kickstarter pledge levels will get you aZapBox and accessories by March 2017; others areslated for April 2017.

2016-11-16 11:50 Augmented Reality www.tomshardware.com

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: An outdoor security camerawhich will detect people,animals and cars

By

Jim Martin | 38 mins ago

See full specs

£249.99 inc VAT

Price comparision from , and manufacturers

The Netatmo Presence is the first security camerawe’ve tested that doubles as a floodlight. It’s easy toinstall and it works well, too. It will detect people,animals and cars up to 65 feet away, sending alertsto your phone – and even your Apple Watch. Seealso: Best security cameras

You can buy a Netatmo Presence for £249.99 fromAmazon , Argos and Currys PC World.

It’s relatively expensive compared to some outdoorsecurity cameras, but bear in mind that dimmableLED floodlights aren’t cheap. Also, and moreimportantly, there’s no monthly subscription charge:an SD card is built-into the camera and stores the

footage. You can also set the Presence up to savevideo to Dropbox, or your own FTP server.

The best thing about the Presence is that it doesn’tlook like a CCTV camera. The lens is at the bottom,but at first glance you notice only the light. Ifanything, the camera is easily mistaken for a motionsensor, so few people will realise they’re beingrecorded. (Note that the Protection of Freedoms Actsets out guidelines for using outdoor cameras in “aresponsible way to protect the privacy of others”. )

Unlike other outdoor cameras, the Presencedoesn’t have an inconvenient mains adaptor – fewpeople have an outdoor socket, let alone rightwhere they would want to install a camera. Instead,the Presence is designed to replace an existingoutdoor light.

This makes installation a breeze – as long as youcan drill the two necessary holes in your wall. Thenit’s just a case of connecting the three wires whichpowered your old light to the chocolate block on thePresence.

Doing it this way means there are no visible wires a

burglar can quickly cut, an no adaptor that can beunplugged.

Before mounting it, though, do check you have astrong Wi-Fi signal in that position.

The only issue is if you have multiple lightsoperated by the same switch, as those which aren’treplaced by the camera will be on all the time (oryour camera will be switched off if you turn the otherlights off). Netatmo says it has no plans to release amatching LED light without the camera.

You’ll need to install the Netatmo Security app andsign up for a free account to complete theinstallation. And as with any Bluetooth-equippedcamera, this process is quick and simple and canbe done entirely from your phone.

On the main screen of the app you’ll see each ofyour Netatmo cameras (including Welcomecameras) and an up-to-date thumbnail. You tap theplay button to see the video feed (rotating thephone to portrait for full-screen) but below thethumbnail is a timeline of events.

These crop in on the subject detected, and you cantap one to bring up the full frame from the video. It’sa great feature, but if you play back the video it willstart at the beginning rather than going straight tothe action.

However, it’s a minor quibble. In general, thePresence reliably records the motion you want anddoesn’t give false alarms. Plus, you can downloadany clip and save it to your phone’s camera roll. It’sbest to do this when you’re at home on the sameWi-Fi network for the fastest speed, but you can doit remotely. However, there’s no progress indicatorand you can’t leave it downloading in thebackground while you review other clips or changesettings.

Videos are stored on the built-in 16GB microSDcard (but you can replace this with a 32GB card ifyou want more storage space). When the card fillsup, the oldest videos are deleted automatically. Ifyou want to keep everything, you can link yourDropbox account, but the best option is to get thecamera to send video to an FTP server, such asone running on a NAS drive. This way you can

easily access the full-HD clips and the video will besafe even if someone steals the camera.

As part of the setup, you can name your cameraand set up one or more zones for motion detection.You can create multiple zones, but they can only berectangles and there’s a minimum size. Thisrestriction is there because Netatmo uses anintelligent algorithm to detect what’s creating themotion in a bid to avoid false alarms. It can detectpeople, animals and cars.

Not everyone can choose the perfect mountinglocation and when mounted on a shed in a backgarden we found we couldn’t avoid including asmall tree in one zone and had a fair few alertstelling us a person had been seen, along withthumbnails of said tree. In the end, we deleted thatmotion zone and relied on another one.

The floodlight is nice and bright and there’s a sliderso you can choose the brightness you want. Thelight can be set to on, off or auto mode. In the latter,you can set it to turn on whenever people, cars oranimals are detected. You just enable the

categories you want. There’s also ‘other motions’as a catch-all for anything else.

If you prefer, you can set it to turn on whenever it’sdark. What’s missing is a timed option so you canhave it on from, say, dusk until 10pm, so you don’tannoy your neighbours should it keep turning onthrough the night.

Also, we’d prefer the floodlight power control to beon the main screen rather than buried in thesettings, or in an iOS widget so you can turn it on oroff quickly. As it is, the Security app offers no iOSwidget at all. There’s an Apple Watch app, and thishas just been updated so you can add it as acomplication for quicker access.

There’s no sensitivity slider for motion detection(there’s no need because of the intelligentdetection) but it’s a shame there’s no way to specifywhich type of motion you want to watch out for ineach zone. These are set globally.

You can turn the camera on or off by bringing upthe settings, but there’s no scheduling to record atcertain times or by using geofencing, so it disables

recording while you’re home. For most people thismakes sense.

It’s also good that you can choose when to receivenotifications. Two sliders let you set ‘from’ and ‘to’times. There’s also an option to get notificationsonly when nobody is home, and only for certaintypes of motion.

We found that alerts arrived on our phone (andApple Watch) within a couple of seconds of motionbeing detected, and we were impressed at theaccuracy of the algorithm. It could correctly identifya person moving in the garden roughly 60 feetaway, and picked up a surprising number ofanimals roaming during the night when using itsinfrared LEDs.

It isn’t perfect, it isn’t cheap and it lacks a fewfeatures we’d like to see added to the app, butoverall we really like the Netatmo Presence. Itdoesn’t look like a security camera and the LEDsdo a good job of replacing an existing outdoor light.Plus, it’s not difficult to install and there’s nosubscription to pay.

Price comparision from , and manufacturers

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2016-11-16 11:50 Jim Martin www.pcadvisor.co.uk

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| 19 best laptops 2016/2017:What's the best laptop youcan buy in the UK? BestWindows laptops, bestMacBooks, best laptopreviews

Jump straight to our full best laptops chart

What's the best laptop? We round up the bestlaptops you can buy in the UK in 2016/2017,including best Windows laptops and bestMacBooks. The best laptop is the Dell XPS 13,followed by the Lenovo Yoga 710 and the AsusZenBook UX305, but there are plenty of otheroptions in our list below.

Also see: Best Black Friday Laptop Deals

Despite the rise of tablets, there are still plenty ofreasons to choose a laptop. Sometimes you justcan't beat a bigger screen, a keyboard andWindows for getting stuff done. But, if you want alaptop that's also a tablet, there are plenty of

convertible or 'hybrid' laptops which have atouchscreen which folds right back behind thekeyboard and can be used as a tablet. The Yoga710 is one of the best we've seen in this respect,although if its 11in screen is too small, Lenovo doesoffer larger versions.

Before you buy any of the MacBooks in this chart,note that Apple unveiled a new MacBook Pro on 27October. We will add the new MacBook Pro to ourchart once we have completed our testing.

As with any product we review, the best laptops arerated on various factors - performance, buildquality, features and value for money – along withan overall score, potentially with an award, too.Note that star ratings don't always dictate where aproduct ranks in the list below, as the score appliesto the date it was reviewed.

If you're looking for a laptop that can handle thelatest games, see our up-to-date list of the bestgaming laptops .

As much as we can, we make sure all the laptops inthe chart are available to but in the UK. However,

it's not something we can check every day sothere's a chance you might not find the model listed.There are also often many different SKUs(versions/models) of a laptop so the specs mightvary to those on the model we've reviewed (wecan't always choose the exact model to review).

Most laptops will come pre-installed with Windows10 now. Of course, our best laptops group test alsoincludes the best MacBooks, which run OS X (nowmacOS) out of the box. Macs are often moreexpensive than Windows laptops, but Apple'slaptops are better value than ever before. Youmight feel that the premium build quality andfeatures warrant spending extra, although manyWindows laptop manufacturers have stepped uptheir game recently.

In this chart, there's no cap on how much the devicecan cost – sometimes the best does come at asteep price. Equally you can get a lot of laptop forunder £300 – provided you only need to do basictasks like browse the web, email and create the odddocument. If so see the best budget laptops.

Spending a bit more, around £500 and above, willpotentially get you a nice laptop but it's likely tohave an entry-level set of specs. We're talking arelatively basic processor, minimal SSD storageand a low resolution screen. It might also be a bitheavy and bulky.

Ramp up the amount you're happy to splash out -£800 and up - and you'll be looking at the best ofthe best with a blazing fast processor, plenty ofRAM, hordes of storage and a gorgeous display.You should also expect excellent build quality andpremium materials.

That's why it's crucial to read laptop reviews beforeyou buy.

The size of your screen is an important decisionwhen buying a laptop. After all they typically rangefrom 11- all the way up to 17in.

A smaller screen might be harder to work on but itmeans that the laptop will be far more portable,handy if you need to take it around with youwherever you go. Bear in mind that a smallerdevice means less space for features like ports.

At 17in, you're buying a desktop replacementlaptop which isn't deigned to be moved aroundoften. You'll likely get a full-size keyboard, lots ofconnectivity and possibly even an optical drive, too.Generally, unless you're looking at either end of thespectrum, a 13in laptop is the sweet spot for uscombining portability with usability.

While many laptops have a resolution of 1366x768,you should look for something more if you want thebest. Full HD (1920x1080) and higher should be atick box and you can even get 4K laptops now,although arguably it's not necessary.

If you want a touchscreen, this normally adds to thecost. Most laptops come with a glossy screen butmost people prefer a less reflective matt finish sothat's something to look out for, too.

As usual, storage depends on what you want to usea laptop for. As a general rule of thumb get as muchas possible without wasting money on the upgrade(manufactures can charge a premium on this area).

An SSD will mean your laptop runs faster but

doesn't provide as much space as a traditional harddrive. Remember that there are also plenty of cloudstorage options but this isn't so helpful when youdon't have an internet connection.

If you're going to need to storing a large amount ofdata (perhaps you make home videos or you simplywant all your TV box sets ready to go) then look for1- or 2TB of space. Don't forget you can buy aportable USB drive to supplement a laptop whichhas only a small-capacity SSD.

Memory (RAM) is where programs and files arestored only while you're using them, and more isalways better. Consider 4GB an absolute minimum,unless it's a Chromebook, with 8- to 16GB the idealfigure if you can afford the upgrade. You can't havetoo much.

Unless you're going to run complex and demandingsoftware or gaming, you don't need the latest top-spec processor. It doesn't hurt, of course, but it'sbest to find a nice balance as there's nothing worsethan waiting for a app to load etc.

If you're happy to splash out then you're probably

looking at the latest generation (6th) Intel Core i7chip. Entry-level spec models are likely to offer aCore i3 or even a Core M processor instead. ACore i5 sits nicely in-between so check how muchextra it is to upgrade before making a final decision.If you're not sure which generation the Intelprocessor is, look at the model number as the firstdigit represents this. For example, a Core i5-6500 isa sixth-generation CPU.

While most come with Intel processors, you can stillfind AMD powered devices around. See AMD vsIntel for more information.

Buying an ultraportable laptop is really no differentthan any laptop, except that your priorities are likelyto be different. You might want anultraportable laptop that's light and will last a longtime away from the mains.

However, other people want an ultrabook that'spowerful and can handle demanding applicationswithout breaking your back when you carry itaround. Both types are available.

Some compromises are inevitable if you want a thin

and light laptop, though. There's less space for abattery, so it's typical to find shorter runtimes. Butsome companies have overcome this with cleverpackaging, such as the MacBook Air.

Another factor is efficient hardware, so a newerprocessor is likely to sip rather than guzzle power.The same goes for other components. But youshould always read our reviews to find out howlong a particular laptop lasted in our tests as youcan't rely on specifications and it's unwise to goonly by manufacturers' claims.

Thin laptops tend to have shallow key travel, so ifyou need a laptop to do a lot of typing then, again,read our reviews as they're the only way (short ofhunting down the machine in a shop) to find outwhether a keyboard is a joy or a pain to use.

Many ultrabooks use low-power processors whichare better for battery life, but may not have muchpower for running Windows apps. Our benchmarkssort the speed demons from the sluggards.

We recommend all the laptops here: there isn't aduff one among them. However, we urge you again

to read through the full review before spending yourhard-earned cash. None of them are perfect andwhat will suit your needs might not simply be thedevice ranked at number one.

Battery life and warranty are two things which varybetween laptops. The latter may well differdepending on where you buy the laptop from, too.John Lewis, for example, tends to offer longerwarranty than rivals.

After-sales service is something you shouldconsider, not only laptops but pretty mucheverything you buy. Check whether the companyhas a UK-based support line, and forums (includingour own) are an ideal place to get an idea ofwhether a manufacturer is generally good or bad atcarrying out work under warranty.

You might not even have to deal with themanufacturer directly if you have a fault in the firstsix months as it's the retailer's responsibility to dealwith issues. This is when it pays to have purchasedfrom Amazon, John Lewis and others which willoften replace or refund without quibble.

After al that, it's also worth considering whether alaptop is what you really want. You can get somegreat bargains on desktop PCs these days, and ifyou don't want a large tower system taking upspace there are plenty of all-in-one PCs to choosebetween. These integrate the computer behind themonitor, so they're much neater. Also, some tabletsoffer similar functionality to basic laptops. See ourpiece about choosing between laptop vs iPad , forinstance.

Read on for our pick of the UK's best laptops andlinks to our best laptop reviews. If you're looking formore laptop buying advice head here.

2016-11-16 11:48 Marie Brewis www.pcadvisor.co.uk

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Nintendo Switch fanstargeted by 'betaprogramme' email scam

HACKERS ARE TARGETING those not-so-patientlywaiting for the release of Nintendo's Switch consolewith the promise of a beta programme.

Nintendo has remained schtum on further detailsabout the console since its unveiling in October,instead promising to reveal more about the Switchin January.

Those impatiently awaiting more details run the riskof falling victim to hackers, as a phishing scamdoing the rounds is telling recipients that they'reeligible to join the Nintendo Switch betaprogramme. Which doesn't exist.

The email, first spotted by Nintendo Life , reads:"Congratulation! You are eligible to join theNintendo Switch™ Beta Program! You are chosen,

which means you can get into the Nintendo SwitchBeta!

"You will receive the Nintendo Switch BetaHardware which includes 1 System, 1 DockingStation, 2 Switch Controller (Left and Right) HDMIcable, 1 power adaptor, as well as instructionbooklet.

"Below, you will find a code to redeem. Please note:This code is specifically for your account, so do notshare this with anyone. "

If you're not immediately scared off by the poorgrammar and misspelling of '"congratulations',those that follow the links in the email are directedto the sites betanintendo.us or beta.nintendo-eu.com, both legitimate looking websites, andasked to enter their email address.

Related: Nintendo Switch price revealed ahead ofMarch 2017 launch

Nintendo Life noted that even the code peoplereceive via email appears to be legitimate, usingthe same 16-digit format that Nintendo itself adopts

for eShop codes. However, keen Nintendo fansmay spot that official codes are alpha-numeric,whereas the purported beta scheme codes areentirely numerical.

Wired has done some digging, and found that thefake domains are registered to somebody calledFernando Sanchez in the US, not Nintendo, andwere registered through domain registrarnamecheap.com on 23 October.

The same person is active on Instagram, likingother posts and leaving comments linking to thebogus sign-up pages, the report said.

Nintendo has yet to comment on the scam. µ

2016-11-16 11:43 Carly Page www.theinquirer.net

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Society for InformationManagement (SIM) Presentsa Look into the Future ofInformation Infrastructure

Technology plays a larger role in business now

than ever before. As new technology advancesrapidly, senior IT professionals, CIOs and ITdepartments must evaluate the challenges faced bythe market to meet their organization’s strategicgoals. They must also find a forum to collaborate,share ideas and voice the concerns about thepresent and future needs of the IT industry toadvance the IT community forward.

The Society for Information Management (SIM) is asociety of diverse members that shepherd the ITmovement and recognize the unique needs of theindustry, offering a wealth of knowledge to today’sIT leader. SIM is the only North American

professional network that connects senior-level ITleaders with peers in their communities —providing valuable opportunities for knowledgesharing, professional development, collaboration,and career advancement.

Senior IT professionals turn to SIM for the resourcesthey need to thrive, and business solutions they canbring back to their organizations, as well as honingtheir leadership skills. Members work towardscreating innovative new solutions to head off futureissues, made possible by its diverse group madeup of CIOs, academicians, consultants and ITexecutives from all walks of life.

SIM reaches a community of over 4,500 like-minded peers that influence and shape the ITindustry everyday. The benefits of joining theorganization are plentiful, but among the list isaccess to publications, a slew of online tools andface-to-face meetings and networking events soyou stay connected with industry influencers andcollaborate on topics pertinent to the latest ITtrends.

SIM is the pulse of the IT industry – and they wantyou to join their community of thought leaders. Joinone of SIM’s 39 local chapters to share and solvecomplex issues and broaden your professionalnetwork.

Join SIM on November 22, 2016 for an exclusiveevent:

Join our Toronto Chapter on Nov. 22, 2016 atToronto’s The National Club for a round-tablediscussion on “The Journey to Zero Infrastructure”.

We will be joined by our guest speaker Joe Bruhin,the Chief Information Officer and Senior VicePresident of Constellation Brands Inc. Joe is amember of the SIM International Board of Directors,and will be leading the discussion about theevolving landscape of future informationinfrastructures.

RSVP by November 18th to confirm your seat at thetable.

2016-11-16 11:42 www.itworldcanada.com

144 /223 2.5

Beyond brainstorming: 4 coolaction items hatched fromCisco ideation session

Matt Cutler, whose startup Cisco bought three yearsago , found himself moving from an outfit with eightpeople to one with tens of thousands. He lookedforward to accessing resources beyond his reach atCollaborate.com, but was wary of being able "to getstuff done" within the larger organization.

One way he’s been able to get stuff done is throughCisco’s little-known Founders Forum for the

entrepreneurial leaders of companies it hasacquired. Passionate about the sort of modernworkstyles and design thinking (and "a lot of stickynotes") he incorporated at his startup, Cutlerrecently volunteered to lead a break-out ideationsession in an effort to extract great ideas from hispeers in the Forum. That of course could be easiersaid than done when dealing with a large group ofintelligent, highly opinionated people.

“I raised my hand and said I’ll do this, I’ll model thechange and lead this,” says Cutler, whose brotherAdam is a design thinking leader at IBM. "It's in thefamily, it's in the blood. "

One of the beauties of such modern workstyles isefficiency, Cutler says, and the ideation sessiontook just 90 minutes to produce four solidtakeaways, which he shared with me:

Cisco has an annual event for its sales force knownas GSX (Global Sales Experience) that Cutler saysis great. “But there’s nothing equivalent for ourdevelopment community,” he says. “So we havetens of thousands of developers who don’t meet

together regularly. We have small things, but notlarge events for… sharing ideas and creatingcommunity.”

A working group is being formed to focus oncreating some sort of GSX for developers. Judgingfrom the popularity of events such as Apple WWDCand Google I/O mainly for external developers ofthose companies, there’s no doubt that developerslike to bond, and you’d think that this would be trueof those within Cisco.

“There’s a strong opportunity to drive greaterdiversity in engineering recruiting with a particularfocus on recruiting women,” Cutler says.

One idea on this front is for Cisco to leverage thegrowing number of outside events that are specificto female engineers (i.e., the annual WITI Summit ).

“Our annual budgeting process today works in sucha way where members in the room felt it was ofteninnovative projects that had high potential but hard-to-quantify short-term outcomes that would get de-prioritized,” Cutler says.

The idea is to make an explicit effort to includeinnovation in Cisco’s annual budgeting cycle toensure such projects are protected to some degree.“The one I'm most personally passionate about andwill be leading is defining Cisco design," Cutlersays.

In other words, what does capital “D” design meanat Cisco in a way that Apple (industrial design),Facebook (social design), Google (informationdesign), Microsoft (platform design) and Salesforce(cloud design) have established design at theirorganizations?

“We see a big opportunity to coalesce and distillCisco design,” Cutler says. “The concept of Ciscodesign seems impossibly big because there are somany products across so many areas so how couldyou pick one cisco design.” But thinking morebroadly, Cutler says his “hypothesis is that Cisco’sdesign center revolves around connectivity,” andthat this is what partners such as Apple, IBM andSalesforce respect about Cisco.

“It’s early and there’s a lot of work to do to get

alignment and define that, but that’s what I’mworking on,” he says.

2016-11-16 11:39 Bob Brown www.itnews.com

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Department Of HomelandSecurity Issues IoTGuidelines, Seeks'Coordinated Disclosure OfVulnerabilities' - Page: 1

The Department of Homeland Security Tuesdayreleased new guidelines surrounding Internet of

Things security, promoting transparency betweenIoT manufacturers, service providers andconsumers through "coordinated disclosure ofvulnerabilities. "

The DHS stressed that manufacturers have theirown role to play in IoT security by incorporating itinto the design phase, advancing security updatesand vulnerability management, and prioritizingsecurity measures according to potential impact.

"Failing to design and implement adequate securitymeasures could be damaging to the manufacturerin terms of financial costs, reputational costs orproduct recall costs," the DHS said in its guidelines."While there is not yet an established body of caselaw addressing IoT context, traditional tortprinciples of product liability can be expected toapply. "

[Related: 10 Solution Provider Superstars With TheCoolest Applications For The Internet Of Things ]

The issue of Internet of Things security was thrustinto the spotlight after a denial-of-service attack waslaunched in late October through IoT consumer

devices, including webcams, routers and videorecorders.

The attack overwhelmed servers at DynamicNetwork Services (Dyn) and led to the blockage ofmore than 1,200 websites -- and later led tomanufacturer Hangzhou Xiongmai saying it wouldrecall the web cameras that use its circuit boardand other components, which were one of the manydevices used in the attack.

The DHS said that its principles were designed notonly for IoT manufacturers, but also for IoTdevelopers, industrial and business-levelconsumers, and service providers who implementservices through devices.

The DHS also noted that focusing on security as afeature of IoT gives manufacturers and serviceproviders an opportunity for market differentiation.Solution providers, for their part, agreed, stressingthat channel partners can play a large role insecuring IoT devices for their customers.

"People are in denial. You'd think there'd be morereceptivity to talking about this. We still need to

evangelize that this is important," said MarcHarrison, president of Silicon East, a Manalapan, N.J.-based solution provider. "Whether it's in yourhome or a business, it's our job as the experts tosurround IoT products with security and isolate theproduct so if it is compromised, the collateraldamage to other networks is minimized. "

The DHS also stressed the significance ofmaintaining transparency across the Internet ofThings, stating that developers and manufacturersneed to know their supply chain, including whattheir hardware and software components are and ifthere are any vulnerabilities.

On the consumer end, the DHS advised thatcustomers connect their IoT devices carefully anddeliberately: "IoT consumers, particularly in theindustrial context, should deliberately considerwhether continuous connectivity is needed giventhe use of the IoT device and the risks associatedwith its disruption. "

2016-11-16 11:31 Lindsey O www.crn.com

146 /223 4.0

Digital transformation not afinite process, says MartinKuppinger

Digital transformation is not a process that will seethe world move from one state to another and thenbe over with, according to Martin Kuppinger ,principal analyst at KuppingerCole.

“Every industry is likely to undergo digitaltransformation , but it is a continuous process ofevolution to doing things differently in a digital era,”he told the Eema ISSE 2016 security conference in

Paris.

Kuppinger said digital transformation is inevitablebecause it is being driven by a wide variety ofthings linked to three areas of capability:innovation, agility and organisational flexibility.

Ever-increasing cyber attacks demand greaterorganisational flexibility, as does the ever-changingregulatory landscape and the advent of ubiquitousconnectivity.

“If you look at security, we still have IT divisions. Inmany cases, the CIO is the boss of the CISO, butthe CISO should never be in the CIO’s line ofmanagement. That is fundamentally wrong,” saidKuppinger.

“At the same time, IT is still siloed. But in reality, wehave IT everywhere in the business. There is noway a siloed 1980s-style IT organisation will workin a 2020-ready organisation,” he said.

According to Kuppinger, the EU’s General DataProtection Regulation (GDPR), will bring about a lotof organisational changes to anyone doing

business in Europe.

“The GDPR brings into scope a lot of things thathave been previously overlooked, such as howdecisions are actually made based on automaticprofiling processes, which means that the GDPRwill become critical to everything not based ondeterministic rules,” he said.

The need for innovation capability is also linked toubiquitous connectivity, as well as the transitionfrom products to services and the changingcompetitive landscape.

But changes in the competitive landscape, togetherwith the trend towards more dynamic businesspartnerships, are creating the need for greateragility.

“Old-school organisations which move very slowlyare under pressure because they tend to beunwilling to innovate, and even some carmakerslack the willingness to innovate,” said Kuppinger.“They are used to having petrol or diesel enginesand moving away from that is tough for them.”

On the broadest level, he said digital transformationis also being driven by the emergence of theinternet of things (IoT), smart manufacturing and theneed for improved business interactions withcustomers.

“There are good reasons why consumer identitymanagement is currently a very hot topic,” saidKuppinger.

“In general, we need to improve our handling ofcustomers, our identity and privacy, and our abiltyto retain customer relationships in an increasinglycompetitive market,” he said.

According to Kuppinger, there are seven keyenabling technologies for digital transformation:

“Security and privacy are central technologies inwhich we must have digital transformation, butthere is also identity and big data, which are relatedto security and privacy ,” said Kuppinger.

“But while we have a lot of tools for creating data,we do not have sufficient tools for the governanceof big data to control what happens with it,” he said.

The major topics in digital transformation, saidKuppinger, are consumer identity and security andprivacy, which must be included in everything bydesign.

2016-11-16 11:30 Security Editor www.computerweekly.com

147 /223 4.8

4 great apps for tackling yourto-do lists

The humble to-do list is the foundation of everyproductivity plan. It’s a natural instinct to unburden

our brains by itemizing our most pressing tasks,and few things feel as satisfying as crossing a taskoff the list.

Though a simple pen and paper is still an effectiveway to keep track of the things you need to do, agood to-do app will actually remind you to do them,allow you to easily manage multiple lists, and syncacross your devices so you always have your list athand. Here are a few of our favorites.

Google Keep often gets overlooked in Google’sproductivity offerings. That’s a shame, because thisfree Android and iOS app’s capabilities rival thoseof Evernote and Microsoft OneNote. One of its manytricks is the ability to track tasks and assure you getthem done.

Any Google Keep note can be converted into achecklist so you can tick off items as you completethem. If you keep multiple lists, say Work andPersonal, you can manage these with labels andcolor coding. Most helpful of all is you can useKeep’s time- and location-based reminders to prodyou to execute tasks in certain settings.

Purchased by Microsoft last year, Wunderlistcontinues to be one of the most powerful cross-platform to-do apps available. It makes it easy tomanage multiple lists and share them with others.

One of Wunderlist’s strengths is its streamlinedinterface. Adding and checking off items is intuitive,as is setting due dates and reminders, movingitems to different lists, and assigning to-do’s toothers. Not surprisingly, Microsoft has also addedintegration with Outlook.

If you upgrade the free version to Wunderlist Pro($5/month, $49/year), you can share andcollaborate on tasks with colleagues, friends, andfamily. Best of all, Wunderlist works can sync acrossWindows, Mac, iOS, Android, Kindle Fire, and theweb.

Newcomer Tick Tick is proving itself a competitor tomore entrenched apps thanks to its simple interfaceand wealth of features. You can set daily, weekly,and monthly recurring tasks; drag-and-drop items tomove or reorder them; set deadlines andreminders; share lists; and more.

Upgrade to the pro version ($2/month, $20/year),and you get a calendar view of all your tasks, plusrevision history, and unlimited lists, tasks, and sub-tasks.

You’ll also be able to access your to-do lists fromvirtually anywhere: Tick Tick is available forWindows, Mac, Chrome OS, iOS, Android, AppleWatch, Android Wear, Chrome and Firefoxbrowsers, and the web.

With its bold colors and simple gestures, Clear ($5for iOS, $10 for Mac) remains a strong choice forApple users. The award-winning app pares downfeatures to keep the focus on tracking andcompleting tasks.

Clear shows only the names of your lists with anumber denoting how many items it contains.Shadings of color are used to give you a heat-mapsense of each list for at-a-glance prioritizing, andreminders can be added to tasks. To emphasizesimplicity, functions are performed through asystem of pull-downs, pinches, and swipes, makingit easy to get through your lists quickly—which is

the ultimate goal of any to-do list.

2016-11-16 11:24 Michael Ansaldo www.pcworld.com

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SpectroDrone system useslasers to detect explosivesfrom afar

Up in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s… a dronethat detects explosives with a laser. Robots areincreasingly being used to make the world safer forhumans. They can aid in construction, explorenuclear disaster sites, and even detect explosivesand other dangerous materials. Now, a companycalled Laser Detect Systems is taking that mission

to the air. It says the SpectroDrone system can spotexplosives from a distance using its multi-wavelength laser.

This seems at first like something that should havealready existed. With all the sophisticated sensorsand technology at our disposal, why can’t we detectexplosives from a distance? The most commonmethods of spotting explosives still rely on dogs tosmell chemical compounds or machines that do thesame thing via spectrometry. In general,spectrometry is the best way to figure out whatsomething is made of, and that’s what theSpectroDrone system is doing, However, it’s doingit from much farther away.

Laser Detect Systems says that its proprietarypackage of sensors can operate at a distance,whereas past laser detection systems needed to bewithin a few millimeters of a sample. It does thiswith an array of electro-optical assemblies andlaser beams of varying wavelengths. There’s acamera on the instrument package dedicated toaiming at the target. Then a laser rangefinderensures the drone is close enough to get an

accurate reading—it has a range of “several”meters. The laser illuminator is where all the magichappens. It bounces a signal off the target to lookfor hazardous materials.

According to Laser Detect Systems, the dronedoesn’t need to be looking for explosives. TheSpectroDrone can apparently spot other materialslike narcotics, certain minerals, and even somebiological compounds. It doesn’t matter if thematerial is solid, liquid, or gas. That’s a big claimwhen you’re talking about several meters ofdistance to the target. Interference from ambientlight and the atmosphere is a serious hurdle toovercome.

The system is being demoed at a conference inIsrael on an Airobotics Optimus drone, giving it anoperation range of 3km (1.8 miles). The Optimus isnot the sort of thing you’d pick up at Amazon. It’s anindustrial-grade unmanned vehicle platform thatwas only announced a few months ago. TheSpectroDrone system could be mounted toanything with enough carrying capacity — even aground-based drone or the wall in an airport

security checkpoint.

2016-11-16 11:15 Ryan Whitwam www.extremetech.com

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Tinder now lets youpersonalize your genderidentity

Snapchat Spectacles, the mysterious and incrediblyhyped hardware from Snap, Inc., have arrived.Vending machines for the video camerasunglasses are springing up around the country,first in California and Oklahoma, and who knowswhere else next....

Concern about the prevalence of fake orsensationally biased news sources has escalatedin the days following the presidential election, withmany citing it as a factor (some even the primarycause) of Donald Trump’s win.

The central focus of the...

