A lot of cool technologies are coming to Intel's latest NUCs, which are powerful mini-desktops that now boast the company's latest Kaby Lake chips.
A NUC packs all components tightly in a small PC that is light enough to be held in one hand. These mini-PCs are easily customizable and considered desktop replacements.
Some of the new NUCs have Thunderbolt 3 ports, Intel Iris Plus graphics for 4K video, and are ready for Intel's superfast Optane storage.
Intel has announced three new "tall" NUCs with 7th Generation Core i3, i5 and i7 chips, and two "short" NUCs with Core i3 and i5 chips. The "tall NUCs" are slightly larger and more powerful than the short NUCs.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It took a year from proof of concept to in-the-wild attack, but ransomware for Android-based smart TVs is now here. As one victim discovered this Christmas, figuring out how to clean such an infection can be quite difficult.
Ransomware for Android phones has already been around for several years and security experts have warned in the past that it's only a matter of time until such malicious programs start affecting smart TVs, especially since some of them also run Android.
In November 2015, a Symantec researcher named Candid Wueest even went as far as to infect his own TV with an Android ransomware application to highlight the threat. While that infection was just a demonstration, this Christmas, the owner of an LG Electronics TV experienced the real deal.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Organizations from the Fortune 100 to the 28 million small businesses in the United States are embracing mobility, Big Data, social media and cloud computing. This digital transformation in turn is placing crushing capacity demands on enterprise and small and mid-sized business networks.And while these “third-platform” technologies promise agility and speed, for many SMBs, the promise of faster business is too often stifled by legacy network infrastructure. The problem is the Wi-Fi networks many organizations depend on have sped past the capacity of ubiquitous Ethernet cabling to handle the high speeds needed for today’s digital business. Wireless Access Points (APs) today can transfer data faster than the Ethernet cables and network switch can support.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Security researcher Claudio Guarnieri has experience working with journalists and human rights organizations which have exercised freedom of speech, reported on some form of corruption and wound up becoming targets because of it; their computers may be compromised with spying malware such as those in the hands of the Hacking Team, FinFisher or NSA to name but a few. Their electronic communications may be intercepted, messaging programs may be blocked. All of that may be because the journalists and human rights organizations in our modern connected society were standing up for what is right, being the voice of dissent, getting out the news about injustice.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
There certainly was a ton of hype in Software Defined-WAN arena in 2016 but to be fair there was a lot of actual deployment of technology and services as well.In December Gartner wrote that spending on SD-WAN products will rise from $129 million in 2016 to $1.24 billion in 2020. “While WAN architectures and technologies tend to evolve at a very slow pace — perhaps a new generation every 10 to 15 years — the disruptions caused by the transformation to digital business models are driving adoption of SD-WAN at a pace that is unheard of in wide-area networking,” Gartner wrote.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In 2016, as multiple system outages led to long check-in lines, flight cancellations and passengers camping out in airports, several airlines’ reputations made unplanned descents. What could they have done differently to prevent these crises or to recover from them more rapidly?Let’s take a look at a couple of examples.Southwest Airlines' problem in July came down to a failed network router. Delta Air Lines' nationwide system outage in August was a result of a power surge that caused an automatic transfer switch to malfunction and take down 500 servers. Unfortunately, systems and equipment did not switch over automatically to back up power. The result of these mishaps? Each airline cancelled more than 2,000 flights and suffered negative media coverage, including a tweet storm from frustrated customers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
One of the biggest games in recent history is now even more widely available. Minecraft was just released on Apple TV (see review here on TechConnect), and no, you don't have to control it with that little silver remote. Take full control of the game with this Bluetooth gaming remote from SteelSeries, currently discounted 17% from $60 to $50 on Amazon. The SteelSeries Nimbus remote has all the control sticks, buttons and triggers you or your kids will need to control Minecraft right on your TV. A rechargeable Lithium ion battery provides up to 40 hours of gaming on a charge. This gaming controller can ultimately be used for any Apple TV game, not just Minecraft, and can be paired to your other iOS devices as well. See the discounted SteelSeries Nimbus remote on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Gene Munster, one of the most watched Apple watchers as a longtime research analyst at Piper Jaffray, has now started a venture capital fund that promises to invest in exactly the sorts of startups Apple and its competitors are likely to buy.Loup Ventures (which gets its name for a word meaning "wolf" or "to leap/pounce" depending on which language you choose), also consists of former Munster colleagues at Piper Jaffray, Doug Clinton and Andrew Murphy.MORE: Yup, Apple made our list of 2016's Sorriest Tech CompaniesTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In the last decade, cloud came about to address the need for agility, speed and cost savings. Along the way, several technologies came to enable the transition. This has triggered significant innovation in the network with SDxx to support the changing demands in app consumptions model, traffic patterns and automated and dynamic environments.Today, the hottest innovation in the network aimed at increasing agility to support the move to the cloud is SD-WAN for the branch office. A little more than two years ago, SD-WAN came about to address fundamental challenges in the WAN architecture. These challenges can be categorized as follows:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Millennials in the workplace are increasingly taking on IT decision maker (ITDM) roles, and in pursuit of improved agility, they are pushing their organizations to embrace public cloud and adjust IT policies to better enable innovation, according to a study by Microsoft and Wakefield Research.As 2017 begins, millennials already represent a third of the workforce, and the Brookings Institute forecasts they will make up 75 percent of the workforce by 2025.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Bringing SQL Server to Linux is one of the bigger steps in Microsoft’s plan to help developers build any app for (and from) any platform. And despite the fact that it was only announced in spring 2016, you shouldn’t think of SQL Server on Linux as being a subset of the full Windows offering, says Rohan Kumar, general manager of the Microsoft database systems group.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
