‘Works with Nest’ program gains traction with 15 new smart device integrations

Who'd have guessed there were so many ways to interact with a thermostat and a smoke detector? Nest Labs, the Google division responsible for developing the Nest Learning Thermostat and the Nest Protect smoke and carbon-monoxide detector, announced more than 15 new "Works with Nest" integrations at CES today. The devices range from smart door locks, to lighting controls, sleep monitors, and even IP telephones.

Nest Labs kicked off its 'Works with Nest' program just six months ago, announcing partnerships with Mercedes Benz, Whirlpool appliances, and several newer companies, including LED bulb-maker LIFX and fitness tracker Jawbone. Now the company says one in 10 Nest customers are accessing 'Works with Nest' connections of one form or another, and that more than 5,000 developers are in different stages of working with Nest to connect their products.

The new players

One of the most interesting integrations today involves Ooma, a manufacturer of IP telephone systems. If the Nest Protect detects smoke or an unsafe level of carbon-monoxide in your home, an Ooma Telo can call and ask if you want to contact a local emergency responder. If you happen to own an Ooma Telo, this could be more effective than something like the Leeo Smart Alert Nightlight, which must analyze the sound of your smoke- or CO2 detector going off. The Telo can also work with the motion sensor in the Nest thermostat to call you if it doesn't detect motion at a time when your children should be arriving home from school.

The Ooma Telo VoIP phone can make a distress call if your Nest smoke alarm goes off.

LG is joining Whirlpool in making its smart appliances Nest friendly. In this case, an LG refrigerator could switch to an energy-saving mode when the Nest thermostat determines no one's home to need something from the fridge, or an LG oven could send you an alert if you leave the house and forget to turn it off.

Several lighting and home-control manufacturers are joining LIFX in the 'Works with Nest' program, including Insteon, Lutron, and Philips Hue. Insteon is one of the earliest players on the connected-home market and offers everything from smart light switches to sensors and home-control hubs. It will integrate Nest control into its app so you can manage everything from one place. Lutron is integrating the Nest into its DIY-friendly Caseta Wireless lighting-control app, and Philips Hue LED smart lightbulbs will flash on and off when the Nest Protect senses something is wrong.

Philips Hue LED light bulbs will flash when the Nest Protect smoke and carbon-monoxide detector goes off.

The August Smart Lock and Kwikset's Kevo Smark Lock will help the Nest thermostat determine when you leave home and when you return, so your HVAC system operates only when it needs to. And the Withings Aura Sleep System will set your Nest thermostat to a comfortable temperature while you're sleeping and inform the thermostat when you wake up and are ready to start your day.

Zuli Smart Plugs operate on a Bluetooth mesh network. 

Nest also announced a number of "coming soon" features, including integration with the Beep Dial that will turn down the music if the Nest Project goes off; a tie-in with Zuli Smartplugs that will help your Nest thermostat know which room you're in and what you want the temperature there to be; and the ChargePoint Home EV charging station, which will communicate with the Nest thermostat so that it can inform you when energy is in high demand and electricity is the most expensive.

So much for conventional wisdom

Finally, Big Ass Fans announced that starting in February, its Haiku with SenseME ceiling fan will collaborate with the Nest thermostat to determine when it's cold enough in the house for the fan to switch to "winter mode." The conventional wisdom with ceiling fans is that reversing their spin when its cold will push warm air that's accumulated near the ceiling down to where you need it. But the engineers at Big Ass Fans were skeptical of that idea.

Big Ass Fans is adding features to its Haike ceiling fans to take better advantage of the 'Works with Nest' program.

"We tested it out in our R&D lab," Big Ass Fans spokesperson Katheran Wasson told me in an email. "A typical five-blade fan in reverse created drafts in nearly half of a standard room, but Haiku—moving in a forward direction—limited drafts to less than 1 percent of the space. But we wanted that number to be zero, so our engineers developed a new algorithm for SenseME that runs Haiku faster when you leave the room and slower when you're in the room. You never feel a draft, but your room stays consistently comfortable throughout."

Why this matters: The 'Works with Nest' program is off to a very strong start. It will be interesting to see how its momentum impacts the race to develop a de facto standard for the Internet of Things.

The AllSeen Alliance (charter members include Qualcomm and Cisco), the Open Interconnect Consortium (backed by Intel and Samsung, among others), and the Nest Labs-backed Thread Group (which also counts ARM Holdings and Samsung, hedging its bet, as backers), as well as numerous other organizations, are all vying to create the communication standard for smart devices.

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Google outs unpatched Windows 8.1 vulnerability, and debate rages on both sides

A Google researcher has disclosed an unpatched vulnerability in Windows 8.1 after Microsoft didn't fix the problem within a 90-day window Google gave its competitor.

The disclosure of the bug on Google's security research website early this week stirred up a debate about whether outing the vulnerability was appropriate.

The bug allows low-level Windows users to become administrators in some cases, but some posters on the Google site said the company should have kept its mouth shut. Google said it was unclear if versions of the Windows OS earlier than 8.1 were affected by the bug.

"Automatically disclosing this vulnerability when a deadline is reached with absolutely zero context strikes me as incredibly irresponsible and I'd have expected a greater degree of care and maturity from a company like Google," one poster at the Google site wrote.

The vulnerability is "your average" local privilege escalation vulnerability, the same poster wrote. "That's bad and unfortunate, but it's also a fairly typical class of vulnerability, and not in the same class as those that keep people like me up at night patching servers," the poster said. "The sad reality is that these sort of vulnerabilities are a dime a dozen on Windows."

Another poster, in what may be a slight overstatement, suggested the versions of Windows affected are run by "billions" of computer users. "Exposing vulnerabilities like this has far reaching consequences," the poster wrote. "People could get hurt by this and it doesn't bring anyone closer to a solution. When an organization is as big and powerful as [Google], people working there need to think of themselves as stewards of a great power and work to be fair and regulate the harm that can come of misusing this great power when possible."

Other posters praised Google for sticking to a deadline it's had in place since it launched its Project Zero bug-tracking team last July. "No one is done any good by keeping it secret," one poster wrote. "By exposing the [vulnerability] they allow those billions who may be running vulnerable systems to be aware of the threat to their own security and take countermeasures. A patch isn't the only way to mitigate the issue. Given the nature of this vulnerability, there are other steps administrators can take to start protecting their vulnerable systems while they await a patch."

Microsoft said in a statement it is working to release a security update to the reported vulnerability. "It is important to note that for a would-be attacker to potentially exploit a system, they would first need to have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally to a targeted machine," a spokesman said by email. "We encourage customers to keep their anti-virus software up to date, install all available security updates and enable the firewall on their computer."

Google, in a statement published on Engadget, defended the release of the vulnerability information.

Google's 90-day deadline for fixing bug is "the result of many years of careful consideration and industry-wide discussions about vulnerability remediation," the company said. "Security researchers have been using roughly the same disclosure principles for the past 13 years ... and we think that our disclosure principles need to evolve with the changing infosec ecosystem. In other words, as threats change, so should our disclosure policy."

Google will monitor the effects of its policy closely, the company added. "We want our decisions here to be data driven, and we're constantly seeking improvements that will benefit user security," the company added. "We're happy to say that initial results have shown that the majority of the bugs that we have reported under the disclosure deadline get fixed under deadline, which is a testament to the hard work of the vendors."

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FCC to vote on net neutrality rules in February

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission plans to vote on new net neutrality rules during its February meeting.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will bring a proposal to a vote during the commission's Feb. 26 meeting, FCC spokeswoman Kim Hart said Friday, following a report in the Washington Post.

It's unclear, however, what form those rules will take. Hart declined to comment further on the net neutrality order Wheeler plans to circulate in February.

Many telecom policy experts had expected the FCC to take action on net neutrality early this year after a year-long fight over the issue.

Nearly a year ago, a U.S. appeals court threw out a large portion of net neutrality rules the FCC approved in late 2010. The court ruled that the FCC's rules came too close to common carrier regulations when the commission didn't take the step of reclassifying broadband providers as regulated utilities. The court, however, pointed to a couple if sections of the Telecommunications Act that the FCC could use to pass net neutrality regulations.

After launching a net neutrality proceeding in early 2014, the FCC has received nearly 4 million public comments about proposed regulations. Wheeler originally proposed that the FCC adopt rules that would allow broadband providers to engage in "commercially reasonable" traffic management, and in limited cases, charge Web content providers and services for prioritized traffic.

