Announcement50 articles, 2016-08-10 18:01

(2.06/3)

1 Intel to acquire AI firm Nervana SystemsChip maker Intel is to acquire artificial intelligence firm NervanaSystems in a bid to take AI to the next level based on its Xeon andPhi processors 2016-08-10 10:15 1KB www.computerweekly.com

(2.06/3)

2 Google will block Flash in Chrome 53Following the lead of Apple with Safari in macOS Sierra, and Mozillawith Firefox, Google has announced that Chrome will begin to blockFlash content. Start with Chrome 53 in September, Google willFollowing the lead of Apple with Safari in macOS Sierra, andMozilla... 2016-08-10 09:29 1KB feeds.betanews.com

(1.06/3)

3 Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 Is the FirstCommercial Phone with 4x4 MIMOThe smartphone should have more reliable network connections2016-08-10 12:50 2KB news.softpedia.com

(1.02/3)

4 Microsoft patched 5 critical flaws in Windowswith yesterday's updatesYesterday Microsoft release two cumulative updates for Windows10. Buried inside those were a number of critical and importantsecurity patches dealing with the Windows kernel and drivers.2016-08-10 12:36 1KB feedproxy.google.com

(1.02/3)

5 Microsoft Deprecates RC4 Support in Edgeand Internet ExplorerCompanies are encouraged to use TLS 1.2 where possible2016-08-10 12:20 1KB news.softpedia.com

(1.02/3)

6 Facebook suppresses ad blockers tomaintain revenuesThe social media site now provides a new dashboard to enableusers to specify what adverts they don't want to see 2016-08-10 12:102KB www.computerweekly.com

(1.02/3)

7 AnTuTu benchmarks claim to show upcomingHTC Nexus Sailfish specsHTC is expected to unveil two Nexus devices later this year. Now thesmaller of the two, codenamed Sailfish, has supposedly had some ofits specs leaked thanks to a benchmarking tool. 2016-08-10 10:34 2KBfeedproxy.google.com

8 Microservices, Java-on-Java top Oracle’sJVM design goalsOracle's ambitious plans focus on density, scaling, and strongerlanguage capabilities 2016-08-10 18:01 3KB www.computerworld.com.au

9 Security Think Tank: Forget Brexit, use GDPRto foster customer relationshipsWhat are the pros and cons of Brexit for information securityprofessionals and data protection? 2016-08-10 17:43 3KBwww.computerweekly.com

10 Docker In ProductionProgramming book reviews, programming tutorials,programmingnews, C#, Ruby, Python,C, C++, PHP, Visual Basic, Computer bookreviews, computer history, programming history, joomla, theory,spreadsheets and more. 2016-08-10 16:36 3KB www.i-programmer.info

11 Download Ricoh’s New Pentax K-70 CameraFirmwareThe new update improves overall stability and performance2016-08-10 13:16 1KB drivers.softpedia.com

12 Save 82% on a Linux Essentials Bundle viaNeowin DealsWith today's highlighted Neowin Deal, you can save $186 on a LinuxEssentials Bundle. Go from beginner to working with Linux like an ITPro with 54 hours of professional training. 2016-08-10 13:02 1KBfeedproxy.google.com

13 ThousandEyes delivers improved networkvisibility for enterprisesThe internet and the cloud are now a key part of the infrastructurefor many enterprises. But the advantages of scale, flexibility andcost can come at a price of complexity, reliability, and vulnerability.The internet and the cloud are now a key part of... 2016-08-10 12:502KB feeds.betanews.com

14 UK well-equipped to protect data afterBrexit, says new ICO headThe public sector, industry, civil society and the public at large allhave a role to play in effective data protection regulation, says newUK information commissioner Elizabeth Denham 2016-08-10 12:20 2KBwww.computerweekly.com

15 Cat-themed Android ransomware encryptsyour files, steals your messagesA new variant of ransomware designed for Android devices hasbeen discovered. Dubbed "El Gato," the malware has the ability toencrypt files, and steal messages, while displaying a picture of a cat.2016-08-10 12:18 2KB feedproxy.google.com

16 Xiaomi Redmi 4 and Mi Note 2 Could Arriveon August 25Xiaomi Redmi 4 has recently been spotted on Geekbench2016-08-10 12:08 2KB news.softpedia.com

17 iOS Back to Growth As iPhone 6s OvertakesSamsung Galaxy S7iOS is recovering, but Android isn’t giving up either 2016-08-10 11:362KB news.softpedia.com

18 Next-Gen Samsung Galaxy On5 and GalaxyOn7 Receive Certification in ChinaThe two smartphones have just passed through TENAA2016-08-10 11:35 2KB news.softpedia.com

19 Windows Phone Sales Nosedived in June,New Stats ShowKantar figures show declining sales for Windows Phone2016-08-10 11:29 2KB news.softpedia.com

20 Powerful Android Adware Makes Its WayInto the Google Play StoreApps are still available for download at the time of writing2016-08-10 11:17 2KB news.softpedia.com

21 The discovery of child porn is not enough tojustify warrantless email searchesChild pornography is something that, understandably, raiseshackles and many people would argue that anything possible shouldbe done to pursue those believed to be involved. But a court in theDistrict of Kansas has ruled that the discovery of images of childporn is not enough... 2016-08-10 10:51 2KB feeds.betanews.com

22 Hackers compromise Oracle's point-of-saleunitAnother day, another major data breach. This time it’s Oracle’sMICROS, its point-of-sale division, that got hurt. According tosecurity researcher Brian Krebs, who first disclosed the breach in ablog post (you can read it here), chances are... 2016-08-10 10:36 2KBfeeds.betanews.com

23 Here's why you might want to avoidWindows 10 previews for a whileIncoming Redstone 2 builds will likely have bugs aplenty and no newfeatures 2016-08-10 10:14 2KB www.techradar.com

24 Data of Nearly 2 Million Users Exposed inDota2 Forum Hack80% of forum passwords have been cracked 2016-08-10 10:10 2KBnews.softpedia.com

25 Russia Still Using Microsoft ProductsDespite Law Pushing for Domestic SoftwareProbe proves agencies not yet ready to abandon Microsoft2016-08-10 10:06 2KB news.softpedia.com

26 Microsoft Releases KB3161102 to Kill OffWindows JournalRedmond is fed up with the security issues of WJ 2016-08-10 09:262KB news.softpedia.com

27 iOS 10 release date, news and featuresYou get Apple's iOS 10 public beta update now 2016-08-10 09:26 18KBwww.techradar.com

28 Hortonworks updates Data Flow platform to2.0Updated Apache projects and new features for Internet of Thingstops list of additions. 2016-08-10 09:24 2KB sdtimes.com

29 The “Jaw-Dropping” 2017 iPhone Will BeFully Made of GlassNew information surfaces regarding the next-next iPhone2016-08-10 09:07 2KB news.softpedia.com

30 Microsoft hails cloud security breakthroughwith encrypted dataMicrosoft researchers talk up cloud security breakthrough thatallows encrypted data to be processed without prior decryption2016-08-10 09:03 1KB www.computerweekly.com

31 MI5 staff repeatedly overrode datasurveillance rulesSecurity service responsible for 210 'clear contraventions' in fiveyears in the way it accessed private internet and telephone data2016-08-10 09:00 2KB www.computerweekly.com

32 IPT fines Police Scotland forcommunications breach of privacyThe UK’s top intelligence court has ordered Police Scotland to pay£10,000 to a former officer after finding that the force unlawfullyobtained his communications data, and that of other officers. In the8 August judgment, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), whichheard... 2016-08-10 09:00 2KB www.computerweekly.com

33 Apple Wanted to Launch an iPhone 7 ProThis Year but Ditched the PlanTwo 5.5-inch iPhones were originally planned 2016-08-10 08:43 2KBnews.softpedia.com

34 This Is What File Explorer Should Look likein Windows 10 Redstone 2Concept imagines a modern version of the file manager2016-08-10 08:26 1KB news.softpedia.com

35 C3 IoT: Is Tom Siebel's Startup An EmergingPowerhouse?C3 IoT is Tom Siebel's latest venture. The young Redwood City,Calif-based company is off to a fast start with industrial IoTapplications, and now it's bringing a cross-industry platform tomarket. 2016-08-10 08:06 8KB www.informationweek.com

36 Fossil Q Wander and Q Marshalsmartwatches up for pre-order soonFossil’s new Android Wear smartwatches, the Fossil Q Wander andQ Marshal, will be available to pre-order beginning August 12, thecompany has revealed. 2016-08-10 07:45 1KB www.techspot.com

37 Seagate has built an incredible 60TB SSDthat it plans to release next yearSolid state drive capacities no longer lag behind their hard drivecounterparts. Samsung revealed it was shipping its enormous 15TBSSD back in March, but Seagate is going one better. The datastorage firm has built an incredible 60TB SSD… 2016-08-10 06:15 2KBwww.techspot.com

38 Oracle says it didn’t ask employee to cookcloud accountsThe software and cloud company claims the employee wasterminated for performance reasons 2016-08-10 05:42 3KBwww.infoworld.com

39 Denuvo, the strongest game DRM available,has allegedly been crackedTo say that pirates have had trouble cracking Denuvo anti-tampertechnology is an understatement. Pretty much every game that usesDenuvo DRM has remained uncracked, thanks to the extremelytough and very well engineered systems that prevent crackers frommodifying… 2016-08-10 05:30 2KB www.techspot.com

40 Magic Software meets 2Q profit forecastsOR YEHUDA, Israel _ Magic Software Enterprises Ltd. onWednesday reported second-quarter earnings of $4.1 million. MagicSoftware expects full-year revenue in the range of $195 million to$200 million. Magic Software shares have risen 37 percent since thebeginning of the year. 2016-08-10 05:17 1KB www.cnbc.com

41 FullContact raises $25M more to take onLinkedIn in contact managementAs LinkedIn inches closer to completing its $26 billion acquisition byMicrosoft, smaller rivals have stepped up their game building viablealternatives.. 2016-08-10 00:00 6KB feedproxy.google.com

42 New MacBook Pro with Touch ID sensor andOLED mini screen is coming soonGet ready for a massive MacBook Pro update. Apple is planning tounveil new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro laptops with retinadisplays soon. According to a.. 2016-08-10 00:00 3KBfeedproxy.google.com

43 Sony will likely unveil the PlayStation 4 ‘Neo’on September 7September 7 is going to be a busy day. Sony sent out invites for apress event in New York. The company will likely unveil thesuccessor to the PlayStation 4... 2016-08-10 00:00 2KBfeedproxy.google.com

44 Berkeley Lab gets the go-ahead for its 5,000-robot 3D galaxy mapping projectYou don’t do things halfway when it comes to tasks like mapping thelight of millions of galaxies. That sort of job requires a fairly massiveundertaking.. 2016-08-10 00:00 2KB feedproxy.google.com

45 Carvana raises a $160M Series C to expandits online dealership and car vending machinesnationwideThe used car industry is an interesting business. The market ishuge - 45 million used cars are bought each year in the U. S. Butthe biggest player,.. 2016-08-10 00:00 3KB feedproxy.google.com

46 Learn about the future of Americantechnology from Megan Smith and Amac atDisrupt SFThere's no doubt that technology has drastically evolved sincePresident Barack Obama took office in 2008. Obama acknowledgedit himself during the Global.. 2016-08-10 00:00 2KBfeedproxy.google.com

47 Elon Musk says SolarCity will build a “solarroof” for your houseWhat if your entire roof was made up entirely of dedicated solarpower cells? No, not adorned with the current kind of solar panelsyou've likely seen on the.. 2016-08-10 00:00 2KB feedproxy.google.com

48 GoPro’s Omni VR rig starts shipping August17th; here’s a closer lookIt was never really a question of whether GoPro would do the VRthing, it was more a question of how -- or, rather, where -- it would fitin. After all,.. 2016-08-10 00:00 3KB feedproxy.google.com

49 Blood Dragon becomes backwardcompatible for Xbox OneMicrosoft adds the Ubisoft shooter Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon to itsconstantly-growing backward compatibility library, bringing the totalnumber of Xbox 360 games playable on Xbox One up to 234.2016-08-09 19:02 1KB feedproxy.google.com

50 Microsoft announces August Insider Slowbuild for Office 2016 on MacMicrosoft has announced August Insider Slow feature update forOffice 2016 on Mac, bumping the build version to 15.25, andbringing a variety of new features on OneNote, Outlook, PowerPointand more. 2016-08-09 18:16 3KB feedproxy.google.com

Articles50 articles, 2016-08-10 18:01

1 Intel to acquire AI firm Nervana Systems (2.06/3)

Intel is to acquire artificial intelligence (AI) firm NervanaSystems in a deal reportedly worth more than $400m.

The acquisition is aimed at expanding Intel’s capabilitiesin the field of AI by tapping into Nervana’s intellectualproperty and expertise on deep learning algorithms.

“We will apply Nervana’s software expertise to further optimise the IntelMath Kernel Library and its integration into industry standard frameworks,”said Diane Bryant, executive vice-president and general manager of thedatacentre group at Intel.

“Nervana’s Engine and silicon expertise will advance Intel’s AI portfolio andenhance the deep learning performance and TCO ( total cost of ownership )of our Intel Xeon and Intel Xeon Phi processors,” she said.

Naveen Rao, CEO and co-founder of Nervana, said with the acquisition,Intel is formally committing to pushing the forefront of AI technologies.

“Nervana intends to continue all existing development efforts, including theNervana Neon deep learning framework, Nervana deep learning platformand the Nervana Engine deep learning hardware,” he said.

Although Nervana’s technology and expertise will be incorporated intoIntel’s portfolio to take AI to the “next level”, Rao said Nervana will continueto operate out of its San Diego Headquarters and will retain its talent, brandand “startup mentality”.2016-08-10 10:15 Security Editor

2 Google will block Flash in Chrome 53 (2.06/3)

Following the lead of Apple with Safari in macOS Sierra , and Mozilla withFirefox , Google has announced that Chrome will begin to block Flashcontent. Start with Chrome 53 in September, Google will "de-emphasizeFlash in favor of HTML5".

Google says that the decision has been made to improve security,performance, and battery life, and it builds on an earlier change that madesome Flash content click-to-play rather than loading it by default.