The company behind productivity app Todoist,which lets you manage your personal and worklives with powerful to-do lists, is adding a newfeature today: an artificial intelligence-poweredscheduler. Now, when you need to set a due datefor the...

Google is switching up the emoji shortcut button onits Allo chat app. Now, instead of just bringing upthe emoji keyboard, the “Smart Smiley” button willbring up a list of suggested emoji and stickers thatare relevant to what you’re typing. For...

Google is in the middle of a big machine learningpush right now, announcing yesterday a pair of big-name hires as well as new product roadmap thatwill offer more AI services and support via GoogleCloud. But that’s just the business side of the...

It turns out The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildisn’t the only Zelda adventure in the works —Nintendo is also creating a new escape roompuzzle game based on the world of Hyrule.

Called “Defenders of the Triforce,” the real-worldgame is...

2016-11-16 11:10 Natt Garun www.theverge.com

150 /223 1.6

Best business antivirus: 8top paid security tools forsmall businesses

If you're looking to protect your company PCs frommalware then you could just equip each one withyour preferred free antivirus package. You'll get areasonable level of protection, and it might wellseem like you're keeping costs to a minimum.

Of course you'll have to manually install each copy.And train every user in its operation. And rely onthem to let you know if there are any problems. Andhope they won't turn off particular functions – or

remove the whole package if they think it's gettingin their way. The software may be free, but it couldstill have some major costs attached.

If you have plenty of systems to protect – 10 ormore, let's say – it could make more sense tochoose a business security solution. These canoften be remotely installed over the network, andoffer a central management console to monitordevices, and create fine-tuned security policies toenforce your preferred settings.

Best of all, the price per installation can sometimesbe cheaper than even our recommended best

home antivirus packages. So, what's on offer?We've checked out eight of the best businessantivirus tools around in order to find out.

Most offer discounts if you buy a two or three-yearpackage, so where possible we ordered them bytheir 10 PC, two-year package prices to maximiseyour savings. You can, of course, choosewhichever package suits your needs best whenbuying.

All prices below are for one-year and five endpoints. You can of course customise these on thevendor's website.

Great value back-to-basics protection for your PC

If Avast Endpoint Protection looks cheap, that'sbecause it's the most basic business product thecompany offers – there's core antivirus, browsingprotection and remote management for PCs only.That may well be enough, though, and even if itisn't, moving up to the Endpoint Plus edition will getyou a firewall, spam filter and server protectionwhile still remaining good value.

The web-based management console covers thebasics only: remote installations, updates, plusthere's a scheduler for automatic scanning, real-time security alerts, and so on.

The antivirus protection you get is generally ratedas good by independent testing, with Avast'sengine blocking 99.7% of threats in AV-Comparative's September 2016 Real-WorldProtection report. If value for money and simplicityare key factors, Avast Endpoint Protection could bea sensible choice.

High grade professional protection for servers anddesktops

Symantec Endpoint Protection's first benefit is thecompany's Insight file reputation technology, aneffective way to detect and block even the verylatest undiscovered threats.

Other layers of protection include antivirus,behaviour monitoring, intrusion protection, afirewall, and the 'Power Eraser' to remove stubbornthreats and repair your system.

Symantec's security policy options are a realhighlight. You can set application blacklists orwhitelists, control file and Registry access, restrictand control access to external media, and more,then monitor systems and enforce policies from acentral console.

While there's no bundled protection for mobiledevices, the package runs just about everywhereelse: PCs, Macs, and a host of virtual environmentsand Linux distros.

Symantec Endpoint Protection isn't cheap, but if youneed its high-end features and policy controloptions then it still looks like a good deal to us.

Market leading detection rates at a bargain price

If reliable protection is a top priority, BitdefenderGravityZone Business Security needs to be on yourshortlist. Bitdefender products are loved by theindependent testing labs, highly rated for malwaredetection, removal, performance and usability.

Most of the features work automatically –antimalware, firewall, web advisor, URL filtering –

but you can also customise the product to controluser actions. You're able to restrict access to certainwebsites and applications, block the transmissionof sensitive information, remotely deploy theproduct to unprotected systems, and allow or denyusers the ability to modify their security settings.

All this is managed from a central console whereyou can control and monitor remote users, createand apply custom security policies by user, location(the product adapts when users are outside thecompany), and more.

Easy-to-use antivirus for small business

Avira Antivirus for Endpoint is the company's mainsmall business product. It takes all the core featuresyou'd expect – antivirus, baseline networkprotection, web filtering – and extends them with fileserver protection and optimisation, along withapplication whitelisting and blacklisting.

Avira's Online Essentials web console lets youmanage your devices. This is simpler than some ofthe high-end competition, but that's not necessarilya disadvantage, and there's some useful

functionality here: drive partition reports, licencemanagement, remote deployment, and assortedmobile phone tools (antitheft, phone finder, andmore).

Avira Antivirus for Endpoint doesn't have thelongest of feature lists, but it's easy to use, andoffers excellent protection, regularly matchingcompetitors like Bitdefender and Kaspersky in AV-Comparative's Real World tests.

Kaspersky's latest offering shields PCs and mobiledevices

Endpoint Security Cloud is Kaspersky's latest smallbusiness product, which comes ready to protectWindows PCs, file servers, Android and iOSdevices.

The desktop side of the package has all the usualquality Kaspersky modules – antivirus, antispam, afirewall, more – but the mobile securitytechnologies are even more impressive. There aretools to detect insecure devices, control passwordrules, manage camera use, filter unwanted callsand texts, and remotely lock or wipe data from lost

devices.

That’s topped off with an easy-to-use web consolemanaging network and Bluetooth configuration,internet access policies, device settings and more.

There's impressive levels of protection, too.Kaspersky Endpoint Security Cloud came first out offour contenders in AV-Comparatives' October 2016Business Security Test, detecting and blocking100% of known malware and exploits. The packagealso produced an above-average five falsepositives, so overall, it put in some impressiveresults.

The fastest, most lightweight antivirus solutionaround

Webroot SecureAnywhere products stand outimmediately for being incredibly lightweight: they'retiny (2MB disk space), install so quickly you'll barelynotice (from 5 seconds), and consume the absoluteminimum of system resources.

Scans are fast, too, and because just abouteverything is done in the cloud, there are no bulky

updates or definitions to download – you're alwaysup-to-date.

Other features include behaviour monitoring, anoutbound firewall, along with identity and privacyprotection. These don't always have the power andoptions of other tools, but they're implemented withreal intelligence, and generally cope well with day-to-day tasks.

A cloud-based console enables tracking all yourinstallations, and the package runs on just aboutany Windows or macOS system.

Factor in the price and Webroot looks veryappealing to us, but it really is a product you needto try for yourself to understand the benefits. Ifyou're interested, grab a copy of the trial and seewhat it can do for you.

Feature-packed antimalware for desktops, serversand VMs

F-Secure Client Security Standard is a popularendpoint protection tool, highly rated by theindependent testing labs.

Antivirus is just the start. There's also a firewall,intrusion detection, web filtering, online bankingprotection and device control.

If you need more, the Premium edition adds asoftware updater to scan for missing patches, andan option to restrict a user's web access bycategory. Whatever version you buy may bedeployed and managed from a central console.

There are some issues here, in particular the factthat F-Secure's engine is more likely than most toflag legitimate software as malicious. But overall F-Secure Client Security Standard offers goodprotection for a reasonable price, and it's certainly aproduct worth thinking about.

Accurate antivirus that doesn't need signatures

Sophos Endpoint Protection Advanced is apowerful tool which uses many technologies tokeep you safe. It blocks dangerous URLs, and iscapable of detecting and removing exploit code,analysing behaviour to uncover even the verynewest threats, and identifying endpoint

connections with malicious servers to findcompromised systems.

The results can be impressive, with the core enginedoing an above-average job of blocking zero daythreats, yet raising almost no false alerts at all.

There's a price to pay for this kind of safety, though:Sophos Endpoint Protection's background activitiescan noticeably impact your PC's performance.

There are some business-friendly features tocompensate, including DLP along with device andapplication control, although other packages giveyou more at a much lower cost.

2016-11-16 11:10 By feedproxy.google.com

151 /223 4.0

Hacker can backdoor yourcomputer and router in 30seconds with $5 PoisonTapdevice

If you lock your computer and walk away, it takesonly 30 seconds for a hacker armed with a small $5

Raspberry Pi Zero , which is loaded with deviouscode, to completely pwn your password-protectedcomputer and install remotely accessiblebackdoors.

PoisonTap , the latest creation of hacker anddeveloper Samy Kamkar, has a long list of wickedslick capabilities, including the fact that after anattacker removes the device from a USB port, abackdoor and remote access will persist on bothyour computer and your router.

When inserted into a USB port, PoisonTap tricks acomputer into believing it was just plugged into a

new Ethernet connection that takes over all internettraffic.

Even if you locked your computer, be that a Mac orPC, but leave an HTTP-based site open in abrowser window, then the site continues to runHTTP requests in the background. PoisonTapintercepts all unencrypted web traffic and sends thedata to an attacker-controlled server. By capturingnon-encrypted authentication cookies, an attackercould access a user’s personal accounts.

If a site is HTTPS, but the “secure” flag on the sitewasn’t correctly set up, then the device can snarfthose cookies as well and give a hacker access auser’s personal accounts.

PoisonTap “installs a web-based backdoor in HTTPcache for hundreds of thousands of domains and itworks even when a computer is password-protected,” Kamkar said. The cache will remainpoisoned even after PoisonTap is removed, givingan attacker access to any domain infected with thecode. Although the code used is malicious, sinceit’s not malware then anti-malware solutions won’t

save the day.

Kamkar said PoisonTap “produces a persistentWebSocket to an attacker’s web server;” it staysopen, “allowing the attacker to, at any point in thefuture, connect back to the backdoored machineand perform requests” as long as it is to any of theone million top Alexa-ranked sites that has thebackdoor implemented.

Additionally, Kamkar said a hacker can remotelyforce a user’s “backdoored browser to performsame-origin requests on virtually any majordomain, even if the victim does not currently haveany open windows to that domain.” He added, “Ifthe backdoor is opened on one site (e.g., nfl.com),but the user [hacker] wishes to attack a differentdomain (e.g., pinterest.com), the attacker can loadan iframe on nfl.com to the pinterest.com backdoor.”Since the request “will hit the cache that PoisonTapleft rather than the true domain,” then “X-Frame-Options, Cross-Origin Resource Sharing, andSame-Origin Policy security on the domain isentirely bypassed.”

PoisonTap also gives a hacker remote access to aninternal router; it “force-caches a backdoor” andproduces “a persistent DNS rebinding attack.” Withremote access to control the router, Kamkar said ahacker can also potentially gain access to defaultadmin credentials or other authenticationvulnerabilities.

Just locking a computer with a password won’t cutit; short of filling your USB ports with silicon orcement, Kamkar suggested closing your browserevery time you walk away from your computer. Hesaid Mac users should enable FileVault2 and putyour Mac to sleep before walking away from it.

He also made suggestions, such as using HSTS orensuring Secure flag is properly enabled, forpeople running web servers. You can check out allthe details about PoisonTap on Kamkar’s site or onGitHub.

2016-11-16 11:06 Darlene Storm www.computerworld.com

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5 great Apple Watchaccessories

Apple Watch remains the world’s best-sellingsmartwatch and with the second edition nowavailable it is taking a slice of the fitness trackermarket, too. As the holiday shopping season looms,here is a short collection of some great accessoriesfor the device.

GoldGenie

Actionproof

We know Apple Watch is going to get used in toughsituations – in sports, but also in industriallocations, warehouses and beyond. We alreadysee apps appearing to make productive use of thedevice in situations like that. This is why this shock-absorbing silicone case makes so much sense. Notonly does it protect your Apple Watch from bumpsand scrapes, but it keeps all its features available toyou. (Currently c.$20 on Amazon ).

Zagg

It’s not enough just to keep the body of your AppleWatch protected, you also need to make sure thewatch face won’t become damaged. However, howcan you protect the watch display withoutpreventing the touch sensitive controls fromworking? Simple, just tap a Zagg InvisibleShieldHD on your smartwatch and you’ll gain militarygrade protection that still lets you use your AppleWatch. (Currently $10.97 on Amazon ).

Griffin Technology

Coming soon, this handy little item carries enough

power (1050mAh) to recharge your Apple Watchtwo and a half times, allowing you to leave yourApple Watch Magnetic Charging Cable at home.The ultra-compact item is about the same size as astack of business cards (says Griffin), which meansyou can easily stash in a pocket, backpack orbriefcase. (Dimensions are: 38.1 mm x 9.5 mm x114.3 mm. Charge it up using a micro-USB cable.($69.99 from Griffin Technology ).

Nomad

If you’re travelling with an Apple Watch there’s ahigh probability you’re also using an iPhone, sowhy not take a stylish battery pack that chargesboth devices with your for the ride? That’s preciselywhat the attractive Nomad Pro provides, with its6,000mAh battery carrying enough energy tocharge both your iPhone and Apple Watch twice. Iteven boasts its own Lightning cable to charge youriPhone, though you’ll need to use your own AppleWatch cable to charge the watch. (From c.$59 onAmazon ).

These excellent earphones are the right choice if

you want to play music from your Apple Watchwhile jogging or exercising at the gym. Not only dothese things provide excellent sound for up to 12-hours and feature the Fast Fuel fast charging tech,they also contain Apple’s W1 chip that lets youeasily pair them with your Watch/iPhone. They alsolet you take and make calls and use Siri, so long asyou’re in range of the iPhone.(From $199.95 ).

2016-11-16 11:04 Jonny Evans www.computerworld.com

153 /223 2.6

In the war on fake news,school librarians have a hugerole to play

Amazon isn’t just starting Black Friday early thisyear, it’s extending it far beyond Thanksgivingweekend until December 22nd. The companyclaims that you’ll be able to “find new deals as oftenas every five minutes” on Amazon’s website forthe...

There are 37 options, but harassment issues arestill a concern

Snapchat Spectacles, the mysterious and incrediblyhyped hardware from Snap, Inc., have arrived.Vending machines for the video camerasunglasses are springing up around the country,first in California and Oklahoma, and who knows

where else next....

The company behind productivity app Todoist,which lets you manage your personal and worklives with powerful to-do lists, is adding a newfeature today: an artificial intelligence-poweredscheduler. Now, when you need to set a due datefor the...

Google is switching up the emoji shortcut button onits Allo chat app. Now, instead of just bringing upthe emoji keyboard, the “Smart Smiley” button willbring up a list of suggested emoji and stickers thatare relevant to what you’re typing. For...

Google is in the middle of a big machine learningpush right now, announcing yesterday a pair of big-name hires as well as new product roadmap thatwill offer more AI services and support via GoogleCloud. But that’s just the business side of the...

2016-11-16 11:00 Kaitlyn Tiffany www.theverge.com

154 /223 2.2

The Week in iOSAccessories: A "pop-up"display you can takeanywhere

This week’s roundup of accessories includes theSpontaneous Pop-Up Display—portable enough tofit in your bag, big enough for gameplay andserious work. Read on!

The Spontaneous Pop-Up Display (a $349 pledgeon Kickstarter) is a nifty idea: It lets you create alarge, desktop-monitor-sized display for your iOS

device or MacBook—but does it with a device that’sa bit like a pop-up tent, meaning it’s very portable,easy to set up and break down. Apparently it’s apopular idea: The makers had a Kickstarter goal ofraising $33,000 to get the SPUD into production;with a month left to go they’ve already raised morethan $440,000.

The Coco Color Stylus ($35 MSRP, on sale for $30)works a little bit differently from, say, the ApplePencil. It features several buttons—to choose thecolor, style, and size of your stroke. (Coco Colorsays there are 768 combinations in total.) It works incombination with the Coco Color Voyages andCoco Color Doodle apps.

The P3 Stand ($25 MSRP, same price on Amazon )is an aluminum stand for iPhone and iPad; it has acable pass-through on the back side so you canpower up your iOS device even while displaying it.

There’s a whole new line of Henge Docks made tofit with Apple products. The Gravitas ($69 MSRP,$79 on Amazon ) is made specifically for iOS: It’sboth small—to occupy a minimal footprint on your

desk—and weighty, a 2.5-pound base meant tooffer stability, which in turn makes it easy to dockand undock your phone with one hand.

The Leather Wallet iPhone 7 Case ($128 MSRP)features three slots on the left-hand side to holdyour credit cards and identification; the right-handside is a solid plastic case that holds and protectsyour precious iPhone 7 from falling and breaking.

The Premium Hard Natural Wood Stand Holder($10 MSRP) is a “high-quality handcrafted woodeniPad stand” with “well-placed antislip pads protectyour device from scratches and sliding.” Themakers say it “looks like a quality wood furniturethat’s exceptionally solid, precise, and beautiful.”

The Pencil Holder, Genuine Leather Sleeve forApple Pencil ($20 MSRP, $15 on Amazon ) ishandcrafted and made of genuine leather—an“elegant, ultra slim and lightweight holder” thatcomes in a wide variety of colors, so you can carryyour Apple Pencil around in style.

The 2-in-1 Car Dashboard Anti-slip Rest Pad ($7MSRP) has a silicone base, allowing it to sit on your

car’s dashboard for charging your phone whileusing it for navigation or hands-free calling. Say themakers: “This gadget is idea for using in car as acar mount as well as a desktop stand.”

2016-11-16 11:00 Joel Mathis www.itnews.com

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SWIFT has not seen its last'bank robbery'

A former CSO of the World Bank Treasury calls theSWIFT system outdated and open to malwareattacks. Those vulnerabilities could lead to

manipulation of financial transactions.

SWIFT is the interbank financial messaging systemfor sending international money transferinstructions. The Society for Worldwide InterbankFinancial Telecommunications , which the industryrefers to as the SWIFT co-op maintains this system.

CSO looks at the SWIFT co-op’s denial of the realissue, the cost of attacks, informed expert insightsinto these security flaws, how hackers are usingand abusing these to their profit, and what the co-op should do to seal its messaging system tomitigate further falsifications.

“The SWIFT co-op is trying to maintain plausibledeniability that these fraudulent transfers point to asystemic problem,” says Tom Kellermann, CEO,Strategic Cyber Ventures and former CSO of theWorld Bank Treasury. While the co-op claims that itis “already helping prevent cyber frauds by workingwith affected customers and their counterparties toidentify, stop and retrieve fraudulent messages ,”true prevention should really come before the illicittransactions.

“The SWIFT board of directors needs to arrive at theconsensus that they must make changes to themessaging system and its security,” saysKellermann. The financial institutions that use andsupport the SWIFT system will have to spend moremoney to add the needed security.

The amount of additional spending should not becrippling for the participating banks. In the financesector, the typical security budget is 8 percent of theoverall budget, confirms Kellermann. “They need tospend more like 10 percent,” he says.

Part of the challenge in acquiring the added budgetis that CISOs are still reporting to the CIOs anddon’t have a separate budget; that’s a governanceissue across the financial sector, explainsKellermann.

But if the SWIFT co-op continues to view this onlyas a security issue, they may not see thejustification for insisting that the banks retool theirsecurity anyway. “It’s not a security issue anymore.It’s a sustainability issue for eFinance and a brandprotection issue,” says Kellermann.

Notable attacks on SWIFT transfers early this yearincluded one on the central bank of Bangladesh,costing the financial institution $81 million. Withthis, word spread that hackers continue to target thevulnerabilities of this financial messaging system atgreat expense to affected banks.

Though the heist at the central bank of Bangladeshearned a lot of attention, this was hardly the firstsecurity event involving SWIFT messaging as therewere successful attacks in 2013 affecting both theSWIFT messaging system and ATMs in countriesincluding the U. S., Russia, Switzerland, Japan, andthe Netherlands.

Tom Kellermann, CEO, Strategic Cyber Venturesand former CSO of the World Bank Treasury

We haven’t seen the last such bank robbery either.“Having spoken to numerous heads of financialinstitutions, security professionals, and regulatorsfrom India to the U. S., I will tell you that attacks onSWIFT payments including significant wire transferfraud and virtual bank heists are occurring aroundthe world on a weekly basis and people are just not

providing full disclosure,” says Kellermann.“Hackers have breached SWIFT more than a dozentimes this year with the average wire transfer fraudin the tens of millions of dollars per intrusion. "

SWIFT messaging was designed using datedperimeter security approaches and public-keyinfrastructure (PKI). To steal the PKI credentials,says Kellermann, these attackers first use spearphishing or island hopping approaches. Islandhopping occurs where hackers attack weaknessesin information supply chains, gain entry intosystems, find the next weakness, and repeat theprocess to get to the prize, in this case the PKI keys.

Once hackers gain authenticated access usingstolen PKI keys, they plant malware such asCarbanak and Odinaff. A Russian dark webfinancial crime entity produced Carbanak andOdinaff; these are the kinds of elegant malware thatallow for screen scraping (capturing data on amonitor screen) and clandestine lateral movementinside the network, which enable hackers tomanipulate wire transfers, explains Kellermann.

Attackers are getting really good at gaining that allimportant initial foothold inside networks by usingattacks such as spear phishing, says LaviLazarovitz, cyber research team leader atCyberArk. With that foothold, they can gain localadministrator privileges using, for example, anexploited Acrobat Reader vulnerability; when auser simply opens a malicious PDF file, the file runsmalicious code that in turn acquires those elevatedprivileges, explains Lazarovitz.

According to Kellermann, technical solutions toattacks on SWIFT include anomalous behaviordetection and deception techniques. Anomalousbehavior detection would alert the financialenterprise to lateral movement in the network andattempts to manipulate systems. Deception woulduse multiple fake SWIFT systems to confuse thehacker and alert IT security before he gets to thereal SWIFT system. Banks should also use two-factor authentication or multifactor authenticationand endpoint security such as breach detection toshield SWIFT.

Safeguarding SWIFT transactions can’t stop there.

According to Lazarovitz, financial servicescompanies should segment the systems that runSWIFTNet Link, which provides access to SWIFT,away from the rest of the network. “All accounts onsystems running SWIFTNet Link should use securecredentials, limited permissions, and accountmonitoring; IT security should change credentialsoften,” says Lazarovitz.

Finally, the SWIFT co-op and participating financialinstitutions should enforce best practices such ascontrolling endpoint applications to make it harderfor attackers to use malware in phishing emails toaccess endpoints, says Lazarovitz, and allowingremote access to critical systems only via hardenedjump servers in order to prevent exposure to risksfrom endpoints.

SWIFT security needs to change but someone hasto initiate the change. The question is who shoulddo it. According to Kellermann, the financialinstitutions using SWIFT could do it because eachinstitution has its own endpoints, but the reality isthat no institution is going to do that on their ownand incur those costs without a mandate from

SWIFT. “SWIFT needs to accept the fact that theyhave significant nodes around the world that havebeen compromised and modernize their securityarchitecture,” says Kellermann.

Other organizations can help move this changealong. “I would call on the FFIEC, the FederalFinancial Institutions Examination Council, which isthe umbrella group for all the U. S. financialregulators, to challenge SWIFT to adopt newsecurity controls that would modernize the securityposture of the ecosystem,” says Kellermann. TheEBG, which is the Electronic Banking Group inBasel has a U. S. representative; they should crackthe whip on the SWIFT co-op since they exist toessentially look at the future of systemic risk inelectronic banking, says Kellermann. “I can’tbelieve they’ve been sitting on their hands frankly. "

If these fraud cases are anyone’s fault, it’s thecriminal hackers who are attacking SWIFTmessaging. Rather than lay blame anywhere, theindustry should encourage the SWIFT co-op to takethe lead by increasing security requirements, andthe banks should gracefully follow by meeting the

new security standards.

2016-11-16 10:58 David Geer www.itnews.com

156 /223 0.6

Huawei Gr5 Mini Promises 48Hours Battery

Huawei promises 48 hours lasting battery with itsGR5 Mini smartphone. The new Huawei GR5 Minihas been designed with a long-lasting batteryoffering up to 32 hours for hard users, this willeliminate constant hourly charging and power bankdependence.

Jean Baguma, Marketing Manager Huawei Uganda

explained that the GR5 Mini smartphone has beenequipped with a 3000mAh battery life which isstrong enough to withstand hard use for at least 32hours.

” The GR5 Mini’s 3000mAh battery comes withintelligent power saving technology that allows thebattery to last for as long as two days withoutcharging for light users, and 32 hours for hardusers,” she said.

mAh means milliamp Hour and is a unit thatmeasures (electric) power over time. It is commonlyused to measure the energy capacity of a battery;generally, the more mAh, the more the batterycapacity.

In addition to its battery prowess, Bagumaexplained that the GR5 Mini comes with newgeneration fingerprint technology sensor that hasbeen improved to 100 per cent over the firstgeneration.

“The GR5 Mini fingerprint sensor has a 0.5 secondsresponse time with a 360-degree readability whichis especially exciting for photo and selfie lovers as

with one quick touch on the fingerprint sensor, theywill be able to activate camera,” Baguma said.

The GR5 Mini has an 8MP front camera, with highchromatic resolution, 4P lens array and a 77-degree wide angle visual range. It takes sharplooking selfies and also enables selfie loversinclude more people within the selfie shot.

The rear-facing 13MP camera features a f/2.0aperture, 78-degree wide angle visual range, 5PAspheric lens array with a blue glass filter toimprove photo quality.

” It also has a professional mode for taking photoswith parameters similar to that of a Single-LensReflex (SLR) camera that permits the photographerto view through the lens and see exactly what willbe captured,” Baguma explained.

In regards to its hardware and processing power,the GR5 Mini combines design elegance withpowerful specifications. It comes with a Full HD(1920x1080p), 5.2″ display; this is comfortableenough for hand handling and is perfect for officework. It comes with a 64-bit Octa core processor,

2GB RAM and 16GB ROM with expandable storageMicroSD slot of up to 128GB and operates with thelatest OS Android v6.0 Marshmallow.

The GR5 Mini also supports tasks like speechrecognition, low-power consumption, MP3, sensorhub, Fused Location Provider (FLP) navigation, andmore efficient location-based tasks.

Baguma explained that the GR5 Mini is targeted tothe mid-range customer and is selling at aRecommended Retail Price of 837,760 Ushsacross all Huawei-affiliated dealer shopscountrywide to include Nile Communications,Simba Telecom, Go Phones, Nile Communication,Fone Express, Praise Communication and kilimall .

2016-11-16 10:55 Nathan Ernest pctechmag.com

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Dashlane ups the 'passwordmanager for business' ante

Once upon a time, back in the deepest darkest daysaround 2010, I had to remember a host of different

passwords for different services.

If truth be told, I, like so many others, probably usedthe same password for the bulk of different servicesI signed up for. Back then it may not have beensuch an issue but recent years have shown howpassword reuse is a massive potential risk vector. Idon’t need to worry about that anymore since I’veused, for a few years, a password manager towrangle all my logins.

Password managers are simple, yet important littlethings -- they remember an individuals passwordsto all the different services they use, and lock it all

up behind a single, highly complex, masterpassword. Of course there is a risk there, in that asingle source has access to all an individual’sservices but, touch wood (or knock on wood, for youAmericans), thus far there have been very fewsecurity issues with these vendors. I guess, sincepassword management is their core business, theyhave a pretty incredible level of motivation to doeverything in their power to remain robust.

But while password managers have seen prettywidespread uptake among consumers, they’ve not,in my impression, really hit it out of the park in thebusiness arena, losing out to more enterprise-focused Single Sign On (SSO) vendors.

Dashlane is one provider that is looking to furtherextend its business credentials and, to that end, isextending its business offering Tuesday with somenew features that it promises will offer more robustprovisioning, strong password management andthe all-important access control for IT manger.

AT a high level, the new features that Dashlane isrolling out include:

Dashlane’s business offering is priced at $2 peruser per month with volume discounts andenterprise licensing. The company claims sixmillion individual users globally across over 6,000organizations that use its product.

The password management space is one that isnotoriously difficult to monetize. Most passwordmanagers offer a free consumer product and havea freemium model whereby higher level orbusiness features are a paid option. I’ve not seenmassive evidence that individual users have muchof an appetite to pay for a more advanced product.Add to that the fact that, much like Box when itmoved from consumer to enterprise, largerorganizations are somewhat dubious aboutsolutions that have a parallel consumer play, andyou have a difficult sell.

If that wasn’t enough of a barrier -- a bunch of SSOvendors such as Okta and OneLogin, offer this sortof functionality, albeit through different means, butas part of a far larger whole and including thingssuch as automated provisioning and new employeeonboarding to organizations.

Don’t get me wrong, these new features lookcompelling and make absolute sense for businesscustomers, but I’m not sure just how much they’llmove the needle for Dashlane. That’s less afunctionality issue than it is a perception one.

2016-11-16 10:43 Ben Kepes www.computerworld.com

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Twitter convinces itself that2016 is the worst

Be gone, 2016.

Social media is so over 2016.

Twitter users, in particular, want the year to end butthey won't let it silently slip away. Instead, they'veturned their disgust into a trending topic.

On Facebook, people are chatting about prowrestling and Snapchat.

Social Cues is our guide on what's trending across

Facebook and Twitter. Here's what people aretalking about on Wednesday:

Be sure to check out Social Cues' weekly roundupcalled T. GIF. It will pop up every Friday on CNET'sSnapchat and Instagram accounts. Add us onInstagram at @CNET or on Snapchat at@CNETsnaps. Our social accounts also featureCNET Update daily and Mailbox Mondays. Join us!

2016-11-16 10:40 by www.cnet.com

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The Status Audio CB-1smight be the bestheadphones under $100

So who the hell is Status Audio? Well, it’s a UScompany playing the same game that manyChinese outfits have found profitable: selling directto the consumer and thus cutting marketing anddistribution costs to a minimum. The company'sfounder is also its chief marketing officer, and itsmotto is "no logos, no celebrities, just sound. " Trueto its ideals, Status sells headphones that look

perfectly anonymous.

The CB-1s resemble a de-badged pair of Audio-Technica M50s, which is appropriate becausethat’s the ultra popular pair of cans that they’recompeting most directly against. Both are closed-back, over-ear headphones that fold down into amore compact shape for easy transportation. Bothlay claim to producing studio-quality sound at abudget price, and both achieve their low cost byusing lightweight, but hardy, plastics in place offancier metals and materials.

But there are major differences between them, too,starting with the price, which at $140 for the current

M50x model from Audio-Technica is almost doublethat of the CB-1s. The other thing is that StatusAudio’s sound is much friendlier to the ear, lackingthe strident highs of the M50s and delivering atighter, more satisfying bass. For my tastes, and foranyone with a fixed budget, the CB-1s are simply amuch better choice, retaining the M50s’ruggedness, comfort, and practicality whileimproving on their sound and cost. And let’s behonest: unbranded gadgets are just inherentlycooler.

Looking around the CB-1s isn’t exactly a safari intoexotic materials. The ear pads look like they’remade out of leather, but are synthetic. There’s abreathable strip of similar material covering thepadding on the underside of the headband — thistoo would be handcrafted leather on moreexpensive headphones, but there’s no room forsuch indulgences on these headphones to deliver"just sound. " The CB-1s’ construction isn’t the mostimpressive in the world, but that doesn’t get in theway of using them at all. The headphones flex openand closed with ease, each cup pivots and rotatessmoothly, and the upside to using cheaper

materials is that the headphones as a whole areextremely light.

