Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, one of the world’s hardest-charging
executives, was moved to tears Thursday as he led what is likely his last annual
meeting with employees.
The yearly event–uncreatively named the “Microsoft Company Meeting”–offers
up sneak previews of future Microsoft products, and serves as a pep rally for
some of Microsoft’s roughly 100,000 employees.
This year’s gathering in a Seattle basketball arena also served as one of
the first stops on the Steve Ballmer retirement tour, as he prepares to hand
over the reins in coming months to just the third CEO in Microsoft’s
history.
Ballmer, choking up near the close of the roughly seven-hour meeting, told
more than 10,000 attendees about his love of Microsoft and pledged the company
will keep innovating and “change the world,” according to people familiar with
the meeting. He also alluded to Oracle CEO Larry Ellisonskipping a planned
speech this week to catch his America’s Cup sailing team.
The CEO, wearing a blazing yellow shirt, exited the stage to the song
“(I’ve Had) The Time Of my Life.”
Employees, some who arrived in company buses from Microsoft’s suburban
headquarters, lined up early Thursday morning to file into KeyArena near
Seattle’s downtown. The onslaught was severe enough that some local news outlets
and transportation agencies issued traffic alerts and told people to avoid the
area. Many more Microsoft employees watched on webcasts at home or in local
offices around the world.
Prior Microsoft company meetings have featured celebrity emcees, such as
“Saturday Night Live” star Seth Meyers from and comedian Amy Sedaris. Microsoft
opted to go without a celebrity host this year. (Blitz, the mascot for the
Seattle Seahawks football team, was in attendance, according to a photo posted
on Blitz’s Twitter account.)
Ballmer’s tears weren’t the only moment of drama. Kevin Turner, Microsoft’s
chief operating officer, showed what some attendees said was an emotional video
of children talking about how proud they are of their parents who work at
Microsoft. Terry Myerson, newly in charge of operating software for Windows
computers, Xbox videogame consoles and Microsoft smartphones, was among the
other executives to speak to attendees, as was Mark Penn, the executive
responsible for Microsoft’s marketing.
Executives demonstrated a Halo videogame running over the Internet rather
than downloaded on a videogame console. Myerson hinted at the possibility of a
unified app store for Microsoft-powered phones, tablets, PCs and other
gadgets–to replace scattered hubs for downloading apps for computing devices
running Microsoft software. The demonstrations were more aspirations than
features likely to be immediately available, attendees said.
Outside the meeting, some local businesses sought to take advantage of the
Microsoft throngs. Buckley’s on Queen Anne, a pub located two blocks from
KeyArena, opened its doors early to serve breakfast and Bloody Mary drinks after
getting requests from a couple groups of Microsoft employees, said general
manager Harrison Hegberg.
Asked whether Buckley’s had sold any Bloody Mary drinks well before the 10
a.m. start time for the company meeting, Hegberg said, “I saw a few go out.”
Thursday, September 26, 2013
I’ve also spent numerous time operating with finish
More than the past year, I’ve used Windows 8 on more than 20 different PCs.
Over the past 3 months, I’ve upgraded a dozen or so of these devices to the
Windows eight.1 Preview and, more lately, for the Windows eight.1 RTM code.
Now, when I say made use of, I’m not counting devices where I had some minutes of hands-on time at a tradeshow. That total contains devices I spent top quality hands-on time with, for at the least days and frequently weeks or months. In just about every case, it was extended enough to obtain a strong overview and a feeling for the relative strengths and weaknesses of a very wide range of devices.
I’ve also spent numerous time operating with finish customers at all ability levels, listening to their feedback and helping them adjust for the at times steep Windows 8.x understanding curve. In this post and the accompanying image gallery, I desire to share a few of these experiences along with the lessons I’ve learned.
Very first, the definition of a Pc has expended significantly in the previous year. The Computer industry’s sales could be dropping, but the total continues to be a sizable number-every month, OEMs sell tens of millions of Windows-based devices. Increasingly, those devices are blurring the lines amongst what we used to contact a Pc and what we at the moment get in touch with a tablet. As a lot more hybrid styles attain the market place, we’re seeing a really distinctive answer to the question, “What is often a Pc, anyway?”
Second, Windows and its ecosystem have evolved tremendously within the past year at the same time. There are lots of much more third-party apps right now than there were a year ago, like a brand new wave of apps that the general public will not see until Windows 8.1 is released in October. The new Mail app, for example, can be a profound improvement on its Windows eight predecessor.
That still may well not be enough evolution to satisfy some critics. It may possibly take one more two rounds of refinements and new capabilities to have Windows 8.x to the “good enough” level for a number of people. (Excellent news for them: Windows 7 is years from its expiration date.)
I get the aggravation over Windows 8. I know plenty of people who rejected Windows eight because of a disappointing and confusing initial knowledge, even right after creating a good-faith work to adapt. Immediately after spending three months with the Windows 8.1 Preview and also a couple weeks with all the Windows eight.1 RTM code, I can let you know it does indeed soften the rough edges of Windows eight on hardware developed for Windows 7 or earlier. But those rough edges are nonetheless there.
PCs developed for Windows 7 are extremely unique from those designed for Windows 8.x. In reality, Windows 8.1 actually does not make sense until you start off employing it on hardware that was constructed having a touch-first interface as its explanation for getting. The factors why Windows eight.1 works the way it does come into even sharper concentrate any time you switch amongst many touchscreen devices with apps, settings, personalization, and data files syncing involving them.
I have been covering Windows for greater than 20 years, and I cannot keep in mind any other release exactly where applying the new OS on new hardware is so vital to getting a decent expertise. On older PCs, adding Windows eight.x makes for a mixed bag, with regards to the overall encounter. On mobile devices employing modern hardware (in particular 4th Generation Intel Core CPUs, aka Haswell), the variations are profound. The devices I'm making use of most normally in recent times can boot from a cold start out in much less than 15 seconds and resume from sleep immediately. They get far much better battery life than equivalent models that were built just two years ago, and overall performance is commonly light-years much better, if only thanks to Moore’s Law.
But the most important ingredient for mobile devices, in my opinion, can be a touchscreen. Around the multi-monitor desktop I’m employing to write this post, I do not need a touchscreen-I’ve mastered the keyboard and mouse shortcuts, and also the Logitech T400 Touch Mouse has sufficient gesture support to manage most scrolling (horizontal and vertical). But for every little thing else, if it doesn't possess a touchscreen, I am not interested.
When I sat down and wrote down the names and model numbers of each of the Windows eight.x devices I’ve used over the previous year, I identified that they match neatly into these seven categories:
The initial generation of Ultrabooks shipped a couple years after Windows 7. The contrast using the greatest hardware from just a couple of years earlier, in 2009 and 2010, was eye-opening. I owned and utilised two from the very best examples from that first wave of Ultrabooks: the Samsung Series 9 (which was my wife’s principal Computer for roughly a year) as well as the ASUS ZenBook UX31E (which was my major mobile personal computer for 18 months). They’re nevertheless amazingly light and responsive…or so I’m told by their new owners. They’ve been replaced in our household by newer, lighter, more quickly models that contain touchscreens.
I know it’s probable to make the intellectual argument that touchscreens do not belong on portable devices which have a permanently attached keyboard and trackpad. But that theory does not survive contact with all the genuine globe. Various people will make use of the touchscreen to varying degrees, but I have however to determine anybody who didn’t locate some set of actions which are just simpler to accomplish via direct manipulation than with a trackpad. And also the "gorilla arms" argument turns out to become a non-factor on notebooks. The truth is, I guarantee you that following making use of a touchscreen device for even a couple of days, you may choose up your old notebook and touch the screen, expecting it do one thing. The Haswell-equipped Ultrabook I am at the moment working with is one of the best-engineered devices I’ve ever owned.
http://www.windows7retailpack.com/
Now, when I say made use of, I’m not counting devices where I had some minutes of hands-on time at a tradeshow. That total contains devices I spent top quality hands-on time with, for at the least days and frequently weeks or months. In just about every case, it was extended enough to obtain a strong overview and a feeling for the relative strengths and weaknesses of a very wide range of devices.
I’ve also spent numerous time operating with finish customers at all ability levels, listening to their feedback and helping them adjust for the at times steep Windows 8.x understanding curve. In this post and the accompanying image gallery, I desire to share a few of these experiences along with the lessons I’ve learned.
Very first, the definition of a Pc has expended significantly in the previous year. The Computer industry’s sales could be dropping, but the total continues to be a sizable number-every month, OEMs sell tens of millions of Windows-based devices. Increasingly, those devices are blurring the lines amongst what we used to contact a Pc and what we at the moment get in touch with a tablet. As a lot more hybrid styles attain the market place, we’re seeing a really distinctive answer to the question, “What is often a Pc, anyway?”
Second, Windows and its ecosystem have evolved tremendously within the past year at the same time. There are lots of much more third-party apps right now than there were a year ago, like a brand new wave of apps that the general public will not see until Windows 8.1 is released in October. The new Mail app, for example, can be a profound improvement on its Windows eight predecessor.
That still may well not be enough evolution to satisfy some critics. It may possibly take one more two rounds of refinements and new capabilities to have Windows 8.x to the “good enough” level for a number of people. (Excellent news for them: Windows 7 is years from its expiration date.)
I get the aggravation over Windows 8. I know plenty of people who rejected Windows eight because of a disappointing and confusing initial knowledge, even right after creating a good-faith work to adapt. Immediately after spending three months with the Windows 8.1 Preview and also a couple weeks with all the Windows eight.1 RTM code, I can let you know it does indeed soften the rough edges of Windows eight on hardware developed for Windows 7 or earlier. But those rough edges are nonetheless there.
PCs developed for Windows 7 are extremely unique from those designed for Windows 8.x. In reality, Windows 8.1 actually does not make sense until you start off employing it on hardware that was constructed having a touch-first interface as its explanation for getting. The factors why Windows eight.1 works the way it does come into even sharper concentrate any time you switch amongst many touchscreen devices with apps, settings, personalization, and data files syncing involving them.
I have been covering Windows for greater than 20 years, and I cannot keep in mind any other release exactly where applying the new OS on new hardware is so vital to getting a decent expertise. On older PCs, adding Windows eight.x makes for a mixed bag, with regards to the overall encounter. On mobile devices employing modern hardware (in particular 4th Generation Intel Core CPUs, aka Haswell), the variations are profound. The devices I'm making use of most normally in recent times can boot from a cold start out in much less than 15 seconds and resume from sleep immediately. They get far much better battery life than equivalent models that were built just two years ago, and overall performance is commonly light-years much better, if only thanks to Moore’s Law.
But the most important ingredient for mobile devices, in my opinion, can be a touchscreen. Around the multi-monitor desktop I’m employing to write this post, I do not need a touchscreen-I’ve mastered the keyboard and mouse shortcuts, and also the Logitech T400 Touch Mouse has sufficient gesture support to manage most scrolling (horizontal and vertical). But for every little thing else, if it doesn't possess a touchscreen, I am not interested.
When I sat down and wrote down the names and model numbers of each of the Windows eight.x devices I’ve used over the previous year, I identified that they match neatly into these seven categories:
The initial generation of Ultrabooks shipped a couple years after Windows 7. The contrast using the greatest hardware from just a couple of years earlier, in 2009 and 2010, was eye-opening. I owned and utilised two from the very best examples from that first wave of Ultrabooks: the Samsung Series 9 (which was my wife’s principal Computer for roughly a year) as well as the ASUS ZenBook UX31E (which was my major mobile personal computer for 18 months). They’re nevertheless amazingly light and responsive…or so I’m told by their new owners. They’ve been replaced in our household by newer, lighter, more quickly models that contain touchscreens.
I know it’s probable to make the intellectual argument that touchscreens do not belong on portable devices which have a permanently attached keyboard and trackpad. But that theory does not survive contact with all the genuine globe. Various people will make use of the touchscreen to varying degrees, but I have however to determine anybody who didn’t locate some set of actions which are just simpler to accomplish via direct manipulation than with a trackpad. And also the "gorilla arms" argument turns out to become a non-factor on notebooks. The truth is, I guarantee you that following making use of a touchscreen device for even a couple of days, you may choose up your old notebook and touch the screen, expecting it do one thing. The Haswell-equipped Ultrabook I am at the moment working with is one of the best-engineered devices I’ve ever owned.
http://www.windows7retailpack.com/
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
SnapEDA Wants To Help Fuel Hardware Startups With A Github-Like Community For CAD
There’s a growing number of startups out there that are focusing on
building new hardware, and that’s an immensely different problem compared to
building a software business, in terms of sourcing resources to use to build the
products involved, sourcing talent and solving problems. That’s why Natasha
Baker founded SnapEDA, a website and community dedicated to helping hardware
engineers connect, and helping businesses connecting with them.
Baker was at Disrupt’s Startup Alley this year, showing off her platform, which she says is essentially a Github for hardware. It’s a community based around sharing CAD design for components in circuit boards and electronics, including tools that allow schematics to be downloaded in a variety of formats compatible with all leading CAD programs, and community validation tools that allow users to flag problems with schematics or to verify that they work correctly.
“What we’re trying to do is show people everything they need to know, so data sheet specs, pricing, and availability,” Baker said in an interview, discussing the parts pages aspect of the site. “But our main value add, the thing that hasn’t really been done before is offering CAD files that are convertible to every format.”
Aside from providing crowd-sourced, multi-format exportable design files for chips, SnapEDA also aspires to be a true community for builders and electronics engineers. Part of that is allowing people to vouch for designs and components, but another part is allowing them to build personal profiles on SnapEDA, which lists their community contributions, as well as tags that describe their expertise. The long-term vision is to use those to help connect them with companies who need to find specific talent. Baker says that it’s a big challenge for companies to find the right people to help them design and build hardware, so there’s a big opportunity in becoming a specialist network for that.
“A lot of the startups don’t know where to find designers,” she said. “Or they have designers, but they don’t know where to find the layout engineers [those who actually plot out the circuit board layout]. So our goal is to connect people who are specialized in different areas of electronic design. Electronic design is so niche, but there’s so many specialities even within electronic design.”
Someone needs to provide a central resource not only for connecting these individuals but also for keeping track of what hardware engineers are doing, and which ones are actually qualified to fill the needs of emerging hardware startups.
