http://www.pcworld.com TechHive helps you find your tech sweet spot. We guide you to products you'll love and show you how to get the most out of them. en-us Thu, 08 Nov 2012 00:59:02 -0800 Thu, 08 Nov 2012 00:59:02 -0800 Companies that specialize in data recovery are still getting many calls for help from businesses and institutions whose equipment was damaged by the effects of Hurricane Sandy. There are multiple efforts underway by services firms to recover data from servers that were underwater during storm surges or were damaged by power surges in the New York metro area. Many businesses had underestimated the power of the storm that hit the east coast last week while many that did weren't able to get key computer equipment out of harm's way in time, according to companies that specialize in data recovery. Data centers were a significant casualty of the massive storm. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Microsoft's newly released OS, Windows 8, starts its bold new life at the crossroads of PCs and tablets, and consumers and businesses. While analysts predict that the adoption of the new OS will take time, there is one critical area where it can't afford to fall behind: apps. Microsoft has been wooing developers to get on the Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 bandwagon. The PC landscape that Microsoft dominated for decades has morphed into a mobile battlefield besieged by iPads, iPhones, and Android tablets and smartphones. There is an army of existing Windows developers, but the Windows Store contains only about 10,000 apps. The Apple App Store, by comparison, has 700,000. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here If you're looking for more streaming content in the $7.99-a-month price range, Amazon has quietly added a monthly subscription option to its Prime membership plan. With it, the company takes aim at streaming competitors Netflix and Hulu, which also offer plans in the $7.99 sweet spot. Though Amazon has nowhere near the amount of content Netflix does, a Prime membership also includes free two-day shipping and access to the Kindle Owners' Lending Library. Prime membership is normally $79 a year, so monthly subscribers are paying a higher premium for their membership ($7.99 versus $6.58). But some may prefer the lower up-front cost. An Amazon spokesperson said the company is testing the new monthly membership option. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Jammit (free beta software, $1-$5 per song) is a great tool for the budding or working musician looking to learn classic cover tunes quickly. Every song you load into Jammit is a real recording of a popular song, but instead of having to pick the instrument or vocal out of the mix with just your ear and brain, you can solo it, remove it, turn it down. You can also see the sheet music for the part right in front of you. Once you've loaded a song in Jammit, you'll see multiple copies. Each is mixed (or de-mixed) especially for one instrument or the vocals. Load the version for the part you're interested in learning and have at it. You can switch between notation and tablature (for guitar and bass parts), and there's drum notation as well. The mixer is the magic in Jammit as it lets you vary the volume of the band, isolate instruments and vocals, and add in a click track. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Bring-your-own-device (BYOD) refers to the trend of employees wanting to use their own smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices in the workplace. With the consumer mobile market exploding, analysts say organizations of all sizes must develop BYOD strategies or risk employee dissatisfaction and security vulnerabilities. The BYOD trend "stems from innovation in the consumer mobile space, driven by Apple and Google, outstripping that in the enterprise market," says Ovum analyst Richard Absalom. "The services that consumers own are more powerful and offer more capabilities than those supplied by their employees." More smartphones and tablets are sold to consumers every year. In the first half of 2012, IDC saw a 10 per cent year-on-year shipment increase for smartphones and a 119 per cent increase for tablets, says IDC analyst Siow-Meng Soh. "BYOD is driven more strongly by the younger Gen-Y workers who are savvy with the use of devices and consumer applications." To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Samsung's recent licensing of 64-bit processor designs from ARM suggests that the chip maker may expand from smartphones and tablets into the server market, analysts said this week. Samsung last week licensed ARM's first 64-bit Cortex-A57 and Cortex-A53 processors, a sign the chip maker is preparing the groundwork to develop 64-bit chips for low-power servers, analysts said. The faster 64-bit processors will appear in servers, high-end smartphones and tablets, and offer better performance-per-watt than ARM's current 32-bit processors, which haven't been able to expand beyond embedded and mobile devices. The first servers with 64-bit ARM processors are expected to become available in 2014. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here The idea of taking a blurry photo and making it sharp again sounds exciting. Like speech recognition, it is one of those technological visions that firmly belonged in the realm of futuristic fantasy just a few short years ago. But while powerful, reliable speech recognition is here, image de-blurring still has a long way to go. Blurity ($49, demo with watermarking) is a utility that's trying to blaze a trail into the difficult field, and it can de-blur certain types of photos if you're skillful and lucky. At first glance, Blurity's interface is simple and inviting. You put the blurry image on the left, click a part of it to demark a selection frame, and click Process. Blurity crunches some numbers, and shows the result on the right half of the window. In a perfect world, this review would end here: You would now be looking at a beautifully sharp version of your previously-blurry photo. In my testing, however, things proved to be more difficult. To Blurity's credit, it doesn't set unrealistic expectations. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Was it only six years ago that Windows Mobile was a big part of the cellphone business? That was a time when only programmers thought of a mobile phone as a computer. Now we're heading into the second or third generation of the smartphone, and the little thin slabs are becoming even more complex than the desktop. Do you want to edit a document? Find your way home? Take a picture? Send email? Actually talk with someone? Your smartphone is there for you. We've come a long way from Windows Mobile and BlackBerry. In the meantime, Microsoft looked into the abyss and realized it had no choice but to match the iPhones and Android mobiles feature for feature. The company clearly spared no expense or effort in building something that offers more or less the same extensive list of features as iPhones or Android smartphones. Then Microsoft tacked on a few cool ideas and its own distinctive style that will lure those who love the mod, '60s look. This isn't just a challenge for the programmers inside Microsoft. The Windows Phone 8 platform can't become relevant on its own. A smartphone today needs apps from an app store, and an app store needs developers, and developers need SDKs. If Microsoft wants to ship phones, it will need programmers to work with the SDK and start creating apps. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Adobe Tuesday announced that it will pair future security updates for its popular Flash Player with Microsoft's Patch Tuesday schedule. At the same time, Adobe issued an update that patched seven critical Flash vulnerabilities, and Microsoft shipped fixes for Internet Explorer 10 (IE10), which includes an embedded copy of Flash. But the move to synchronize Flash Player updates with Microsoft's monthly patch schedule was the bigger news. "Starting with the next Flash Player security update, we plan to release regularly-scheduled security updates for Flash Player on 'Patch Tuesdays,'" Adobe said in a statement yesterday. "Microsoft and Adobe are now officially married," cracked Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Security, in an email reply to questions. "They started dating when they decided to share the MAPP program [and] once Microsoft agreed to embed Flash in IE10, [it was] inevitable that Adobe was going to be strong-armed into following Microsoft's patch cadence." To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Can a small tablet make you as productive as a big one? That's the question of the hour now that Apple's iPad Mini is officially on sale, as many users are trying to decide if the new tablet is a worthwhile purchase or an overpriced letdown. Price, of course, has never been the big factor when it comes to Apple products, as customers have perpetually demonstrated their willingness to pay a premium for MacBooks, iPhones, and, of course, iPads. However, the Mini is a different beast; it came on the scene facing stiff competition from the likes of the Amazon Kindle Fire HD, Barnes & Noble Nook HD, and Google Nexus 7—tablets of similar size and design, but with considerably lower price tags. In fact, all three of those models start at $199, versus $329 for the entry-level Mini. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
What is driving BYOD?
http://www.pcworld.com TechHive helps you find your tech sweet spot. We guide you to products you'll love and show you how to get the most out of them. en-us Thu, 08 Nov 2012 00:59:02 -0800 Thu, 08 Nov 2012 00:59:02 -0800 Companies that specialize in data recovery are still getting many calls for help from businesses and institutions whose equipment was damaged by the effects of Hurricane Sandy. There are multiple efforts underway by services firms to recover data from servers that were underwater during storm surges or were damaged by power surges in the New York metro area. Many businesses had underestimated the power of the storm that hit the east coast last week while many that did weren't able to get key computer equipment out of harm's way in time, according to companies that specialize in data recovery. Data centers were a significant casualty of the massive storm. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Microsoft's newly released OS, Windows 8, starts its bold new life at the crossroads of PCs and tablets, and consumers and businesses. While analysts predict that the adoption of the new OS will take time, there is one critical area where it can't afford to fall behind: apps. Microsoft has been wooing developers to get on the Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 bandwagon. The PC landscape that Microsoft dominated for decades has morphed into a mobile battlefield besieged by iPads, iPhones, and Android tablets and smartphones. There is an army of existing Windows developers, but the Windows Store contains only about 10,000 apps. The Apple App Store, by comparison, has 700,000. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here If you're looking for more streaming content in the $7.99-a-month price range, Amazon has quietly added a monthly subscription option to its Prime membership plan. With it, the company takes aim at streaming competitors Netflix and Hulu, which also offer plans in the $7.99 sweet spot. Though Amazon has nowhere near the amount of content Netflix does, a Prime membership also includes free two-day shipping and access to the Kindle Owners' Lending Library. Prime membership is normally $79 a year, so monthly subscribers are paying a higher premium for their membership ($7.99 versus $6.58). But some may prefer the lower up-front cost. An Amazon spokesperson said the company is testing the new monthly membership option. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Jammit (free beta software, $1-$5 per song) is a great tool for the budding or working musician looking to learn classic cover tunes quickly. Every song you load into Jammit is a real recording of a popular song, but instead of having to pick the instrument or vocal out of the mix with just your ear and brain, you can solo it, remove it, turn it down. You can also see the sheet music for the part right in front of you. Once you've loaded a song in Jammit, you'll see multiple copies. Each is mixed (or de-mixed) especially for one instrument or the vocals. Load the version for the part you're interested in learning and have at it. You can switch between notation and tablature (for guitar and bass parts), and there's drum notation as well. The mixer is the magic in Jammit as it lets you vary the volume of the band, isolate instruments and vocals, and add in a click track. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Bring-your-own-device (BYOD) refers to the trend of employees wanting to use their own smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices in the workplace. With the consumer mobile market exploding, analysts say organizations of all sizes must develop BYOD strategies or risk employee dissatisfaction and security vulnerabilities. The BYOD trend "stems from innovation in the consumer mobile space, driven by Apple and Google, outstripping that in the enterprise market," says Ovum analyst Richard Absalom. "The services that consumers own are more powerful and offer more capabilities than those supplied by their employees." More smartphones and tablets are sold to consumers every year. In the first half of 2012, IDC saw a 10 per cent year-on-year shipment increase for smartphones and a 119 per cent increase for tablets, says IDC analyst Siow-Meng Soh. "BYOD is driven more strongly by the younger Gen-Y workers who are savvy with the use of devices and consumer applications." To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Samsung's recent licensing of 64-bit processor designs from ARM suggests that the chip maker may expand from smartphones and tablets into the server market, analysts said this week. Samsung last week licensed ARM's first 64-bit Cortex-A57 and Cortex-A53 processors, a sign the chip maker is preparing the groundwork to develop 64-bit chips for low-power servers, analysts said. The faster 64-bit processors will appear in servers, high-end smartphones and tablets, and offer better performance-per-watt than ARM's current 32-bit processors, which haven't been able to expand beyond embedded and mobile devices. The first servers with 64-bit ARM processors are expected to become available in 2014. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here The idea of taking a blurry photo and making it sharp again sounds exciting. Like speech recognition, it is one of those technological visions that firmly belonged in the realm of futuristic fantasy just a few short years ago. But while powerful, reliable speech recognition is here, image de-blurring still has a long way to go. Blurity ($49, demo with watermarking) is a utility that's trying to blaze a trail into the difficult field, and it can de-blur certain types of photos if you're skillful and lucky. At first glance, Blurity's interface is simple and inviting. You put the blurry image on the left, click a part of it to demark a selection frame, and click Process. Blurity crunches some numbers, and shows the result on the right half of the window. In a perfect world, this review would end here: You would now be looking at a beautifully sharp version of your previously-blurry photo. In my testing, however, things proved to be more difficult. To Blurity's credit, it doesn't set unrealistic expectations. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Was it only six years ago that Windows Mobile was a big part of the cellphone business? That was a time when only programmers thought of a mobile phone as a computer. Now we're heading into the second or third generation of the smartphone, and the little thin slabs are becoming even more complex than the desktop. Do you want to edit a document? Find your way home? Take a picture? Send email? Actually talk with someone? Your smartphone is there for you. We've come a long way from Windows Mobile and BlackBerry. In the meantime, Microsoft looked into the abyss and realized it had no choice but to match the iPhones and Android mobiles feature for feature. The company clearly spared no expense or effort in building something that offers more or less the same extensive list of features as iPhones or Android smartphones. Then Microsoft tacked on a few cool ideas and its own distinctive style that will lure those who love the mod, '60s look. This isn't just a challenge for the programmers inside Microsoft. The Windows Phone 8 platform can't become relevant on its own. A smartphone today needs apps from an app store, and an app store needs developers, and developers need SDKs. If Microsoft wants to ship phones, it will need programmers to work with the SDK and start creating apps. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Adobe Tuesday announced that it will pair future security updates for its popular Flash Player with Microsoft's Patch Tuesday schedule. At the same time, Adobe issued an update that patched seven critical Flash vulnerabilities, and Microsoft shipped fixes for Internet Explorer 10 (IE10), which includes an embedded copy of Flash. But the move to synchronize Flash Player updates with Microsoft's monthly patch schedule was the bigger news. "Starting with the next Flash Player security update, we plan to release regularly-scheduled security updates for Flash Player on 'Patch Tuesdays,'" Adobe said in a statement yesterday. "Microsoft and Adobe are now officially married," cracked Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Security, in an email reply to questions. "They started dating when they decided to share the MAPP program [and] once Microsoft agreed to embed Flash in IE10, [it was] inevitable that Adobe was going to be strong-armed into following Microsoft's patch cadence." To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Can a small tablet make you as productive as a big one? That's the question of the hour now that Apple's iPad Mini is officially on sale, as many users are trying to decide if the new tablet is a worthwhile purchase or an overpriced letdown. Price, of course, has never been the big factor when it comes to Apple products, as customers have perpetually demonstrated their willingness to pay a premium for MacBooks, iPhones, and, of course, iPads. However, the Mini is a different beast; it came on the scene facing stiff competition from the likes of the Amazon Kindle Fire HD, Barnes & Noble Nook HD, and Google Nexus 7—tablets of similar size and design, but with considerably lower price tags. In fact, all three of those models start at $199, versus $329 for the entry-level Mini. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click hereWhat is driving BYOD?
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