To be fair, once you actually pop these on yourhead and the ultra-soft ear pads engulf your ears,you’ll wonder why others bother with leather at all.These CB-1s are extremely comfortable, and wecan thank their first users for that. Status Audio tellsme that the pad design was updated this summer inresponse to user feedback.

Other than the relatively cheap constructioncomponents, the biggest issue with theseheadphones might be the Princess Leia look theyimpose upon the user. Those big and generouspads fatten out the headphone dramatically. Iwalked around London with the CB-1s on my headthis week and caught a few people staring at them.That doesn’t trouble me, and in spite of their goldhighlights, they don’t really look expensive enoughto be worth stealing, but this may be an issue formore discreet music listeners.

Out on the street and down in the underground, theCB-1s did a commendable job of insulating

external noise. I powered them with my Pixel XL atmax volume and could entirely zone out my noisysurroundings. Most smartphone sources should beable to power these headphones quite adequately,but remember to have your dongle handy if youwant to combine these with the latest iPhones. Alsonoteworthy on this front is the lack of an in-line micor remote control with the bundled cable. But neverfear, Status Audio sells super cheap, flat cables thatadd those options.

The default cable that comes with the CB-1s isactually pretty awesome. It has a coiled-up section,much like the aforementioned Sony 7506s, butthat’s smaller on these headphones and makesthem much easier to use on the move. If there’s anybig issue with the Sonys, it’s that they’re only reallysuitable to use at a desk or at home, because oftheir fixed and unwieldy wire, but Status Audio hascome up with an elegant solution to that problem.

So with all of those practicalities considered, whatdo the Status Audio CB-1s sound like? Well, theysound like a hell of a lot more than $79. Theirsoundstage is wide — wider than you have any

right to expect from a closed-back headphone inthis price range — and their stereo imaging issuperb. On Tool’s "Aenema," you can hearMaynard James Keenan’s voice at the center of therecording and the drums off to one side, the guitarto another, and the chanting "learn to swim" lyricsswirling around your head as if circling the drain ofdespair that the song’s about. That’s just oneexample of a very competent performance fromheadphones that make me forget I’m not reviewingsome $600 or $1,000 set.

Of course, the CB-1s are not without their faults andlimitations. They don’t always convey the tangiblesense of an instrument rather than just a note, andthey can sometimes make guitars sound digital andartificial. I find the sub-bass in most songs is merelyhinted at, and there’s not much extension into thesparkliest high notes that lend music its mostexciting moments and greatest dynamic contrast.But then that narrower frequency response is whatmakes the CB-1s more listenable. They have aslight, but detectable emphasis on bass and lowermids, and their bass comes out with a dry, assuredthump and authority.

Nothing’s sloppy about this sound. Status Audioknows it isn’t working with the beryllium drivers ofthe $3,999 Focal Utopias , and so it hasn’t tried todo anything special with the tuning. The CB-1s offera very appealing re-creation of most music genres,and I did find myself nodding along to them moreoften than I might have expected before pickingthem up. That subconscious review should speakfor itself.

Overall, I feel like the practicality of theseheadphones nudges them ahead of the Sony7506s, and their price and sweeter sound makesthem an obvious pick ahead of Audio-Technica’sM50s. The CB-1s might be from a no-namecompany, but that company makes its no-namestatus (sorry!) a feature and turns them into anintentionally anonymous tool. I’m happy to affirmthat the "just sound" standard has indeed been metby Status Audio, and I’m going to be recommendingthem to Andrew (along with the pro tip to sign up fortheir newsletter to get a discount when buying fromStatus’ site).

2016-11-16 10:30 Vlad Savov www.theverge.com

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Infor bags $2bn privateequity investment from KochEquity

Business applications conglomerate Infor hasreached a deal whereby Koch Equity Development,an arm of the Koch Industries industrialconglomerate, will invest more than $2bn in thecompany.

The funds are intended to provide extra capital tofuel the company's growth, according to Infor, while

Koch will take an undisclosed shareholding in asoftware company best known for its manufacturingsoftware.

"Koch is one of the largest private companies in theworld with diversified holdings and immenseresources to support the next exciting phase ofgrowth at Infor," said CEO Charles Phillips, hintingthat the acquisitive company needs Koch'sresources in order to build a unified alternative toSAP, Oracle and other major enterpriseapplications vendors.

He added: "Some of the largest companies in theworld have approached Infor looking for a modernalternative to the legacy options available formission critical business applications. Infor has thescale and capital to provide a digital platform for theGlobal 5000. "

The company claims that, under Phillips'leadership, Infor has already invested some $2bnin design and development over the past five years,delivering more than 400 new products, 1,700‘integrations' and 16,000 industry features in its

CloudSuite line.

Infor claims that its cloud strategy has involvedbuilding features for specific vertical sectors, ratherthan leaving such bespoke requirements to third-parties or the customers themselves. "Companiesno longer want the expensive consultingengagements that were historically required to addindustry enhancements to generic softwareproducts," the company claimed in the Koch dealannouncement.

It added: "By putting thousands of micro-verticalindustry features into the applications, all customersin that specific industry can share those features ina multitenant cloud environment. Applications richin industry domain lower the cost and time ofdeployment and make future enhancements andupgrades far easier. "

Infor's cloud strategy also relies on Amazon WebServices, which means that it can offer cloudapplications without having to build its own datacentres to serve customers. It claims more than 66million users of its applications running in the cloud.

The investment from Koch will be in the form of bothpreferred and common equity. The company'sexisting private equity owners, which includeGolden Gate Capital and Summit Partners, willmaintain control.

"The support we are providing to Infor marks one ofthe largest investments KED has ever made anddemonstrates the confidence we have in Infor'stechnology, team and business model," claimedMatt Flamini, president of Koch Equity.

2016-11-16 10:27 Graeme Burton www.computing.co.uk

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Taiwan asks Apple andGoogle to ditch Uber

Taiwan wants Google and Apple's help to get rid ofthe Uber app.

The government of Taiwan asked Apple andGoogle to step into its ongoing dispute with ride-hailing service Uber on Wednesday.

Taiwanese officials want the two Silicon Valley tech

giants to remove Uber from the App Store andGoogle Play respectively, according to Reuters. It isalso seeking the removal of UberEATS, thecompany's food delivery service, which launched inTaiwan on Tuesday.

Uber operates within Taiwan as a technologycompany, but the government has said that this is amisrepresentation of its service. It believes thatinstead Uber should be classified as atransportation company, which would mean itshould have been paying more taxes.

Uber has caused many a ruckus around the worldas it disrupts existing models and regulations incountries it launches in. The company told Reutersthat it is discussing the situation with the Taiwaneseauthorities and complies by all local regulations.

Uber, Google and Apple did not respond torequests for comment.

2016-11-16 10:18 by www.cnet.com

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Digital disruption“unstoppable” but not to befeared, says Fujitsu’sDuncan Tait

Digital transformation may be inevitable, but it is notto be feared, says Fujitsu’s senior executive vice-president for Europe, Middle East, India and Africa(Emeia) and Americas, Duncan Tait.

Labelling digital disruption “unstoppable”, Taitemphasised the importance of agility andcollaboration in ensuring firms can adopt new

technologies while staying relevant during times ofindustry change.

“Everywhere you go today you hear the term digitaldisruption, and for many of us it makes us feelanxious and fearful. This revolution is changing theway we work, sell, collaborate and even the way wethink,” said Tait.

When talking about digital transformation forFujitsu’s customers, Tait said 75% of Fujitsu’scustomers saw digital transformation as beneficialfor business, but that consumers are the driversbehind the direction digital transformation is taking

businesses.

Technology has enabled customers to becomingincreasingly omni-channel , causing a breakdownof the barriers between the online and the physical,as well as between different industries.

Tait said working in partnership with othercompanies is the best way to properly servecustomer demands and keep on track with anincreasingly transformational digital landscape.

“In an age of digital transformation winning is allabout relationships and ideas, win-win solutionsare only possible when you bring together previousunconnected expertise,” he said.

“Competition is intensifying and diversifying, speedis essential and co-creation is key to the process,as is investment in technology.”

2016-11-16 10:15 Business Editor www.computerweekly.com

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Samsung AcquiresAdvanced MessagingInfrastructure With Buy OfNewNet Canada - Page: 1

Samsung Electronics announced its secondacquisition of the week as the South Koreantechnology giant looks to find its direction followingthe disastrous Galaxy Note7 saga.

The deal for messaging technology firm NewNetCommunication Technologies Canada bringsSamsung a provider of what are known as Rich

Communications Services (RCS), which provideinfrastructure for messaging and content sharing.

The financial terms for the acquisition of NewNetCanada, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, were notdisclosed.

[Related: Samsung Revs Up Efforts In ConnectedCar Space With $8B Deal For Harman ]

Samsung said that users of its devices, such as thehugely popular Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edgesmartphones, "will benefit from an advancedmessaging experience" as a result of the deal.

New features that could be coming to Samsungdevices include group chat, enhanced calling andeasier sharing of large files.

"Unlike other messaging apps in the market, userswill be able to communicate on any network, withan RCS-enabled device as well as SMS-onlydevices," Samsung said in a news release .

The company added that, as a result of theacquisition, it will also be able to offer new server

solutions for mobile operators without RCSinfrastructure.

"This acquisition is a critical milestone not just forSamsung but also for the communications industry,"Samsung said.

NewNet Canada, which Samsung is buying fromLombard, Ill.-based NewNet CommunicationTechnologies, will continue to operateindependently, Samsung said.

NewNet Canada had operated under the nameNewPace before it was acquired by NewNetCommunication Technologies.

The acquisition follows Monday's announcementthat Samsung reached a deal to acquire connectedcar technology developer Harman for $8 billion.

It also follows Samsung's back-to-back flubs aroundthe Galaxy Note7, which was prone to catching fireboth in its original and replacement versions.Samsung responded by halting production of theGalaxy Note7 and issuing a recall of all original andreplacement Galaxy Note7 devices.

The incidents have cost Samsung at least $5 billionin direct losses and are expected to further hurt thecompany by delivering a hit to its reputation in themarket.

2016-11-16 10:12 Kyle Alspach www.crn.com

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Five things AI does betterthan humans, from themundane to the magnificent

For millennia, we surpassed the other intelligent

species with which we share our planet—dolphins,porpoises, orangutans, and the like—in almost allskills, bar swimming and tree-climbing.

In recent years, though, our species has creatednew forms of intelligence, able to outperform us inother ways. One of the most famous of theseartificial intelligences (AIs) is AlphaGo, developedby Deepmind. In just a few years, it has learned toplay the 4,000-year-old strategy game, Go, beatingtwo of the world’s strongest players.

Other software developed by Deepmind haslearned to play classic eight-bit video games,notably Breakout, in which players must use a batto hit a ball at a wall, knocking bricks out of it. CEODemis Hassabis is fond of saying that the softwarefigured out how to beat the game purely from thepixels on the screen, often glossing over the factthat the company first taught it how to count andhow to read the on-screen score, and gave it theexplicit goal of maximizing that score. Even thesmartest AIs need a few hints about our socialmores.

But what else are AIs good for? Here are five tasksin which they can equal, or surpass, humans.

AIs don’t just play video games, they play withtraditional toys, too. Like us, they get some of theirearliest physics lessons from playing with woodenblocks, piling them up then watching them fall.Researchers at Facebook have built an AI usingconvolutional neural networks that can attainhuman-level performance at predicting how towersof blocks will fall, simply by watching films andanimations of block towers standing or falling.

Lip-reading—figuring out what someone is sayingfrom the movement of their lips alone—can be auseful skill if you’re hard of hearing or working in anoisy environment, but it’s notoriously difficult.Much of the information contained in humanspeech—the position of the teeth and tongue, andwhether sounds are voiced or not—is invisible to alip reader, whether human or AI. Nevertheless,researchers at the University of Oxford, England,have developed a system called LipNet that can lip-read short sentences with a word error rate of 6.6percent. Three human lip-readers participating in

the research had error rates between 35.5 percentand 57.3 percent.

Among the applications the researchers see fortheir work are silent dictation and speechrecognition in noisy environments, where the visualcomponent will add to accuracy. Since the AI’soutput is text, it could find work close-captioning TVshows for broadcast networks—or transcribingsurveillance video for security services.

AIs can be even more helpful when the audioquality is better, according to Microsoft, whereresearchers have been tweaking an AI-basedautomated speech recognition system so itperforms as well as, or better than, people.Microsoft’s system now has an error rate of 5.9percent on one test set from the National Institute ofStandards and Technology, the same as a serviceemploying human transcribers that Microsoft hired,and 11.1 percent on another test, narrowly beatingthe humans, who scored 11.3 percent.

That’s one situation where being better than ahuman might not be sufficient : If you were thinking

you could dictate your next memo, you might find itquicker to type and correct it yourself, even with justtwo fingers.

This story was written by a human, but the next oneyou read might be written by an AI.

And that might not be a bad thing: MogIA,developed by the Indian company Genic, doesn’twrite stories, but when MogIA predicted DonaldTrump would win the U. S. presidential election itdid better than most political journalists.

When it comes to writing, AI’s are particularly quickat turning structured data into words, as a FinancialTimes journalist found when pitted against an AIcalled Emma from Californian startup Stealth.

Emma filed a story on unemployment statistics just12 minutes after the figures were released, threetimes faster than the FT’s journalist. While the AI’scopy was clear and accurate, it missed the newsangle: the number of jobseekers had risen for thefirst time in a year. While readers want news fast,it’s not for nothing that journalists are exhorted to“get it first, but first, get it right.”

Putting those employment statistics in contextwould have required knowledge that Emmaapparently didn’t have, but that’s not aninsurmountable problem. By reading dictionaries,encyclopedias, novels, plays, and assortedreference materials, another AI, IBM’s Watson,famously learned enough context to win thegeneral knowledge quiz show Jeopardy.

After that victory, Watson went to medical school,absorbing 15 million pages of medical textbooksand academic papers about oncology. According tosome reports, that has allowed Watson to diagnosecancer cases that stumped human doctors,although IBM pitches the AI as an aid to humandiagnosis, not a replacement for it.

More recently, IBM has put Watson’s ability toabsorb huge volumes of information to workhelping diagnose rare illnesses, some of whichmost doctors might see only a few cases of in alifetime.

Doctors in the Centre for Undiagnosed and RareDiseases at University Hospital Marburg, in

Germany, will use this instance of Watson to helpthem deal with the thousands of patients referred tothem each year, some of them bringing thousandsof pages of medical records to be analyzed.

Authors including Vernor Vinge and Ray Kurzweilhave postulated that AI technology will develop to apoint, still many years off, that they call “thesingularity,” when the combined problem-solvingcapacity of the human race will be overtaken by thatof artificial intelligences.

If the singularity arrives in our lifetimes, some of usmight be able to thank AIs like Watson for helpingkeep us alive long enough to see it.

2016-11-16 10:12 Peter Sayer www.pcworld.com

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The real medical dramabehind high-tech show 'PureGenius'

A mercurial Silicon Valley billionaire looks totransform healthcare.

In 1994, his final year of high school, David Renaudwas driving in a snow storm in Toronto. The nextthing he remembers is waking up in hospital. "Adoctor was standing at the foot of my bed," herecalls, "telling me I'd never walk again, that I had aspinal cord injury and there was no cure for it. "

Renaud may have been physically paralysed, butthe experience opened up a new direction for hislife. He began to research his condition, wentthrough medical school, and went on to work as ageneral practitioner, all while in a wheelchair. It was

that experience that drew him to become a writer onmedical drama "Pure Genius".

The show premieres in the UK on 16 Novemberand premiered last month on CBS in the US. It tellsthe story of James Bell, a mercurial Silicon Valleybillionaire who sets up a high-tech hospital anduses his wealth and disruptive tech industrymindset to solve esoteric cases. Like Renaud, thecharacter has his own tragic motivation for takingon the medical world.

"I really related to James Bell, having gone throughthat journey myself," said Renaud, who delved intospinal cord research in a refusal to accept he wouldnever be cured.

Renaud is now one of two doctors in the writer'sroom for "Pure Genius", among writers who'veworked on other medical shows including " PrivatePractice " and " ER ". As well as typical writerlytasks like breaking stories and coming up withideas for episodes, Renaud works with researchersto find cool technology that can be incorporated intothe show.

"Some of the things that people say 'That seems sofake!' is stuff that's actually happening right now inhospitals," said Renaud, who shares real-lifescience with viewers on his Twitter feed. "One of thebiggest directives that [showrunner] Jason Katimsgave us when we first convened in the writers' roomwas that he didn't want to make a science fictionshow. We have endeavoured to find either sciencethat's at the basic level, or stuff that's going on inhospitals right now that people don't know about. "

The first episode alone features an ingestiblecamera that a pregnant patient swallows in order tomonitor her baby, and 3D-printed plastic organs asurgeon uses to practise a delicate surgery. It alsopresents brain-to-brain communication used to tryand reach a coma patient, which seems pretty sci-fi-- but even that technological telepathy isn't asfantastic as it might appear.

"We push it into the future," admits Renaud, "butHarvard and the University of Barcelona actuallytransmitted thoughts using an EEG , which we useto monitor seizure activity in people's brains. Theywere able to take that information and interpret it

and have another person 2,000 miles away receivethat thought. "

Renaud also points to the show's "E-Hub", a sort ofcommand centre for remotely monitoring patients,as one of the uses of technology that could have ahuge impact in real life.

"Pure Genius" is on CBS in the US and begins onUniversal Channel in the UK on 16 November.

New technology can save lives, but it still needs tobe paid for. In the US, millions of Americans are indanger of losing their health insurance shouldPresident-elect Trump follow through on his pledgeto repeal the Affordable Healthcare Act , while inthe UK the Conservative government is quietlyhanding portions of the NHS to private enterprise.In "Pure Genius", the dynamic energy of a SiliconValley entrepreneur is presented as being apotential route to revitalising moribund healthcaresystems.

Whether that's true or not, Renaud believeshealthcare providers can learn from Silicon Valley."How do you disseminate important life-saving

technology into a system with limited resources? "he pondered. "How do you get it to everybody? Ittakes other technology to do that. We need to lookat other efficiently-run industries and apply those tothe healthcare system. There are efficiencies inSilicon Valley and in Toyota plants we can learnfrom. "

Having lived and worked in both Canada and theUS, Renaud has experience of both a socialisedhealthcare system and a market-driven system.Both have their flaws, but it remains to be seen ifreal-life billionaires like the fictional James Bell willsave us.

"The model we present in the show is a wonderfuldream," said Renaud. "It's a little utopian, it's anoversimplification, but there are definitely lessons tobe learned. "

2016-11-16 10:10 by www.cnet.com

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6 Reasons Private CloudsAren't Dead Yet

The Cisco Global Cloud Index says that 68% ofenterprise workloads will be executed in the publiccloud by the end of 2020. Another 24% will beexecuted in private cloud infrastructure, bringingthe total for cloud computing to 92%.

So, why don't all those users of the public cloudsimply become the standard and everyone elsemove in that direction? It's hard enough to see whythe traditional data center is still hanging around at8% of the total by the end of 2020.

Why does it need to survive at all, and why willprivate cloud infrastructure be hanging on then aswell? Why not realize maximum gains by movingeverything into the public cloud? Aren't the largesteconomies of scale be achieved there?

[Considering Hadoop? Read Hadoop Pros andCons for Enterprise Users .]

Part of the answer is that even public cloudproviders understand some customers havereasons to keep a portion of their compute load offmulti-tenant public cloud servers. Also, somecustomers have large applications where any formof latency is an issue, and they want their workloadto run unimpeded by others on a bare metal server.

As a result, service providers offer the option ofprivate cloud servers, accessible only through avirtual private network or over a private line.

But there are other reasons private clouds arenecessary or desirable, which we'll explore in thefollowing pages. The private cloud isn't necessarilya laggard, a dinosaur waiting for its day ofextinction, post legacy data centers. In many cases,

it's a more specialized beast, designed to fulfillspecific purposes that can't be easily met in thepublic cloud.

If a task is mission-critical to the company, theresources devoted to it are frequently of a higherorder, needing bigger servers, top-of-rack switches,and more instrumented monitoring than offered bythe general purpose public cloud.

Remember, service provider AWS is building acloud for the CIA , rather than putting the CIA in thepublic cloud.

The CIA needs a private cloud. Here's a look at whyyou may too.

2016-11-16 10:06 Charles Babcock www.informationweek.com

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Now you too can own a pairof Halo Sport headphones

This is the moment Daniel Chao has been waitingfor.

For three years, his Halo Sport headphones wereonly available for pro and amateur athletes and themilitary. Now, the high-end headphones are readyfor public consumption.

The headphones, which shoot electrical impulsesinto their the brain to create more synchronousconnections between neurons and muscles, go onsale Wednesday for $699 on its website.

"We're up to the challenge of bringing this to themasses," said Chao, co-founder of Halo Sport, at

the company's San Francisco headquarters. "Sportsscience has definitely come a long way. "

The US ski team uses Halo, as do a slew of MLB,NFL and NBA teams. The 2015 NBA championGolden State Warriors spent this past record-breaking season piloting the headphones. Otherworld-class athletes, like US Olympic track starMike Rodgers, swear by them.

Oakland Raiders cornerback T. J. Carrie says usingheadphones by Halo Neuroscience while traininghas helped improve his game this season.

Now count NFL upstarts Oakland Raidersdefensive back T. J. Carrie , Philadelphia Eaglesdefensive end Marcus Smith and ClevelandBrowns linebacker Demario Davis among theconverted wearing the Halo. Carrie said he's beenable to add more than seven inches to his standingvertical jump and more than 80 pounds to hisweightlifting squats since he began using theheadphones about five months ago.

Athletes use wearable devices to improve theirperformance and apps to measure their technique.

Halo headphones are unique as it attempts toinfluence physical performance by stimulating thebrain. The theory: A stronger brain equals astronger body.

Halo uses a technology known as tDCS --transcranial direct current stimulation -- to shootelectrical currents through the brain. Theheadphones' foam spikes act as electrodes tospeed up the neurons to the brain's motor cortex, apractice called " neuropriming. "

Neuropriming can improve an athlete's strength,explosiveness and dexterity during workouts, Haloclaims.

Chao, a medical doctor, and Brett Wingeier, abiomedical engineer, founded Halo Neurosciencein 2013. The pair previously were part of thecreative team behind NeuroPace , a device thatwas approved by the Food and Drug Administrationin 2014 to treat epileptic seizures.

More than 50 professional and college teamscurrently use Halo, said Chao, declining to namethem due to privacy and competitive reasons.

Carrie, who is having a breakout year for the AFCWest-leading Raiders , said he met Chao earlierthis year when the NFL players' union wasintroducing new technology during the run-up toSuper Bowl 50 , the most techiest in history.

The speedy Carrie said he used the headphones toimprove his lower body during offseason workoutsthis summer and it has carried over into this seasonas the third-year player has been seeing moreplaying time and considered one of the top 10cornerbacks in the NFL.

"One of my main focuses was to improve my senseof explosion, counter reaction and overallquickness, especially from a reactionary position,"Carrie said as the Raiders were enjoying a byeweek. "My team and my coaches are depending onme and I want to be able to feel confident in myabilities to play at a high level. "

Carrie is hoping more of his teammates are willingto give Halo a try. Chao said he can see theheadphones having some impact on Carrie.

"He's been working his ass off," said Chao ofCarrie. "He's showing that even a millimeter makesthe difference between a touchdown, anincompletion or an interception. "

2016-11-16 10:00 by www.cnet.com

168 /223 3.2

Todoist now lets AI softwareschedule your due dates

Google is switching up the emoji shortcut button onits Allo chat app. Now, instead of just bringing upthe emoji keyboard, the “Smart Smiley” button willbring up a list of suggested emoji and stickers that

are relevant to what you’re typing. For...

Google is in the middle of a big a machine learningpush right now, announcing yesterday a pair of big-name hires as well as new product roadmap thatwill offer more AI services and support via GoogleCloud. But that’s just the business side of...

It turns out The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildisn’t the only Zelda adventure in the works —Nintendo is also creating a new escape roompuzzle game based on the world of Hyrule.

Called “Defenders of the Triforce,” the real-worldgame is...

I know, I know, that headline is embarrassing. Butyou only had to read it — I had to say it out loud.See, I’m not typing this text, I’m sitting at mycomputer speaking these words...

Pulling up a low-quality image and telling thecomputer to "enhance" the resolution has longbeen the stuff of TV fantasy. But, thanks to machinelearning, we are actually getting much better atzooming into a photo without losing picture

quality....

OnePlus is our reigning champion when it comes tothe best value smartphones, so why shouldn't thecompany also own the title for best valueheadphones too?

2016-11-16 10:00 Nick Statt www.theverge.com

169 /223 1.4

Your life will be a video game

What is a day in the life of someone who enjoysvideo games in 2021?

The biggest shift I think we’ll see is games moving

from being a discrete experience to an indiscreetexperience.

When I was 15 years old — I’m kind of in my 40snow — if I wanted to listen to music, I had a coupleof choices. I could sit up all night and hope they’dplay what I liked on the radio, or I could go down tothe record store. I could buy a cassette tape of BonJovi or Poison or Guns and Roses or whatever itwas I was listening to, go home, put it in my boombox, and sit down and listen. I really had to make aconscious decision. Even that was an evolutionfrom where we’d been 50 years before, where if Iwanted to listen to music, I actually had to go andlisten to an orchestra. I’d get dressed up in mytuxedo, and I’d go down and listen to music.

Today, by virtue of the fact that almost every deviceI own plays me music, and services like Spotifycurate and cultivate and personalize that music forme, music permeates almost every aspect of mylife. It’s moved from being something I have to makea conscious decision to engage with, to somethingthat really surrounds every aspect of my life fromthe minute I get up in the morning to the minute I go

to bed at night.

When we think about games today — alreadywe’ve got more people playing more games onmore platforms in more geographies around theworld than ever before. It’s not just a consolebusiness, or a PC business, or even a mobilebusiness. We’ve now got virtual reality andaugmented reality and streaming, too. Now fast-forward that to the future, and you think about whatthe world looks like with a 5G network streaminglatency-free gaming to every device you own. It’sreally easy to imagine that games would permeateour lives much the way digital music does today.

From the minute I get up in the morning, everythingI do has an impact on my gaming life, both discreetand indiscreet. The amount of eggs I have in myinternet-enabled fridge might mean my Sims arebetter off in my game. That length of distance I drivein my Tesla on the way to work might mean that Iget more juice in Need for Speed. If I go to soccerpractice in the afternoon, by virtue of internet-enabled soccer boots, that might give me juice ornew cards in my FIFA product. This world where

games and life start to blend I think really comesinto play in the not-too-distant future, and almostcertainly by 2021.

In 2021, what will I see on the shelf when I go into astore or on the front page of a digital storefront?

I think we’re going to start to see games take on areally different proposition. One of the core reasonswhy we engage with games is for social interaction.Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: once you get past air,food, water, shelter, you get to sense of belonging,which is really about socially interacting. You get toself-esteem, which is really about overcomingchallenges, and you get to self-actualization, whichis really about creating in a living world. Games aregoing to give you all of those things. I think what westart to see is less about [what the game is] — is it ashooter, is it a sports game, is it open world orclosed world, is it a linear story or a forked story, is itmultiplayer — and more about this one, existingworld where we all play a part.

I think that entertainment will continue to be a reallyimportant part of our lives. We’ll have moved from

paintings on a cave wall and throwing bones into acircle to a global community interacting throughgames in a way that’s truly positive and fulfillssocial connection and competition and creation andself-esteem and overcoming challenges. I think it’sgoing to be a really, really positive part of our lives.

What you’re describing sounds humongous, bothas a virtual space and as a creative undertaking.How big are these virtual worlds? And how manypeople will it take to create them?

What’s really interesting is when I started makinggames, which was [in] 2000, a big game team wasabout 20 people. When I took on FIFA in 2005,2006, we had about 200 people. Now, I hear storieselsewhere in the industry of game teams that havea thousand people. The size of the worlds that arecreated are really directly proportionate to theamount of people on a team, and the amount oftime they have to build. It’s really architecture. It’sbuilding like any build is in the real world.

Think about a world where we aren’t limited by thecore team. Think about a world where we as game

developers build kind of a foundational tool set andunleash 6 billion people on the planet to createwhatever they think is amazing and what theybelieve will engage their friends, more thananything we could ever do.

The world that we will create will be infinitely biggerthan the Earth that we live on, and likely bigger thanthe Solar System that we live in.

Are you referring to something like Minecraft thatwill allow players to create from within a game, orare you speaking about billions of people actuallycoding video games?

When I was a kid, I learned German at school. Myschool was really progressive, so we ultimatelytaught kids Mandarin. I grew up in Australia, sowe’re part of Asia. China was a big trade partnerwith Australia. Progression got us to Mandarin. NowI have a four-and-a-half-year-old daughter. Myhope is that she learns computer code, because Itruly believe that will be the universal language.

Fast-forward 15 years into a world where we mightspeak French or German or Chinese or Japanese,

but we all speak the universal language of code.Think about what that means in the context ofcreating entertainment inside of a virtual world. It’sprofound.

This concept of a game following you through yourday-to-day life is fascinating, but there are so manyhurdles. Will we truly see the same game on eachplatform, or will the experience be uniquedepending on the hardware?

As you think about us putting the entire experienceinto the cloud, what then happens is the nature ofthe experience isn’t governed by the platform thatyou choose to play on. The nature of theexperience is governed purely by the screen sizethat you have access to, and the connectedcontroller, and the amount of time you have to play.

When you’re playing on a PlayStation 5 or 6 orwhatever is available at that point, it’s going to lookone way on your big-screen TV. When you’relooking at it through a mobile device, it’s going tolook a different way. When you’re playing it on yourinternet-enabled fridge screen while you’re getting

the eggs out in the morning, because you’re justdoing a few quick trades for Madden Ultimate team,it’s going to take a different format.

The most important thing is that none of that time iswasted. It’s not throwaway time. Everythingaccumulates to the value of who you are in thatvirtual world. That’s really our vision: to get to apoint where we [don’t] discern for you where youshould play or how you should play, only that everyminute of play that you invest in the experiencesthat we create adds value to who you are in thatvirtual world. You’re not throwing things away fromone device to another or one experience toanother.

That goes from device to device. It also goes fromgame to game, because again, we as humanbeings are the sum total of our experience. That’swhat makes us who we are. That’s what gives usour character. We want to replicate that in the virtualspace.

But how do you produce those games across all ofthose platforms?

What we’re trying to do is prepare the company fora world where truly there are more devices capableof playing games, and players are refreshing themmore often and likely refreshing themasynchronously. You might refresh your mobiledevice at a different time than I do. You might buythe 8K, I might stick with a 4K. You might go downthe Oculus VR route, I might go down the PSVRroute. What I’ve got to do as a creator is try andkeep you together with your friends insideexperiences that you love, and the only way we cando that is at a core engine level.

We talk a lot about our single engine in Frostbite. Itwill scale up graphics on a bigger device and scalethem down on a smaller device, so that we canbuild once and publish to many devices. It’s a worldwhere we’re no longer having to make a decisionlike, "Do we build for the Xbox or the PlayStation orboth? " There’s literally 30 or 40 or 50 differentdevices, and we have to be able to build for alldevices that are meaningful for players.