“We try to aggregate all the actions that people have taken on the site,” she said. “Because just the way that Github has made it so that people look at your online profile before they hire you as a software engineer, we think the same thing is going to happen for hardware.”
SnapEDA also has a manufacturing platform, where they produce their own boards for customers. They have both low-cost options sourced from China, as well as manufacturing partners based in Portland or Toronto for customers who would rather source things domestically.
Startups supporting hardware startups are becoming more numerous as the opportunity expands, with others like Upverter trying to capitalize on this growing movement. SnapEDA has a good model to follow in Github, but we’ll have to wait and see if hardware has matured enough as a startup category to fuel a big need for this kind of product and community. So far, the company is bootstrapped, but Baker says they’ll start looking for funding pretty soon.
Baker was at Disrupt’s Startup Alley this year, showing off her platform, which she says is essentially a Github for hardware. It’s a community based around sharing CAD design for components in circuit boards and electronics, including tools that allow schematics to be downloaded in a variety of formats compatible with all leading CAD programs, and community validation tools that allow users to flag problems with schematics or to verify that they work correctly.
“What we’re trying to do is show people everything they need to know, so data sheet specs, pricing, and availability,” Baker said in an interview, discussing the parts pages aspect of the site. “But our main value add, the thing that hasn’t really been done before is offering CAD files that are convertible to every format.”
Aside from providing crowd-sourced, multi-format exportable design files for chips, SnapEDA also aspires to be a true community for builders and electronics engineers. Part of that is allowing people to vouch for designs and components, but another part is allowing them to build personal profiles on SnapEDA, which lists their community contributions, as well as tags that describe their expertise. The long-term vision is to use those to help connect them with companies who need to find specific talent. Baker says that it’s a big challenge for companies to find the right people to help them design and build hardware, so there’s a big opportunity in becoming a specialist network for that.
“A lot of the startups don’t know where to find designers,” she said. “Or they have designers, but they don’t know where to find the layout engineers [those who actually plot out the circuit board layout]. So our goal is to connect people who are specialized in different areas of electronic design. Electronic design is so niche, but there’s so many specialities even within electronic design.”
Someone needs to provide a central resource not only for connecting these individuals but also for keeping track of what hardware engineers are doing, and which ones are actually qualified to fill the needs of emerging hardware startups.
“We try to aggregate all the actions that people have taken on the site,” she said. “Because just the way that Github has made it so that people look at your online profile before they hire you as a software engineer, we think the same thing is going to happen for hardware.”
SnapEDA also has a manufacturing platform, where they produce their own boards for customers. They have both low-cost options sourced from China, as well as manufacturing partners based in Portland or Toronto for customers who would rather source things domestically.
Startups supporting hardware startups are becoming more numerous as the opportunity expands, with others like Upverter trying to capitalize on this growing movement. SnapEDA has a good model to follow in Github, but we’ll have to wait and see if hardware has matured enough as a startup category to fuel a big need for this kind of product and community. So far, the company is bootstrapped, but Baker says they’ll start looking for funding pretty soon.
The tablet will be marketed to each customers
Dell showed a brand new Windows eight.1 tablet Wednesday called Venue,
which can be a brand name for mobile devices the Pc maker abandoned when it
discontinued shipment of smartphones early last year.
The Venue tablet has an 8-inch screen and runs on Intel’s Atom chip code-named Bay Trail. It was demonstrated as shown above on stage by Neil Hand, vice president at Dell, through a keynote at the Intel Developer Forum becoming held in San Francisco.
The tablet will be marketed to each customers and enterprises, and will have long-battery life and cellular information connectivity. Much more particulars about the new Venue tablet along with other devices might be shared at an occasion in New York City on October two windows7retailpack.com, Hand said, hinting that much more mobile devices from Dell might be on tap.
The new tablet also marks Dell’s reentry into the consumer tablet market. The firm now offers the XPS ten with Windows RT as well as the Latitude 10 with Windows 8, each targeted at enterprises. Dell last year discontinued its Streak line of consumer tablets, but has reiterated its assistance for the customer tablet industry and Windows 8 OS.
Toshiba and Aava Mobile lately announced Windows 8.1 tablets. Asustek also showed a Bay Trail tablet on stage throughout the IDF keynote.
Also on Wednesday, Intel announced new quad-core Bay Trail chips for tablets. Bay Trail tablets could weigh as tiny 14.1 ounces and offer 8 hours of battery life when the users is watching high-definition video.
The Venue tablet has an 8-inch screen and runs on Intel’s Atom chip code-named Bay Trail. It was demonstrated as shown above on stage by Neil Hand, vice president at Dell, through a keynote at the Intel Developer Forum becoming held in San Francisco.
The tablet will be marketed to each customers and enterprises, and will have long-battery life and cellular information connectivity. Much more particulars about the new Venue tablet along with other devices might be shared at an occasion in New York City on October two windows7retailpack.com, Hand said, hinting that much more mobile devices from Dell might be on tap.
The new tablet also marks Dell’s reentry into the consumer tablet market. The firm now offers the XPS ten with Windows RT as well as the Latitude 10 with Windows 8, each targeted at enterprises. Dell last year discontinued its Streak line of consumer tablets, but has reiterated its assistance for the customer tablet industry and Windows 8 OS.
Toshiba and Aava Mobile lately announced Windows 8.1 tablets. Asustek also showed a Bay Trail tablet on stage throughout the IDF keynote.
Also on Wednesday, Intel announced new quad-core Bay Trail chips for tablets. Bay Trail tablets could weigh as tiny 14.1 ounces and offer 8 hours of battery life when the users is watching high-definition video.
Monday, September 2, 2013
Verizon Buys Verizon Wireless from Vodafone for $130B
It's official. Verizon is officially buying back into Verizon Wireless with
a one-hundred-percent controlling interest. Verizon announced today that the
company has reached an agreement with British carrier Vodafone to repurchase the
45-percent stake in Verizon Wireless that Vodafone has owned since 1999.
The fairly massive deal will cost Verizon a total of $130 billion, a mix of $58.9 billion in cash, $5 billion in notes, and $60.2 billion in common stock. Verizon will also sell its minority stake in Vodafone Omnitel back to Vodafone for $3.5 billion, which leaves Verizon $2.5 billion to figure out and generate using other, undescribed methods.
While the rumored deal was officially approved by the boards of both companies today, it still has to face both regulatory and shareholder approval. Which is to say, don't expect to see the deal finalized any time before the first quarter of next year. After that, however – assuming everything goes well – Verizon will finally have a bit more control over its wireless fate which, as Venturebeat's Devindra Hardawar notes, could allow the company to offer up new subscription plans and new business ventures.
"This transaction will enhance value across platforms and allow Verizon to operate more efficiently, so we can continue to focus on producing more seamless and integrated products and solutions for our customers. We believe full ownership will provide increased opportunities in the enterprise and consumer wireline markets," said Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam in a statement.
Vodafone CEO, Vittorio Colao, praised the two companies' partnership over the past decade or so, which has allowed Verizon Wireless to grow "into a market leader with great momentum."
"We wish Lowell and the Verizon team continuing success over the years ahead," added Colao, in a statement issued by Verizon.
As if the announcement isn't enough to get Verizon's stock price moving and shaking when U.S. markets reopen tomorrow — the third-largest corporate deal in history, writesAllThingsD's Ina fried — Verizon also used its press release to announce an increase to the company's quarterly dividend. The new rate, 53 cents per share, is an increase of 1.5 cents (or 2.9 percent) from last quarter, and moves Verizon's annual dividend up to $2.12 per share instead of $2.06.
As for Vodafone, it remains to be seen whether the company will opt to start running some acquisitions of its own or, as Fried reports, whether Vodafone now has a nice, juicy target on its head for other wireless companies that might be interested in some new telecom assets. According to a report from Blomberg, it's possible that AT&T might put in a bid.
The fairly massive deal will cost Verizon a total of $130 billion, a mix of $58.9 billion in cash, $5 billion in notes, and $60.2 billion in common stock. Verizon will also sell its minority stake in Vodafone Omnitel back to Vodafone for $3.5 billion, which leaves Verizon $2.5 billion to figure out and generate using other, undescribed methods.
While the rumored deal was officially approved by the boards of both companies today, it still has to face both regulatory and shareholder approval. Which is to say, don't expect to see the deal finalized any time before the first quarter of next year. After that, however – assuming everything goes well – Verizon will finally have a bit more control over its wireless fate which, as Venturebeat's Devindra Hardawar notes, could allow the company to offer up new subscription plans and new business ventures.
"This transaction will enhance value across platforms and allow Verizon to operate more efficiently, so we can continue to focus on producing more seamless and integrated products and solutions for our customers. We believe full ownership will provide increased opportunities in the enterprise and consumer wireline markets," said Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam in a statement.
Vodafone CEO, Vittorio Colao, praised the two companies' partnership over the past decade or so, which has allowed Verizon Wireless to grow "into a market leader with great momentum."
"We wish Lowell and the Verizon team continuing success over the years ahead," added Colao, in a statement issued by Verizon.
As if the announcement isn't enough to get Verizon's stock price moving and shaking when U.S. markets reopen tomorrow — the third-largest corporate deal in history, writesAllThingsD's Ina fried — Verizon also used its press release to announce an increase to the company's quarterly dividend. The new rate, 53 cents per share, is an increase of 1.5 cents (or 2.9 percent) from last quarter, and moves Verizon's annual dividend up to $2.12 per share instead of $2.06.
As for Vodafone, it remains to be seen whether the company will opt to start running some acquisitions of its own or, as Fried reports, whether Vodafone now has a nice, juicy target on its head for other wireless companies that might be interested in some new telecom assets. According to a report from Blomberg, it's possible that AT&T might put in a bid.
Performance-wise, we haven’t seen any difference amongst
Which OS is ideal for gaming? Windows 7 or Windows 8? There’s lots of
heated debate around the topic, but the answer is relatively simple.
There are actually few technical variations involving the two operating systems where games are concerned, and any game that will run on Windows 7 really should run on Windows eight. See our Windows 8 review.
Because of the fact that Windows 8’s new ‘modern user interface’ supports apps, some casual games are available only on Windows eight due to the fact Windows 7 can not run these apps. See also: what's the difference amongst Windows 8 & Windows 7?
If you’re choosing a new PC or laptop and cannot decide whether to go for Windows 7 or 8, then from a gaming perspective it doesn’t really matter which you choose. From a future-proofing point of view, Windows eight is the obvious choice. However, if you dislike the modern UI then bear in mind that the imminent Windows eight.1 update includes an office professional plus 2010 retail pack option where you can bypass the new Start screen and boot straight towards the old desktop.
You’ll probably want to install a replacement start menu, such as Start eight or Pokki, considering that Windows 8.1 still doesn’t have a ‘proper’ start menu (unless you’re happy to use the Start screen, of course).
Performance-wise, we haven’t seen any difference amongst Windows 7 and 8 when it comes to frame rates, so a given game will run at the same speed around the same hardware regardless of whether you have Windows 7 or Windows 8 installed.
If you’re interested in the technical variations, Windows 7 has only partial support for Direct3D 11.1, which is part of DirectX. Windows 8 has full support.
However, while it’s possible that game developers will use some features that aren’t supported in Windows 7, it’s very unlikely that you’ll notice the distinction. The game will still run in Windows 7, but the graphics quality might be slightly reduced.
There are actually few technical variations involving the two operating systems where games are concerned, and any game that will run on Windows 7 really should run on Windows eight. See our Windows 8 review.
Because of the fact that Windows 8’s new ‘modern user interface’ supports apps, some casual games are available only on Windows eight due to the fact Windows 7 can not run these apps. See also: what's the difference amongst Windows 8 & Windows 7?
If you’re choosing a new PC or laptop and cannot decide whether to go for Windows 7 or 8, then from a gaming perspective it doesn’t really matter which you choose. From a future-proofing point of view, Windows eight is the obvious choice. However, if you dislike the modern UI then bear in mind that the imminent Windows eight.1 update includes an office professional plus 2010 retail pack option where you can bypass the new Start screen and boot straight towards the old desktop.
You’ll probably want to install a replacement start menu, such as Start eight or Pokki, considering that Windows 8.1 still doesn’t have a ‘proper’ start menu (unless you’re happy to use the Start screen, of course).
Performance-wise, we haven’t seen any difference amongst Windows 7 and 8 when it comes to frame rates, so a given game will run at the same speed around the same hardware regardless of whether you have Windows 7 or Windows 8 installed.
If you’re interested in the technical variations, Windows 7 has only partial support for Direct3D 11.1, which is part of DirectX. Windows 8 has full support.
However, while it’s possible that game developers will use some features that aren’t supported in Windows 7, it’s very unlikely that you’ll notice the distinction. The game will still run in Windows 7, but the graphics quality might be slightly reduced.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Personal jetpack gets go-ahead for manned test flights
Many a morning on a stalled subway car involves dreams of personal jetpacks
wafting through my commute-addled brain. So that same brain lit up with cautious
excitement on news that a much-hyped jetpack from New Zealand's Martin Aircraft
has gotten the green light for manned test flights.
"For us, it's a very important step because it moves it out of what I call a dream into something which I believe we're now in a position to commercialize and take forward very quickly," Martin Aircraft CEO Peter Coker told news agency AFP.
If the manned-flight tests go as hoped, Martin says a jetpack for the general public could hit the market in 2015 (and by general public, we mean people with at least $100,000 to spare). A version designed for the military and first-responder emergency crews could be ready for delivery a year before that.
The jetpack, which Martin Aircraft calls a "motorbike in the sky," is made of a carbon fiber composite with a bit of Kevlar for the rotor. A gasoline engine drives ducted fans that produce enough thrust to lift the one-person aircraft into a vertical takeoff and enable sustained flight before a vertical landing (in a 2011 test, the jetpack stayed aloft, with a dummy on-board, formore than seven minutes -- a record). Fortunately for those of us accustomed to getting from home to work and back with our feet on the ground, it comes equipped with a ballistic parachute system.
Aviation enthusiasts and sci-fi fans -- and annoyed commuters, no doubt -- have followed the Martin Jetpack with interest since an earlier prototype's coming-out party at theOshkosh air show in the summer of 2008. The fact that the craft couldn't get more than 3.5 feet off the ground at that time didn't stem the enthusiasm over the notion of "Jetsons"-style travel being closer than originally thought.