Flash is very much alumbering technology of thepast, and Google points outthat "more than 90 percent ofFlash on the web loadsbehind the scenes to supportthings like page analytics".But what's happening withversion 53 of Chrome is justthe start. Towards the end ofthe year, things will start toget even more serious as thedeath knell sounds louder

than ever for Flash:

It has been a long, slow journey, but it's starting to feel as those the days ofFlash truly are numbered, paving the way for HTML5 to takeover properly.

Photo credit: 360b / Shutterstock2016-08-10 09:29 By Mark

3 Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 Is the First

Commercial Phone with 4x4 MIMO (1.06/3)

In fact, according to a poston Reddit , Samsung'sGalaxy Note 7 could be thefirst commercial smartphoneto come with support for 4x4MIMO. The feature is alsocalled Multiple Input MultipleOutput, and it uses 4antennas to maintain aconnection between thehandset and cellular towers.

4X4 MIMO allows the deviceto receive data at faster speeds, but it can also find fallback channels incase the connection wasn't properly established through the 4 antennas.Support for 4X4 MIMO should mean increased battery efficiency, but thatdepends on multiple other factors.

A Galaxy Note 7 with 4X4 MIMO support has been spotted at T-Mobile,although the US carrier only supports 2 network layers but manages to mapthem to 4 antennas in towers that support such connections. However, forthe connection to work, both the smartphone and towers must support 4

network channels.

There's another detail that needs to be taken into consideration, namely thatonly smartphones with Qualcomm X12 LTE modems can support 4X4MIMO. The modem is found in Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820, which meansthat the Galaxy Note 7 with Exynos chipset won't have 4x4 MIMO support.

The Galaxy Note 7 is expected to hit the market on August 19, andSamsung might also launch a 6GB of RAM variant in China. The variantcould also come with 128GB of internal storage, and pre-orders are said tostart on August 26, with the release date set on September 2. The price isrumored to reach $912.2016-08-10 12:50 Alexandra Vaidos

4 Microsoft patched 5 critical flaws in Windows

with yesterday's updates (1.02/3)

Microsoft released not one,but two cumulative updatesfor Windows 10 yesterday ,that dealt with a number ofbugs and issuesencountered by users. But ontop of those fixes, thecompany also addressedmany critical and importantflaws in Windows, Office andits browsers.

As part of this latest Patch Tuesday haul, Microsoft fixed a total of 38security vulnerabilities, via five security updates deemed critical and fourrated as important. And here they are:

A few more patches were included in these latest cumulative updates forWindows 10 and other versions of Microsoft’s programs, though the mostinteresting ones are those listed above. You can check out the full list at thesource link below, but so far Microsoft has been stingy with details of theseexploits and patches.

As usual, we recommend you always keep up to date with all securitypatches and updates and install the newest software available.

Source: TechNet2016-08-10 12:36 Vlad Dudau

5

5 Microsoft Deprecates RC4 Support in Edge andInternet Explorer (1.02/3)

The company initiallyannounced these changes inSeptember 2015 , as part ofsimilar statements made byother browser vendors suchas Google and Mozilla, whotoo are in the process ofremoving RC4 support.

For many years, RC4 hasbeen considered aninsecure encryption stream cipher after security researchers demoedattacks that broke RC4 keystreams in as little as a few hours.

Regardless, RC4 has remained a popular key cipher choice in productssuch as WEP, WPA, SSH, TLS/SSL, RDP, PDF, Kerberos, SASL, Skype,BitTorrent, and more.

RC4 received the deathblow in February 2015, when the InternetEngineering Task Force (IETF) banned the usage of RC4 in TLS anymore.Soon after, software vendors started phasing out support.

Edge and IE11 did not feature RC4 as a primary stream cipher choice butonly used it during fallback from TLS 1.2 or 1.1 to TLS 1.0. In most cases,this fallback was caused by implementation errors, but attackers could forcethis downgrade and carry out MitM attacks on encrypted traffic.

"For this reason, RC4 is now entirely disabled by default for Microsoft Edgeand Internet Explorer users on Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10,"Brent Mills, Senior Program Manager, Windows Experience explained .

Microsoft had previously advised companies to disable RC4 support intheir products and upgrade to using TLS 1.2 since 2013.2016-08-10 12:20 Catalin Cimpanu

6 Facebook suppresses ad blockers to maintain

revenues (1.02/3)

Facebook has taken steps to stop users blocking advertson its websites, in a bid to maintain its core revenuestream.

The company said it had developed technology that letsthe social media site overcome advert blocking software.

In a blog post, Andrew Bosworth, vice president for ads and businessplatform at Facebook, wrote: “When we asked people about why they usedad blocking software, the primary reason we heard was to stop annoying,disruptive ads. As we offer people more powerful controls, we’ll also beginshowing ads on Facebook desktop for people who currently use adblocking software.”

Bosworth said Facebook would build ad preferences into the platform thatwould let users stop seeing certain types of adverts.

“If you don’t want to see ads about a certain interest, like travel or cats, youcan remove the interest from your ad preferences,” Bosworth wrote in theblog.

At the end of July, in its second-quarter 2016 financial results , Facebookreported advertising revenue was up 63% to $6.24bn, and accounted for97% of its total revenue.

Profits were up 186% year on year to $2.06bn, while the number of monthlyactive users is up 15% to 1.71 billion, with 1.57 billion using mobile devices,an increase of 20% year on year and 91% of the total user base.

The challenge for Facebook, which relies heavily on advertising revenue, isthe backlash among users over the level and intrusive nature of theadvertising being pushed at them.

Software such as AdBlocker Plus is designed to reduce the number ofadverts appearing on internet browser pages.2016-08-10 12:10 Managing Editor

7 AnTuTu benchmarks claim to show upcoming

HTC Nexus Sailfish specs (1.02/3)

Two new Nexus phones builtby HTC , but designed byGoogle , are expected to beunveiled sometime later thisyear, alongside the newAndroid N operating system.Now some benchmarks fromthe smaller of the twodevices, codenamedSailfish, have seeminglyleaked online.

According to screenshots posted in China, the 5-inch HTC Nexus Sailfish

has had many of its previously rumored specifications confirmed. Thescreenshots in question seem to show the device being benchmarked byAnTuTu, a popular tool on Android devices.

Looking at these we see some familiar specifications: the device features aQualcomm Snapdragon 820 chip, with a screen offering 1920 x 1080resolution, as well as having 4GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. Allof these specs are very much in line with previous credible rumors thatdetailed not only Sailfish’s specs but also the specs of Marlin , the second,bigger Nexus device.

The only difference between these apparently leaked benchmarks andprevious rumors relates to the camera. According to these AnTuTuscreenshots, the Sailfish will feature an 8-megapixel selfie camera, and a13-megapixel world-facing shooter. Previous rumors had pegged the backcamera as having 12 megapixels.

While all of these specs seem credible and realistic, it’s worth noting thatspoofing some AnTuTu screenshots is by no means a difficult task. As suchwe’d caution you not to get too excited about these specs until we learnmore.

Source: Weibo Via: Slashgear2016-08-10 10:34 Vlad Dudau

8 Microservices, Java-on-Java top Oracle’s JVM

design goalsOracle's plans for the JavaVirtual Machine includegreater language support, aswell as accommodations formicroservices and a heavierreliance on Javaprogramming itself.

"We want a VM that willcontinue to be polyglot, thatwill interoperate withunmanaged languages,implement well-managedlanguages," said John Rose,Oracle JVM architect, during

the company's recent JVM Language Summit conference in Silicon Valley."Maybe in the next decade or so we'll see C programs or C++ programsrunning in managed mode on top of the JVM. I wouldn't be surprised. " In

recent years, the JVM has become a home for a quite a few languages,including Scala, Clojure, JRuby, and Groovy.

Rose also cited a trend toward layered software implementations involvingstrong abstractions, a simplified data model, and Java-on-Java, in whichJava is implemented on top of itself. The Graal Project , leveraging Java forwriting JVM runtimes and compilers for other languages, and ProjectPanama , for interoperability between Java and C/C++, help drive Java-on-Java. Instead of having a lot of C++ code and a bytecode interpreter atop astack, there would be various factored layers, perhaps low layers of C++,midlayers of low-level Java, specially compiled ahead-of-time Java, andJava components.

Java-on-Java "heals the rift between having to code in C++ and Java at thesame time," according to Rose. "It lets you use one high-leverage point, theJava compiler and the Java JiT and the Java type system, to manage moreof the important parts of your system. "

Density and scaling goals for the JVM include enabling it to work withmicroservices. "We want those terabyte heaps," Rose said. "We also wantto be able to do tiny microservices, maybe running a few of them in the JVMor maybe a million of them in the JVM but independently. " Scaling will entaila fast startup, data sharing, and big heaps, making immutability moreimportant. Aside from its JVM plans, Oracle recently cited work to retoolJava EE for microservices and cloud deployments.

Honing in on language capabilities, Rose was bullish on value types , tomend a rift between classes and primitives. Value types enable hugechanges through the stack and depend on parametric polymorphism,making generalizations across all values. "This is the last big thing that Javaneeds, in my opinion," unifying primitives and objects but with everythinglooking like a class, he said. Rose sees value types as comparable to theimpact of generics or lambdas in Java.

Rose listed eight specific goals for the JVM for the next 19 years, sayingthey had been initially expressed in 2015. These include having a uniformmodel, with objects, arrays, values, types and methods looking similar;memory efficiency, with tuneable data layouts and efficient code;optimization, in which shared code is mechanically customized; and post-threading, with confined, immutable data and granular concurrency.

Oracle wants Java to be broadly useful for running languages like Scala andClojure while maintaining the compatibility to run even 30-year-old "dusty"JAR (Java Archive) files. The company also is emphasizing performanceand interoperability. "Our JVM is more slowly changing than the hardwareover which it runs, which means that we are always getting the latest chipsand trying to figure out how to do the trick again on the new chips," Rose

said.

Tags Oracle

More about Eclipse Oracle Rose Scala2016-08-10 18:01 www.computerworld

9 Security Think Tank: Forget Brexit, use GDPR

to foster customer relationshipsFollowing the Brexit vote in the UK’s referendum onEuropean Union (EU) membership , we now know that it isgoing to take many years potentially to fully extractourselves from the EU.

So in the first instance, the legal obligations, such as theGeneral Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), still have to be met. This willbe something that every employee will need to understand and comply with,which is something an organisation’s security team can help with.

Moreover, it is important to note that the GDPR will still apply to anyorganisation holding data on European citizens, so the requirements maywell be the same irrespective of the UK’s relationship with the EU.

Digital innovation is what is going to make UK successful and is vital thatany project which is GDPR-compliant is also digitally compliant; in fact, wesee GDPR as an opportunity to positively change customer relationships,as well as a legal requirement.

Looking further ahead, places such as the Isle of Man and the ChannelIslands have successfully forged a positive relationship with EU data law,which means they can use European citizens’ data.

This provides a space where organisations comply with the law, but have alittle bit more freedom to innovate. Potentially the UK could adopt this modelon a larger scale.

What is clear is that a level of improved social interaction is required arounddata whether we are in the European Union or out of it.

There are still an awful lot of discussions needed to go into what the UKwants in terms of its position in global data regulation. We could eitheradopt everything that takes place in European regulation or adopt abilateral relationship with Europe and the US which is subtly different.

Talent remains strong in the UK, but there is a long-term need for moreinformation security expertise to be grown and developed inside the UK.

An important board-level conversation is talent planning to ensure thatorganisations can access the best talent that will enable opportunities andmanage risks around information in an ever more competitive marketplace.Organisations should be looking at how to develop talent at universities,through apprenticeships, as well as in-house.

Obviously uncertainty is difficult and can paralyse decision-making when itis not necessary. It is important for information security professionals to beopen, collaborate and advise across their organisations about opportunitiesas well as threats.

It is a community which will be able to cope with the changes ahead andhave the ability to innovate successfully, advising at board level inorganisations. It is imperative that businesses understand how they canstrategically respond to the trends that are clear and important, withoutgetting distracted by uncertainty.

David Evans is director of policy at BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT .2016-08-10 17:43 David Evans

10 Docker In Production

Native editions of Docker for Windows and Machave moved from beta to production versions.

The open packaging technology of Docker letsyou run an app without the need to install thefiles on which your app depends on the systemon which it is running. Instead, your app gets itsown operating system environment packagedwith it.

The goal with Docker for Mac and Windows hasbeen to let developers use Docker on the

machines on which they are developing, no matter what the operatingsystem. Before this Docker was essentially a Linux application, and if youwanted to use it to develop on Mac and Windows, you had to use theDocker Toolbox.

The new version contains a Docker engine running in an Alpine Linuxdistribution on top of an xhyve Virtual Machine on Mac OS X or on a Hyper-V VM on Windows, and that VM is managed by the Docker application.

Docker for Mac is a Mac application and Docker for Windows is aWindows application. Both include a native user interface, and comebundled with the Docker toolset of the Docker command line, Compose,and Notary command line.

The new version is also designed to provide an easier flow of developmentwork. You get volume mounting for your code and data, and access torunning containers on the localhost network. There's also In-containerdebugging with supported IDEs. Docker for Mac and Windows include aDNS server for containers, and are integrated with the Mac OS X andWindows networking system.

Docker for Mac can be used at the same time as Docker Toolbox on thesame machine, allowing developers to continue using Toolbox as theyevaluate Docker for Mac. On Windows you need to stop Toolbox beforeusing Docker for Windows

While the new versions are being made generally available, the developershave come up with a plan to keep the new versions moving forward rapidly.To achieve this, Docker for Mac and Windows will be available from twochannels – stable and beta. New features and bug fixes will go out first inauto-updates to users in the beta channel, then when well-tested will berolled out to the stable channel on a less frequent basis, in sync with majorand minor releases of the Docker engine.

The Docker Way To Development

To be informed about new articles on I Programmer, sign up for our weeklynewsletter,subscribe to the RSS feed and follow uson, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or Linkedin.2016-08-10 16:36 Written by

11 Download Ricoh’s New Pentax K-70 Camera

FirmwareIn addition to that, thepresent update manages toimprove the compatibilitybetween the Pentax K-70imaging unit and the new HDPENTAX-DA 55-300mmF4.5-6.3 ED PLM WR RElens.

