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Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 19 Juli 2014 | 16.00

PCWorldUnder Google, robot maker reduces dependence on military fundingCloud message resonating with Microsoft partnersGoogle reveals Athena, a Material Design-inspired revamp of Chrome OSMIT invention to speed up data centers should cheer developersUS needs to restore trust following NSA revelations, tech groups sayWall Street Beat: Transition to mobile, cloud hits tech earningsDell accepting Bitcoin paymentsMissing Pieces: Doom is back, so is the Apple IIe, and other must-know gaming newsDude, you're getting a Dell, with BitcoinGoogle to stop calling games that offer in-app purchases 'free'D-Wave wants more real-world deployments for its quantum computerAppcelerator gears up for the business worldBy the numbers: How Kindle Unlimited compares to other ebook subscriptionsMicrosoft password research has fatal flawNet neutrality a key battleground in growing fight over encryption, activists sayGoogle Maps update adds bicycle route elevations, voice commandsXbox One sales 'more than double' after intro of $400 Kinect-less model, still can't top the PS4Get more out of the Windows Taskbar with these 3 shortcutsHealbe finally releases lab data for its notorious GoBe calorie-tracking wristbandHome router security to be tested in upcoming hacking contestDownsizing Microsoft to spin off Nokia's MixRadio music serviceEdward Snowden: Dropbox is 'hostile to privacy'Kindle Unlimited launches: 600,000 all-you-can-read e-books for $10 per monthRomanian gang used malware to defraud international money transfer firmsEuropean Commission slams Apple for in-app purchase policiesVerizon blaming Netflix for slow streaming speeds is an 'attempt at deception' says Internet backbone providerBaidu launches search engine for BrazilAndroid Influencer: Pushbullet CEO Ryan OldenburgUK rushes through surveillance bill, extending data retention rulesComparing the Android L settings to KitKat

http://www.pcworld.com en-us Sat, 19 Jul 2014 01:53:05 -0700 Sat, 19 Jul 2014 01:53:05 -0700 Fri, 18 Jul 2014 17:00:14 -0700 Martyn Williams Martyn Williams

A company acquired by Google that develops robots for the U.S. military appears to have greatly reduced its dependence on government funding, suggesting a reluctance on Google's part to align itself too closely with military projects.

When Google acquired Boston Dynamics last December, some questioned whether the firm's military focus conflicted with Google's pledge of "don't be evil" and the virtuous image it nurtures for itself.

"Google search and destroy," quipped the U.K.'s Independent newspaper. "The internet giant (motto: 'Don't be evil') has bought a pioneer of scary robot animals. Can its ethics survive?"

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

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2456240/under-google-robot-maker-reduces-dependence-on-military-funding.html#tk.rss_all Fri, 18 Jul 2014 13:55:13 -0700 Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service

Microsoft has been screaming "cloud" in many partners' deaf ears for several years, but the company found a more receptive audience at this week's Worldwide Partner Conference.

From CEO Satya Nadella on down, all Microsoft officials at the event told attendees that they need to switch their businesses to the cloud urgently, or else risk obsolescence and market defeat.

"You need to get on this train. This market is being made now," a vehement and adrenaline-drenched Kevin Turner—Microsoft's COO—said during a WPC keynote, adding that Microsoft doesn't have enough partners selling its cloud services anywhere in the world.

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

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2456200/cloud-message-resonating-with-microsoft-partners.html#tk.rss_all Software Cloud & Services Fri, 18 Jul 2014 13:52:00 -0700 Brad Chacos Brad Chacos

Chrome evangelist François Beaufort gave us a glimpse of the potential future of Chrome OS on Friday, and boy is it ugly.

Maybe that's a bit harsh. The lone screenshot Beaufort provided of the "Athena project" is clearly in its early days; the developer fully warns that the Chromium team is still experimenting with it. "The first draft consists in a collection of windows with some simple window management," he wrote on Google+.

Even so, it's hard to look at.

chrome os athena

The first look at Project Athena for Chrome OS mashes up Material Design with the feel of Apple's Time Machine. (Click to enlarge.)

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

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2455151/google-reveals-athena-a-material-design-inspired-revamp-of-chrome-os.html#tk.rss_all Chromebooks Operating Systems Fri, 18 Jul 2014 13:35:13 -0700 Stephen Lawson Stephen Lawson

A breakthrough by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology could change the way Web and mobile apps are written and help companies like Facebook keep the cat videos coming.

Their main innovation is a new way to decide when each packet can scurry across a data center to its destination. The software that the MIT team developed, called Fastpass, uses parallel computing to make those decisions almost as soon as the packets arrive at each switch. They think Fastpass may show up in production data centers in about two years.

In today's networks, packets can spend a lot of their time in big, memory-intensive queues, lined up like tourists at Disney World. That's because switches mostly decide on their own when each packet can go on to its destination, and they do so with limited information. Fastpass gives that job to a central server, called an arbiter, that can look at a whole segment of the data center and schedule packets in a more efficient way, according to Hari Balakrishnan, MIT's Fujitsu Professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He co-wrote a paper that will be presented at an Association for Computing Machinery conference next month. The co-authors included Facebook researcher Hans Fugal.

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

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2456180/mit-invention-to-speed-up-data-centers-should-cheer-developers.html#tk.rss_all Networking Fri, 18 Jul 2014 13:25:17 -0700 Grant Gross Grant Gross

The U.S government can take action to slow the calls in other countries to abandon U.S. tech vendors following revelations about widespread National Security Agency surveillance, some tech representatives said Friday.

Decisions by other governments to move their residents' data away from the U.S. are hurting tech vendors, but Congress can take steps to "rebuild the trust" in the U.S. as a responsible Internet leader, said Kevin Bankston, policy director of the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute.

Still, other governments will continue to try to use the NSA revelations by former agency contractor Edward Snowden to their advantage, said panelists at a Congressional Internet Caucus discussion on the effect of NSA surveillance on U.S. businesses.

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

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2456163/us-needs-to-restore-trust-following-nsa-revelations-tech-groups-say.html#tk.rss_all Government Networking Security Privacy Fri, 18 Jul 2014 13:25:15 -0700 Marc Ferranti Marc Ferranti

With Google, IBM, SAP, Intel and other tech titans reporting earnings this week, the focus is again on mobile and cloud technology. The general trend appears to be that the further a tech vendor has moved away from its legacy desktop-oriented products, the better its earnings are.

IBM has launched ambitious cloud and mobile initiatives—but the resulting products are not quite fully baked. IBM officials themselves acknowledge as much, with IBM CEO Ginni Rometty talking about "positioning ourselves for growth over the long term" in the company's earnings release Thursday.

Earlier this year, IBM announced a global competition to encourage developers to create mobile consumer and business apps powered by its Watson supercomputer platform. Just this week, IBM and Apple said they are teaming up to create business apps for Apple's mobile phones and tablets.

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

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2456160/wall-street-beat-transition-to-mobile-cloud-hits-tech-earnings.html#tk.rss_all Business Issues Fri, 18 Jul 2014 13:20:00 -0700 Agam Shah Agam Shah
Refunds for returned products will be issued in real currency

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

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2456120/dell-accepting-bitcoin-payments.html#tk.rss_all Hardware Hardware Cloud & Services Fri, 18 Jul 2014 13:02:00 -0700 Hayden Dingman Hayden Dingman

My sides are so sore from laughing. The video game industry lost its collective minds this week and decided to deliver unto you the most ridiculous set of news possible. Seriously, we've got an infamous dictator suing over misuse of his image, Flappy Bird running on an Apple IIe, and Fred Durst streaming video games on Twitch in between recording vocal tracks for a new Limp Bizkit album. Surely this is the end of days—as evidenced by the reveal of a new Doom game.

