Not all web browsers are created equal. In fact, it might startle you a little to realize how diverse the range of top-end browser software has become, if you came of age in the era of “Internet Explorer or go home.”
With about a third of all Windows traffic on the web coming from Windows 10 installs, according to figures from U.K.-based analytics firm GoSquared, and with Microsoft distancing itself from Internet Explorer in favor of the Edge just as fast as it can, it seems like as good a time as any to survey a few of the best browsing options for Windows 10 users.
A word on methodology – I ran each contestant here through three benchmarks (higher scores are better in all of them – see graphic below) to give a broad sense of overall performance, and put each of them through their paces by using them for both work and play. With the exception of the benchmarks, what follows are the subjective opinions of a working reporter who nevertheless does a great deal of web browsing. The five browsers – note that Apple Safari isn't a real option on Win10 -- are Continue reading
Those of you new to Internet of Things (IoT) engineering and using boards such as the Raspberry Pi will probably have come across an irritation: Every time you wipe the operating system on your IoT device and then try to use the Secure Shell (SSH) to access it, SSH will complain with something along the lines of:RedQueen:~ mgibbs$ ssh [email protected]@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED! @To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Three years after introducing special apps that run inside the Chrome browser, Google announced Friday that it will be removing them from Windows, Mac and Linux by early 2018. Google introduced those apps in 2013 as a way to offer new functions that weren't otherwise available on the web. Chrome browser apps also gave developers a way to write one app that would run across Windows, Mac, Linux and Chrome OS.The apps come in two flavors: Hosted Apps, which are essentially installable web apps, and Packaged Apps, which are closer to a traditional app like those you might find in the iOS App Store or Google Play Store. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden share a malware tracking code with several files released this week by hacking group Shadow Brokers, according to a news report.Shadow Brokers claimed they had hacked a cyberespionage team linked to the U.S. spy agency when they released a group of sample files earlier this week. Similarities between the Shadow Broker files and information in documents leaked by Snowden give credence to the claims by the anonymous hacking group.Fourteen files in the Shadow Brokers leak contain a 16-character string, "ace02468bdf13579," that NSA operatives used to track their use of one malware program, The Intercept reported Friday. That tracking string was described in an NSA manual for implanting malware originally leaked by Snowden, The Intercept reported.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
General Electric's (GE) CIO isn't interested in picking a winner or loser when it comes to collaboration apps. Nor does he want to preclude any of GE's 333,000 employees from using the collaboration tools that work best for them. "Collaboration is a noisy space right now because there are so many different tools," Jim Fowler said during an interview this week at CIO.com's CIO 100 event in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. "I'm not going to get in the middle of it. I'd like to see how it works itself out on its own."
GE CIO Jim Fowler. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Best Deals of the Week, August 15-19 - Deal AlertCheck out this roundup of the best deals on gadgets, gear and other cool stuff we have found this week, the week of August 15th. All items are highly rated, and dramatically discounted!34% off Lumsing 5 Port 40W USB Charging Station, with Quick Charge PortInexpensive, highly rated and discounted. That's the situation with this Lumsing charging station. This compact device will be the central charging hub in your dorm room, kitchen, bedroom, etc, and can charge up to 5 devices simultaneously. It currently averages 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon from 900+ people (read reviews) and its list price of $29 has been reduced to $19.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft announced it plans to launch its charting and diagramming app Visio on the iPad, and with it an Insider Program for users to get a chance to try out the app before it launches.Amazing how creative companies are at avoiding the word "beta."The company is looking for 2,000 Insiders, and in a break from its usual English-only Insider programs, Microsoft is supporting multiple languages this time: English, Chinese, French, German, Russian and Spanish.The program will run on all iPads, including iPad Mini and iPad Pro, that are capable of running iOS 9.0 or later, which basically means iPad third generation or later. Microsoft plans to roll out the first feature update around August or September. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Global smartphone sales jumped 4.3% in the second quarter compared to a year ago, but iPhone sales declined for the third straight quarter, market research firm Gartner said today.Gartner’s figures for second-quarter smartphone growth were more optimistic than numbers reported by Strategy Analytics and Canalys recently. Both had reported modest growth of no more than 3% in smartphone shipments.IDC last month reported second-quarter shipments were flat, growing just 0.3%.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple's macOS Sierra has been on a slower tempo of preview releases than last year's El Capitan, hinting that the upgrade will launch in October.
macOS Sierra's release tempo of developer preview builds (in green) is about two weeks behind the 2015 timetable of El Capitan (in red), hinting at a later launch this year, perhaps around mid-October.
