Home IoT is still reaching for mainstream use. The main backer of Z-Wave, a widely used in-home networking standard, just did something that might help take it there.On Wednesday, chip vendor Sigma Designs made the interoperability layer of Z-Wave available free to the public. This is the code that allows all Z-Wave products to work together. Now anyone can download the code, develop software with it, and give that code to others.Like others in the fledgling IoT business, Z-Wave's backers want to get more devices working together. This latest move might help to make that happen, plus drive more manufacturers to pick Z-Wave over other IoT network options.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Audiophiles may roll their eyes at the very idea of portable Bluetooth speakers, but high-design hi-fi firm Bang & Olufsen just unveiled two of them in Berlin.The BeoSound 1 and 2 are certainly not pocket-sized and at €1295 (US$1495) and €1695 (US$1895) respectively they won't fit many pocketbooks either, but then that's never been the company's goal.The smaller of the two speakers, the BeoSound 1 is 327 millimeters high and weighs 3.5 kilograms. It's a sturdy truncated cone of smooth, polished aluminium, surmounted by a disk that appears to float above it. The internal battery will power it for four to 16 hours, depending on how loud you like to listen, and it can be plugged directly into an outlet to recharge: no wall wart or power brick is necessary.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
SAP has already placed big bets on Hana, and now it's adding more with a new data warehouse tailored specifically for the in-memory computing platform.
Launched on Wednesday, SAP BW/4Hana promises to minimize data movement and duplication by enabling data to be analyzed wherever it resides, whether within or outside the enterprise. It can also integrate live streaming and time-series sensor data collected from internet of things (IoT) environments.
Back in 2014, SAP added Hana support to its longstanding Business Warehouse data warehousing software, but BW/4Hana goes a big step further. Like S4/Hana, the enterprise suite SAP released last year, the new data warehouse is optimized for Hana, and will not run on any other platform.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A year ago, we characterized Microsoft’s Windows 10 Mobile as a second-tier OS, but not one that’s second rate. Fast-forward nine months later to the Windows 10 Mobile Anniversary Update, and we’re still seeing signs of slow progress—but perhaps not quite fast enough for an operating system the market has largely given up on.My impressions of the Windows 10 AU are of tweaking, patching, and catching up. The most important additions include the new Wallet app, which finally allows tap-to-pay NFC payments for Windows 10 AU smartphones—something that both Android and iOS have had for years. The simplified Skype Preview app debuts, as it also has on PCs. An existing app, Continuum, now projects screens wirelessly onto a PC without the need for a Display Dock, and Windows 10 now exchanges messages and notifications between the phone and PC better than ever. Otherwise, there are other, minor adjustments, scattered throughout the updated OS.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Dropbox’s move last week to ask users who had signed up before mid-2012 to change their account passwords followed the discovery of a large dump of email addresses and passwords related to these accounts.
The online storage company confirmed late Tuesday reports that 68 million user email addresses and hashed and salted passwords from an incident in 2012 had been compromised.
Dropbox said that the password reset the company completed last week covered all of the affected users so that the Dropbox accounts are protected.
Last week, the company asked users who signed up before mid-2012 to change their passwords if they haven’t done so since then, describing it as a preventive measure and not because there was any indication that their accounts were improperly accessed.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A destructive ransomware program deletes files from web servers and asks administrators for money to return them, though it's not clear if attackers can actually deliver on this promise.Dubbed FairWare, the malicious program is not the first ransomware threat to target Linux-based web servers but is the first to delete files. Another program called Linux.Encoder first appeared in November and encrypted files, but did so poorly, allowing researchers to create recovery tools.After attackers hack a web server and deploy FairWare, the ransomware deletes the entire web folder and then asks for two bitcoins (around US$1,150) to restore them, Lawrence Abrams, the founder of tech support forum BleepingComputer.com, said in a blog post.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
While the United States and India may have lots of programmers, China and Russia have the most talented developers according to a study by HackerRank, which administers coding tests to developers worldwide.The study looked at the results of 1.4 million of HackerRank's coding test submissions, called "challenges," during the last few years. "According to our data, China and Russia score as the most talented developers. Chinese programmers outscore all other countries in mathematics, functional programming, and data structures challenges, while Russians dominate in algorithms, the most popular and most competitive arena," said Ritika Trikha, a blogger at HackerRank.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
SSD prices have dropped so precipitously that as many as half of all laptops sold worldwide in 2018 are expected to have the non-volatile memory in them, according to a new report.DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, said today that prices stabilized for the first time in a year for mainstream client-grade SSDs in the PC-maker market during the current third quarter.Though there are signs of tightening inventories in the SSD supply chain during the second half of this year, DRAMeXchange maintained that the adoption rate in the notebook market will exceed 30% in 2016 and may reach 50% in 2018.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
After all the work of performing a Wi-Fi site survey, running cable to key locations in the building and hooking up your access points, you might be eager to quickly fill the airwaves. However, there are some things you should check just after powering on those new or upgraded APs and before letting users connect to them.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
People living in Silicon Valley, including San Francisco and Oakland, have contributed some $31.2 million to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Donald Trump, in contrast, is getting pocket change.Trump has raised just over $3 million from all of California, according to campaign finance data analyzed by the Center for Responsive Politics. The totals are based on contributions of more than $200 from individuals.Trump's lag in California is striking in comparison to the 2012 presidential contest. Then the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, raised $41.3 million overall in California, versus President Barack Obama's $62.8 million. Clinton has raised $76.4 million so far in California.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