Here's all the video game news for the week of July 14. I'll leave out the "fit to print" part this week.

It'll never stop

That Flappy Bird port train just keeps on chugging. Developer Dagen Brock ported the game to the Apple II this week, thereby causing a rift in the space-time continuum and unleashing the hordes of demons waiting just outside the fabric of our world.

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

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2455179/missing-pieces-doom-is-back-so-is-the-apple-iie-and-other-must-know-gaming-news.html#tk.rss_all Gaming Fri, 18 Jul 2014 12:56:00 -0700 Brad Chacos Brad Chacos

In case the headline didn't tip you off: Yep, you can buy Dell products with Bitcoin now, as Michael Dell himself proudly trumpeted on Twitter earlier today.

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2456060/dwave-wants-more-realworld-deployments-for-its-quantum-computer.html#tk.rss_all Business Issues Fri, 18 Jul 2014 11:30:15 -0700 Joab Jackson Joab Jackson

System administrators take note: That mobile employee expense app you're building should be every bit as easy to use as Facebook. Oh, and you better deliver it quickly too, because that's how Facebook rolls.

Increasingly, organizations are finding that they need to build mobile apps for their employees in this hyper-connected world. Because employees are probably already used to Twitter, Facebook, Google Maps and other consumer-friendly apps, they'll expect a high degree of polish and performance from their enterprise apps as well.

"As consumers become more familiar with mobile experiences, they are bringing those expectations into the enterprise and expecting the enterprises to move just as fast," said Jeff Haynie, co-founder and CEO of Appcelerator, which offers a set of software and services for building, testing and managing mobile applications.

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

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2456040/appcelerator-gears-up-for-the-business-world.html#tk.rss_all Development Fri, 18 Jul 2014 11:00:00 -0700 James Careless James Careless We look at how Amazon's new ebook subscription service stacks up against similar offerings from Oyster and Scribd in terms of publisher deals, number of books, and the number of books you'll actually want to read. http://www.techhive.com/article/2455479/by-the-numbers-how-kindle-unlimited-compares-to-other-ebook-subscriptions.html#tk.rss_all Books software Web Apps Fri, 18 Jul 2014 11:00:00 -0700 Tony Bradley Tony Bradley

I wrote yesterday about a report from Microsoft researchers, which goes against established password security best practices. The new guidance from the Microsoft researchers makes sense to me, because it fits how I handle password management already. However, at least one security expert feels that there is a fatal flaw that makes the new password advice impractical: You.

Almost every aspect of computer security and privacy seems to come back to that one fundamental issue. You—the user—are the weakest link in the security chain. No matter how effective a security process or tool has the potential to be, user error can undermine the whole thing and render the security useless.

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

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2455478/microsoft-password-research-has-fatal-flaw.html#tk.rss_all Fri, 18 Jul 2014 10:50:10 -0700 Stephen Lawson Stephen Lawson

Plans to favor some Internet packets over others threaten consumers' hard-won right to use encryption, a digital privacy advocate says.

Activists and tech companies fended off efforts in the U.S. in the 1990s to ban Internet encryption or give the government ways around it, but an even bigger battle over cryptography is brewing now, according to Sascha Meinrath, director of X-Lab, a digital civil-rights think tank launched earlier this year. One of the most contested issues in that battle will be net neutrality, Meinrath said.

The new fight will be even more fierce than the last one, because Internet service providers now see dollars and cents in the details of packets traversing their networks. They want to charge content providers for priority delivery of their packets across the network, something that a controversial Federal Communications Commission proposal could allow under certain conditions. Friday is the filing deadline for the first round of public comments on that plan.

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

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2456000/net-neutrality-a-key-battleground-in-growing-fight-over-encryption-activists-say.html#tk.rss_all Security Encryption Privacy Government Fri, 18 Jul 2014 10:37:00 -0700 Derek Walter Derek Walter Version 8.2 includes interface tweaks and better visibility for Uber users http://www.greenbot.com/article/2455137/google-maps-update-adds-bicycle-route-elevations-voice-commands.html#tk.rss_all Apps Fri, 18 Jul 2014 10:30:00 -0700 Hayden Dingman Hayden Dingman

Editor's note: This article was originally published 7/17/14 but was updated 7/18/14 with NPD's sales numbers for the PlayStation 4.

We're still waiting on the NPD research group to release its monthly console sales estimates later today (see update at bottom --ed.), but Microsoft got so excited last night that it couldn't wait any longer, showering in confetti and those little popper things where you pull on the string and they explode—people are finally buying the Xbox One!

"Since the new Xbox One offering launched on June 9th, we've seen sales of Xbox One more than double in the US, compared to sales in May," Microsoft wrote in a blog post. The "new Xbox One offering" refers, of course, to the model where they stripped out the controversial Kinect peripheral and dropped the price from $500 to a more competitive $400.

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

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2455466/xbox-one-sales-more-than-double-after-intro-of-400-kinect-less-model.html#tk.rss_all Gaming Fri, 18 Jul 2014 09:42:00 -0700 Ian Paul Ian Paul

One of the best features of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 is the ability to pin apps to the Taskbar. Until Microsoft comes out with the refreshed Start menu, pinning apps is a must for Windows 8.1 users.

As the go-to location for dealing with and switching between open programs, the Taskbar may be the most clickable location on your desktop. But there's no reason you can't spice it up with a few keyboard tricks to make things a little more efficient.

Pick by number

If you have a bunch of apps pinned to your taskbar, the keyboard offers a quick way to fire up or switch to a program without reaching for your mouse.

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

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2455091/get-more-out-of-the-windows-taskbar-with-these-3-shortcuts.html#tk.rss_all Windows Fri, 18 Jul 2014 09:38:00 -0700 Jon Phillips Jon Phillips According to its lab report, the wrist-worn wearable can detect the calories in the food you eat with an error rate of 13.5 percent. But this comes via a blog post, not a peer-reviewed study. http://www.techhive.com/article/2455961/healbe-finally-releases-lab-data-for-its-notorious-gobe-calorie-tracking-wristband.html#tk.rss_all Gadgets Fri, 18 Jul 2014 09:20:00 -0700 Lucian Constantin Lucian Constantin

Researchers are gearing up to hack an array of different home routers during a contest next month at the Defcon 22 security conference.

The contest is called SOHOpelessly Broken—a nod to the small office/home office space targeted by the products—and follows a growing number of large scale attacks this year against routers and other home embedded systems.

The competition is organized by security consultancy firm Independent Security Evaluators and advocacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and will have two separate challenges.

The first challenge, known as Track 0, will require researchers to demonstrate exploits for previously unknown, or zero-day, vulnerabilities in a number of popular off-the-shelf consumer wireless routers.

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]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2455980/home-router-security-to-be-tested-in-upcoming-hacking-contest.html#tk.rss_all Networking Security Fri, 18 Jul 2014 08:43:00 -0700 Jared Newman Jared Newman

As Microsoft looks to slim down with layoffs and restructuring, Nokia is spinning MixRadio into a separate steaming music company.