The company's latest prototype, the P12, is the first model to gain Civil Aviation Authority certification for manned flight. "Changing the position of the ducts has vastly improved the jetpack's performance, especially its maneuverability," says the company, which has been testing this prototype via remote control.
The P12 can climb more than half a mile and travel at a speed of about 43 mph.
The New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority says test flights of the P12 will be subject to strict safety requirements, and that flights will not be allowed to go higher than 20 feet above the ground or 25 feet above water. Should the manned tests help lead to futuristic-style jetpack travel, a particular country's regulations will determine whether drivers need a pilot's license to fly one.
"For us, it's a very important step because it moves it out of what I call a dream into something which I believe we're now in a position to commercialize and take forward very quickly," Martin Aircraft CEO Peter Coker told news agency AFP.
If the manned-flight tests go as hoped, Martin says a jetpack for the general public could hit the market in 2015 (and by general public, we mean people with at least $100,000 to spare). A version designed for the military and first-responder emergency crews could be ready for delivery a year before that.
The jetpack, which Martin Aircraft calls a "motorbike in the sky," is made of a carbon fiber composite with a bit of Kevlar for the rotor. A gasoline engine drives ducted fans that produce enough thrust to lift the one-person aircraft into a vertical takeoff and enable sustained flight before a vertical landing (in a 2011 test, the jetpack stayed aloft, with a dummy on-board, formore than seven minutes -- a record). Fortunately for those of us accustomed to getting from home to work and back with our feet on the ground, it comes equipped with a ballistic parachute system.
Aviation enthusiasts and sci-fi fans -- and annoyed commuters, no doubt -- have followed the Martin Jetpack with interest since an earlier prototype's coming-out party at theOshkosh air show in the summer of 2008. The fact that the craft couldn't get more than 3.5 feet off the ground at that time didn't stem the enthusiasm over the notion of "Jetsons"-style travel being closer than originally thought.
The company's latest prototype, the P12, is the first model to gain Civil Aviation Authority certification for manned flight. "Changing the position of the ducts has vastly improved the jetpack's performance, especially its maneuverability," says the company, which has been testing this prototype via remote control.
The P12 can climb more than half a mile and travel at a speed of about 43 mph.
The New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority says test flights of the P12 will be subject to strict safety requirements, and that flights will not be allowed to go higher than 20 feet above the ground or 25 feet above water. Should the manned tests help lead to futuristic-style jetpack travel, a particular country's regulations will determine whether drivers need a pilot's license to fly one.
That is a massive modify for Windows
Though it looks like Microsoft is placing the finishing touches on Windows
8.1, a few reports say the release date continues to be a couple months
away.
Each ZDNet plus the Verge claim that Windows eight.1 will launch in October, not just for existing Windows eight PCs, but for new computers operating the updated operating method. The duo have been the very first to report on Windows eight.1's (then called Windows Blue) existence, lots of months ago in our website.
Mind you, this isn't a delay, as Microsoft has never ever confirmed a release date for Windows 8.1. The enterprise has only stated that it would release the computer software to Pc makers (a approach identified as RTM) in August. Each reports say Microsoft is still on track.
But as ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley explains, Microsoft could be holding back the actual launch for any couple of motives: 1st, Windows eight.1 is reportedly rather buggy, even to get a test develop, so the further time will permit Microsoft to clean issues up via software program updates for new Pc buyers. Second, releasing both the update and new Windows eight.1 devices at the same time might develop a larger splash, amounting to a “launch event” for the far more user-friendly version of Microsoft's operating program.
Windows 8.1 incorporates quite a few concessions for desktop customers, at the same time as new characteristics for the contemporary interface. Customers is going to be able to boot straight towards the desktop, disable modern-style “hot corners” and access essential desktop functions by right-clicking around the newly-restored Start off button. The contemporary interface involves key improvements to built-in apps, the ability to use 3 apps side-by-side, overhauled Bing search and more. The net effect is the fact that it is simpler to keep on the desktop if you'd like, but not unthinkable to switch for the modern day UI.
If Microsoft manages to launch the update in October, it'll fall about the one-year anniversary of Windows eight. That is a massive modify for Windows, which usually releases important updates once every couple of years, but it is a needed change as Microsoft tries to keep up with Apple and Google. No matter whether you appreciate or hate the operating method, there is no doubt that Microsoft's switch to a rapid release cycle is undoubtedly bearing fruit.
Each ZDNet plus the Verge claim that Windows eight.1 will launch in October, not just for existing Windows eight PCs, but for new computers operating the updated operating method. The duo have been the very first to report on Windows eight.1's (then called Windows Blue) existence, lots of months ago in our website.
Mind you, this isn't a delay, as Microsoft has never ever confirmed a release date for Windows 8.1. The enterprise has only stated that it would release the computer software to Pc makers (a approach identified as RTM) in August. Each reports say Microsoft is still on track.
But as ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley explains, Microsoft could be holding back the actual launch for any couple of motives: 1st, Windows eight.1 is reportedly rather buggy, even to get a test develop, so the further time will permit Microsoft to clean issues up via software program updates for new Pc buyers. Second, releasing both the update and new Windows eight.1 devices at the same time might develop a larger splash, amounting to a “launch event” for the far more user-friendly version of Microsoft's operating program.
Windows 8.1 incorporates quite a few concessions for desktop customers, at the same time as new characteristics for the contemporary interface. Customers is going to be able to boot straight towards the desktop, disable modern-style “hot corners” and access essential desktop functions by right-clicking around the newly-restored Start off button. The contemporary interface involves key improvements to built-in apps, the ability to use 3 apps side-by-side, overhauled Bing search and more. The net effect is the fact that it is simpler to keep on the desktop if you'd like, but not unthinkable to switch for the modern day UI.
If Microsoft manages to launch the update in October, it'll fall about the one-year anniversary of Windows eight. That is a massive modify for Windows, which usually releases important updates once every couple of years, but it is a needed change as Microsoft tries to keep up with Apple and Google. No matter whether you appreciate or hate the operating method, there is no doubt that Microsoft's switch to a rapid release cycle is undoubtedly bearing fruit.
Sunday, July 21, 2013
SIM Cards Have Finally Been Hacked, And The Flaw Could Affect Millions Of Phones
Smartphones are susceptible to malware and carriers have enabled NSA
snooping, but the prevailing wisdom has it there’s still one part of your mobile
phone that remains safe and un-hackable: your SIM card.
Yet after three years of research, German cryptographer Karsten Nohl claims to have finally found encryption and software flaws that could affect millions of SIM cards, and open up another route on mobile phones for surveillance and fraud.
Nohl, who will be presenting his findings at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas on July 31, says his is the first hack of its kind in a decade, and comes after he and his team tested close to 1,000 SIM cards for vulnerabilities, exploited by simply sending a hidden SMS. The two-part flaw, based on an old security standard and badly configured code, could allow hackers to remotely infect a SIM with a virus that sends premium text messages (draining a mobile phone bill), surreptitiously re-direct and record calls, and — with the right combination of bugs — carry out payment system fraud.
Payment fraud could be a particular problem for mobile phone users in Africa, where SIM-card based payments are widespread. The deployment of so-called NFC payment technology, already slow to take off, could also be at risk, Nohl says, as well as the ability for carriers to track charges to each caller’s account.
There’s no obvious pattern to the flaw beyond the premise of an older encryption standard. “Different shipments of SIM cards either have [the bug] or not,” says Nohl, who is chief scientist at risk management firm Security Research Labs. “It’s very random.”
In his study, Nohl says just under a quarter of all the SIM cards he tested could be hacked, but given that encryption standards vary widely between countries, he estimates an eighth of the world’s SIM cards could be vulnerable, or about half a billion mobile devices.
Nohl, who was profiled by Forbes’ Andy Greenberg in 2011 for his work on breaking mobile encryption standards, believes it unlikely that cyber criminals have already found the bug. Now that word of the vulnerability is out, he expects it would take them at least six months to crack it, by which time the wireless industry will have implemented available fixes.
That effort may already be underway. Nohl says at least two large carriers have already tasked their staff with finding a patch for the SIM vulnerability, which they will share with other operators through the wireless trade body GSMA.
“Companies are surprisingly open to the idea of working cooperatively on security topics because the competition is somewhere else,” says Nohl. “The competition is organized crime, not AT&T versus T-Mobile.” (The situation in similarly in finance, where payment services like MasterCard, Visa, and American Express will work together under industry association EMVco to improve security standards for smart cards.)
The market for SIMs is almost entirely fed by mobile carriers, and supplied by two leading global vendors, Gemalto and Oberthur Technologies. Both have profited heavily from the huge growth in mobile handsets: two years ago there were 1 billion SIM cards worldwide, and today there are more than 5 billion, says ABI Research analyst John Devlin, though the market is slowly reaching a plateau. SIMs are thought to be one of the most secure parts of a phone, he added, and as the carrier’s property, are “key to their relationship between you and I, the subscriber.”
Vodafone would not answer questions about the level of encryption its SIM cards used, and referred all media questions to GSMA. Both Verizon and AT&T said they knew of Nohl’s research, but said their SIM profiles were not vulnerable to the flaw. AT&T added that it had used SIMs with triple Data Encryption Standards (3DES) for almost a decade; Verizon did not specify why its SIMs were not vulnerable.
The London-based GSMA said it had looked at Nohl’s analysis and concurred that “a minority of SIMs produced against older standards could be vulnerable.” It said it had already provided guidance to network operators and SIM vendors who could be impacted by the flaw. “There is no evidence to suggest that today’s more secure SIMs, which are used to support a range of advanced services, will be affected,” a spokesperson added.
Nohl says that while AT&T and Verizon may benefit from robust SIM encryption standards, other carriers will use straight Data Encryption Standards (DES), guidelines developed in the 1970s that are fundamental to why he was able to “get root” on dozens of SIMs cards.
“Give me any phone number and there is some chance I will, a few minutes later, be able to remotely control this SIM card and even make a copy of it,” Nohl says.
SIM cards are essentially mini-computers with their own operating system and pre-installed software. To maintain security, many rely on a cryptographic standard called DES (digital encryption standard), which was invented by IBM in the 1970s and improved by the NSA. Some networks, like AT&T and the four major carriers in Germany, have moved away from using the old version of the standard, but others have not. Though Nohl didn’t identify a pattern to vulnerable SIMs in terms of manufacturers, the ones he could hack all used the old encryption standard.
Key to the hack is Java Card, a general purpose programming language used on 6 billion SIM cards. If operators need to update something on your SIM, for instance allowing interoperability with a carrier in another country, it will execute the right Java Card programs on your SIM by sending your mobile a binary SMS. This is a text message you will never see, sent through a method called over-the-air programming (OTA).
In early 2011, Nohl’s team started toying with the OTA protocol and noticed that when they used it to send commands to several SIM cards, some would refuse the command due to an incorrect cryptographic signature, while a few of those would also put a cryptographic signature on this error message.
With that signature and using a well known cryptographic method called rainbow tables, Nohl was able to crack the encryption key on the SIM card in about one minute. Carriers use this key to remotely program a SIM, and it is unique to each card.
“Anybody who learns the key of a particular SIM can load any application on the SIM he wants, including malicious code,” says Jasper Van Woudenberg, CTO North America of smart-card security firm Riscure.
“We had almost given up on the idea of breaking the most widely deployed use of standard cryptography,” says Nohl, but it felt “great” to finally gain control of a SIM after many months of unsuccessful testing.
With the all-important (and till-now elusive) encryption key, Nohl could download a virus onto the SIM card that could send premium text messages, collect location data, make premium calls or re-route calls. A malicious hacker could eavesdrop on calls, albeit with the SIM owner probably noticing some suspiciously-slow connections.
Nohl found a second bug. Unrelated to the weak encryption key, it allows even deeper hacking on SIMs and is caused, Nohl says, by a mistake on the part of SIM card manufacturers. Java Card uses a concept called sandboxing, in which pre-installed programs like a Visa or PayPal app are shielded from one another and the rest of the SIM card. The term comes from the idea of only allowing programs to “play with their own toys, in their own sandbox,” says Nohl. “This sandboxing mechanism is broken in the most widely-used SIM cards.” The researcher says he found a few instances where the protocols on the SIM card allowed the virus he had sent to a SIM, to check the files of a payment app that was also installed on the card.
The way this works is somewhat complex, but Nohl’s virus essentially gave the infected Java software a command it could not understand or complete – eg. asking for the 12th item in a 10-item list, leading the software to forgo basic security checks and granting the virus full memory access, or “root,” in cyber security parlance.
In sum, a malicious hacker who wanted to use this method might start with a list of 100 phones. They could send a binary SMS to all of them, using a programmable cell phone connected to a computer. They might get 25 responses with cryptographic signatures, and dismiss the half that use a stronger security standard. From the rest, Nohl surmises they could crack the encryption key of perhaps 13 SIM cards, and send them a virus that breaks through the Java Card sandbox barriers and reads payment app details, as well as the master key of the SIM card.
Who’s to blame for this and who can fix it? Nohl says broken Java sandboxing is a shortcoming of leading SIM card vendors like Gemalto and Oberthur. Riscure’s Van Woudenberg agrees.
Gemalto which made about half its $2.5 billion revenue in 2012 selling SIM cards, said in an email to Forbes that its SIMs were “consistent with state-of-the-art and applicable security guidelines,” and that it had been working closely with GSMA and other industry bodies to look into Nohl’s research. Gemalto’s CEO Olivier Piou has said publicly that there are no security issues with mobile payments, and his company says on its website that SIM cards are “virtually impossible to crack.”
Despite this, Nohl believes badly-configured Java Card sandboxing “affects every operator who uses cards from two main vendors,” including carriers like AT&T and Verizon who use robust encryption standards. Are SIM cards with these 3DES standards vulnerable? Nohl suggests they might be, and that he’ll expound on the details at Black Hat.
At minimum it seems that carriers should upgrade to newer encryptions quickly, not just for the safety of their subscribers, but future revenue too. Payment providers like MasterCard and Visa will need to use the OTA protocol to fill SIM cards with Java applications, like credit card applets, and enable NFC-based payments on phones in the future — and they’ll pay carriers for the privilege of being on the SIM. “Operators see this as valuable real estate,” says Nohl, referring to this OTA communication channel. Leaving aside what this means for consumer privacy, Nohl’s findings may leave some carriers grappling with new questions over the security (and value) of this real estate.
