Techno-News Blog

October 31, 2012

Hands on with Microsoft’s Surface RT

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by Ed Bott, ZDNet

After using a Surface RT for the past week, I can explain it in one sentence:

It’s more than an iPad, and less than a PC.

The Windows RT-powered Surface will not replace your desktop PC or your full-strength notebook. It is, instead, an ideal companion device for a Windows PC, with great mobility. It is powerful enough that it alone can handle most work and play duties, even on an extended business trip or vacation.

http://www.zdnet.com/hands-on-with-microsofts-surface-rt-can-it-hit-the-sweet-spot-7000006258/?s_cid=e539

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Can’t Make The Meeting? Send Your Robot Instead

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by Antone Gonsalves, ReadWriteWeb

Remotely piloted telepresence robots could be the beginning of another tech revolution. Some observers are already predicting that they will be the first robots to go mainstream. But it won’t happen right away. Though the robots themselves are still rare and exotic, the telepresence concept is very simple: basically Apple’s FaceTime videconferencing feature on a mobile, self-propelled, motorized platform. The idea is to make them cheap and easy-to-use stand-ins for people in school, office and other settings.

http://readwrite.com/2012/10/24/cant-make-the-meeting-send-your-robot-instead

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Four Days Of Digital Detox: The Ultimate Tech Decelerator

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by Jon Mitchell, ReadWriteWeb

What am I even doing back on the Internet? I just got back from The Digital Detox. It was the third four-day retreat run by founders Levi Felix and Brooke Dean encouraging tech-addled people to slow down. I knew I needed it. Blogging makes my brain hurt. But I was just expecting a nice break. I didn’t know the experience would change me, and the amazing group it brought together, hopefully forever. My mind is crystal clear, and I’m happier than I’ve been in months. Before you start sneering about hippies and yoga, let me set the record straight: This off-the-grid retreat was the highest-tech thing I’ve done in a long time.

http://readwrite.com/2012/10/24/four-days-of-digital-detox-the-ultimate-tech-decellerator

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October 30, 2012

Skype slashes battery use for Windows 8 system launch

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:35 am

by the BBC

Skype has been redesigned to work with Windows 8’s touch interface. Skype’s video chat software has been re-engineered to radically cut its energy use on the upcoming Windows 8 operating systems. The application is designed to stop using the computer’s central processing unit (CPU) when it is left to run in the background. It means users can receive calls or instant messages without the risk of exhausting their laptop battery. The move may help Skype compete against Oovoo, Google Talk and other rivals.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20039669#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Android apps ‘leak’ personal details

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:24 am

by the BBC

Better tools are needed to help developers secure data, say researchers. Millions of people are using Android apps that can be tricked into revealing personal data, research indicates. Scientists tested 13,500 Android apps and found almost 8% failed to protect bank account and social media logins. These apps failed to implement standard scrambling systems, allowing “man-in-the-middle” attacks to reveal data that passes back and forth when devices communicate with websites. Google has yet to comment on the research and its findings.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20025973#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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The iPad Mini is a sign Apple is following the competition

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by the BBC

Apple has unveiled its widely-anticipated 7.9in (20.1cm) tablet, the iPad Mini. The device, which is 7.2mm (0.3in) thick and weighs 0.68lbs (0.3kg), was announced at an event in California. The entry wi-fi-only model, with 16GB storage, will cost £269 in the UK and be available on 2 November. The iPad Mini will compete directly with cheaper similar-sized tablets recently launched by Google, Amazon, Samsung and others. Apple’s vice-president of marketing Phil Schiller told attendees that the device was 23% thinner and 53% lighter than the third-generation iPad, which was released in March this year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20042738#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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October 29, 2012

Microsoft’s Plan to Bring About the Era of Gesture Control

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by Tom Simonite, Technology Review

While most of the headlines about Microsoft this fall will concern its new operating system, Windows 8, and its new Surface tablet, the company is also working hard on a long-term effort to reinvent the way we interact with existing computers. The company wants to make it as common to wave your arms at or speak to a computer as it is to reach for a mouse or touch screen today. That’s the goal of a program called Kinect for Windows, which aims to put the wildly successful gaming accessory Kinect wherever Microsoft’s ubiquitous operating system is found. It’s also designed to allow computers to be used in new ways—for example, by surgeons who don’t want to touch a keyboard with sterilized hands midway through surgery.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/429660/microsofts-plan-to-bring-about-the-era-of-gesture/

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A Bandwidth Breakthrough

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:19 am

by David Talbot, Technology Review

Academic researchers have improved wireless bandwidth by an order of magnitude—not by adding base stations, tapping more spectrum, or cranking up transmitter wattage, but by using algebra to banish the network-clogging task of resending dropped packets. By providing new ways for mobile devices to solve for missing data, the technology not only eliminates this wasteful process but also can seamlessly weave data streams from Wi-Fi and LTE—a leap forward from other approaches that toggle back and forth. “Any IP network will benefit from this technology,” says Sheau Ng, vice president for research and development at NBC Universal.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/429722/a-bandwidth-breakthrough/

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Microsoft announces Office 365 University Edition, makes it affordable for students

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by Ubergizmo

Microsoft has a plan and has since announced Microsoft Office 365 University Edition. Priced at $80, this edition of Microsoft Office 365 will last you the duration of the course (four years) and will include the essentials – Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher and Access. On top of that Microsoft will also be bundling 20GB of free storage of SkyDrive and thanks to Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype, owners of the University Edition will also be given 60 Skype world minutes every month, letting students call their friends and family. Naturally this edition of Microsoft Office 365 will only be eligible to full- and/or part-time university or college students, faculty and staff in accredited institutions.