But many people filing comments, and groups like Free Press and Public Knowledge, called on the FCC to pass stronger rules prohibiting traffic prioritization deals. Many advocates of strong net neutrality rules want the FCC to reclassify broadband as a regulated public utility, while exempting them from some common carrier rules, like price regulation.

Recent news reports have suggested Wheeler is leaning toward so-called hybrid net neutrality rules that would classify a part of broadband service as a regulated public utility.

The hybrid approach would divide broadband into two services for the purpose of regulation. One service would be retail broadband access, which would remain lightly regulated, and the second would be back-end transit service, which the FCC would reclassify as a regulated common carrier, similar to utility-style regulation for traditional telephone service.

In November, however, President Barack Obama called on the FCC to reclassify all broadband service as a regulated utility.

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White House approves sanctions against North Korea for Sony hack

U.S. President Barack Obama has authorized new economic sanctions against North Korea, in part for the country's alleged hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment in November, the White House said.

Even though some security researchers have questioned whether North Korea was behind the Sony hack, the White House and the U.S. Department of the Treasury on Friday announced sanctions against 10 North Koreans and three organizations in the country.

The FBI blamed the government of North Korea for the attack in mid-December. The government of North Korea has denied involvement in the attack, although it praised hackers for attempting to prevent the release of "The Interview," a movie about a plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Obama's executive order is "a response to the government of North Korea's ongoing provocative, destabilizing, and repressive actions and policies, particularly its destructive and coercive cyber attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment," the White House said in a statement. "We take seriously North Korea's attack that aimed to create destructive financial effects on a U.S. company and to threaten artists and other individuals with the goal of restricting their right to free expression."

The sanctions are the "first aspect" of the U.S. government's response to the Sony attack, the White House said.

The sanctions deny the named people and organizations access to the U.S. financial system and prohibit U.S. residents from dealing with them.

The targeted groups in the Treasury Department sanctions are the Reconnaissance General Bureau, supposedly North Korea's primary intelligence organization; the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation, allegedly the country's primary arms dealer; and the Korea Tangun Trading Corporation, which procures commodities and technologies to support North Korea's defense research and development programs.

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PCWorld

http://www.pcworld.com en-us Fri, 02 Jan 2015 00:50:21 -0800 Fri, 02 Jan 2015 00:50:21 -0800 Thu, 01 Jan 2015 19:50:00 -0800 Tim Hornyak Tim Hornyak

If you got a PlayStation 4 for Christmas but network outages spoiled your fun, Sony wants to make it up to you.

Sony Computer Entertainment America will offer 10 percent off PlayStation Store purchases including games, TV shows and movies as a gesture of thanks for users' patience following an outage of several days caused by denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.

In addition, PlayStation Plus members who had an active membership or free trial on Dec. 25 will receive a membership extension of five days, Eric Lempel of Sony Network Entertainment wrote in a blog post.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864252/sony-tries-to-appease-playstation-users-after-christmas-outage.html#tk.rss_all Gaming Thu, 01 Jan 2015 19:10:00 -0800 Jared Newman Jared Newman

Netflix's simplistic interface may be well-intentioned, but sometimes you need more powerful tools to find the best streaming movies and TV shows.

Now that Netflix has shuttered its public API, the number of useful apps and sites for sorting through Netflix video has thinned. But there are still several tried-and-true methods for finding the good stuff, along with a few tools and settings from Netflix that everyone should know about. Here are 10 tips for making the most of a Netflix streaming subscription:

Use better browsing tools

Netflix's catalog of movies and shows is massive, but you might only scratch the surface with its basic apps and website. When you're really trying to scratch a particular itch, use AllFlicks.net, which lets you search within specific genres, filter movies and TV shows, narrow down a date range, and sort by rating. (InstantWatcher has a similar tool without as many sorting options, but it does include a handy synopsis view.)

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/218797/netflix-power-tools.html#tk.rss_all Thu, 01 Jan 2015 12:28:00 -0800 Hayden Dingman Hayden Dingman

Did you spend Christmas mildly annoyed because you bought a new console, only to find that Xbox Live/ PlayStation Network had been downed by a "nefarious" group known as Lizard Squad? Yes, I know it sounds like a bad episode of 24, but at least now you can revel in a bit of Schadenfreude: Two alleged members have been arrested this week.

Lizard Squad came to prominence in 2014 after taking down (or at least claiming to take down) the online presences of numerous gaming companies, including Blizzard, Activision, and Sony. Oh, and perpetrating a bomb threat against a Sony executive in August.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2863927/two-alleged-members-of-lizard-squad-arrested-following-xbox-livepsn-christmas-attacks.html#tk.rss_all Gaming Thu, 01 Jan 2015 08:00:00 -0800 Brand Post Brand Post

We all love to spend time (some would say waste time) fooling around on Facebook, Twitter, and other services. We also use these sites for serious, professional reasons. But like almost everything else on the Internet, they're inherently dangerous. Hackers can use social media to discover your private information and to deliver spam or malware. You can be stalked and bullied through social media. It can ruin your reputation, your career, and your life.

So you need to protect yourself. Follow these rules and your online social life won't become anti-social.

Protect your account

Of course, you should never give anyone else your password to a social network. And you shouldn't let them steal it, either. Use a long, strong password containing upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, and punctuation. And use a unique password for every site.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2861082/protecting-yourself-on-social-networks.html#tk.rss_all Security Thu, 01 Jan 2015 07:00:00 -0800 Lincoln Spector Lincoln Spector

Norm Arlt asked "How do I stop the How-To video from automatically starting in my browser when I click on an article?"

I sympathize. We all deal with this annoyance. In fact, I'm willing to bet that everyone reading this article who hasn't already solved this problem knows exactly what I'm talking about.

Most of these videos run on Shockwave Flash, so I'm going to concentrate on that technology. The trick isn't to block Flash entirely, but to make it work only with your permission.

How you do this varies with each browser. So I'll offer instructions for the three most popular ones. Christopher Breen of Macworld offered these alternative fixes as well.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2858421/how-to-stop-autoplay-videos.html#tk.rss_all Web sites Thu, 01 Jan 2015 04:00:00 -0800 Andrew Hayward Andrew Hayward

If that rectangular present under the tree or boxy bulge in the stocking turned out to be a new Android phone, then congratulations: We hope that it's the flagship (or at least stellar mid-range) device of your dreams.

But if that is the case, then you need to do right by your old companion—assuming you don't want to keep it around as a backup. That means first making sure that your personal data is inaccessible to whoever might have the phone next, and then figuring out the best way to part with it: selling, donating, or recycling. And yes, that includes broken phones.

None of this is particularly difficult, but it does take a little bit of time. We'll save you the research and hassle so you can obsess over your new phone. Here's what to do with the old one.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2859187/got-a-new-android-phone-heres-how-to-properly-get-rid-of-your-old-one.html#tk.rss_all Android Phones Thu, 01 Jan 2015 04:00:00 -0800 Florence Ion Florence Ion

Android Lollipop may bring with it tons of neat new features and aesthetically pleasing visual changes, but its rollout has been bumpy. Google's been working out the kinks, however, as evidenced by a recent thread in the AOSP bug tracker. One particular fix, for rampant use of RAM, is reportedly slated to show up in the next Android update.

The issue tracker mentions a memory leak that causes apps either to run slowly or to crash without any warning. Android 5.0.1 apparently takes up as much as 1.3GB of RAM, which is particularly detrimental to devices that top out at 2GB. There are even a few Reddit threads devoted to complaints about this particular issue.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2863951/androids-next-update-will-reportedly-fix-lollipops-memory-leak.html#tk.rss_all Android Thu, 01 Jan 2015 03:00:00 -0800 John Brandon John Brandon

When Samsung's 65-inch curved LCD smart TV powers on, an angelic choir hums a joyous tune in the background and a glowing aura shines forth into the darkening winter sky. Okay, I'm exaggerating. All it really does is make that typical fuzz-buzz sound that every other TV does.

But I'm convinced that 65 inches is the ideal size for most home-entertainment environments, unless you have the room and the money to convert your den into a movie theater. Everything on Samsung's UN65HU9000 looked absolutely glorious. You could watch a porcupine waddle into a swamp on this set and find it totally appealing.

