A fresh infusion of virtual reality gaming systems such as Sony PlayStation VR could make these hot Black Friday 2016 shopping items, but don't expect to get off too easy on prices.
Sony this month just started selling PlayStation VR, which starts at $400 just for the headset, so figure on $500 if you want the bundle of headset/camera/controllers (and you'll need a PlayStation console too). Then you're going to need some games as well. PlayStation VR joins the Oculus Rift and HTC VIVE, both of which became available earlier this year, going beyond the less elaborate VR viewers such as Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
After months of slowly rolling out information, Sony has finally announced the final crucial details you need to know about the PlayStation VR. Sony’s new VR headset will roll out on October 13 and there will be 50 VR-friendly games released for the PlayStation VR in 2016.
Sony announced pricing back in March and reiterated it during E3. The headset as a stand-alone device costs $399, but to actually use it you also need a PlayStation Camera ($40-$60) and a set of PlayStation Move controllers ($25) bringing the real price closer to $500. You’ll also need a PlayStation 4 console, naturally.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse Five and J.K.Rowling’s series of Harry Potter novels describe the time travel paradox. Traveling through time changes the future from the point in time where the traveler arrived. The personal assistant that will arrive at some time in the future will change humans from that point in time forward, but in a more impactful way than GPS.Artificially intelligent personal assistants will be part of our lives
Google and Facebook have recruited the best artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning talent in the world to build personal assistants in small increments.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
HP Inc. is cutting between 3,000 to 4,000 jobs over the next three years as part of a restructuring plan worked out by the company.The PC and printer firm, which was created about a year ago after Hewlett-Packard was split into two companies, said in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday that it expects about “3,000 to 4,000 employees to exit between fiscal 2017 and fiscal 2019.”The company's "printing business is challenged right now but the PC business is hitting on all cylinders," said Patrick Moorhead, president and principal analyst of Moor Insights & Strategy. “The PC Group is gaining market share, increasing profits and innovating more than I have seen in years,” he added.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Amazon Web Services and VMware on Thursday announced what executives at both companies call a long-term strategic partnership to make it easier to run VMware workloads on AWS’s cloud.At a press conference in San Francisco each company’s CEO boasted about the VMware on AWS offering which will be available as part of an invite-only beta early next year and rolled out to the masses in mid-2017.In a nutshell, AWS has dedicated a portion of its bare metal cloud infrastructure for running VMware’s core management software: vSphere (the ESXi hypervisor and virtualization management platform), vSAN (the virtual storage area network platform) and NSX (the virtual networking software). Customers can spin up three sizes of AWS on VMware and pay for it through a credit card or their existing VMware account. AWS is VMware’s “preferred” public cloud and VMware is AWS’s preferred private cloud, CEOs Andy Jassy of AWS and Pat Gelsinger of VMware said during the press conference.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Verizon has signaled that Yahoo's massive data breach may be enough reason to halt its US$4.8 billion deal to buy the internet company.On Thursday, Verizon's general counsel Craig Silliman said the company has a "reasonable basis" to believe that the breach involving 500 million Yahoo accounts has had a material impact on the acquisition. This could give the company room to back out or get a large discount."We're looking to Yahoo to demonstrate to us the full impact," he added. "If they believe that it's not, then they'll need to show us that."In response, Yahoo said, "We are confident in Yahoo’s value and we continue to work towards integration with Verizon."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Whether you are Kayaking, Beaching, Rafting, Boating, Hiking, Camping or Fishing, Earth Pak believes they have created the best dry bag on the market for any adventure. Toss in your gear, roll it down, and don't be afraid to toss this bag around. It's designed to last for years and will keep your phone, gadgets and gear dry and protected. It comes in 10L, 20L and 30L size, and all models feature 24-42 inch adjustable shoulder straps. Included is Earth Pak's IPX8 certified waterproof phone case that can fit even the largest phones, with simple snap and lock access and clear windows that allow for picture taking without removing from the case. This bag is currently discounted 46% from $35 down to just $18.99, and averages 5 out of 5 stars from over 1,295 customers (read reviews). To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Sprint today said it would get into the managed SD-WAN arena in early 2017 with an offering using VeloCloud’s technology.+More on Network World: Branch office links, big bandwidth needs drive SD-WAN evolution+Sprint said it is currently teaming with VeloCloud to support customer trials for its SD-WAN service during the fourth quarter of 2016, with a global launch planned for early 2017.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Last week reports surfaced of a coming partnership between VMware and Amazon Web Services. Both companies declined to comment on the rumors, but earlier this week Amazon Web Services called a press conference for Thursday afternoon.Hours before the press conference in San Francisco with AWS CEO Andy Jassy a blog post from VMware leaked onto the Internet announcing the deal between the two companies. Tech Crunch was the first to report it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
More and more American companies are realizing the benefits of having a blended workforce, where freelancers and full-time staff work together on corporate projects. In fact, 40 percent of top-performing American companies hire freelancers.So many of these companies are putting these freelancers to work on teams with full-time employees that teamwork is one of the main qualities employers look for when engaging freelancers.+ Also on Network World: Is outdated legislation holding back the gig economy? +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
One of the very first questions I typically ask executives who are newly committed to start “digitally transforming” their business is to actually define “digital transformation.” While definitions vary, what really strikes me is that almost always, they tend to have a gross underappreciation of what this transformation entails.