“Carriers and SIM card manufacturers do need to step up their security game for when payments arrive,” says Van Woudenberg. Banks are slow and cautious with new technology as they wait for it be proven secure, he adds, but “the mobile world moves much faster, as time-to-market is for them more important.”
As mobile payments bring these two worlds together, Nohl’s research has shown the process of proving out security on SIMs could be more challenging than the key players originally thought.
Yet after three years of research, German cryptographer Karsten Nohl claims to have finally found encryption and software flaws that could affect millions of SIM cards, and open up another route on mobile phones for surveillance and fraud.
Nohl, who will be presenting his findings at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas on July 31, says his is the first hack of its kind in a decade, and comes after he and his team tested close to 1,000 SIM cards for vulnerabilities, exploited by simply sending a hidden SMS. The two-part flaw, based on an old security standard and badly configured code, could allow hackers to remotely infect a SIM with a virus that sends premium text messages (draining a mobile phone bill), surreptitiously re-direct and record calls, and — with the right combination of bugs — carry out payment system fraud.
Payment fraud could be a particular problem for mobile phone users in Africa, where SIM-card based payments are widespread. The deployment of so-called NFC payment technology, already slow to take off, could also be at risk, Nohl says, as well as the ability for carriers to track charges to each caller’s account.
There’s no obvious pattern to the flaw beyond the premise of an older encryption standard. “Different shipments of SIM cards either have [the bug] or not,” says Nohl, who is chief scientist at risk management firm Security Research Labs. “It’s very random.”
In his study, Nohl says just under a quarter of all the SIM cards he tested could be hacked, but given that encryption standards vary widely between countries, he estimates an eighth of the world’s SIM cards could be vulnerable, or about half a billion mobile devices.
Nohl, who was profiled by Forbes’ Andy Greenberg in 2011 for his work on breaking mobile encryption standards, believes it unlikely that cyber criminals have already found the bug. Now that word of the vulnerability is out, he expects it would take them at least six months to crack it, by which time the wireless industry will have implemented available fixes.
That effort may already be underway. Nohl says at least two large carriers have already tasked their staff with finding a patch for the SIM vulnerability, which they will share with other operators through the wireless trade body GSMA.
“Companies are surprisingly open to the idea of working cooperatively on security topics because the competition is somewhere else,” says Nohl. “The competition is organized crime, not AT&T versus T-Mobile.” (The situation in similarly in finance, where payment services like MasterCard, Visa, and American Express will work together under industry association EMVco to improve security standards for smart cards.)
The market for SIMs is almost entirely fed by mobile carriers, and supplied by two leading global vendors, Gemalto and Oberthur Technologies. Both have profited heavily from the huge growth in mobile handsets: two years ago there were 1 billion SIM cards worldwide, and today there are more than 5 billion, says ABI Research analyst John Devlin, though the market is slowly reaching a plateau. SIMs are thought to be one of the most secure parts of a phone, he added, and as the carrier’s property, are “key to their relationship between you and I, the subscriber.”
Vodafone would not answer questions about the level of encryption its SIM cards used, and referred all media questions to GSMA. Both Verizon and AT&T said they knew of Nohl’s research, but said their SIM profiles were not vulnerable to the flaw. AT&T added that it had used SIMs with triple Data Encryption Standards (3DES) for almost a decade; Verizon did not specify why its SIMs were not vulnerable.
The London-based GSMA said it had looked at Nohl’s analysis and concurred that “a minority of SIMs produced against older standards could be vulnerable.” It said it had already provided guidance to network operators and SIM vendors who could be impacted by the flaw. “There is no evidence to suggest that today’s more secure SIMs, which are used to support a range of advanced services, will be affected,” a spokesperson added.
Nohl says that while AT&T and Verizon may benefit from robust SIM encryption standards, other carriers will use straight Data Encryption Standards (DES), guidelines developed in the 1970s that are fundamental to why he was able to “get root” on dozens of SIMs cards.
“Give me any phone number and there is some chance I will, a few minutes later, be able to remotely control this SIM card and even make a copy of it,” Nohl says.
SIM cards are essentially mini-computers with their own operating system and pre-installed software. To maintain security, many rely on a cryptographic standard called DES (digital encryption standard), which was invented by IBM in the 1970s and improved by the NSA. Some networks, like AT&T and the four major carriers in Germany, have moved away from using the old version of the standard, but others have not. Though Nohl didn’t identify a pattern to vulnerable SIMs in terms of manufacturers, the ones he could hack all used the old encryption standard.
Key to the hack is Java Card, a general purpose programming language used on 6 billion SIM cards. If operators need to update something on your SIM, for instance allowing interoperability with a carrier in another country, it will execute the right Java Card programs on your SIM by sending your mobile a binary SMS. This is a text message you will never see, sent through a method called over-the-air programming (OTA).
In early 2011, Nohl’s team started toying with the OTA protocol and noticed that when they used it to send commands to several SIM cards, some would refuse the command due to an incorrect cryptographic signature, while a few of those would also put a cryptographic signature on this error message.
With that signature and using a well known cryptographic method called rainbow tables, Nohl was able to crack the encryption key on the SIM card in about one minute. Carriers use this key to remotely program a SIM, and it is unique to each card.
“Anybody who learns the key of a particular SIM can load any application on the SIM he wants, including malicious code,” says Jasper Van Woudenberg, CTO North America of smart-card security firm Riscure.
“We had almost given up on the idea of breaking the most widely deployed use of standard cryptography,” says Nohl, but it felt “great” to finally gain control of a SIM after many months of unsuccessful testing.
With the all-important (and till-now elusive) encryption key, Nohl could download a virus onto the SIM card that could send premium text messages, collect location data, make premium calls or re-route calls. A malicious hacker could eavesdrop on calls, albeit with the SIM owner probably noticing some suspiciously-slow connections.
Nohl found a second bug. Unrelated to the weak encryption key, it allows even deeper hacking on SIMs and is caused, Nohl says, by a mistake on the part of SIM card manufacturers. Java Card uses a concept called sandboxing, in which pre-installed programs like a Visa or PayPal app are shielded from one another and the rest of the SIM card. The term comes from the idea of only allowing programs to “play with their own toys, in their own sandbox,” says Nohl. “This sandboxing mechanism is broken in the most widely-used SIM cards.” The researcher says he found a few instances where the protocols on the SIM card allowed the virus he had sent to a SIM, to check the files of a payment app that was also installed on the card.
The way this works is somewhat complex, but Nohl’s virus essentially gave the infected Java software a command it could not understand or complete – eg. asking for the 12th item in a 10-item list, leading the software to forgo basic security checks and granting the virus full memory access, or “root,” in cyber security parlance.
In sum, a malicious hacker who wanted to use this method might start with a list of 100 phones. They could send a binary SMS to all of them, using a programmable cell phone connected to a computer. They might get 25 responses with cryptographic signatures, and dismiss the half that use a stronger security standard. From the rest, Nohl surmises they could crack the encryption key of perhaps 13 SIM cards, and send them a virus that breaks through the Java Card sandbox barriers and reads payment app details, as well as the master key of the SIM card.
Who’s to blame for this and who can fix it? Nohl says broken Java sandboxing is a shortcoming of leading SIM card vendors like Gemalto and Oberthur. Riscure’s Van Woudenberg agrees.
Gemalto which made about half its $2.5 billion revenue in 2012 selling SIM cards, said in an email to Forbes that its SIMs were “consistent with state-of-the-art and applicable security guidelines,” and that it had been working closely with GSMA and other industry bodies to look into Nohl’s research. Gemalto’s CEO Olivier Piou has said publicly that there are no security issues with mobile payments, and his company says on its website that SIM cards are “virtually impossible to crack.”
Despite this, Nohl believes badly-configured Java Card sandboxing “affects every operator who uses cards from two main vendors,” including carriers like AT&T and Verizon who use robust encryption standards. Are SIM cards with these 3DES standards vulnerable? Nohl suggests they might be, and that he’ll expound on the details at Black Hat.
At minimum it seems that carriers should upgrade to newer encryptions quickly, not just for the safety of their subscribers, but future revenue too. Payment providers like MasterCard and Visa will need to use the OTA protocol to fill SIM cards with Java applications, like credit card applets, and enable NFC-based payments on phones in the future — and they’ll pay carriers for the privilege of being on the SIM. “Operators see this as valuable real estate,” says Nohl, referring to this OTA communication channel. Leaving aside what this means for consumer privacy, Nohl’s findings may leave some carriers grappling with new questions over the security (and value) of this real estate.
“Carriers and SIM card manufacturers do need to step up their security game for when payments arrive,” says Van Woudenberg. Banks are slow and cautious with new technology as they wait for it be proven secure, he adds, but “the mobile world moves much faster, as time-to-market is for them more important.”
As mobile payments bring these two worlds together, Nohl’s research has shown the process of proving out security on SIMs could be more challenging than the key players originally thought.
It has now actually begun to shrink
In the late 1990s, a single technologies organization became so
unfathomably wealthy and powerful?aand so hellbent on dominating not just its
own business but a enormous and quickly increasing new one?athat the U.S.
government dragged the organization into court and threatened to break it up
more than anti-trust violations.
The case was settled, and the corporation, Microsoft, agreed to play nicer. But it turned out that the planet had practically nothing to worry about. As frequently occurs inside the technologies sector, what has definitely destroyed Microsoft's choke hold on the global individual computing industry more than the past 15 years hasn't been a legal threat but a market place shift.
Just when it looked like Microsoft's vision from the Pc because the center on the tech planet would lead to the creation of the world's initially trillion-dollar company, the internet came along. And it washed over the Computer industry like a tidal wave swallowing a pond.
With regards to industry worth, Microsoft's loss of power has lengthy been visible: The stock continues to be trading at about half the level it hit at the peak with the tech boom 13 years ago. The effects around the actual Pc market fundamentals have taken longer to develop, but they are also now crystal clear. Microsoft's ?°Windows monopoly?± hasn't been a lot destroyed as rendered irrelevant. That for the reason that, because of the explosion of Internet-based cloud computing and smartphones, tablets, as well as other mobile gadgets, the when all-powerful platform in the desktop operating method has now been reduced to tiny more than a device driver. As long as your gadget can connect towards the Online and run some apps, it doesn't matter what operating system you use.
Three charts definitely bring household the challenges that Microsoft and other PC-powered giants like Intel, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard face in adapting to this new Internet-driven planet. Initial, appear at global device shipments. For the two decades via 2005, the personal computer system was the only game in town, selling about 200 million units a year. But then smartphones and tablets came along. And now they dwarf the Pc industry.
This shift in private computing device adoption, meanwhile, has radically diminished the energy of your Windows operating system platform. As lately as three years ago, Microsoft's Windows was nevertheless entirely dominant?athe platform ran 70% of individual computing devices. Now, due to the rise of Google's Android and Apple's iOS, Windows' international share has been cut in half, to about 30 %. Extra remarkably, Android is now a larger platform than Windows.
Lastly, and most lately, this chart from analyst Horace Dediu of Asymco illustrates that the Pc small business is no longer just acquiring dwarfed by the explosion of smartphone and tablet sales ... it has now actually begun to shrink. Now that individuals have a choice of devices, it turns out that a full-blown individual laptop or computer is normally not by far the most cost-effective, practical, or simplest approach to do what a user desires to do. Instead of becoming the center from the individual computing planet, in other words, the Computer is becoming a specialized office-productivity device.
The news for Microsoft isn't all undesirable. The firm has been quite effective at moving from a "unit-driven" sales model to a licensing model, in which firms pay a fee per user per year as an alternative to shopping for a perpetual license with every single new computer. And Microsoft's Workplace franchise continues to be extraordinarily profitable and dominant, in part due to the fact Google, Apple, and other extra Internet-centric organizations have made so tiny investment in their competitive goods.
But only 15 years just after the government went just after Microsoft for anti-trust violations, the concept that the enterprise ever had a "monopoly" on anything is tough to even have an understanding of. As well as the outlook for Windows, plus the regular Pc business generally, seems positive to obtain even worse going forward.
The case was settled, and the corporation, Microsoft, agreed to play nicer. But it turned out that the planet had practically nothing to worry about. As frequently occurs inside the technologies sector, what has definitely destroyed Microsoft's choke hold on the global individual computing industry more than the past 15 years hasn't been a legal threat but a market place shift.
Just when it looked like Microsoft's vision from the Pc because the center on the tech planet would lead to the creation of the world's initially trillion-dollar company, the internet came along. And it washed over the Computer industry like a tidal wave swallowing a pond.
With regards to industry worth, Microsoft's loss of power has lengthy been visible: The stock continues to be trading at about half the level it hit at the peak with the tech boom 13 years ago. The effects around the actual Pc market fundamentals have taken longer to develop, but they are also now crystal clear. Microsoft's ?°Windows monopoly?± hasn't been a lot destroyed as rendered irrelevant. That for the reason that, because of the explosion of Internet-based cloud computing and smartphones, tablets, as well as other mobile gadgets, the when all-powerful platform in the desktop operating method has now been reduced to tiny more than a device driver. As long as your gadget can connect towards the Online and run some apps, it doesn't matter what operating system you use.
Three charts definitely bring household the challenges that Microsoft and other PC-powered giants like Intel, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard face in adapting to this new Internet-driven planet. Initial, appear at global device shipments. For the two decades via 2005, the personal computer system was the only game in town, selling about 200 million units a year. But then smartphones and tablets came along. And now they dwarf the Pc industry.
This shift in private computing device adoption, meanwhile, has radically diminished the energy of your Windows operating system platform. As lately as three years ago, Microsoft's Windows was nevertheless entirely dominant?athe platform ran 70% of individual computing devices. Now, due to the rise of Google's Android and Apple's iOS, Windows' international share has been cut in half, to about 30 %. Extra remarkably, Android is now a larger platform than Windows.
Lastly, and most lately, this chart from analyst Horace Dediu of Asymco illustrates that the Pc small business is no longer just acquiring dwarfed by the explosion of smartphone and tablet sales ... it has now actually begun to shrink. Now that individuals have a choice of devices, it turns out that a full-blown individual laptop or computer is normally not by far the most cost-effective, practical, or simplest approach to do what a user desires to do. Instead of becoming the center from the individual computing planet, in other words, the Computer is becoming a specialized office-productivity device.