When it comes toinstallation, first of all, makesure your camera isn’t already running newer or matching firmware, saveand unzip the downloadable archive, and format an SD memory card usingthe Pentax unit.

Afterwards, transfer the “Fwdc234b.bin” onto the SD card’s root directory,

connect a fully charged D-LI109 battery, make sure the camera is turned off,connect the memory card, and power on the device while pressing theMENU button.

Now, simply select “Start” when the “Update the camera firmware” messageis displayed, and wait patiently as the device does its job. Do not interruptthis process in any way, as this can lead to serious malfunctions and caneven render the camera unusable.2016-08-10 13:16 Iulian Pascal

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13 ThousandEyes delivers improved network

visibility for enterprisesThe internet and the cloudare now a key part of theinfrastructure for manyenterprises. But theadvantages of scale,flexibility and cost can comeat a price of complexity,reliability, and vulnerability.

Network intelligencecompany ThousandEyes isreleasing Endpoint Agent,which provides a way tomeasure end-userexperience and network behavior for every network that employees use toaccess critical services.

ThousandEyes Endpoint Agent extends network intelligence to employeelaptops and desktops, as well as the enterprise network accessinfrastructure. It enables IT teams to troubleshoot and resolve end-userperformance issues for any application, whether it's deployed on-premiseor in the cloud.

"Our customers already rely on ThousandEyes to understand how networkbehavior impacts application delivery, from the Internet to the corporatenetwork. As their workforce becomes more distributed and mobile, theseinsights need to extend all the way to the end user," says Mohit Lad, CEOand co-founder of ThousandEyes. "Our Endpoint Agent technology presentsa comprehensive view of user experience together with underlying networkdependencies. It's built for IT teams to gain a complete understanding ofapplication behavior and network performance from every user to everyapplication".

Endpoint Agent is deployed as client software on the Windows and Macmachines in the organization and gathers application and networkperformance data for the browser-based web applications. It measuresend-user experience by automatically extracting performance data from thebrowser, via extensions for Chrome and Internet Explorer, whenever users

go to a site admins have chosen to monitor. This extension also triggers thecollection of network performance data. In addition Endpoint Agent gathersdetails from the operating system to understand VPN connections, proxiesand Wi-Fi statistics.

You can find out more about the release and sign up for a trial on theThousandEyes blog .

Image credit : De Mango / Shutterstock2016-08-10 12:50 By Ian

14 UK well-equipped to protect data after Brexit,

says new ICO headThe UK is well-equipped to deal with the changes to dataprotection after the Brexit vote, according to the newinformation commissioner.

Elizabeth Denham made the observation in the firstnewsletter to be published by the Information

Commissioner’s Office (ICO) since she took up the role on 18 July 2016 .

“The result of the EU referendum and its impact on data protection reformswill undoubtedly create uncertainty, as any period of flux does,” she said.“It’s clear to me, though, that the UK is well equipped to navigate thechanges ahead successfully.”

Indicating that she means to continue her predecessor ChristopherGraham’s policy of engagement with stakeholders, Denham said dataprotection was a “team sport”.

“Effective regulation requires engagement with the public sector, withindustry, with civil society and with the public at large,” she said. “We allhave an important role to play in this.”

Although Graham left the ICO on 28 June 2016 after seven years, there wasa delay in Denham taking over because of a failure by government toobtain the Queen’s consent for the appointment in time.

Graham’s deputy, Simon Entwistle, was acting information commissioneruntil Denham was able to take over the leadership of the ICO, whichregulates the UK’s Data Protection Act, Freedom of Information Act and therules around marketing calls and texts.

Denham was shortlisted in April 2016, and was approved for the post ofinformation commissioner by the Parliamentary Committee for theDepartment of Culture, Media and Sport on 27 April.

She was appointed for a five-year term as information commissioner afterholding senior positions in privacy regulation in Canada for the past 12years.

Since 2010, Denham has been the commissioner at the Office of theInformation and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia, Canada.

“Over more than a dozen years in this sector, I’ve seen the pace of theprivacy regulator job quicken, and the scope of the work grows wider everyday,” Denham wrote in the newsletter.

“Access to information and privacy touch nearly all aspects of public andcommercial life and our work is at the centre of some of the mostcompelling issues of our time.”2016-08-10 12:20 Security Editor

15 Cat-themed Android ransomware encrypts

your files, steals your messagesRansomware isn't really limited to Windows PCsnow; even the mobile world is not safe, with thesecryptomalware actively attempting to infect manyAndroid devices around the world. And justrecently, a new cat-themed variant was seenrunning in the wild, which not only encrypts yourfiles, but also steal your SMS messages, andblock users from access altogether.

The McAfee Labs Mobile Malware Research teamdiscovered the threat , which they called "El Gato,"which translates into "cat" in Spanish. The malwarereportedly has botnet capabilities, has a web-based control panel service, and is running on a"legitimate cloud service provider. "

With its control panel, the ransomware is programmed to frequently checkits Command & Control (C&C) server, which allows hackers to send theprogram commands to the infected devices. These instructions aretransmitted using HTTP, and has no encryption whatsoever.

Unlike the usual ransomware, El Gato does not come with any ransom note,or a demand for money in order to decrypt the affected files. Instead, it onlydisplays a picture of a cat hanging by the window. The malware can not onlyencrypt files, but it also has the ability to steal SMS messages and thenforward them to the hacker, and lock the user out from the device using anAES encryption with a hardcoded password.

Moreover, a peculiar discovery was made by the researchers. El Gato'scode actually contained instructions to decrypt the files affected, allowinganyone who finds the instructions to break free from the malware.

The research implied that El Gato might actually still be under development,given its current behavior. It further stated:

McAfee labs stated that they have contacted the owners of the abusedservers, and asked them to terminate the malicious service.

Source: McAfee Labs Blog via International Business Times | Screenshotvia McAfee Labs Blog2016-08-10 12:18 Justin Luna

16 Xiaomi Redmi 4 and Mi Note 2 Could Arrive on

August 25The Geekbench listing forRedmi 4 reveals somespecs for the upcomingsmartphone, mainly that it willrun Snapdragon 625 andhave an octa-core CPUcombined with Adreno 506graphics processing unit.

Redmi 4 could also drawpower from a 4,100mAhbattery with Quick Charge

and come with an all-metal body. The phone could have a 5-inch LCDdisplay with a 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution.

The device could also come with 3GB of RAM, and it could run AndroidMarshmallow 6.0.1. Its predecessor, the Redmi 3, was released earlier thisyear, but it had some low-end specs, and Redmi 4 seems to step up thegame with its mid-range features. According to Xiaomi Today , Redmi 4could be unveiled on August 25, and its price is rumored to reach $105.

Specs of Mi Note 2 have also surfaced online, indicating that thesmartphone could pack the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 chipset and4GB of RAM. In addition, it could have 64GB of internal storage and drawpower from a 3,600mAh battery with Quick Charge. It is believed that MiNote 2 will sport a 5.7-inch IPS LCD display with a 1920 x 1080 pixelresolution.

The company might release a second variant with increased internalstorage and RAM capacity of 6GB and 128GB memory. The smartphone

could also come with an all-metal build, and its price tag could reach $375for the 4GB variant and $405 for the 6GB model, which is quite a bargainfor what you're getting.

Xiaomi debuted the Redmi Pro with dual camera and 4,050mAh battery justa couple of weeks ago, and it seems that the company is already preparingfor another major launch.2016-08-10 12:08 Alexandra Vaidos

17 iOS Back to Growth As iPhone 6s Overtakes

Samsung Galaxy S7This time, however, Kantar bringsbetter news for Apple, as iOS hasmanaged to return to growth afterseveral months of decline. Andyet, this doesn’t mean thatAndroid is giving up, assignificant increases have beenrecorded here too.

The biggest increase recorded byiOS in Europe took place inFrance, where it improved itssales share by 3.4 percent,reaching 20.2 percent in thethree-month period ending June2016 (versus the same period of2015). Similar performance was experienced in the UK too, where itreached 37.2 percent, up 3.1 percent - the UK also continues to be Apple’sbest iOS market in Europe right now.

Overall, EU5 figures show an increase of just 0.7 percent for iOS, but atleast it’s an increase, with Apple’s platform now at 18.2 percent. Androidcontinues to be the leader with 76.8 percent, up 5.5 percent.

In the United States, June 2016 trends changed, and while iOS improved,Android declined. iOS reached 31.8 percent, up 1.3 percent, while Androiddropped 0.6 percent to 65.5 percent.

The biggest drop recorded by iOS was in Japan, where it lost 4.2percentage points to settle at 38 percent, while Android posted an increaseof 6.6 percent here to 61 percent.

“Combined sales of the iPhone 6s/6s Plus totalled 15.1%, making this thetop selling device in the quarter, while the Samsung Galaxy S7/S7 edge

accounted for 14.1% of smartphone sales. The iPhone SE became the thirdbest-selling phone at 5.1%, contributing to the overall growth of iOS duringthe period,” Lauren Guenveur, Consumer Insight Director for KantarWorldpanel ComTech, said.2016-08-10 11:36 Bogdan Popa

18 Next-Gen Samsung Galaxy On5 and Galaxy

On7 Receive Certification in ChinaSamsung's Galaxy On5 and Galaxy On7,2016 editions, have just passed throughTENAA, and the listing reveals some of theirspecs, according to Android Headlines. Itseems that the Galaxy On (2016) will sport a5-inch screen with 720 x 1280 pixel resolutionand pack Snapdragon 617 chipset with octa-core 1.5GHz CPU.

It will also come with an Adreno 405 graphicsprocessing unit and have 3GB of RAM. Thesmartphone will apparently provide you with32GB of expandable memory and have afingerprint scanner embedded in the homebutton.

Rear camera capacity is said to reach 13MP while an 8MP front camerawill also be there. What’s more, the handset will draw power from a2,600mAh battery, and it will run Android Marshmallow 6.0.1. It will be madeavailable in multiple color variants, including Gold, Pink Gold, Black, andMetallic Gold. The Galaxy On5 will be 8.1mm thin and will weigh less thanthe Galaxy On7, namely 142 grams.

The second-generation Galaxy On7 has been spotted on TENAA , and thelisting has revealed that the phone will have a larger display compared to itssibling, the Galaxy On5 (2016). Consequently, the On7 (2016) will feature a5.5-inch display with 1080 x 1920 pixel resolution and run Snapdragon 625chipset with octa-core 2.0GHz CPU and Adreno 506 graphics processingunit.

The device will also have 3GB of RAM and come with 32GB internalstorage. Moreover, it will support microSD cards of up to 128GB and willalso have a fingerprint scanner in the home button. Rear camera capacitycould reach 13MP with 8MP on the front, and the phone could draw powerfrom a 3,300mAh battery and come with Android Marshmallow 6.0.1. It willbe thinner than the Galaxy On5, at 8mm.

2016-08-10 11:35 Alexandra Vaidos

19 Windows Phone Sales Nosedived in June, New

Stats ShowThe latest batch of figurescompares the Windows phonesales shares in the three-monthperiod ending in June 2016 withthe same period of the previousyear, and in almost every singlemarket, these statistics show adeclining trend.

Europe, which has always beenWindows Phone’s top market,brought major declines too,including in Germany, the UK,France, Italy, and Spain.

In Germany, Windows Phonedropped from 10.5 percent to 5.4 percent while in the UK, it declined 6.4percent to 4.9 percent. A similar collapse was experienced in France,where it lost 4.6 percentage points to eventually settle at 4.1 percent, but themost disappointing performance was in Italy, where it dropped 8.6 percentto 5.6 percent.

Overall, in the EU5 period, sales of Windows phones were down 5.6percent, reaching 4.5 percent in the three-month period ending June 2016.

In Microsoft’s home market, Windows Phone experienced declining salestoo, so only 1.6 percent of American smartphone buyers purchased adevice running Redmond’s mobile operating system during the said period,down 1.4 percent versus 2015.

The only market where Windows Phone actually performed better than inthe previous year was in Japan, where it improved from virtually nothing - 0percent, to 0.3 percent, which is quite a performance, given the fact that,thanks to this results, the platform is finally showing up in stats too.

In the end, it’s very clear that Windows Phone isn’t doing very well thesedays, and with Microsoft not saying a single word about its plans for theplatform, it’s very unlikely to see anything changing in this regard. TheRedstone 2 update could bring some exciting updates on Windows phones,though, but it remains to be seen how these stats could change over thecourse of the next 12 months.2016-08-10 11:29 Bogdan Popa

20 Powerful Android Adware Makes Its Way Into

the Google Play StoreThe apps, discovered andreported this week by IntelMcAfee security experts, arenothing more but hollow shellsproviding no functionality at all,except for the maliciousfeatures.

Advertised as all sorts ofMinecraft mods, the apps arecapable of collecting sensitiveinformation from the phone,downloading Android appsfrom external sources or theGoogle Play Store.

The malicious apps can also install the previously downloaded apps,uninstall them, and open or close applications on demand, based oncommands received from a central command server.

Additionally, the malicious app will use advertising SDKs to load and showads from various vendors, silently tapping the ads behind the scenes.

All of this is possible because the apps require administrator rights atinstallation time. Since the apps are installed from the Google Play Store,users are generally willing to grant them such powers, even if the underlyingapp is only a silly game mod and doesn't have a reason to require adminprivileges.

The reason for requiring admin-level access is to make it much harder toremove the apps after they were installed, something that most usersproviding feedback on the apps' Google Play pages have complainedabout.

"I tried for mabye a month and still won't delete," wrote user Denise Travis."I hate it and it won't work or delete," said Xavier Martinez.

Intel McAfee experts noticed that all apps were encrypted and obfuscated atmany levels, which might explain why Google didn't detect their maliciousbehavior during the automated security tests it performs before approvingthe apps on the Play Store.

For its part, Intel McAfee has noticed that the app uses domain names

previously associated with other cyber-criminal activity, meaning the appsare part of a well-oiled cyber-crime syndicate.

"Based in the domain owner’s information in this malware, we can tie theauthors to a group of known cybercriminals in Europe who host anddistribute malware," experts wrote .