Although Apple has been somewhat more transparent in its development process -- earlier this year it launched a new preview program for the Safari browser -- the Cupertino, Calif. company still does not publicly mark release dates on a calendar.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Bugs in several password managers, including the vulnerabilities discovered in LastPass in late July, have scared away some users. But such fears go too far. Millions of users rely on password managers to keep track of passwords for applications and online services, and by all indications, they work better than trying to do it on your own.Security victories should be embraced -- including password managers, which automatically generate complex strings of characters as passwords and deploy a unique password for each site or application. Password managers solve several authentication problems, including easily-cracked passwords and password reuse.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The best of what's to comeFeel that chill breeze in the air? Okay, maybe not—it’s still August, after all. But fall will be here soon enough, and with it the vaunted “Holiday Season,” aka the four-month span wherein every publisher releases its most promising video games at the same time in some sort of ridiculous consumer gladiator match.Despite some high-profile games slipping into 2017 already (damn it, Mass Effect Andromeda), there’s still quite a bit to be excited about in 2016. We’ve gone ahead and picked the 15 titles we’re looking forward to most—from Deus Ex (August 23) to South Park (December 6) and everything in between.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
At a time when Tesla has already rolled out advanced autonomous driving features in its cars, Ford is proceeding more cautiously because it believes the industry is not ready to hand over such features to consumers.On Tuesday, Ford announced that by 2021 it plans to offer a fully self-driving (autonomous) vehicle for multi-passenger shuttles and ride-hailing services such as Uber. The vehicle will be manufactured with no steering wheel, no gas or brake pedal. In other words, no driver necessary.Well before 2021, Ford will be testing prototypes on U.S. roadways of those fully-autonomous vehicles, according to Randy Visintainer, director of Autonomous Vehicles at Ford. The automaker hopes a fleet of self-driving vehicle shuttles and ride-hailing services can tap into a market that includes the elderly, infirm or young who are not able to drive.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Twitter continues to fight to keep terrorist groups and sympathizers from using its service.
The social network announced today that in the last six months it has suspended 235,000 accounts for violating its policies related to the promotion of terrorism. In February, Twitter reported that it had suspended 125,000 accounts since mid-2015 for terrorist-related reasons.
That means Twitter has suspended 360,000 accounts since the middle of last year.
"Since that [February] announcement, the world has witnessed a further wave of deadly, abhorrent terror attacks across the globe," the company wrote in a blog post. "We strongly condemn these acts and remain committed to eliminating the promotion of violence or terrorism on our platform."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Clothing retailer Eddie Bauer has informed customers that point-of-sale systems at its stores were hit by malware, enabling the theft of payment card information.
All the retailer’s stores in the U.S. and Canada, numbering about 350, were affected, a company spokesman disclosed Thursday. He added that the retailer is not disclosing the number of customers affected. The card information harvested included cardholder name, payment card number, security code and expiration date.
The retailer said that information of payment cards used at its stores on various dates between Jan. 2 and July 17, 2016 may have been accessed, but added that not all cardholder transactions were affected. Payment card information that was used for online purchases at its website was not affected.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In 2009, Apple CEO Tim Cook memorably trashed Atom-based netbooks for being "junky" hardware that underperformed. Intel's Atom chips have come a long way since, with the latest generation code-named Broxton boasting the most impressive improvements.The new Atom T5500 and 5700 chips have features found in low-end PC processors, but the chips are instead targeted at robots, drones, wearables, and smart home devices.A standout feature is 4K decoding and encoding capabilities, which could allow the chips to be used in virtual reality and augmented reality headsets.Intel showed smart glasses, a bartending robot, and a smart motorcycle helmet with the Broxton chips at the Intel Developer Forum this week. Intel also said the chips could be used be in storage or media servers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It's long been known that secret messages can be included in music through techniques such as backmasking, but now a Polish researcher has developed an entirely new approach. By subtly varying the tempo of a particular type of dance music, he's managed to encode information in a way that's completely inaudible to human listeners.StegIbiza is an algorithm for hiding information in a type of dance music known as Ibiza, which originates on the island by the same name in the western Mediterranean Sea. Ibiza music is characterized by its trance-like beat, and that's what Krzysztof Szczypiorski, a professor at Poland's Warsaw University of Technology, made use of.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It just became easier for HipChat customers to get some face time with each another whenever they want it. The company has launched new group video calling and screen sharing functionality that lets up to 10 other people share a virtual face-to-face meeting. Users can spin up a call in a HipChat channel, or bring additional people into a one-on-one video call. That way, people who work in far-flung teams can get onto the same page face-to-face, using the same software that they count on for text chat during the day. HipChat's announcement Thursday is a move to compete with both consumer services like Skype and Google Hangouts, as well as workplace videoconferencing systems like Lifesize and Skype for Business. The launch is particularly important for HipChat's competition with Slack, which recently added group voice calls and has video calling on its roadmap. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple’s iPad lineup may have lost sales momentum in recent years, but the relatively recent rollout of “Pro” models have helped inject a bit of much-needed life into the device. Now comes word via analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (via MacRumors) that Apple has some interesting changes in store for its tablet lineup.According to Kuo, Apple has plans to unveil a new 10.5-inch iPad Pro model sometime next year. Kuo adds that the new pro model will be a complement to the 12.9-inch iPad Pro model and will sit in between a more affordable 9.7-inch iPad model. That being the case, it remains to be seen how Apple plans to position the 10.5-inch iPad Pro model and how it will stand apart from the slightly smaller and more affordable 9.7-inch model.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
These 5 courses will take you from newbie to Linux pro. Complete with two classes designed for Linux beginners, the Linux Essentials Bundle is the first step to a system administrator career, or to making a lateral move to your IT department.The classes in your bundle include:
Fundamentals of Unix & Linux System Administration
Learn Docker from Scratch
Linux Shell Programming for BeginnersTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Two of the most important tasks in a datacenter are server provisioning and configuration management. At one time, administrators spent a significant amount of time physically deploying servers and network infrastructure, followed by even more minutes and hours manually configuring hundreds or even thousands of nodes. Then they spent an additional chunk of the day troubleshooting and fixing the errors they introduced by configuring all of these systems with their fat fingers.Chef clients are generally installed on Windows machines using the MSI package. Today, a number of resources specific to Windows come with Chef out-of-the-box. For example:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)