We’ve been investing heavily on that front for thelast four or five years. And we think now, by virtue of

that transition, we get more games on the PS4 andXbox One than any other publisher. You see usnow starting to really grow our mobile install base.You see us get to the PSVR and Google VR in thesame time frame. That’s the only path forward forus. In a world in which we have to buildincrementally for every device, forget the costimplications of that, we literally just couldn’t do itfrom a person power point of view.

Representation is an ongoing issue with videogames. For decades, we’ve had this genericprotagonist: the joyless, bald, muscular white guy. Itfeels as if indie creators rapidly expanded beyondthat hero, and AAA is gradually following suit. Whatis being done to improve representation in big-budget games going forward?

Representation is really important. Again, when Istarted playing games, we could squint and see200 million players. Many of those players were 14-year-old boys playing in their mother’s basements.That was really what gamers were. There was thisnegative connotation about what being a gamermeant. Today the average age of a gamer, I think, is

about 35. Nearly 50 percent of them are female,and certainly gaming transcends all forms of cultureand gender and background, both socioeconomicand ethnic background.

As we think about representation inside games,what is the most important thing for us, like it is inmovies and books and TV and all other forms ofentertainment, is to really capture the true nature ofthe community that’s engaging in that content.When you look at some of our games today, yousee that we have strong female leads, we havestrong black leads, we have strong Latino leads, wehave young leads to older leads. It’s reallyimportant as we design games, and that wasn’treally any mandate that we made as a company,and it won’t be any mandate that we make goingforward.

It’s really just the creators inside of our organizationsaying, "Hey, I’m looking at who’s playing ourgames. We know that they want to look into thegames that we make and see people like them sothat they can better relate to those games. We wantto capture that. "

The diversity that we live in today is amazing. It’swhat is driving us as humanity forward is this realtrue understanding of who we are as a globalcommunity. We actually have probably more thanany other community the ability to do that at themost profound level. We really want to capture thatin our games.

Let’s talk about e-sports and competitive games.Are you concerned about the gap expandingbetween pro and amateur players — thatnewcomers will be too intimidated?

I think e-sports looks like just about every othersport. Again, I spent the last 15, 16 years of my lifeworking in sport. There’s always the pinnacle of thesport. That’s a really important part, and that’saspirational for us. We watch a bunch of basketball,baseball, football, and soccer.

But the thing for me as a dad that is the single mostimportant game that I’m ever going to watch will bemy daughter’s soccer game, because that’s thething I’m most involved in. I love what’s happeningin the Premier League, but that game that my

daughter plays in is as important.

That’s our vision for what competitive gaming is. Inall honesty, that’s how we think about the world. Dowe think the elite leagues are really important?Absolutely. Are we investing there? Yes. But thething that we think is going to have the mostpowerful impact on the world of competitive gamingis making everybody feel like they’re a star.

At some point we realize that we’re never going toplay in the big leagues. That doesn’t mean we can’tplay. We want to make sure that as the infancy of e-sports kind of grows and cultivates over time, thatwe don’t lose all those other players, that playersdon’t wake up one day and say, "Well, I’m not goingto be able to play in the big leagues in a bigstadium, so I’m going to stop playing. " That wouldbe really bad because then millions and millionsand millions of people would lose out on theopportunity to compete, would lose out on thegreatness, the thrill of victory, would lose out onwhat it’s like to overcome the agony of defeat. Wethink that’s as much about what sport is as playingin the elite leagues. We’re investing as heavily

there at a grassroots level as we are at the elitelevel.

You mentioned virtual reality earlier. I sense areluctance from AAA publishers to appear bullishabout VR. What is your best-case scenario for thefuture of virtual reality?

Think about the Laserdisc and the DVD. You cansee kind of a strand of DNA that went through thosethings, but it required a couple of turns of theinnovation cycle to get to a point where we had trulyamassed consumer-ready media. I think the sameis going to be true for VR. For any consumerentertainment product to take off, it really needsthree things. It needs to be innovative technology.VR has that.

What you then need is a profound user experience.You need the best games. You need the bestexperience with those games. We’re not there yet.The three biggest categories in games are action-adventure, shooters, and sports. All require you torun around in a virtual space. That, for many peopleinside VR, creates all kinds of nauseating

symptoms. We, as designers and the hardwaremanufacturers, have to solve for that. Refresh rateand frame rate have to increase, the way we designgames is going to have to change. You just can’ttake FIFA from the PlayStation 4 straight into VRwithout making some fairly fundamental shifts at adesign level. We’ve got some work to do on theprofound user experience.

The last thing you need is low barrier to entry. Formany people that means cost. Right now, all of thefrontline VR opportunities, notwithstanding theGoogle option, which has a different challenge, butall the frontline things, they’re pretty expensive.When you think about what has happened in ourspace when one platform, whether it’s Sony orMicrosoft, launches at a more expensive price thanthe other, and you look at history, you see thecheaper one that was almost as good or equally asgood usually won.

Gamers are very price-sensitive. I think we’ve gotsome turns of the cycle to happen to get a pricepoint to a place where it becomes a no-brainer forpeople. We’ve got the innovative technology. Now

we have work to do on the user proposition, andwe’ve got to bring the price down. I think all of thosethings are very doable, so I’m bullish on it. I reallyam.

Earlier, you mentioned this group of millions ofyoung white men playing games in their basementin the past. A lot of those people have grown up tobecome game developers, and created an industrylargely of white men. Are there steps oropportunities in place now to improve diversityamong the ranks of game makers — not just at theentry level — for the games of the future?

There has to be. Diversity is such an important partof this. Again, if you’re going to make games for acommunity, you have to have a true representationof that community. For the longest time our industry,like every other industry, was very white male-dominated. We’re seeing real change to that now.Some of our greatest creative leaders are women. Ithink two out of the three biggest games welaunched last year were led by really strong,creative women.

We’re seeing lots of people come out of verydifferent backgrounds and very differentcommunities. Part of the reason [our FIFA product]is so great and captures the essence of whatfootball means or soccer means to people aroundthe globe. We had 19 different nationalities on thatteam, all [of whom] loved soccer, but soccer meantsomething different to them if they come fromArgentina versus Brazil, or if they come from the UKversus Germany, or France versus the US.

Things mean different things to people fromdifferent places. That doesn’t mean they love themany less. It just means they look at it through adifferent lens. We believe it’s really important tocapture that. I can tell you right now there is a verybig push from us, whether it’s to engage with girlswho code to make sure we’re getting 15-year-oldgirls into engineering. They love games, but havebeen scared off by this concept of engineering orcomputer engineering, which has been a whitemale-dominated world. We’re investing there.We’re investing in schools in different ethniccommunities. We’re trying to recruit from around theglobe, because again, what we have the

opportunity to do is capture the true essence of aglobal community, of a global tribe inside of avirtual space. The only way we do that properly is totruly be representative of that community.

2016-11-16 10:00 Chris Plante www.theverge.com

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'Watch Dogs 2,' 'Steep' GetTobii Eye Tracking Support

The number of Ubisoft titles that support Tobii’seye-tracking technology continues to increase.Earlier in the year, Assassin’s Creed: Syndicateand Tom Clancy’s The Division added eye-rtacking

support so that players can use Tobii’s peripheralswith the game. The last two games to join the listare the upcoming Watch Dogs 2 and the snow-based game Steep.

Because Watch Dogs 2 centers around the idea ofhacking, the use of a Tobii peripheral will allow youto look at an object in order to manipulate itsabilities. This means that instead of using themouse to hack a car, phone, or laptop, you can justgaze at the device with your eyes. With Steep , it’smore about admiring your surroundings. A moretransparent UI means that your eyes have morespace to use as the camera pans around the area.It also means that you’re less distracted with pointsand notifications so that you can take in the scenicviews of the Alps.

Support for both games comes a little more than aweek before the launch of Tobii's latest product, theTobii Eye Tracker 4C, which has head trackingcapabilities on top of the traditional eye trackingfeatures. The new device features what thecompany considers the world’s first application-specific integrated circuit, which is appropriately

called the Tobii EyeChip. According to Tobii, theEyeChip reduces CPU load and overall powerconsumption compared to the Tobii EyeX model ( the specs state that the EyeX has a CPU load of10%, whereas the 4C reduces CPU load to 1%).

You can pre-order the 4C for $149 , and thecompany expects to ship the new device onNovember 25. The PC version of Watch Dogs 2 bcomes out on November 29; Steep arrives a fewdays later on December 2.

2016-11-16 10:00 Gaming News www.tomshardware.com

171 /223 4.3

Users should avoidMicrosoft's just-releasedpreview Windows patches

Yesterday Microsoft released eight “preview”patches, in line with its new method of releasingpatches on the third Tuesday of every month.They’re optional, which means they won’t getinstalled unless you specifically check the WindowsUpdate box. If you’re tempted to install them, don’t.

Preview patches serve a good purpose, but they’renot for general consumption.

The two major preview patches:

Microsoft’s intentions here are noble: It's givingprogrammers and system administrators a chanceto kick the tires on the new non-security patches

before the patches get rolled out through theWindows Automatic Update chute. If you writeprograms for Windows or you control a bunch ofWindows machines, you should take a look at thepreviews. The vast majority of Windows usersshould look the other way. Unless you specificallyhunt down the patches, check them and installthem, you’re just fine.

In a similar vein, we saw four previews of. NetFramework patch rollups:

There’s also KB 3197878 , the “November 2016Preview of Monthly Quality Rollup for WindowsServer 2012.”

There’s one oddity I’ll be following: The previewmonthly rollup for Windows 8.1 includes a fix for abug introduced by Microsoft in the August securitypatch MS16-100. Oddly, that bug isn’t described inthe security bulletin, but the Win8.1 update list saysthe monthly rollup preview “addressed issue withthe boot partition appearing in File Explorer afterinstalling MS16-100.”

The reason why I’ll be watching – and you should,

too: We need to make sure that bugs introduced byMicrosoft’s security-only patches are fixed withsecurity-only patches. If Microsoft starts fixing itsown bugs willy-nilly, by including security bug fixesonly in non-security patches, it won’t be possible tokeep your PC upgraded with security-only patches.

For those of you accustomed to my patchocalypseterminology , crisscrossing patches will make itimpossible to stay in Group B. You’ll be forced intothe telemetry-friendly Group A, if only to fix theproblems created by patches in Group B.

The price of patching liberty is eternal vigilance.

2016-11-16 09:46 Woody Leonhard www.infoworld.com

172 /223 0.0

UK almost bottom of OECDpile for ICT investment

The UK came 20 th out of 21 countries in theOrganisation for Economic Co-operation andDevelopment (OECD) group for capital investmentin ICT infrastructure as a proportion of gross

domestic product (GDP) in 2014.

There are 35 member states in the OECD, but ICTinvestment was only available for 21 of them, andthe UK invested the second least of these in 2014,according to analysis by the Trades UnionCongress (TUC).

The UK spent just 0.4% of GDP on ICT equipment,the TUC revealed. But it is not just ICT investmentthat is low in the UK. The figures also revealed thattotal UK capital investment in vital infrastructurewas 16.6% of GDP in 2014, compared to the 20.8%average across all OECD countries. This puts theUK in third to last place, with only Greece andPortugal investing less.

Furthermore, the UK managed to come last in termsof investments in transport equipment, with 0.6% ofGDP invested.

The TUC said investment in infrastructure andpublic services is vital for protecting the economyfrom the uncertainty caused by Brexit. And it willalso be needed for Britain to build an economystrong enough to compete in the globalmarketplace once the UK has left the EU.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said theUK “can’t just waltz into Brexit with its fingerscrossed”.

“If the government doesn’t invest in Britain, it couldgo very badly wrong,” he said. “Working people willpay the price with fewer jobs, lower wages andhigher prices. But if the government invests inBritain, we can build an economy strong enough tothrive.”

2016-11-16 09:30 Services Editor www.computerweekly.com

173 /223 6.2

GitHub Enterprise Updated toVersion 2.8

Business section of GitHub upgraded with host of

new features including projects tool and codereview.

By Tom Jowitt

GitHub's business-focused service has beenupgraded to version 2.8, and comes with a host ofnew features designed to help developers deal withbusiness projects.

GitHub Enterprise offers the ability for developers tomanage their work directly from GitHub repositoriesthanks to 'Projects', and also gives a morestreamlined code review and discussion capability.

GitHub was founded in 2008 and boasts animpressive user base of more than 15 milliondevelopers. It is effectively a cloud-based servicethat lets developers publish code online, in an open

source environment, where other collaborators canborrow, improve, or just generally have aconversation about the code.

Indeed, Microsoft has releasing the source code ofparticular tools to GitHub recently, and lastChristmas the British intelligence agency GCHQcreated its own repository on GitHub, and open-sourced one of its tools.

It is worth remembering that there are three mainservices offered on GitHub.

First is the free, GitHub.com service for individualdevelopers. Secondly, there is a team-basedversion that is commonly used in startups; and,thirdly, there is GitHub Enterprise, wherecompanies can install a version of GitHub on theirown private servers behind a firewall.

GitHub does of course make money (to the tune of$100m revenues annually), and GitHub Enterpriseis its main money maker.

So what is available with GitHub Enterprise 2.8?

Well 'Reviews' are designed to help developersbuild flexible code review workflows into their pullrequests, as well as streamline conversations, andreduce notifications. Developers can now commenton specific lines of code, formally "approve" or"request changes" to pull requests, batchcomments, and have multiple conversations perline.

GitHub says these initial improvements are only thefirst step of a much greater roadmap toward faster,friendlier code reviews.

A second major feature is the 'Projects' tool, whichallows the developer to manage work directly fromGitHub repositories. Task cards can be createdfrom pull requests and categories such as 'inprogress' or 'done', or 'never going to happen' canbe applied.

In an effort to share data on GitHub, Jupyternotebooks make it easier to capture data-drivenworkflows that combine code, equations, text, andvisualizations. And now they render in all therelevant GitHub repositories.

Another feature is an improved contribution graphwhich offers a snapshot of the developer’s mostimportant contributions.

And with GitHub Enterprise 2.8, system adminshave more ways to enforce security policies and getdevelopers the support they need. For example,admins can now enforce the use of two-factorauthentication at the organizational level, efficientlyvisualize LDAP authentication-related problems,and direct users to their support website throughoutthe appliance.

Choppy Waters

It has not been all plain sailing for the softwaredevelopment hosting service, however.

In June this year GitHub admitted that a number ofuser accounts had been compromised by anattacker who used previously published accountcredentials from previous breaches of other onlineservices.

The attacker apparently took these accountcredentials, such as email addresses and

passwords, from other online data breaches andtried them on GitHub accounts.

And in 2014 the startup was rocked after designerand developer Julie Horvath resigned from thecompany while publicly complaining about beingharassed by the company’s leadership .

Tom Preston-Werner, co-founder and former CEOof GitHub, later resigned as its president followingthe allegations.

2016-11-16 09:30 Guest Author www.eweek.com

174 /223 4.3

5 things AIs can do betterthan us

For millennia, we surpassed the other intelligentspecies with which we share our planet—dolphins,porpoises, orangutans, and the like—in almost allskills, bar swimming and tree-climbing.

In recent years, though, our species has creatednew forms of intelligence, able to outperform us inother ways. One of the most famous of these

artificial intelligences (AIs) is AlphaGo, developedby Deepmind. In just a few years, it has learned toplay the 4,000-year-old strategy game, Go, beatingtwo of the world’s strongest players.

Other software developed by Deepmind haslearned to play classic eight-bit video games,notably Breakout, in which players must use a batto hit a ball at a wall, knocking bricks out of it. CEODemis Hassabis is fond of saying that the softwarefigured out how to beat the game purely from thepixels on the screen, often glossing over the factthat the company first taught it how to count andhow to read the on-screen score, and gave it the

explicit goal of maximizing that score. Even thesmartest AIs need a few hints about our socialmores.

But what else are AIs good for? Here are five tasksin which they can equal, or surpass, humans.

AIs don’t just play video games, they play withtraditional toys, too. Like us, they get some of theirearliest physics lessons from playing with woodenblocks, piling them up then watching them fall.Researchers at Facebook have built an AI usingconvolutional neural networks that can attainhuman-level performance at predicting how towersof blocks will fall, simply by watching films andanimations of block towers standing or falling.

Lip-reading—figuring out what someone is sayingfrom the movement of their lips alone—can be auseful skill if you’re hard of hearing or working in anoisy environment, but it’s notoriously difficult.Much of the information contained in humanspeech—the position of the teeth and tongue, andwhether sounds are voiced or not—is invisible to alip reader, whether human or AI. Nevertheless,

researchers at the University of Oxford, England,have developed a system called LipNet that can lip-read short sentences with a word error rate of 6.6percent. Three human lip-readers participating inthe research had error rates between 35.5 percentand 57.3 percent.

Among the applications the researchers see fortheir work are silent dictation and speechrecognition in noisy environments, where the visualcomponent will add to accuracy. Since the AI’soutput is text, it could find work close-captioning TVshows for broadcast networks—or transcribingsurveillance video for security services.

AIs can be even more helpful when the audioquality is better, according to Microsoft, whereresearchers have been tweaking an AI-basedautomated speech recognition system so itperforms as well as, or better than, people.Microsoft’s system now has an error rate of 5.9percent on one test set from the National Institute ofStandards and Technology, the same as a serviceemploying human transcribers that Microsoft hired,and 11.1 percent on another test, narrowly beating

the humans, who scored 11.3 percent.

That’s one situation where being better than ahuman might not be sufficient : If you were thinkingyou could dictate your next memo, you might find itquicker to type and correct it yourself, even with justtwo fingers.

This story was written by a human, but the next oneyou read might be written by an AI.

And that might not be a bad thing: MogIA,developed by the Indian company Genic, doesn’twrite stories, but when MogIA predicted DonaldTrump would win the U. S. presidential election itdid better than most political journalists.

When it comes to writing, AI’s are particularly quickat turning structured data into words, as a FinancialTimes journalist found when pitted against an AIcalled Emma from Californian startup Stealth.

Emma filed a story on unemployment statistics just12 minutes after the figures were released, threetimes faster than the FT’s journalist. While the AI’scopy was clear and accurate, it missed the news

angle: the number of jobseekers had risen for thefirst time in a year. While readers want news fast,it’s not for nothing that journalists are exhorted to“get it first, but first, get it right.”

Putting those employment statistics in contextwould have required knowledge that Emmaapparently didn’t have, but that’s not aninsurmountable problem. By reading dictionaries,encyclopedias, novels, plays, and assortedreference materials, another AI, IBM’s Watson,famously learned enough context to win thegeneral knowledge quiz show Jeopardy.

After that victory, Watson went to medical school,absorbing 15 million pages of medical textbooksand academic papers about oncology. According tosome reports, that has allowed Watson to diagnosecancer cases that stumped human doctors,although IBM pitches the AI as an aid to humandiagnosis, not a replacement for it.

More recently, IBM has put Watson’s ability toabsorb huge volumes of information to workhelping diagnose rare illnesses, some of which

most doctors might see only a few cases of in alifetime.

Doctors in the Centre for Undiagnosed and RareDiseases at University Hospital Marburg, inGermany, will use this instance of Watson to helpthem deal with the thousands of patients referred tothem each year, some of them bringing thousandsof pages of medical records to be analyzed.

Authors including Vernor Vinge and Ray Kurzweilhave postulated that AI technology will develop to apoint, still many years off, that they call “thesingularity,” when the combined problem-solvingcapacity of the human race will be overtaken by thatof artificial intelligences.

If the singularity arrives in our lifetimes, some of usmight be able to thank AIs like Watson for helpingkeep us alive long enough to see it.

2016-11-16 09:26 Peter Sayer www.infoworld.com

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: Where to buy Galaxy S7 &Galaxy S7 Edge

The Samsung Galaxy S7 and Samsung Galaxy S7Edge are the latest flagship smartphones unveiledby Samsung during MWC 2016 and released inMarch. Here, we bring you the best SamsungGalaxy S7 deals and best Samsung Galaxy S7Edge deals from across the web, including the bestplace to buy the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edgeon contract, and where to buy them SIM-free.

Also see: Best Black Friday Phone Deals

If you'd like to find out more about the new phones

to help make your decision about whether or notyou should buy one, you can read our SamsungGalaxy S7 review and our Samsung Galaxy S7Edge review .

Below, you can find a Galaxy S7 contract to suityou. Choose your preferred amount of minutes,texts and data to find the best deal. Read on for ourhand-picked contracts from across the web.

Carphone Warehouse and its subsitesMobiles.co.uk and e2save.com are winning the titleof best place to buy the Galaxy S7 right now.

If you're keen to stick with your current network,we've picked out our favourite deal from EE, O2 andThree below.

EE: 5GB data, unlimited texts and calls, £45.99 permonth, £9.99 upfront cost. View deal here.

O2: O2's deals are rather pricey, but if you're after ahuge data plan you might like: 20GB data, unlimitedtexts and calls, £52 per month, nothing upfront.View deal here.

Three: 4GB data, unlimited texts and calls, £34 permonth, £29 upfront. View deal here.

Carphone Warehouse also offers the Galaxy S7SIM-free if you'd prefer to buy the phone outrightand have a lower monthly cost (see: best SIM-onlydeals ). It'll cost you £499.99 with a free Gear VRheadset. View deal here.

If you've got a bit of extra budget and are looking forsomething more, the Edge version of the Galaxy S7adds a stunning curved display that wraps aroundthe edges of the device. That of course adds to theprice of the handset. Below is our pick of the best,followed by our pick from EE, O2 and Three.

EE: 5GB data, unlimited texts & minutes, £9.99upfront cost, £50.99 per month. View here.

O2: As with the S7, the S7 Edge is pricey on O2.There is a 20GB option available if you're lookingfor loads of data, though. It's £53 per month and£9.99 upfront. View here.

Three: Unlimited data, unlimited texts & minutes,£49 per month, and £99 upfront. View here.

Like the Galaxy S7, the Edge is available SIM-freefrom the likes of Carphone Warehouse and ofcourse Samsung itself. It'll cost you £639 fromSamsung or £629.99 from Carphone Warehouse.It's also available from Amazon for much lessthough, at a little over £510. View deal here.

2016-11-16 09:20 Ashleigh Allsopp www.pcadvisor.co.uk

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NVIDIA GPU Shipments Rose39 Percent During Q3 ThanksTo Strong Pascal Sales

Like the former Red Sox star David Ortiz steppingup to the plate and knocking one out of the park,NVIDIA stepped up its game this year and hit ahome run with its Pascal architecture. Now it gets toreap the rewards of all the R&D that went into itslatest and by far greatest GPUs it ever released.Sales are up big time, and NVIDIA's share of theGPU market is on the rise. We already reported onNVIDIA's earnings in the third quarter , but toquickly recap, it GPU maker collected record

revenue of $2 billion for the three-month periodended October 30, 2016, up 54 percent from the$1.3 billion it raked in during the same period ayear prior and a 40 percent sequential bump. Thatresulted in a profit of $542 million for the quarter,more than double the $261 million profit from theprevious quarter and up 120 percent from what itcollect a year ago. Those are obscene numbersand newly released data from market research firmJon Peddie Research only adds to them. Thetracking firm notes that NVIDIA's overall GPUshipments jumped an impressive 39 percent last

quarter, eclipsing shipment gains by AMD (20percent) and Intel (18 percent) combined. "Ifanyone doubted that the PC was the platform ofchoice for gaming, this quarter’s results will correctthat misconception. The gaming market is lifting theentire PC market and has over whelmed theconsole market," JPR said. NVIDIA's standoutperformance was fueled by a new line of Pascalproducts that came out right around the same timeas several graphically demanding AAA games.That helped discrete GPUs increase their presenceto more than a third of PCs (34.84 percent), a rise ofmore than 7 percent from the last quarter. "It wasone of, if not the best quarter in Nvidia’s history,which the company attributes to the strongacceptance and demand for its new Pascal line ofgraphics chips and boards. The company’s shareprice is at an all-time high," JPR added. For anyonerooting for AMD, don't despair, it's still a close raceoverall in the graphics sector. Intel still dominateswith a 70.9 percent share of the graphics market (itsells a lot of CPUs with integrated graphics), whileNVIDIA and AMD are sitting at 16.1 percent and 13percent, respectively.

2016-11-16 09:20 Paul Lilly hothardware.com

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Hiring cyber security and bigdata experts named toppriority for IT recruiters in2017

Cyber security professionals can expect to findthemselves in high demand during 2017, asresearch suggests individuals with those skills willbe most highly sought after by IT recruiters.

That’s according to joint study from recruitment

consultancy Robert Walters and Jobsite, whichsuggests nearly half (47%) of hiring managersexpect to increase the number of IT workers theyemploy during 2017.

The organisations surveyed 700 senior technologyprofessionals about their 2017 recruitment plans tocompile their Technology and Recruitment – TheLandscape for 2017 report.

Their findings suggest IT workers with abackground in cyber security will be in highestdemand next year, with 54% of respondents settingout plans to embark on recruitment drives in thisarea during 2017.

The organisations said, with data breachescontinuing to make headlines throughout 2016,demand for cyber security professionals is likely torise in enterprises, small to medium-sizedenterprises (SMEs) and startups over the course ofthe next 12 months.

Ahsan Iqbal, associate director for technologyrecruitment at Robert Walters, said: “Specialists incyber security have been highly sought after by

employers over the past year and this trend is set tocontinue into 2017.

“With a limited supply of candidates with therequired skills, competition will be high amongemployers to secure the best candidates,” Iqbaladded.

Individuals with business intelligence (BI) and bigdata experience are also expected to be in highdemand next year, with 36% of participants settingout plans to recruit people with these types ofexpertise.

According to the survey, this is on the back of agrowing awareness among employers about howtheir businesses stand to benefit from havingaccess to big data analytics tools and skills.

Lee Allen, sales director at Jobsite, said demand forbig data skills is particularly acute in certainindustries, including healthcare and manufacturing.“As businesses look to increase market share anddrive cost efficiencies, analysis of external andinternal data is becoming more and moreprominent,” said Allen.

“Demand for BI and big data specialists isparticularly high from employers in fields such asFMCG, media, automotive and manufacturing, withemployers competing to secure top talent.”

To boost their chances of attracting the bestcandidates and retaining the ones they do have,69% of respondents said they will be offeringflexible working conditions, alongside opportunitiesfor career (54%) development and training (53%).

“Competitive salaries will be essential to attract thebest candidates, but employers shouldn’tunderestimate the importance of other policies,such as flexible hours, the option to work remotelyand the potential for long term careerdevelopment,” said Iqbal.

2016-11-16 09:15 Datacentre Editor www.computerweekly.com

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IT Career Roadmap: ITproject manager

Behind every IT project are the unsung heroes of

the technology industry: project managers. PMs aretasked with making sure projects come in on-time,on or under budget and with high-quality standards.But what does it take to become an IT projectmanager?

"This is one of the great part about this career:There's no specific 'right' background as far aseducation goes that you need to be a good projectmanager. We've seen PMs come from all sorts ofdiverse study areas: English majors, general liberalarts, computer science and engineering, law,business," says P. K. Agarwal, CEO and regionaldean for Northeastern University - Silicon Valley.

Many times, project management pros don't evenneed a formal degree; a project managementcertification , like the Project ManagementProfessional (PMP) certification from the ProjectManagement Institute (PMI) , is enough to validateexpertise and experience.

These "accidental project managers" are thosewho've evolved into this role because of theirexcellent communication, organizational andadministrative skills as well as management ability,even though they might not have a degree, Agarwalsays.

"It's more about the soft skills, organizational andadministrative skills and ability to communicate andinfluence effectively, as well as attention to detail,"Agarwal says.

Though she's recently moved into sales consultingpositions and is currently a regional salesconsulting manager for project portfoliomanagement software company Innotas byPlanView , Kristyn Madeiros spent the majority ofher career as an IT project manager for Johnson &

Johnson and Sandia National Laboratories, amongothers.

With a computer science degree and a minor inspecial education, Madeiros thought she'd end upworking to leverage technology to help improve thespecial education landscape. Instead, she foundherself motivated and fulfilled as a project manager,and has continued in that career path, she says.She also found she liked the communications andinfluencer aspects of a project management role.

"The thing that really clinched this for me as acareer path was I joined a Toastmasters chapter tohelp me with my public speaking. Day-to-day inproject management, you're really in the weeds, soto speak, focused on the details and the minutia ofdeadlines, which I liked, but I also wanted to bebetter at my communication skills and be able toinfluence others on my teams in IT even though Iwasn't directly supervising them," Madeiros says.

That's an aspect of a successful projectmanagement career that's often overlooked,Madeiros says. Because PMs must manage all

aspects of an IT project including budget,resources, time and staffing. Excellent managementand multitasking skills are critical.

There's also a need to be able to assertivelyadvocate for the resources and staffing needs ofyour projects, and to understand and influencebusiness drivers and ensure strategic alignmentwith overall business goals, she says.

"To everyone else, it might feel like it's 'just' one tinyproject out of maybe 10 that you're working on, butyou have to understand how that aligns with therest of the organization's plans so you can fight foreverything you need," she says.

Right now, IT project managers are in hugedemand as organizations struggle to handle digitaltransformation and the breakneck pace ofinnovation with fewer heads and scarce resources,says Lori Emerson, vice president of consulting forInnotas by PlanView.

"Every company today, even those that aren'tspecifically IT companies, has initiatives to integrateIT into every aspect of the business. And that's why

IT project managers are so critical, because theyhave both the technical savvy to understand thebusiness drivers along with the soft skills topersuade stakeholders, get executive buy in andexecute on these plans," Emerson says.

Many organizations are using part-time, contract orconsultative project management professionals toeasily scale up or down to meet their projectmanagement needs more efficiently, says ShalomBerkowitz, recruiting junior team lead, IT recruitingand staffing firm Mondo .

"These are the requests we get the most.Everyone's constantly integrating, updating andmodifying software, so the demand for IT projectmanagement never really goes away," he says.

Most companies are looking for experiencedproject managers who can plan, execute and closeprojects; a proven history of defining, planning,executing IT projects is a must, as well as soft skillslike communication, negotiation, teamwork,management and organizational acumen also arenecessary, he says, along with hard technology

skills.

"The hard skills, though, can vary significantly byproject. For example, let's take an SAPimplementation. Someone hiring a project managerfor this project would look for a candidate withseveral years as a business analyst or someonewho's had years of experience in general projectmanagement, and then look for specializedknowledge and experience with SAP. Maybethey've done one or two SAP implementationsbefore, successfully," Berkowitz says.

Finally, Mondo's clients strongly prefer projectmanagement candidates with a PMP certification,or with some kind of credential related to the agilesoftware development methodology to make surethey know the ins and outs of what the project willentail, Berkowitz says.

"This is highly, highly recommended so companiesknow their PMs already are educated in theseareas, no matter what the project. It's a nice icing onthe cake to companies to get project managers withthese certifications," he says.

One of the best things about a career in projectmanagement, Madeiros says, is the opportunitiesfor career mobility. Many PMs can choose to moveto a business analyst role, or into consulting oranalytics, or even to a sales consulting and demorole, like Madeiros's current position.

"There's such a great opportunity to take these skillsbeyond just the project management role. You'renot just proficient in IT, but you get insight andexperience into every part of the business. You'redefinitely not limited in terms of where your careercan take you," she says.

2016-11-16 09:13 Sharon Florentine www.itnews.com

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Spotify and Gatorade partnerto pump up personalizedworkout playlists

Spotify and Gatorade want to help you pump up thejams at the gym.