Like LG's 55-inch curved OLED ( model 55EC9300), the edges of Samsung's display bend toward the viewer just a bit (being larger than the LG, the Samsung's curve is slightly more aggressive). The curve also helps reduce glare a bit. I've read some reports that claim curved screens distort the displayed image, but I never noticed that problem.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864212/samsung-un65hu9000-curved-hdtv-review-65-inches-of-luscious-but-lcd-doesnt-beat-oled.html#tk.rss_all Thu, 01 Jan 2015 03:00:00 -0800 Ian Paul Ian Paul

Welcome to 2015: A brand new year and a great time for a fresh start. Instead of shooting for nebulous, unrealistic goals in the New Year, start off 2015 with vows to improve your digital life. (You weren't really going to go to the gym every day or be nicer to your siblings anyway.)

Most of the suggestions below aren't hard to achieve and some are even the set-it-and-forget-it kinds of resolutions. But you, your PC, and your data will be much better off once you've hit these technological high points.

Back up your stuff... online

Conventional wisdom says you should have three copies of your data: the "original" on your PC, a backup at home, and a backup off-site.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2863153/8-easy-digital-resolutions-for-a-happy-high-tech-2015.html#tk.rss_all Tech events Wed, 31 Dec 2014 17:15:00 -0800 Tim Hornyak Tim Hornyak

Nearly all of the roughly US$370 million in bitcoin that disappeared in the February 2014 collapse of Mt. Gox probably vanished due to fraudulent transactions, with only 1 percent taken by hackers, according to a report in Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, citing sources close to a Tokyo police probe.

Of the 650,000 bitcoins unaccounted for—worth about US$208 million today—only about 7,000 appear to have been purloined by hackers, the newspaper reported on New Year's Day, adding that investigators have yet to identify who was responsible.

That conflicts with the explanation by Mt. Gox, which blamed a bug in the Bitcoin system when it filed for bankruptcy on Feb. 28.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864192/police-suspect-fraud-took-most-of-mt-goxs-missing-bitcoins.html#tk.rss_all Cloud & Services Web Apps Legal Government Business Wed, 31 Dec 2014 14:40:00 -0800 Stephen Lawson Stephen Lawson

Microsoft will stop selling the original Kinect for Windows in 2015 now that the second generation of the motion-based controller platform is available.

In a blog post, Microsoft advised enterprises that need large numbers of the old systems for existing applications to contact the company as soon as possible.

"We will do our best to fill your orders, but no more original sensors will be manufactured after the current stock sells out," the Kinect for Windows Team wrote in the post.

The phase-out of the original product doesn't come as a surprise, since Microsoft introduced the Kinect for Windows v2 and a second-generation software development kit, SDK 2.0, earlier this year.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864172/microsoft-to-wind-down-sales-of-original-kinect-for-windows-in-2015.html#tk.rss_all Gadgets Gaming Wed, 31 Dec 2014 08:56:00 -0800 Hayden Dingman Hayden Dingman

"MMOs are dead." I feel like that's been a truism for years now—longer even than the fabled massively-multiplayer online games were considered a dominant force in the industry. For many people massively multiplayer online gaming begins and ends with World of Warcraft. Most others would say it's either EverQuest or Star Wars Galaxies or nothing.

But don't tell developers that the MMO isn't viable, because apparently they're not going to listen no matter what you say or how strenuously you say it. Don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure 2014 saw the launch of more "important" MMOs than any year in history, plus expansions for a bunch more.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864058/space-simulators-and-worlds-at-war-the-state-of-mmo-pc-games-in-2014.html#tk.rss_all Gaming Wed, 31 Dec 2014 08:52:00 -0800 Brad Chacos Brad Chacos

The stars finally seem to be aligning for the launch of AMD's FreeSync monitor technology, which forces the refresh rate of your graphics card and your display to synchronize, eliminating ugly screen tearing and reducing stuttering issues. After months of teasing the tech, AMD rolled out FreeSync support in its sweeping, feature-packed Catalyst Omega driver, shortly after Samsung announced a line of FreeSync-compatible 4K monitors. Now, LG's poised to launch a FreeSync display that seems tailor made for gamers: A 34-inch model with an ultrawide 21:9 aspect ratio.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864140/lg-reveals-the-first-ultrawide-gaming-display-with-amd-freesync-support.html#tk.rss_all Displays Gaming Wed, 31 Dec 2014 07:48:00 -0800 Brad Chacos Brad Chacos

Dropping into Linux on your Chromebook just became a whole lot easier. You've been able to use Linux in Chromebook virtual terminals for a while now with the help of Crouton, but now an extension by Google hardware engineer (and Crouton developer) David Schneider allows you to run Debian or Ubuntu in a window right within the traditional Chrome OS interface.

You can see Linux in a Chromebook window in the screenshot above.

While Schneider's extension will certainly make the experience of using Linux alongside Chrome OS more pleasant, the setup process still isn't for the faint of heart. You'll need to be in developer mode, download the Crouton extension from the Chrome Web Store and the Crouton tool itself (warning: that's a direct download link), and then play with hidden terminal commands in Chrome OS—all before you even get around to actually installing your Linux distribution of choice.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864153/new-tool-lets-chromebooks-run-linux-in-a-desktop-window.html#tk.rss_all Chromebooks Wed, 31 Dec 2014 06:56:00 -0800 Brad Chacos Brad Chacos

The Sims 4 goes pixel-shaped

When The Sims 4 was released in 2014, some people who eagerly snatched up a copy soon found themselves perplexed by an apparent bug: The entire game eventually became blurry and pixelated, with the effect beginning as a way to obscure nude Sims and blossoming out from there. Did a major error slip through EA's playtesting?

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2602876/10-hilarious-brutally-devious-ways-pc-game-developers-punish-pirates.html#tk.rss_all Gaming Games Wed, 31 Dec 2014 04:00:00 -0800 Ryan Whitwam Ryan Whitwam Your phone just isn't complete if you haven't tried out these apps yet. http://www.greenbot.com/article/2859483/the-best-android-apps-of-2014.html#tk.rss_all Apps Wed, 31 Dec 2014 03:30:00 -0800 Ian Paul Ian Paul

The unlucky 13

Yes, there was plenty to get excited about in 2014, but not all the tech news from the past twelve months was good. This year we saw Bitcoin's biggest early star disappear, Facebook manipulate its users, Amazon enter the smartphone market with a resounding thud, and many, many more facepalm-worthy moments. These are the 13 biggest tech flops and fails of 2014.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2860979/the-year-in-tech-2014s-13-biggest-fails-flops-and-faux-pas.html#tk.rss_all Tech events Wed, 31 Dec 2014 03:05:00 -0800 Caitlin McGarry Caitlin McGarry

This year was all about the messaging app, and for good reason: Social networks behaved abysmally in 2014. Sharing information and photos privately with friends is a compelling alternative to social networks with their ads, weird research experiments, and harassment.

That's not to say anyone is abandoning social media, but more and more users are pressuring companies to be better and more honest about how data is used and what is being done to make networks like Facebook, Twitter, and new anonymous social apps safer spaces.

Does Facebook finally have a rival?

No other network can challenge Facebook in terms of active users (1.35 billion and still growing), but when the company deleted the accounts of well-known San Francisco drag performers, a new kid on the block welcomed the influx of users with open arms.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2862226/cue-the-outrage-how-our-favorite-social-networks-failed-us-in-2014.html#tk.rss_all Wed, 31 Dec 2014 03:00:00 -0800 Jared Newman Jared Newman

Refinement, not revolution

While 2014 didn't bring much in the way of revolutionary technology, it was a great year for refinement. The products and services we've relied on for years became cheaper and more accessible, while once-difficult concepts like virtual reality and mobile wallets starte to look a little more practical. And if you look hard enough, you can even find some examples where the government didn't screw everything up.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2859817/the-greatest-tech-wins-and-epic-comebacks-of-2014.html#tk.rss_all Tech events Tue, 30 Dec 2014 12:15:00 -0800 Agam Shah Agam Shah

Samsung is trying to smash the status quo in PCs with a new all-in-one desktop computer that has a curved screen.

The idea for the Ativ One 7 Curved came partly from Samsung's TVs, which already have curved displays. Samsung has already been offering laptops and Chromebooks, and the 27-inch all-in-one will be its first desktop computer.

The all-in-one looks like a 27-inch curved TV, with all the PC components at the back of the monitor. As with TVs, the curved display could provide a more immersive gaming and entertainment experience than conventional monitors, said David Ng, product manager at Samsung.

But Ng acknowledged that the PC's unusual shape could catch potential buyers off guard. He said the screen's curved contours will grow on desktop users, Ng said.