While the app will still come preloaded on Windows Phones, it will also come to Android and iOS, according to The Guardian. There's no word on when the spin-off will be finalized, or when the apps will become available on other platforms.

It's also unclear whether MixRadio will look to include ads in its app now that it's no longer an exclusive perk for Nokia phone owners. Currently, the app is ad-free, but users can get higher audio quality, offline listening and unlimited song skipping for $4 per month.

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

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2455962/downsizing-microsoft-to-spin-off-nokias-mixradio-music-service.html#tk.rss_all Fri, 18 Jul 2014 08:00:00 -0700 Ian Paul Ian Paul

Dropbox is a very popular cloud storage service, but NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is no fan. In a recent interview with The Guardian, Snowden called Dropbox a "targeted, wannabe PRISM partner" that is "very hostile to privacy."

Snowden also isn't happy about Dropbox's decision in April to add former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to its Board of Directors. Snowden called Rice "probably the most anti-privacy official you can imagine."

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

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2455215/edward-snowden-dropbox-is-hostile-to-privacy.html#tk.rss_all Privacy Storage Cloud & Services Fri, 18 Jul 2014 07:23:00 -0700 Jared Newman Jared Newman Amazon's new subscription e-book plan includes more than 600,000 titles, but no major publishers. http://www.techhive.com/article/2455114/kindle-unlimited-launches-600-000-all-you-can-read-e-books-for-10-per-month.html#tk.rss_all Books software Fri, 18 Jul 2014 07:05:11 -0700 Lucian Constantin Lucian Constantin

Romanian and French authorities have dismantled a cybercriminal network that infected computers at money transfer outlets across Europe and used them to perform illegal transactions.

The gang was also involved in the theft of credit card details through skimming, credit card cloning, money laundering and drug trafficking, Europol announced Thursday.

The gang, which was composed mostly of Romanian citizens, infected computers at copy shops that also operated as money transfer franchises in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Norway, the U.K. and other European countries. No details were released about how the computers were infected, but Europol said that the attackers used a remote access Trojan (RAT) program.

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

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2455940/romanian-gang-used-malware-to-defraud-international-money-transfer-firms.html#tk.rss_all Security Legal Fri, 18 Jul 2014 07:00:00 -0700 Loek Essers Loek Essers Apple maintained that its parental controls 'go far beyond the features of others in the industry.' http://www.macworld.com/article/2455880/european-commission-slams-apple-for-in-app-purchase-policies.html#tk.rss_all Government Fri, 18 Jul 2014 06:42:00 -0700 Ian Paul Ian Paul

The Internet just got its back(bone) up over Verizon's recent finger pointing that blamed Netflix for poor streaming speeds on the ISP's network. Level 3, one of Netflix's Internet traffic carriers as well as one of the major 'Tier 1' networks that help serve as the backbone of the Internet, said Verizon's reasoning is nonsense and an "attempt at deception" that backfired.

In fact, Verizon is deliberately constraining capacity from network providers like Level 3, Mark Taylor, Level 3's vice president of content and media, said in a recent blog post.

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

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2455212/verizon-blaming-netflix-for-slow-streaming-speeds-is-an-attempt-at-deception-says-internet-backbone.html#tk.rss_all Fri, 18 Jul 2014 06:40:11 -0700 Michael Kan Michael Kan

China's Baidu is stepping into another major market with a search engine geared for Brazil, and is preparing to set up a research and development center in the country.

The search engine formally launched on Friday. With a Portuguese language interface, it offers Web, image and video search, along with a link to Baidu's "Postbar" product, an online forum.

The Brazil site marks Baidu's first international move in search since its Japan search engine launched in 2007.

The company has long led in its home market as China's largest search provider, with a 60 percent share, according to Internet analytics site CNZZ.com. But Baidu has yet to achieve that kind of success in Japan, where Yahoo and Google reign.

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

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2455900/baidu-launches-search-engine-for-brazil.html#tk.rss_all Productivity Fri, 18 Jul 2014 05:30:00 -0700 Florence Ion Florence Ion The man behind one of Android's most popular apps talks development, why he got into the Android app game, and what he loves about developing for Google's mobile platform. http://www.greenbot.com/article/2454941/android-influencer-pushbullet-ceo-ryan-oldenburg.html#tk.rss_all Apps Fri, 18 Jul 2014 05:10:11 -0700 Loek Essers Loek Essers

The U.K. government has pushed through a new surveillance law to replace one a European Union court said interfered with fundamental privacy rights—but, say civil rights campaigners, the new law is worse than the one it replaces.

The Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014, also known as DRIP, was fast-tracked by the U.K. government after European Union laws requiring communications providers to retain metadata were ruled invalid by the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) in April because they seriously interfered with fundamental privacy rights.

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

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2455860/uk-rushes-through-surveillance-bill-extending-data-retention-rules.html#tk.rss_all Legal Government Fri, 18 Jul 2014 04:00:00 -0700 Blake Stimac Blake Stimac The settings menus in Android L get a fresh look and a few tweaks, but aren't as different as you would expect. http://www.greenbot.com/article/2455160/comparing-the-android-l-settings-to-kitkat.html#tk.rss_all Android
PCWorldUnder Google, robot maker reduces dependence on military fundingCloud message resonating with Microsoft partnersGoogle reveals Athena, a Material Design-inspired revamp of Chrome OSMIT invention to speed up data centers should cheer developersUS needs to restore trust following NSA revelations, tech groups sayWall Street Beat: Transition to mobile, cloud hits tech earningsDell accepting Bitcoin paymentsMissing Pieces: Doom is back, so is the Apple IIe, and other must-know gaming newsDude, you're getting a Dell, with BitcoinGoogle to stop calling games that offer in-app purchases 'free'D-Wave wants more real-world deployments for its quantum computerAppcelerator gears up for the business worldBy the numbers: How Kindle Unlimited compares to other ebook subscriptionsMicrosoft password research has fatal flawNet neutrality a key battleground in growing fight over encryption, activists sayGoogle Maps update adds bicycle route elevations, voice commandsXbox One sales 'more than double' after intro of $400 Kinect-less model, still can't top the PS4Get more out of the Windows Taskbar with these 3 shortcutsHealbe finally releases lab data for its notorious GoBe calorie-tracking wristbandHome router security to be tested in upcoming hacking contestDownsizing Microsoft to spin off Nokia's MixRadio music serviceEdward Snowden: Dropbox is 'hostile to privacy'Kindle Unlimited launches: 600,000 all-you-can-read e-books for $10 per monthRomanian gang used malware to defraud international money transfer firmsEuropean Commission slams Apple for in-app purchase policiesVerizon blaming Netflix for slow streaming speeds is an 'attempt at deception' says Internet backbone providerBaidu launches search engine for BrazilAndroid Influencer: Pushbullet CEO Ryan OldenburgUK rushes through surveillance bill, extending data retention rulesComparing the Android L settings to KitKat

http://www.pcworld.com en-us Sat, 19 Jul 2014 01:53:05 -0700 Sat, 19 Jul 2014 01:53:05 -0700 Fri, 18 Jul 2014 17:00:14 -0700 Martyn Williams Martyn Williams

A company acquired by Google that develops robots for the U.S. military appears to have greatly reduced its dependence on government funding, suggesting a reluctance on Google's part to align itself too closely with military projects.