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2012/10/microsoft-announces-office-365-university-edition-makes-it-affordable-for-students/

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October 28, 2012

Chromebooks, Surface Tablets, Windows 8 Crowding Into Cluttered Market

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By Todd R. Weiss, eWeek

These are heady days for computer and device makers; Windows 8 arrived Oct. 25, to be followed by Window Phone 8 on Oct. 29. The new Windows Surface tablets are set to appeared Oct. 26 while rumors of Google tablets starting at $99 continue to swirl. Then Google announced its upcoming new Samsung Chromebook for $249 on Oct. 18, all just a month after Apple launched its new iPhone 5 in September. There’s a lot of devices and technology out there in the marketplace, which begs the question: What will win the hearts and minds of consumers in the next few months? To me, the answer is simple–all of it will win. In the crazy world of tablets, laptops, smartphones, e-book readers, desktop computers and the rest, I truly believe that there certainly is room for it all out there.

http://www.eweek.com/mobile/chromebooks-surface-tablets-windows-8-crowding-into-cluttered-market/

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Android Malware Takes off, Mostly Outside the U.S.

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By Robert Lemos, eWeek

Attacks on mobile devices using malicious code continue to focus on Android, with 175,000 programs found in the last quarter, according to a Trend Micro report. Attackers are continuing to focus more heavily on mobile devices, and in particular those running Google’s Android operating system, posting 175,000 malicious or suspicious programs to app stores, according a report published by security firm Trend Micro on Oct. 22. The activity in the third quarter is a steep increase from the previous quarter when the firm only found 30,000 apps that appeared to take malicious actions or aggressively gather information on a user. While mobile operating systems typically have more security controls than their desktop counterparts, much of the popular Android operating system’s security relies on a knowledgeable user and regular policing by Google, said Raimund Genes, chief technology officer for Trend Micro.

http://www.eweek.com/security/android-malware-takes-off-mostly-outside-the-u.s./

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Big Data to Create Demand for 1.9 Million U.S. Jobs: Gartner Report

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By Robert Mullins, eweek

The research firm Gartner forecasts a 3.8 percent increase in global IT spending in 2013, to $3.7 trillion and says that one of the big drivers of spending is going to be on big data systems. Big data is going to have a big impact on IT spending globally as the Gartner research firm forecasts that it is going to create a demand for 4.4 million big data-related jobs globally, 1.9 million of them in the U.S. Gartner forecasts total IT spending to rise by 3.8 percent in 2013 to $3.7 trillion globally, up from the $3.6 trillion that is expected when the books are officially closed on 2012. Gartner released the forecasts Oct. 22 at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo that it is hosting in Orlando, Fla.

http://www.eweek.com/enterprise-apps/big-data-to-create-demand-for-1.9-million-u.s.-jobs-gartner-report/

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October 27, 2012

Computer science teachers offered cash incentive

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By Judith Burns, BBC News

High-flying graduates are to be given a £20,000 golden handshake to train as computer science teachers. Ministers have asked Facebook, Microsoft and IBM to help design the training for the new teachers. Education Secretary Michael Gove said current information and communications technology (ICT) teacher training courses would be axed from next year. The move “could not be more welcome or more necessary”, said Prof Steve Furber of the Royal Society.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-20003327#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Some people panic without their cell phone

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By Tahree Lane, The Toledo Blade

The growing 21st-century compulsion to be connected was propelled by the addition of the Internet to smart phones, and it didn’t take long for the most avid users to become habitues. Indeed, there’s a term, nomophobia, for the anxiety felt when one is without their phone and the sense of panic when it’s lost. It’s derived from “no-mobile” technology, coined in 2008 during a study of cell-phone use among Britons commissioned by the United Kingdom Post Office.

http://www.equities.com/news/headline-story?dt=2012-10-21&val=616539&cat=tech

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Phone call translator app to be offered by NTT Docomo

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:16 am

By Leo Kelion, BBC

An app offering real-time translations is to allow people in Japan to speak to foreigners over the phone with both parties using their native tongue. NTT Docomo – the country’s biggest mobile network – will initially convert Japanese to English, Mandarin and Korean, with other languages to follow. It is the latest in a series of telephone conversation translators to launch in recent months. Lexifone and Vocre have developed other products. Alacatel-Lucent and Microsoft are among those working on other solutions. The products have the potential to let companies avoid having to use specially trained multilingual staff, helping them cut costs. They could also aid tourism. However, the software involved cannot offer perfect translations, limiting its use in some situations.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20004210#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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October 26, 2012