The news for Microsoft isn't all undesirable. The firm has been quite effective at moving from a "unit-driven" sales model to a licensing model, in which firms pay a fee per user per year as an alternative to shopping for a perpetual license with every single new computer. And Microsoft's Workplace franchise continues to be extraordinarily profitable and dominant, in part due to the fact Google, Apple, and other extra Internet-centric organizations have made so tiny investment in their competitive goods.
But only 15 years just after the government went just after Microsoft for anti-trust violations, the concept that the enterprise ever had a "monopoly" on anything is tough to even have an understanding of. As well as the outlook for Windows, plus the regular Pc business generally, seems positive to obtain even worse going forward.
Saturday, July 13, 2013
The challenge of your unapproved windows
“The old windows were falling apart and had been a hazard for the
community,” mentioned Hector Cruz, who has co-owned the three-story developing
on 5577 N. Figueroa St. together with his mother given that the previous 5
years.
“They had been quite highly-priced to replace,” Cruz said, adding that he got a $12,000 estimate for the repairs and replacement of eight on the original windows that he ended up changing. “And that’s not even giving us a cushion of what’s to come,” he stated.
In installing significantly cheaper windows, Cruz mentioned he took a leaf in the historic windows that have been replaced with fixed-glass ones about a quarter-century ago at the former workplace of ex-Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg. Also located in the Mason Creating, which has 19,000 square feet of floor space, Goldberg’s one-time office now houses the Very good Girl Dinette Vietnamese fusion food restaurant.
But for all that, said Cruz, he didn’t comprehend he had committed a blunder by getting rid of the old windows. Precisely a week following he put inside the eight new panes on June 26, an inspector in the Los Angeles Division of Creating and Safety served him a “stop work” order, Cruz stated, adding that by then all of the function around the windows had already been done.
The inspector told Cruz that because the Highland Park Masonic Building is on the National Registry of Historic Locations, he's expected to get permission in the Los Angeles Historical Preservation Overlay Zone just before undertaking any work that modifications the building’s architectural integrity.
“The final factor I anticipated is for the neighborhood to send an inspector as opposed to coming and telling me what are the initial methods I ought to have taken to replace the windows,” Cruz stated, adding: “I’ve had Autry Museum meetings, Neighborhood Council meetings in the building-I’ve supported everybody.”
Based on Cruz, it was Highland Park historian and Highland Park Heritage Trust member Charlie Fisher who allegedly reported him towards the Department of Building and Safety. A call by Patch to Highland Park Heritage Trust requesting an interview with Fisher went unreturned.
Cruz mentioned it’s not that he isn’t concerned about conservation challenges surrounding his building, which was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1984. “We endeavor to balance security and responsibility with our budget,” he said.
His response to critics who accuse him of negligence is the fact that “if you’re so concerned about the windows, why don’t you get a grant or funding to replace them?” Cruz stated, adding that home owners which include him can “hardly make it by in these really hard [economic] occasions.”
The significant query for Cruz, he mentioned, was “do you keep the windows mainly because they appear good or do you change them mainly because they’re falling apart and are a safety hazard?”
The challenge of your unapproved windows was taken up this previous Tuesday by the Highland Park-Garvanza Historical Preservation Overlay Zone at its bimonthly board meeting in Ramona Hall, Cruz said, adding that he was notified concerning the meeting but didn’t attend.
The Mason Constructing might have lost its original windows, but there’s still a window of opportunity to obtain them back.
“We’ve saved all the tiny pieces of glass,” said Cruz. “So if anything serious would take place, I’d be most pleased to replace them.”
“They had been quite highly-priced to replace,” Cruz said, adding that he got a $12,000 estimate for the repairs and replacement of eight on the original windows that he ended up changing. “And that’s not even giving us a cushion of what’s to come,” he stated.
In installing significantly cheaper windows, Cruz mentioned he took a leaf in the historic windows that have been replaced with fixed-glass ones about a quarter-century ago at the former workplace of ex-Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg. Also located in the Mason Creating, which has 19,000 square feet of floor space, Goldberg’s one-time office now houses the Very good Girl Dinette Vietnamese fusion food restaurant.
But for all that, said Cruz, he didn’t comprehend he had committed a blunder by getting rid of the old windows. Precisely a week following he put inside the eight new panes on June 26, an inspector in the Los Angeles Division of Creating and Safety served him a “stop work” order, Cruz stated, adding that by then all of the function around the windows had already been done.
The inspector told Cruz that because the Highland Park Masonic Building is on the National Registry of Historic Locations, he's expected to get permission in the Los Angeles Historical Preservation Overlay Zone just before undertaking any work that modifications the building’s architectural integrity.
“The final factor I anticipated is for the neighborhood to send an inspector as opposed to coming and telling me what are the initial methods I ought to have taken to replace the windows,” Cruz stated, adding: “I’ve had Autry Museum meetings, Neighborhood Council meetings in the building-I’ve supported everybody.”
Based on Cruz, it was Highland Park historian and Highland Park Heritage Trust member Charlie Fisher who allegedly reported him towards the Department of Building and Safety. A call by Patch to Highland Park Heritage Trust requesting an interview with Fisher went unreturned.
Cruz mentioned it’s not that he isn’t concerned about conservation challenges surrounding his building, which was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1984. “We endeavor to balance security and responsibility with our budget,” he said.
His response to critics who accuse him of negligence is the fact that “if you’re so concerned about the windows, why don’t you get a grant or funding to replace them?” Cruz stated, adding that home owners which include him can “hardly make it by in these really hard [economic] occasions.”
The significant query for Cruz, he mentioned, was “do you keep the windows mainly because they appear good or do you change them mainly because they’re falling apart and are a safety hazard?”
The challenge of your unapproved windows was taken up this previous Tuesday by the Highland Park-Garvanza Historical Preservation Overlay Zone at its bimonthly board meeting in Ramona Hall, Cruz said, adding that he was notified concerning the meeting but didn’t attend.
The Mason Constructing might have lost its original windows, but there’s still a window of opportunity to obtain them back.
“We’ve saved all the tiny pieces of glass,” said Cruz. “So if anything serious would take place, I’d be most pleased to replace them.”
Friday, July 5, 2013
Google FAQ Makes Glass A Bit Clearer
If you hang around Silicon Valley or go to tech conferences you’re bound to
see someone wearing an eye glass frame with a tiny little monitor above their
right eye. That’s Google GOOG +0.46% Glass, Google’s experiment in wearable,
ubiquitous computing.
But unless you’re one of the 2,000 developers who got an early look or among the 8,000 “explorers” who won the right to pay $1,500 to buy a prototype, you probably haven’t experienced Glass.
But if you have questions, Google has answers. The company just posted a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) to explain what Glass is, how it works and how Google is “all about keeping your information safe, secure and always available when you want it.” That section, undoubtedly, is in response to widespread concerns from law makers and others about the privacy and security implications of Google Glass.
Like a 25-inch TV set
Google says that looking through glass is like “a lot like a 25 inch color TV floating about 8 feet in front of you,” and that glass weighs 40 grams, “about the weight of a pair of sunglasses.” It has 16 GB of flash memory, but that’s about all the tech specs they were willing to disclose (Engadget and Gizmodo have tear down reports with lots of details).
Privacy and security
Given the amount of scrutiny Google is under from Congress, the press and advocacy groups, the company is naturally a bit defensive when it comes to issues of privacy and security. The company said that “we give you control over the information you share with Google.” Pictures and videos taken with Glass “will be added to your private Instant Upload album on Google+ but won’t be shared with anyone until you choose to do so.”
Google points out that Glass isn’t taking pictures or video “all the time” and that default video clips are 10 seconds. The battery dies after about 45 minutes of video recording.
And, in response to the concerns that Glass is spying on others, Google said, “We have built explicit signals in Glass to make others aware of what’s happening.” The screen is illuminated when it’s in use, including taking a picture or recording a video.
Availability
Google said in the FAQ that it plans to make Glass available to a “wider group of consumers” later this year with “even broader availability” next year.
But unless you’re one of the 2,000 developers who got an early look or among the 8,000 “explorers” who won the right to pay $1,500 to buy a prototype, you probably haven’t experienced Glass.
But if you have questions, Google has answers. The company just posted a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) to explain what Glass is, how it works and how Google is “all about keeping your information safe, secure and always available when you want it.” That section, undoubtedly, is in response to widespread concerns from law makers and others about the privacy and security implications of Google Glass.
Like a 25-inch TV set
Google says that looking through glass is like “a lot like a 25 inch color TV floating about 8 feet in front of you,” and that glass weighs 40 grams, “about the weight of a pair of sunglasses.” It has 16 GB of flash memory, but that’s about all the tech specs they were willing to disclose (Engadget and Gizmodo have tear down reports with lots of details).
Privacy and security
Given the amount of scrutiny Google is under from Congress, the press and advocacy groups, the company is naturally a bit defensive when it comes to issues of privacy and security. The company said that “we give you control over the information you share with Google.” Pictures and videos taken with Glass “will be added to your private Instant Upload album on Google+ but won’t be shared with anyone until you choose to do so.”
Google points out that Glass isn’t taking pictures or video “all the time” and that default video clips are 10 seconds. The battery dies after about 45 minutes of video recording.
And, in response to the concerns that Glass is spying on others, Google said, “We have built explicit signals in Glass to make others aware of what’s happening.” The screen is illuminated when it’s in use, including taking a picture or recording a video.
Availability
Google said in the FAQ that it plans to make Glass available to a “wider group of consumers” later this year with “even broader availability” next year.
Construct conference are upcoming Windows apps
Microsoft has taken plenty of grief about Windows 8. The company got down
to develop program that will do the job similarly well on conventional keyboard-
and mouse-driven personal computers in addition to on tablets which can be
primarily suited for touch. But numerous people considered this radical new
running method was perplexing, otherwise borderline schizophrenic. Desktops
functioning Home windows 8 haven't particularly been greeted with open up
arms.
Final week Microsoft launched a preview edition of Home windows eight.one, the main meaningful update to Home windows 8 and also the company's initial try to smooth matters above. The software is out there now for any person to try, but retain in your mind that a preview is simply that, a preview. Indeed, Microsoft cautions there are dangers to downloading eight.1 at this time. It's also premature to do a formal critique of Home windows 8.1, so look at this column a preview at the same time. What I am able to say after a couple of times with a Floor Professional loaner pill is that Microsoft has extra several satisfying touches. Whether or not it'll be adequate to lure the reluctant masses stays to be observed.
It's possible the greatest alter you may detect would be the return of the common Start button, situated in "Desktop" mode in its customary spot on the base still left corner of the taskbar. Those that experienced lamented the lacking Start off button should not go gaga ?a clicking or tapping around the new Begin button returns you to the default Windows eight Get started atmosphere, generally known as the modern UI. That is in which you can find the colorful rectangular and sq. tiles, some with are living facts (weather, shares, e-mail, etc.) that have arrive at outline the fresher Windows interface on desktops and smartphones, and i'm betting you are going to shell out an abundance of time in that setting.
Looks to me Microsoft won't want you to find the former selection, on the other hand, because I'd to request the corporate in which to uncover it. (Right-click around the taskbar in Desktop, select attributes, then navigation tab, and choose "Go to the desktop rather of Commence when i signal in.")
You may have a number of tips on how to customize the modern interface. You'll be able to group icons for equivalent applications and provides that cluster of applications a reputation. You are able to push and hold your finger in opposition to a tile to resize it or unpin it from your Begin screen.
Microsoft has also extra a Personalize alternative under Options for selecting backgrounds and finding shades ?a you can sample distinct hues by dragging slider controls. You receive to Configurations by swiping in in the suitable, summoning what exactly are referred to as "charms," controls for searching, sharing and more.
By signing in which has a Microsoft account, regardless of what configurations you determine on your own laptop or computer can follow you throughout other Home windows products, together with phones and Xbox consoles. The things you save on the Windows eight.1 Personal computer ?a photos, paperwork along with other data files ?a might be stored on Microsoft's cloud-based SkyDrive.
Within Home windows eight.1, you are able to also exhibit as many as four applications within the monitor at any one time and resize each individual open window. That has a next check, you may double the volume of open applications, but you can expect to need to have a considerable sufficient high-resolution keep an eye on. On my exam Surface area I could see only two open applications at the same time.
Style in a question these as LA Dodger outfielder Yasiel Puig, and you'll see a handsome look for final result, a format with pictures and videos in the rookie sensation as well as a connection to his Wikipedia entry. Swipe sideways to check out other content about "Puigmania," including thumbnail views from the Web content from which individuals article content originate. Properly carried out.
A no-less-attractive lookup format appeared once i typed Alicia Keys' name. As well as shots, her birth day in addition to a website link to her Wikipedia bio, I used to be capable to play some of her full-length best tracks right to the location, streamed for free by way of Xbox Tunes. I could also enjoy songs video clips right then and there.
Bing look for will work effectively for vacation, as well ?a a standard search on Las Vegas introduced up rather images, weather, current points of interest and straightforward hyperlinks to create resort reservations.
Research is not restricted to your Website. You are able to effortlessly look for throughout Phrase paperwork along with other information to the Pc or files saved on SkyDrive (Microsoft provides you seven cost-free gigabytes of SkyDrive storage).
Two new Bing apps exhibit up in eight.1. The foodie-oriented Bing Foods & Drink app is a repository for recipes. Bing Health & Fitness sports an exercise and diet tracker and includes a symptom checker for people items that might ail you.
Home windows Store. The Windows Store
windows 7 professional 64 bit within eight.1 gets a good-looking makeover, far too. Microsoft surfaces apps it thinks you may be interested in, centered on previous purchases or ratings. The joint is approaching 100,000 applications since the launch of Home windows eight. Among all those Microsoft announced at its recent Construct conference are upcoming Windows apps from Facebook, Flipboard along with the NFL.
Windows 8.one also now pre-loads a Reading List app for saving a story you want to read later that you arrive across over the World-wide-web by using Internet Explorer. It only will work in the trendy UI for now (not Desktop) and, in my view, requires just one click as well a lot of to help you save an article you want to read later.
Closer to its standard availability I'll do a more comprehensive overview of Home windows eight.one. For now I'll say that while it would not address every shortcoming of Windows eight, it pushes Microsoft in the right direction.