At the time of writing, all malicious ValerySoftware apps reported by IntelMcAfee are still available for download. Intel McAfee detects these threatsas Android/Agent. FL.2016-08-10 11:17 Catalin Cimpanu

21 The discovery of child porn is not enough to

justify warrantless email searchesChild pornography issomething that,understandably, raiseshackles and many peoplewould argue that anythingpossible should be done topursue those believed to beinvolved. But a court in theDistrict of Kansas has ruledthat the discovery of imagesof child porn is not enough tojustify warrantless emailsearches by agents.

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that email attachment imagesobtained by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children(NCMEC) should be dismissed as evidence as they were gathered viawhat was deemed to be a warrantless search.

It's a ruling that could have far reaching ramifications, but it's one that islikely to divide privacy advocates. The case involved Microsoft, Dropbox,Facebook, Google, Pinterest, Snapchat and Twitter, but it was images sentvia an AOL email account belonging to Walter Ackerman that were at thecenter of things. AOL's automated checking systems picked up thesuspicious images and reported them to the NCMEC. The agency thenaccessed his emails, finding four illegal images; this is what constituted awarrantless search.

Despite admitting to the distribution of child pornography, Ackerman'slawyers filed to suppress the email evidence on the grounds of the search ofhis emails being conducted illegally. In its ruling the court wrote:

The judge concludes by saying: "We are confident that NCMEC's lawenforcement partners will struggle not at all to obtain warrants to openemails when the facts in hand suggest, as they surely did here, that a crimeagainst a child has taken place". But the fact remains that a warrant was notobtained, and the rights and wrongs of the ruling will no doubt be debatedfor some time to come.

Photo credit: asharkyu / Shutterstock2016-08-10 10:51 By Mark

22 Hackers compromise Oracle's point-of-sale

unitAnother day, another majordata breach. This time it’sOracle’s MICROS, its point-of-sale division, that got hurt.According to securityresearcher Brian Krebs, whofirst disclosed the breach ina blog post (you can read ithere ), chances are that aRussian organized cyber-crime group is behind this.

The group, called Carbanak,is believed to have inserted malicious code in the company’s software and,apparently, 700 internal systems were compromised as a result.

According to Oracle, "certain legacy MICROS systems" were affected, andthe hackers were onto the company’s customer support portal for creditcard payment systems. Oracle is now asking users to change theirpasswords, but said that user data is actually safe.

"Oracle security has detected and addressed malicious code in certainlegacy MICROS systems", the company tells its customers, according toThe Inquirer. "Oracle’s corporate network and other cloud and serviceofferings were not impacted by this code. Payment card data is encryptedat rest and in transit in the MICROS hosted environment".

The biggest issue here is that the company still doesn’t know the extent ofthe breach, and is currently investigating.

"Sources close to the investigation say Oracle first considered the breachto be limited to a small number of computers and servers at the company’sretail division", Krebs wrote in a blog post. "That source said that soon after

Oracle pushed new security tools to systems in the affected networkinvestigators realized the intrusion impacted more than 700 infectedsystems".

Carbank is a notorious cyber-criminal group which has, allegedly, stolenmore than $1 billion from various banks and retailers over the course of thepast few years.

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities LtdPublication. All rights reserved.

Photo Credit: 360b / Shutterstock2016-08-10 10:36 By Sead

23 Here's why you might want to avoid Windows

10 previews for a whileYesterday, we heard that thefirst preview build ofWindows 10 Redstone 2(RS2) – the next majorupdate for the OS due earlynext year, following on fromthe Anniversary Update orRS1 – could land as soon asthis week , although perhapsunsurprisingly, it won'tcontain any major changes.

In a statement on the Windows 10 Feedback Hub, Redmond made it clearthat not just this first build of RS2, but all the early builds won't have any"noticeable" changes or new features introduced.

So those of you hoping for a juicy addition or two can color yourselvesdisappointed. Most of the work in these early previews will be tinkering withthe very core of the OS, or as Microsoft puts it, "making some structuralimprovements to OneCore".

Once that's done, Redmond will look at putting new features in, but thatwon't happen for a few months yet.

Microsoft also issued a warning that because it's playing with the underlyingarchitecture of Windows 10 here, these early preview versions may containmore than their fair share of bugs and glitches. So in other words, they'renot for the fainthearted.

Indeed, because there are no new features introduced anyway, these builds

are likely to only be appreciated by the real hardcore Windows testers outthere. So some of you on the Fast Ring might want to think twice aboutgetting those straight-out-the-door previews.

As for the recently deployed Anniversary Update, that in itself has beencausing some folks trouble, with recent reports of the update stripping awayCortana , and causing freezing issues with some computers.

Via: Neowin

Article continues below2016-08-10 10:14 By Darren

24 Data of Nearly 2 Million Users Exposed in

Dota2 Forum HackAccording to the company,who has received the datafor analysis from ananonymous source, thestolen database contains1,923,972 forum userrecords.

For each forum users,LeakedSource says there isa username, an email

address, a user identifier, a password, and an IP address.

Uncharacteristic for a company in 2016, the password was hashed with theMD5 algorithm and then salted.

Because MD5 is considered a very weak hashing algorithm, at the time itannounced the breach, LeakedSource said it managed to crack at least 80percent of all passwords, reverting them to their plaintext versions.

Out of all the nearly 2 million user records, more than half of users hadregistered with a Gmail email address, based on a simple data analysis.LeakedSource says that they found a lot of disposable email addresses onthe list.

The Dota2 (Defense of the Ancients 2) dev forum is not the game's officialforum, but only the one used by game and app developers. Dota2 is agame developed by Valve. The Dota2 dev forums run on the vBulletinplatform.

Forum administrators acknowledged the incident via a thread on the

discussion board and said they reset all user account passwords forcibly.

"We have recently been made aware that a vulnerability in the Dota 2 Devforum software allowed access to the forum database," the Dota2 adminswrote. "The vulnerability has been patched. The database contains emailaddresses, forum user names, salted forum password hashes, and forumposts. "

"The database relates only to the Dota 2 Dev forums at dev.dota2.com, anddoes not contain any Steam credentials, payment information or any otherprivate information related to your Steam account," they also added.2016-08-10 10:10 Catalin Cimpanu

25 Russia Still Using Microsoft Products Despite

Law Pushing for Domestic SoftwareA recently conductedinvestigation has revealedthat government agenciesand companies alike are stillrunning Microsoft software inRussia, and what’s more,some organizations evenhave important deals with theAmerican giant for operatingsystems and software.

RBTH writes that these deals are worth 800 million rubles ($12 million),adding that the majority of government agencies are buying Microsoftproducts, despite President Vladimir Putin’s aggressive push for increasedadoption of locally developed software.

Starting January 1, 2016, a law that forces companies, organizations, andstate departments to look into domestic software puts foreign solutions onthe second spot, but this still doesn’t seem to have an impact on the existingshare of Microsoft products, the investigation shows.

According to the law, companies in search of new software must first checka list of applications that were developed by local organizations, and if aviable choice is found, they must purchase it. Foreign software can only bebought if no domestic alternative is available, the law states. A total of 1,186applications are currently on the list of domestically developed software, thesource writes.

One of the aspects helping Microsoft software survive in the ratherunfriendly current climate is linked to the fact that employees are already

used with solutions such as Windows and Office. That's why moving them tonew applications could generate drops in productivity - this was actually aproblem experienced by all companies and countries that planned to movefrom Microsoft to Linux too.

Additionally, the transition could take too much time, and some companiesor agencies can’t afford it for the moment, so the departure from Microsoftsoftware isn’t yet taking place at full speed.

Russian authorities, however, are very confident that more computers willswitch to domestic software in the coming years, and they have evenprepared new ways to encourage local development of applications,including subsidies and state loans. In a maximum of five years, moreRussians should give up on Microsoft products, they say.2016-08-10 10:06 Bogdan Popa

26 Microsoft Releases KB3161102 to Kill Off

Windows JournalThe main reason for thissudden decision is thegrowing number of securityissues affecting WindowsJournal, so Microsoft prefersto discontinue it completelyrather than fix vulnerabilitiesevery single month.

KB3161102 is now beingshipped to Windows 7, 8.1,and Windows 10, and once

installed, Windows Journal is completely gone.

“It's currently a component of all supported client versions of Windowsthrough Windows 10 Version 1511. The file format that's used by WindowsJournal (Journal Note File, or JNT) has been demonstrated to besusceptible to many security exploits. Therefore, Windows Journal will beremoved from all versions of Microsoft Windows soon,” Microsoft says onthe KB page of the update.

So what should you do next? The easiest solution is to move to OneNote ,an application that Microsoft is actively supporting these days and that isalready available on all platforms, including Windows and non-Windows (aswell as mobile operating systems).

“This update lets users remove the Windows Journal component

immediately. Because it is a more secure alternative to Windows Journal,we recommend that users download, install, and use Microsoft OneNote,”Microsoft notes.

But if OneNote isn’t really your cup of tea, Microsoft is also providing adownloadable version of Windows Journal, but you should be aware thatthis will be affected by the same security issues as the built-in flavor of theapp. So although you install it manually, the security risks remain, and anotification informing you about these will be displayed upon launching theapp.

Microsoft says that all users are recommended to install this updateimmediately, so if you’ve noticed it in Windows Update and don’t know whatto do, this should lend you a hand to make a decision as soon as possible.2016-08-10 09:26 Bogdan Popa

27 iOS 10 release date, news and features

Apple's iOS 10 update for iPhone and iPadlives up to its milestone software versionnumber, with the first official detailsannounced at WWDC 2016 in SanFrancisco in June alongside watchOS 3.

As you'll read in our iOS 10 first look , it'sfilled with major changes for your dailyphone and tablet routine, but don't worry, allof the new features are for the best - andabsolutely free to download.

It takes some time to wrap your headaround the new functionality of this mobileoperating system, so we went ahead ofbroke it down for you. Here's what we'velearned about iOS 10.

Apple is once again staggered the iOS 10 release date among appdevelopers, public beta testers and then everyone else who wants to waitfor the final version.

Three different iOS 10 release dates, depending on who you are

So technically, iOS 10 is out right now. It launched the same day as WWDCin beta form to developers and trust us, even iOS 10 beta 5 isn't ready foraverage iPhone and iPad users who aren't making apps.

We didn't have to wait long to test out iOS 10 on our own. Apple launched

the iOS 10 public beta just 23 days after the developer beta, and it'll helpsquash bugs two months before the official release date.

That's good news. Last year's public beta was a success for Apple judgingfrom the smoother sailing of iOS 9, and it continued that streak with newiOS 9.3 features that also went through a three-month beta.

If you decide to wait for the final version of iOS 10, it'll take a while longerdue to additional bug testing. A stable version of iOS 10 should launchalongside the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus in September.

iOS 10 is coming to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, unless of course youhave an age-old phone or tablet that still uses the 30-pin dock connector oran older iPod touch.

It's lightning or NOTHING!

That's where Apple draws the new line in the sand for 2016. Its forthcomingmobile operating system update won't support for iPhone 4S, iPad 2 andiPod touch 5th gen. Time to upgrade.

It's not a big surprise. In addition to their non-lightning connections, thesedevices include 512MB of RAM and miraculously supported iOS 9 when wethought they'd be axed from that update last year. iOS 9.3 is their softwareswan song.

Apple redesigned the iPhone and iPad lockscreen, giving us the biggestrevision since the first iPhone nine years ago. Slide to unlock is gone andreplaced with simple instructions: "Press Home to open. "

What's been added is the ability to raise your iPhone to wake it, fixing theall-too-common issue of blowing past lockscreen notifications when you hitthe fast TouchID home button.

This is a great solution that we have seen on a select number of Androidphones, like the Google Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X , and it almost remindsme of flicking my wrist to light up the Apple Watch .

This is the sleeper hit of iOS 10 that is going to change your daily iPhoneroutine.

You'll see that notifications are broken up into bubbles now and use 3DTouch to show hidden menu actions - just hard press on a calendar invitealert and you'll be able to accept or decline it.

3D Touch-enabled iOS 10 notifications work even better for Messages. Youcan immediately respond to messages as soon as you pick up your phone,without ever leaving the lockscreen. It's all done inline.

No more digging around the home screen and layers of app menus tocheck vital information. If you have a doorbell camera notification, you cansee who's at the front door, use the intercom or unlock the door.

This "peeking at apps" capability via the lockscreen isn't limited to Apple'sfirst-party apps. Uber is just one third-party app maker that allows you tohard press on notifications. You'll get live updates on where your driver is ona map - usually headed in the other direction.

What may be the best change to iOS 10 notifications is the ability to clearall of your old notifications with 3D Touch. Swiping them away one by one ordismissing them in groups is a time-consuming mess in iOS 9.

Just hard press that little "x" icon within the redesigned (and now dedicated)notifications pulldown menu and tap the "clear all" box that pops up. Tap itonce to just dismiss the group of notifications.

It's super easy to clear away expired alerts with iOS 10 and it will pleaseeveryone inflicted with phone notification-clearing OCD.

Your iPhone isn't waterproof, but Apple is allegedly making it easier toavoid potential water damage with the iOS 10 update.

Source: EverythingApplePro

As of iOS beta 2, the software reportedly includes a warning message tounplug the lighting cable at the bottom of a device if the phone and newsoftware detect water.

Whether or not the iPhone 7 is waterproof, as some have speculated, thisiOS 10 message is a handy tool because water and a turned-on iPhonedon't mix very well. Let is sit first (in rice, if you believe that myth)

iPhone and iPad gaming is about to get a little more social thanks to thenew ability to live broadcast apps (or record them for later video viewing) inReplay Kit-supported apps.

Live stream app content (Credit: Reddit/Coldplayer42)

This is a big deal for not just iOS games, but also coding tutorials and howto guides. In fact, the existence of iOS 10 live app broadcasting wasdiscovered within Apple's code-teaching Swift Playgrounds app.

Apple announced the live streaming capabilities of Replay Kit at WWDC,so we did know it was coming. However, iOS 10 beta 2 marks the first timeit's been seen within an app.

The swipe-up-from-the-bottom Control Center overlay menu has a brandnew look that helps declutters the layout in iOS 10, and it's something Apple

users have been asking for.

It once again features four app shortcuts along the bottom (flashlight,stopwatch, calculator and camera app) and moves the fifth Beatle, NightShift , to a new, bigger spot above the quartet.

That fixes an issue where people said having five app shortcuts in thatbottom row, a short-lived idea that came about when Night Shift debuted iniOS 9.3 , made the buttons a tad too small.