+ Also on Network World: IT talent biggest roadblock to digital transformation +
Executives typically align around one or possibly two of the following, but they fail to grasp that it takes all of them eventually changing (albeit these can be managed in phases or as multiple tracks of work):To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Step your Halloween game up with this powerful but lightweight 1200W fog machine that pumps out 3,500 cubic feet of creepy fog per minute. That's enough thick fog to easily fill a garage, a pathway, or a porch, but the output density is adjustable with multiple settings. It averages 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon from over 600 people (read reviews). Its typical list price of $92.99 has been reduced 11% to $82.99 (see it on Amazon). If you just don't need that much fog, 1byone has a 400W model that is a #1 best seller and currently discounted 13% to just $34.99 (see it on Amazon). For either model, you'll also want to pick up this fog juice. Frequently bought with the fog machine (but not required) is this remote timer that lets you automate on/off and duration of fogginess.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Last month the elementary team released elementary OS “Loki” 0.4.Needless to say, I wasted no time downloading and installing that bad boy on one of my machines. Even though I tend to use openSUSE on most of my desktops and laptops, I’ve had a soft spot for elementary since its very first release. It’s always been a high-quality, polished system—and the team behind it clearly care a great deal about the user experience. + Also on Network World: Highly social Linux nerds worth following +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco Systems has patched a critical vulnerability that could allow hackers to gain access to Cisco Meeting and Acano servers that are used in enterprise environments for video and audio conferencing.The flaw allows an unauthenticated attacker to masquerade as a legitimate user because the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) service incorrectly processes a deprecated authentication scheme, Cisco said in an advisory.The flaw affects Cisco Meeting Server versions prior to 2.0.6 with XMPP enabled, as well as versions of the Acano Server prior to 1.8.18 and prior to 1.9.6. If upgrading to the latest releases is not immediately possible, administrators are advised to disable XMPP on their servers and keep using the other available protocols.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A woman from Ohio tells a Cleveland TV station that she has been summoned for jury nine times in the past 12 years."Usually what I do is snap a picture (of the summons) and send it to my friend, like, again!" she says. From that TV station story:
Administrative judge for the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court John Russo says that people are supposed to get called about every two years. According to him, jury selection is random, with 300 names picked electronically per week based on voter registration. But Russo says there could be a glitch with addresses that would put your name back in the pot too soon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
There's a lot of clap-trap going around about what could be wrong with the lithium-ion batteries in the dozens of Note7s that overheated, smoked, and even caught fire in original and replacement units.The truth is that the public doesn't know -- yet. Many analysts are questioning whether Samsung knows and just hasn't said.Samsung killed production of the Note7 and stopped sales and exchanges yesterday, less than two months after the South Korean giant started shipping the original device in the U.S. on Aug. 19. It's not clear what the company plans to do next to recover.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
There’s never been a better time to give Linux a try.Wait, don’t slam on that back button! I’m not one of those rabid “Year of the Linux desktop” types. Windows works just fine for hundreds of millions of people, and—sorry, Linux lovers—there’s little to suggest Linux usage will ever be more than a rounding error compared to Microsoft’s behemoth.INSIDER: SUSE Linux 12 challenges Red Hat
That said, there are some pretty compelling reasons you might want to consider switching to Linux on your computer, or at least give it a hassle-free trial run.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
GitHub's 7 most popular productivity tools for programmersImage by Wikipedia; pixabayBorn of ingenuity -- or, in some cases, laziness -- programming tools created by developers for developers have become an essential component of modern software development. Developers seeking to enhance their productivity or simply cut down on keystrokes have enjoyed a boon of possibilities thanks to open source repo host GitHub.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In September, Dell and EMC finalized the largest ever merger of tech companies, creating privately held Dell Technologies - a "family" of companies that provides everything from PCs to hyperconverged infrastructure with annual revenue of some $75 billion. Ahead of next week's Dell EMC World conference, CEO Michael Dell spoke with IDG Chief Content Officer John Gallant about what Dell and EMC customers can expect -- in sales, service, product integration -- from this landscape-altering combination.I wanted to spend time talking with you about how your competitive approach, how the path you've taken, differs and offers benefit to customers compared to some of their other strategic providers today. I had the opportunity to talk to Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman some time ago about their very different approach with HP splitting apart. And Meg's comment was, and this is a direct quote from her, "Dell EMC has taken an entirely different strategy than we have. We decided to get smaller, they decided to get bigger. We decided to de-lever the company, they've chosen to lever up. We've chosen to lean into new technology like 3Par all-flash storage, our next generation of servers, high-performance compute, hyperconverged Composable infrastructure and Continue reading
The underground marketImage by ThinkstockUnderground markets offer a great variety of services for cyber criminals to profit from. These forums offer items ranging from physical world items like drugs and weapons to digital world items such as spam/phishing delivery, exploit kit services, "Crypters", "Binders", custom malware development, zero-day exploits, and bulletproof hosting.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here