When Google acquired Boston Dynamics last December, some questioned whether the firm's military focus conflicted with Google's pledge of "don't be evil" and the virtuous image it nurtures for itself.

"Google search and destroy," quipped the U.K.'s Independent newspaper. "The internet giant (motto: 'Don't be evil') has bought a pioneer of scary robot animals. Can its ethics survive?"

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

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2456240/under-google-robot-maker-reduces-dependence-on-military-funding.html#tk.rss_all Fri, 18 Jul 2014 13:55:13 -0700 Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service

Microsoft has been screaming "cloud" in many partners' deaf ears for several years, but the company found a more receptive audience at this week's Worldwide Partner Conference.

From CEO Satya Nadella on down, all Microsoft officials at the event told attendees that they need to switch their businesses to the cloud urgently, or else risk obsolescence and market defeat.

"You need to get on this train. This market is being made now," a vehement and adrenaline-drenched Kevin Turner—Microsoft's COO—said during a WPC keynote, adding that Microsoft doesn't have enough partners selling its cloud services anywhere in the world.

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

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2456200/cloud-message-resonating-with-microsoft-partners.html#tk.rss_all Software Cloud & Services Fri, 18 Jul 2014 13:52:00 -0700 Brad Chacos Brad Chacos

Chrome evangelist François Beaufort gave us a glimpse of the potential future of Chrome OS on Friday, and boy is it ugly.

Maybe that's a bit harsh. The lone screenshot Beaufort provided of the "Athena project" is clearly in its early days; the developer fully warns that the Chromium team is still experimenting with it. "The first draft consists in a collection of windows with some simple window management," he wrote on Google+.

Even so, it's hard to look at.

chrome os athena

The first look at Project Athena for Chrome OS mashes up Material Design with the feel of Apple's Time Machine. (Click to enlarge.)

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

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2455151/google-reveals-athena-a-material-design-inspired-revamp-of-chrome-os.html#tk.rss_all Chromebooks Operating Systems Fri, 18 Jul 2014 13:35:13 -0700 Stephen Lawson Stephen Lawson

A breakthrough by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology could change the way Web and mobile apps are written and help companies like Facebook keep the cat videos coming.

Their main innovation is a new way to decide when each packet can scurry across a data center to its destination. The software that the MIT team developed, called Fastpass, uses parallel computing to make those decisions almost as soon as the packets arrive at each switch. They think Fastpass may show up in production data centers in about two years.

In today's networks, packets can spend a lot of their time in big, memory-intensive queues, lined up like tourists at Disney World. That's because switches mostly decide on their own when each packet can go on to its destination, and they do so with limited information. Fastpass gives that job to a central server, called an arbiter, that can look at a whole segment of the data center and schedule packets in a more efficient way, according to Hari Balakrishnan, MIT's Fujitsu Professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He co-wrote a paper that will be presented at an Association for Computing Machinery conference next month. The co-authors included Facebook researcher Hans Fugal.

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

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2456180/mit-invention-to-speed-up-data-centers-should-cheer-developers.html#tk.rss_all Networking Fri, 18 Jul 2014 13:25:17 -0700 Grant Gross Grant Gross

The U.S government can take action to slow the calls in other countries to abandon U.S. tech vendors following revelations about widespread National Security Agency surveillance, some tech representatives said Friday.

Decisions by other governments to move their residents' data away from the U.S. are hurting tech vendors, but Congress can take steps to "rebuild the trust" in the U.S. as a responsible Internet leader, said Kevin Bankston, policy director of the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute.

Still, other governments will continue to try to use the NSA revelations by former agency contractor Edward Snowden to their advantage, said panelists at a Congressional Internet Caucus discussion on the effect of NSA surveillance on U.S. businesses.

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

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2456163/us-needs-to-restore-trust-following-nsa-revelations-tech-groups-say.html#tk.rss_all Government Networking Security Privacy Fri, 18 Jul 2014 13:25:15 -0700 Marc Ferranti Marc Ferranti

With Google, IBM, SAP, Intel and other tech titans reporting earnings this week, the focus is again on mobile and cloud technology. The general trend appears to be that the further a tech vendor has moved away from its legacy desktop-oriented products, the better its earnings are.

IBM has launched ambitious cloud and mobile initiatives—but the resulting products are not quite fully baked. IBM officials themselves acknowledge as much, with IBM CEO Ginni Rometty talking about "positioning ourselves for growth over the long term" in the company's earnings release Thursday.

Earlier this year, IBM announced a global competition to encourage developers to create mobile consumer and business apps powered by its Watson supercomputer platform. Just this week, IBM and Apple said they are teaming up to create business apps for Apple's mobile phones and tablets.

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

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2456160/wall-street-beat-transition-to-mobile-cloud-hits-tech-earnings.html#tk.rss_all Business Issues Fri, 18 Jul 2014 13:20:00 -0700 Agam Shah Agam Shah
Refunds for returned products will be issued in real currency

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

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2456120/dell-accepting-bitcoin-payments.html#tk.rss_all Hardware Hardware Cloud & Services Fri, 18 Jul 2014 13:02:00 -0700 Hayden Dingman Hayden Dingman

My sides are so sore from laughing. The video game industry lost its collective minds this week and decided to deliver unto you the most ridiculous set of news possible. Seriously, we've got an infamous dictator suing over misuse of his image, Flappy Bird running on an Apple IIe, and Fred Durst streaming video games on Twitch in between recording vocal tracks for a new Limp Bizkit album. Surely this is the end of days—as evidenced by the reveal of a new Doom game.

Here's all the video game news for the week of July 14. I'll leave out the "fit to print" part this week.

It'll never stop

That Flappy Bird port train just keeps on chugging. Developer Dagen Brock ported the game to the Apple II this week, thereby causing a rift in the space-time continuum and unleashing the hordes of demons waiting just outside the fabric of our world.

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]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2455179/missing-pieces-doom-is-back-so-is-the-apple-iie-and-other-must-know-gaming-news.html#tk.rss_all Gaming Fri, 18 Jul 2014 12:56:00 -0700 Brad Chacos Brad Chacos

In case the headline didn't tip you off: Yep, you can buy Dell products with Bitcoin now, as Michael Dell himself proudly trumpeted on Twitter earlier today.

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2456060/dwave-wants-more-realworld-deployments-for-its-quantum-computer.html#tk.rss_all Business Issues Fri, 18 Jul 2014 11:30:15 -0700 Joab Jackson Joab Jackson

System administrators take note: That mobile employee expense app you're building should be every bit as easy to use as Facebook. Oh, and you better deliver it quickly too, because that's how Facebook rolls.

Increasingly, organizations are finding that they need to build mobile apps for their employees in this hyper-connected world. Because employees are probably already used to Twitter, Facebook, Google Maps and other consumer-friendly apps, they'll expect a high degree of polish and performance from their enterprise apps as well.

"As consumers become more familiar with mobile experiences, they are bringing those expectations into the enterprise and expecting the enterprises to move just as fast," said Jeff Haynie, co-founder and CEO of Appcelerator, which offers a set of software and services for building, testing and managing mobile applications.