Ever wonder what a Steve Aoki Bootcamp workout

looks like? Me neither.

Gatorade Amplify generates personalized playlistswith songs from Spotify's library, based on yourSpotify listening history, that are energetic enoughto fuel a workout. The playlists take intoconsideration the danceability, "acousticness",energy and loudness of a track.

You can tailor the playlists for high-intensityworkouts or, if you're a Spotify Premium subscriber,interval training. All you have to do is select a

duration (playlists can last anywhere from 15 to 180minutes) and up to 3 genres (the choices are rock,alternative, hip-hop/rap, punk, pop, metal andelectronic).

Spotify users can save their Gatorade Amplifyplaylists to their library and -- one of the best parts --they will update automatically with new songs everyweek. So if you use it often, you won't get sick oflistening to the same songs over and over again.

Also, if you happen to be a big Steve Aoki fan,Gatorade Amplify features an exclusive high-energy workout mix produced by the cake-throwingDJ , a video of him in the studio discussing howfitness and music go hand-in-hand and a SteveAoki bootcamp workout.

2016-11-16 09:00 by www.cnet.com

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The best drone you can buy

This story will be updated as new products areannounced and tested by our team. If you want to

discuss the current options or suggest another one,please visit our forums.

2016-11-16 09:00 Ben Popper www.theverge.com

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4 employee benefits that willimprove retention

Most businesses offer no shortage of benefits toemployees, but what happens when youremployees aren't aware most of those benefitsexist? While free lunch and snacks in the breakroom are easy enough to spot, and appreciate,there are plenty of overlooked benefits hiding in

your onboarding handbook.

Dean Aloise, global HR consulting leader at XeroxHR Services , a division of Xerox focused on HRconsulting, says that businesses are looking formore "value" in their benefits beyond flashy perksthat get people in the door. But what employeesvalue is going to vary depending on factors likeage, demographic and personal view point. Aloisesays the only way to understand what most youremployees want from their benefits package, is toask them and then communicate those benefitsregularly to the workforce.

The benefits your employees are interested inmight not be flashy or even involve major changesto the company culture. In fact, most of them mightbe more traditional than you think. And in plenty ofcases, your company probably already offer thesetypes of benefits, but it's just a matter of educatingyour employees on the fact that they exist and howto take advantage of them.

A lot has changed in this country in the last fewyears -- we've seen a greater push for things likebetter paternal and maternity leave. And with the2015 ruling that legalizes same-sex marriage,plenty of your employees are gaining access tobenefits that didn't exist for them in the past.

However, navigating these benefits and figuring outwhat your company offers can be a challenge and ifit's something personal, a worker might notnecessarily want to email a HR person forclarification. Aloise says the best way help peopleunderstand their benefits, especially ones aroundnew laws or growing trends, is to "develop andimplement strategic, multi-channel communicationprograms that deliver the information that

employees and their families need. " This is also agreat way to give partners and spouses access tobenefits information.

Whenever new laws like pop up, or when there's apush to create better paternal or maternity leave fornew parents, HR departments need to make surethe message gets out. Especially for employeeswho have been with the company for a while -- it'snatural for a new worker to check out all theincluded perks, but someone who has been withthe company for years might not think twice about it."Having great benefits doesn't move the needle ifemployees don't know about them or don't usethem. Employers should use multiple methods tocommunicate benefits to employees, includingnew-hire training, having an online portal thathouses all benefits information and making HRaccessible for employees to ask questions," saysAdam Ochstein, founder and CEO of StratEX ,which focuses on automating the HR ecosystem.

College graduates entering the workforce are oftensaddled with debt with student load debt. Andfinancial strain is a huge productivity killer.

According to the 2016 Global Benefits AttitudesSurvey from Willis Towers Watson , a companyspecializing in risk management and insurancebrokerage, employees under financial strain are notonly more likely to express higher levels of stress,but also report overall poorer health.

If your business relies on millennials, student loanassistance might go a lot further than free bagels ordiscounts on a smartphone plan. Ochstein sayswith benefits like student loan assistance, you needto consider your audience and overalldemographic. If the majority of your workers'college days are far behind them, loan assistancemight not be as big of a perk, but for entry-levelworkers and new grads, it's a huge deal.

Don't older generations either: There are plenty ofworkers who decide to further their education tohelp grow their career and they'll want to knowabout any assistance programs as well. As Aloisesays, the only way to know what your workers want,is to build an open line of communication and gaina better understanding of the general consensus.

Offering student loan assistance, ensuringemployees have access to it and helping themunderstand how to take advantage of it can alsosend a message about your corporate values. "Withthe war for talent and tight job market, employeesare empowered to seek out companies that alignwith their values and stand for the issues they careabout. Benefits like PTO to volunteer, family leaveand student demonstrate what a company values,"says Ochstein.

The corporate world has seen a major push behindmental health awareness and general wellness inrecent years. The survey from Willis Towers Watsonfound that high levels of workplace stress can becorrelated to higher absenteeism, while healthyemployees are far more engaged. The study alsofound that, employees who felt they could trust theiremployers were far more likely to take advantage ofwellness benefits. Whereas, "resistant" employeeswere more likely to feel weary or negative abouttheir employer having a role in their health.

If your company prides itself on wellness andmental health initiatives, but you find employees

aren't taking advantage, it might boil down tobuilding trust. It can be daunting for an employee todisclose a mental health diagnosis to an employer.Even though the Disability Act can protect them,there is still a social stigma that can seep into theoffice. Ochstein says that he feels the mostimportant aspect in building this type of trust withyour employees starts at the top.

"Leadership needs to be speaking up andadvocating for employees to seek help if they needit. I tell my employees I see a therapist, and beingtransparent with them about that helps letemployees know that there is nothing wrong withgetting help," Ochstein says.

Employers need to build an environment thatunderscores how common it is for people tostruggle with mental illness or emotional distress."In fact, emotional distress to the point that workproductivity is impacted is experienced by mostpeople at some point in his or her working life,"says Aloise.

Employees who feel bored, restless or stagnant in

their roles are not only more likely to kill time atwork, call out sick or put in minimal effort, they'realso more likely to accept a new opportunity if itcomes up, according to a survey from Gallup.Leadership programs are pivotal to overallemployee retention, but you should make surethose avenues are open for your employees. Ifthere isn't a structured program in place, they mightnot know who to turn to for leadership advice.

Leadership programs and advancement are easyenough benefits to offer, they don't involve muchoverhead, and according to Ochstein, they are vitalfor staying competitive in the workforce. He sayswith the growing focus on building personal brands,workers are more invested than ever in growingand developing their own professional identities.

Leadership programs might not feel like a typicalbenefit -- especially when grouped with things likehealthcare, salary or wellness initiatives. But Aloisesays, a strong leadership program helps bring morevalue to what you offer your employees.

"The important point is that programs like mentoring

provide value, so we would include anything thatoffers value to employees in their 'total rewards'framework. We look at it more through the lens ofhow can we deliver value to employees moreefficiently to help them with their lives," he says.

2016-11-16 08:59 Sarah K www.itnews.com

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Apple's slash and burn of iOSApp Store sees 47,000 appsremoved in one month

APPLE’S PROMISED spring clean of the App Store

appears to be underway after an estimated 47,300apps were removed in October.

The company had already pledged to remove appsthat were orphaned, outdated, no longer metguidelines, or were in some way borked if theyremained as was after 7 September.

App intelligence stat company Sensor Towerconfirmed to TechCrunch that app removalsjumped by an almighty 238 per cent in October.

This is 3.4 times higher than the average for the restof the year. The usual monthly purge is nearer14,000.

The biggest clean up comes from the Gamessection, which has seen 28 per cent of theremovals.

The difficulty lies in the ambiguity of Apple’s terms.The firm talks of "abandonment" as the failure toupdate “for a long time”, but doesn’t specify howlong.

Previous analysis suggested that over half the

deleted apps hadn’t been updated since May 2015,and a quarter not since November 2013, so thatwould have to be an almighty purge, and wesuspect that it won’t come to that.

As it is, the Apple App Store continues to grow.Sensor Tower estimated that it could double in sizeto five million apps by 2020. Apple reckons that100,000 apps are submitted every week, althoughthis includes updates.

Users in the US were left fuming after it wasrevealed last month that the Apple App Store was tostart including adverts alongside search results.Ewwww.

Google’s Play store, on the other hand, has a muchless strict submission process and is only cleanedreactively, although a screening programme wasintroduced in March 2015.

As a result, the Play store is estimated to have 2.4million apps and counting, although a great manyof them are out of date, or have never beendownloaded by anyone other than the author andthe odd tester.

As a result, the question of which app store is thebiggest is rather subjective. µ

2016-11-16 08:49 Chris Merriman www.theinquirer.net

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Altnet broadband customerstend to be happier, saysCable

A study of broadband consumers in the UK hasfound that users of services supplied by smallerproviders and altnets were much more likely todeclare themselves to be satisfied customers thanthose who plumped for larger providers such as BT.Despite accounting for 87% of the UK’s consumerbroadband market, the big four providers – BT, Sky,TalkTalk and Virgin Media – all ranked towards thebottom of the league table, said the report, which

was commissioned by comms analysts atCable.co.uk .

The study of 6,000 people rated the internet serviceproviders (ISPs) out of 10 on customer service,reliability, value for money and equipment supplied.These four scores were then combined to producean average rating.

It found that SSE – which is owned by utility Scottishand Southern Energy – received the highest ratingof 7.94, followed by BT-backed Plusnet at 7.66, andPost Office Broadband at 7.54.

Other smaller altnets – or which eight in total werenamed by respondents – were combined into onecategory, which sat fourth in Cable’s chart with anaverage score of 7.44.

This was followed by the household names, withSky at 7.18, Virgin Media at 7.14, EE at 7.12, BT at6.9, TalkTalk at 6.66, and Hull’s KC at the bottomwith 5.82.

“Broadly speaking, the more customers you havethe more difficult it can be to keep them happy. High

call volumes often force larger companies tomigrate to more one-size-fits-all systems that targetthe most common problems, but that often means astruggle for customers whose difficulties don’t fit apredetermined type,” said Cable’s Dan Howdle.

“Customers often have different priorities. If youwant the fastest speeds or the most TV channels,you may be willing to accept middling or even poorcustomer service and problem handling to get it,and rationalise that choice by supposing it willnever happen to you. But, of course, it often does.”

Meanwhile, a separate survey produced bycomparison site Broadbandgenie on ruralbroadband roll-out found has substantial supportfor the position that the government has not beendoing enough to address the needs of rural areas,with 47% in agreement and just 13% saying it had.

The report results also showed strong support forthe idea of providing discounted broadbandservices to those receiving slow speeds, with 79%in favour, but found little support for the idea ofpaying more to subsidise rural roll-out , with 53%

against.

2016-11-16 08:45 Networking Editor www.computerweekly.com

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Streetography review: Photoapp automatically puts yoursnapshots on the map

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By Jackie Dove

Macworld | Nov 16, 2016 4:33 AM

PT

With travel photos—and even everyday snapshots—location is almost always the defining factor thatstokes visceral memory. For anyone walkingaround with an iPhone, location services are yourbest friend, and paired with Streetography (free onthe iTunes Store ), a new map-based photo-sharingapp for iOS, you can drill down to the visualessence of a place through on-the-ground images.

The app’s interface places photos directly on amap, superimposed on defined boundaries ofblocks, neighborhoods, and cities in a uniquelysatisfying real-time and space perspective. Usingonly gestures, you can drill down from region to cityto street and back out for an instant, ground-levelview. Derived from a combination of its ownresearch, third party, and government sources,Streetography’s maps assume an organic feel.

Because the app is new, some places are not yetsupported, but the company is intent on a full build-out of worldwide locations. The app’s socialcomponent lets you comment, like, and follow bothimages and photographers.

The images seen on the map differ from typicaltravel guides for the United States and Canada, aswell as parts of the United Kingdom, France,Ireland, Australia, and Russia. Since images areuser generated, they resemble a crowd-sourcedvisual blog as opposed to classic attempts atstorytelling. That works because it’s distinctive,letting you see a place through the minds’ eye ofothers on the scene. The app’s developers arebusy adding neighborhood, block, and cityboundary support for hundreds of additional cities,including Shanghai, Johannesburg, Berlin, Rio deJaneiro, and Havana.

While the app is ostensibly a resource forprofessional photographers to find cool places tovisit and shoot, it also serves tourists andnewcomers in finding the hot spots in town. As ahobbyist, however, I see Streetography as a way to

represent my own neighborhood and anywhere Ivisit to friends, family, and any interested party.

The app opens to a map of the world, where youcan view various hot spots, places where the mostphotos have been shot. At launch, the app waspopulated with photos from the 500px online photosharing community, and you can continue postingphotos from your account there, or post your ownphotos from the Streetography app or your CameraRoll.

There are plenty of options for viewing images, too:You can see all photos on the map, or filter bylatest, this month, your own shots, those you haveliked, or people you follow. Tapping on a photobrings you to a new pane with additionalinformation about that specific picture, including thename of the photographer, location, and exactblock and city.

If you shoot photos directly within the app, oraccess photos from your Camera Roll or PhotoStream, a complete set of editing tools lets youcrop, switch orientation, add focus, and adjust for

exposure, shadows and highlights and clarity. Youcan also add a caption if you want, and thenpublish. Your images will show up on the mapalmost immediately.

If your photo doesn’t have geolocation data, theapp will fix it to your current location, letting youcorrect it yourself. You can also note photos thatyou think are mapped to the wrong location.

Streetography offers a distinctive take on locationphotography because it features an alternateinterpretation of place as opposed to the moreliteral Google Street View. While Google’s appserves it own purpose, Streetography co-existsnicely with it because by nature it is moreinterpretive and original.

For a brand new app, Streetography has abundantand polished features that are fun, informative, andeasy to use and contribute to: It offers instantgratification. While the app does work via a server,which might present bandwidth problems, I did notexperience any issues in testing. I was impressedby the app’s smooth performance.

This story, "Streetography review: Photo appautomatically puts your snapshots on the map" wasoriginally published by

Macworld .

Jackie Dove

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2016-11-16 08:33 Jackie Dove www.itnews.com

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Troubleshooting some nastySafari malware

“I need Apple advice,” My sister texted me lastweek. “I got a message that my computer is blockeddue to an unexpected error. It gives me a number to

call to fix it. Does that sound legit?”

No. It did not sound legit. What’s worse, the errormessage gave her an 800 number to call, whichshe did, and the person on the other end of the lineoffered to share her screen and tried to sell her$200 in security software.

That was the point at which her instincts kicked inand she got off the call and asked me for help. Theculprit in all this was a pop-up message in Safari,which read in part: “Your Apple Computer has beenblocked. Mac iOS alert! System might be infecteddue to unexpected error! Your Browser might behijacked or hacked.”

Ironically, this “warning” message is a commonform of malware itself. The problem is that the pop-up appeared every time my sister opened Safari,and it proved impossible to dismiss the pop-up andthen access Safari settings before the pop-upreappeared. Her question for me was simple: Howdo I get access to Safari back and make sure thisdoesn’t happen again?

It took a couple hours of trying to get the answer. If

you or a family member of yours gets infected bythis same approach, maybe I can save you sometime and heartache.

The cause of the “infection” seemed obvious to meright away: Safari was loading a web page thatcontained a JavaScript script that spawned the pop-up message. Because it loaded immediately, I hadto assume that it had been set as Safari’s homepage, so it loaded immediately on launch.

We did try a few things that, after the fact, I was toldare the most standard ways to work around amalicious webpage in Safari.

Second: Load Safari, then Control-click on its iconin the Dock and choose Force Quit. Try this acouple of times and Safari may get the messagethat there’s something severely wrong on startupand instead start without loading anything. We triedto Force Quit numerous times and it had noapparent effect.

Malwarebytes is free and trustworthy.

Third: Download Malwarebytes Antimalware for

Mac. I had this recommended to me by numerouspeople, including some Apple techs, and thoughmy sister couldn’t download anything becauseSafari was the only web browser she had installed,I was able to download the app and transfer it to hervia Messages. She installed and ran it–but no luck.

Fourth: Update to El Capitan or Sierra if youhaven’t. This probably would’ve solved my sister’sproblem, and was actually the next step I was goingto try when I found what proved to be the solution.Apple added a lot more malware protection in themove from Yosemite to El Capitan, including fixesthat stop many browser-based hijack methods. Mysister was running Yosemite, unfortunately.

Depending on your particular infestation, any ofthese approaches may solve the problem.Unfortunately, they didn’t solve mine.

It wasn’t fun trying to troubleshoot my sister’scomputer problems via Messages. What I wanted todo was control her screen and see if I could figure itout on my own. But for whatever reason–perhapsbecause her Mac was running Yosemite?–I

couldn’t find any way to share screens directlywithin Messages. No combination of iMessage orAIM or Google Talk allowed me to get access toMessage’s screen-sharing features.

What ended up saving my bacon was TeamViewer, one of Macworld’s picks for great ways to control aMac remotely. It’s free, and I was able to send thelightweight QuickSupport app to my sister viaMessages. She opened the app, gave me the IDcode and password, and I was able to control herscreen.

TeamViewer was a big help, and easy to set up.

If you find yourself in a jam and need to controlsomeone’s screen remotely, definitely check outTeamViewer. I was impressed with how quickly wegot it set up and working, and it’s free for personaluse. (Businesses pay a subscription fee to use thetool.)

Despite all of my attempts, a couple hours hadpassed and nothing had worked. Finally I turned toa suggestion I’d seen in a couple of messagethreads about browser malware, one that I had

dismissed as a last resort because it wassomething I couldn’t do myself, but would need tostep my sister through via text message.

It was this: Disconnect the computer from theInternet entirely. Unless you’ve got a hardwiredEthernet connection, this generally means turningoff Wi-Fi. That’s it. If there’s no malware hostedlocally, that pop-up can only be generated byloading a remote webpage that’s set as the Safarihome page. If you’re not on the Internet, thewebpage can’t load. Which means the JavaScriptscript never runs, which means the infernallyblocking pop-up message never appears.

So I disconnected from TeamViewer and instructedmy sister to turn off her Wi-Fi and open up Safari.Sure enough, this simple solution is what brokethrough the logjam. When she opened her Safaripreferences, sure enough, her home page hadbeen set to a weird “free deals and coupons”domain. Once she deleted that URL from her Safarisettings, she was able to turn her Wi-Fi back on andthe problem was over.

Or at least, all over but the important aftermath: Itold her to update to Sierra immediately, considergetting some simple malware protection software,and not click on suspicious links. Also,downloading a second web browser’s never a badidea, in case something terrible happens to yourfirst choice.

And under no circumstances should you call aphone number that appears in a pop-up on yourMac, or allow an unknown party to control yourMac. Even doing a Google search for the words in aparticular fake alert box may not help you–becausethe creators of the scam may have built wholewebsites with those keywords in order to lure you inand get your money or access to your computer. Ifyour Mac seems disabled, take it to an Apple Store,a local Apple tech in your community, or call Applesupport directly.

With any luck, My sister will never have a problemlike this again. And if someone you know ever getscaught in this particular loop, I hope my two hoursof troubleshooting will allow you to get to thesolution faster than I did.

2016-11-16 08:31 Jason Snell www.itnews.com

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Business needs AI defenceagainst AI attacks, saysDarktrace

The world is entering a new era of cyber attacks inwhich the integrity of data is at risk, according toEmily Orton, director of UK information securitystartup Darktrace.

“These attacks on trust are silent and stealthy

because the manipulation of data such as medicalor financial data can be difficult to detect,” she toldthe Eema ISSE 2016 security conference in Paris.

Added to this, Darktrace is seeing increased usageof artificial intelligence (AI) by attackers to enablehighly customised attacks that can be detected onlyif the defenders are also using AI, said Orton.

In India, Darktrace discovered an AI-enabled attackthat was designed to monitor user behaviour andthen emulate that to avoid detection.

“These are really clever attacks and defendersneed to have a similar AI capability to detect them,”said Orton. However, she believes that defenderscan do far more with AI than attackers.

“If a defender already has AI in place and have arefined understanding of what is happening on theirnetwork, then they will be one step ahead ofattackers and will be able to detect this kind ofattack before any real harm can be done,” she said.Darktrace’s threat-detection and machine-learning capabilities are based entirely on mathematicalmodels, which enable the detection of previously

unknown threats that would not be caught bytraditional security control systems.

“This approach enables organisations to spotmalicious activity or risky behaviour when there isno way of pre-empting it,” said Orton.

2016-11-16 08:30 Security Editor www.computerweekly.com

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Finland’s Automatia launchesreal-time platform

Finnish ATM operator Automatia has introduced a

mobile payments platform that enables people tomake payments across banks via a mobile phone.

Automatia, which is owned by OP Bank Group ,Nordea Bank and Danske Bank, announced Siirto,an open platform for payment service providers tooffer customers payments to and from any bankfrom one mobile app

The Tieto-developed system is Finland’s first real-time mobile payment interface of its type.

All it will require of users is to have a mobile phonenumber for sending or receiving money, and alltransfers will occur in real time in their bankaccount. This will support Finnish banks in meetingEU payment regulations.

In line with the EU’s Payment Services Directive(PSD2) , which will come into force in 2018 toincrease competition in the European paymentssector, Siirto will allow banks and other paymentservices providers to bring new services to theFinnish market.

“Modern consumers are demanding real-time

services in all aspects of their everyday life,” saidMarko Vilo, managing director at Automatia.

“ That is why we are very excited and proud tolaunch Siirto, a new, real-time payment platform.With the help of Tieto, we are creating Finnishpayment service history, and enabling consumersto transfer money between banks in seconds. Thiswill dramatically change the payment behaviour ofconsumers.”

Tieto has created the common rules and guidelinesfor the mobile payment ecosystem.

“The Siirto payment platform is a major step forwardin digital banking and real-time payments inFinland,” said Sami Uski, head of banking anddigital channels business development at Tieto. “We have created an ecosystem where financialtechnology companies, banks and other paymentproviders can innovate and offer new paymentoptions for their customers.”

This is another step towards cashless societies ,where Nordic countries are leading the way.

Finnish banks are expected to launch their ownmobile payment services, based on Automatia’sSiirto platform, in March 2017.

2016-11-16 08:30 Services Editor www.computerweekly.com

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The secret to eating friedchicken at a germ-riddenkeyboard

Pulling up a low-quality image and telling thecomputer to "enhance" the resolution has longbeen the stuff of TV fantasy. But, thanks to machinelearning, we are actually getting much better at

zooming into a photo without losing picturequality....

OnePlus is our reigning champion when it comes tothe best value smartphones, so why shouldn't thecompany also own the title for best valueheadphones too?

Twitter this week suspended several prominentaccounts linked to the alt-right movement, the fringewhite nationalist group that helped propelPresident-elect Donald Trump to the White House.As USA Today reports, the site suspended theaccounts...

Apple has negotiated a deal with the creators of808 — a documentary about the seminal RolandTR-808 drum machine — for exclusive streamingrights through Apple Music. The documentary willappear on Apple’s music service first, on December9th,...

Facebook Messenger can now integrate withAndroid Auto, the social network announced today,allowing users of the infotainment platform to hearand reply to messages from friends while driving

their cars. In order to use the new feature, you’ll...

It may be nigh impossible to purchase Nintendo’sNES Classic Edition console right this very second,with stock shortages and sell outs at Amazon, BestBuy, GameStop and many other retailers. But havehope. Once a day, for a few minutes before...

2016-11-16 08:30 Thomas Ricker www.theverge.com

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Splunk Hires Salesforce.comMarketing Exec As Its NewCMO - Page: 1

Splunk, the developer of operational and machinedata management software, is building up its topexecutive ranks, hiring Saleforce.com marketingexecutive Brian Goldfarb as the company's newchief marketing officer and Richard Campione forthe new post of chief product officer.

The new managers join Splunk as the fast-growingcompany closes in on an annual sales run-rate of$1 billion.

Goldfarb has been working as senior vice presidentof app cloud marketing at Salesforce since April2015. Before that he served as head of cloudplatform marketing at Google for three year andbefore that was product marketing director forMicrosoft's Windows Azure.

Goldfarb is replacing Steven Sommer, Splunk'scurrent CMO and senior vice president ofworldwide marketing since 2008. A Splunkspokesperson said Sommer is retiring, but plans tostay on as a consultant for an undefined period.

[Related: As Sales Approach $1B, Splunk Makes Its

Pitch To The Channel ]

Splunk, which initially sold its Splunk Enterprisesoftware for on-premise deployment, has beenexpanding its sales efforts for its Splunk Cloudservice. Splunk, in its announcement aboutGoldfarb's appointment, said his expertise withmarketing cloud software would be a plus for thecompany.

"Brian has led global marketing efforts at some ofthe most innovative cloud companies in the world,"said CEO Doug Merritt in a statement. "His deepunderstanding of platform and cloud products,coupled with his ability to grow revenue pipeline atscale, makes him a great fit to lead marketing effortsat Splunk. Brian's experience and leadership willbe invaluable as we continue to drive Splunk'sexpansion and growth. "

"Splunk is squarely positioned as the leader inhelping organizations create valuable businessinsights from data and is required technology forany data-driven strategy," Goldfarb was quoted inthe statement. "Machine-generated big data is the

secret for success in IT, security and businessoperations, and as more and more companies lookto the cloud for their data solution, Splunk willcontinue to grow in importance. "

As chief product officer, Campione will overseeSplunk's product strategy and engineering acrossthe company's entire product portfolio.

The Splunk spokesperson said the chief productofficer post is a new position at the San Francisco-based company. Many of Campione's duties werepreviously performed by Guido Schroeder, seniorvice president of products, who left the companyearlier this year.

Campione was previously president and CEO atFindly, a developer of Software-as-a-Service talentacquisition applications. Before that he waspresident of the cloud and business intelligencedivision at ServiceSource, an executive vicepresident at SAP, and a group president andgeneral manager at CRM applications pioneerSiebel Systems.

Both Goldfarb and Campione will report to CEO

Merritt.

2016-11-16 08:25 Rick Whiting www.crn.com

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SSP Worldwide under fireover cloud outagecommunication failings

Insurance brokers have accused SSP Worldwide ofwithholding information about the cause of thecloud outages that have blighted its Pure Brokingservice during three out of four of the past workingdays.

Users of its cloud-based Pure Broking platform,which brokers use to source quotes and trackrenewals, have expressed frustration at thecompany’s failure to reveal the reason behind itsrecent outages and the lack of detail contained in

its service status updates.

Michael Metcalfe, a director at Stockport-basedMetcalfe Insurance, told Computer Weekly thecompany’s reluctance to clarify what the problem isand when it will be sorted has made an alreadydifficult situation even harder for many brokers.

“All we are getting are texts saying ‘we’re workingon the problem’, and it is annoying to get thesetexts through in the end because they’re not sayinganything at all,” he said.

“If they just said, ‘we’ve got this problem and yoursystem will be down between Monday, Tuesday,Wednesday’ or whatever, you can plan round that,but you cannot do that when there is so muchuncertainty.”

The system is known to have run into technicaldifficulties for nearly a full day on 10 November2016 , and then for approximately half a day on 14and 15 November , during which the companyadvised users to check its online service portal forstatus updates.

Computer Weekly understands that, on these days,the platform usually ran into problems after 9am,which would coincide with when the majority ofbrokers around the country start their working day.

“If we log on before 9am, we are okay, but if we area minute after 9am, it is very difficult to log in andaccess the system at all,” said one broker, whoasked not to be named.

The company is also known to have distributed textand email alerts, to keep those affected updated onthe situation, but brokers claim the communicationsare too light on detail to be of any real use.

“All we had was a message saying they areinvestigating the problem and there will be anupdate at 11.30am, for example, which is a repeatof the previous message. They don’t even let usknow when the problem has been fixed,” the brokeradded.

Metcalfe said he ended up sending his staff homeduring the Thursday 10 November outage becausethey were unable to access the system for so longand could not work.

“We had no communication from SSP on Mondayand I could have sent them all home again, but thenthe system came back on 12.30pm. This is theproblem. We don’t know from day-to-day if we’regoing to have a system we can use,” he added.

2016-11-16 08:00 Datacentre Editor www.computerweekly.com

191 /223 5.9

IBM’s Watsonsupercomputer brought toFinnish healthcare

Digitisation of healthcare is expected to bringbenefits to patients, professionals and hospitalsalike in the form of increased efficiency, flexibilityand cost savings.

In Finland, for example, a deal between IBM andthe Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation (Tekes)aims to tap into health data and IBM’s cognitivecomputing platform Watson Health .

Announced in September 2016, the agreement willdrive innovation and the development of a digitalhealthcare ecosystem in Finland, as well as open

doors for new business opportunities globally.Finnish companies and healthcare professionalsget access to the cognitive and analysis powers ofWatson, while IBM gains data and partnerships tofurther develop its platform.

“We wanted to bring this kind of major global playerto Finland in a more significant way, so its artificialintelligence and cognitive solutions can be used toenhance our healthcare economy,” AnssiPulkkinen, strategic head of health and well-beingat Tekes , told Computer Weekly.

IBM is investing in Finland. It is planning to set upWatson Health centres of expertise and innovationin Finland, as well as the tech giant’s first nationalimaging centre outside the US. These centres areexpected to employ 150 people in the next fewyears.

The Watson Health centre of excellence will be thefirst to open its doors in early 2017, at IBM Finland’sheadquarters in Helsinki, while the imaging centreis scheduled to launch later in the year.

“Watson and Watson Health are very new units for

IBM globally. It has not had representation inFinland before, so we have been dependent onglobal expertise. These centres will have expertstrained here,” said Mirva Antila, deputy countrymanager at IBM Finland. “The Watson Healthcentre of excellence will be the first one in theNordics and also serve our customers in Europe.”

2016-11-16 08:00 www.computerweekly.com

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How to set up the WikiService in macOS SierraServer: Create and edit aWiki

Previously, we started the the Wiki service andcreated two groups that will have access to yourWiki. This week we’ll create and edit a Wiki and addcalendar and blog services to it.

Before we create a Wiki, let's see what the Wikilooks like for someone in the Students group:

Note that there are no options for creating Wikis

and that there are no Wikis for your student to view.That’s because we need a Teacher to create a Wikifirst.

Now let's create a Wiki:

Your new Wiki should open with some default textand basic information about how to work in yourWiki.

Let's make some changes to the Wiki.

Your changes should now appear in your Wiki.

Now let's add a user that can only read your Wiki.

You should now see a web login for your server.

Note that the History section at the right of your Wikiprovides historical information on edits that weremade to the Wiki. (edithistory.png)

Let's look at who made the changes.

Finally, let's log in as a user that can only view theWiki

Note that this user has no Edit pencil at the top ofthe Wiki, but you should also note that this user cansee all of the changes made by anyone who hasworked on the Wiki but they cannot revert to anyprevious versions of the Wiki.

The last step in our Wiki journey is to turn on theWiki’s blog and calendar services. Note that to userthe Wiki’s calendar feature you will need to havethe Server’s calendar service turned on.

Once you click Save two new links appear at thetop of your Wiki, one for the Calendar, which, when

you click it you can view and add events to yourcalendar that are related to your Wiki. The other isfor your blog. Note that anyone with edit access toyour Wiki can also create calendar events andmake changes to your blog.

