9 ways to make the most of your Android device

When you stop and think about it, the word "smartphone" is starting to sound a little stale.Sure, these pocket-size gadgets we tote around are capable of making calls -- but for most of us, that's become a secondary feature compared to the range of data-centric functions the devices enable. In reality, we're carrying tiny, capable computers that also happen to work as phones.[ Get the best office productivity apps for your Android device, and explore 12 great Lollipop APIs every Android developer will love. | Keep up on key mobile developments and insights with the Mobile Computing newsletter. ] Android devices in particular offer advanced functionality when it comes to the computer-level task of managing and manipulating files. The Android operating system allows you to perform all sorts of PC-like tasks, from dragging and dropping files between your phone and computer to plugging a USB drive directly into your device and accessing its contents. Between what Android offers out of the box and the features that third-party apps add to the equation, that shiny little slab in your pocket packs serious productivity potential.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Intel to buy Altera for $16.7B, eyes IoT market

Pursuing opportunities in the Internet of Things market, Intel has sealed a deal to buy Altera in an all-cash transaction valued at about $16.7 billion, which would be Intel’s largest acquisition ever.News reports that the companies were in talks first surfaced in late March. However, those negotiations reportedly broke down in early April because Altera considered Intel’s offer of $54 per share too low.However, late last week the New York Post and other media outlets reported that talks had resumed after Altera reported disappointing financial results on April 23. Those reports were based on anonymous sources. The price of the final deal remains $54 per share.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The right tool for the job

This last weekend I set a toilet, replaced five faucets, and put together the beginnings of a workbench. No, I’ve not resorted to working in “the trades,” to make a living — I’ve been slowly but surely finishing and refashioning our “country house” to better accommodate the time we spend “in the country.” One of the faucets, and the toilet, were set in a new bathroom; the pipes had been stubbed up but not finished — which means there were no valves. After the adventure of finding the main water cutoff for the house (it’s buried under about three inches of dirt along one side of the foundation), I had to cut off the plugs and install valves.

The pipes in the country house are PEX. So are the pipes in the house we just moved from. In fact, so are the pipes in the house in Raleigh we just moved to. Odd thing, that — three houses, in different places, at different price levels, and they all use PEX piping. In fact, walking through some random retail store last week, I noticed they had PEX stub outs in a bathroom there, too.

Imagine walking into an apartment and Continue reading

Wearable security: Two-factor authentication apps for Apple Watch

The Apple Watch could become our central hub in a wheel of identity, in which all spokes rotate around our wrist. Some early Watch apps already have a high degree of utility. But we’re only scratching the surface of what’s to come.MORE: 10 mobile startups to watch In this roundup, we look at six apps that offer varying forms of authentication on the Watch. Three allow a tap on the Watch to unlock something: an account, a login, a computer, or more. The other three handle the most common form of app-generated second-factor authentication codes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The Upload: Your tech news briefing for Monday, June 1

Once again, reports have Intel near a deal with AlteraIntel may announce a deal to acquire FPGA maker Altera on Monday, the Wall Street Journal reports, after the two companies returned to the bargaining table following a failure to come to terms earlier this year. The buy would strengthen Intel’s already dominant hand in the server market at a cost of about $17 billion.NSA surveillance powers expire as Senate delays voteA controversial program allowing the U.S. National Security Agency to collect millions of domestic telephone records expired Sunday night after the Senate failed to vote on a bill to extend the authority for the surveillance. But senators moved closer to bringing the USA Freedom Act to a vote; that bill gives the agency limited power to obtain data on American residents under investigation. Some are still calling for more reform and better oversight.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Chromebooks with MediaTek chips to appear ‘very soon’

Chip maker Mediatek is preparing to enter the laptop business, with the first Chromebooks based on its processors due to appear soon.So said Mediatek senior vice president Jeffrey Ju at the Computex trade show in Taipei. The company also showed a non-working Chromebook with its 64-bit MT8173 quad-core processor and a USB Type-C port.Ju didn’t say exactly when PC makers will release Chromebooks with MediaTek’s chips, but another MediaTek representative said the laptops could appear in the second half of this year or early next year.Chromebooks, which run Google’s Chrome OS, are catching on as a low-cost alternative to Windows PCs for users who do most of their computing on the Internet. The usage model is much like tablets and smartphones, with most applications requiring an Internet connection, though Google is making more offline applications available.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Overhead projector vs. ceiling fan

So what do we have here?First of all, I cannot vouch for the authenticity of this photograph. I received it via the Twitter account for YouHadOneJob, @_youhadonejob. There are several other versions floating around. It could be a fake. But let’s assume it’s real. What could account for the decision of the projector installer?Perhaps it could be that the projector needed to be installed a precise distance from the screen and therefore no other variable, such as proximity to the blades of a ceiling fan, could alter that requirement. In other words, the projector installer simply had no choice.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Internet of Things breathes new life into RFID technology

About a decade or so ago, it was almost impossible to find a tech analyst who wasn't predicting that radio-frequency identification (RFID) would soon change the world. While RFID eventually became a useful tool in retail, logistics, healthcare and a handful of other enterprise sectors, the technology largely lurked in the shadows while other truly transformative concepts, such as social media and streaming entertainment, grabbed the spotlight.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Building Network Tools using Docker

I am going to start pushing out an app every month that fixes some problem in networking. In this case I hacked it up over the past couple of weekends, but other times it will just be me using someones open source awesomeness and demoing it. First some thoughts on where we are in the wild world of networking to ... The post Building Network Tools using Docker appeared first on NetworkStatic | Brent Salisbury's Blog.