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]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2456040/appcelerator-gears-up-for-the-business-world.html#tk.rss_all Development Fri, 18 Jul 2014 11:00:00 -0700 James Careless James Careless We look at how Amazon's new ebook subscription service stacks up against similar offerings from Oyster and Scribd in terms of publisher deals, number of books, and the number of books you'll actually want to read. http://www.techhive.com/article/2455479/by-the-numbers-how-kindle-unlimited-compares-to-other-ebook-subscriptions.html#tk.rss_all Books software Web Apps Fri, 18 Jul 2014 11:00:00 -0700 Tony Bradley Tony Bradley

I wrote yesterday about a report from Microsoft researchers, which goes against established password security best practices. The new guidance from the Microsoft researchers makes sense to me, because it fits how I handle password management already. However, at least one security expert feels that there is a fatal flaw that makes the new password advice impractical: You.

Almost every aspect of computer security and privacy seems to come back to that one fundamental issue. You—the user—are the weakest link in the security chain. No matter how effective a security process or tool has the potential to be, user error can undermine the whole thing and render the security useless.

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]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2455478/microsoft-password-research-has-fatal-flaw.html#tk.rss_all Fri, 18 Jul 2014 10:50:10 -0700 Stephen Lawson Stephen Lawson

Plans to favor some Internet packets over others threaten consumers' hard-won right to use encryption, a digital privacy advocate says.

Activists and tech companies fended off efforts in the U.S. in the 1990s to ban Internet encryption or give the government ways around it, but an even bigger battle over cryptography is brewing now, according to Sascha Meinrath, director of X-Lab, a digital civil-rights think tank launched earlier this year. One of the most contested issues in that battle will be net neutrality, Meinrath said.

The new fight will be even more fierce than the last one, because Internet service providers now see dollars and cents in the details of packets traversing their networks. They want to charge content providers for priority delivery of their packets across the network, something that a controversial Federal Communications Commission proposal could allow under certain conditions. Friday is the filing deadline for the first round of public comments on that plan.

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]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2456000/net-neutrality-a-key-battleground-in-growing-fight-over-encryption-activists-say.html#tk.rss_all Security Encryption Privacy Government Fri, 18 Jul 2014 10:37:00 -0700 Derek Walter Derek Walter Version 8.2 includes interface tweaks and better visibility for Uber users http://www.greenbot.com/article/2455137/google-maps-update-adds-bicycle-route-elevations-voice-commands.html#tk.rss_all Apps Fri, 18 Jul 2014 10:30:00 -0700 Hayden Dingman Hayden Dingman

Editor's note: This article was originally published 7/17/14 but was updated 7/18/14 with NPD's sales numbers for the PlayStation 4.

We're still waiting on the NPD research group to release its monthly console sales estimates later today (see update at bottom --ed.), but Microsoft got so excited last night that it couldn't wait any longer, showering in confetti and those little popper things where you pull on the string and they explode—people are finally buying the Xbox One!

"Since the new Xbox One offering launched on June 9th, we've seen sales of Xbox One more than double in the US, compared to sales in May," Microsoft wrote in a blog post. The "new Xbox One offering" refers, of course, to the model where they stripped out the controversial Kinect peripheral and dropped the price from $500 to a more competitive $400.

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]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2455466/xbox-one-sales-more-than-double-after-intro-of-400-kinect-less-model.html#tk.rss_all Gaming Fri, 18 Jul 2014 09:42:00 -0700 Ian Paul Ian Paul

One of the best features of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 is the ability to pin apps to the Taskbar. Until Microsoft comes out with the refreshed Start menu, pinning apps is a must for Windows 8.1 users.

As the go-to location for dealing with and switching between open programs, the Taskbar may be the most clickable location on your desktop. But there's no reason you can't spice it up with a few keyboard tricks to make things a little more efficient.

Pick by number

If you have a bunch of apps pinned to your taskbar, the keyboard offers a quick way to fire up or switch to a program without reaching for your mouse.

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]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2455091/get-more-out-of-the-windows-taskbar-with-these-3-shortcuts.html#tk.rss_all Windows Fri, 18 Jul 2014 09:38:00 -0700 Jon Phillips Jon Phillips According to its lab report, the wrist-worn wearable can detect the calories in the food you eat with an error rate of 13.5 percent. But this comes via a blog post, not a peer-reviewed study. http://www.techhive.com/article/2455961/healbe-finally-releases-lab-data-for-its-notorious-gobe-calorie-tracking-wristband.html#tk.rss_all Gadgets Fri, 18 Jul 2014 09:20:00 -0700 Lucian Constantin Lucian Constantin

Researchers are gearing up to hack an array of different home routers during a contest next month at the Defcon 22 security conference.

The contest is called SOHOpelessly Broken—a nod to the small office/home office space targeted by the products—and follows a growing number of large scale attacks this year against routers and other home embedded systems.

The competition is organized by security consultancy firm Independent Security Evaluators and advocacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and will have two separate challenges.

The first challenge, known as Track 0, will require researchers to demonstrate exploits for previously unknown, or zero-day, vulnerabilities in a number of popular off-the-shelf consumer wireless routers.

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]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2455980/home-router-security-to-be-tested-in-upcoming-hacking-contest.html#tk.rss_all Networking Security Fri, 18 Jul 2014 08:43:00 -0700 Jared Newman Jared Newman

As Microsoft looks to slim down with layoffs and restructuring, Nokia is spinning MixRadio into a separate steaming music company.

While the app will still come preloaded on Windows Phones, it will also come to Android and iOS, according to The Guardian. There's no word on when the spin-off will be finalized, or when the apps will become available on other platforms.

It's also unclear whether MixRadio will look to include ads in its app now that it's no longer an exclusive perk for Nokia phone owners. Currently, the app is ad-free, but users can get higher audio quality, offline listening and unlimited song skipping for $4 per month.

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]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2455962/downsizing-microsoft-to-spin-off-nokias-mixradio-music-service.html#tk.rss_all Fri, 18 Jul 2014 08:00:00 -0700 Ian Paul Ian Paul

Dropbox is a very popular cloud storage service, but NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is no fan. In a recent interview with The Guardian, Snowden called Dropbox a "targeted, wannabe PRISM partner" that is "very hostile to privacy."

Snowden also isn't happy about Dropbox's decision in April to add former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to its Board of Directors. Snowden called Rice "probably the most anti-privacy official you can imagine."

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]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2455215/edward-snowden-dropbox-is-hostile-to-privacy.html#tk.rss_all Privacy Storage Cloud & Services Fri, 18 Jul 2014 07:23:00 -0700 Jared Newman Jared Newman Amazon's new subscription e-book plan includes more than 600,000 titles, but no major publishers. http://www.techhive.com/article/2455114/kindle-unlimited-launches-600-000-all-you-can-read-e-books-for-10-per-month.html#tk.rss_all Books software Fri, 18 Jul 2014 07:05:11 -0700 Lucian Constantin Lucian Constantin

Romanian and French authorities have dismantled a cybercriminal network that infected computers at money transfer outlets across Europe and used them to perform illegal transactions.

The gang was also involved in the theft of credit card details through skimming, credit card cloning, money laundering and drug trafficking, Europol announced Thursday.

The gang, which was composed mostly of Romanian citizens, infected computers at copy shops that also operated as money transfer franchises in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Norway, the U.K. and other European countries. No details were released about how the computers were infected, but Europol said that the attackers used a remote access Trojan (RAT) program.