2016-11-16 08:00 Jeffery Battersby www.itnews.com

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The best custom launchersfor your Android phone

When people describe why they love Android,“customization” is usually at the top of the list.

You’re not stuck with just a grid of icons or thedefault design scheme that comes on your phone.

For full control over nearly every aspect of yoursmartphone’s look and performance, you’ll want toturn to a custom launcher. The Play Store is packedfull of options, but for your benefit we’ve paireddown the list to some of the best.

Your preferred choice is going to come down towhat you’re looking for with a home screenreplacement. Some are good at giving you thatstock Android experience, which you might crave ifyou’re trying to replicate the experience of a Pixelor Nexus. Others try to offer up unique experiencesbased on your usage patterns. Whichever route yougo, the potential is there to build a home screen thatworks just right for you.

There’s no question about the top choice. ActionLauncher 3 wins for its myriad customizationchoices and in how it brings forth a lot of Nougatand Pixel-style features to your phone.

Action Launcher 3 gives your phone the look ofGoogle’s Pixel while providing numerous options

for customization.

Among the many strengths is the ability to createcustom gestures for specific actions. Swipe up witha finger to launch the settings. Or swipe downanywhere on the screen to make your notificationsappear. Pinch in to launch multitasking or get anoverview of all your homescreens. Your phone isyour oyster, and can be fine-tuned to work just theway that you want it to.

Action Launcher 3 won’t disappoint you with thenumber of different ways you can tweak thesmartphone experience.

Another plus is with how Action Launcher 3 cangive you that Pixel experience. Developer ChrisLacy has implemented many aspects of Android 7.1Nougat, such as app shortcuts, support for theround icons, and the same folder design that you’dfind with the Pixel Launcher. If those aren’t to yourliking you can safely ignore them, but they’re nice tohave if the siren call of the Pixel grows too strong toignore but you’re not able to buy one just yet. To getthe full package of features, opt for the in-app

upgrade for $5.

A close second is Nova Launcher. It shares much ofthe same philosophy as Action Launcher in that it ishighly customizable for practically every key aspectof your phone.

The best features are reserved for those who opt forthe Prime version of the app, which costs $5. It’swell worth it if you like Nova Launcher and decideyou want to customize gestures for actions. Forexample, a swipe up can launch an action, an app,or a specific shortcut (like a specific Gmail label).

Nova Launcher is one of the long-time best optionsfor customizing your phone.

If you’re feeling nostalgic for the days of Lollipop orother older Android versions, you’ll find the ability topick the design scheme for the app animation. Thebackground, icon layout, and app drawer areamong the many different areas that you can leaveyour own stamp on.

The Microsoft Garage team has been on a tear withseveral clever apps for Android. Arrow Launcher is

another piece of fruit borne from this effort.

It takes a markedly different approach from Novaand Action Launcher. Instead of endlesscustomization, it attempts to anticipate your needsand throw in some smarts by learning yourpreferences.

For example, Arrow Launcher divides up yourhome screen into four different sections: recent,apps, people, documents and reminder.

Arrow Launcher will work behind the scenes to offerthe apps and services you need.

If these choices aren’t to your liking, or if you justwant to cast a wider net, there are some other solidchoices available to you. Evie Launcher is worth alook if you want something that sticks close to stockAndroid but gives you many of the customizationoptions like Action or Nova Launcher.

The launcher is clean and gives you an interfacethat’s easy on the eyes. You also get a smartuniversal search feature that you access by swipingdown on the screen. Start typing and you’ll get

suggestions for apps, films, and Yelp-sponsoredlocation results. My preference is still the GoogleAssistant, but in the world of non-Pixels it does thejob.

For something more off the wall, check out HexyLauncher. It’s the product of SwiftKey Greenhouse ,the lab for experimental projects. This means it’snot officially supported, but is a side product ofseveral company engineers. Nonetheless it’s aninteresting take, with the launcher organizing yourhome screen into hexagonal tiles based on yourusage patterns. The apps you use more often getbumped into the center of the screen.

Hexy Launcher puts all of your apps into hexagons,moving the ones you use most often into the center.Finally, the Google Now Launcher is still an option,but now that the Pixel is the focus of Google’sdevelopment it may not see a ton of developmentwork. Google will keep it going for Nexus devices,but I’ve found that it lacks more advanced featureson other phones, particularly since you can’tchange the number of apps on each home screen.

The key is to experiment and take the time requiredto find out what works best for your workflow andhow you use your phone. Try a launcher for a fewdays, and keep at even if you run into a fewfrustrations. It usually takes a while to finally land onthe right choice. But once you do, you’ll have asmartphone experience that’s truly personalized.

2016-11-16 08:00 Derek Walter www.itnews.com

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BSi opens consultation ongovernment-styleinformation classificationstandard

The British Standards Institution (BSI) has openedconsultations into a proposed new British standard,BS 10010, which would help organisations to applygovernment-style classifications to information.

The consultation is set to run until 27 December2016.

The standard will cover "requirements for the

creation, implementation, evaluation andimprovement of Information Classification, Markingand Handling (ICMH) systems. It specifiesrequirements for classifying information, includingdefining how it may be accessed by users, bothinside and outside the organization that owns theinformation", according to the BSI.

The proposal was initiated two years ago by DrAndrew Rogoyski, vice president of cyber securityservices at computer services company CGI UK.

The standard would feed into organisations' overallIT security postures.

"It's important to understand cyber security is notlike 'normal' security. There is no single gatekeeperwhose role is to keep our cyber systems safe. Theresponsibility belongs to everyone in anorganisation - but it is down to those in leadershippositions to stress the importance of cyber securityto other employees and develop a strategy that istailored to the risks of each organisation," claimedRogoyski in a presentation to the civil service lastyear.

He continued: "A large part of avoiding cyberattacks comes down to awareness. Are you awareof how much information you're already sharingpublicly and how this information can make youvulnerable? Are you aware of how your behaviourcan impact the larger organisation? "

A standard such as BS 10010 would take securitydown to the lowliest member of staff, pitching it interms of information, rather than IT.

The ultimate aim, though, is that software vendorswill adapt their products to take informationclassification into account - not just in specialist

software, but everyday software packages, such asword processors, collaboration tools and email.

2016-11-16 07:59 Graeme Burton www.computing.co.uk

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Laid-off IT workers fightUniversity of Californiaoutsourcing

Audrey Hatten-Milholin has worked at theUniversity of California, San Francisco for 17 years.But come February, her job in the IT department asa system architect will be taken over by a worker

from India.

Even worse, Hatten-Milholin has been asked totrain her replacement.

“It’s horrible. Really horrible,” she said on Tuesday.“You want to treat people decently. But on the otherhand, I’m pretty ticked off I have to do this.”

Hatten-Milholin was among about 80 laid-off ITworkers who held a rally on Tuesday, calling for anend to the university’s outsourcing program. The ITdepartment workers, including permanent staff andcontract employees, will be replaced by workersfrom an India-based IT services firm called HCL.

More than a dozen of those affected workers andtheir supporters attended the rally outside theUCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. They carriedsigns that read, “American workers, not foreignlabor,” and “Protect our private data.”

“We need to stand up. Enough is enough,” said KurtHo, another IT worker who is being laid off.

Experts who study IT outsourcing say the UCSF

case is a rarity but could influence IT practicesthroughout higher education.

“CIOs at many other universities are eyeing whathappens with the (University of California) case,”said Ron Hira, a professor at Howard Universitywho studies immigration and offshoring policies. IfUCSF isn’t pressured by the public or politicians toreverse the decision, other universities may decidethe practice is acceptable, he said.

“I’ve never heard of a case where universityworkers were being forced to train replacements,”Hira said.

UCSF said the outsourcing will help it save morethan $30 million over five years. The school hascontracted with three outside vendors, includingHCL, Silicon Valley cybersecurity firm FireEye andDell, to support its IT services.

“The vast majority of UCSF’s IT services will remainin house,” the university said in a statementfollowing the rally. It has said the IT departmentnumbers about 565 employees. “UCSF hasfollowed all applicable laws and UC policy in

determining to restructure a small portion of its ITservices/operations.”

UCSF IT workers held a rally on Tuesday

The university also says the outside contractors willimprove its IT services. The workers who are beinglaid off don’t think so. Ho, who is 57 years old, saidhe has been training Indian workers who are intheir 20s, a shift away from the diverse staff UCSF islaying off.

“Now we’re going to be replaced by a very young,inexperienced work force, from one part of theworld,” he said. “I don’t think this is right.”

The workers who attended Tuesday’s rally are alsoconcerned with the federal H-1B visa program.Allegedly, companies have been using loopholesin the program to bring in foreign IT workers toreplace citizens.

“A lot of people think that jobs are being sentoverseas, but outsourcing is happening right herein our country of America,” said 43-year-old VinnyTateo, another laid-off worker. He said it’s been

difficult for him to find a new job.

UCSF said it’s working with the other University ofCalifornia campuses to find jobs for the affectedemployees. The school also says it doesn’t plan touse the H-1B visa program to bring in foreign ITworkers. However, since the layoffs became public,the university has posted Labor ConditionApplications notices, which are required by lawwhen H-1B workers are being placed.

Some of the laid-off workers plan to challenge theirdismissal through legal channels. About 10 of theworkers are filing a formal complaint withCalifornia’s Department of Fair Housing andEmployment. They claim the outsourcing isdiscriminatory because it replaces a diverseworkforce with an all-Indian staff.

IT workers at other University of Californiacampuses are also worried about futureoutsourcing. Joining Tuesday’s rally was 35-year-old Ryan Detert, a programmer in the IT departmentat the University of California, Davis.

“If UCSF thinks this is worthwhile for them, then this

could very easily spread to the other campuses,” hesaid.

2016-11-16 07:43 Michael Kan www.infoworld.com

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Filters on Instagram - How-To- PC Advisor

Instagram is getting bigger and bigger, withcelebrities and brands among those sharingimages on the social app. If you're new toInstagram, it can be a bit overwhelming, so here wetake you step-by-step through how to use Instagramin our complete guide.

In May, Instagram rolled out a new UI update to itsiOS and Android apps with a new icon and a newminimalist design. Check your Instagram app nowto see whether you have the updated UI.

Looking for information on Instagram's changingalgorithm that's caused everyone to share photosasking you to turn on notifications? We've got thatcovered in our Should you turn on Instagramnotifications article.

The first thing you'll need to do in order to useInstagram is download the app. There is anInstagram website but it's very limited – you can'tupload new images there, only view them and likeor comment on them.

You can download the app from the iOS App Storeor Google Play Store .

Once you've downloaded Instagram, read on to findout how to master the app.

Article updated on 2 September to include thepinch to zoom functionality.

Once the app has downloaded, you'll want to createan account. When you launch the app you shouldsee a link at the bottom of the screen that reads:"Don't have an account? Sign Up. " Click that tostart the process of signing up to Instagram.

You can sign up with Facebook, or sign up usingyour phone number or email address. You'll thenbe asked to create a username and password. Yourusername is a lot like a Twitter handle in that it'll bethe name your followers will see when you post anew photo or when they tag you in a photo, sochoose wisely.

You can also add your full name and a profile photoif you wish to.

Once you're done, you'll be offered the chance tofind your Facebook friends on Instagram, thencontacts from your phone. You can skip by tappingat the bottom of the screen if you'd prefer not to.

Next, you'll see suggestions of people you mightwant to follow. These suggestions are likely to becelebrities and brands, and if you skipped theFacebook and contacts parts you can change your

mind by clicking Connect to Facebook or ConnectContacts at the top of the Discover People screen.

Tap Done when you've followed some people. Ifyou decide not to follow anyone yet you can tapDone and then tap Continue Anyway in the pop-up.If you've followed all of the steps above, you'll nowhave created an Instagram account. Congrats!Now, you'll see the Explore screen, which lets yousearch for photos posted by other Instagram usersfrom around the world.

Tap the search bar at the top to search for a topic,hashtag, person or place. Use the tabs along thetop of the search screen to find what you're lookingfor.

If you're not looking for anything in particular, you'llsee popular and personalised suggestions on theExplore page.

To return to the Explore page at any time, tap themagnifying glass button in the navigation bar alongthe bottom.

To share a photograph on Instagram, you can tap

the square icon in the centre of the navigation bar.

From there, you can choose Library for photos andvideos you've already captured that are stored onyour phone, Photo to take a new photograph withinInstagram, or Video to capture a new video withinInstagram.

Videos can be three to 15 seconds long, and youcan stop and start the recording simply by letting goof the big red record button and then pressing andholding it again when you want to record more.

If you physically can't move closer to the subject ofyour photo you can zoom in on Instagram whenusing the camera. You just need to pinch zoom - insimple terms, touch the screen with two fingers andmove them away from each other to zoom in.

Once you've chosen your image, tap next to go tothe filters and image editing tools. You'll first beable to swipe through and apply filters by tappingon them at the bottom of the article.

The sun icon lets you change the brightness andcontrast of the image, and you can use the slider to

change the effect. When you're happy, tap the + toapply.

For the finer details, tap the Edit button at thebottom of the screen play around with the options.We like to up the structure for a more crisp-lookingimage, and we often add vignette or tilt shift whenwe're feeling creative.

When you're happy with the edits you've made, tapnext. You can now add a caption to your image,and include hashtags to help people find it.

You can also tag people, add your location, and ifyou've connected your Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr orFlickr accounts you can share the image theredirectly from within Instagram too. To connect youraccounts, tap on the relevant option on the sharescreen and log in.

If you want to share your image with a select fewpeople, you can tap Direct at the top of the pageand select the Instagrammers you want to share itwith.

Tap Share at the bottom of the screen and your

Instagram photo has been shared!

Now, you might start to see likes, follows andcomments on your newly shared Instagram photo.Those will appear in the Activity section, which youcan access by tapping the speech bubble icon inthe navigation bar at the bottom of the app.

There, you'll see all of your recent activity, includingnew followers , mentions, tags and likes.

By tapping following, you can see what the peopleyou follow have been liking, and who they'vestarted following too.

In late August and early September Instagramrolled out and update , in order to allow you tozoom on photos and videos on your Activity feed.

The update allows both iOS and Androidusers pinch zoom on images and videos.

To do this, simply find a photo or video you wish tozoom in on, and pinch with two fingers to enlarge iton your phone's display. Due to the nature of theupdate, you'll have to keep your fingers on-screen

in order for the zoom to work.

The last icon in the navigation bar is usually yourprofile picture or a little person symbol. That'swhere you can have a look at your account and edityour profile.

Tapping the Pin icon will show you a map of yourInstagram posts if you've been tagging yourlocation, and the person icon will show the photosyou've been tagged in.

If you don't like the idea of your Instagram postsshowing where you've been, you can keep yourwhereabouts private using this tutorial: How toremove location from Instagram

Most of the time, though, you'll probably simplybrowse through the Home page of Instagram. It's abit like your Facebook or Twitter timeline, in that it'llshow a long, scrollable feed of photos shared bythe people you follow in chronological order.

You can double tap on an image to like it, or pressthe speech bubble icon to comment on the image.You can also see other images from the same

location by tapping the location beneath theInstagrammer's username, or send the image tosomeone you follow by tapping the arrow.

Once you've mastered Instagram, you might find theneed to set up a second account for your smallbusiness or for work. The set-up process is thesame, but Instagram has recently introduced theability to switch between your accounts quickly andeasily within the app. To find out more, visit: How toadd extra accounts to Instagram.

And if you no longer want your Instagram account,you might want to read: How to delete yourInstagram account .

Instagram has released three new features inStories.

Boomerang takes a 1-second burst of photos andturns it into a video. Swipe right from your feed toopen the stories camera. A new format picker underthe record button lets you select “Boomerang”mode. Tap record and the camera will stitchtogether a burst of photos into a mini video thatplays forward and backward.

With Mentions you can now tag people in stories.When you add text to your story, type “@” followedby a username and select the person. When whensomeone taps the mention, they’ll see a pop-up thattakes them to that profile. Plus, the personmentioned gets a push notification.

‘See More’ Links allow those with verified accountsadd links which can be viewed without leaving theapp. When you see this, just tap “See More” orswipe up.

2016-11-16 07:42 Ashleigh Allsopp www.pcadvisor.co.uk

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Carrie Fisher had 'intense'affair with Harrison Ford onStar Wars set

"I'm not in it for you, Princess. " Except he totallywas.

It's the real-life love story Star Wars fans have beenwaiting 40 years to hear.

Carrie Fisher revealed on Tuesday that she andHarrison Ford enjoyed an "intense" three-monthaffair on the original Star Wars set in 1976.

"It was Han and Leia during the week, and Carrieand Harrison during the weekend," she told People.

The two first got together following a birthday partythrown for the film's director, George Lucas. At thetime Fisher was just 19 and Ford was a 33-year-oldmarried father of two. The romance reached a

natural conclusion as the film wrapped.

Fisher has written about the affair in her upcomingautobiography "The Princess Diarist".

"I looked over at Harrison. A hero's face -- a fewstrands of hair fell over his noble, slightly furrowedbrow," she writes in the book. "How could you asksuch a shining specimen of a man to be satisfiedwith the likes of me? "

Take a closer look at the costumes worn by therebels and villains of the new Star Wars movie.

2016-11-16 07:32 by www.cnet.com

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Acer Swift 7 review: Theworld's thinnest laptop isstarving for power

A slender laptop certainly turns heads—but with anMSRP of $1,100, the Swift 7's constrainedperformance and lack of Thunderbolt 3 make HP'sSpectre 13.3 (which is almost equally thin) seemlike a better deal.

2016-11-16 07:30 Alaina Yee www.itnews.com

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Is critical infrastructure thenext DDoS target?

The massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)attack last month on Dyn , the New Hampshire-based Domain Name System (DNS) provider, wasmostly an inconvenience.

While it took down a portion of the internet forseveral hours, disrupted dozens of major websites

and made national news, nobody died. Nobodyeven got hurt, other than financially.

But the attack, enabled by a botnet of millions ofInternet of Things (IoT) devices, inevitably led tospeculation on what damage a DDoS of that scaleor worse could do to even a portion of the nation’scritical infrastructure (CI).

Clearly it could go well beyond inconvenient.Businesses, households, emergency services, thefinancial industry and yes, the internet, can’tfunction without electricity.

That has already been demonstrated on a relativelysmall scale. Earlier this month, a DDoS attack tookdown heating distribution in two properties inLappeenranta, a city in eastern Finland.

The disruption was only temporary, but as localmedia noted, with below-freezing temperatures, “along-term disruption in heat will cause both materialdamage as well as the need to relocate residentselsewhere.”

Also, in a recent paper titled “IoT Goes Nuclear:Creating a ZigBee Chain Reaction,” researchersreported that they were able to demonstrate, usingPhillips Hue smart light bulbs, “a new type of threatin which adjacent IoT devices will infect each otherwith a worm that will spread explosively over largeareas in a kind of nuclear chain reaction …”

Using the bulbs’ ZigBee wireless connectivity, theresearchers said the attack, “can start by pluggingin a single infected bulb anywhere in the city, andthen catastrophically spread everywhere withinminutes, enabling the attacker to turn all the citylights on or off, permanently brick them, or exploit

them in a massive DDoS attack.”

If that kind of attack could also be used to takedown heat, water, sewer, traffic control and otherbasic services for any length of time, the risks ofchaos and physical harm grow rapidly.

As author, blogger security guru and ResilientSystems CTO Bruce Schneier put it in a recent post,“security flaws in these things could mean peopledying and property being destroyed. "

But could a DDoS attack really cause a long-termdisruption of Industrial Control Systems (ICS),which operate or monitor much of the nation’s CI?

Experts have mixed views on the topic. Some saythe nation’s ICSs are distinct enough from theconsumer IoT that they would not be as vulnerableto a DDoS, while others say those systems areindeed connected enough to be a component of theIoT.

DDoS attacks are nothing new – they have beenaround for decades and are not consideredsophisticated. They work by overloading websites

and other internet-connected systems with junktraffic that prevents legitimate traffic from gettingthrough, and can also cause the sites to crash.

What made the Dyn attack relatively unprecedentedwas its use of millions of “zombie” IoT devices like“smart” cameras, digital video recorders etc. insteadof computers. The scale of the attack, at 1.2Tbpswas unheard of as recently as a year ago. Now it isthe norm, and is expected to increase rapidly.

Meanwhile, the nation’s CI remains notoriouslyinsecure. Earlier this year, the FBI and Departmentof Homeland Security (DHS) launched a nationalcampaign to warn US utilities and the public aboutthe danger from cyber attacks like the one lastDecember that took down part of Ukraine's powergrid.

This past September, at the Security of ThingsForum in Cambridge, Mass., a panel of securityexperts agreed that attackers, likely from hostilenation states, are probably already inside thenation's ICS.

Paul Dant, chief strategist and managing principal

at Independent Security Evaluators, said at thatdiscussion that more attacks are inevitable. “Tothink that stuff is not vulnerable is a completefallacy,” he said.

Still, some in the industry say a DDoS is not a directthreat to major CI, because ICSs are not a part ofthe IoT in the way consumer devices are. BenMiller, director of the Threat Operations Center atDragos, said while, “at face value (ICSs) may seemsimilar” to IoT devices, “an industrial controller withinput from a thermostat has a vastly differenttechnology stack, use case, evolution, andcapability than the Nest (consumer) thermostat on awall.

“Industrial control system processes generally donot rely on Internet-based services,” he said.

Matt Devost, managing director at Accenture andCEO of FusionX, sees it much the same way. “TheDDoS attack is most effective against targets thatare inherently dependent on internetcommunications and the ICS/SCADA (SupervisoryControl and Data Acquisition) environment is just

not engineered to operate with that sort ofdependency,” he said.

According to Gabe Gumbs, vice president ofproduct strategy at Spirion, “the IoT should bestrictly defined as consumer-connected devices.Much of critical infrastructure is connected, but it isnot consumer-grade technology. Organizations thatown things like SCADA systems are invested insecuring them, in stark contrast to the consumerend of the spectrum.”

And Robert M. Lee, CEO of Dragos, said whilethere are still ICS assets on the internet – “toomany, to be honest” – a lot of them are not. “Thesedevices are instead forming a network of data andend points that is new and comprehensive in theselocations. A DDoS styled attack would not be ableto significantly disrupt critical infrastructure sites inthe ICS community,” he said.

But Yoni Shohet, cofounder and CTO ofSCADAfence said ICSs are, “definitely part of theIoT, since the industry is transforming from physicalsystems to cyber physical systems. The connectivity

between industrial environments and externalnetworks has increased in the past few years.These environments are exposed more than ever toexternal attacks.”

Stewart Kantor, CEO of Full Spectrum, has seen thesame thing. “Since we’re seeing criticalinfrastructure initiating automation efforts throughIP-based communications over public cellular datanetworks to smart devices, it’s becoming part of thebroader IoT that incorporates consumer andmission-critical technologies alike,” he said.

But he doesn’t entirely disagree with those who sayICS is not part of the IoT, since some utilities havedetached from the public internet through thecreation of, “their own separate and private IoTusing software-defined radio technology over aprivate network that is owned and operatedexclusively by the utility.”

2016-11-16 07:17 Taylor Armerding www.itnews.com

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Microsoft moves to easeEC's antitrust concerns overLinkedIn buy

MICROSOFT HAS offered concessions to EUantitrust regulators over its $26bn bid forprofessional social network LinkedIn.

Microsoft announced plans to buy LinkedIn in July ,saying that the deal would see the merging of the"world's leading professional cloud" with the"world's leading professional network".

Europe's competition regulators started casting an

eye over the mega-merger in October, quizzingMicrosoft's rivals about the deal and looking atLinkedIn's data and whether rival sites can replicateit.

It seems that the initial investigation set some alarmbells ringing, as Reuters reported that Microsofthas tried to ease the European Commission's (EC)concerns about the acquisition.

The report said that the move occurred after "the EUcompetition enforcer expressed concerns about thedeal at a meeting with Microsoft executives lastweek".

It's likely that the EC's concerns follow pressurefrom Salesforce, which tried to block Microsoft'sLinkedIn acquisition and accused the former of anti-competitive behaviour. In other news, Salesforcealso bid on LinkedIn and lost to Microsoft.

Related: 5 reasons why Microsoft should not haveacquired LinkedIn

Speaking in September, Salesforce's chief legalofficer Burke Norton said: "Microsoft’s proposed

acquisition of LinkedIn threatens the future ofinnovation and competition.

"By gaining ownership of LinkedIn’s unique datasetof over 450 million professionals in more than 200countries, Microsoft will be able to deny competitorsaccess to that data, and in doing so obtain an unfaircompetitive advantage. "

Further details remain vague, but the report notedthat the EC will rule on the deal by 6 December,after seeking feedback from rivals and customersbefore deciding whether to accept Microsoft'sconcessions, demand more or open a fullinvestigation.

Microsoft has yet to comment on its latest move, butsaid previously that it sees competition from socialnetwork Facebook and wants regulators to take thatinto account. µ

2016-11-16 07:16 Carly Page www.theinquirer.net

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This is the space suit wemight wear on Mars

Dutch company Mars One has announced thecompletion of a lengthy study into what potentialcolonists might wear as they stroll across thesurface of the Red Planet.

The concept space suit would be pressurised, witha transparent, impact-resistant bubble as thehelmet and a modular system that allows forindividual parts to be easily 3D-printed andreplaced on the Martian surface. It should bepossible to put it on in 30 minutes withoutassistance, and 10 minutes with help.

It would allow colonists to operate for at least eighthours without plugging into other systems, as wellas offering at least 45 minutes of emergency lifesupport. It should take no more than four hours torecharge, and be able to cope with temperaturesfrom -128C to 77C. Someone wearing it would beable to walk up a 20 degree incline.

The study was carried out by Paragon SpaceDevelopment Corporation, which was contracted in2013 to develop life support and spacesuit systemsfor a Mars One mission. Barry Finger, Paragon'schief engineer, said that their design "makesmaximal use of local Mars resources to provide asafe and comfortable environment for the crewmember. "

Mars One's CTO Arno Wielders added: "It’s been apleasure to work with Paragon on this study, asthey really understand the challenges andcriticalities of humans performing and working onthe surface of Mars and how this translates into anoptimal Surface Exploration Suit design. "

Mars One launched in 2012 with the goal of

establishing a human colony on Mars, partiallyfunded by a reality TV show. But the project hasattracted criticism from many sides, with expertscalling into question its timescale, technical andfinancial practicality and ethics (the planned tripwould be one-way). One former participant in thescheme called it "hopelessly flawed".

The schedule has slipped from its original aim oflaunching a robotic lander in 2016. That mission isnow scheduled for 2020, with humans following in2026.

2016-11-16 07:01 Duncan Geere feedproxy.google.com

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Best Ultra HD Blu-ray player

So you plopped down a pile of cash to buy a 4K TV,maybe even one that delivers high dynamic range.Awesome. Once you’ve wowed your friends andfamily with those lush demo files the manufacturerprovided, you’re going to want to splash some 4Kmovies across that screen. An Ultra HD Blu-rayplayer is just the ticket.

You can also stream 4K HDR video from a handfulof video-streaming services—including Netflix,Amazon Video, and Vudu— if you have thebandwidth, that is. If your ISP can’t deliver super-fast download speeds, you’re won’t be able tostream 4K.

And then there’s the audio side of the equation.Nearly every Blu-ray disc contains a high-definitionsoundtrack encoded in Dolby TrueHD or DTS HDMaster Audio. Some will also contain Dolby Atmosand DTS:X data that expand surround sound toinclude height information. ( We explored DolbyAtmos and DTS:X in depth a few months back). The

best audio you can expect from a streaming serviceis Dolby Digital—an audio technology that firstcame to home entertainment systems withLaserDisc players back in the mid 1990s.

Our Ultra HD Blu-ray player coverage starts withreviews of two conventional players and asurprising alternative platform: Microsoft’s XboxOne S video game console. We thought Microsoft’sgame would get smoked by Samsung’s UBD-K8500 and Panasonic’s DMP-UB900 competition.After all, those two products are designedspecifically for playing Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-raydsics, while the Xbox One S makes its living as agame console. That didn’t happen, but we mightchange our opinion down the road.

Samsung’s UBD-K8500 isn’t a perfect Ultra HD Blu-ray player. It doesn’t have a lot of bells andwhistles, and we encountered a judder anomalywhen we connected it to a Sony TV that took a greatdeal of effort to resolve. (The player workedperfectly with a Samsung TV. Go figure.) But itdelivered great picture quality and it has all themost important features that most people will want

in this type of product.

That, of course, includes support for theaforementioned audio bitstreams that are neededto deliver everything that Blu-ray discs can deliver.The UBD-K8500 can’t compete with the high-endgaming features the Xbox delivers, and thePanasonic DMP-UB900 is the better choice forserious home-theater enthusiasts, but Samsung’splayer costs $50 less than an Xbox One S and it’s$450 cheaper than Panasonic’s player.

If you haven’t invested in home-theater equipmentthat can process Blu-ray’s high-definition audio andyou don’t intend to, the Xbox One S is a stellarvalue. It played every Ultra Blu-ray disc we threw atit without issue, and it delivered great video quality.Once Microsoft enables Dolby TrueHD and DTSHD Master Audio bitstreaming in 2017, it mighteven switch places with the Samsung on our list.

Panasonic’s DMP-UB900 is the most advancedUltra HD Blu-ray you can buy. So why isn’t it at thetop of our list? Because it delivers super-high-endfeatures that many people will never take

advantage of. But if you’re an audiophile or ahome-theater enthusiast with the audio equipmentto make the most of it, that $700 price tag is fullyjustified.

Did our picks leave you feeling less than satisfied?Well, there just aren’t a lot of Ultra HD Blu-rayplayers on the market. We expect this to change asUltra HD Blu-ray discs are the best way to reap thefull benefit of 4K UHD TVs. We’ll re-evaluate ourchoices as new models come to market. In themeantime, here are the specs and features youshould look for when you shop for an Ultra HD Blu-ray player.

Analog audio out There are two reasons to valueanalog audio outputs on a Blu-ray player. First, inthe event you’re using an older A/V receiver thatdoesn’t have HDMI. You’ll have to go back pretty farto find an A/V receiver that has neither HDMI noranalog audio inputs for at least stereo and a 5.1-channel speaker system. Second, you mightdiscover that the Ultra HD Blu-ray player’s DACsounds superior to what your A/V receiver puts out.In that case, you’d connect the Blu-ray player’s

analog outputs to the A/V receiver’s analog inputsand only use the receiver’s amplifier. Or you couldeven connect the player to a separate two-channelamp that’s dedicated solely to music. In short, it’s allabout having options.

Audio encoding Audio can be compressed usinglossy or lossless algorithms. Lossy compression,such as MP3, throws away some of the informationin the original recording. Lossless compressionuses a sort of shorthand to eliminate onlyredundant information. You could compare to a ZIPfile since it retains the full fidelity of the original file.Lossless obviously sounds better.

Lossy audio file formats include MP3, M4A (Apple),OGG, and WMA (there is also a lossless version ofWMA). Lossless audio file formats include APE andFLAC. There are also lossless versions of M4A(ALAC) and WMA.

BD-Live A Blu-ray feature that enables you todownload additional content—featurettes ormaking-of videos, for instance—from the internet towatch before or after you watch the movie.

DLNA compliance The Digital Living NetworkAlliance’s standard for streaming media makes itpossible for a Blu-ray player to render audio, video,photos, and other digital content streamed fromother devices on your home network; typically, acomputer or network-attached storage (NAS) box.