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New products of the week 06.01.2015

New products of the weekOur roundup of intriguing new products. Read how to submit an entry to Network World's products of the week slideshow.Arista NavigatorKey features: software tool designed for supporting Arista network infrastructures. The Arista Navigator reduces troubleshooting analysis time by visually providing intelligent access to Arista information. More info. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New products of the week 06.01.2015

New products of the weekOur roundup of intriguing new products. Read how to submit an entry to Network World's products of the week slideshow.Arista NavigatorKey features: software tool designed for supporting Arista network infrastructures. The Arista Navigator reduces troubleshooting analysis time by visually providing intelligent access to Arista information. More info. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Windows 10 to ship on July 29 for PCs and tablets

Microsoft will start shipping Windows 10 on July 29 for PCs and tablets. The upgrade includes the Cortana digital assistant, a whole host of new apps and the return of the start menu.After the failure of Windows 8, Microsoft has a lot to prove with the latest version of its operating system. The launch date puts pressure on Microsoft’s developers to finalize the feature-set and the look of the operating system. On Friday, the company released the latest version, dubbed Build 10130, which has new icons, Cortana improvements and some changes to the Start menu.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

VMware’s vSphere 6.0: Faster, smarter, more resilient

VMware's vSphere 6 pays more attention to high availability and large deployment than prior editions—with a kick to the throttle in terms of overall speed of scale, not just size of scale. This comes with a mixture of incremental upgrades, and a bit of administrative thoughtfulness.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

VMware 6.0: Faster, smarter, more resilient

VMware 6 pays more attention to high availability and large deployment than prior editions—with a kick to the throttle in terms of overall speed of scale, not just size of scale. This comes with a mixture of incremental upgrades, and a bit of administrative thoughtfulness.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

First Look: Amazon Echo: Novelty item or ready-for-prime-time part of your digital life?

Our Amazon Echo, a voice-controlled appliance—for want of a better word—arrived on May 17 and we’ve been using it all week. As Prime members, we paid $100 for ours, but the list price is $200. While some parts are beautifully done, the information services at the back end have a long way to go before the Echo is more than a novelty.The Echo is a heavy cylinder, about nine inches tall and three inches in diameter. Colored black, it sits inconspicuously anywhere you can get it AC power and a Wi-Fi connection. (Wired Ethernet is not included) Most of the Echo is made up of speakers, which gives you an idea of what the Echo is best at: playing music.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

ARM hopes to extend battery life of IOT devices with new chip design

ARM is trying to resolve the thorny problem of battery life in Internet of Things devices with a new chip design that will significantly reduce the power consumed by processors, sensors and wireless chips.The company has overhauled the way it designs low-power Cortex-M chips that go into IoT devices such as health monitors, smart home devices and sensors. The restructured design could almost double battery life, ARM executives said at Computex in Taipei on Monday.For example, the battery life of a connected hearing aid could more than double with chips based on the new design, said Jeff Chu, director of marketing at ARM.Chu provided another example of a smart lightbulb lasting a lot longer on a battery charge with new chips based on the design. The smart bulb could have solar cells to refresh the battery, and the chip’s lower power consumption could help the battery last for years.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Ulbricht’s judge punished him for political dissent; you should find this outrageous

Silk Road operator Ross Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Maybe this is a fair sentence for selling $200 million in illegal drugs. Or, since all the lawyers I talk to think it's excessive (worse than what even the prosecutors asked for), maybe it's within the normal range of excess in the War on Drugs. I'm not a lawyer, so I can't judge this.

But, I'm interested in the comments the judge made justifying her hard sentence. According to Andy Greenberg at WIRED, the judge said:
“The stated purpose [of the Silk Road] was to be beyond the law. In the world you created over time, democracy didn’t exist. ... Silk Road’s birth and presence asserted that its…creator was better than the laws of this country. This is deeply troubling, terribly misguided, and very dangerous.”
This is silly on the face of it. The stated purpose of all crime is to "be beyond the law". I mean, when I go above the speed limit in my BMW, my stated purpose is to go beyond the legal limit. I'm not sure I understand the logic here.

I'm being disingenuous, of course, because I do understand. What the Continue reading
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