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]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864112/samsung-brings-curved-screen-from-tv-to-pc.html#tk.rss_all Hardware Tue, 30 Dec 2014 11:52:00 -0800 Melissa Riofrio Melissa Riofrio

Samsung's Milk VR video app, announced Tuesday, marks a tantalizing step forward for virtual reality. The app will let you run full-motion, 360-degree video on the Gear VR headset. Not a movie in a simulated theater environment, like we've seen with Oculus Cinema demos, but a video beamed right to your eyes, bringing VR users ever closer to a real-life experience.

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864092/think-that-software-library-is-safe-to-use-not-so-fast.html#tk.rss_all Security Windows Development Software Tue, 30 Dec 2014 09:00:00 -0800 Hayden Dingman Hayden Dingman

After an interminable year of private alphas and betas and gammas(?), Elite: Dangerous is finally out. That makes it the first of the three massive space games (Elite, Star Citizen, and No Man's Sky) to officially release, and thus I've spent quite a few hours recently holed up with a HOTAS, a glass of eggnog, and my trusty spaceship.

I don't think it's appropriate to smack a score on Elite: Dangerous yet, in the same way I wouldn't smack a score on any MMO. It's early days for the game, and I don't think the full scope of what Frontier has planned is even close to realized despite the 1.0 status.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2863940/elite-dangerous-impressions-finding-home-in-the-vast-emptiness-of-space.html#tk.rss_all Gaming Tue, 30 Dec 2014 08:40:09 -0800 Yewon Kang Yewon Kang

Control systems at South Korean nuclear plants have not been harmed by recent attacks by hackers, but nevertheless Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power is increasing its security efforts to defend against a possible additional attack, the company's CEO Cho Seok told legislators on Tuesday.

An investigation had found traces of a low-risk worm that had been removed from PCs and portable devices connected to the nuclear plant's control system, but no malicious code linked to a cyber attack was found, according to the country's Energy Ministry. The government began the investigation last week after an anti-nuclear-reactor group threatened to launch a cyber attack after leaking a batch of the company's internal documents.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864072/south-korea-nuclear-operator-strengthens-security-system-against-cyber-attack.html#tk.rss_all Security Tue, 30 Dec 2014 07:30:00 -0800 Chris Hoffman Chris Hoffman

Times New Roman, Calibri, and many other popular fonts are created by Microsoft and can't be included with Linux. If you open a Word document or another Microsoft Office document in LibreOffice or OpenOffice, you'll need Microsoft's fonts installed on your Linux system to see the documents as they were intended to look.

You can also use Microsoft's fonts to create documents of your own, so you can compose a document in Calibri or Times New Roman and save it as a DOCX or DOC file for maximum compatibility with Office.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2863497/how-to-install-microsoft-fonts-in-linux-office-suites.html#tk.rss_all Productivity Tue, 30 Dec 2014 06:15:00 -0800 Agam Shah Agam Shah

Advanced Micro Devices wants its chips in more laptops, and is devising a new strategy to reverse a free fall it has endured in the PC market over the last few years.

The chip maker is reshaping the way it supplies chips and components with the hope that more PC makers will use its upcoming Carrizo processors in laptops. At the center of the strategy is a plug-and-play component approach that will make it easier to plug any Carrizo chip into any laptop, regardless of size or price.

AMD will supply just one motherboard that will support a wide range of Carrizo and Carrizo-L laptop chips. The new approach will provide PC makers the flexibility of using a range of Carrizo chips in any laptop.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864032/amd-retools-laptop-chip-strategy-to-challenge-intels-dominance.html#tk.rss_all Laptops Tue, 30 Dec 2014 05:35:09 -0800 Peter Sayer Peter Sayer

IT services company CSC will pay US$190 million to settle a case brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over four-year-old charges that it violated U.S. antifraud, reporting, and books-and-records laws. The company did not admit guilt, but has promised not to violate those laws in future.

The charges concerned accounting entries relating to CSC's activities in Australia and Denmark, and to the company's contractual relationship with the U.K National Health Service (NHS) over the failed National Program for IT (NPfIT), the company said.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864012/csc-pays-190m-to-settle-4yearold-accounting-fraud-case-with-sec.html#tk.rss_all Business Issues Business Legal Government Tue, 30 Dec 2014 04:00:00 -0800 Florence Ion Florence Ion

The last few years in the world of Android news have been kind of a snooze fest. Sure, we had the usual barrage of software updates and gadget releases, but nothing seemed truly worth a standing ovation. What's worse: it felt like Android was no longer in Google's control, and that companies like Samsung were actually the ones that were ruling the pack. It was hard to tell who to root for. 

But this year Android underwent a metamorphosis of sorts—one that was long overdue. To commemorate this event-filled year, we rounded up some of the year's biggest news stories that helped contribute to the transformed Android ecosystem we see today.

64-bit mobile processors

The 64-bit mobile processor was a big announcement for Android.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2858889/2014-in-review-the-year-in-android.html#tk.rss_all Android Tue, 30 Dec 2014 03:30:00 -0800 Jared Newman Jared Newman

The highest praise I can muster for Nvidia GRID is that I sometimes forgot I was even using it.

That's no small feat for a cloud gaming service that streams high-end games to low-powered devices over remote servers. Other efforts, such as OnLive, constantly remind you of the journey its games must take from server to client, with rampant stutters, slowdowns and resolution drops. Nvidia GRID rarely has those problems—at least when the conditions are right.

Nvidia has been beta-testing GRID with Northern California residents for about a year, but in November the service opened up to anyone in North America and Western Europe with an Nvidia Shield handheld or Shield Tablet. From now until the free preview ends on June 30, 2015, users can access GRID at no charge. While there are only 30 games currently, Nvidia has been adding at least one new game every week (though usually two).

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2863732/nvidia-grid-hands-on-smooth-streaming-pc-games-under-ideal-conditions.html#tk.rss_all Gaming Tue, 30 Dec 2014 03:00:00 -0800 John Brandon John Brandon

LG's 55-inch OLED HDTV (model number 55EC9300) is a stunner, with a slight curve that brings the right and left edges of the screen ever so slightly closer to your eyes. And while its $3500 price tag will give most consumers pause, especially considering its resolution is limited to 1080p, that's really not such a terrible shortcoming. There's very little 4K content to be had today, and that situation will improve only marginally in 2015.

What makes the 55EC9300 so interesting—in addition to the curve, of course—is its use of OLED technology (the acronym stands for organic light-emitting diode). OLED panels are naturally emissive, which means they radiate their own light. The backlights that LCD panels require can result in uneven brightness and contrast (the difference between the darkest and lightest images the TV can produce).

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2863884/lg-55ec9300-curved-oled-hdtv-review-stunning-image-quality-but-no-4k.html#tk.rss_all

http://www.pcworld.com en-us Fri, 02 Jan 2015 00:50:21 -0800 Fri, 02 Jan 2015 00:50:21 -0800 Thu, 01 Jan 2015 19:50:00 -0800 Tim Hornyak Tim Hornyak

If you got a PlayStation 4 for Christmas but network outages spoiled your fun, Sony wants to make it up to you.

Sony Computer Entertainment America will offer 10 percent off PlayStation Store purchases including games, TV shows and movies as a gesture of thanks for users' patience following an outage of several days caused by denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.

In addition, PlayStation Plus members who had an active membership or free trial on Dec. 25 will receive a membership extension of five days, Eric Lempel of Sony Network Entertainment wrote in a blog post.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864252/sony-tries-to-appease-playstation-users-after-christmas-outage.html#tk.rss_all Gaming Thu, 01 Jan 2015 19:10:00 -0800 Jared Newman Jared Newman

Netflix's simplistic interface may be well-intentioned, but sometimes you need more powerful tools to find the best streaming movies and TV shows.

Now that Netflix has shuttered its public API, the number of useful apps and sites for sorting through Netflix video has thinned. But there are still several tried-and-true methods for finding the good stuff, along with a few tools and settings from Netflix that everyone should know about. Here are 10 tips for making the most of a Netflix streaming subscription:

Use better browsing tools

Netflix's catalog of movies and shows is massive, but you might only scratch the surface with its basic apps and website. When you're really trying to scratch a particular itch, use AllFlicks.net, which lets you search within specific genres, filter movies and TV shows, narrow down a date range, and sort by rating. (InstantWatcher has a similar tool without as many sorting options, but it does include a handy synopsis view.)