Bigger AirPlay and AirDrop buttons appear above Night Shift, too, whiletoggles for Airplane mode, WiFi, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb and Orientationlock are unchanged (except for their new blue hue when on).

But what happened to the music controls? Slide right on the Control Center,and there's a dedicated pane for the volume, playback and device outputcontrols, and even music album cover art.

It's easier than ever to flip on the camera with iOS 10 because sliding thelockscreen right (when Control Center isn't open) automatically transitions tothe camera app.

This is a camera app shortcut we've seen on several Android phones and itbeats reaching for the bottom right corner, where the camera shortcutremains in iOS 9. You use the camera app everyday, why not make it easierto access?

What happens when you swipe to the left on the lockscreen? Glad youasked a second question. It reveals a new spot for Apple's Today menu"widgets. " It's not as customizable as Android widgets, but it's new locationa big improvement.

Within the home screen, 3D Touching app tiles like Activity gives you amore graphical account of your fitness goals. You'll know faster than everthat you have to close those daily activity rings.

ESPN had even richer shortcut information within its 3D Touch menu. It runsscores and there's a button to easily add a widget. It's even more graphical,throwing up a drawn out play-by-play interface and video of in-progressgames you're following.

All of this peeking at apps can be done without leaving the home screen,and it means that 3D Touch is becoming a little more relevant in iOS 10.

Two billion requests a week go through Siri, and it's now going to do "somuch more," according to Apple. With that, they announced that iOS 10 willopen up Siri to third-party developers.

Now you'll be able to ask Siri things like, "Send a WeChat to Nancy saying

I'll be five minutes late.'" It can be said variety of ways and still understoodby the now-smarter Siri.

In (very literal) other words, Siri also works just fine if you say it like "TellNancy I'll be five minutes late with WeChat," and even "Siri, can you shoot amessage on WeChat and say I'll be five minutes late? "

Siri for iOS 10, all of a sudden, is going to be a whole lot less "Sorry... " formiscues. This is thanks to what Apple calls an "intense API," which evenfunctions in this new way in its multiple languages.

Besides WeChat, Siri is ready for other chat apps, like WhatsApps andSlack, and ride hailing services like Uber, Lyft and Didi in China (whichApple invested in recently).

Searching photos through apps like Shutterfly and Pinterest can be donewith your voice thanks to Siri, and you can start, pause and stop fitnessworkouts with MapMyRun, Runtastic and RunKeeper.

Siri can also help you send money to friends with Number26, Square andAlipay, or start a VoIP call to tell your friend why you're not paying them ontime via Cisco Spark, Vonage and Skype.

This makes Siri much more useful now that Apple's personal assistant hasbroken free of pre-loaded apps, and makes driving a tiny bit safer thanks tomessaging and VoIP integration for Apple CarPlay .

Apple's on-screen QuickType keyboard can intelligently tell the differencebetween what you're saying and what computers usually think you're saying(but not) thanks to more advanced Siri intelligence.

Using deep learning kept locally, or what Apple calls "differential privacy,"iOS 10 understands the wider context of what you're typing, influencing thewords in the suggestion bar above the keyboard.

It has better context by taking into account the whole sentence, not justspitting out the next guess based on the previous word.

This will be completely opt-in, masked and stored on the device, accordingto Apple. That's different from Google's data-harvesting using its onlineservers.

QuickType is also adding a handy button for your current location wheneversomeone asks "Where are you? " or requests someone else's contactinformation. That Contacts app will go further unused.

Locally, Siri uses deep learning to analyze a conversation and is able topick up on you and a friend talking about food, a proposed time andresturant address, and then pre-fill in Calendar event when you go to add it

to the Calendar app. "Look at that, it's already halfway filled in," you'll say.

Rounding out the QuickType iOS 10 features is the ability to paste a recentaddress you looked up without having to copy it to the clipboard, do thesame for movies and restaurants you've searched and adjust to yourmultilingual typing.

It's Apple new "easy button" for iOS 10, and it's all about shortcuts toeveryday activities.

iOS 10 is going to make use of deep learning so that it'll be easier toorganize photos with what it calls "advanced computer vision. " This is howApple plans to rival Google Photos.

Again, stressing that it's done locally, Apple touts the Photos app's ability tocreate albums based on face recognition, and can do the same for objectand scene recognition thanks to 11 billion computations. It also serves up away to see photos overlaid on a map based on where they were taken.

Apple plans to take Photos to the next level with Memories, which aresupposed to remind you of events in life by clustering together photos intotrips, people and topics. It seems to have a nice magazine-style interface Ican get behind.

iOS 10 will also let you assemble your captured photos and videos of aparticular memory with a special movie that's cut automatically. It'scustomizable, with a number of mood choices and three length options, justin case you don't want to fine tune it yourself.

Despite the AI-infused deep search and facial recognition capabilities,Apple promises privacy protection.

iOS 10 fixes my biggest complaint about Apple Maps - its inability to scrollahead on a route. Right now, Maps annoyingly springs you back to yourcurrent location whenever you try to look anywhere else.

You'll be free to pan and zoom around the map with the new Apple Mapsupdate and the navigation software is also dynamically zooming in and outof long stretches and complex interchanges.

Maps for iOS 10 is adding traffic on route to better compete with GoogleMaps and expanding its Nearby functionality with more points of interestthat you can find along your route.

Vehicles that supports Apple CarPlay not only get suggested alternateroutes based on traffic conditions, Maps' turn-by-turn directions can pop upon the instrument (if they have a screen next to the odometer).

Apple is weaving iOS 10 information from other apps into Maps, like if it

knows you go to work at a certain time, it'll make a suggestion for the route,or make one based on a calendar event address.

That's just the start. It's also opening up Maps to third-party developers, soUber riders can call, follow and pay for their ride without ever leavingApple's app. It's getting there.

Apple Music with iOS 10 is being redesigned for its 15 million paidsubscribers, and it "allows the music to be the hero," according to Apple. Itlets the cover art stand out.

It looks to be a much cleaner design, highlighting cover art properly andsuggesting music that you'll like in a more logical fashion. But it's not goingto excite you for iOS 10 if you're not a paid subscriber.

The Apple Music refresh does add some more depth by way of lyrics(though it doesn't seem to follow along with the words like other apps do,like SoundHound do).

The For You tab is does a better job at curating your personal playlists andit absorbs the Connect tab that we previously heard was getting adiminished role. Likewise, the 'New' tab has become 'Browse.'

Apple News is reaching 60 million people every month with 2,000publications and it's in for a redesign, too. The For You tab now breaksnews into personalized topics and hand-picked stories by editors.

News for iOS 10 will also introduce subscriptions so that you can see everyissue of National Geographic or read the Wall Street Journal, periodicalsusually behind a paywall.

Breaking news notifications have been added to this pre-loaded app sothat big stories appear right on the iOS 10 lockscreen.

Apple's developer-focused HomeKit is coming to end-users with iOS 10(and also Apple Watch), and the new app appears right on the homescreenunsurprisingly called "Home. "

It'll tie all of your home-based IoT gadgets together into a simple interfaceand include Scenes to change the mood of rooms in a pinch, no matter whomakes your home's previously fragmented smart tech.

Siri acts as a shortcut to interact with your home accessories, and ControlCenter does too. Two swipes to the right in the Control Center menu bringsup a grid of home accessory toggles.

Also from the lockscreen, you can peek at home notifications, say, if you geta doorbell alert. Peek into the notification by hard pressing on the bubbleand a video doorbell like Ring will give you a live camera view.

Hate listening to voicemails? Never actually check them? Me too. That'swhy I'm excited that the rumored voicemail transcription idea made it intoiOS 10.

It'll let you know what a voicemail message says via more convenient textright within the visual voicemail. Apple is also partnering with Tencent inChina to alert iPhone owners there that an incoming call might be spam.

VoIP is no longer going to take a backseat, as a WhatsApp call, forexample, can be answered right from the lockscreen, just like a normalincoming call. They'll also be part of your recent and favorites lists.

Messages is introducing rich links within a conversation and a live cameraview as soon as you press the camera button. Like emoji's? You're going tolove iOS 10.

Apple is making bigger emojis that are now three times as large as before,and the keyboard can now identify words you can easily replace with emojisvia a single tap on each word.

There's also a chance that the final version of iOS 10 launches, likely inSeptember, Apple will include the 72 new emojis developed by the UnicodeConsortium. They're already in the company's emoji style and Android N isset to debut them too. Hop (kangaroo) to it, Apple (apple fruit).

Expressions don't stop there. There'll be bubble effects so you can "say itloud" with a bursting bunch of text, or say something "gently" with slow-to-exist texts.

You can also use "Invisible Ink" that requires the message receiver to slidetheir finger over a text or photo. It'll either be a nice surprise, or horrificshock to your friends.

Apple showed off an Invisible Ink demo in which a blurry photo turned out tobe a bride-to-be's hand with a wedding ring on it. I'm pretty sure there aregoing to be a lot of appendages sent using Invisible Ink.

You can react to individual messages with expression-driven Tapbacks(reminds me of Facebook reactions) and write out meaningful messageswith handwritten "digital ink. "

With club disco lights, big emoji and full-screen fireworks for iOS 10,Messages is one crazy app. But it'll get even more insane in the futurebecause Apple is opening up Messages to developers with an SDK.

So far, Apple has shown off integration for licensed Disney stickers, foodordering services and bitmoji-like expressions provided by JibJab.

Rounding up iOS 10, Apple quickly mentioned Notes with multiple users

editing a document, the ability to edit Live Photos without annoyinglyrelegating them to stills and a new conversation view for Mail.

On the iPad, Split View support for two Safari windows has been added,finally letting you open up dual Safari windows at once on your tablet, youmultitasker, you.

Apple said that despite the deep learning capabilities of iOS 10, it'll keepthat to the silicon on your device and not invade your private data thanks to"differential privacy. "

We'll have more iOS 10 news, as the developer and public beta prepare usfor the the full iOS 10 update. When that launches in a few days inSeptember, we'll certainly discover additional features to talk about.2016-08-10 09:26 By Matt

28 Hortonworks updates Data Flow platform to

2.0Hortonworks announcedtoday that it has updated itsHortonworks DataFlow(HDF) platform with newfeatures and updatedApache projects. HDF 2.0includes a drasticallyredesigned Apache NiFiproject, better handling ofcluster-wide securitypolicies, and a moreportable version of itsdataflow management layer.

Apache NiFi is at the top of the list of changes. This project was originallycreated at the NSA and picked up by Hortonworks last year. For HDF 2.0,Apache NiFi has been updated to version 1.0. The big change for thisversion is the complete rewrite of the NiFi GUI.

NiFi is used to lay out data flows for processing and control. The UI issimilar to something like a Microsoft Visio, or other modeling tools, andallows users to develop data flows by pointing and clicking through theirdesign process.

NiFi also received a little brother in the form of MiNiFi, a miniature client forApache NiFi. The idea is to lay out data flows in the cloud, then run MiNiFion edge devices, such as Internet of Things devices, so the data flow

controls are propagated to the edges of the network.

Jamie Engesser, vice president of product management for Hortonworks,said that HDF 2.0 is all about handling Hadoop use cases beyond just datalakes and static data in place. “Traditional Hadoopers have done animpressive job of learning about data at rest, but the next generation islooking at net new use cases where they want to deal with data in thestream. The notion of data end-to-end is a key driver of what’s going on. Ineed the data at rest, and I need it in motion too,” said Engesser.

To this end, HDF 2.0 also includes Apache Storm 1.01 and Apache Kafka.1.0. HDF 2.0 is also compatible with Apache Ranger, and can use thisproject to manage security policies throughout a cluster. This will makethings easier to manage, as in HDF 1.0, each Apache project wasmanaged independently.

“We’ve converge that under Apache Ambari, which is a managementconsole. It can deploy, monitor and manage. It also has the ability to definesecurity policies. You can define security all the way from the edge to thecore landing in Hadoop in one security policy flow through to the end,” saidEngesser.

Hortonworks has not announced an exact release date for HDF 2.0, butEngesser said that it will ship sometime in the next 10 days.2016-08-10 09:24 Alex Handy

29 The “Jaw-Dropping” 2017 iPhone Will Be Fully

Made of GlassAnd thanks to people withknowledge of the matter whohave agreed to spill thebeans online, we alreadyhave the first information onhow the 2017 iPhone isgoing to look.

Japanese newspaper Nikkeiclaims that Apple is planningto make the 2017 iPhoneentirely from glass, andthere’s a good reason forthis: next year, the company is celebrating the 10th anniversary of theiPhone, so it wants to do it in style by launching a completely new model.

Since this year’s version is going to be a more or less dull unveiling

(although we’re already drooling over the dual-camera system that’s likely tobe offered on the Plus model), 2017 will bring many more exciting featuresthat Apple is holding back for the 10th anniversary.

And that’s not all. These OLED displays will practically ditch all bezels, andApple is planning to incorporate all front-facing parts in the screen. TheTouch ID sensor and the FaceTime camera could thus be buried in thedisplay as part of a completely new design.

Nikkei claims Apple has already discussed the matter of a fully glassiPhone with Foxconn, one of its largest suppliers, which, in turn, contactedother parties to prepare for such a redesign.

Certainly, that sounds super exciting for the Apple community, but since thisyear’s model hasn’t yet launched, it’s a bit too early to discuss the finalplans that the company might have for the 2017 iPhone. Everything canchange in a second, but it’s hard to hide the excitement if at least part of thisis actually true.2016-08-10 09:07 Bogdan Popa

30 Microsoft hails cloud security breakthrough

with encrypted dataAn easier and secure wayhas been found for encrypteddata to be processed andworked on in the cloudwithout having to bedecrypted first, according toMicrosoft researchers.

The researchers’ proposed Secure Data Exchange (SDE) protocol isbased on the principles of the secure multi-party computation approach tocryptography. Its design allows third parties to carry out computations onencrypted, cloud-stored data and share their results.

“None of the parties will learn anything about the data beyond what theyalready know and what will be revealed by the function output,” a researchpaper authored by the group states .

“The data stored in the cloud can be used repeatedly for an arbitrarynumber of interactions.”

The breakthrough could lower the cost of scientific research, preservingdata privacy while the information is being worked on, the Microsoftresearch team said.