Review: 7th-generation iPod nano does little to excite

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by Chris Foresman, Ars Technica

In 2011, Apple largely left 2010’s iPod nano alone, though it did slightly tweak the software to embrace a popular use of the tiny touchscreen device as a watch replacement. A small cottage industry spring up to design and sell all manner of iPod nano “watch bands,” but Apple has now abandoned that idea in favor of giving the seventh-generation iPod nano a larger, 2.5″ touchscreen capable of playing videos. Beyond the new screen, the addition of Bluetooth 4.0, and the switch to Apple’s smaller Lightning connector, however, very little of the internal hardware changed in the 2012 iPod nano. Software remains largely the same as well, with a similar collection of “apps” all provided by Apple.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/10/review-7th-generation-ipod-nano-does-little-to-excite/

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Live-fire” cyberwar-in-a-box tests mettle of military, IT pros

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 12:18 am

by Sean Gallagher, ArsTechnica

In August, a collection of military, government, and nongovernmental humanitarian organizations from 22 countries in the Pacific gathered in Singapore for Pacific Endeavor 2012, a joint exercise to test how quickly and how well they could communicate in the face of a disaster. While the simulated mission was peaceful, some of the participants were put through a separate, more hostile test—Cyber Endeavor, a full-on “live fire” cyberwarfare exercise focused on “protecting information in a collaborative environment, “with both innocent bystanders and hostile attackers.” The battle was fought on a closed “cyber range,” a network designed to put network security teams through their paces and expose them to the most up-to-date exploits and attack methods available to hackers in the real world.

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/10/live-fire-cyberwar-in-a-box-tests-mettle-of-military-it-pros/

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Forget Bring Your Own Device – Try Corporate Owned, Personally Enabled

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by BRIAN PROFFITT, ReadWriteWeb

Rather than struggle with BYOD, some companies are turning the whole concept of BYOD on its head in favor of Corporate Owned, Personally Enabled (COPE) policies. The idea behind BYOD is to let end users choose the devices, programs and services that best meet their personal and business needs, with access, support and security supplied by the company IT department – often with subsidies for device purchases. But BYOD places new burdens on IT as it tries to deal with an infinite variety of platforms and profiles. COPE takes the opposite approach – instead of making corporate functions work on personal devices, it sets up a framework to support and allow personal uses of company devices.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2012/10/forget-bring-your-own-device-try-corporate-owned-personally-enabled.php

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October 25, 2012

A Ribbon Cutting for 3-D Printing (Using 3-D Printed Scissors)

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by DAVID ZAX, Technology Review

Shapeways, the 3-D printing company based in New York, today celebrated its next step: something it’s calling the “Factory of the Future.” Shapeways held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at a 25,000-square-foot facility that will soon be humming with as many as 50 industrial-scale printers that will be able to make up to five million products per year. Shapeways calls it the biggest consumer-facing 3-D printing facility in the world. Mayor Michael Bloomberg was there for the ribbon-cutting ceremony. The twist? The scissors Mayor Bloomberg used had been printed in-house. The scissors were 3-D printed two days prior, Shapeways’s Carine Carmy tells Technology Review. “They weren’t made of metal—they were made of nylon plastic—but they’re strong enough to cut through paper.”

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/429686/a-ribbon-cutting-for-3-d-printing-using-3-d/

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Can Software Eat the Deficit?

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by WALTER FRICK, Technology Review

In Mark Andreessen’s words, software is “eating the world.” Everywhere you look, software is transforming industries, and increasing efficiency. Well, not everywhere. As Washington Post columnist Stephen Pearlstein noted in a recent piece, productivity gains have materialized in some areas more than others: While the income of both sets of workers has risen, more people are now employed in the service sector while fewer are making goods. Significantly, a big price gap has opened — the prices of goods are lower than they used to be while service prices are higher. Software can help reduce the deficit.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/429703/can-software-eat-the-deficit/

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Microsoft teases Metro version of Skype for Windows 8 release

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by Jon Brodkin, Ars Technica

With just a day to go before Windows 8 and Windows RT hit retail availability, Microsoft has said surprisingly little about how Skype will work on the platforms. But with the launch of the new operating systems on Oct. 26, clues are surfacing that a touch-friendly version of the VoIP and messaging application is just about ready. Reporter Ed Bott of ZDNet noticed the clues. One is a picture of Microsoft’s Surface tablet running what could very well be a Metro version of Skype (seen at the top of this post). Another is a page describing Surface’s software that says “Snap two apps side-by-side onscreen and do more at once. Use Skype to chat with friends while blogging, or record seminars and workshops while taking notes in OneNote.” A cached version of the Surface page, since taken down, also mentions “Stereo speakers and dual microphones tuned for Skype,” Bott writes.

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/10/microsoft-teases-metro-version-of-skype-for-windows-8-release/

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