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/218797/netflix-power-tools.html#tk.rss_all Thu, 01 Jan 2015 12:28:00 -0800 Hayden Dingman Hayden Dingman

Did you spend Christmas mildly annoyed because you bought a new console, only to find that Xbox Live/ PlayStation Network had been downed by a "nefarious" group known as Lizard Squad? Yes, I know it sounds like a bad episode of 24, but at least now you can revel in a bit of Schadenfreude: Two alleged members have been arrested this week.

Lizard Squad came to prominence in 2014 after taking down (or at least claiming to take down) the online presences of numerous gaming companies, including Blizzard, Activision, and Sony. Oh, and perpetrating a bomb threat against a Sony executive in August.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2863927/two-alleged-members-of-lizard-squad-arrested-following-xbox-livepsn-christmas-attacks.html#tk.rss_all Gaming Thu, 01 Jan 2015 08:00:00 -0800 Brand Post Brand Post

We all love to spend time (some would say waste time) fooling around on Facebook, Twitter, and other services. We also use these sites for serious, professional reasons. But like almost everything else on the Internet, they're inherently dangerous. Hackers can use social media to discover your private information and to deliver spam or malware. You can be stalked and bullied through social media. It can ruin your reputation, your career, and your life.

So you need to protect yourself. Follow these rules and your online social life won't become anti-social.

Protect your account

Of course, you should never give anyone else your password to a social network. And you shouldn't let them steal it, either. Use a long, strong password containing upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, and punctuation. And use a unique password for every site.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2861082/protecting-yourself-on-social-networks.html#tk.rss_all Security Thu, 01 Jan 2015 07:00:00 -0800 Lincoln Spector Lincoln Spector

Norm Arlt asked "How do I stop the How-To video from automatically starting in my browser when I click on an article?"

I sympathize. We all deal with this annoyance. In fact, I'm willing to bet that everyone reading this article who hasn't already solved this problem knows exactly what I'm talking about.

Most of these videos run on Shockwave Flash, so I'm going to concentrate on that technology. The trick isn't to block Flash entirely, but to make it work only with your permission.

How you do this varies with each browser. So I'll offer instructions for the three most popular ones. Christopher Breen of Macworld offered these alternative fixes as well.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2858421/how-to-stop-autoplay-videos.html#tk.rss_all Web sites Thu, 01 Jan 2015 04:00:00 -0800 Andrew Hayward Andrew Hayward

If that rectangular present under the tree or boxy bulge in the stocking turned out to be a new Android phone, then congratulations: We hope that it's the flagship (or at least stellar mid-range) device of your dreams.

But if that is the case, then you need to do right by your old companion—assuming you don't want to keep it around as a backup. That means first making sure that your personal data is inaccessible to whoever might have the phone next, and then figuring out the best way to part with it: selling, donating, or recycling. And yes, that includes broken phones.

None of this is particularly difficult, but it does take a little bit of time. We'll save you the research and hassle so you can obsess over your new phone. Here's what to do with the old one.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2859187/got-a-new-android-phone-heres-how-to-properly-get-rid-of-your-old-one.html#tk.rss_all Android Phones Thu, 01 Jan 2015 04:00:00 -0800 Florence Ion Florence Ion

Android Lollipop may bring with it tons of neat new features and aesthetically pleasing visual changes, but its rollout has been bumpy. Google's been working out the kinks, however, as evidenced by a recent thread in the AOSP bug tracker. One particular fix, for rampant use of RAM, is reportedly slated to show up in the next Android update.

The issue tracker mentions a memory leak that causes apps either to run slowly or to crash without any warning. Android 5.0.1 apparently takes up as much as 1.3GB of RAM, which is particularly detrimental to devices that top out at 2GB. There are even a few Reddit threads devoted to complaints about this particular issue.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2863951/androids-next-update-will-reportedly-fix-lollipops-memory-leak.html#tk.rss_all Android Thu, 01 Jan 2015 03:00:00 -0800 John Brandon John Brandon

When Samsung's 65-inch curved LCD smart TV powers on, an angelic choir hums a joyous tune in the background and a glowing aura shines forth into the darkening winter sky. Okay, I'm exaggerating. All it really does is make that typical fuzz-buzz sound that every other TV does.

But I'm convinced that 65 inches is the ideal size for most home-entertainment environments, unless you have the room and the money to convert your den into a movie theater. Everything on Samsung's UN65HU9000 looked absolutely glorious. You could watch a porcupine waddle into a swamp on this set and find it totally appealing.

Like LG's 55-inch curved OLED ( model 55EC9300), the edges of Samsung's display bend toward the viewer just a bit (being larger than the LG, the Samsung's curve is slightly more aggressive). The curve also helps reduce glare a bit. I've read some reports that claim curved screens distort the displayed image, but I never noticed that problem.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864212/samsung-un65hu9000-curved-hdtv-review-65-inches-of-luscious-but-lcd-doesnt-beat-oled.html#tk.rss_all Thu, 01 Jan 2015 03:00:00 -0800 Ian Paul Ian Paul

Welcome to 2015: A brand new year and a great time for a fresh start. Instead of shooting for nebulous, unrealistic goals in the New Year, start off 2015 with vows to improve your digital life. (You weren't really going to go to the gym every day or be nicer to your siblings anyway.)

Most of the suggestions below aren't hard to achieve and some are even the set-it-and-forget-it kinds of resolutions. But you, your PC, and your data will be much better off once you've hit these technological high points.

Back up your stuff... online

Conventional wisdom says you should have three copies of your data: the "original" on your PC, a backup at home, and a backup off-site.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2863153/8-easy-digital-resolutions-for-a-happy-high-tech-2015.html#tk.rss_all Tech events Wed, 31 Dec 2014 17:15:00 -0800 Tim Hornyak Tim Hornyak

Nearly all of the roughly US$370 million in bitcoin that disappeared in the February 2014 collapse of Mt. Gox probably vanished due to fraudulent transactions, with only 1 percent taken by hackers, according to a report in Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, citing sources close to a Tokyo police probe.

Of the 650,000 bitcoins unaccounted for—worth about US$208 million today—only about 7,000 appear to have been purloined by hackers, the newspaper reported on New Year's Day, adding that investigators have yet to identify who was responsible.

That conflicts with the explanation by Mt. Gox, which blamed a bug in the Bitcoin system when it filed for bankruptcy on Feb. 28.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864192/police-suspect-fraud-took-most-of-mt-goxs-missing-bitcoins.html#tk.rss_all Cloud & Services Web Apps Legal Government Business Wed, 31 Dec 2014 14:40:00 -0800 Stephen Lawson Stephen Lawson

Microsoft will stop selling the original Kinect for Windows in 2015 now that the second generation of the motion-based controller platform is available.

In a blog post, Microsoft advised enterprises that need large numbers of the old systems for existing applications to contact the company as soon as possible.

"We will do our best to fill your orders, but no more original sensors will be manufactured after the current stock sells out," the Kinect for Windows Team wrote in the post.

The phase-out of the original product doesn't come as a surprise, since Microsoft introduced the Kinect for Windows v2 and a second-generation software development kit, SDK 2.0, earlier this year.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864172/microsoft-to-wind-down-sales-of-original-kinect-for-windows-in-2015.html#tk.rss_all Gadgets Gaming Wed, 31 Dec 2014 08:56:00 -0800 Hayden Dingman Hayden Dingman

"MMOs are dead." I feel like that's been a truism for years now—longer even than the fabled massively-multiplayer online games were considered a dominant force in the industry. For many people massively multiplayer online gaming begins and ends with World of Warcraft. Most others would say it's either EverQuest or Star Wars Galaxies or nothing.

But don't tell developers that the MMO isn't viable, because apparently they're not going to listen no matter what you say or how strenuously you say it. Don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure 2014 saw the launch of more "important" MMOs than any year in history, plus expansions for a bunch more.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864058/space-simulators-and-worlds-at-war-the-state-of-mmo-pc-games-in-2014.html#tk.rss_all Gaming Wed, 31 Dec 2014 08:52:00 -0800 Brad Chacos Brad Chacos

The stars finally seem to be aligning for the launch of AMD's FreeSync monitor technology, which forces the refresh rate of your graphics card and your display to synchronize, eliminating ugly screen tearing and reducing stuttering issues. After months of teasing the tech, AMD rolled out FreeSync support in its sweeping, feature-packed Catalyst Omega driver, shortly after Samsung announced a line of FreeSync-compatible 4K monitors. Now, LG's poised to launch a FreeSync display that seems tailor made for gamers: A 34-inch model with an ultrawide 21:9 aspect ratio.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864140/lg-reveals-the-first-ultrawide-gaming-display-with-amd-freesync-support.html#tk.rss_all Displays Gaming Wed, 31 Dec 2014 07:48:00 -0800 Brad Chacos Brad Chacos

Dropping into Linux on your Chromebook just became a whole lot easier. You've been able to use Linux in Chromebook virtual terminals for a while now with the help of Crouton, but now an extension by Google hardware engineer (and Crouton developer) David Schneider allows you to run Debian or Ubuntu in a window right within the traditional Chrome OS interface.