DSD audio decoding Direct Stream Digital wasoriginally developed by Sony and Philips for theirSuper Audio Compact Disc (SACD) high-resolutionaudio platform. DSD uses single-bit sampling ratesof 2.8- to 5.6MHz and higher. You’ll also see DSDfiles characterized as DSD64 (because the 2.8MHzsampling rate is 64 times that of a CD), DSD128(44.1kHz times 128 is 5.6MHz), and so on.

A Blu-ray player’s ability to play DSD files doesn’tnecessarily mean that it can read SACDs. But youcan purchase music encoded in DSD format fromvarious online merchants and store those files on aNAS box.

HDMI audio out Having a separate HDMI output foraudio provides flexibility. If you’re connecting theplayer to a video projector instead of a TV, for

instance, you can connect the projector to the HDMIvideo out and use the HDMI audio out for your A/Vreceiver or sound bar.

Image file support Some Blu-ray players can streamdigital photographs from USB or network storage,and some (such as Panasonic’s DMP-UB900) willeven play music to accompany the show. JPEG isthe most common image file format, but if you useothers—GIF, TIFF, or PNG, for example—you’llwant to know that the Blu-ray player you buy canrender them.

Optical and/or coaxial digital audio out Flexibility isthe key benefit here. If you’re using an older A/Vreceiver that doesn’t have HDMI (or one that hasHDMI, but not HDCP 2.2), you can connect theplayer to your TV using HDMI and use whichever ofthese digital audio outputs works with your receiver.Be aware, however, that these connections don’tprovide sufficient bandwidth to handle DolbyTrueHD, DTS HD Master Audio, Dolby Atmos, orDTS:X. Audiophiles, meanwhile, will appreciatehaving these connections so that they can put ahigher-end digital-to-analog converter (DAC)

between the player and their receiver or amplifierfor listening to music.

Remote control The quality of the remote controlcan have a tremendous impact on how much youenjoy using your Blu-ray player. It needs to havejust the right number of buttons, so you’re notfumbling around trying to accomplish simple tasks,and the buttons need to be clearly labeled so youcan see them at a glance. Buttons that can controlother devices, such as your TV or A/V receiver, arealso useful. And you’ll really appreciate backlitbuttons, so you can operate the remote in the dark.If you’ve invested in a universal remote control,such as Logitech’s Harmony Elite , then none ofthat matters.

SD Card slot SD (Secure Digital) and SDHC (HighCapacity) cards are commonly used with digitalcameras to store image and video files, though theycan be used to store any type of digital information.If your Blu-ray player is equipped with an SD Cardreader, you can use it to show these image andvideo files on your TV. Some Blu-ray players rely onSD cards to store BD-Live. Most SD Card slots can

also read a MicroSD Card with an adapter. Butthere are also USB SD Card adapters, so theabsence of an SD card slot is mostly a matter ofinconvenience.

USB ports These are most commonly used forreading from or writing to a USB drive, but mosttypically for playing media files or storing BD-Liveinformation. Some Ultra Blu-ray players, suchPanasonic's DMP-UB900, even support a USBkeyboard and mouse. Note that while most UltraBlu-ray players support drives formatted FAT,FAT32, and NTFS, they might not support theincreasingly popular cross-platform (Windows/OSX) exFAT, which Microsoft charges royalties for.You might also check the maximum drive capacitythat’s supported. Front-mounted USB ports areobviously more convenient than ports on the backof the player.

Video container and codec support If you have alibrary of videos that you’ve ripped from DVD orBlu-ray discs, captured on your smartphone, orrecorded with a camcorder, you’ll want to be able toplay them on your TV. Whether you’ve stored them

on a USB hard drive or a NAS box, make sure theBlu-ray player you buy supports whatevercontainers and codecs you’ve used (unless you’realready set up with some other device for thispurpose, such as a Roku player). The mostcommon containers are AVI, MKV, MP4, and MPG.The most common video codecs are h.264 (AVC),h.265 (HEVC), WMV, and the various MPEGs.

Video-streaming services If your Blu-ray player canconnect to popular video-streaming services suchas Netflix, it eliminates the need for a dedicated boxlike a Roku or an Amazon Fire TV in yourentertainment center. The more services supportedthe merrier, but consider Netflix and Amazon InstantVideo to be the minimum. Make sure the playersupports the 4K and HDR versions, if the serviceoffers them.

Wi-Fi Everyone knows what Wi-Fi is. What’s moreimportant is the type of Wi-Fi the Blu-ray playersupports. The latest and fastest standard is802.11ac, which operates on the less-crowded5GHz frequency band. Blu-ray players with802.11b/g/n adapters will work with an 802.11ac

router (because all such routers are backwardcompatible), but they might rely on the morecrowded 2.4GHz band and therefore might notstream 4K UHD video as smoothly.

2016-11-16 07:00 Jon L www.itnews.com

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10 hardest-to-find tech skills

Rumors of Moore's Law's demise have beenslightly exaggerated. Advances in computingpower, data analytics, the cloud, and othertechnologies just keep marching on -- albeit a bitslower. But as enterprises become more data-

driven, it's not the hardware or the infrastructurethat's at issue. It's the fact that tech pros with skillsrelating to organizing, analyzing, and securing thatdata are increasingly harder to find.

"We're all familiar with Moore's Law, and what we'reseeing is that as computing power increases overtime there's a huge influx of data being generated.What do companies do with it? They have toleverage their infrastructure to be able to store it, doso securely, understand it, and use it to make betterbusiness decisions -- and right now those skills arevery hard to find," says Matt Sigelman, CEO ofBurning Glass , a labor market analytics andresearch firm.

Here, based on Burning Glass's research into morethan 40,000 job posting websites from August 2015to September 2016, and ranked by the number ofdays it takes to fill roles requiring that skill, are thehardest-to-find tech skills.

Even organizations that balked at cloud technologyin the past are finally jumping on board, driven bythe efficiency and cost-savings the cloud can

provide. "Even as organizations become moredata-driven and move to the cloud, they're worriedabout how to secure that data, so cloud securityskills are really important," Sigelman says.

The JBoss application server is used by enterprisesto run Java-based, transactional applications. It's anopen-source technology, which requiresspecialized skills.

Designing infrastructure around data requiresspecialized analysis and information about thetypes of data organizations have as well ascompliance and access policies.

Integration architects are often involved withdatabase modeling, working with interfacespecifications, or managing any other process thatinvolves how data is integrated into a specific ITarchitecture.

A career in distributed computing requirestheoretical understanding of distributed systems,parallel programming, concurrency control,transaction processing, and databases; experiencebuilding systems that manage and process large

data sets; and the ability to develop componentsand subsystems of a multi-server, cloud-basedinfrastructure.

Information architects focus on organizing,structuring, and labeling content in an effective andsustainable way. The goal is to help users findinformation and complete tasks using technologyseamlessly and effectively.

Apache Kafka is a distributed, subscribe-and-publish messaging system that was first used byLinkedIn. Its benefits are that it's fast, scalable, andreliable. As its popularity grows and adoptionspreads, engineers with Kafka development skillswill see demand for their experience grow.

Anything security related is in huge demandnowadays, says Sigelman, and web services is noexception. Web security engineers are tasked withmaking sure that internal systems, networks, andweb applications are all secure -- a critical job inthe digital era.

The CRM platform is becoming a staple of today'sdigital businesses, Sigelman says. Any IT pro with

Salesforce integration skills should be in highdemand. "We see a big demand for Salesforceskills across many industries, which speaks to theubiquity of the platform," Sigelman says.

IT roles and related skills have changed as a cloud-based delivery model has become the norm in ITdepartments, Sigelman says. That meansbusinesses need skilled professionals to doeverything from designing cloud services tobuilding and deploying cloud-based storage andapplication delivery to ensuring the security of thecloud, he says.

2016-11-16 07:00 Sharon Florentine www.infoworld.com

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Yeah, DEFINITELY soundslike a snail-mail problem

IT manager pilot fish is responsible for internetconnectivity at dozens of sites across the U. S. --and the networking ranges from cable to DSL tofixed wireless to T1, with a different provider foreach location.

"We apparently had not received or paid an invoicefor one location in quite some time," says fish."Usually if we are even a day late making apayment, I get a nasty-gram threating to disconnectservice.

"But I hadn't been contacted by this very largetelecom company and, since the service was

working fine at that location, it never came up on myradar screen that we had not been paying them. "

Then one day a past-due notice arrives. It's for$975, which means the $75 monthly bill hasn'tbeen paid for 13 months.

Fish calls the vendor -- and after only 30 minutes ina voice-response phone maze, he finally connectswith a human customer service rep.

We'll certainly pay the amount due, fish tells the rep,but I need to get actual invoices, because ouraccounts-payable people won't pay on a past-duenotice alone. Can we get copies of those?

"The rep told me that would be fine," fish says, "butwe would need to pay a service fee for the copies --or I could log onto their web portal and get themmyself.

"I told the rep, 'No, I'm not going to waste my timetrying to figure out how to log onto a website andprint bills. And since you never sent us the invoices,I am not going to pay a service fee to have you mailor email them to me. "

Rep's response: The telco did mail the invoices,and if fish never received them, fish needs tocontact his postmaster.

Let me get this straight, fish tells the rep. You wereable to mail us a $975 past-due notice at the sameaddress you sent previous invoices to. Our addressis showing correctly in your system. We havereceived maybe 50,000 pieces of mail at thisaddress in the past year. Yet you think our postalcarrier has decided to not deliver only your invoicesfor this one account?

Eventually the rep agrees to print and mail theinvoices to fish at no charge, and puts fish on holdto make the arrangements.

Reports fish, "After nearly 20 minutes, the rep cameback -- and said there was something wrong withhis billing system, and they hadn't produced aninvoice for us in the past 13 months. "

2016-11-16 07:00 Sharky www.computerworld.com

205 /223 2.4

Hadoop, we hardly knew ye

It wasn’t long ago that Hadoop was destined to bethe Next Big Thing, driving the big data movementinto every enterprise. Now there are clear signs thatwe’ve reached “peak Hadoop,” as Ovum analystTony Baer styles it. But the clearest indicator of allmay simply be that “Hadoop” doesn’t actually haveany Hadoop left in it.

Or, as InfoWorld’s Andrew Oliver says it , “Thebiggest thing you need to know about Hadoop isthat it isn’t Hadoop anymore.”

Nowhere is this more true than in newfangled cloudworkloads, which eschew Hadoop for fancieroptions like Spark. Indeed, as with so much else inenterprise IT, the cloud killed Hadoop. Or perhapsHadoop, by moving too fast, killed Hadoop. Let meexplain.

The fall of Hadoop has not been total, to be sure. AsBaer notes, Hadoop’s “data managementcapabilities are not yet being matched by Spark orother fit-for-purpose big data cloud services.”Furthermore, as Oliver describes, “Even whenyou’re not using Hadoop because you’re focusedon in-memory, real-time analytics with Spark, youstill may end up using pieces of Hadoop here andthere.”

By and large, however, Hadoop is lookingdecidedly retro in these cloudy days. Even theHadoop vendors seem to have moved on. Sure,Cloudera still tells the world that ClouderaEnterprise is “powered by Apache Hadoop.” But ifyou look at the components of its cloud architecture,it’s not Hadoop all the way down. IBM, for its part,still runs Hadoop under the hood of its BigInsights

product line, but if you use its sexier new WatsonData Platform, Hadoop is missing in action.

The reason? Cloud, of course.

As such, Baer is spot on to argue, “The fact that IBMis creating a cloud-based big data collaborationhub is not necessarily a question of Spark vs.Hadoop, but cloud vs. Hadoop.” Hadoop still hasbrand relevance as a marketing buzzword thatsignifies “big data,” but its component parts (HDFS,MapReduce, and YARN) are largely cast aside fornewer and speedier cloud-friendly alternatives asapplications increasingly inhabit the cloud.

Which is exactly as it should be, argues Hadoopcreator Doug Cutting. Though Cutting has pooh-poohed the notion that Hadoop has been replacedby Spark or has lost its relevance, he alsorecognizes the strength that comes from softwareevolution. Commenting on someone’s observationthat Cloudera’s cloud stack no longer has anyHadoop components in it, Cutting tweeted : “Proofthat an open source platform evolves and improvesmore rapidly. Entire stack replacement in a decade!

Wonderful to see.”

It’s easy to overlook what a powerful statement thisis. If Cutting were a typical enterprise softwarevendor, not only would he not embrace the implicitaccusation that his Hadoop baby is ugly (requiringreplacement), but also he’d do everything possibleto lock customers into his product. Softwarevendors get away with selling Soviet-eratechnology all the time, even as the market sweepspast them. Customers locked into long-termcontracts simply can’t or don’t want to move asquickly as the market does.

For an open source project like Hadoop, however,there is no inhibition to evolution. In fact, theopposite is true: Sometimes the biggest problemwith open source is that it moves far too quickly forthe market to digest.

We’ve seen this to some extent with Hadoop,ironically. A year and a half ago, Gartner called outHadoop adoption as “fairly anemic,” despite itsoutsized media attention. Other big datainfrastructure quickly marched past it, including

Spark, MongoDB, Cassandra, Kafka, and more.

Yet there’s a concern buried in this technologicalprogress. One of the causes of Hadoop’s marketadoption anemia has been its complexity. Hadoopskills have always fallen well short of Hadoopdemand. Such complexity is arguably exacerbatedby the fast-paced evolution of the big data stack.Yes, some of the component parts (like Spark) areeasier to use, but not if they must be combined withan ever-changing assortment of other componentparts.

In this way, we might have been better off with alonger shelf life for Hadoop, as we’ve had withLinux. Yes, in Linux the modules are constantlychanging. But there’s a system-level fidelity that hasenabled a “Linux admin” to actually meansomething over decades, whereas keeping up withthe various big data projects is much more difficult.In short, rapid Hadoop evolution is both testamentto its flexibility and cause for concern.

2016-11-16 07:00 Matt Asay www.infoworld.com

206 /223 0.9

| Pokémon Sun review: NewPokémon, an improved battlesystem and lots to do in Alolamake Sun and Moon the verybest, like no-one ever was

By

Lewis Painter | 22 mins ago

£30-40

Price comparision from , and manufacturers

Pokémon is one of very few brands whose fan base

spreads across generations. Sure, Pokémon ismainly aimed at kids, but it’s also aimed at thosewho grew up playing the likes of Pokémon Red,Blue or Yellow sat beneath a lamp in their frontroom (kids today won’t understand the struggle ofnon-backlit screens).

While this means that Pokémon trainers young andold can come together and discuss stories abouttheir favourite Pokémon, it also means thatdevelopers Game Freak had a huge challenge ontheir hands - how do you make a game appealingto both kids and adults? While Pokémon X and Yshowed huge improvements in terms of storylineand gameplay, it’s down to Pokémon Sun andMoon to take the baton and finish the race. HasGame Freak succeeded? Well…

See also: The most anticipated games of 2016 and2017 | Pokémon GO review | Pokémon GOtroubleshooting

Plus: Best Black Friday Gaming Deals

Nintendo has confirmed the seventh generation inthe series, Pokémon Sun and Moon, will launch on

23 November as a 3DS exclusive.

You can pre-order Pokémon Sun or Moon fromAmazon (£32) or GAME ( £34.99).

Looking back at the early games, it’s fascinating tosee how much Pokémon, as a brand and a game,had developed. Gone are the flat, 2D images ofearly games, with Pokémon battles in recent gamesbeing energetic, dramatic and most importantly,three-dimensional. Bringing 3D models intoPokémon gave it a new lease of life, and helpedbring the Pokémon to life too. 3DS owners couldtake that one step further, and enable the enhanced3D mode of the console to bring even more depthto the display.

However, while 3D support was featured inPokémon X and Y, Game Freak has decided to notoffer any kind of 3D capabilities in Pokémon Sunand Moon. We’re not quite sure why, but this is sureto disappoint those with a 3DS, especially thenewer version with enhanced 3D viewingcapabilities. Although with that being said, we findthe enhanced 3D capabilities of the Nintendo 3DS

somewhat gimmicky, and the lack of 3D shouldn’tmake the game any less impressive - it’s just worthnoting for those that do appreciate the functionality.

Pokémon X and Y was praised for its fast pacednature and interesting storyline, and this is a themethat has continued on with Pokémon Sun andMoon. Gone are the days of sluggish, slowgameplay with extended periods wandering aroundin long grass battling Caterpies. Within the first hourof playing Pokémon Sun and Moon, you’reintroduced to a plethora of Pokémon - both inbattles and in the wild - and depending on yourskill, you may have conquered your first Island Trial.The change in pace keeps users engaged, and theconstant introduction of activities and side questsprovides users with lots to do in Alola, even oncethe main storyline has been completed.

Island Trials are new to the Alolan world ofPokémon Sun and Moon, and replace the hugelypopular Gym mechanic of past Pokémon games.Why? In Alola, you must take on the trial captainsdotted across the islands, each with their own trials.The trials usually involve a myriad of Pokémon

battles, but can also involve observation andrecognition skills (we were prompted at onechallenge to identify the jingle of the PokémonCentre, and more). Think of the Island Trials asbeing like the puzzle at the entrance of gyms inolder Pokémon games, but much more intricate andwell-developed. Each trial is unique and tests adifferent skill, and may also tie in with the ‘type’ ofPokémon that the trial captain prefers.

However unlike with traditional Gyms, it’s not thetrial captain that you battle. Once you’ve passed thetrial, you must then take on the Totem Pokémon.The Totem Pokémon introduced in Pokémon Sunand Moon are much stronger than averagePokémon and are blanketed in an aura that givesthem an edge in battle – they can have heighteneddefence, attack and more, but the specificcharacteristics depend on the Totem Pokémonyou’re battling.

A new feature of the game is the ability for wildPokémon to call for backup, or an ‘ally’ Pokémon.While this can happen in standard wild battles, youcan bet your Rare Candy that it’ll happen in every

Totem battle (unless you 1-hit KO them), whichposes an additional threat. When an ally appears,the battle becomes a 2v1, making the challengethat much greater – and that much more rewardingwhen you defeat your enemies and are awardedwith a Z-Crystal.

What is a Z-Crystal? Z-Crystals help Pokémon of aspecific type unleash incredibly powerful attacksthat bond trainer and Pokémon, although these arelimited to one per match and the power/move itselfdepends on which Pokémon is performing it. Asyou progress through the game you’ll find a numberof different Z-Crystals, both from Island Trials andby randomly interacting with NPCs, providing yourPokémon with a trick up their sleeves for thoseextra-tough opponents. It’s not ridiculouslyoverpowered though, meaning you’ll still have tothink strategically about timing and possible effectsit can have on the enemy.

So as you may have guessed, the dynamic ofbattles can change quickly in Pokémon Sun andMoon - and we like it. Yes, the majority of battleswill still be in the standard 1v1 style, but the wild

Pokémon’s ability to call for backup can change thetide of any battle. While logic dictates that thetrainer should then summon a second Pokémonthemselves, you’re forced to take on two foes with asingle Pokémon. There’s also a 2v2 mode, but thisis only the case when facing two enemies - youwon’t find this to be the case when wanderingthrough tall grass or exploring caves.

This change in the battle dynamic forces the playerto think more tactically than in previous games,where some gamers would spam one move to KOthe competition. Should you take out the Pokémonwith lower health first? Or should you focus yourefforts on the newly summoned Pokémon that justhappens to be one of your weaknesses? It’s littlefeatures like this that make Pokémon Sun andMoon much more exciting and engaging thanprevious releases.

The introduction of different battle modes is only apart of the overhaul in Pokémon Sun and Moonthough, as Game Freak has also added a numberof smaller, well-needed features. If you’re upagainst a Pokémon you’ve previously battled, you’ll

find little notes next to each of your attacks that letyou know whether it’ll be effective, super effectiveor not very effective. This is great as it means youdon’t need to memorise the strengths andweaknesses of the vast library of Pokémon in Sunand Moon, and makes battling a little bit easier forcasual players.

That’s not all though, as the Pokémon canphysically change during a match to reflect what’shappening. If you’re up against a Pokémon with ashell, there’s every possibility that the shell willbreak off once you’ve damaged them enough.You’ll also be able to add a newly caught Pokémonstraight to your party, instead of them beingautomatically sent to a box. Again, these are onlysmall changes to the battle system, but arewelcomed by long-time fans of the series.

Price comparision from , and manufacturers

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2016-11-16 06:57 Lewis Painter www.pcadvisor.co.uk

207 /223 7.7

There may be two iPhone 8Plus models next year

The iPhone 8 is currently rumored for a late 2018release date and the latest news suggests we’ll seethree versions of the phone instead this year.

Apple may be readying an iPhone 8 Plus with anLCD screen as well as another 5.5-inch phone withan OLED display. Each will feature a dual-cameraset up too.

That will sit alongside the normal 4.7-inch LCDdisplay iPhone 8 with a single camera.

We can happily predict the more premium versionof the iPhone 8 Plus will also be more expensivethan the other two versions of the phone.

The rumor comes from a KGI Securities analyst,which isn't always accurate on upcoming Appleannouncements, so we should take this with apinch of salt.

Right now little is actually known about the iPhone8 or the iPhone 8 Plus and it may not even be readyto launch until 2018.

If the past schedule for Apple releases is followed,next year we'd probably see the iPhone 7S andiPhone 7S Plus announced instead.

2016-11-16 06:55 James Peckham feedproxy.google.com

208 /223 3.3

Download of the day: DRLDrone Racing Simulator

Competitive drone racing is a burgeoning sport ,with serious prize money up for grabs. Racingdrones themselves are reasonably priced at around£300 (US$400, AU$550), but to stand a chance in astadium you’ll need to hone your skills – and evenan affordable drone is too much of an investment torisk slamming into a tree when you’re first earningyour wings.

That’s where DRL Drone Racing Simulator comes

in. This free download has been developed by theUS-based Drone Racing League to help youmaster the fine control needed to ace a realobstacle course at over 60mph. It’s also great funas a flight sim in its own right – realistic anddemanding.

To get the most out of the simulator you’re advisedto use a real drone controller. An Xbox orPlaystation controller will also do the job, or thegood old WASD keyboard controls if you fancy areal challenge.

DRL Drone Racing Simulator offers a training modethat helps you get used to controlling your virtualaircraft – a very different experience to most flightsims. Once you’ve mastered the basics, there aresingle-player and multiplayer modes that pit youagainst the clock or other pilots, respectively.

Feeling confident? DRL Drone Racing Simulatoralso lets you try out for the 2017 Drone RacingLeague. After entering the tryouts, you’ll compete in24 heats across four maps and be given a time thatrepresents the aggregate total of all your race

times. Check out the leaderboards to see the timesto beat. Tryouts are only open to US residents fornow.

Bear in mind that DRL Simulator is still in beta, soyou might run into the odd glitch here and there(though hopefully nothing on a par with reports ofGoPro Karma drones dropping from the sky ).

Download here: DRL Drone Racing Simulator

2016-11-16 06:51 Cat Ellis feedproxy.google.com

209 /223 3.6

Coop Denmark replacesNetApp with VMwaresoftware-defined VSAN

Grocery retailer Coop Denmark has deployedVMware’s Virtual SAN (VSAN) software-defined

storage with all-flash storage to support 1,200virtual machines (VMs). The move broughtdecreased costs and simpler management and hasseen the company phase out its use of NetAppfilers.

The Coop has 1,200 stores in Denmark as well asin Greenland and the Faroe Islands, with 40,000employees and 100,000 products on its shelves.

Core business processes are in the main supportedby VMware-based virtualisation, with 1,200 virtualmachines. A small portion of processes run on IBMmainframe and Unix servers.

The organisation’s existing storage was providedby NetApp filers, but the Coop was keen to simplifyIT operations and cut costs, said IT enterprisearchitect, Soren Vendler .

“We’re always looking for ways to cut costs andmake our landscape simpler. The less specialisedfunctions we need to maintain the lower the costand VSAN is a way to eliminate an entirediscipline,” he said.

The organisation had run into performancebottlenecks with its existing NetApp storage withMetro Clustering deployed.

“We have a policy of mirroring all data betweensites. NetApp prefers Metro Clustering for that. Itsplits the storage system so everything is mirroredwithout the need for replication policies onindividual volumes,” said Vendler.

“However, Metro Clustering is vulnerable toinconsistencies between the two halves of the‘brain’ when bandwidth is short. We could have putmore NetApp instances in but that would havemeant more cost.”

In a technology refresh, Coop Denmark deployedfour groups of eight HP DL380 servers with all-flashstorage at separate sites on its Copenhagencampus to run the vSphere hypervisor environmentplus VSAN storage.

VMware VSAN aggregates server-attached disk(DAS) into a single pool of storage that cancomprise spinning disk HDDs with flash disk forhigh-speed metadata. Using software acquired

from Virsto in 2013, it is able to provide speedierwrite access to virtual machine storage by loggingwrite requests and making them sequential ratherthan random.

VSAN provides a single storage namespace, withall VMs and their data replicated to another set ofhardware on the Copenhagen campus.

Vendler said deployment of new VM storage iseasier than previously but that getting theconfiguration right on VSAN is critical.

“Provisioning is a very simple process comparedwith what we are used to, but don’t underestimatethe delicacy of design. VMware specified thedesign of the product right down to the tiniestconfiguration values in a detailed blueprint and thisis the only way to ensure performance andstability.” he said.

“This is critical to maximise the possibility ofsuccess and now we have the templtes to allow usto scale out. But, you can find customers that havebeen less careful and run into problems.”

Could VMware improve VSAN? Yes, said Vendler;by providing software-defined storage with FibreChannel SAN connectivity and simple file shares.

“VMware is already beginning to do it; I wish forVSAN to be able to provide Fibre Channel LUNs forphysical servers. We have 50 Unix servers thatneed LUNs and we’re still using NetApp for those.Also, to be able to do simple file shares would begood.”

2016-11-16 06:45 Storage Editor www.computerweekly.com

210 /223 5.3

The PlayStation Store isturning 10 today - and Sony’shaving a big sale to celebrate

Sony was initially a little late to the downloadablegames party. It’s PlayStation Store launched in2006 with the arrival of the PS3, almost two yearsafter the Xbox Live Arcade came to the originalXbox.

But since then it’s gone from strength to strength,

and now contains exclusives as strong as any thatcame to XBLA.

The PlayStation store is turning 10 today, and Sonyis having a two-week long sale to celebrate, andsome pretty significant games are seeing savings ofup to 60%, or 70% for PS Plus members.

There are some excellent games that have beendiscounted. The PS4’s remastered version of Godof War 3 is down from $20 to $10, which is exactlythe same discount you can get on on the excellentLife is Strange.

If you want to get your teeth into a classic PSOneJRPG then both Final Fantasy 7 and Chrono Cross

are discounted from $10 down to $3 which, in termsof price-per-hour of gameplay, is a prettysubstantial.

Meanwhile, there are also some pretty greatdiscounts on some more recent role-playinggames, with the PS2 classics Persona 3 andPersona 4 discounted from $10 down to $4. Wewouldn’t advise buying both of them if you want toever see the outside world again, but both areabsolutely stunning games.

2016-11-16 06:45 Jon Porter feedproxy.google.com

211 /223 0.8

G4S halves data centre costsby moving to AWS

Security firm G4S is moving much of itsinfrastructure into the cloud in a new cloud-firstpolicy. One of the immediate benefits has been ahalving of its UK data centre costs.

Speaking to Computing recently, Group CIO NickFolkes explained how and why the firm has taken

the decision to move away from owning its owninfrastructure.

"We're moving everything into the cloud in oneguise or another," said Folkes. "For each area[platforms, infrastructure and software] we'relooking at the cost structure and how we cansupport the future growth of the firm. What is theright platform in those contexts? Very rarely is it'let's go build the thing ourselves, or let's enter amulti-year support contract for something we'vealways done ourselves'. "

He also discussed DevOps, explaining that he

believes such a cultural change is potentially moreproblematic for the business than for IT staff.

As a security firm that is a supplier to manygovernments, G4S is responsible for some verysensitive data, and so not quite everything is beingplaced in the cloud.

"With this cloud-first policy, we always assess themerits [before we move systems or data into thecloud]. We work for lots of government institutionswho require data to be held in that country.Sometimes the cloud doesn't lend itself too well tothat. [Understanding the physical location of data] isgetting better from the main cloud players, but thatremains a challenge. "

As part of the move, G4S is leaving its existingoutsourced data centre in the UK, and moving toAmazon Web Services (AWS).

"We have a number of large contracts foroutsourced data centres, the largest of which is inthe UK. We're moving that off to Amazon. We feltAmazon represented the most mature model overits rivals. "

Whilst AWS was found to be among the top cloudproviders selected by UK firms, recent Computingresearch surprisingly found that Microsoft actuallytopped the pile.

But he admitted that some legal wrangling had tobe done first, as the initial terms presented by AWSweren't considered to be sufficient for G4S's needs.

"The default terms and conditions at face valuearen't very enterprise-friendly, but we worked withthem to help them understand what's important tous, so they were able to host our infrastructure. "

Most firms would struggle to convince AWS tochange its terms purely for them, but a very largecustomer such as G4S has more bargaining powerthanks to its size and likely spend. Folkes also saidthat since his firm supplies the physical security forAWS data centres, that existing relationship alsohelped.

The outcome of the move to AWS has been a largecost saving for G4S.

"We have more than halved our data centre costs inthe UK by moving our biggest outsourced datacentre to AWS," said Folkes.

2016-11-16 06:41 Stuart Sumner www.computing.co.uk

212 /223 7.1

Epic launches Unreal Engine4.14 with VR tweaks

Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4 has received a hefty

update, including a new forward shading rendererwhich can improve the performance of VR titles by22 percent. Epic Games has announced an updateto its Unreal Engine 4 game engine, bringing a newshading renderer optimised for virtual reality,'Contact Shadows' for more detailed shading, andsupport for the Vulkan application programminginterface (API) on Android devices.

Bringing the Unreal Engine to version 4.14, themajor new feature of Epic's update comes in theform of a forward shading renderer which thecompany claims is specifically optimised for virtualreality. Support for Unreal Engine's existing lightingfeatures alongside multi-sample antialiasing(MSAA) or temporal antialiasing (TAA) provides thequality, while a frustrum-space grid allows lightsand reflections outside the viewer's primary focus tobe culled in order to improve performance.Stationary lights have dynamic shadowsprecomputed, allowing for multiple shadow effectswithout the usual performance loss.

Sadly, the current forward shading renderer doescome with some limitations: various screen space

techniques, such as screen space ambientocclusion (SSAO) and screen space reflection(SSR) are not supported, nor are movable lightsable to cast shadows. MSAA is also only availableon selected content, with D-buffer decals, motionblur, dynamic shadows, and capsule shadows notable to benefit from the feature. Despite this,developers may want to enable the functionality forVR titles: Epic's own Robo Recall game benefitsfrom a 22 percent performance boost under thenew renderer when running on an Nvidia GeForceGTX 970 graphics card.

Another feature new to Unreal Engine 4.14 butsadly deactivated when using the forward shadingrenderer is contact shadows, a new form ofdynamic shadow rendered as a short ray-cast oncomplex objects. Using this, Epic claims, it'spossible to get highly detailed shadow on complexobjects at a very low performance cost. The engineis additionally now able to automatically generatedifferent levels of detail (LOD) for in-game modelsusing quadric mesh simplification, pre-computedifferent lighting scenarios for scenes with matchedgeometry, offers full-resolution skin shading, per-

pixel translucent lighting, and supports Nvidia'sAnsel in-game photography tool via a bundledplugin.

