Microsoft yesterday reported that second-quarter revenue for its More Personal Computing division was down 4% even though Windows revenue was up over the prior year.Analysts on the company's earnings call Tuesday didn't seem to care: None of those who questioned CEO Satya Nadella or CFO Amy Hood bothered to ask about the division, Windows, or the Surface hardware -- much less about the plummeting revenue of the nearly-abandoned mobile handset strategy.More Personal Computing (MPC) -- one of three financial reporting groups -- booked revenue of $8.9 billion, off from last year's $9.2 billion. It was a return for MPC to the negative after the March quarter's revenue climbed 1%.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel's profit dropped sharply last quarter due to heavy costs from a restructuring announced in April, though sales were up thanks to the company's powerful data center group.Intel's profit for the quarter, ended July 2, was $1.3 billion, down from $2.7 billion a year earlier, the company announced Wednesday. Revenue climbed 3 percent to $13.5 billion.Intel said in April that it would axe 12,000 jobs worldwide, or 11 percent of its staff, in a plan to cut costs and focus on growing businesses like server processors and chips for the internet of things.In the process, it canceled the development of low-power Atom processors and more or less gave up on the smartphone and tablet markets -- areas where it's never done well.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
When lots of people gather for concerts or sports events, cellular carriers often bring their networks to the scene with cell towers mounted on trucks, or COWs (cells on wheels). Not to be outdone, Comcast is joining the fray using Wi-Fi.The U.S. cable giant will bring WoW (Wi-Fi on Wheels) to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia next week. WoW is what it sounds like: a van with six access points (APs) mounted on a 40-foot mast.Each AP points in a different direction so the truck can deliver strong signals over a wide area. It can serve as many as 3,000 people within a range of 500 feet, according to Comcast. Those users can get speeds as much as five times as fast as cellular, the company says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Companies are rapidly adopting IoT even though many don’t know if they’re getting a good return on their investment.
Two-thirds of companies are now using or planning to use IoT, according to a global survey by research firm Strategy Analytics. That’s up from just 32 percent last year.
But 51 percent of those aren’t sure whether the new technology is paying off, said Laura DiDio, an analyst at the firm.
That doesn’t necessarily mean the internet of things isn’t saving them money or improving their businesses, DiDio said. But many organizations evaluate and deploy new technologies in such a fragmented way that they don’t know the full effects of their actions. It's actually better with IoT than with most other new technologies, where an even higher percentage can't measure the benefits, she said. But a disorganized approach isn't helpful in any case.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The same hacking group that took over Mark Zuckerberg's Twitter account has now found a way to break into accounts connected to the hit game Minecraft.The group, OurMine, made the claim on Tuesday in a video demonstrating its hack. The attack is aimed at the user login page run by Minecraft's developer, Mojang.OurMine isn't revealing all the details behind the hack. The group said it works by stealing the Internet cookies from the site, which can be used to hijack any account. All that OurMine needs is the victim's email address.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The same hacking group that took over Mark Zuckerberg's Twitter account said on Tuesday it had found a way to break into accounts connected to the hit game Minecraft.
The group, OurMine, made the claim in a video in which it demonstrated the hack, which was aimed at the user login page run by Minecraft's developer, Mojang.
Later on Tuesday, Microsoft, which bought Mojang two years ago, said it had fixed the issue.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft's cloud push continued to pay off last quarter, with revenue from its Azure services more than doubling from the same period last year, the company reported Tuesday.Overall revenue for the quarter was down, however, thanks partly to a steep decline in Microsoft's handset business. Total revenue for the three months ended June 30 was $20.6 billion, Microsoft said, down from $22.2 billion last year. Net profit was $3.1 billion.Microsoft's retreat from the smartphone market hurt its device sales significantly. Phone revenue sank 71 percent, after the company back pedaled from its Nokia acquisition to focus on a few models of Windows phone.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Here's all the gear you need for a Pokémon go adventureImage by Blair Hanley FrankPokémon Go is hotter than a Charizard right now, but the game asks a lot from players. It’s a huge battery hog, and long sessions require a lot of physical endurance. Here’s what you need in your Go bag to make your time in the field last, based on my year of experience playing Ingress, its predecessor.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Facebook says it has developed a laser detector that could open the airwaves to new high-speed data communications systems that don't require dedicated spectrum or licenses.
The component, disclosed on Tuesday in a scientific journal, comes from the company's Connectivity Lab, which is involved in developing technology that can help spread high-speed Internet to places it currently doesn't reach.
Getting Internet signals to new areas is typically done using wireless, because it's much more cost-efficient than running cables to communities outside of urban areas. But traditional wireless comes with speed limitations and requires radio spectrum that often needs to be purchased from the government.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
IT decision-makers who have responsibility for security believe security teams are brought in too late to have a meaningful effect on digital transformation initiatives, according to a new study.
Dimensional Research, commissioned by by Dell, recently surveyed 631 IT decision-makers with responsibility for security from companies with 1,000 or more employees in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Australia, Scandinavia and the Benelux region. Ninety-seven percent of respondents report their organizations were investing in digital technologies to transform their business: 72 percent of the respondents said their organizations had active projects in mobile, 68 percent in cloud and 37 percent involving the Internet of Things (IoT) — all areas commonly associated with digital transformation.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
AT&T expects to save money by using drones instead of workers to inspect its 65,000 cellular transmission towers nationwide.
Part of the savings will occur as the cost of deploying drones drops because of new Federal Aviation Administration regulations that expand the use of drones for commercial uses.