2016-08-10 09:03 Datacentre Editor

31 MI5 staff repeatedly overrode data surveillance

rulesMI5 staff failed to follow the agency’s rules for accessingdetails of the population’s email, web browsing and phoneuse on more than 200 occasions over five years.

Documents reveal that security service investigatorsrequested and authorised access of its database of bulkcommunications data verbally rather than in writing, overriding the agency’sown code of practice.

MI5 reported the failure to the interception of communicationscommissioner, Stanley Burnton, in May 2016. He subsequently revealedthere had been 210 “clear contraventions of the handling arrangements andthe security service’s internal policies”.

According to evidence given by an anonymous deputy director of MI5, staffgenerally filled in a form later, but admitted: “In a very small number of casesthere is no record of written authorisation.”

The evidence was disclosed at Privacy International’s hearing against thesecurity and intelligence agencies at the investigatory powers tribunal inJuly 2016.

“This is yet another example of how oversight of the collection and use ofbulk communication data has been frustrated,” said Privacy Internationallawyer Caroline Wilson Palow.

“Without written records of when such intrusive datasets are accessed, it’simpossible to know if safeguards were respected or if abuses occurred.”

On 5 August 2016, Privacy International and five comms providers appliedto the European Court of Human Rights to challenge GCHQ’s use of bulkhacking outside the UK.

It also filed a high court judicial review of the tribunal’s earlier decision,which determined that the British government can issue general warrants tohack the electronic devices of broad classes of people both inside andoutside the UK.2016-08-10 09:00 www.computerweekly

32 IPT fines Police Scotland for communications

breach of privacy

The UK’s top intelligence court has ordered Police Scotland to pay £10,000to a former officer after finding that the force unlawfullyobtained his communications data , as well as that ofother officers.

In the 8 August 2016 judgement, the Investigatory PowersTribunal (IPT) , which heard the case in Scotland on 22 July 2016, ruled thatPolice Scotland had interfered with the privacy rights of the complainants;two serving police officers and two former police officers and their partners.

The IPT found Police Scotland to be in contravention of the Human RightsAct 1998.

The case comes as the UK government prepares to introduce theInvestigatory Powers Bill , which will give sweeping bulk data collectionpowers, and powers for suspicion-less surveillance of telephone, web andemail communications.

One of the complainants, Gerard Gallacher, became a journalist afterserving as a police officer. He later wrote about a police investigation, thatlasted two and a half years, into the murder of Emma Caldwell, a 27-year-old prostitute, near Glasgow in April 2005.

Gallacher estimated that the investigation cost more than £4m, making itthe most expensive murder inquiry in Scottish history.

His investigation, which began in 2013 and lasted 18 months, revealed thatpolice officers had complained to their superiors about the force’s failure topursue enquiries about a suspect in the case.

Gallacher’s “Forgotten Suspect” stories were published in April 2015 in theScottish Sunday Mail , prompting the Scottish Crown Office to instructPolice Scotland to reopen the murder inquiry.

The stories also led to Police Scotland’s Counter Corruption Unit (CCU)launching a covert criminal investigation on 7 April 2015, to identify anypolice officers, serving or retired, who might have “made unauthoriseddisclosure of sensitive/restrictive information that appeared in the articles”.2016-08-10 09:00 www.computerweekly

33 Apple Wanted to Launch an iPhone 7 Pro This

Year but Ditched the PlanAnd it turns out that these reports aren’t entirely inaccurate, if we are to trustsome sources cited by Japanese publication Nikkei in a story publishedtoday. Basically, here’s what the new report claims.

First of all, Apple indeedoriginally planned to launchthree iPhone models, as itfollows: the standard modelwith a 4.7-inch screen, aswell as two versions with 5.5-inch displays. These twowere supposed to be calledPlus and Pro, featuring justone major difference: thecamera.

The iPhone 7 Plus was projected to come with the exact same camera asthe 4.7-inch sibling - word is that the new iPhone will boast an improvedsingle-lens camera, and otherwise be similar in specs. This is an approachthat Apple is currently using for the 6s generation, as both the standardmodel and the Plus have the same features, with a few exceptions (such asOIS on the Plus’ camera).

The iPhone 7 Pro, on the other hand, was designed to sport a dual-camerasystem that would provide better photos, but no Smart Connector or otherfeatures suggested by recent leaks. The exact same features anddimensions of the Plus were supposed to make their way on the Pro too.

Apple, however, decided to give up on the iPhone 7 Plus and launch theiPhone 7 Pro as “Plus,” so the September lineup will be similar to the 6s.The difference is that the Plus, since it’s actually the original Pro, will featurea dual-camera system, while the standard model will come with a single-lens but improved camera.

Of course, take this report with a little bit of skepticism because, as you cansee, anything can change overnight, so we’ll find out more about the newiPhone, including its name, next month.2016-08-10 08:43 Bogdan Popa

34 This Is What File Explorer Should Look like in

Windows 10 Redstone 2But what exactly could change in File Explorer? A concept created by reddituser MorphicSn0w shows exactly what Windows 10 adopters expect fromthe old-school file manager integrated into the operating system.

Without a doubt, the tab support is what makes people drool over conceptslike this one, and although this is one of the top requests since forever,Microsoft doesn’t seem to be too interested in developing such an updatefor File Explorer.

And this is kind of odd,especially given the fact thatthere are already many third-party file managers out thereusing tabs, and more andmore users are tempted tojump ship just because FileExplorer doesn’t come withsuch functionality.

A hamburger menu icon isalso available in this section,

and it could provide access to specific folders or settings on the computerwhile at the same time bringing File Explorer in line with the other Windows10 apps.2016-08-10 08:26 Bogdan Popa

35 C3 IoT: Is Tom Siebel's Startup An Emerging

Powerhouse?Meet C3 IoT of RedwoodCity, Calif., a young internet ofthings (IoT) company with anold hand at the helm -- TomSiebel, founder of SiebelSystems.

If you are a smartphone useror smart home occupier, oneof your devices may beconnected to C3 IoT in thenear future.

C3 IoT has a set of 11practical, IoT applicationsalready written andimplemented by 20 customers, and its public utility system is one of of thelargest IoT production systems in the world. The public utility system collectsdata from energy companies in Italy, Spain, and other parts of WesternEurope via 70 million sensors. The data is fed into C3's collection andanalysis systems.

[Want to see what GE is up to with Predix? Read GE Supplies IoTDeveloper Kit For Predix .]

C3 IoT is among the ranks of recent IoT startups, including Uptake.io,

Carriots, Wireless Logic, Kepware, ThingWorx, and PTC. The domain iscertainly not limited to startups. GE is a major IoT player, with its Predixanalytics system and its planned rollout this year of multiple Predix-as-a-service data centers. Microsoft offers its own IoT services from its Azurecloud. Siemens, IBM, and Intel all claim to be investors in the internet ofthings.

GE is also aligning itself with startups such as PTC. The latter acquiredThingWorx , a software platform for developing IoT apps, for $112 million atthe end of 2013, then formed a close alliance with GE in fall 2015. PTC thenacquired Kepware , a connectivity platform for industrial devices, for $100million in January of this year. The GE/PTC partnership has launched what itcalls its Brilliant Manufacturing Suite.

Siebel, still feisty after making his first $1.9 billion in the software market,claims other contenders can't yet match what C3 IoT is doing. "We are twoto three years ahead of every other company," Siebel said in an interviewwith InformationWeek. "All those other companies have zero IoT productionapplications. "

Even GE has zero? he was asked.

"GE hopes to have 200,000 sensors under management by the end of2016," Siebel said.

Siebel is measuring the competition by the number of devices from whichthey collect data -- one standard for evaluating an IoT company. Boston-based market researcher Lux Research has applied such a standard in theIoT market segment and concluded GE/PTC will have 200,000 to 500,000devices under management by the end of 2016. According to a May reportfrom Lux lead analyst Isaac Brown, this puts GE/PTC in the class of "a babystartup, with minimal market penetration. " In comparison, Brown's reportlisted Wireless Logic as having 2.1 million connected devices, and Carriotsand Plat. One as each having 200,000 at the end of March.

C3 IoT is collecting 350GB of data a day from its 20 utility customers andentering it in a 7 billion-row database, which has accumulated 750TB ofdata, Siebel told InformationWeek. C3 IoT, however, wasn't originallyconceived as an IoT player. It was previously known as C3 Energy. The IoTaddition to its name is a relatively recent phenomenon.

C3 came to the industrial internet by way of instrumenting and analyzingdata from gas and electric utilities. Pacific Gas & Electric is one of itscustomers, along with the New Orleans giant Entergy. The young C3 Energystruck paydirt in Europe, where it signed up Enel (National Entity forElectricity) in Rome, running utilities in Italy and Spain, as well as Engie inCourbevoie, France.

With those two customers, it installed "the largest set of IoT productionapplications on earth," Siebel said.

"More than 80% of European smart meters are under management by theC3 IoT platform," according to market research firm Harbor Research,which issued a report on C3 and the IoT market in July. Harbor acceptedC3's estimate of 70 million sensors and other devices under managementand noted: "Compare this to GE Predix's forecast of 500,000 connecteddevices in 2016 or Siemens' 200,000 devices under management, and C3IoT is clearly miles beyond its established competitors. "

C3 has brought 11 of its planned 15 utility applications to market and isworking on the rest. More importantly, it has built a development platform forIoT applications which Siebel and his company have already proven in theutility industry.

At C3, Siebel has assembled a core development team made up of formerSiebel Systems and Oracle employees. (Oracle acquired Siebel Systemsin December 2006 for $6.1 billion.) The team has been through severalgenerations of software development disciplines, and debated how best toapproach the complex data gathering, collecting, interfacing, and analysisof masses of data off the internet of things.

Seventy of the company's 105 employees are software engineers, and theyhave taken a model-driven approach, creating an IoT platform whichconsists of approximately 1 million lines of Java code. "We are a model-driven architecture," Siebel said, dropping an inch-and-a-half thick patentapplication on his office's coffee table during our interview. "We used acompletely different generation of software. All those other companies areusing structured programming... and trying to cobble together the pieces. "

The approach gives C3 IoT a platform which can combine the use of bigdata and machine learning applications in order to aid in the collection ofdata from thousands of different devices. While the company's primarycustomers in its first two years have been utilities, it's now also selling its IoTplatform to companies in manufacturing, healthcare, financial services.

Siebel has been adventurous before and found it paid off. For example, hiscreation of Siebel Systems brought sales force automation to the IBMmainframe when no one had considered using it for that purpose.

Siebel graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with amaster's degree in computer science, as well as an MBA, and started out atOracle, where he was interviewed for a job by Larry Ellison personally andcounted himself as employee number 20.

Siebel left Oracle to found Siebel Systems, sparring periodically with Ellisonover the years.

Three years after Oracle bought Siebel Systems, Siebel was on a walkingsafari in Tanzania, during which he and his guide, who thought they were arespectful distance from the herd, were charged by an alarmed elephant.The guide was armed with a powerful rifle and had warned Siebel not to runif charged because a wild animal would then be encouraged to attack them.The elephant rapidly closed the 200 yard distance, ignored the guide firinga shot over its head, seized the guide and cast him 10 feet aside andproceeded to confront Siebel.

It was then, with elephant so close he could smell it and count the hairfollicles in the trunk, Siebel later told Forbes , he asked himself, "What arewe going to do now? "

The elephant answered by striking him down, goring him through the thighwith a tusk and stepping on his leg. Siebel survived the attack, but his tibiawas broken in so many places that it would require 16 reconstructivesurgeries and a long convalescence back in the US

His current adventure, sallying forth with a new software company into IoT,can't quite match the safari. Nevertheless, Siebel knows he previouslyenjoyed a big opportunity in launching salesforce automation on themainframe, and the IoT opportunity is much larger than that.

"We did something important at Siebel Systems and at Oracle too," Seibelsaid. But if C3 creates a platform that becomes a leader in IoT applications,or sets a cross-industry standard for how to create IoT applications, that"would be a lot more important," he said.2016-08-10 08:06 Charles Babcock

36 Fossil Q Wander and Q Marshal smartwatches

up for pre-order soonFossil’s new Android Wearsmartwatches, the Fossil QWander and Q Marshal, willbe available to pre-orderbeginning August 12, thecompany has revealed.

The wearables, unveiledback in March , featurealways-on customizabledisplays set in 45mmcasings, a mic and speaker,activity tracking with theability to set goals, haptic

feedback, magnetic charging and more. Despite the fact that they’repowered by Android Wear, both smartwatches are compatible with Androidand iOS.

While they are marketed as having activity tracking capabilities, neitherdevice includes a heart rate sensor. If fitness is your primary focus in awearable, you’ll be best served to look elsewhere as Fossil now has morethan 20 products in its Q lineup including smartwatches and activitytrackers.

Indeed, Fossil describes them as having a perfect balance of function andfashion in a “smaller, sleeker package.” Specifically, the Q Wander has asoft curving, multi-finish case with sculpted wire lugs while the Q Marshal isa bit more on the rugged side. Both can be further personalized withinterchangeable straps in silicon, leather and stainless steel to match awide array of occasions.

Look for the Fossil Q Wander and Q Marshal smartwatches to land instores August 29 with pricing starting at $295.2016-08-10 07:45 Shawn Knight

37 Seagate has built an incredible 60TB SSD that

it plans to release next yearSolid state drive capacitiesno longer lag behind theirhard drive counterparts.Samsung revealed it wasshipping its enormous 15TBSSD back in March, butSeagate is going one better.The data storage firm hasbuilt an incredible 60TBSSD that it aims to ship nextyear.

Seagate didn’t providetechnical specifications forthe Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) drive, but the company did say it has twicethe density and four times the capacity of Samsung’s PM1633a.

Those 60TB obviously mean it’s aimed at the enterprise market, such asdata centers. Seagate said it has the space needed to “accommodate 400million photos on a typical social media platform, or 12,000 DVD movies.”

The drive uses the standard enterprise 3.5-inch storage form factor. It will

allow businesses to access vast troves of data quickly and easily, andshould help meet the ever increasing demand for more storage space.

Should 60TB not be large enough, Seagate says the flexible architecturethe drive is based on could eventually allow it to grow to 100TB or more inthe same form factor.