Experimentation with voice-activated assistants and text-triggered chatbots blossomed in 2016, enabling users to order from Taco Bell using Slack’s messaging interface, check the status of UPS packages and order office supplies from Staples.In 2017, some of these tools won't make the cut while others will proliferate across consumer and enterprise sectors, creating new workflows, operational efficiencies and opportunities for improved customer service. The early signs that Amazon.com's Alexa, though positioned as a home product, is poised to become the go-to platform for voice-based assistants for consumers and businesses. Wynn Hotels plans to equip nearly 5,000 rooms with Amazon.com's Echo device, which will allow people to query Alexa for room and hotel information.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
No sooner had we put our list of 2016's Sorriest Tech Companies to bed than Facebook rang in the new year with a fresh apology -- for blocking an Italian writer from using a photo of a well-known statue of nude sea god Neptune found in Bologna.As Mashable relays, a writer/historian named Elisa Barbari used a photo of the 16th-century work to highlight her Facebook page titled "Stories, curiosities and views of Bologna." Innocent enough it would seem, but the photo got snared by the social network's photo police for violations of its advertising policies, which prohibit use of images or videos of nude bodies.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Last month I wrote a post highlighting the differences between a security fabric and platform. Of all the security vendors, for which there are literally hundreds, no one has evangelized the topic and value of a fabric more than Fortinet.
One of the drivers of Fortinet’s security fabric has been to secure the cloud. To get a better understanding of what the challenges are and the role of the security fabric for cloud environments, I interviewed the founder, president and chief technology officer (CTO) of Fortinet, Michael Xie. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
I spent a lot of time in 2016 working on more information architecture (IA) projects than usual – from designing comprehensive information architectures as part of intranet migrations or upgrades to small IA usability engagements and everything in between. Here are six key lessons that I learned that can form the basis of your new year’s resolution to give your intranet IA a health check.The Information Architecture for your intranet provides the strategy and plan for information access. It informs how users will navigate through the solution and how information managed by the solution will be organized. A good intranet information architecture is 100% focused on the people who need to process, find, and interact with the content. We mostly think of IA as supporting the “browse” experience. But, given the fact that search depends on metadata, which is part of your IA, a good IA is also supports search. If you get it right, your information architecture will help users find content in three critical content-finding scenarios:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Donald Trump showed off his IT security credentials at a New Year's Eve party, suggesting that the best way to keep secrets from hackers is a huge air gap."No computer is safe," he told journalists gathered at his Mar-A-Lago resort in Florida, a warning many computer security professionals would probably endorse.Trump also shared his advice on managing data security risks. Forget switching to TLS or quantum key exchange: "If you have something really important, write it out and have it delivered by courier," he said, according to a report from Associated Press.Trump's suggestion -- echoing his July 29 infosec advice for military commanders -- would put the biggest of airgaps around secret communications, ensuring that they could not be hacked into from afar. If he were to apply it to government communications, though, it would leave officials needing a veritable army of trustworthy little hands to carry messages.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Bose Sound True around-ear headphones II were engineered with advanced Bose technologies. They feature exclusive TriPort technology so your music sounds deep, clear and full of life. They don't just look good, they feel good, too. The headphones feature a softly padded headband that distributes weight evenly across your head, and memory foam creates a gentle cushion around your ears. So they stay light and comfortable--no matter how long your playlist is. The fold-flat ear cups and matching carrying case make them easy to put away anytime and take with you anywhere. The inline microphone and remote let you switch easily to calls on your iPhone, and provide control for select iPod, iPhone and iPad models. Included: Sound True around-ear headphones; inline remote and microphone cable (66"); carrying case. The Bose SoundTrue headphones receive 4 out of 5 stars from over 700 customers (read reviews). Right now its list price has been reduced by 50% to just $90. See it now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
I received a pitch the other day from a vendor in the enterprise file sharing and synchronization (EFSS) space. I won't name the company. I probably should, to really show my scorn, but I'll deny them the Google juice instead.Anyway, the pitch told me about how said vendor made a "startling discovery" as it was planning a routine Google Adwords Campaign. It seemed that searches inadvertently turned up sensitive and confidential materials.Said vendor apparently disclosed the finding to the two other EFSS vendors, who indicated they would address the "security flaw." Now, some three years later, the same thing is happening.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The high-water line in information security gets higher each year. Just as we think we’ve finally figured out how to defend against attacks, then attackers come up with something new and we are right back to trying to figure out what to do next.For example, ransomware has surged in the last year. Although that kind of malware has been around for years, the current model of encrypting user files to hold data hostage came about just recently. Infections quadrupled in 2016, with the FBI estimating an average of 4,000 attacks a day. A recent IBM survey of 600 business leaders in the United States found that one in two had experienced a ransomware attack in the workplace, and that companies paid the ransom 70 percent of the time. As a result, criminals are on track to make nearly $1 billion this year from ransomware, IBM X-Force said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here