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]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2455940/romanian-gang-used-malware-to-defraud-international-money-transfer-firms.html#tk.rss_all Security Legal Fri, 18 Jul 2014 07:00:00 -0700 Loek Essers Loek Essers Apple maintained that its parental controls 'go far beyond the features of others in the industry.' http://www.macworld.com/article/2455880/european-commission-slams-apple-for-in-app-purchase-policies.html#tk.rss_all Government Fri, 18 Jul 2014 06:42:00 -0700 Ian Paul Ian Paul

The Internet just got its back(bone) up over Verizon's recent finger pointing that blamed Netflix for poor streaming speeds on the ISP's network. Level 3, one of Netflix's Internet traffic carriers as well as one of the major 'Tier 1' networks that help serve as the backbone of the Internet, said Verizon's reasoning is nonsense and an "attempt at deception" that backfired.

In fact, Verizon is deliberately constraining capacity from network providers like Level 3, Mark Taylor, Level 3's vice president of content and media, said in a recent blog post.

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]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2455212/verizon-blaming-netflix-for-slow-streaming-speeds-is-an-attempt-at-deception-says-internet-backbone.html#tk.rss_all Fri, 18 Jul 2014 06:40:11 -0700 Michael Kan Michael Kan

China's Baidu is stepping into another major market with a search engine geared for Brazil, and is preparing to set up a research and development center in the country.

The search engine formally launched on Friday. With a Portuguese language interface, it offers Web, image and video search, along with a link to Baidu's "Postbar" product, an online forum.

The Brazil site marks Baidu's first international move in search since its Japan search engine launched in 2007.

The company has long led in its home market as China's largest search provider, with a 60 percent share, according to Internet analytics site CNZZ.com. But Baidu has yet to achieve that kind of success in Japan, where Yahoo and Google reign.

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

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2455900/baidu-launches-search-engine-for-brazil.html#tk.rss_all Productivity Fri, 18 Jul 2014 05:30:00 -0700 Florence Ion Florence Ion The man behind one of Android's most popular apps talks development, why he got into the Android app game, and what he loves about developing for Google's mobile platform. http://www.greenbot.com/article/2454941/android-influencer-pushbullet-ceo-ryan-oldenburg.html#tk.rss_all Apps Fri, 18 Jul 2014 05:10:11 -0700 Loek Essers Loek Essers

The U.K. government has pushed through a new surveillance law to replace one a European Union court said interfered with fundamental privacy rights—but, say civil rights campaigners, the new law is worse than the one it replaces.

The Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014, also known as DRIP, was fast-tracked by the U.K. government after European Union laws requiring communications providers to retain metadata were ruled invalid by the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) in April because they seriously interfered with fundamental privacy rights.

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

]]> http://www.pcworld.com/article/2455860/uk-rushes-through-surveillance-bill-extending-data-retention-rules.html#tk.rss_all Legal Government Fri, 18 Jul 2014 04:00:00 -0700 Blake Stimac Blake Stimac The settings menus in Android L get a fresh look and a few tweaks, but aren't as different as you would expect. http://www.greenbot.com/article/2455160/comparing-the-android-l-settings-to-kitkat.html#tk.rss_all Android

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Twitter and Facebook see a bright future for in-the-moment spending

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 18 Juli 2014 | 16.01

If you're an impulse buyer trying to reform your ways, Facebook and Twitter are not on your side.

Both companies said Thursday they were working on new services to let their users either make purchases directly from their feeds or gain instant access to deals and promotions that can be redeemed in stores. It's the latest display of competition heating up between the companies as they seek to add digital storefront real estate to their sites.

Why waste clicks getting to Amazon or eBay when you can have all your fun in between retweets or "likes"? Naturally, you might also retweet the advertiser's promotion, which would make Twitter happy.

With Twitter, the technology comes courtesy of CardSpring, which Twitter said it had acquired.

CardSpring lets software developers create offers inside their apps that users can add to their debit or credit cards. When the person makes a purchase in the store, the offer or discount is automatically applied.

The idea is that on Twitter, similar types of offers from businesses might appear in the stream. Twitter users could access the offers by providing their payment information to Twitter or some other processor. "We're confident the CardSpring team and the technology they've built are a great fit with our philosophy regarding the best ways to bring in-the-moment commerce experiences to our users," Twitter said in its announcement.

Twitter has already integrated some e-commerce functions to its site, such as by letting people add items to their Amazon carts by replying "#AmazonCart" to certain tweets. Twitter also has partnered with American Express to let card holders buy items by tweeting in a certain way. Those only work for users who synchronize their Twitter accounts with their Amazon or American Express accounts.

CardSpring's technology could make for a more streamlined buying experience, maybe even one with a dedicated "buy" button. Previous reports have indicated Twitter might be looking in that direction.

Twitter did not say Thursday that such a button was coming. "We'll have more information on our commerce direction in the future," the company said.

A "buy" button for Facebook is definitely on the horizon. The company is now testing a service to let users buy retail items directly from their news feeds or from a business' page. There are only a few small and medium-sized businesses participating now. Facebook identified only one: Modify Watches, which makes interchangeable watches that the company says are "dope."

Naturally, these e-commerce services could help Facebook and Twitter's bottom lines by attracting vendors that want to connect with potential customers.

One barrier to their success could be people's willingness to share their payment information with Facebook or Twitter. Facebook, in its announcement, said it built its feature with privacy in mind and that no payment information would be shared with other advertisers. People can also select whether they want to save their payment information for future purchases, Facebook said.


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Jesse Jackson demands Twitter release employee diversity data

U.S. civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson has called on Twitter to release its employee diversity information, which its Silicon Valley peers such as Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn and Facebook have already done.

The Rainbow Push Coalition, founded by Jackson, has also asked Twitter to signal its commitment to inclusion by hosting a public community forum to address the company's plan to recruit and retain more black talent.

The coalition and black empowerment group, ColorOfChange.org, plans to launch a Twitter-based campaign to challenge the company, the coalition said in a statement Thursday.

On Friday at the Netroots Nation conference in Detroit, ColorofChange will lead a "Black Twitter" plenary session where activists will push out the petition campaign over Twitter and other social media.

Tech companies have been under pressure to release employee diversity data since Jackson took up the campaign to highlight the underrepresentation of African-Americans in Silicon Valley companies, starting with a delegation to Hewlett-Packard's annual meeting of shareholders.

"....Twitter has remained silent, resisting and refusing to publicly disclose its EEO-1 workforce diversity/inclusion data," according to the joint petition by the coalition and ColorOfChange.org.

The diversity reports are typically filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and companies are not required to make the information public.

Twitter could not be immediately reached for comment.

The companies reporting worker demographics in response to Jackson have said that blacks account for a very small percentage of their employees in the U.S. 70 percent of Google's employees are men and 61 percent of its U.S. employees are white, according to the workforce diversity report it released in May. Blacks accounted for 2 percent of Google's U.S. workforce. Facebook provided similar data. In the U.S., 57 percent of the social network's workforce is white while blacks account for 2 percent.

But tech companies like Google find it difficult to recruit and retain women and minorities, wrote Laszlo Bock, Google's senior vice president for People Operations, in a blog post in May. Women earn roughly 18 percent of all computer science degrees in the U.S., and blacks and Hispanics each account for under 10 percent of U.S. college graduates and each bag fewer than 10 percent of degrees in computer science majors, he wrote.(

Jackson, however, holds that tech companies cannot explain away their hiring disparities by citing an issue with talent among blacks. The argument ignores the fact that black people are also severely underrepresented in nontechnical Silicon Valley roles, he said.

