If you're an Amazon Prime Member (or have a free trial -- get one here) you'll see the price drop an extra 20% on Mass Effect Andromeda (PC, PlayStation 4 or Xbox One). Price drop activates when you add it to your cart, and sinks the price from $59.99 to $39.99.Mass Effect: Andromeda takes players to the Andromeda galaxy, far beyond the Milky Way. There, players will lead our fight for a new home in hostile territory as the Pathfinder-a leader of military-trained explorers. This is the story of humanity's next chapter, and player choices throughout the game will ultimately determine our survival. See the discounted Mass Effect Andromeda on AmazonTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
WikiLeaks may have dealt another blow to the CIA’s hacking operations by releasing files that allegedly show how the agency was masking its malware attacks.On Friday, the site dumped the source code to the Marble Framework, a set of anti-forensic tools that WikiLeaks claims the CIA used last year.The files do appear to show “obfuscation techniques” that can hide CIA-developed malicious coding from detection, said Jake Williams, a security researcher at Rendition InfoSec, who has been examining the files.Every hacker, from the government-sponsored ones to amateurs, will use their own obfuscation techniques when developing malware, he said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter’s approach.Thanks to cellular GPS, the days of pulling your car over to ask for directions are long gone. It has never been easier to find your way from point A to B and to track down nearby points of interest like restaurants or gas stations.But, what happens when you walk indoors? The “blue dot” navigation experience doesn’t exist. When inside a mall, conference center, or office complex, you are back to stopping and asking for turn-by-turn directions when needed. There is enormous demand for an indoor location experience that is on par with outdoor cellular GPS. Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is an exciting technology that promises to satisfy this demand. The major mobile device manufacturers have put their weight behind BLE beaconing standards and a robust BLE ecosystem has emerged to develop indoor location solutions. But two things have held BLE indoor location services back to date:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The universal design of this mount fits most 20-75" TVs up to VESA 600 x 400 and 165lbs. The profile is only 1.5" for today's thin TVs, and it tilts to improve viewing and reduce glare. This bundle comes with a 10-foot HDMI cable and a 6-inch 3-axis bubble level. It averages 4.5 out of 5 stars from over 14,000 people on Amazon (read recent reviews), where its typical list price of $41 has been reduced to just $25. See the discounted mount now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In the Shaw household, we’ve been living without cable TV for about seven months. We’re now officially “cord cutters”, saving about $60 per month and getting our “TV” through Internet streaming services (mainly Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime video). This article isn’t about that effort (although I would recommend it if you can live without watching live TV events).A result of the cord-cutting has left me with a bunch of rooms with coaxial cables that now have nothing to do. I started to think – why not use those cables to provide data networking access? After a quick phone call with a member of the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA), I received some products that use MoCA to provide network access via coaxial cable.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
After Congress on Tuesday approved a resolution that would toss out significant online privacy protections, one Internet user decided to do something about it.Adam McElhaney, who calls himself a privacy activist and net neutrality advocate, created a website and a GoFundMe page to raise money to buy the internet histories of the legislators who backed the resolution so he can make them available and easily searchable.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
More DDR memory is on the way, despite many predictions that its time would soon be up.Development of specifications for the new DDR5 DRAM has started, and it will be finalized next year, JEDEC, a memory standards-setting organization, said on Thursday.DDR5 will succeed the current DDR4 memory, which is used in PCs and servers. DDR5 will be two times faster than DDR4 and also more power efficient.DDR5 will also have double the density of DDR4. Typical DDR5 DIMMs will have twice the gigabyte capacity of DDR4 DIMMs.Analysts didn't expect DDR5 to be developed; instead, they thought the line for DDR DRAM would end at DDR4. But PC and server designs haven't changed much in recent years, and there could be an appetite for DDR5.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft today said that Windows 10 users eager for the next feature upgrade may download it manually starting Wednesday, April 5, nearly a week before the refresh begins reaching PCs via Windows Update.Windows 10 Creators Update -- Microsoft's name for the first of two upgrades in 2017 -- will launch on April 11, when the installation file will be staged on Windows Update and offered to a select group of users. To jump the Windows Update line, people will need to run the Upgrade Assistant, an app that will be available before April 5 on Microsoft's website.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
U.S. internet service providers are about to face temptation.Now that the broadband privacy rule repeal is almost certain, will they sell their customers' data to marketers, or will they keep it private?The U.S. broadband industry is telling consumers not to worry. Verizon, for instance, said that it remains committed to protecting users’ privacy.What that exactly means is unclear, and some in the industry are skeptical.Major broadband providers will be enticed to monetize their customers’ data in ad-heavy ways, said Dane Jasper, CEO of Sonic, a small ISP in California.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It remains unclear what – if anything – President Donald Trump's administration will do to change the U.S. H-1B program. But uncertainty and fears of bad press are causing some IT service providers and customers to rethink their approach to offshoring and the associated use of foreign-born temporary visa holders to fill U.S. roles. With some proposed legislation calling for more than doubling the minimum salary of H-1B visa holders, both enterprises and IT outsourcers may be evaluating U.S. locations for IT service delivery.