Final week Microsoft launched a preview edition of Home windows eight.one, the main meaningful update to Home windows 8 and also the company's initial try to smooth matters above. The software is out there now for any person to try, but retain in your mind that a preview is simply that, a preview. Indeed, Microsoft cautions there are dangers to downloading eight.1 at this time. It's also premature to do a formal critique of Home windows 8.1, so look at this column a preview at the same time. What I am able to say after a couple of times with a Floor Professional loaner pill is that Microsoft has extra several satisfying touches. Whether or not it'll be adequate to lure the reluctant masses stays to be observed.
It's possible the greatest alter you may detect would be the return of the common Start button, situated in "Desktop" mode in its customary spot on the base still left corner of the taskbar. Those that experienced lamented the lacking Start off button should not go gaga ?a clicking or tapping around the new Begin button returns you to the default Windows eight Get started atmosphere, generally known as the modern UI. That is in which you can find the colorful rectangular and sq. tiles, some with are living facts (weather, shares, e-mail, etc.) that have arrive at outline the fresher Windows interface on desktops and smartphones, and i'm betting you are going to shell out an abundance of time in that setting.
Looks to me Microsoft won't want you to find the former selection, on the other hand, because I'd to request the corporate in which to uncover it. (Right-click around the taskbar in Desktop, select attributes, then navigation tab, and choose "Go to the desktop rather of Commence when i signal in.")
You may have a number of tips on how to customize the modern interface. You'll be able to group icons for equivalent applications and provides that cluster of applications a reputation. You are able to push and hold your finger in opposition to a tile to resize it or unpin it from your Begin screen.
Microsoft has also extra a Personalize alternative under Options for selecting backgrounds and finding shades ?a you can sample distinct hues by dragging slider controls. You receive to Configurations by swiping in in the suitable, summoning what exactly are referred to as "charms," controls for searching, sharing and more.
By signing in which has a Microsoft account, regardless of what configurations you determine on your own laptop or computer can follow you throughout other Home windows products, together with phones and Xbox consoles. The things you save on the Windows eight.1 Personal computer ?a photos, paperwork along with other data files ?a might be stored on Microsoft's cloud-based SkyDrive.
Within Home windows eight.1, you are able to also exhibit as many as four applications within the monitor at any one time and resize each individual open window. That has a next check, you may double the volume of open applications, but you can expect to need to have a considerable sufficient high-resolution keep an eye on. On my exam Surface area I could see only two open applications at the same time.
Style in a question these as LA Dodger outfielder Yasiel Puig, and you'll see a handsome look for final result, a format with pictures and videos in the rookie sensation as well as a connection to his Wikipedia entry. Swipe sideways to check out other content about "Puigmania," including thumbnail views from the Web content from which individuals article content originate. Properly carried out.
A no-less-attractive lookup format appeared once i typed Alicia Keys' name. As well as shots, her birth day in addition to a website link to her Wikipedia bio, I used to be capable to play some of her full-length best tracks right to the location, streamed for free by way of Xbox Tunes. I could also enjoy songs video clips right then and there.
Bing look for will work effectively for vacation, as well ?a a standard search on Las Vegas introduced up rather images, weather, current points of interest and straightforward hyperlinks to create resort reservations.
Research is not restricted to your Website. You are able to effortlessly look for throughout Phrase paperwork along with other information to the Pc or files saved on SkyDrive (Microsoft provides you seven cost-free gigabytes of SkyDrive storage).
Two new Bing apps exhibit up in eight.1. The foodie-oriented Bing Foods & Drink app is a repository for recipes. Bing Health & Fitness sports an exercise and diet tracker and includes a symptom checker for people items that might ail you.
Home windows Store. The Windows Store
windows 7 professional 64 bit within eight.1 gets a good-looking makeover, far too. Microsoft surfaces apps it thinks you may be interested in, centered on previous purchases or ratings. The joint is approaching 100,000 applications since the launch of Home windows eight. Among all those Microsoft announced at its recent Construct conference are upcoming Windows apps from Facebook, Flipboard along with the NFL.
Windows 8.one also now pre-loads a Reading List app for saving a story you want to read later that you arrive across over the World-wide-web by using Internet Explorer. It only will work in the trendy UI for now (not Desktop) and, in my view, requires just one click as well a lot of to help you save an article you want to read later.
Closer to its standard availability I'll do a more comprehensive overview of Home windows eight.one. For now I'll say that while it would not address every shortcoming of Windows eight, it pushes Microsoft in the right direction.
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Inside iOS 7: Animations work with flat graphics to create sense of space
The iOS 7 beta's user interface overhaul is a striking departure from past
aesthetics, and one that has garnered a fair share of press, but a complete
rebuilding of system animations is equally impactful despite going largely
unnoticed.
While eye-catching static design choices like Jony Ive's "flat" iconography and a liberal use of Helvetica Neue Ultra Thin font may be the first things people notice about iOS 7, it's what they don't see that makes Apple's latest OS beautiful.
Animations are simple-yet-necessary tools designers use to create a great user experience. For example, the rubber-banding feature in iOS — recently in the news as part of Apple's ongoing patent dispute against Samsung — has been a key asset to the operating system since the first iPhone debuted in 2007.
The animation is seemingly minor, showing a slight bounce-back when the end of a scrollable page is reached, but without it, users would have no feedback from the system when navigating documents. This speaks in no small part to the responsiveness of an OS.
Other system animations are app-specific or are meant to be seen, such as the "jiggle mode" for editing and deleting apps from a home screen.
With iOS 7 beta, a number of new and interesting animation tweaks come into play. Some are overt, though many are so subtle they may never be noticed by a user. The examples below offer just a sampling of what the OS has to offer.
Lock Screen
Starting with the Lock Screen, there are already a multitude of changed elements, including the "slide to unlock" bar, which no longer exists. User still need to "slide" or swipe right to unlock the iPhone, but the animation has been modified to move an entire layer of the screen instead of just a small slider. The Lock Screen also fades in from black when the iPhone wakes up, which is a nice touch.
Notification Center, which is now accessible from the Lock Screen as a system settings option, slides down as it did in iOS 6. The translucent panel that pops into view has some added physics, however, as it "thuds" to the bottom of the screen, bouncing back as if rebounding from a fall.
The motion is not quite as "elastic" as the usual rubber-banding bounce-back, but is similar in magnitude, with faster pull-downs getting a larger bounce than slow swipes. This particular animation offers quite a different "feel" than anything in previous iOS version. The physics of the bounce are harder, and convey a sense of weight and structure to the panel.
Swiping up from the opposite end of the screen brings the new Control Center into view, with the window gliding to just below the clock before slightly retracting in a very "rubber-bandy" movement. This panel, also accessible from anywhere in the OS, doesn't rely on magnitudes of motion, meaning it bounces back the same degree, no matter how fast or slow the swipe.
Located at the top of Control Center, and the bottom of the Notification Center, is a small animated line. When each panel is at rest, the line takes on the shape of a chevron which points either up or down depending on whether a window is open or closed. When the panels are moving, it becomes a straight line.
While eye-catching static design choices like Jony Ive's "flat" iconography and a liberal use of Helvetica Neue Ultra Thin font may be the first things people notice about iOS 7, it's what they don't see that makes Apple's latest OS beautiful.
Animations are simple-yet-necessary tools designers use to create a great user experience. For example, the rubber-banding feature in iOS — recently in the news as part of Apple's ongoing patent dispute against Samsung — has been a key asset to the operating system since the first iPhone debuted in 2007.
The animation is seemingly minor, showing a slight bounce-back when the end of a scrollable page is reached, but without it, users would have no feedback from the system when navigating documents. This speaks in no small part to the responsiveness of an OS.
Other system animations are app-specific or are meant to be seen, such as the "jiggle mode" for editing and deleting apps from a home screen.
With iOS 7 beta, a number of new and interesting animation tweaks come into play. Some are overt, though many are so subtle they may never be noticed by a user. The examples below offer just a sampling of what the OS has to offer.
Lock Screen
Starting with the Lock Screen, there are already a multitude of changed elements, including the "slide to unlock" bar, which no longer exists. User still need to "slide" or swipe right to unlock the iPhone, but the animation has been modified to move an entire layer of the screen instead of just a small slider. The Lock Screen also fades in from black when the iPhone wakes up, which is a nice touch.
Notification Center, which is now accessible from the Lock Screen as a system settings option, slides down as it did in iOS 6. The translucent panel that pops into view has some added physics, however, as it "thuds" to the bottom of the screen, bouncing back as if rebounding from a fall.
The motion is not quite as "elastic" as the usual rubber-banding bounce-back, but is similar in magnitude, with faster pull-downs getting a larger bounce than slow swipes. This particular animation offers quite a different "feel" than anything in previous iOS version. The physics of the bounce are harder, and convey a sense of weight and structure to the panel.
Swiping up from the opposite end of the screen brings the new Control Center into view, with the window gliding to just below the clock before slightly retracting in a very "rubber-bandy" movement. This panel, also accessible from anywhere in the OS, doesn't rely on magnitudes of motion, meaning it bounces back the same degree, no matter how fast or slow the swipe.
Located at the top of Control Center, and the bottom of the Notification Center, is a small animated line. When each panel is at rest, the line takes on the shape of a chevron which points either up or down depending on whether a window is open or closed. When the panels are moving, it becomes a straight line.
Microsoft is so established to possess lots of brand-name
The truth is, you mustn't be at-all stunned with the practice. Bloomberg
Businessweek's Ashlee Vance let slip within an posting this previous 7 days that
Microsoft is shelling out builders "$100,000 or more" to create apps for its
Windows Cell phone system ¨C a lovely incentive, positive, for all those whose
budgets are far too constrained or engineering employees is too hectic to port a
well known application around to Home windows telephones.
However, it's significant to clarify that Microsoft is not doing everything new, as Vance's report ¨C and also the subsequent follow-ups published by other journalistic entities ¨C might point out. Microsoft has actually been spending developers for their attention, expertise, and app-creation talents for some time now, as well as the figure goes a whole lot greater than $100,000.
In an report released in April of previous year, the brand new York Times' Jenna Wortham and Nick Wingfield noted that, "Microsoft is so determined to acquire loads of brand-name apps for its Home windows Cell phone app store that it is ready to purchase them." The motivation, described even more down from the article, can include things like a payment of between $60,000 to $600,000 "depending to the complexity in the application."
Although this appears like a delicate form of bribery, Microsoft's incentives have managed to obtain noteworthy outcomes that profit builders and consumers alike. Take Foursquare, the example identified as out in the Times' report from very last yr. Without having the monetary strengthen ¨C in such a case, paying for an out of doors organization to port Foursquare's app more than on the Home windows Phone platform ¨C Foursquare would likely not exist on Home windows telephones, time period.
Due to the fact then, the Microsoft Keep has ballooned up from all around 70,000 apps and video games to a hundred forty five,000. And maybe that quantity has also been boosted a bit by Microsoft's 2nd advertising system to encourage developer desire: A bounty method that gave developers a $100 Visa reward card for each application they posted on the Microsoft Retail store, up to $2,000 really worth of total rewards, involving March nine and June thirty of this yr.
Of course, Microsoft isn't the only real maker that's sought to woo builders with the promises of cold, really hard funds. RIM doubled the reward pool to $2 million for the people collaborating in its final "Port-A-Thon" application in January of the year ?a that's just after the company saw much more than fifteen,000 apps submitted over a one-and-a-half-day time period in its preceding "Port-A-Thon" event. People constructing or porting applications were being qualified to get paid $100 for each, up to a utmost of $2,000, for every application which was acknowledged in to the BlackBerry Environment app store.
However, it's significant to clarify that Microsoft is not doing everything new, as Vance's report ¨C and also the subsequent follow-ups published by other journalistic entities ¨C might point out. Microsoft has actually been spending developers for their attention, expertise, and app-creation talents for some time now, as well as the figure goes a whole lot greater than $100,000.
In an report released in April of previous year, the brand new York Times' Jenna Wortham and Nick Wingfield noted that, "Microsoft is so determined to acquire loads of brand-name apps for its Home windows Cell phone app store that it is ready to purchase them." The motivation, described even more down from the article, can include things like a payment of between $60,000 to $600,000 "depending to the complexity in the application."
Although this appears like a delicate form of bribery, Microsoft's incentives have managed to obtain noteworthy outcomes that profit builders and consumers alike. Take Foursquare, the example identified as out in the Times' report from very last yr. Without having the monetary strengthen ¨C in such a case, paying for an out of doors organization to port Foursquare's app more than on the Home windows Phone platform ¨C Foursquare would likely not exist on Home windows telephones, time period.
Due to the fact then, the Microsoft Keep has ballooned up from all around 70,000 apps and video games to a hundred forty five,000. And maybe that quantity has also been boosted a bit by Microsoft's 2nd advertising system to encourage developer desire: A bounty method that gave developers a $100 Visa reward card for each application they posted on the Microsoft Retail store, up to $2,000 really worth of total rewards, involving March nine and June thirty of this yr.
Of course, Microsoft isn't the only real maker that's sought to woo builders with the promises of cold, really hard funds. RIM doubled the reward pool to $2 million for the people collaborating in its final "Port-A-Thon" application in January of the year ?a that's just after the company saw much more than fifteen,000 apps submitted over a one-and-a-half-day time period in its preceding "Port-A-Thon" event. People constructing or porting applications were being qualified to get paid $100 for each, up to a utmost of $2,000, for every application which was acknowledged in to the BlackBerry Environment app store.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
HTC One Google edition: It's real and coming in summer
The HTC One will indeed get the Nexus treatment.
HTC will sell a Google Edition version of its flagship One smartphone with the stock Android operating system, CNET has confirmed.
Word of a version of the phone without its trademark Sense user interface popped up earlier Friday on Geek.com, with a reported time frame of two weeks. HTC is indeed planning to launch the phone, but the only indication of timing was summer, a person familiar with the company's plans told CNET.
HTC has bet heavily that its Sense user interface will set its products apart from the rest of the Android pack. The move follows a similarly surprising announcement by Samsung Electronics that it would launch a version of its Galaxy S4 with stock Android. The phone strips out the many Samsung touches that were loaded into the phone.
The One has been critically lauded, but many feared its sales would be dampened by the launch of the Galaxy S4 and the accompanying marketing blitz by Samsung. But an HTC executive told The Wall Street Journal that it had sold 5 million units in the first month, indicating a strong start.