The civil rights leader said that the "blame-shifting tactics" of tech companies are misleading and "serve to reinforce the false and problematic narrative that Black people are simply 'unqualified,' undeserving and not valuable—that Black-thought is unqualified, underserving and not valuable."


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Aloha point-of-sale terminal, sold on eBay, yields security surprises

Matt Oh, a senior malware researcher with HP, recently bought a single Aloha point-of-sale terminal—a brand of computerized cash register widely used in the hospitality industry—on eBay for US$200.

Oh found an eye-opening mix of default passwords, at least one security flaw and a leftover database containing the names, addresses, Social Security numbers and phone numbers of employees who had access to the system.

His findings have received a fair amount of attention due to the role of such systems in high-profile data breaches at retailers including Target, Neiman Marcus and Michaels.

"What we found was that the overall state of security of the system was very poor," he wrote in a blog post describing his analysis.

Even second-hand POS systems aren't cheap, so it's unlikely that cybercriminals would spend hundreds of dollars on a chance that a few contain personal data.

But Oh's research illustrates the security issues facing the hospitality industry, beset by outdated POS systems which it sometimes cannot afford to update.

Oh answered questions about his findings with IDG News Service via email because he has not finished media training required by HP.

He wrote companies don't appear to be paying enough attention to security issues with their POS terminals, and older systems are often still in use, which may not be as secure, he wrote. Unknown software vulnerabilities also pose a risk.

"There are a lot of POS terminals out there, and we don't know how many of them are vulnerable to simple attacks," he wrote by email.

The Aloha POS system is sold by NCR, which came under its wing with its acquisition of Radiant Systems in July 2011 for $1.2 billion. It is one of the most popular systems in the hospitality industry behind those of Micros Systems, which Oracle bought last month for $5.3 billion.

POS systems may seem like glorified electronic cash registers but they're actually closer to ERP systems, tracking inventory, logging employee actions and handling other management functions, said Joseph Snell, CEO of Viableware, a Kirkland, Washington, company.

Snell has had a lot of conversations with companies about POS systems. His company sells a product called Rail Pay that is designed to speed up settling a bill at a restaurant, which integrates with POS systems.

Some smaller businesses he's seen could not be compliant with the Payment Card Industry's Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) without upgrading their systems, Snell said. PCI-DSS is a set of security recommendations mandated by Visa and MasterCard for businesses processing payment cards.

The restaurant business is low-margin and highly competitive, which impacts spending on technology such as POS systems. "You can freely spend yourself out of business," Snell said.

Second-hand POS systems on eBay, for example, may offer a cheaper alternative to new equipment, but pose a risk of acquiring out-of-date software or systems with longstanding security weaknesses.

Even deep-pocketed companies are finding it increasingly difficult to keep hackers out of their POS systems.

Target, Neiman Marcus and Michaels said their POS systems were infiltrated by hackers, illustrating how intruders are still finding weaknesses in well-maintained systems.

Target's breach, in which it lost details of 40 million payments cards and 70 million other personal records, was attributed in part to malicious software called a "RAM scraper." The malware collects unencrypted card details from a computer's memory just after a card is swiped.

POS systems have long been a mysterious area for security researchers due to their pricey hardware and software, Oh said.

From the system he bought on eBay, Oh analyzed an application called "Aloha Table Service 5.3.24," which bore a copyright notice of Radiant Systems from the 1990s.

The software ran on a slimmed down version of Microsoft's Windows XP operating system for "embedded" devices such as POS terminals. The last time Windows security updates were applied was around March 2007.

Oh said a business was using the Aloha device "less than a few months ago" even though it is years old.

He also found a memory-related problem known as a "heap overflow" within a component called the Aloha Durable Messaging Service, which shuttles information between front-end and back-end systems.

If exploited, the heap overflow "could provide an attacker with full system level control of the target system," he wrote via email.

POS systems are generally supposed to be segregated from the Internet. But restaurants often make configuration errors, such as not properly isolating them from the free guest Wi-Fi, providing a possible point of entry into the network.

That would "present a big problem—a vulnerable XP machine waiting for remote attack," Oh wrote.

NCR public relations officials did not respond to repeated requests for comment. But Snell said NCR appears to have made great effort shoring up security since it bought Radiant.

Snell said Viableware demonstrated its Rail Pay system around the end of 2011 to P.F. Chang's China Bistro, a restaurant chain that disclosed a credit and debit card breach last month.

The company used the Aloha software, Snell said, but a P.F. Chang's spokeswoman declined to confirm it.

However, P.F. Chang's was listed as a customer of Radiant Systems in an SEC filing in March 2011, a few months before Radiant's acquisition by NCR.

Snell said his conversations with senior executives at P.F. Chang's gave him the impression the company was technically competent when it came to POS security.

But he added, "They had a hole in their armor, and an arrow went right through it."

P.F. Chang's said on July 1 the breach remains under investigation. The company temporarily shut down its POS system and switched to an old-style manual imprinting system for processing payment cards to prevent further damage.

Since then, it has provided its U.S. restaurants with "an encryption-enabled terminal to securely process credit and debit card information," wrote CEO Rick Federico.


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The 'Rickmote' shows no mercy when it finds someone using Chromecast

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 17 Juli 2014 | 16.01

Google's online media streaming tool, Chromecast, can be "Rickrolled" with a single click of entertainer Rick Astley's mug shot.

A security researcher has developed an amusing piece of hardware called the "Rickmote" that takes advantage of Chromecast's simplified Wi-Fi setup, hijacking a wireless connection to deliver a YouTube video of Astley's groan-worthy hit.

Dan Petro, a senior security analyst with consultancy Bishop Fox, wrote Thursday on the company's blog that the Rickmote, which uses a Raspberry Pi mini-computer, automates finding potential Chromecast devices to play the prank and briefly disconnects the device from the Wi-Fi network it is using.

"When this loss of connectivity occurs, the Chromecast tries to reconfigure and accepts commands from anyone within proximity," Petro wrote. "The Rickmote automatically provides this configuration in the form of everyone's favorite Rick Astley song on loop."

He is due to present more details on the tool on Friday at the Hope X conference in New York and at the Black Hat security conference on Aug. 6.

The Rickmote uses Aircrack-ng, a tool for cracking WEP and WPA-PSK encrypted Wi-Fi connections, according to a more technical description on Github where the open-source Python code is available for download.

Rickrolling Chromecast is just a matter of booting up the orange device and pressing a large button with Astley's photo.

So far the device is only configured to play videos from YouTube, but Petro already has plans for another version: "A new tool will also be released to fully automate the hijacking and playing of arbitrary video to the victim's TV," he said.

"Let the prank war commence," he wrote.

Google could not be immediately reached for comment.


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Microsoft's Bing follows Google in offering Europeans the 'right to be forgotten'

Microsoft has started accepting requests from users in Europe who want to remove search links from Bing under a recent "right-to-be-forgotten" ruling by Europe's top court.

The company has asked European residents, who want Microsoft to block search results that show on Bing in response to searches of their names, to fill up a four-part online form.

Besides the name and country of residence of the person and the details of the pages to be blocked, the form also asks if the person is a public figure or has or expects a role that involves trust, leadership or safety.

Microsoft does not guarantee removal of links after they are submitted for removal through the form. It will also consider other sources of information to verify or supplement what is provided in the form.

The information provided will help the company "consider the balance" between the applicant's individual privacy interest and the public interest in protecting free expression and the free availability of information, in line with European law, Microsoft said.