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The most powerful Harmony remote. It redefines ultimate control over your entertainment system—including game consoles and devices behind closed cabinet doors. One simple tap of the touch screen adjusts your entire home entertainment system so you can switch between movies, game consoles, favorite TV stations and music without fumbling with multiple remotes or button presses. Customize it the way you enjoy your entertainment. It has the power and intelligence to do what you demand. This lighting deal from Amazon saves you $117.98 (41%) for today only. Check out the deal.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Financial services companies as popular targets of cybercriminals for the obvious reason -- they're where the money's at. And health care companies have medical records, which are very valuable on the black market since the information there can be abused in so many ways, and doesn't expire.HealthExpense, which provides health care payment services to banks and their enterprise customers, straddles both worlds."When we started, every new client asked us about security," said Marco Smit, CEO at Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Health Expense."It has to do with the data we're collecting," said company CSO Ken Lee. "We are definitely bound by HIPAA compliance, and we hold all the personal health information and financial information."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
More and more attackers are carrying out their work without using malware so they can evade detection by traditional, file-based security platforms, which presents a tough problem for security pros trying to defend against them.Nearly two-thirds of security researchers polled by Carbon Black say they’ve noted an uptick in these attacks just since the beginning of the year, and aren’t confident that traditional anti-virus software can deal with them.+More on Network World: IBM says cybercriminals are starting to grab unstructured data, spam has rebloomed 400% and ransomware has just gone nuts+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco has issued an urgent request to Cisco customers running specific releases of software on their Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) and Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) appliances to reboot their devices to prevent a device from hanging and stop passing traffic.Cisco said its ASA and FTD devices are affected by a “functional software defect that will cause the device to stop passing traffic after 213 days of uptime” and that the issue is a result of a software regression bug introduced when addressing Cisco bug ID CSCva03607.+More on Network World: IBM on the state of network security: AbysmalTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Getting set up at a new job can be a frustrating maze of forms that require overlapping information to be entered perfectly. Solving that is the idea behind HelloWorks, a new service from HelloSign designed to simplify the process of filling out forms.People using HelloWorks will be able to complete forms digitally rather than fill out PDFs on their computers or scan handwritten responses. Even if users have to work through several different forms, the system will automatically populate identical fields with the appropriate response. That way, people won’t need to fill in their address half a dozen times.The new service is an expansion for HelloSign, which got its start as a company with a service that let users send faxes over the internet. In the intervening years, the company expanded to offer e-signature capabilities that compete with companies like DocuSign and Adobe.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Google researchers have released a collection of 2 million-plus labeled audio snippets designed to spark innovation in the area of sound search.The company earlier this month published a paper titled "AudioSet: An ontology and human-labeled dataset for audio events" that it hopes will combine with image recognition to strengthen overall search and identification capabilities that could be used in a wide variety of machine learning applications, including the automation of video captions that include sound effects. Google began work on the project last year.Google has exploited its YouTube business to collect 2 million ten-second YouTube excerpts (totaling 5.8 thousand hours of audio) labeled with more than 500 sound categories to create its AudioSet. Categories start at high levels such as Human Sounds and Music, and then get more specific, such as Whistling and Music Genre.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A new approach that centers around performance makes the Airport Extreme taller with 6 antennas at the top, three for the 2.4GHz band and three for the 5GHz band, creating a higher platform for dispersing the signal. Together with 802.11ac wireless technology, they let you connect faster, farther. Averaging 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon from 1,800 people, the typical list price of Apple's Airport Extreme has been discounted on Amazon by 20% to $159. See this deal on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Verizon on Friday will launch a nationwide wireless network designed to help developers, businesses, utilities and municipalities deploy secure internet-of-things devices at lower cost.The Verizon 4G LTE Category M1 (Cat M1) network will span 2.4 million square miles and will be the first of its kind, the company said.Many IoT technologies have been slow to catch on, but Verizon's Cat M1 and similar networks will be game changers for IoT deployments, said Steve Hilton, an IoT analyst at Machnation.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A two-day artificial intelligence (AI) conference could overlook the opposing point of view, especially held in San Francisco—the epicenter of technology innovation and the center of over-hyped technology.But by adding Gary Marcus to the speaker roster of the MIT Technology Review’s EmTech Digital conference, we got a balanced view about AI, including engaging criticism about where AI works, where it does not, and why Marcus says the direction of R&D in the AI field will not lead to artificial general intelligence (AGI). AGI is a theoretical machine intelligence that equals human intelligence.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Russian government used "thousands" of internet trolls and bots to spread fake news, in addition to hacking into political campaigns leading up to the 2016 U.S. election, according to one lawmaker.Disinformation spread on social media was designed to raise doubts about the U.S. election and the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, said Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat."This Russian propaganda on steroids was designed to poison the national conversation in America," Warner said Thursday during a Senate hearing on Russian election hacking. The Russian government used "thousands of paid internet trolls" and bots to spread disinformation on social media.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here