What you need to knowOrganizations are quickly learning that keeping the bad guys out of an enterprise environment isn’t as simple as deploying firewalls and antivirus. As cybercriminals utilize customized malware and bypass traditional antivirus solutions, it’s become necessary to take a broader and more proactive approach to protect the endpoint. This means real-time monitoring, detection and advanced threat analysis coupled with response technology.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple's tax benefits in Ireland are illegal, and the company will have to pay up to €13 billion (US$14.5 billion) in back taxes, plus interest.That's the verdict European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager delivered Tuesday, wrapping up a two-year investigation of the company's tax affairs stretching back to 2003.The investigation found that Apple's effective tax rate on profit reported in Ireland was just €500 per million euros in profit, falling to €50 per million in 2014."I would have a feeling if my effective tax rate were 0.05 percent, falling to 0.005 percent. I would feel that maybe I should have another look at my tax bill," she said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Hewlett Packard Enterprise has made no secret of its desire to push further into big data, and on Tuesday it announced two key new offerings: HPE Haven OnDemand Combinations, an extension of the "machine learning as a service" platform it released earlier this year, and Vertica 8, a major new update to its analytics software.Launched in March, HPE's Haven OnDemand cloud platform offers machine learning APIs (application programming interfaces) and services designed to help developers and businesses build data-rich applications. The platform now has 70 artificial intelligence APIs and more than 18,000 users, and HPE is extending it to make development easier.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Privacy groups in the U.S. have complained to the Federal Trade Commission that changes last week in WhatsApp’s terms and privacy policy breaks its previous promise that user data collected would not be used or disclosed for marketing purposes.The Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy have described the changes as unfair and deceptive trade practice, subject to an investigation and injunction by the FTC, in their complaint Monday.WhatsApp said last week it will be sharing some account information of users with Facebook and its companies, including the mobile phone numbers they verified when they registered with WhatsApp. The sharing of information will enable users to see better friend suggestions and more relevant ads on Facebook, it added.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
While it would be easy reading the headlines to assume that every organization under the sun is fully committed to the public cloud, the fact of the matter is that public cloud adoption—albeit massive and growing fast—is still the tip of the IT iceberg. For every few million dollars spent on public cloud infrastructure, there are hundreds and hundreds of millions spent on more traditional ways of delivering IT.Which is where a company such as VMware comes in. VMware, which popularized the notion of virtualization—or creating multiple virtual servers on a single physical box—is often criticized (by me, as well) for being somewhat slow to innovate and really embrace the cloud world. But it's not quite so simple as that—VMware has thousands of customers, huge market share and great existing revenues. It needs to move at an appropriate speed for all of these different stakeholders.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Nutanix has snapped up a couple of companies, PernixData and Calm.io, to extend its enterprise cloud platform.The company competes with the likes of Simplivity, Cisco Systems, EMC, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise on the delivery of hyperconverged infrastructure, a term it is credited with coining.The Calm.io acquisition will take Nutanix a step closer to its goal of delivering application and service orchestration, runtime lifecycle management, and policy-based governance across all application environments. The company plans to lean on Calm.io's devops automation capabilities to add new cloud automation and management capabilities to its existing software stack.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Logitech K380 Bluetooth Keyboard allows you to easily connect to and type on your computer, tablet, smartphone and more: Windows, Mac, Chrome OS, Android, iOS (iPhone and iPad) and even Apple TV 2nd or 3rd generation. This keyboard allows you to connect to up to three devices simultaneously. Simply touch a button on the keyboard to start typing on another device. The keyboard recognizes each device and automatically maps keys to give you a familiar layout with your favorite shortcuts. This keyboard currently averages 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon from over 300+ customers (read reviews). Save 525% off the regular $39.99 list price on Amazon, and buy it now for $29.99To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Hosting firm Rackspace has been a well-known name in the cloud industry for a long time, but lately the company has been struggling to keep up in the core cloud computing competition.Instead, the firm has concentrated on becoming the “#1 managed cloud company,” mixing its own hosting services and cloud offerings while also cutting deals to provide “fanatical” service and support to users of market leaders like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.It seems that strategy wasn’t enough, at least not by itself.Even as AWS, Azure and Google Cloud Platform have been posting quarter after quarter of amazing growth that help cement their economies of scale, Rackspace’s stock stumbled, (the company had lost half of its market value before talk of a possible sale) which constrained its ability to find a better market position.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
After MedSec revealed remotely exploitable flaws in St. Jude pacemakers and defibrillators to financial research firm Muddy Waters, choosing to profit by how far St. Jude stock fell after the report (pdf) was made public instead of taking a “responsible disclosure” path, St. Jude struck back by basically calling Muddy Waters’ claims a bunch of lies.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
File sharing and the control over the data within file sharing sits on a continuum. On one end are the consumer offerings that are incredibly easy to use and come with enough, but not too much, functionality.
That is the world Box, Dropbox and Google started with. And while these vendors have been moving towards higher-level features, it's fair to say that their start was in the ease-of-use court.
At the other end, we have the solutions that are enterprise-focused. These solutions tend towards big, heavy, monolithic structures and myriad levels of control. They're all about ticking the boxes for enterprise security departments, and while they're certainly robust, they're not exactly known for user-friendliness. Indeed, the so-called "Dropbox problem" where enterprises see high levels of nonmandated solution use, came about largely because enterprise solutions are often so awful to use.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here