Lenovo seeks to be hip 10 years after ThinkPad buy

Can a Chinese PC vendor learn to be cool?On Thursday, Lenovo, a maker of business laptops, tried to answer that question. It brought out dance club music, a Chinese movie actress, and a retired NBA player at a company event that hailed Lenovo’s new logo.“Users need cooler, more innovative devices,” said its CEO Yang Yuanqing, while speaking at the Beijing event. “The devices need to be more capable, fashionable, and they need to have personality.”At a time when tech companies are all targeting young consumers, Lenovo is hoping it can hang around with the cool kids. The vendor is more focused on consumers than ever, in its bid to rise to the heights of Apple and Samsung, and lead in the tech market.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple acquires Metaio with a view to augmented reality

Apple has taken a big step into augmented reality by acquiring Metaio, a German company whose technology has been used by Macy’s, BMW and furniture retailer Ikea.Augmented reality systems add information to a user’s view of the world to help them do things like work, shop or drive. Whereas virtual reality makes it look like you’re in a different place, AR allows you to be more informed about your actual surroundings.BMW has demonstrated glasses that display navigation data and other travel information, and link up with cameras on the outside of a car, to let a driver see “through” the vehicle for tasks like parking. A startup called Augment offers software for iOS and Android that lets users visualize 3D renderings within the space in front of them, for jobs like designing store displays.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Man charged with selling fake discount coupons on Silk Road

A Louisiana man has been accused of creating counterfeit coupons and selling them on the Silk Road underground websites, potentially defrauding businesses of more than US$1 million, the Justice Department said Thursday.Prosecutors said Beau Wattigney, 30, of New Orleans, created coupons that look like print-at-home coupons from manufacturers, including fake logos. The coupons offered vast discounts on the retail price of some items.He offered one of the coupons, for a $50 Visa gift card, for 1 cent, prosecutors said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

This smart fabric from Google can change the music and turn off the lights

Wander around the halls of Google’s I/O conference and eventually you’ll bump into a large table covered with a blue cloth. But being I/O, this is no ordinary cloth. It’s a smart fabric developed by Google’s advanced technology group that could one day control your smartphone or the lights in your home.Called Project Jaquard, it’s an experiment that involves weaving electronics into fabric to create the equivalent of a touch screen inside the material. The surface feels like a patch of corduroy, but stroking your fingers up and down or sideways controls nearby electronics.Google had set up a few demo stations on the table where people could interact with the cloth. One patch allowed you to manipulate a 3D image on a nearby display, while another changed the song on a phone, and yet another controlled the lights overhead.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google hypes Android M, Android Pay, Google Photos at I/O 2015

Google kicked off its annual I/O developer conference Thursday in San Francisco, showing off a new version of Android, a VR camera rig, numerous developer resources, and a lot more besides in an opening keynote that took up the better part of two hours.Senior vice president of product Sundar Pichai emceed the event, which Google says attracted 6,000-plus developers and featured presentations from engineering vice president David Burke, engineering vice president Jen Fitzgerald, Android Wear director David Singleton, director of product management Aparna Chennapragada, among others.Much of what had been rumored before the show did, indeed, appear on stage at the Moscone Center – including the aforementioned new Android version, Google Photos, Android Pay and more. But there were conspicuous absences, as well – Google didn’t mention its enterprise-focused products like Android and Apps for Work, nor the rumored Project Fi wireless service, or the Project Ara modular smartphone.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google to widen Maps’ offline features

Google will let users access more key functions of its Maps service, including search and navigation, without an Internet connection this year.For the first time, offline users will get search results for places and be able to use turn-by-turn voice navigation, said Jen Fitzpatrick, VP of engineering at Google, who announced the changes during Google’s I/O conference for developers in San Francisco. She didn’t say when this year the offline features will go live.Users might also see local business reviews and their operating hours.Google is also working to bring its public transit directions in Maps to more countries around the world, Fitzpatrick said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDC forecasts drop in PC and tablet shipments this year

Global PC shipments will decline for the fourth consecutive year as people continue re-directing money towards smartphones and tablets.Worldwide PC shipments will decrease by 6.2 percent in 2015, even though the end of Microsoft’s support for Windows XP spurred demand for PCs and nearly stabilized shipments, according to IDC. PC vendors, anticipating the arrival of Windows 10, have reduced their inventory levels.Windows 10 will be a “significant contributor” to PC shipments, but won’t lead to a sales burst. Although enterprises will purchase PCs running Windows 10, consumers won’t be as keen on buying a new PC because Microsoft will provide them with a free upgrade to the new OS, as long as they’re running legal versions of Windows 7 or 8.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

College kids to the rescue with IT support startup HelloTech

Not that Baby Boomers or Gen X homeowners are clueless about technology, but startup HelloTech is banking on people of a certain age needing a bit of assistance to live the Internet of Things dream.The West Los Angeles startup this week announced it has added $2 million in venture funding to the $2.5 million it attracted last fall to expand the on-demand, in-home tech support service that it officially rolled out this week in LA.CEO Richard Wolpert, a 4-time startup founder whose background includes stints as president of Disney Online and chief strategy officer at RealNetworks, says the need for HelloTech has been borne out of the explosion of new and useful home technologies and the decline in retail tech outlets (aside from Best Buy and its Geek Squad) that offer tech installation/support.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google’s Project Brillo is an OS for the home — and a lot more