"We are constantly seeking new ways to provide the highest densitypossible in our all-flash data center configurations,” said Mike Vildibill, vicepresident, Advanced Technologies and Big Data, Hewlett-PackardEnterprise. “Seagate’s new 60TB SAS SSD offers an exciting possibilityfor customers to achieve higher server storage performance and capacityconfigurations never seen before.”

Seagate didn’t say how much its product will cost, but with Samsung’s15TB SSD coming in at around $10,000, the 60TB drive isn't going to becheap. Consumers looking for a high-capacity solid state drive have theoption of buying Samsung's 4TB 850 Evo SSD , providing they’ve got aspare $1500.2016-08-10 06:15 Rob Thubron

38 Oracle says it didn’t ask employee to cook

cloud accountsOracle has denied in aCalifornia federal courtcharges leveled by a formermanager that she wassacked after she refused tocook accounts in thecompany’s cloud businessand threatened to blow thewhistle on the accountingpractices.

The software and cloudcomputing giant appears to

be fleshing out its original stand that the employee had been terminated forpoor performance and not as a whistleblower, which would give her anumber of protections under securities laws.

In a filing in June in the U. S. District Court for the Northern District ofCalifornia, Svetlana Blackburn, a senior finance manager for North AmericaSaaS/Cloud Revenue, alleged that her superiors had instructed her “ to addmillions of dollars in accruals to financial reports, with no concrete orforeseeable billing to support the numbers," an act that she had warned was

improper and suspect accounting.

Oracle denied the charge in its reply on Tuesday to the complaint and alsodenied that Blackburn had ever told her supervisor that she would “blow thewhistle” if ordered to proceed in the fashion.

The company’s lawyers wrote that the actions Blackburn complained ofwere not in retaliation, but based upon “legitimate, non-discriminatory, job-related reasons, including Plaintiff’s ongoing performance issues andfailure to address same.” The filing refers to Blackburn's alleged "improperconduct" while working at Oracle and her "choice to file false and scurrilousallegations in this case. "

The former employee was not a “whistleblower” under the Dodd-Frank WallStreet Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which protects employeesfrom discrimination, because she did not make a report “to theCommission” as required by the language of the DFA, according to thefiling.

Blackburn, whose employment was terminated after what she describes asa positive performance review in August 2015, accuses Oracle of unlawfulretaliation under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Dodd-Frank Act, whichare laws that aim to prevent corporate accounting fraud and errors, andoffer protection to whistleblowers.

Oracle has also denied Blackburn’s charge that her employment at thecompany came “to an abrupt end because she resisted, refused to engagein, and threatened to blow the whistle on accounting practices shereasonably believed to be unlawful.” In her complaint, Blackburn had alsocharged that upper management was "trying (and trying to push her) to fitsquare data into round holes, in an effort to bolster Oracle Cloud Servicesfinancial reports that would be paraded before company leadership as wellas the investing public.” Oracle has denied this allegation as well in its filing.There is some dispute about the date on which Blackburn’s employmentwas terminated, with her complaint claiming in some places that it was Aug.26, though in other places it mentions Oct. 15. Oracle has stated that shewas terminated on Oct. 15.

After Blackburn sued Oracle, company spokeswoman Deborah Hellingersaid it was confident that all its cloud accounting is proper and correct. "Thisformer employee worked at Oracle for less than a year and did not work inthe accounting group. She was terminated for poor performance, and weintend to sue her for malicious prosecution,” she added.

Blackburn’s lawyer could not be immediately reached for comment lateTuesday.2016-08-10 05:42 John Ribeiro

39 Denuvo, the strongest game DRM available,

has allegedly been crackedTo say that pirates have hadtrouble cracking Denuvoanti-tamper technology is anunderstatement. Pretty muchevery game that usesDenuvo DRM has remaineduncracked, thanks to theextremely tough and very wellengineered systems thatprevent crackers frommodifying game files withoutcausing errors.

In the last couple of days,however, it appears as though a cracking team has finally managed todefeat Denuvo. TorrentFreak is reporting that 'scene' group CONSPIR4CYhas released a version of Rise of the Tomb Raider that includes a full crackfor Denuvo, the DRM tech that has prevented pirates from playing the gamefor free since its launch in January this year.

This Denuvo crack comes shortly after a bypass system for the DRM techwas discovered over the weekend, and then promptly patched by thedevelopers of Denuvo. An exploit that used the Doom demo's Denuvoactivation system allowed pirates to bypass Denuvo in other games,although this exploit was only usable for around three days before it wasdisabled.

However with the release of a cracked version of Rise of the Tomb Raider,it seems as if current iterations of Denuvo have been properly defeated.There is hope among the pirating community that other Denuvo titles , suchas Doom, Mirror's Edge Catalyst, Far Cry Primal and more, could becracked using a similar method.

The last Denuvo game to be playable by pirates was FIFA 16, although inthis game Denuvo was bypassed rather than cracked. The company behindDenuvo patched this loophole in future versions of their DRM technology,which is why other games that use Denuvo have remained uncracked for solong.

There is a strong chance that whatever unpatched exploit has beendiscovered in Denuvo will be patched in a future version, however this willdo little to prevent pirates from playing existing Denuvo titles.

2016-08-10 05:30 Tim Schiesser

40 Magic Software meets 2Q profit forecasts

OR YEHUDA, Israel (AP) _Magic Software EnterprisesLtd. (MGIC) on Wednesdayreported second-quarterearnings of $4.1 million.

The Or Yehuda, Israel-basedcompany said it had netincome of 9 cents per share.Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were

12 cents per share.

The results met Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of threeanalysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was also for earnings of12 cents per share.

The business process integration software company posted revenue of$47.4 million in the period, beating Street forecasts. Three analystssurveyed by Zacks expected $45.8 million.

Magic Software expects full-year revenue in the range of $195 million to$200 million.

Magic Software shares have risen 37 percent since the beginning of theyear. The stock has increased 20 percent in the last 12 months.

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap ) using data from Zacks InvestmentResearch. Access a Zacks stock report on MGIC athttp://www.zacks.com/ap/MGIC

Keywords: Magic Software, Earnings Report2016-08-10 05:17 CNBC

41 FullContact raises $25M more to take on

LinkedIn in contact managementAs LinkedIn inches closer to completing its $26 billion acquisition byMicrosoft, smaller rivals have stepped up their game building viablealternatives for those who might want more independent products when itcomes to managing contacts in their professional networks. FullContact— one such competitor — has now raised a further $25 million.

The funding brings the totalraised by Denver-basedFullContact to just under $45million. Lorang said thecompany is not disclosing itsvaluation.

The big elephant in the roomfor FullContact is LinkedIn.Fast approaching 450million users, the company isone of the bigger players in the area of online professional identity and hasbecome the go-to place for people looking to connect with people in theirprofessional networks. On its own it was already a competitive threat,and its acquisition by Microsoft may be even more so, as it speaks to thebigger company’s ambitions to leverage LinkedIn’s social networking in itsown enterprise-focused products, from sales through to productivityservices.

But rather than wilting under the obvious challenges that this poses toFullContact and others in the space, FullContact’s co-founder and CEOBart Lorang has a more constructive view on the deal and what it means forhis startup.

“T he LinkedIn acquisition demonstrates the power of the single ID and aunified contact record in the ecosystem,” he said in an interview.

The key thing for him is that Microsoft remains a proprietary platform, andLinkedIn has not demonstrated itself to be particularly happy to share itsdata with the rest of that ecosystem, either. “FullContact’s strategy is tocreate an open platform that is owned by humanity. We allow and invitedevelopers to integrate with our platform, unlike LinkedIn. It has been ratherclosed off. They very much want to build a wall,” he added a littlemischievously, borrowing a phrase more commonly (and controversially )associated with something and someone else.

Led by Foundry Group with participation from Baird Capital, Shea Venturesand Blue Note, FullContact’s latest round will be used for acquisition — “Isee a lot of distressed startups out there in our wider field unable to raisemore money for sure,” said Lorang; and also hiring, business development,and adding in new features that will expand FullContact beyond contactmanagement and into new areas.

One of those new features, Lorang said, sounds like a way to use yourcontact information in FullContact’s database as an identity card across thewider web.

“We have quietly been working on FullContact Connect, our next-generationplatform capabilities where you will have your own ID, your own contactrecord, and you can use it to consume and control content online,” he said.“We are working on that. We do have ambitions.”

Founded in 2010 in Denver (where it is still based), FullContact has builtitself out as one of a group of companies that is trying to tackle the issue ofmanaging contacts that you make through your normal business life, as wellas growing that list through intelligent searches based on the people youalready know, and turning piecemeal contact info into more completeprofiles.

The company has its own primary data that it augments with data fromacross the web, and using algorithms — both built in-house and also pickedup by way of acquisition of competitors like Brewster — it merges all of it tocreate a database of some 40 billion contacts that its users can access.(FullContact does not disclose its actual user numbers, except to say thatthey are in the ‘millions.’)

FullContact today makes revenues from three categories of customers:individuals, businesses and software developers. It taps the first of thesegroups via freemium-style iPhone and Android apps that let you do thingslike scan and digitize business cards and then augment that informationwith more data about those people.

Meanwhile, the business and developer solutions let third parties tap intoFullContact’s database by way of APIs to help create more completecustomer profiles. The latter of these is a smart area for the company todevelop to pick up developers and others who found themselves in a lurchwhen LinkedIn shut down similar API functionality in 2015.

Ironically, while FullContact has built its business on the concept of beingable to enhance contact information, another area where Lorang alsoagreed it might move in years ahead might be in helping manage that infofor those who don’t want it out in the open.

This is a trend that we see picking up some speed with the recent surge ininterest in online privacy and data protection. For example, in Europe, youhave the “right to be forgotten” development, where Google and othersearch engines are required to remove search links on people’s nameswhen requested to do so by those individuals.

“I love the trend of being more transparent,” said Lorang. While Lorang saidyou can already claim and manage a profile on FullContact, it’s nowworking on ways of expanding that to other data repositories. “We are juststarting to roll out that type of capability to remove yourself,” he said. “You’llsee more from us on this in the next year.”

For now, FullContact and its investors are happy to keep the startup’s inDenver and well outside the Valley bubble to grow.

“With over 40 billion contact records under management, FullContact wasalready on track to more than double recurring revenue for the fourth straightyear,” said Brad Feld, MD of the Foundry Group, in a statement. “Thefunding will be used to support the company’s rapid growth by furtherexpanding sales, marketing and engineering as well as pursuing strategicacquisitions that bolster our technology and data assets.”2016-08-10 00:00 Ingrid Lunden

42 New MacBook Pro with Touch ID sensor and

OLED mini screen is coming soonGet ready for a massiveMacBook Pro update. Appleis planning to unveil new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBookPro laptops with retinadisplays soon. According toa new report fromBloomberg’s Mark Gurman ,Apple is building acompletely new pro laptop

with many new features, such as a Touch ID sensor and an OLED miniscreen above the keyboard.

If you’ve been following MacBook Pro rumors, you know these rumors aren’tnew. But Gurman is confirming what well-informed analyst Ming-Chi Kuofrom KGI Securities and 9to5mac have already been saying: yes, the newMacBook Pro is going to be a big release.

Let’s start with the shape of the device. The new MacBook Pro should bethinner and lighter, but not wedge-shaped like the MacBook Air or 12-inchretina MacBook. The bezels around the display should be smaller, and theoverall frame of the device should be smaller.

The fact that the new MacBook Pro won’t look like a MacBook Air is a goodsign for those who rely a lot on the multitude of ports on the existingMacBook Pro — there will be more than one port. Apple could switch toUSB Type-C ports to replace USB ports, the MagSafe port and evenThunderbolt ports as USB-C ports can support the Thunderbolt protocol.Maybe Apple will drop the HDMI port and SD card slot to save up on space,maybe not.

Under the hood, Apple will most probably use the Intel Skylake processors,

giving a performance boost and improving energy consumption. You canexpect better Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips as well.

But the most significant addition will be a narrow OLED display right abovethe keyboard. It should replace the physical function keys with atouchscreen. This could be the most surprising element of this MacBookPro as nobody knows exactly how Apple will use this strip. You could controlbasic laptop functions from this screen, such as volume and media buttons.But Apple could also take advantage of this screen to display shortcuts andinformation depending on the app you’re using.

Apple also plans to integrate a Touch ID sensor in your Mac. This would letyou unlock your laptop without having to type your password. Moreimportantly, the Touch ID sensor would ship with a secure enclave , makingyour Mac more secure than before. It would let app developers use TouchID for other things — password managers could take advantage of TouchID for example. And finally, it would make Apple Pay for macOS Sierramore secure.

Recently, many have pointed out that the MacBook Pro is embarrassinglyoutdated. The last major update was in June 2012, bringing a retina displayand a thinner design to the MacBook Pro lineup.

But people tend to forget that the unibody MacBook Pro was introduced in2008, also four years before the retina update. Apple doesn’t change itslaptops very often, relying on internal component upgrades every now andthen.

And yet, Skylake processors should have come sooner to the MacBookPro. Gurman is saying that Apple won’t introduce the new MacBook Pro atthe iPhone launch event that will likely happen on September 7. I could seeApple introducing the new laptop in October. It’s about time.2016-08-10 00:00 Romain Dillet

43 Sony will likely unveil the PlayStation 4 ‘Neo’

on September 7September 7 is going to be a busy day. Sony sent out invites for a pressevent in New York. The company will likely unveil the successor to thePlayStation 4. On the same day, Apple could also hold its usual iPhonelaunch event for the rumored iPhone 7.

The event is called “PlayStation Meeting,” and the company plans to “sharedetails about the PlayStation business.”

Given that Sony already acknowledged that the PlayStation 4 ‘Neo’ wasreal and wouldn’t be announced at E3 in June, everything indicates that

Sony is ready to announcethe PS4 ‘Neo’ just in time fora launch before the holidayseason.

Rumors of a more powerfulPlayStation 4 codenamed‘Neo’ started emerging inMarch on Kotaku. The newconsole is supposed to bemuch more powerful than theexisting PlayStation 4 in order to support more demanding games, andespecially for the PlayStation VR headset.