HTC has recently faced concerns about its longevity after The Verge reported several key employees had left the company. HTC continues to see shrinking sales and profits.
While there are some fans of Sense, there are many other Android fans who prefer a "pure" version of the phone with stock Android, which enables faster updates and the latest from Google.
There's no word on which carriers will sell the phone, or whether there will be a subsidy. The Galaxy S4 Google Edition is available only on select carriers and sold at its unsubsidized price of $650.
HTC will sell a Google Edition version of its flagship One smartphone with the stock Android operating system, CNET has confirmed.
Word of a version of the phone without its trademark Sense user interface popped up earlier Friday on Geek.com, with a reported time frame of two weeks. HTC is indeed planning to launch the phone, but the only indication of timing was summer, a person familiar with the company's plans told CNET.
HTC has bet heavily that its Sense user interface will set its products apart from the rest of the Android pack. The move follows a similarly surprising announcement by Samsung Electronics that it would launch a version of its Galaxy S4 with stock Android. The phone strips out the many Samsung touches that were loaded into the phone.
The One has been critically lauded, but many feared its sales would be dampened by the launch of the Galaxy S4 and the accompanying marketing blitz by Samsung. But an HTC executive told The Wall Street Journal that it had sold 5 million units in the first month, indicating a strong start.
HTC has recently faced concerns about its longevity after The Verge reported several key employees had left the company. HTC continues to see shrinking sales and profits.
While there are some fans of Sense, there are many other Android fans who prefer a "pure" version of the phone with stock Android, which enables faster updates and the latest from Google.
There's no word on which carriers will sell the phone, or whether there will be a subsidy. The Galaxy S4 Google Edition is available only on select carriers and sold at its unsubsidized price of $650.
As a result, when it comes to a whole new Computer
I very first got wind of Windows Blue from my contacts about four months in
the past and also have given that composed numerous PCMag columns concerning the
OS update. As I have spelled out prior to, Windows eight.1, as it is really now
formally identified as, extends this new touch-based OS to tablets in the 7- to
eleven.4-inch assortment. It is also being used on exactly what are called
ultramobile laptops, or laptops that particularly use an Intel Atom processor or
even a new low-voltage chip from AMD termed Temash.
The press to incorporate Windows eight to lesser tablets will come as no surprise as this can be a market place that Microsoft has overlooked right until now, though tablets inside the 7- to 8-inch selection will stand for as much as sixty five percent of all tablets marketed around the world commencing this year. That's for the reason that these smaller sized tablets have a tendency being cheaper-some provide for under $150 now and others are anticipated to fall to $129 from the holiday seasons. These scaled-down tablets are evidently getting used for content usage, not productivity, but apparently Microsoft also thinks that tablets in the ten.1-inch range may also be media usage equipment and do not cross in excess of to productivity.
But there is anything odd about Microsoft's tactic to tablets and Home windows 8.one is noteworthy for a pair of motives. First, it might be utilised on scaled-down tablets. 2nd, when used on tablets or laptops that sport Intel's Atom chip or AMD's Temash processor, the OEM cost for Home windows 8.one is about $30 as opposed with its cost on laptops and PCs with more effective processors exactly where the license payment ranges from $65 to $85 for each equipment.
But here's the twist: Microsoft has determined that on tablets as many as ten.one inches functioning Windows eight.1 and using these lower-end processors from Intel and AMD, it will toss Microsoft Business in without spending a dime. If I'm not mistaken, Business office is productivity computer software. So the business seems to get stating that tablets around ten.one inches are largely consumption products, not utilised for productivity, yet it is actually providing them Office environment for free. Go figure! To get good, this likely has something to accomplish with obtaining new users common with Office environment and striving to move them into a cloud subscription of Place of work at some point. Continue to, around the area it even now appears to be similar to a strange go.
As I said above, OEM sellers can get Windows eight.one for about $30 so long as they use these new low-voltage chips from Intel and AMD and can be applied on screens from seven inches as high as thirteen.3 inches. Nevertheless, these machines are clearly for productivity so Microsoft would not bundle Workplace without cost. Once the OEM sellers heard they could get Home windows Blue for $30 when they applied Atom or Temash and will apply it to touch screens nearly thirteen.three inches, they jumped at the chance to make lessen expense ultramobile laptops. While they realize that producing touch-based laptops during the $399 to $549 selection is relatively dangerous since it could take in in the product sales of more costly ultrabooks, all OEMs have however embraced this chance and can quickly offer you these kinds of ultramobile laptops.
These lower-end ultramobile laptops are definitely intended to go just after the Chromebook marketplace that may be choosing up. In truth, NPD analysts explained that Chromebooks comprised 25 % of all laptops bought in retail under $300 very last thirty day period. Our contacts at a local retailer inform us they get 12 Chromebooks every week which they are really all bought out within just 48 hrs. While these ultramobiles could possibly be priced in a $200 to $250 quality in excess of Chromebooks, they are doing have complete Windows app compatibility and people who've invested from the Home windows ecosystem over time may locate this more expense tolerable. Also notice that buyers convey to us the best rate they are going to pay out for just a laptop or Pc is $599.
An emerging craze indicates that men and women favor low-cost laptops. Our investigation proceeds to verify that buyers can tackle about 80 % in their computing requires with a pill as well as the remaining twenty % ought to nevertheless be accomplished on a computer. As a result, when it comes to a whole new Computer, they either decide to lengthen the lifetime of their present design or purchase a cheap design figuring out that it's only necessary for about 20 p.c with the items they do, this kind of as residence funds, controlling media collections, or other heavy-lifting responsibilities.
The industry's biggest worry is usually that these low-cost, touch-based laptops not merely become wildly common, but they set up what we get in touch with "the new typical." Because of this although we are going to nevertheless provide laptops above $599, the change in consumer demand will boost the volume bought at decreased rate details. The financial gain margin on these more affordable laptops is much smaller than on costly machines and when they just take off, they might diminish the need for higher-priced laptops, that have been the bread and butter on the Personal computer field for many years.
Home windows 8.1 will truly be a vital variation of Home windows eight thanks to this large thrust with lower-cost, touch-based laptops. I feel which they will likely be a big hit this back-to-school and getaway time. A far more hard question to answer is whether Windows 8.1 on small tablets will discover any demand. It truly is up versus iOS and Android, which each have app suppliers boasting in excess of 800,000 applications. And although we could see some 7-inch Windows eight.one tablets as little as $249 through the holidays, Windows-based tablets should have an uphill climb specified the present levels of competition.
The press to incorporate Windows eight to lesser tablets will come as no surprise as this can be a market place that Microsoft has overlooked right until now, though tablets inside the 7- to 8-inch selection will stand for as much as sixty five percent of all tablets marketed around the world commencing this year. That's for the reason that these smaller sized tablets have a tendency being cheaper-some provide for under $150 now and others are anticipated to fall to $129 from the holiday seasons. These scaled-down tablets are evidently getting used for content usage, not productivity, but apparently Microsoft also thinks that tablets in the ten.1-inch range may also be media usage equipment and do not cross in excess of to productivity.
But there is anything odd about Microsoft's tactic to tablets and Home windows 8.one is noteworthy for a pair of motives. First, it might be utilised on scaled-down tablets. 2nd, when used on tablets or laptops that sport Intel's Atom chip or AMD's Temash processor, the OEM cost for Home windows 8.one is about $30 as opposed with its cost on laptops and PCs with more effective processors exactly where the license payment ranges from $65 to $85 for each equipment.
But here's the twist: Microsoft has determined that on tablets as many as ten.one inches functioning Windows eight.1 and using these lower-end processors from Intel and AMD, it will toss Microsoft Business in without spending a dime. If I'm not mistaken, Business office is productivity computer software. So the business seems to get stating that tablets around ten.one inches are largely consumption products, not utilised for productivity, yet it is actually providing them Office environment for free. Go figure! To get good, this likely has something to accomplish with obtaining new users common with Office environment and striving to move them into a cloud subscription of Place of work at some point. Continue to, around the area it even now appears to be similar to a strange go.
As I said above, OEM sellers can get Windows eight.one for about $30 so long as they use these new low-voltage chips from Intel and AMD and can be applied on screens from seven inches as high as thirteen.3 inches. Nevertheless, these machines are clearly for productivity so Microsoft would not bundle Workplace without cost. Once the OEM sellers heard they could get Home windows Blue for $30 when they applied Atom or Temash and will apply it to touch screens nearly thirteen.three inches, they jumped at the chance to make lessen expense ultramobile laptops. While they realize that producing touch-based laptops during the $399 to $549 selection is relatively dangerous since it could take in in the product sales of more costly ultrabooks, all OEMs have however embraced this chance and can quickly offer you these kinds of ultramobile laptops.
These lower-end ultramobile laptops are definitely intended to go just after the Chromebook marketplace that may be choosing up. In truth, NPD analysts explained that Chromebooks comprised 25 % of all laptops bought in retail under $300 very last thirty day period. Our contacts at a local retailer inform us they get 12 Chromebooks every week which they are really all bought out within just 48 hrs. While these ultramobiles could possibly be priced in a $200 to $250 quality in excess of Chromebooks, they are doing have complete Windows app compatibility and people who've invested from the Home windows ecosystem over time may locate this more expense tolerable. Also notice that buyers convey to us the best rate they are going to pay out for just a laptop or Pc is $599.
An emerging craze indicates that men and women favor low-cost laptops. Our investigation proceeds to verify that buyers can tackle about 80 % in their computing requires with a pill as well as the remaining twenty % ought to nevertheless be accomplished on a computer. As a result, when it comes to a whole new Computer, they either decide to lengthen the lifetime of their present design or purchase a cheap design figuring out that it's only necessary for about 20 p.c with the items they do, this kind of as residence funds, controlling media collections, or other heavy-lifting responsibilities.
The industry's biggest worry is usually that these low-cost, touch-based laptops not merely become wildly common, but they set up what we get in touch with "the new typical." Because of this although we are going to nevertheless provide laptops above $599, the change in consumer demand will boost the volume bought at decreased rate details. The financial gain margin on these more affordable laptops is much smaller than on costly machines and when they just take off, they might diminish the need for higher-priced laptops, that have been the bread and butter on the Personal computer field for many years.
Home windows 8.1 will truly be a vital variation of Home windows eight thanks to this large thrust with lower-cost, touch-based laptops. I feel which they will likely be a big hit this back-to-school and getaway time. A far more hard question to answer is whether Windows 8.1 on small tablets will discover any demand. It truly is up versus iOS and Android, which each have app suppliers boasting in excess of 800,000 applications. And although we could see some 7-inch Windows eight.one tablets as little as $249 through the holidays, Windows-based tablets should have an uphill climb specified the present levels of competition.
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Formatting a World With No Secrets
Picture this rosy scenario for your high-tech future: You awaken because
your curtains open automatically, your coffee maker starts brewing and your bed
administers a subtle hint in the form of a back massage. Your closet, having
scanned your calendar, coughs up a freshly cleaned suit for the big meeting
today. You head for the kitchen while reading the day’s news as a translucent
holographic display. Thanks to motion detection, it stays right in front of you
as you walk.
And when you stub your toe — because you will, pal, if you wander around scanning eye-level holograms — you can use a diagnostics app on your mobile device to see whether it’s broken. Speaking of your feet, you will have a smartshoe that pinches you to keep you from lingering over breakfast and being late for your meeting. Neither human error nor human nature will interfere with your gratingly perfect morning.
If this is the happiest news delivered by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen in “The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business,” imagine what the bad news is like. Actually, you don’t have to: the authors have come up with memorably batty examples. They say that the future will be a tough time to be a Malawian witch doctor because when everyone in the world has access to digital information, the witch doctors’ authority will be contradicted. It will also be hard to be a warlord in eastern Congo if warlords are touchy about negative publicity.
Maybe they are. “The New Digital Age” is much more prescient and provocative than it is silly. Its thinking got a little less futuristic when last week’s Boston Marathon bombings turned crowdsourcing and cameras into high-speed methods of needle-in-a-haystack detection.
The collaboration between Mr. Schmidt, the executive chairman (and former chief executive) of Google, and Mr. Cohen, a foreign-relations expert and director of Google Ideas, is meant to explore the ways in which technology and diplomacy will intersect. “There is a canyon dividing people who understand technology and people charged with addressing the world’s toughest geopolitical issues, and no one has built a bridge,” they write.
The most frightening and important sections deal with the futures of war and terrorism, and it is here that the authors sound most assured. Until now, they point out, it has been relatively easy to use scare tactics and Web charisma to mobilize acolytes. But a new accountability is coming, and a wired, well-informed public will be able to tell the difference between stardom and wisdom. “The consequence of having more citizens informed and connected is that they’ll be as critical and discerning about rebels as they are about the government,” the authors write.
This book articulates why any leaders, whether legitimate, revolutionary, self-styled or tyrannical, will need much more elaborate planning skills than they ever had before. “States will long for the days when they only had to think about foreign and domestic policies in the physical world,” it grimly says. Future political visionaries will have to devise policies for both the real and virtual worlds, and those policies will not necessarily be consistent with each other. There is already much evidence for the authors’ claim that cyberwarfare and drone strikes are apt to overshadow traditional combat — although technology may yield military uniforms that can generate sounds, camouflage themselves and even self-destruct rather than wind up in enemy hands.
Despite dry, dense prose and occasional weird misfires (will it be joyous or heartbreaking to watch holographic home movies, to have the dead visit your living room?), “The New Digital Age” throws off many worthwhile provocations.
Some are pop-cultural: It’s no longer true, the authors argue, that everyone will be famous for 15 minutes (per Andy Warhol). Thanks to the unforgiving nature of the Internet, everyone will be famous forever. “It’s only a question,” they say, “of how many people are paying attention, and why.”
Some are global: Making frequent swipes at China (the authors agree with certain experts “that China’s future will not be bright”), this book handicaps the prospects of both rebellion and suppression as if the fate of the world might depend on these things — because it might.
Any reader of “The New Digital Age” is sure to have a favorite point of contention. Like the book’s view of politics: The authors predict that we can expect many more Herman “Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan” Cains in the future, candidates with big personalities who become momentarily popular but cannot withstand tough scrutiny.