You can see Linux in a Chromebook window in the screenshot above.

While Schneider's extension will certainly make the experience of using Linux alongside Chrome OS more pleasant, the setup process still isn't for the faint of heart. You'll need to be in developer mode, download the Crouton extension from the Chrome Web Store and the Crouton tool itself (warning: that's a direct download link), and then play with hidden terminal commands in Chrome OS—all before you even get around to actually installing your Linux distribution of choice.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864153/new-tool-lets-chromebooks-run-linux-in-a-desktop-window.html#tk.rss_all Chromebooks Wed, 31 Dec 2014 06:56:00 -0800 Brad Chacos Brad Chacos

The Sims 4 goes pixel-shaped

When The Sims 4 was released in 2014, some people who eagerly snatched up a copy soon found themselves perplexed by an apparent bug: The entire game eventually became blurry and pixelated, with the effect beginning as a way to obscure nude Sims and blossoming out from there. Did a major error slip through EA's playtesting?

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2602876/10-hilarious-brutally-devious-ways-pc-game-developers-punish-pirates.html#tk.rss_all Gaming Games Wed, 31 Dec 2014 04:00:00 -0800 Ryan Whitwam Ryan Whitwam Your phone just isn't complete if you haven't tried out these apps yet. http://www.greenbot.com/article/2859483/the-best-android-apps-of-2014.html#tk.rss_all Apps Wed, 31 Dec 2014 03:30:00 -0800 Ian Paul Ian Paul

The unlucky 13

Yes, there was plenty to get excited about in 2014, but not all the tech news from the past twelve months was good. This year we saw Bitcoin's biggest early star disappear, Facebook manipulate its users, Amazon enter the smartphone market with a resounding thud, and many, many more facepalm-worthy moments. These are the 13 biggest tech flops and fails of 2014.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2860979/the-year-in-tech-2014s-13-biggest-fails-flops-and-faux-pas.html#tk.rss_all Tech events Wed, 31 Dec 2014 03:05:00 -0800 Caitlin McGarry Caitlin McGarry

This year was all about the messaging app, and for good reason: Social networks behaved abysmally in 2014. Sharing information and photos privately with friends is a compelling alternative to social networks with their ads, weird research experiments, and harassment.

That's not to say anyone is abandoning social media, but more and more users are pressuring companies to be better and more honest about how data is used and what is being done to make networks like Facebook, Twitter, and new anonymous social apps safer spaces.

Does Facebook finally have a rival?

No other network can challenge Facebook in terms of active users (1.35 billion and still growing), but when the company deleted the accounts of well-known San Francisco drag performers, a new kid on the block welcomed the influx of users with open arms.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2862226/cue-the-outrage-how-our-favorite-social-networks-failed-us-in-2014.html#tk.rss_all Wed, 31 Dec 2014 03:00:00 -0800 Jared Newman Jared Newman

Refinement, not revolution

While 2014 didn't bring much in the way of revolutionary technology, it was a great year for refinement. The products and services we've relied on for years became cheaper and more accessible, while once-difficult concepts like virtual reality and mobile wallets starte to look a little more practical. And if you look hard enough, you can even find some examples where the government didn't screw everything up.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2859817/the-greatest-tech-wins-and-epic-comebacks-of-2014.html#tk.rss_all Tech events Tue, 30 Dec 2014 12:15:00 -0800 Agam Shah Agam Shah

Samsung is trying to smash the status quo in PCs with a new all-in-one desktop computer that has a curved screen.

The idea for the Ativ One 7 Curved came partly from Samsung's TVs, which already have curved displays. Samsung has already been offering laptops and Chromebooks, and the 27-inch all-in-one will be its first desktop computer.

The all-in-one looks like a 27-inch curved TV, with all the PC components at the back of the monitor. As with TVs, the curved display could provide a more immersive gaming and entertainment experience than conventional monitors, said David Ng, product manager at Samsung.

But Ng acknowledged that the PC's unusual shape could catch potential buyers off guard. He said the screen's curved contours will grow on desktop users, Ng said.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864112/samsung-brings-curved-screen-from-tv-to-pc.html#tk.rss_all Hardware Tue, 30 Dec 2014 11:52:00 -0800 Melissa Riofrio Melissa Riofrio

Samsung's Milk VR video app, announced Tuesday, marks a tantalizing step forward for virtual reality. The app will let you run full-motion, 360-degree video on the Gear VR headset. Not a movie in a simulated theater environment, like we've seen with Oculus Cinema demos, but a video beamed right to your eyes, bringing VR users ever closer to a real-life experience.

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864092/think-that-software-library-is-safe-to-use-not-so-fast.html#tk.rss_all Security Windows Development Software Tue, 30 Dec 2014 09:00:00 -0800 Hayden Dingman Hayden Dingman

After an interminable year of private alphas and betas and gammas(?), Elite: Dangerous is finally out. That makes it the first of the three massive space games (Elite, Star Citizen, and No Man's Sky) to officially release, and thus I've spent quite a few hours recently holed up with a HOTAS, a glass of eggnog, and my trusty spaceship.

I don't think it's appropriate to smack a score on Elite: Dangerous yet, in the same way I wouldn't smack a score on any MMO. It's early days for the game, and I don't think the full scope of what Frontier has planned is even close to realized despite the 1.0 status.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2863940/elite-dangerous-impressions-finding-home-in-the-vast-emptiness-of-space.html#tk.rss_all Gaming Tue, 30 Dec 2014 08:40:09 -0800 Yewon Kang Yewon Kang

Control systems at South Korean nuclear plants have not been harmed by recent attacks by hackers, but nevertheless Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power is increasing its security efforts to defend against a possible additional attack, the company's CEO Cho Seok told legislators on Tuesday.

An investigation had found traces of a low-risk worm that had been removed from PCs and portable devices connected to the nuclear plant's control system, but no malicious code linked to a cyber attack was found, according to the country's Energy Ministry. The government began the investigation last week after an anti-nuclear-reactor group threatened to launch a cyber attack after leaking a batch of the company's internal documents.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864072/south-korea-nuclear-operator-strengthens-security-system-against-cyber-attack.html#tk.rss_all Security Tue, 30 Dec 2014 07:30:00 -0800 Chris Hoffman Chris Hoffman

Times New Roman, Calibri, and many other popular fonts are created by Microsoft and can't be included with Linux. If you open a Word document or another Microsoft Office document in LibreOffice or OpenOffice, you'll need Microsoft's fonts installed on your Linux system to see the documents as they were intended to look.

You can also use Microsoft's fonts to create documents of your own, so you can compose a document in Calibri or Times New Roman and save it as a DOCX or DOC file for maximum compatibility with Office.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2863497/how-to-install-microsoft-fonts-in-linux-office-suites.html#tk.rss_all Productivity Tue, 30 Dec 2014 06:15:00 -0800 Agam Shah Agam Shah

Advanced Micro Devices wants its chips in more laptops, and is devising a new strategy to reverse a free fall it has endured in the PC market over the last few years.

The chip maker is reshaping the way it supplies chips and components with the hope that more PC makers will use its upcoming Carrizo processors in laptops. At the center of the strategy is a plug-and-play component approach that will make it easier to plug any Carrizo chip into any laptop, regardless of size or price.

AMD will supply just one motherboard that will support a wide range of Carrizo and Carrizo-L laptop chips. The new approach will provide PC makers the flexibility of using a range of Carrizo chips in any laptop.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864032/amd-retools-laptop-chip-strategy-to-challenge-intels-dominance.html#tk.rss_all Laptops Tue, 30 Dec 2014 05:35:09 -0800 Peter Sayer Peter Sayer

IT services company CSC will pay US$190 million to settle a case brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over four-year-old charges that it violated U.S. antifraud, reporting, and books-and-records laws. The company did not admit guilt, but has promised not to violate those laws in future.