The service provider wants to hire contractors using drones in all 50 states to inspect the towers. These towers, often more than 100 feet high and with components sometimes out of the reach of workers who climb to the top, require constant refinements and attention, an AT&T official said Tuesday.
AT&T
AT&T is using drones to inspect its cell towers high above the ground and can feed live video to an engineer in a remote office. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Big data may promise a world of new insight, but if it can't be analyzed, you can kiss that potential goodbye. Enter Teradata and Nuix, which on Tuesday teamed up to bring so-called "dark data" to light.Dark data is generally considered any data that gets overlooked and underused, often because employees don't know it's there or don't know how to access it. It's widely thought that dark data accounts for a majority of most companies' information assets.Through their partnership, the companies will integrate Nuix's namesake data processing and indexing engine with Teradata's Aster Analytics software, giving organizations a new way to uncover their dark data and analyze it on the spot.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
What better way to prepare for iOS 10’s arrival than with nearly 200 hours of premium training? Pre-order the Complete iOS 10 Developer Course for $29, and you’ll be more than set to craft stunning apps certain to top the iTunes Store leaderboard.Whether you’re mastering the fundamentals of programming, or digging into iOS 10-specific features (improved AI and Siri function, anyone?)--this course will have you covered. And afterwards, dive into the bonus ‘The Complete iOS 9 Hacker Training’ course really brush up on your skills. You’ll make dozens of apps with Swift 2 and Xcode 7, giving you a hefty portfolio of apps that’ll more than prep you for the iOS 10 revolution.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Navigating through a subway is like a scavenger hunt: You have to look for clues on where to go next.And GPS, though it works well above ground where satellites provide coordinates to find your bearings, can't help. Underground you can't get accurate coordinates to determine your location and choose a path. Multiple underground floors, thick walls and dozens of stairways mean a different solution is needed—one that:
Has virtual guideposts that allow a person to get their bearings deep underground
Is affordable so that hundreds of beacons can be installed for better accuracy
Is a self-powered system that doesn’t require batteries
Underground in Tokyo: Navigating the Shibuya Station
Tokyo is attempting to solve the navigation problem in its Shibuya Station. The station, a maze with eight train lines, has more than a million people traveling its confusing pathways and platforms every day. To help those commuters, the city is implementing an ambitious project that uses augmented reality (AR), Bluetooth beacons and a mobile app to direct passengers to their destination. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The OnHub AC1900 wireless router from Google and TP-LINK is designed to make even the more complicated home networks run fast and efficiently. It supports over 100 devices at one time, providing speeds of up to 1900mbps. It's unique circular design with 13 antennas provides up to 2,500 square feet of reliable coverage. Streaming a movie or downloading large files? OnHub lets you manage speeds to specific devices or give a boost where/when needed. The On App lets you manage, prioritize and troubleshoot right from your device, at home or away. OnHub currently averages 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon from over 500 people (read reviews). It's typical list price of $199.99 has been reduced 15% to $169.99. See the discounted Google OnHub AC1900 wireless router now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Carbon Black has bought Confer to boost its protection for network endpoints using a behavioral form of antivirus combined with cloud analysis of threats rather than traditional signature-based software.Called Cb Defense, the renamed Confer product uses behavior-based techniques to prevent attacks from getting started and blends in attack-detection and response as a way to halt ongoing attacks.These are supported by analytics based in the cloud that help detect malwareless attacks that employ legitimate tools that are built into operating systems as a way to stay below the radar of defenses that use hashes and signatures to detect.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It's one thing to have security vendors email me suggesting that cyber attacks are getting worse. It's another thing altogether when a vendor comes to me with hard metrics. Such is the case with Arbor Networks, the security division of NETSCOUT.Given Arbor is all about helping to protect enterprise and service provider networks from distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, it is fair to suggest that any mention of increasing attack numbers is a little self-serving. But ulterior motives notwithstanding, it's worth hearing what they found.+ Also on Network World: DDoS attacks are more than disruptions to service +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Is it possible to develop chip technology that combines the high-performance characteristics of ASICS with the speedy, low-cost features of printed circuit boards?Scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency this week said they were looking for information on how to build interface standards that would enable modular design and practical circuit blocks that could be reused to greatly shorten electronics development time and cost.+More on Network World: DARPA: Researchers develop chip part that could double wireless frequency capacity+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
If you are a cybersecurity professional or interested in cybersecurity at all, you should be familiar with the Cybersecurity Canon. What is a canon? There are lots of definitions, but the one that applies here is “a sanctioned or accepted group or body of related works.” With this definition in mind, the stated goal of the Cybersecurity Canon is:
“To identify a list of must-read books for all cybersecurity practitioners—be they from industry, government or academia—where the content is timeless, genuinely represents an aspect of the community that is true and precise, reflects the highest quality and, if not read, will leave a hole in the cybersecurity professional’s education that will make the practitioner incomplete.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
DDoS attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated, combining multiple attack techniques that require different mitigation strategies, and abusing new protocols.Incident responders from Akamai recently helped mitigate a DDoS attack against an unnamed European media organization that peaked at 363G bps (bits per second) and 57 million packets per second.While the size itself was impressive and way above what a single organization could fight off on its own, the attack also stood out because it combined six different techniques, or vectors: DNS reflection, SYN flood, UDP fragment, PUSH flood, TCP flood, and UDP flood.Almost 60 percent of all DDoS attacks observed during the first quarter of this year were multi-vector attacks, Akamai said in a report released last month. The majority of them used two vectors, and only 2 percent used five or more techniques.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here