The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in May that people who want search engines to remove search results referring to their names can file a request directly with the search engine operator, which must evaluate the request. A refusal by the operator can be appealed in a court.

Google, which set up its removal request form in May, said that since the CJEU ruling, it has received over 70,000 take-down requests covering more than 250,000 Web pages.

Search engines can be asked to remove results for queries that include an applicant's name if those results are "inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, or excessive in relation to the purposes for which they were processed," the court ordered. In deciding what to remove, search engines must also consider the public interest, Google's Chief Legal Officer David Drummond wrote in an opinion piece in The Guardian newspaper. "These are, of course, very vague and subjective tests," he added.

Amidst a controversy over the ruling, Microsoft said that its form and the processes for removal of search links could change in view of "many questions" that have been raised on how the court ruling should be implemented. Google also described its form in May as an initial effort and said it would refine its approach after working closely with data protection authorities and others over the coming months.

Yahoo, another large search engine provider, has not yet offered a take-down mechanism in response to the court ruling. "In light of the European Court of Justice decision, our team is currently in the process of developing a solution for Yahoo users in Europe that we believe balances the important privacy and freedom of expression interests," the company said.


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SAP raises annual cloud revenue forecast after the business soars in Q2

SAP reported strong growth in cloud revenue in the second quarter, while its software revenue continued to fall, reflecting a shift in the market from on-premises software and services to applications delivered through the cloud on a subscription model.

The business software company's net profit, however, dropped on account of a provision for a patent litigation.

SAP's cloud subscriptions and support revenue was €241 million (US$329 million) in the quarter, up 52 percent from the same quarter a year earlier under IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards).

The company now expects its non-IFRS cloud subscriptions and support revenue for the full year to grow by up to 39 percent to up to €1.05 billion, up from the earlier forecasted range of €950 million to €1 billion.

SAP also saw higher adoption of its HANA platform with more than 3,600 HANA customers and over 1,200 customers for SAP Business Suite on HANA. The company did not, however, disclose its revenue from the in-memory database platform. It said in the last quarter that it had reached 3,200 HANA customers, including close to 1,000 for the business suite.

The company's overall revenue grew by 2 percent to €4.2 billion in the quarter, while its net profit dropped year-on-year by 23 percent to €556 million, following a provision of €289 million for its patent dispute with software vendor Versata.

SAP's software revenue in the quarter fell 2 percent to €957 million. Its support revenue was up 5 percent to €2.3 billion. (Overall software and software-related service revenue, which includes the cloud business, grew 5 percent to about €3.5 billion.

The company has not changed its forecast for 2014 at constant currencies. It warned, however, that its non-IFRS software and software-related service revenue and operating profit growth rates at actual currency could be hit if exchange rates remained at June levels for the rest of the year.

SAP saw strong revenue growth in the second quarter in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region despite the political crisis in the Ukraine, with non-IFRS software and software-related service revenue up 8 percent year-over-year at constant currencies. Non-IFRS software and software-related service revenue in the Americas region increased 6 percent year-over-year at constant currencies.


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Mozilla's JPEG compression slims down file sizes

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 16 Juli 2014 | 16.00

Mozilla has released an updated version of its JPEG compression tool that shaves down file sizes by 5 percent, a small figure but one that is significant for image-intensive Web services such as Facebook.

The tool, called mozjpeg 2.0, will ultimately "reduce page load times and ultimately create an enhanced user experience for sites hosting images," wrote Josh Aas, senior technology strategist for Mozilla on its blog.

Facebook has begun testing the tool and donated US$60,000 for its further development, Aas wrote.

The JPEG format has been in use for more than 20 years, and most images on the Internet are served in that format. It's a "lossy," or compressed image format, which aims to remove some data to reduce the file size but maintain the photo's integrity as much as possible.

On average, both baseline and progressive JPEG files are reduced by 5 percent by mozjpeg, Aas wrote. The previous iteration of mozjpeg only improved compression for progressive JPEGs, Aas wrote.

Mozjpeg is based on the libjpeg-turbo library, which is used for decoding JPEGs in Firefox. But mozjpeg does use more computing power than libjpeg-turbo when compressing, Aas wrote.

As a result, "we recommend using libjpeg-turbo for a standard JPEG library and any decoding tasks," he wrote. "Use mozjpeg when creating JPEGs for the Web."


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Fujitsu designs leaner supercomputer with fewer switches

Fujitsu has developed an approach to cluster supercomputers that reduces the number of network switches by 40 percent without sacrificing performance.

The approach centers on using a new communications algorithm that efficiently controls data transmissions as well as deploying a multilayer full-mesh topology in the arrangement of the network.

Compared to a three-layer "fat-tree" network topology, which employs a tree-like structure of connections, the multilayer full-mesh topology eliminates a layer of switches through more efficient mapping.

Meanwhile, scheduling data transfers avoids data collisions along the same paths when each server is communicating with every other server.

A cluster supercomputer system of 6,000 servers could use hundreds or thousands of network switches, with the networking accounting for 20 percent of the system's electricity needs.

When applied to a system of several thousand units, the new approach reduces network switches by 40 percent while maintaining the level of performance of a conventional system.

"As a result, cost reductions can be achieved across the board, from number of components used and power consumption to installation space and maintenance," a Fujitsu spokesman wrote in an email.

The technology could speed the use of powerful supercomputers used for the analysis of earthquakes and weather data as well as drug discovery, according to Fujitsu. Cluster supercomputers have been used to design everything from smartphones to cars.

Fujitsu Laboratories is presenting the technology later this month at the Summer United Workshops on Parallel, Distributed and Cooperative Processing 2014 (SWoPP 2014) in Niigata City in Japan.

The lab plans to produce a practical version of the approach during the year ending March 31, 2016, and continue research into reducing the number of network switches in cluster supercomputers.


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TSMC Q2 profit up 15.2 percent, 20-nanometer chips start shipping

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. posted record earnings in the second quarter, as the company has begun shipping better-performing chips built with its latest 20-nanometer manufacturing process.

The company's net income in the period reached NT$59.7 billion (US$2 billion), an increase of 15.2 percent from a year ago, it said on Wednesday. Revenue met the upper end of TSMC's projections, growing 17.4 percent year-on-year to NT$183 billion.

TSMC, the world's largest contract chip maker, builds processors for Qualcomm, Nvidia and Apple, and has been posting strong earnings on booming sales for smartphones and tablets. This year, the company expects to maintain "double-digit growth" as it deploys more-advanced chip-making technology to build faster and more power-efficient processors.

Last month, TSMC began shipping chips built with its 20-nanometer process, company chairman Morris Chang said during a conference call to discuss the financial results. The 20-nanometer chips pack more transistors, and can offer 30 percent higher speeds or 25 percent lower power consumption over TSMC's older 28-nanometer manufacturing technology.

The 20-nanometer process will make up 10 percent of the company's chip sales in the third quarter, and 20 percent in the fourth, Chang said.

Demand for TSMC's existing 28-nanometer manufacturing process has also been rising, helping the company remain competitive with rival foundries. In the second quarter, 28-nanometer chips made up 37 percent of the company's total chip sales.

Growing adoption of 4G LTE technologies helped drive TSMC's earnings in the second quarter, Chang said.

TSMC expects its third quarter revenue to reach between NT$206 billion and NT$209 billion, up from NT$163 billion a year ago.


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