The charges concerned accounting entries relating to CSC's activities in Australia and Denmark, and to the company's contractual relationship with the U.K National Health Service (NHS) over the failed National Program for IT (NPfIT), the company said.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864012/csc-pays-190m-to-settle-4yearold-accounting-fraud-case-with-sec.html#tk.rss_all Business Issues Business Legal Government Tue, 30 Dec 2014 04:00:00 -0800 Florence Ion Florence Ion

The last few years in the world of Android news have been kind of a snooze fest. Sure, we had the usual barrage of software updates and gadget releases, but nothing seemed truly worth a standing ovation. What's worse: it felt like Android was no longer in Google's control, and that companies like Samsung were actually the ones that were ruling the pack. It was hard to tell who to root for. 

But this year Android underwent a metamorphosis of sorts—one that was long overdue. To commemorate this event-filled year, we rounded up some of the year's biggest news stories that helped contribute to the transformed Android ecosystem we see today.

64-bit mobile processors

The 64-bit mobile processor was a big announcement for Android.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2858889/2014-in-review-the-year-in-android.html#tk.rss_all Android Tue, 30 Dec 2014 03:30:00 -0800 Jared Newman Jared Newman

The highest praise I can muster for Nvidia GRID is that I sometimes forgot I was even using it.

That's no small feat for a cloud gaming service that streams high-end games to low-powered devices over remote servers. Other efforts, such as OnLive, constantly remind you of the journey its games must take from server to client, with rampant stutters, slowdowns and resolution drops. Nvidia GRID rarely has those problems—at least when the conditions are right.

Nvidia has been beta-testing GRID with Northern California residents for about a year, but in November the service opened up to anyone in North America and Western Europe with an Nvidia Shield handheld or Shield Tablet. From now until the free preview ends on June 30, 2015, users can access GRID at no charge. While there are only 30 games currently, Nvidia has been adding at least one new game every week (though usually two).

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2863732/nvidia-grid-hands-on-smooth-streaming-pc-games-under-ideal-conditions.html#tk.rss_all Gaming Tue, 30 Dec 2014 03:00:00 -0800 John Brandon John Brandon

LG's 55-inch OLED HDTV (model number 55EC9300) is a stunner, with a slight curve that brings the right and left edges of the screen ever so slightly closer to your eyes. And while its $3500 price tag will give most consumers pause, especially considering its resolution is limited to 1080p, that's really not such a terrible shortcoming. There's very little 4K content to be had today, and that situation will improve only marginally in 2015.

What makes the 55EC9300 so interesting—in addition to the curve, of course—is its use of OLED technology (the acronym stands for organic light-emitting diode). OLED panels are naturally emissive, which means they radiate their own light. The backlights that LCD panels require can result in uneven brightness and contrast (the difference between the darkest and lightest images the TV can produce).

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PCWorld

While 2014 didn't bring much in the way of revolutionary technology, it was a great year for refinement. The products and services we've relied on for years became cheaper and more accessible, while once-difficult concepts like virtual reality and mobile wallets starte to look a little more practical. And if you look hard enough, you can even find some examples where the government didn't screw everything up.

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]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2859817/the-greatest-tech-wins-and-epic-comebacks-of-2014.html#tk.rss_all Tech events Tue, 30 Dec 2014 12:15:00 -0800 Agam Shah Agam Shah

Samsung is trying to smash the status quo in PCs with a new all-in-one desktop computer that has a curved screen.

The idea for the Ativ One 7 Curved came partly from Samsung's TVs, which already have curved displays. Samsung has already been offering laptops and Chromebooks, and the 27-inch all-in-one will be its first desktop computer.

The all-in-one looks like a 27-inch curved TV, with all the PC components at the back of the monitor. As with TVs, the curved display could provide a more immersive gaming and entertainment experience than conventional monitors, said David Ng, product manager at Samsung.

But Ng acknowledged that the PC's unusual shape could catch potential buyers off guard. He said the screen's curved contours will grow on desktop users, Ng said.

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]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864112/samsung-brings-curved-screen-from-tv-to-pc.html#tk.rss_all Hardware Tue, 30 Dec 2014 11:52:00 -0800 Melissa Riofrio Melissa Riofrio

Samsung's Milk VR video app, announced Tuesday, marks a tantalizing step forward for virtual reality. The app will let you run full-motion, 360-degree video on the Gear VR headset. Not a movie in a simulated theater environment, like we've seen with Oculus Cinema demos, but a video beamed right to your eyes, bringing VR users ever closer to a real-life experience.

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864092/think-that-software-library-is-safe-to-use-not-so-fast.html#tk.rss_all Security Windows Development Software Tue, 30 Dec 2014 09:00:00 -0800 Hayden Dingman Hayden Dingman

After an interminable year of private alphas and betas and gammas(?), Elite: Dangerous is finally out. That makes it the first of the three massive space games (Elite, Star Citizen, and No Man's Sky) to officially release, and thus I've spent quite a few hours recently holed up with a HOTAS, a glass of eggnog, and my trusty spaceship.

I don't think it's appropriate to smack a score on Elite: Dangerous yet, in the same way I wouldn't smack a score on any MMO. It's early days for the game, and I don't think the full scope of what Frontier has planned is even close to realized despite the 1.0 status.

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]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2863940/elite-dangerous-impressions-finding-home-in-the-vast-emptiness-of-space.html#tk.rss_all Gaming Tue, 30 Dec 2014 08:40:09 -0800 Yewon Kang Yewon Kang

Control systems at South Korean nuclear plants have not been harmed by recent attacks by hackers, but nevertheless Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power is increasing its security efforts to defend against a possible additional attack, the company's CEO Cho Seok told legislators on Tuesday.

An investigation had found traces of a low-risk worm that had been removed from PCs and portable devices connected to the nuclear plant's control system, but no malicious code linked to a cyber attack was found, according to the country's Energy Ministry. The government began the investigation last week after an anti-nuclear-reactor group threatened to launch a cyber attack after leaking a batch of the company's internal documents.

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]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864072/south-korea-nuclear-operator-strengthens-security-system-against-cyber-attack.html#tk.rss_all Security Tue, 30 Dec 2014 07:30:00 -0800 Chris Hoffman Chris Hoffman

Times New Roman, Calibri, and many other popular fonts are created by Microsoft and can't be included with Linux. If you open a Word document or another Microsoft Office document in LibreOffice or OpenOffice, you'll need Microsoft's fonts installed on your Linux system to see the documents as they were intended to look.

You can also use Microsoft's fonts to create documents of your own, so you can compose a document in Calibri or Times New Roman and save it as a DOCX or DOC file for maximum compatibility with Office.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2863497/how-to-install-microsoft-fonts-in-linux-office-suites.html#tk.rss_all Productivity Tue, 30 Dec 2014 06:15:00 -0800 Agam Shah Agam Shah

Advanced Micro Devices wants its chips in more laptops, and is devising a new strategy to reverse a free fall it has endured in the PC market over the last few years.

The chip maker is reshaping the way it supplies chips and components with the hope that more PC makers will use its upcoming Carrizo processors in laptops. At the center of the strategy is a plug-and-play component approach that will make it easier to plug any Carrizo chip into any laptop, regardless of size or price.

AMD will supply just one motherboard that will support a wide range of Carrizo and Carrizo-L laptop chips. The new approach will provide PC makers the flexibility of using a range of Carrizo chips in any laptop.

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]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864032/amd-retools-laptop-chip-strategy-to-challenge-intels-dominance.html#tk.rss_all Laptops Tue, 30 Dec 2014 05:35:09 -0800 Peter Sayer Peter Sayer

IT services company CSC will pay US$190 million to settle a case brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over four-year-old charges that it violated U.S. antifraud, reporting, and books-and-records laws. The company did not admit guilt, but has promised not to violate those laws in future.

The charges concerned accounting entries relating to CSC's activities in Australia and Denmark, and to the company's contractual relationship with the U.K National Health Service (NHS) over the failed National Program for IT (NPfIT), the company said.

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]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2864012/csc-pays-190m-to-settle-4yearold-accounting-fraud-case-with-sec.html#tk.rss_all Business Issues Business Legal Government Tue, 30 Dec 2014 04:00:00 -0800 Florence Ion Florence Ion

The last few years in the world of Android news have been kind of a snooze fest. Sure, we had the usual barrage of software updates and gadget releases, but nothing seemed truly worth a standing ovation. What's worse: it felt like Android was no longer in Google's control, and that companies like Samsung were actually the ones that were ruling the pack. It was hard to tell who to root for. 