Google has made a big play for the Internet of Things, announcing a new OS on Thursday that will connect appliances around the home and allow them to be controlled from an Android smartphone or tablet.Dubbed Project Brillo, it’s a stripped down version of Google’s Android OS that will run on door locks, ovens, heating systems and other devices that have a small memory footprint, and allow them to communicate and work together.Project Brillo also includes a communications layer, called Weave, that provides a common language developers can use to locate devices on a network and tap into their capabilities, said Sundar Pichai, Google senior vice president, who announced the system at Google’s I/O conference in San Francisco.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

DARPA wants you to verify software flaws by playing games

Can online gamers perform the sometimes tedious software verification work typically done by professional coding experts?Researchers at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) think so and were so impressed with their first crowdsourced flaw-detecting games, they announced an new round of five games this week designed for improved playability as well as increased software verification effectiveness.+More on Network World: Hot stuff: The coolest drones+DARPA began the program known as Crowd Sourced Formal Verification (CSFV) in December 2013 and opened the Verigames web portal (http://www.verigames.com/home), which offered five free online formal verification games.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

At Google I/O, the Internet of Things gets a new OS

Google is moving deeper into the world of the Internet of Things (IoT), announcing a new operating system -- Brillo -- as well as a communications layer at its Google I/O developer conference today.Sundar Pichai, a senior vice president at Google, took the stage at the company's annual conference to talk about updates to the Android platform, like Android Auto and Android Wear. He then turned his attention to IoT and how Google plans to help users build their own smart homes.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 12 most powerful Internet of Things companies "People are making connected devices like smart light bulbs," said Pichai. "But developers don't know how to target these experiences. And for users, it's really confusing to make it all work together."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google takes another swing at payments with Android Pay

Google is overhauling its approach to mobile payments with Android Pay, which will let people use their smartphone to make payments in brick and mortar stores as well as in apps like Lyft and GrubHub.The changes are an effort by Google to reclaim momentum in the area of mobile payments, where Apple Pay has been fast taking hold and other rivals like Samsung’s LoopPay are emerging.Android Pay will be incorporated into the next version of Android, currently known as Android M, which was unveiled at Google’s I/O conference for developers in San Francisco Thursday. The service will also work with previous versions of Android as far back as KitKat, said Dave Burke, VP of engineering at Google.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google takes another swing at payments with Android Pay

Google is overhauling its approach to mobile payments with Android Pay, which will let people use their smartphone to make payments in brick and mortar stores as well as in apps like Lyft and GrubHub.The changes are an effort by Google to reclaim momentum in the area of mobile payments, where Apple Pay has been fast taking hold and other rivals like Samsung’s LoopPay are emerging.Android Pay will be incorporated into the next version of Android, currently known as Android M, which was unveiled at Google’s I/O conference for developers in San Francisco Thursday. The service will also work with previous versions of Android as far back as KitKat, said Dave Burke, VP of engineering at Google.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FCC proposal would extend Lifeline voice subsidy to broadband

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will consider including broadband within a controversial program that subsidizes telephone or mobile service for poor people.Recipients of the FCC’s Lifeline program, which provides a US$9.25 monthly subsidy for voice service, could use that money to purchase broadband service instead under a proposal from FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. Eligible households would continue to receive one $9.25 monthly subsidy, and they could choose whether to apply the money to traditional telephone service, mobile service or broadband, FCC officials said Thursday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FCC proposal would extend Lifeline voice subsidy to broadband

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will consider including broadband within a controversial program that subsidizes telephone or mobile service for poor people.Recipients of the FCC’s Lifeline program, which provides a US$9.25 monthly subsidy for voice service, could use that money to purchase broadband service instead under a proposal from FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. Eligible households would continue to receive one $9.25 monthly subsidy, and they could choose whether to apply the money to traditional telephone service, mobile service or broadband, FCC officials said Thursday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Like routers, most USB modems also vulnerable to drive-by hacking

The majority of 3G and 4G USB modems offered by mobile operators to their customers have vulnerabilities in their Web-based management interfaces that could be exploited remotely when users visit compromised websites.The flaws could allow attackers to steal or manipulate text messages, contacts, Wi-Fi settings or the DNS (Domain Name System) configuration of affected modems, but also to execute arbitrary commands on their underlying operating systems. In some cases, the devices can be turned into malware delivery platforms, infecting any computers they’re plugged into.Russian security researchers Timur Yunusov and Kirill Nesterov presented some of the flaws and attacks that can be used against USB modems Thursday at the Hack in the Box security conference in Amsterdam.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

20 best iPhone/iPad games

GamesAs we head toward summer 2015, it’s time to check in and see how the mobile gaming industry has fared for Apple iOS platforms, the iPhone and iPad. Here’s a look at top rated games issued so far this year, based on App Store user reviews and professional reviewers on Metacritic. We hope you’ll discover a few hidden gems in here.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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