More information on the new release, includingadditional new features including improved cablemodel handling and font outlines, can be foundfrom the official announcement .

2016-11-16 06:39 Gareth Halfacree feedproxy.google.com

213 /223 1.1

Security Think Tank: Ensurecyber insurance is right andhelps reduce risk

Cyber insurance policies for businesses, and thecriteria used to write premiums, can vary. The sizeand type of business is typically assessed, butbeyond this, the questions asked can start to lookquite different.

For the insurer, these should serve to gauge anaccurate view of an organisation’s critical assetsand the maturity of its current cyber defences. In

addition, the insurer should be able to build apicture to understand the businesses’s ability toresist and manage a cyber incident, as well asunderstand the fundamental business services thatcould be affected by such an event.

Typically, an insurer might currently assess abusiness’s cyber capability by asking some simplequestions, such as whether systems, databasesand emails are password protected. While this is abasic and fundamental security control, it is onlyone type of defence when it comes to a cyberdefence strategy. It offers limited understanding ofan organisation’s overall cyber resilience.

So how does the above affect what organisationsshould think about when looking for cyberinsurance?

The first point is to look for an insurance policy thatasks a breadth of questions. Given thecomplexities, changing threat and limited historicdata that exists for cyber security, it is worthwhileseeking a more tailored policy. This will ensure thatunderwriters fully understand the level of impactyou could be exposed to.

Uncertainty generally results in higher premiums,and the cost of cyber insurance can be as much asthree times higher than more established liabilityrisks. As you would with a consumer policy,comparing policies could see both a saving madeand a more bespoke one being written.

Last, and most importantly, know what sort of coveryou need. Check the level of cover being offeredand what exclusions there are. A typical policymight cover costs for notification, crisismanagement and legal and regulatory defence, allof which will likely be needed in the event of a data

breach.

Some organisations may have a very specificreason for wanting cyber insurance, such asadditional liabilities due to the EU General DataProtection Regulation (GDPR) that becomesenforceable in May 2018. If something like this isthe primary driver for wanting such a policy, theninsurance buyers may benefit from a detailedconversation with sellers to cover all areas ofconcern.

Overall, cyber insurance is a young market, but it ismaturing. It may not be appropriate for everyone,but with rapidly evolving cyber threats, it isimportant that organisations manage cyber riskprudently, and identify if cyber insurance canindeed help them do this more effectively.

Gavin Cartwright is a director in Deloitte UK’s cyberrisk team.

2016-11-16 06:30 Gavin Cartwright www.computerweekly.com

214 /223 6.7

Google introducing VR intoseveral UK classrooms

Google is bringing virtual reality (VR) to one millionchildren in UK schools, accorsing to its CEO,Sundar Pichai.

The announcement came during Pichai's first visitto the UK as chief executive - the project is calledGoogle Expeditions and the initiative will runthroughout the next school year.

Google Expeditions are collections of VR content

and learning support materials, which teachers canuse during their lessons to help children learncurricular topics with the help of VR experiences.For instance, Expeditions could allow children to goon virtual trips to museums, inside the human bodyor in outer space.

Pichai said (via Wired ): "Virtual reality can sparkstudents' imagination and help them learn abouttopics like how blood flows through the humanbody or the impact climate change is having on theGreat Barrier Reef, in an engaging and immersiveway".

Within the next couple of months, a team deliveringGoogle Expeditions will be visiting schools inEdinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast, Newcastle andInverness.

During an event at Google's London headquartersyesterday, Pichai also announced the launch of aninitiative aimed at providing free digital skillstraining to all those living in the UK. Google willprovide five hours of free digital skills training to anyindividual who wishes to learn.

Pichai said: "No matter where you live, no matterwhere you're from, no matter what your job is - youdeserve access to all the information, educationand opportunity the web has to offer. "

The digital skills training is part of a programmecalled The Digital Garage, which has alreadytrained around 250,000 individuals in the UK.

From 2017, Google will also offer free onlinecourses through the Digital Garage Academy, andtraining face-to-face in 100 cities around the UK.

The Google Expeditions initiative is free for allschools in the UK, and interested teachers cansign-up for it here .

Google's digital courses, on the other hand, can beaccessed here .

2016-11-16 06:28 Ingrid Fadelli www.itpro.co.uk

215 /223 0.0

: How to download WhatsAppon BlackBerry 10 after 30June 2017

Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operatingsystems now dominate the smartphone market, itmust not be forgotten that there is a loyal legion ofBlackBerry fans still out there. Its recent devices likethe DTEK50 and the Priv run Android, but there arestill a fair few people using BlackBerry 10 deviceslike the Passport and the Classic.

Therefore it was disappointing when we learnedthe news that WhatsApp is dropping support for allBlackBerry 10 devices (as well as older devices

running BB OS 7) from 1 July 2017. This wasoriginally set to happen at the end of 2016, but it'sbeen extended by 6 months. Still, this is a massiveshame, as while BB10 market share is small, thereis still a huge community of users who will sufferfrom the loss of a major messaging app likeWhatsApp.

It can be easy to dismiss BlackBerry as dead, butit’s not. We’ve used the BlackBerry 10 operatingsystem extensively on a few devices, and itcertainly has its place in the market. BlackBerry’sapparent decline is unfortunate – BB10 is verygood at many things, even if media consumptionand bang up to date apps isn’t one of them.

There is however a way for you to keep usingWhatsApp on your BB10 device after 30 June 2016.It’s a bit of a work around, but it’s fairlystraightforward and means you’ll be able to run theAndroid version of WhatsApp on your BlackBerry.

We’ve tested this method with the BlackBerryPassport and the BlackBerry Classic and gotWhatsApp working smoothly. Bear in mind that

these phones have 3GB and 2GB RAMrespectively, and have decent processors. On lowerpowered BB10 devices this method willtheoretically work, but your device may struggle torun the latest version of WhatsApp (which is whatyou will be downloading) to an acceptablestandard.

We cannot guarantee that this method will work foreveryone, and you may encounter problems.

NB: Please note that while we have experienced nounwanted side-effects on our devices afterinstalling WhatsApp in this way, we cannot fullyspeak to the effects on the security of yourBlackBerry device. Make sure you follow thesesteps to the letter, and if you’re unsure of thetechnical process – don’t do it. If you do, we advisebacking up your device first.

Please also note that while we used a Mac todownload WhatsApp to BlackBerry, the sameprocess can be done on a Windows PC using theseinstructions too.

Here we show you how to download WhatsApp to

your BlackBerry 10 smartphone using the freesoftware Snap. Snap allows you install Androidapps to your phone as though they have beendownloaded from the Google Play Store. Snap isfree, though the developer gives you the option todonate to its upkeep if you wish.

In order to download Snap, we’ll first show you howto download Sachesi, a free firmware managementtool that is the bridge to getting Snap onto yourphone. Snap acts like an app when it’s on yourphone, but you have to use this workaround todownload it.

Plug your BB10 device into your PC or Mac. Youdon’t need to be running any sort of managementsoftware, it just needs to be connected.

This method can only be done in Google Chrome.Open Chrome, or click here to install it.

Now you have to download the Snap .bar file fromSnap’s website.

Click here to go to the download page .

Select which pricing tier you’d like at this point.Even if you go for the free option, you have to enteryour name and billing address.

Then tap Get Snap.

Complete all the onscreen prompts until you reachthe screen that says Download Now:

The download will complete, but you don't need toopen it. Just drag it from your download folder toyour desktop.

Next you must download the free Sachesi firmwareonto your PC or Mac. This allows you to move theSnap.bar file onto your BB10 device.

Click here to go to the download page .

We downloaded Sachesi 2.0.3 for Mac. This is filename with OS X in it. There are options forWindows too:

Click on the file and wait for it to download. Oncethe download is finished, click it and open it in thefile viewer. If it’s a.zip file, make sure to unzip it first.

When Sachesi is open it should look like this:

Here, if you haven't already, go into yourdownloads folder and drag the Snap .bar file ontoyour desktop.

From here, make sure Sachesi is open on theInstall tab, then simply click, drag and drop theSnap .bar file into the list:

You'll see a progress circle as the file loads ontoSachesi - it's transferring Snap onto your phone.Leave it till it's at 100%.

Be careful not to do anything else with the Sachesiapp – don’t change anything and immediately exitthe program on your computer. Unless you’re adeveloper, you shouldn’t change anything else atthe risk of your device.

This is where you switch to your phone. Unlpug itfrom the computer and you will see that Snap isnow appearing as an app on your phone’s homescreen.

Tap it to open, and if you agree to the permissions itasks for, tap OK.

You’ll now have to sign in using your Googleaccount information. If you don’t have one, you’llneed to create one here.

From here, tap on Search in the bottom right cornerand type in, and search, for 'WhatsApp'.

Once selected, tap Download.

When the download is complete, tap Open Installer.You’ll then be faced with the below screen, with adisclaimer explaining how the app is from a sourceother than BlackBerry World app store or the alsoBlackBerry 10-supported Amazon Appstore. If youare happy with the disclaimer, click Install.

At this point, you’ll be prompted to go into appsettings:

You must then turn on 'Allow Apps from OtherSources to be Installed'. Then tap back in the lowerleft of the screen – then tap Install again. WhatsAppwill download now, so accept the permissions the

app requires if you are happy to do so.

Once the download is complete, tap Open at the topright of your screen.

The app now opens! Hooray. BB10 will even giveyou the below prompt if the app displays weirdly,but we didn’t have to change anything.

You can now set up WhatsApp on your BlackBerry10 smartphone following the app’s onscreeninstructions.

Because this is the Android version of WhatsApp,you’ll be able to continue to use it once WhatsAppdrops support for the BlackBerry version at the endof June 2017. Happy messaging.

2016-11-16 06:20 Henry Burrell www.pcadvisor.co.uk

216 /223 6.7

Google announces newKing's Cross facility plan

Google has confirmed that it plans to build a ten-story office block in King's Cross to house an

additional 3,000 staff members. Google hasconfirmed plans to expand its presence in London,in a move which could bring up to 3,000 new jobsto the King's Cross region.

The advertising giant is, it would seem, takingadvantage of the Pound Sterling's relativeweakness to double-down on its UK efforts. As aresult, the company's King's Cross site is to getsignificantly bigger: it is to build and open a new10-story tower block with a million square feet of

office space to house 7,000 staff, up from theestimated 4,000 staff currently in its King's Crosscampus.

' Here in the UK, it’s clear to me that computerscience has a great future with the talent,educational institutions and passion for innovationwe see all around us, ' claimed Google's chiefexecutive Sundar Pichai of the move, as part of hisfirst visit to the UK since taking over the role. ' Weare committed to the UK and excited to continue ourinvestment in our new King’s Cross campus. '

The Financial Times reports Google's move as thelatest in a string of technology companies investingin London, including Amazon's building of a500,000 square foot facility in Shoreditch, Apple'ssimilarly-sized Battersea headquarters project, andFacebook's move to London's Fitzrovia district.

Google has confirmed that construction of the newfacility will begin in 2018, though has not offered adate for its opening.

2016-11-16 06:18 Gareth Halfacree feedproxy.google.com

217 /223 1.8

MSI Trident Debuts AsWorld’s First VR GamingDesktop, BrandishesGeForce GTX 1060 Graphics

Do you even VR , bro? That seems to be thequestion the computer industry at large is interestedin asking, as there is a concerted effort to push VRgaming and experiences as the next big thing. It's

coming from all directions, even system makers,hence the Trident from MSI. The Trident is a"complete and ready-to-go gaming system" that'sbeing pitched as the world's smallest VR gamingdesktop. Perhaps a year a go this thing would havebeen considered a Steam Machine, and before thatit would be called an HTPC with gaming chops orsimply a PC gaming console. That doesn't meanthe VR moniker is unwarranted hype—to theTrident's credit, it's packing the necessary hardwareand ports to meet and exceed the minimum systemrequirements to run an Oculus Rift and/or HTC Viveheadset. The backbone of the Trident is its desktopMSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming graphics cardnestled inside. It's a tight fit inside the 4.72 literchassis, but it works and is available with either3GB of 6GB of GDDR5 memory. We recommendgoing for a model that has the higher amount ofmemory, especially if the plan is to use the Tridentfor VR gaming. MSI is selling differentconfigurations equipped with up to an Intel Core i7-6700 processor. The Trident also boasts a pair ofSO-DIMM slots supporting up to 32GB of DDR4-2133 RAM, M.2 2280 SATA and 2.5-inch slots forstorage, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and 5.1-channel HD

audio. For external connectivity, the Trident featuresa USB 3.1 Type-C port (Gen 1, unfortunately), twoUSB 3.1 Type A ports, headphone out, microphonein, and a VR-Link that has a front HDMI output. "MSITrident is a true Gaming PC for next generationgaming. It is equipped with VR-Link which includesa front HDMI out port to connect your VR deviceeasily, combined with ‘One-click-to-VR’ software tooptimize your PC for VR with just one click of abutton. With a size of a mere 4.7 liters, Trident isworld’s smallest VR ready gaming desktop to date,"MSI says. The Trident is available to pre-order nowstarting at $900.

2016-11-16 06:13 Paul Lilly hothardware.com

218 /223 3.8

: improve Wi-Fi speed andwired connections

By

Simon Jary | 35 mins ago

£99.99

Price comparision from , and manufacturers

Devolo has updated its old dLAN 500 WiFiPowerline adapter kit with two new models: thedLAN 550 WiFi Starter Kit, and dLAN 550+ WiFiStarter Kit. Both offers faster Wi-Fi and betterwireless range.

Powerline is a neat technology that uses the powercables in your home to create a home network, as ifyou had Ethernet cables snaked through yourhouse. This means you can enjoy much fasterdownload times in your living room, for example,compared to using a ropy Wi-Fi connection that’sshared by everyone else in the house. See Best

Powerline Adapters.

Powerline adapters are simple to set up. Plug oneadapter into a power socket near your router, andthen connect adapter and router with an Ethernetcable; then plug a second Powerline adapter intoanother room’s wall socket and connect that to thedevice you wish to have fast Internet access, suchas your TV or streamer. For more details see Whatis Powerline?

Devolo is still selling the older 500 WiFi kit, whichwe reviewed back in November 2013. At £79.99 it's£20 cheaper than the new 550 kit, so is it worth it?(You can find the older 500 WiFi Starter Kit foraround £60 online, see prices on the review here .)

The principal technical upgrade is that the wirelesscapability jumps from 150Mbps to 300Mbps. Therange has also been increased, from 300 to 400metres. Wired speed remains at 500Mbps, so the550 title is a bit misleading.

Increased speed and range are pretty much all youwant from a wireless upgrade but you shouldremember that these speeds are theoretical

maximums only – there’s no way that you’ll get500Mbps wired or 300Mbps over Wi-Fi.

In real-world situations all sorts of speed limitationscome in to play, so you’ll do well to get speeds over150Mbps. This seems disappointing when you’reexpecting 500Mbps, but anything over 100Mbps isgoing to whip your average wireless speeds.

All Powerline manufacturers tout their adapters as500Mbps or at the top end 1,200Mbps, so you can’tblame Devolo for doing the same. It doesn't distract(much) from the fact that Powerline is almost certainto hugely boost your Internet speeds in rooms awayfrom your router.

Is the 550 worth the extra for the money? Weappreciate the extra range and supposed speedincrease, plus the pass-through socket and twoEthernet ports on the base adapter (the 550+ WiFihas pass-through sockets on both adapters), butthe price appears high in comparison.

The 550 WiFi kit includes two adapters: the 550WiFiand the 550+ WiFi.

While Powerline itself is simple to set up, workingout the names of each adapter can be confusing.The £99.99 dLAN 550 WiFi Starter Kit is actuallymade up of two different adapters.

The base adapter that you plug into a wall socketnear your Internet router is a dLAN 550 duo+. Thishas two Ethernet ports (10/100 Ethernet, not thefaster Gigabit Ethernet ports you get on the top-of-the-range dLAN 1200+ Powerline) and a pass-through socket.

A pass-through socket saves you losing a wallsocket, and even improves Powerline speeds byminimising electrical “noise” on the line.

The second adapter that goes in the other room isthe actual, improved dLAN 550 WiFi , which addsthe extra Wi-Fi hotspot.

But this second-room wireless adapter has just theone Ethernet port. This puzzles me, as I’d havethought that having more than one Ethernet port inthe second room would be more useful thananother by the router, which may well have multipleunfilled ports itself.

It does mean that the second adapter is verycompact, so won’t ruin the look of your home.

The £109.99 dLAN 550+ WiFi (pictured above) haspass-through sockets on both adapters, whichmakes its second-room adapter a little larger thanthe pass-through-less 550 WiFi.

Devolo's naming system is confusing as so manyvariations sound similar, but the + here indicatedpass-through sockets on both adapters. Otherwisethe specs are the same.

Just to increase your choices Devolo also offers thedLAN 550 duo+ Starter Kit (£69.99) that doesn’toffer the extra WiFi hotspot but does give you two550 duo+ adapters with pass-through and doubleEthernet ports.

Having more than one Ethernet port will appeal tohomes with multiple Internet devices (gamesconsole, smart TV, Apple TV, etc), maybe more thanboasting home Wi-Fi. It's also cheaper.

Powerline don’t come bristling with features. They

usually do one thing very well: speed up your homenetwork.

But some, like the dLAN 550 WiFi and 550+ WiFi(as their names suggest) can create a new wirelesshotspot in the second room so you can not onlyconnect a smart TV, laptop or games console to theadapter via an Ethernet cable (supplied) but alsoimprove Wi-Fi speeds for smartphones and tabletsin often Wi-Fi-lacking parts of your house.

You can even “clone” this new, strong Wi-Fi signalto your existing Wi-Fi network so that it shares thesame name and password.

Using Devolo’s own Cockpit software to measurespeeds the dLAN 550 WiFi scored between 146-170Mbps – compared to the top-level Devolo dLAN1200+ , which hit 290-330Mbps. So, using thismeasurement it looks like the 550 WiFi is about halfthe speed of the 1200+, which makes sense.

In our real-world tests the 1200+ still came in faster,at 121Mbps but not twice as fast as the new 550,which scored a reasonable 81Mbps – not tooshabby in comparison to its big brother.

Our real-world tests are conducted in a Victorianhouse, with the router on the second floor and thesecond Powerline adapter on the ground. All sortsof environmental factors can affect the speed, soyou’ll get faster or slower results at different times ofthe day – sometimes not so far apart. And yourhouse will undoubtedly differ from mine, but ourtests suggest everyone will benefit from installingthis Powerline adapter set.

In summary, for the very fastest speeds buy a1,200Mbps Powerline adapter, but note that themedium-speed 500Mbps adapters still offer decentperformance.

While the 1200+ scored 116Mbps on its newwireless hotspot, the 550+ managed just 61Mbps.We've seen better wireless speeds on Powerlineunits such as the Netgear Powerline WiFi 1000 ,although that lacks the pass-through and multipleEthernet ports.

The dLAN 550 Wifi range begins with the StarterKit, priced at £99.99. A Network Kit with threeadapters (two 550 dLAN WiFi adapters and one

dLAN 550 duo+) is available for £149.99. Singleadapters for extending the WiFi network areavailable for £59.99.

The dLAN 550+ WiFi Starter Kit has an RRP of£109.99. We think that extra tenner is worth it for thepass-through socket on the second adapter.

As mentioned above, Devolo also sells a dLAN 550duo+ Starter kit, which offers two adapters – bothboasting pass-through sockets and two Ethernetports (but no extra WiFi) for £69.99. If you valueEthernet ports over the added Wi-Fi hotspot this is agood deal. In fact if your Wi-Fi speeds areacceptable at home we prefer this 550 duo+ StarterKit because of its multiple Ethernet ports on thesecond-room adapter.

But if you want a new, powerful wireless hotspot toboost Wi-Fi speeds away from the router the 550Wi-Fi will make more sense. There are, however,cheaper Wi-Fi Powerline adapters available; seethe Best Powerline adapters roundup for moredetails.

While we find the dLAN 550 WiFi to be at the

expensive end of the Powerline range it should bepossible to find it cheaper online, so check belowthis review for the latest online prices.

From design and build, plus simple setup points ofview the Devolo dLAN 550 WiFi and 550+ WiFi areextremely well-made Starter Kits. We just wish itwas a little cheaper, and had two Ethernet ports onthe second adapter.

The £99 dLAN 550 WiFi and £109 550+ WiFi addspeed and range, plus a pass-through socket, tothe older dLAN 500. In real-world tests they provedto be fast, and not so far off the top-of-the-range1200+ model (£159). Adding a second Wi-Fihotspot in your home is a welcome addition to themuch faster wired speeds you’ll enjoy whendownloading HD movies or playing games over theInternet. It isn't at the cheap end of Powerline,though. If you can find it cheaper online, then itbecomes a more compelling purchase. Alsoconsider the less expensive £69 dLAN 550 duo+Starter kit, which omits the extra Wi-Fi but boastsdual Ethernet ports and pass-through sockets onboth adapters.

Price comparision from , and manufacturers

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2016-11-16 05:45 Simon Jary www.pcadvisor.co.uk

219 /223 1.9

Walmart To Sell NintendoNES Classic Edition For AFew Minutes Each DayThrough November 18th

The holiday shopping season isn't even in fullswing yet though it looks like we already know whatone of the hottest selling items will be: Nintendo'spint sized NES Classic Edition. Demand is red hot

for the miniature version of the most popular gameconsoles of all time, and that's led to inflated pricetags on eBay and through third-party sellers. Don'tgive in. Walmart is making available a limitednumber of NES Classic Edition consoles each daythrough the end of the work week. Like the handfulof other vendors hawking the classic console,Walmart quickly sold out of its inventory at $60 apop. Some of the sites selling the NES ClassicEdition even buckled under the tremendousdemand for the 8-bit throwback. That was the casewith Amazon, which left many shoppers who hadthe console in their shopping cart but unable to

complete their order feeling disgruntled. Best Buy,GameStop, and Target also received inventory andsold out instantly. This prompted Nintendo topromise a "steady flow" of new shipments. "TheNES Classic Edition system is a hot item, and weare working hard to keep up with consumerdemand," Nintendo stated on Twitter. "There will bea steady flow of additional systems through theholiday shopping season and into the new year.Please contact your local retailers to checkavailability. "There's no need to check with Walmartbecause it confirmed on Facebook through itsGamecenter account that it is getting more NESClassic Edition consoles in and will make a limitednumber available everyday through Friday,November 18, at precisely 2 PM Pacific (5 PMEastern). It's a safe bet these will sell out just asfast, but taking a shot at grabbing one for $60 surebeats paying third-party street prices, which havebeen as high as $1,000. The NES Classic Edition isa much smaller version of the original 1980sversion. It comes with 30 built-in classic games, anNES controller, and even an HDMI cable forconnecting it to modern day HDTVs. Extracontrollers run $10 each.

2016-11-16 05:42 Paul Lilly hothardware.com

220 /223 1.2

OnePlus' Bullets earphonesare criminally underpriced

Pulling up a low-quality image and telling thecomputer to "enhance" the resolution has longbeen the stuff of TV fantasy. But, thanks to machinelearning, we are actually getting much better atzooming into a photo without losing picturequality....

Twitter this week suspended several prominentaccounts linked to the alt-right movement, the fringe

white nationalist group that helped propelPresident-elect Donald Trump to the White House.As USA Today reports, the site suspended theaccounts...

Apple has negotiated a deal with the creators of808 — a documentary about the seminal RolandTR-808 drum machine — for exclusive streamingrights through Apple Music. The documentary willappear on Apple’s music service first, on December9th,...

Facebook Messenger can now integrate withAndroid Auto, the social network announced today,allowing users of the infotainment platform to hearand reply to messages from friends while drivingtheir cars. In order to use the new feature, you’ll...

It may be nigh impossible to purchase Nintendo’sNES Classic Edition console right this very second,with stock shortages and sell outs at Amazon, BestBuy, GameStop and many other retailers. But havehope. Once a day, for a few minutes before...

The nerfed peach butt emoji included as part ofApple’s iOS 10.2 update is gone. As spotted today

by The Next Web, the third 10.2 developer betareturns the fruit to its curvaceous glory.

The peach emoji is, of course, a go-to for anyonewho...

2016-11-16 05:23 Vlad Savov www.theverge.com

221 /223 2.8

GE pushes ahead into thesoftware market

Industrial giant GE has announced two strategicacquisitions: Wise.io, a machine learning specialist,and Bit Stew for data ingestion.

The company has already made acquisitions worth$2bn and has a strategy to grow its businessorganically and inorganically.

GE’s latest acquisitions build on its $915mpurchase of field service company ServiceMax andits $496m acquisition of asset performancemanagement company Meridium.

Buying software and services companies are part ofGE’s goal to bolster the company’s flagship digitalplatform, Predix.

In his opening keynote presentation at the Minds +Machines conference in San Francisco, GE CEOJeff Immelt said: “A common platform is very wellknown by tech companies.”

But this is a new concept for industrial companies,which are struggling to improve productivity. GEhopes it can provide the software platform andservices, and bring together a partner ecosystem, tohelp them succeed.

Immelt said: “We have never seen the power of anindustrial-to-industrial world, a network to shareideas for the future. It is a transformation, an all-encompassing change. Our job is to create moreproductivity through a combination of analytics andphysics.”

Speaking of his focus on making GE a softwarefirm, Immelt said: “We are in it to win, and we arecommitted to be successful.”

It is all about being a success in industrial softwarein the emerging world of connected machines, hesaid.

GE’s chief digital officer, Bill Ruh, who heads GEDigital, the company’s software arm, said: “Thewinner figures out how to take an asset and make itmore efficient. I don’t think this will be a world led bystartups, but by industrial companies, small,medium and large. It is not about being cool; it isabout productivity in your business anddifferentiating your products in a way yourcompetitors can’t.”

2016-11-16 04:00 Managing Editor www.computerweekly.com

222 /223 4.5

Dell EMC expands HPCofferings with updatedsoftware and systems

Dell EMC is set to release new high-performancecomputing (HPC) tools to help companiesaccelerate their applications and research in the lifesciences and data analysis sectors.

From early 2017, the Dell EMC HPC System for LifeSciences will be updated with the PowerEdgeC6320p Server and Intel Xeon Phi processor. This,the company claims, will enable bioinformaticscentres to discover treatments for patients faster,while also protecting sensitive data.

Cloud bursting services from Cycle Computing

using AWS, Azure and Google will also be madeavailable, although there's no solid date set yet forwhen this wil happen. According to Dell EMC, thiswill help businesses of all sizes orchestrate andmanage their cloud between on-premise systemsfor day-to-day use and public cloud infrastructuresfor HPC needs.

Additionally, before the end of 2016, Dell EMC willbe offering Intel HPC Orchestrator, based on theopen source OpenHPC project, which it is claimedwill ensure customers can install, manage andmaintain HPC systems.

“Dell EMC is uniquely capable of breaking throughthe barriers of data-centric HPC and navigatingnew and varied workloads that are converging withbig data and cloud," Jim Ganthier, senior vicepresident of validated solutions and HPCorganisation at Dell EMC, said.

"We are collaborating with the HPC community,including our customers, to advance and optimiseHPC innovations while making these capabilitieseasily accessible and deployable for organisations

and businesses of all sizes,” he added.

Dell EMC also announced itsPowerEdge C4130 and R730 servers runningNvidia Tesla P100 accelerators are now available,with the University of Pisa is already using C4130servers with Nvidia Tesla 100 accellerators andNvidia Deep Learning GPU Training Systems fordeep learning DNA sequencing.

“The global HPC market forecast exceeds $30billion in 2016 for all product and servicesspending, including servers, software, storage,cloud, and other categories, with continued growthexpected at 5.2% CAGR through 2020,” saidAddison Snell, CEO of Intersect360 Research.“Bolstered by its combination with EMC, Dell willhold the number-one position in total HPC revenueshare heading into 2017.”

Dell EMC customers will have access to Intel HPCOrchestrator by the end of this quarter, while DellEMC HPC System for Life Sciences withPowerEdce C6320p Server and Intel Xeon Phiprocessor will be available by early Q1 2017.

2016-11-16 04:00 Clare Hopping www.itpro.co.uk

223 /223 2.0

San Francisco limits Airbnbrentals to 60 days a year

San Francisco has put the squeeze on Airbnb.

The city's Board of Supervisors ruled late Tuesdaynight that hosts can rent out their houses andapartments on the home-rental marketplace for only60 days per calendar year. This decision comes

after years of haggling between the city and Airbnb.This 6-2 decision could have major repercussionsfor Airbnb. The home-rental company, which nowhas more than 2 million listings in nearly 200countries, is waging battles with lawmakers aroundthe world. Officials in other cities are looking to SanFrancisco to set an example of how best to regulatethe eight-year-old startup -- this ruling could have aripple effect.

"We are disappointed on behalf of the thousands ofmiddle class San Franciscans who would beharmed by this arbitrary proposal that does nothingto fix the broken registration system," an Airbnbspokesman said in an email.

San Francisco was one of the first cities in the worldto make short-term rentals legal. In October 2014,the city passed a law that let people rent rooms ortheir entire home for up to 90 days per calendaryear when they weren't around. Hosts presentduring home-stays were allowed to lease roomsyear-round. Tuesday's ruling means that all rentalsare now capped at 60 days per year.

When the "Airbnb law" was first passed it alsorequired all Airbnb hosts to sign up on a cityregistry, collect transient occupancy taxes and carryliability insurance. Since then, several amendmentshave been introduced to tighten the law.

One such amendment requires short-term rentalcompanies, like Airbnb and VRBO, to removelistings from their websites that aren't registeredwith the city. Failure to remove such listings couldopen up the companies to thousands of dollars infines and criminal charges.

Airbnb sued the city of San Francisco in June,saying that amendment violates federal laws. Lastweek, however, US District Judge James Donatoruled in favor of San Francisco and rejected thecompany's plea to change the law.

Airbnb has since tried to make nice. The companysaid Monday that it's ready to cooperate with SanFrancisco and police its hosts, according to the SanFrancisco Chronicle. As part of this agreement,Airbnb said it would hand over all of its hosts'names, addresses and guest says in the city. Once

this happens, the city says it will be easier toenforce the law.

Critics have accused Airbnb of contributing to thehousing crunch, with landlords taking rental unitsoff the market to capitalize on short-term rentals.More than 75 percent of the 7,000 Airbnb hosts inSan Francisco are not registered, as required, andcontinue to be listed on the site, San FranciscoSupervisor David Campos said in June.

For its part, Airbnb started to address the city'sconcerns of scofflaw hosts earlier this year. In April,the company said it was investigating hosts in SanFrancisco with multiple listings and was booting"unwelcome commercial operators. " Since then,the site has pulled down 213 entire-home listingsand removed 525 so-called hacker hostels. Thecompany also said last month that it wasautomating its site to ensure hosts only list oneproperty.

"We remain ready and willing to work with allparties to build a simple registration system thatprotects housing and enables residents to share

their homes without endless red tape," the Airbnbspokesman said.

2016-11-16 02:13 by www.cnet.com

Total 223 articles. Generated at 2016-11-1702:06