But this year Android underwent a metamorphosis of sorts—one that was long overdue. To commemorate this event-filled year, we rounded up some of the year's biggest news stories that helped contribute to the transformed Android ecosystem we see today.

64-bit mobile processors

The 64-bit mobile processor was a big announcement for Android.

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]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2858889/2014-in-review-the-year-in-android.html#tk.rss_all Android Tue, 30 Dec 2014 03:30:00 -0800 Jared Newman Jared Newman

The highest praise I can muster for Nvidia GRID is that I sometimes forgot I was even using it.

That's no small feat for a cloud gaming service that streams high-end games to low-powered devices over remote servers. Other efforts, such as OnLive, constantly remind you of the journey its games must take from server to client, with rampant stutters, slowdowns and resolution drops. Nvidia GRID rarely has those problems—at least when the conditions are right.

Nvidia has been beta-testing GRID with Northern California residents for about a year, but in November the service opened up to anyone in North America and Western Europe with an Nvidia Shield handheld or Shield Tablet. From now until the free preview ends on June 30, 2015, users can access GRID at no charge. While there are only 30 games currently, Nvidia has been adding at least one new game every week (though usually two).

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2863732/nvidia-grid-hands-on-smooth-streaming-pc-games-under-ideal-conditions.html#tk.rss_all Gaming Tue, 30 Dec 2014 03:00:00 -0800 John Brandon John Brandon

LG's 55-inch OLED HDTV (model number 55EC9300) is a stunner, with a slight curve that brings the right and left edges of the screen ever so slightly closer to your eyes. And while its $3500 price tag will give most consumers pause, especially considering its resolution is limited to 1080p, that's really not such a terrible shortcoming. There's very little 4K content to be had today, and that situation will improve only marginally in 2015.

What makes the 55EC9300 so interesting—in addition to the curve, of course—is its use of OLED technology (the acronym stands for organic light-emitting diode). OLED panels are naturally emissive, which means they radiate their own light. The backlights that LCD panels require can result in uneven brightness and contrast (the difference between the darkest and lightest images the TV can produce).

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2863884/lg-55ec9300-curved-oled-hdtv-review-stunning-image-quality-but-no-4k.html#tk.rss_all Tue, 30 Dec 2014 03:00:00 -0800 Nick Mediati Nick Mediati

Alex from Target. Meghan Trainor. The Ice Bucket Challenge (brrrr!). Those are just 3 of the 10 biggest memes and videos that went viral in 2014. If you can name them all, you're either incredibly connected or incredibly tormented.

I'm not going to lie to you: It took me forever to pull this list together because I kept getting distracted by other videos and memes. Here's hoping the same fate doesn't await you as you read on.

1. Alex From Target breaks Twitter

Credit: Via Know Your Meme

A portion of the original photo of Alex From Target.

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]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2861855/the-top-10-memes-viral-videos-and-online-goings-on-that-defined-2014.html#tk.rss_all Web & social Mon, 29 Dec 2014 22:07:00 -0800 Zach Miners Zach Miners

Kim Dotcom, founder of the file hosting service Mega, is preparing to launch an encrypted video-calling and chat service that will shield its users' communications from government surveillance.

"Mega will soon release a fully encrypted and browser-based video call and chat service including high-speed file transfers," the entrepreneur known as Kim Dotcom said in a tweet.

Kim Dotcom is positioning the service as a more secure way to chat and collaborate online free of government surveillance or spying, partly by virtue of Mega being based in New Zealand. Kim Dotcom has been teasing the app for some time, though now it appears nearly ready for prime time.

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]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2863992/kim-dotcoms-mega-to-launch-antispying-call-and-chat-service-soon.html#tk.rss_all Networking Web Apps Productivity Cloud & Services Mon, 29 Dec 2014 18:52:00 -0800 Michael Brown Michael Brown

The urge to pre-announce products that will be unveiled at CES seems is apparently contagious. Last week, LG tipped us off to its new Music Flow series of speakers. Monday evening, Samsung put out a press release about its intent to expand its sound bar lineup and to offer two new wireless speakers that look remarkably like white artillery shells.

Samsung

Samsung claims its WAM7500 single-cabinet speaker "allows sound to flow in a 360-degree ring."

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]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2863898/samsung-tips-its-hand-ahead-of-ces-announces-new-wireless-speakers-and-sound-bars.html#tk.rss_all Mon, 29 Dec 2014 12:14:00 -0800 Mark Hachman Mark Hachman

Instead of revamping Internet Explorer for the launch of Windows 10, a new report claims Microsoft plans to start from scratch with a new browser, dubbed "Spartan."

Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet reported Monday that Spartan could ship alongside Internet Explorer 11 in Windows 10, due sometime in the latter half of 2015. The purpose of Spartan is twofold, Foley reports: first, as a lightweight alternative to IE, but with the foundation for third-party extensions; and as a marketing "do-over" for Internet Explorer, to do away with Internet Explorer's legacy once and for all.

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]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2863878/microsofts-reported-spartan-browser-will-be-lighter-more-flexible-than-internet-explorer.html#tk.rss_all Browsers Mon, 29 Dec 2014 11:22:00 -0800 Mark Hachman Mark Hachman

Chances are that if you shopped for a cheap holiday PC on Amazon for the holidays, what you ended up buying was a Google Chromebook. Again.

Amazon said Friday the top three computers it sold between Nov. 1 and Dec. 25 were all Chromebooks, a first for the Google-powered computer. (Two of the three most popular computers Amazon shoppers bought during the 2013 holiday season were also Chromebooks—the third being a Windows-powered Asus Transformer. Amazon didn't break out holiday computer sales for 2012.)

Amazon said the three most popular computer items were the Acer C720 Chromebook (11.6-inch, 2GB); the Asus (C300) Chromebook 13-inch with Gigabit WiFi (16GB, 2GB), an update to the C200; and the HP 11-2010nr 11.6-inch Chromebook (Snow White). None of those are priced at higher than $250, at least on Amazon's site.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2863936/amazons-three-top-selling-computers-for-the-holidays-were-chromebooks.html#tk.rss_all Chromebooks Mon, 29 Dec 2014 08:05:00 -0800 Peter Sayer Peter Sayer

Three out of three? That could be the score for the U.S. National Security Agency's cryptographic "most wanted" list of 2012.

In January 2012, it saw Internet traffic anonymizing tool Tor (The Onion Router), Linux distribution Tails (The Amnesic Incognito Live System) and disk encryption system TrueCrypt as the biggest threats to its ability to intercept Internet traffic and interpret other information it acquires.

Since then, flaws have been found in Tor, and the FBI has unmasked Tor users. A vulnerability was found in Tails allowing attackers to determine users' IP addresses.

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]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2863972/tor-truecrypt-tails-topped-the-nsas-most-wanted-list-in-2012.html#tk.rss_all Security Mon, 29 Dec 2014 08:00:00 -0800 Brand Post Brand Post

If you've ever seen an episode of The Jetsons, you've no doubt longed for some of the space-age home tech enjoyed by George and his family. Push-button meal dispensers? A car that folds into a briefcase? Rosie the robot-maid? Yes, please.

Alas, much of that stuff remains science fiction, at least for the moment, but there are plenty of high-tech tools available right now that can help turn your house into a smart-home. And you don't have to be president of Spacely Sprockets to afford it. In fact, if you already own a smartphone, you're halfway there. Let's take a look at some of the surprisingly affordable ways to raise your roof's IQ.

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]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2860434/turn-your-house-into-a-smart-home-on-a-budget.html#tk.rss_all Mon, 29 Dec 2014 07:41:00 -0800 Lincoln Spector Lincoln Spector

Tctws Tan wanted to know about the dangers of using a public Wi-Fi network, such as the ones you find in cafes and libraries. "Is there any other method to increase my privacy?"

If Windows knows it's accessing a public network, it will hide your laptop from other computers and devices. That provides significant, but not perfect, protection. So you have to make sure Windows knows you're on a public network, and you need to take additional precautions.

[Have a tech question? Ask PCWorld Contributing Editor Lincoln Spector. Send your query to answer@pcworld.com.]

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]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2858348/take-precautions-when-using-public-wi-fi-networks.html#tk.rss_all Security Mon, 29 Dec 2014 04:00:00 -0800 Ryan Whitwam Ryan Whitwam Google's wearable platform is off to a great start with apps like these. http://www.greenbot.com/article/2858992/the-best-android-wear-apps-of-2014.html#tk.rss_all Gadgets Apps

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