Virtual reality is quite demanding, and that’s why many people are buyingnew graphics cards for their computers. The PlayStation 4 was releasedthree years ago and could be a bottleneck for good-looking virtual realitygames. If you want a smooth experience, you need to run a game at aconsistent frame rate above 60 frames per second — otherwise you’ll getnauseous. And because the screen in your VR headset is so close to yourface, you want a good resolution as well. The existing PS4 will support thePlayStation VR, but the PS4 ‘Neo’ is the console you want for virtual reality.

In addition to virtual reality, the PS4 ‘Neo’ could be a good companion foryour brand new 4K TV. The new console should support 4K movies, TVshows and even games. Sony doesn’t want to fragment its user base, sodon’t expect PS4 ‘Neo’ exclusive games — all games should still work onthe good old PS4.

Microsoft will unveil a competitor to the PS4 ‘Neo’ next year. The Xbox One‘Scorpio’ could be even more powerful than the ‘Neo’, but will also launch ayear after Sony’s new console. We will have a team on the ground in NewYork to cover Sony’s PlayStation event.2016-08-10 00:00 Romain Dillet

44 Berkeley Lab gets the go-ahead for its 5,000-

robot 3D galaxy mapping projectYou don’t do things halfway when it comes to tasks like mapping the light ofmillions of galaxies. That sort of job requires a fairly massive undertakinglike, say, 5,000 ten-inch cylindrical robots each measuring the width of afinger that are tasked with gathering light from galaxies, stars andsupermassive blackhole-powered quasars.

And, of course, one doesn’t simply flip the switch and start mapping, even ifyou’re the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Among other things,

you’ve got to get theDepartment of Energy’sapproval before startingconstruction. Having justreceived that authorization ,the lab will embark upon theinstallation of the DESI (DarkEnergy SpectroscopicInstrument) next year at theKitt Peak NationalObservatory outside Tucson.The massive instrument is

set to begin its observations in 2019, using light to analyze variousproperties of the celestial bodies, including how quickly they’re movingaway from us (was it something we said?). Those observations will becapable of looking back in the rapidly expanding universe as far as 11billion years, getting fairly close to the start of it al.

The planned observation will take five years, focusing on a third of the skywith data capable of bringing a third dimension to standard 2D sky maps.Of course, every scientist is hoping to get some unique new insight out ofthe project.

Here’s spokesperson, Risa Wechsler putting dark energy on notice, “DESIwill be able to make a 3D map of the universe using an order of magnitudemore redshifts than currently exist. This will allow us to probe the physics ofthe universe and discover the true nature of dark energy.”2016-08-10 00:00 Brian Heater

45 Carvana raises a $160M Series C to expand its

online dealership and car vending machinesnationwide

The used car industry is aninteresting business. Themarket is huge – 45 millionused cars are bought eachyear in the U. S. But thebiggest player, CarMax, onlycontrols about 2% of themarket – but is still valuedat about $12 billion by WallStreet.

So that makes the market not only ripe for disruption, but also extremely

lucrative.

Carvana is a used car dealer that thinks it can gain some of thismarketshare by bringing an e-commerce approach to the industry. Thestartup, which we’ve covered before , has brought the entire sales processonline. And today the startup is announcing that is has raised a $160Mseries C to further expand its model across the United States.

A prospective car buyers starts on Carvana’s website , and picks out theexact car they want. The company offers cars in almost every body style andprice range, and had about 5,000 available as of last night. There’s nobargaining, but the company consistently offers prices a few thousanddollars better than Kelly Blue Book’s suggested retail price (and lets youcompare the two).

All financing and paperwork gets done online, and you have the choice ofeither having your car delivered or available for pickup at one of thecompany’s “car vending machines”.

What’s a car vending machine? It’s literally a big glass building thatautomatically dispenses a car that is preloaded by the company in the daysprior to the customer picking it up. Carvana opened their first one inNashville last year, and will use this funding to open more around thecountry.

Does a car vending machine sound gimmicky? Of course. But the companyexplained that it also has a practical purpose, besides being great foradvertising. The status quo for Carvana is currently to deliver your new carto your door, which obviously costs more than having you pick it up. So bybuilding a car vending machine in each city the company can save themoney they would spend on having employees delivery it to your door.

This $160M in funding follows $140M in equity and $400M in debtpreviously raised by the company. While Carvana won’t disclose specificinvestors, they have said that the round had participation from both new andexisting institutional investors.

Like previous funding rounds, growth and expansion is where Carvana isplanning on spending this money. But with this new funding they areplanning to expand and have readily available inventory in over 20+ marketsby the end of the year, which will probably require them to shell out a ton ofcash for a ton of used cars.

Plus, the company needs to build more physical locations to store (andpossibly vend) cars in each of these new cities. As Ernie Garcia, founderand CEO of the company explained, they could choose to grow slower withmuch less capital, but Carvana (and their investors) believe that they founda solid business model, and want to ramp up and strike while the iron is hot.

2016-08-10 00:00 Fitz Tepper

46 Learn about the future of American

technology from Megan Smith and Amac atDisrupt SF

There’s no doubt thattechnology has drasticallyevolved since PresidentBarack Obama took office in2008. Obamaacknowledged it himselfduring the GlobalEntrepreneurship Summitthis year — while on stagewith Mark Zuckerberg, he

mentioned using “this new thing called MySpace” on the campaign trail.

But the popularity of MySpace certainly isn’t the only thing that’s changedsince 2008. The White House has been hard at work bringing SiliconValley-style shakeups to government bureaucracy. We’re excited toannounce that two of the leading figures in the advancement of tech ingovernment — U. S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith and U. S.Deputy Chief Technology Officer Alexander Macgillivray, a.k.a. amac — willbe joining us onstage at Disrupt SF to discuss their work.

Smith and Macgillivray work in the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and their time on the Disrupt stage will give fascinating insight into theways technology is put to use in the White House, from eliminating red tapefor small business owners and startup founders to charting the future of bigdata and artificial intelligence.

Disrupt SF is September 12-14, just weeks before the presidential election— an exciting time to hear about the future of technology in the WhiteHouse. For Smith and many other Obama appointees, these next fewmonths are the fourth quarter of their government service, so they’ll beworking especially hard to debut their final projects before the nextadministration takes over.

Before Obama named Smith CTO, she was a vice president at Googleleading business development and later at Google X , the departmentwhere Google’s moonshot projects are born. She’s engineered earlysmartphone tech, bicycle locks, and solar cookstoves and cars.

Mcgillivray held several positions at Twitter before joining the public sector,including head of public policy and general council. He’s also worked as

deputy general counsel for products and IP at Google and is an avid tweeterand baker.

Join us for a discussion about the future of technology in America at Pier 48in San Francisco, September 12-14. Early bird pricing ends soon, so getyour tickets while you can.

Sponsors make TechCrunch events possible. If you want to learn moreabout sponsorships with TechCrunch, shoot an email tosponsors@techcrunch.com.2016-08-10 00:00 Kate Conger

47 Elon Musk says SolarCity will build a “solar

roof” for your houseWhat if your entire roof wasmade up entirely ofdedicated solar power cells?No, not adorned with thecurrent kind of solar panelsyou’ve likely seen on theexisting roofs of a fewneighbour houses – an entireroof actually made up ofsolar gathering material,rather than add-ons that install after the fact. That’s the vision described byElon Musk in SolarCity’s investor call yesterday (via Elecktrek ).

Musk, who acts as board Chairman rather than occupying a companyexecutive role, joined TeslaCity likely because of his proposal that Teslabuy SolarCity. That deal remains in progress, with a $2.6 billion stock offeragreed upon by both companies and now awaiting shareholder approval.

On the call, Musk followed a reveal by SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive thatSolarCity would have two product s to unveil by the end of this year with acomment that the company is working on “a solar roof, as opposed tomodules on a roof.” Rive echoed the product details, and Musk said thatpart of their product’s appeal vs. Other solutions will be that customers endup with “a beautiful roof,” as opposed to “a thing on the roof.”

By creating a product that actually replaces roofing material, SolarCity’spower generation offering becomes not an add-on, but a core housingcomponent, with a much easier sell opportunity both for new constructionand whenever a home has to re-roof (typically once every 20 years or sodepending on the type of shingle used). Both Musk and Rive signalled theysee a huge market opportunity in new roof builds.

It’s very likely that a solar roof option would be more expensive than atraditional one – probably by a wide margin. But SolarCity will also probablymarket in the cost of power production over however long the roof will last,which I’m sure will more than balance the construction cost, at least onpaper.2016-08-10 00:00 Darrell Etherington

48 GoPro’s Omni VR rig starts shipping August

17th; here’s a closer lookIt was never really a questionof whether GoPro would dothe VR thing, it was more aquestion of how — or, rather,where — it would fit in. Afterall, it’s probably a little late inthe game for the company tomore or less own the spaceas it’s managed to do withaction cameras (becoming

more or less synonymous), but while there are other VR camera solutionsout there, it’s early yet. There’s still land to stake out.

When reps from the company stopped by our office to show off the Omni,they grimaced at the word prosumer (understandably — it actually felt kindof weird coming out of my mouth), but acknowledged that that’s more orless the space their rig is trying to fill.

They added that they spotted an opening between the high-endprofessional setups like the insanely priced Ozo ($60,000) and the within-reach Samsung Gear 360 ($350). And hey, from a pure cost perspective,that opens up around $50,000 worth of wiggle room from companies to playaround with.

In a sense, GoPro’s biggest competition is itself — or rather, theinnumerable third-party accessories companies that rushed in to use thecompany’s cameras for their own rigs. After all, GoPros are ubiquitous,familiar and modular. Having been beaten to the punch, it’s important thatthe Omni works as more than just a framework for holding a bunch ofGoPros together.

The key differentiator, so far as the company sees it, is ease of use — thesort of thing you’ve got an upper-hand with when you actually manufacturerthe cameras and software for the rig. Synchronization is an important bit. Assimple as it sounds, turning six cameras on at the same time and makingsure they’re all in the same mode can be a headache, particularly in the

field. With the Omni, the camera labeled “one” is the brains of the operation.Change the settings on it and they all follow suit.

You can charge the rig with a single plug, and, probably best of all, it doesn’tmatter in which order you offload the memory card. You do still have to do allof that one at a time, however, though GoPro says they’re working on amore elegant solution to the issue.

The process of converting that footage to VR video is surprisingly simple.The company’s Omni Importer delivers it and Kolor (the French softwarecompany GoPro bought last year) stitches it together. It puts together a low-res preview in virtually no time. From there, users can edit things to theirheart’s content. What’s most impressive, really, is how painless the processis.

It’s not quite as off-the-shelf as some of the consumer-facing options, but italso ultimately offers more flexibility for the semi-professional users — and,of course, their use of GoPros versus a standalone unit means it’s possibleto fast swap the Hero4 out when one stops working, rather than having totake the whole setup into the shop.

The pricing is really a bit of a wild card here. At $5,000 for the whole deal(cameras, briefcase, batteries and all) or $1,500 if you bring your own half-dozen GoPros to the table, you’re probably either a part-time pro or ahobbyist with cash to spare. The rental market certainly seems primed for asetup like this. Perhaps some small sports video businesses as well, butanyone looking for a casual entry into VR video land will probably have theireyes set on something like the Gear 360.

For those who hit the sweet spot, however, the Omni starts shipping a weekfrom today.2016-08-10 00:00 Brian Heater

49 Blood Dragon becomes backward compatible

for Xbox OneMicrosoft has added anothergame to its growing library ofbackwards compatiblegames from the Xbox 360 tothe Xbox One. Ubisoft's FarCry 3: Blood Dragon joinsthe list of 233 other gamesthat had previously beenadded to the BackwardCompatibility list.

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is a standalone expansion to the popular shooterFar Cry 3 and is a very different game from the original material. Instead ofcontinuing to fight corrupt militant groups and fending off wild tigers, BloodDragon drops you in a fictional 2007 setting that borrows heavily from 80saction flicks like Commando and Robocop and flashes a lot of neon colors.Blood Dragon doesn't take itself too seriously, so if you're a fan of shootersand appreciate loads of humor and over-the-top action, you might considerpicking this game up.

If you already owned Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon on Xbox 360 as a digitalgame, it should already be showing up in your games library. If you don'talready own Blood Dragon , you can buy it directly from the Xbox Store for$14.99.

Source: Major Nelson2016-08-09 19:02 Chris Schroeder

50 Microsoft announces August Insider Slow

build for Office 2016 on MacEarlier this year, Microsoftannounced its Office InsiderProgram for Windowsdesktop , Windows 10Mobile , Android and Mac.Since then, the company hasconsistently been releasingupdates for its program onall the aforementionedprograms.

After releasing an update for Office Insider Slow build for Mac last month ,Microsoft has now announced the August feature update as well, which isavailable to Insider Slow participants. The version number of this build is15.25 (160806), and while it appears to be only a small bump in terms ofversion numbers - keeping in view that build 15.24 was released in July - itbrings a variety of new features.

For consumers with new or upgraded Outlook accounts, the company hasintroduced simplified summary cards in emails and calendars to stay on topof deliveries and travel information.

Additionally, Microsoft is also making it easier to get someone's attentionwith "@mentions" to Outlook mail. If the sender types "@" followed by aperson's name in the body of the email, the name will be highlighted andtheir address automatically added to the "To" line of the email.

The company is also facilitating consumers in the usage of MicrosoftPowerPoint, allowing users to make slides more dynamic with animatedbackground images. On user demand, Microsoft has also removedwarnings about feature loss when saving a CSV file. However, all of theaforementioned features require a valid Office 365 subscription.

That said, Microsoft has new features in store for people who don't have anOffice 365 subscription as well. The company has introduced "AccessibilityChecker", which finds and fixes accessibility issues with documents,spreadsheets, or presentations.

The Redmond giant is also allowing users to suggest features in Outlook orvote for other suggestions by clicking on Help > Suggest a Feature. Withregards to stylus settings in OneNote, users now have the ability to switch todrawing mode or keep using it as a mouse. Finally, Microsoft has also"polished up" the 64-bit version of Office 2016 for Mac based on "earlyInsider feedback".

The company has noted that you'll soon be prompted to update, if youhaven't already. It has also cautioned that if you use Office 2016 at work, theavailability of the aforementioned features is subject to your company'supdate policies.

Source: Microsoft2016-08-09 18:16 Usama Jawad

Total 50 articles.

Created at 2016-08-10 18:01