Then they advise political consultants to map the brain functions of candidates for a scientific assessment of how well they handle stress and temptation. When a politician makes it past that kind of screening, we will have truly reached the robotic age.
www.windows7mart.com
And when you stub your toe — because you will, pal, if you wander around scanning eye-level holograms — you can use a diagnostics app on your mobile device to see whether it’s broken. Speaking of your feet, you will have a smartshoe that pinches you to keep you from lingering over breakfast and being late for your meeting. Neither human error nor human nature will interfere with your gratingly perfect morning.
If this is the happiest news delivered by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen in “The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business,” imagine what the bad news is like. Actually, you don’t have to: the authors have come up with memorably batty examples. They say that the future will be a tough time to be a Malawian witch doctor because when everyone in the world has access to digital information, the witch doctors’ authority will be contradicted. It will also be hard to be a warlord in eastern Congo if warlords are touchy about negative publicity.
Maybe they are. “The New Digital Age” is much more prescient and provocative than it is silly. Its thinking got a little less futuristic when last week’s Boston Marathon bombings turned crowdsourcing and cameras into high-speed methods of needle-in-a-haystack detection.
The collaboration between Mr. Schmidt, the executive chairman (and former chief executive) of Google, and Mr. Cohen, a foreign-relations expert and director of Google Ideas, is meant to explore the ways in which technology and diplomacy will intersect. “There is a canyon dividing people who understand technology and people charged with addressing the world’s toughest geopolitical issues, and no one has built a bridge,” they write.
The most frightening and important sections deal with the futures of war and terrorism, and it is here that the authors sound most assured. Until now, they point out, it has been relatively easy to use scare tactics and Web charisma to mobilize acolytes. But a new accountability is coming, and a wired, well-informed public will be able to tell the difference between stardom and wisdom. “The consequence of having more citizens informed and connected is that they’ll be as critical and discerning about rebels as they are about the government,” the authors write.
This book articulates why any leaders, whether legitimate, revolutionary, self-styled or tyrannical, will need much more elaborate planning skills than they ever had before. “States will long for the days when they only had to think about foreign and domestic policies in the physical world,” it grimly says. Future political visionaries will have to devise policies for both the real and virtual worlds, and those policies will not necessarily be consistent with each other. There is already much evidence for the authors’ claim that cyberwarfare and drone strikes are apt to overshadow traditional combat — although technology may yield military uniforms that can generate sounds, camouflage themselves and even self-destruct rather than wind up in enemy hands.
Despite dry, dense prose and occasional weird misfires (will it be joyous or heartbreaking to watch holographic home movies, to have the dead visit your living room?), “The New Digital Age” throws off many worthwhile provocations.
Some are pop-cultural: It’s no longer true, the authors argue, that everyone will be famous for 15 minutes (per Andy Warhol). Thanks to the unforgiving nature of the Internet, everyone will be famous forever. “It’s only a question,” they say, “of how many people are paying attention, and why.”
Some are global: Making frequent swipes at China (the authors agree with certain experts “that China’s future will not be bright”), this book handicaps the prospects of both rebellion and suppression as if the fate of the world might depend on these things — because it might.
Any reader of “The New Digital Age” is sure to have a favorite point of contention. Like the book’s view of politics: The authors predict that we can expect many more Herman “Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan” Cains in the future, candidates with big personalities who become momentarily popular but cannot withstand tough scrutiny.
Then they advise political consultants to map the brain functions of candidates for a scientific assessment of how well they handle stress and temptation. When a politician makes it past that kind of screening, we will have truly reached the robotic age.
www.windows7mart.com
Eskom strike the headlines this 7 days when it admitted
Africa's greatest energy organization Eskom has began its migration to
Windows 7 and eight from Home windows XP.
The corporation is likewise incorporating all-around yet another 20 SAP business software package modules on the first implementation of an SAP update it accomplished in October 2011.
Eskom delivers ninety five p.c of South Africa's ability and forty percent of Africa's total electrical power consumed. The state-owned enterprise has 27 most important energy producing locations providing coal, gas, hydro, nuclear and wind energy.
The previous SAP enhance noticed Eskom consolidate from four various SAP techniques covering different places of its small business to the single occasion, to make a "single variation of your truth", in addition as save a lot of Rand from only signing only one SAP application agreement.
At the time the company also moved far from customised SAP apps and chose instead to deploy "vanilla" deployments to "remove complexity" from its operations. It was discovered by Eskom that customised SAP apps created details silos and designed it more difficult to enhance programs.
Eskom is now having that a action even more by including an additional 20 modules to go over organization areas like cell performing, e-recruitment, estates administration and others, to further aid 34,000 SAP close customers in the organization.
Sal Laher, CIO of Eskom, said, "We are also preparing to get a 3rd stage in
our SAP deployment sooner or later, which is able to aid us introduce new good
metering schemes, which can be exactly where the market needs to head."
Eskom strike the headlines this 7 days when it admitted it would be to the brink of blackouts this coming winter subsequently of servicing and ensuing downtime at a few of its building vegetation.
Smart metering along with the goal of lowering ability utilization could enable alleviate foreseeable future troubles.
On the benefits of the Home windows 7 and eight upgrades, covering the desktops, laptops along with other cell devices of fifty four,000 people, Laher claimed, "Migrating to Windows seven will give us better integration with other programs, improve mobility, and maximize security.
The corporation is likewise incorporating all-around yet another 20 SAP business software package modules on the first implementation of an SAP update it accomplished in October 2011.
Eskom delivers ninety five p.c of South Africa's ability and forty percent of Africa's total electrical power consumed. The state-owned enterprise has 27 most important energy producing locations providing coal, gas, hydro, nuclear and wind energy.
The previous SAP enhance noticed Eskom consolidate from four various SAP techniques covering different places of its small business to the single occasion, to make a "single variation of your truth", in addition as save a lot of Rand from only signing only one SAP application agreement.
At the time the company also moved far from customised SAP apps and chose instead to deploy "vanilla" deployments to "remove complexity" from its operations. It was discovered by Eskom that customised SAP apps created details silos and designed it more difficult to enhance programs.
Eskom is now having that a action even more by including an additional 20 modules to go over organization areas like cell performing, e-recruitment, estates administration and others, to further aid 34,000 SAP close customers in the organization.
Eskom strike the headlines this 7 days when it admitted it would be to the brink of blackouts this coming winter subsequently of servicing and ensuing downtime at a few of its building vegetation.
Smart metering along with the goal of lowering ability utilization could enable alleviate foreseeable future troubles.
On the benefits of the Home windows 7 and eight upgrades, covering the desktops, laptops along with other cell devices of fifty four,000 people, Laher claimed, "Migrating to Windows seven will give us better integration with other programs, improve mobility, and maximize security.
Monday, April 15, 2013
Justin Bieber hopes Anne Frank 'would have been a belieber'
If Anne Frank had not died a teenager in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945,
Justin Bieber hopes she would have been his devoted fan.
That's what Bieber, 19, wrote in the guestbook at the Anne Frank House when he visited there Friday, according to the Amsterdam site.
"Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber," Bieber wrote. The tourist site posted the message on its Facebook page.
Adolescent and teen girls obsessed with the Canadian singer are known as "beliebers."
Bieber, who is in the middle of a European tour, stopped by the Anne Frank House between his concert in Antwerp, Belgium, and a Saturday performance in Arnhem, Netherlands. He told fans on Twitter it was a "chill day."
Bieber visited the house "together with his friends and guards" Friday night, according to the site's official Facebook page. The Anne Frank House confirmed to CNN that its Facebook post carrying Bieber's message was authentic.
"Fans were waiting outside to see a glimpse of him. He stayed more than an hour in the museum," the Facebook page said.
Frank was 13 when she and her family began hiding in a dark and damp "secret annex" of the house to escape the German roundup of Jews in Holland in July 1942. She never left the house for two years, spending much of her time writing in her diary, until she and her family were found and arrested by Nazis in August 1944.
Swiss man reintroduces his cousin: Anne Frank's letters
Anne Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March 1945. Her diary survived to tell her tragic and inspiring story.
Bieber's representatives did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment Sunday, but visitors to the Anne Frank Facebook page had plenty to say.
A sample of reactions:
"Glad he went, but, the last sentence is VERY self serving. he missed the lessons of Anne totally."
"She would've been a WHAT? That little idiot is way too full of himself. She's an important historical figure so show some respect."
"Way to turn an inspiring moment into something about yourself."
"lets hope she would have never been a belieber"
"Here I thought it was nice of him to go and see the history of her until I read what he wrote. Have some respect Mr. Bieber for she will be famous long after your fame fizzles."
"'Despite everything, i believe people are really good at heart' - Anne Frank I think before everyone goes bashing Justin Bieber we should take a moment to think about these words and why Anne said them."
That's what Bieber, 19, wrote in the guestbook at the Anne Frank House when he visited there Friday, according to the Amsterdam site.
"Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber," Bieber wrote. The tourist site posted the message on its Facebook page.
Adolescent and teen girls obsessed with the Canadian singer are known as "beliebers."
Bieber, who is in the middle of a European tour, stopped by the Anne Frank House between his concert in Antwerp, Belgium, and a Saturday performance in Arnhem, Netherlands. He told fans on Twitter it was a "chill day."
Bieber visited the house "together with his friends and guards" Friday night, according to the site's official Facebook page. The Anne Frank House confirmed to CNN that its Facebook post carrying Bieber's message was authentic.
"Fans were waiting outside to see a glimpse of him. He stayed more than an hour in the museum," the Facebook page said.
Frank was 13 when she and her family began hiding in a dark and damp "secret annex" of the house to escape the German roundup of Jews in Holland in July 1942. She never left the house for two years, spending much of her time writing in her diary, until she and her family were found and arrested by Nazis in August 1944.
Swiss man reintroduces his cousin: Anne Frank's letters
Anne Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March 1945. Her diary survived to tell her tragic and inspiring story.
Bieber's representatives did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment Sunday, but visitors to the Anne Frank Facebook page had plenty to say.
A sample of reactions:
"Glad he went, but, the last sentence is VERY self serving. he missed the lessons of Anne totally."
"She would've been a WHAT? That little idiot is way too full of himself. She's an important historical figure so show some respect."
"Way to turn an inspiring moment into something about yourself."
"lets hope she would have never been a belieber"
"Here I thought it was nice of him to go and see the history of her until I read what he wrote. Have some respect Mr. Bieber for she will be famous long after your fame fizzles."
"'Despite everything, i believe people are really good at heart' - Anne Frank I think before everyone goes bashing Justin Bieber we should take a moment to think about these words and why Anne said them."
Nevertheless for people who will not know
I would not deny it, items are undesirable in Computer land at the moment.
The IDC is reporting the biggest fall in Laptop shipments because the company
started monitoring these things in 1994: a 13.9% drop 12 months above year and
much steeper slides for unique manufacturers. The first quarter of 2013 can be a
stinker for PCs. It is the reality. What might not be, although, is everyone’s
insistence on pinning this on Windows 8.
“At this place, unfortunately, it seems clear that the Home windows eight start not merely unsuccessful to offer a optimistic improve towards the Computer market, but appears to obtain slowed the marketplace," reported the IDC’s Bob O'Donnell within the scathing report.
That quotation led to quite a great deal everybody stating that Home windows eight is killing PCs profits. In truth, headlines such as this “Windows eight Killing Laptop Sales” and “Research agency IDC: Computer revenue plunge as Windows 8 flops” had been not unheard of.
IDC did not lay many of the blame on Windows eight. It pointed out a decline in netbook sales (keep in mind those?), Dell and HP’s difficulties, a lack of new marketplaces in the US, whitebox program consolidation and public-sector shopping for constraints in China.
There genuinely was hardly just one bit of fine news while in the report. Apple endured much less than other makers, but still observed a Computer shipment decline (typically, IDC stated, as a consequence of the expansion in iPad gross sales).
Definitely? A released stopped people today from acquiring new PCs? While numerous buyers and companies can nonetheless choose to purchase Windows seven units (and/or the Home windows 7 program), all of them pulled up small mainly because they had been afraid of the really distinctive Home windows eight?
Home windows 8 differs. The Home windows Design (previously Metro) interface is often a mystery to some. There’s no “Start” button and it is is actually made for a touch practical experience, although it really works just fantastic which has a mouse.
To start with, I do like Windows eight and utilize it each and every day. It runs all Windows seven software and provides me an incredibly traditional Home windows encounter if I need it. The “Desktop” remains to be there, soon after all. Furthermore, if you get a instant to have a look at Windows eight, you immediately realize that the Begin Menu is now larger than ever: It is the Windows Design/Metro Interface.
Almost every single Home windows update has, at the least to begin with, been considered a failure. Some, like Vista, and Windows ME, have been. But even the successes like Windows 95, ninety eight and Windows 7 had been originally judged improperly - till they grew to become ubiquitous. I’m not arguing that Home windows eight will inevitably do the same. It’s also early to know of course.
Nevertheless for people who will not know, listed here the way it operates: Microsoft launches a whole new OS and nerds and lover boys line approximately get their hands on it. Every person else steers clear, at least for a while. Consumers very a great deal settle for no matter what OS arrives on their own new Computer system and they are not jumping to obtain new PCs (a lot more on that afterwards). Organizations normally glance sideways at any OS update. They have little interest in expending far more money on new personal computers if the outdated kinds they've appear to be doing work just great. Even if they do purchase new PCs, they’ll have their IT set up regardless of what is conventional inside their place of work. This is the reason so many firms remain operating Windows XP. It might acquire a long time for them to totally up grade.
“At this place, unfortunately, it seems clear that the Home windows eight start not merely unsuccessful to offer a optimistic improve towards the Computer market, but appears to obtain slowed the marketplace," reported the IDC’s Bob O'Donnell within the scathing report.
That quotation led to quite a great deal everybody stating that Home windows eight is killing PCs profits. In truth, headlines such as this “Windows eight Killing Laptop Sales” and “Research agency IDC: Computer revenue plunge as Windows 8 flops” had been not unheard of.
IDC did not lay many of the blame on Windows eight. It pointed out a decline in netbook sales (keep in mind those?), Dell and HP’s difficulties, a lack of new marketplaces in the US, whitebox program consolidation and public-sector shopping for constraints in China.
There genuinely was hardly just one bit of fine news while in the report. Apple endured much less than other makers, but still observed a Computer shipment decline (typically, IDC stated, as a consequence of the expansion in iPad gross sales).
Definitely? A released stopped people today from acquiring new PCs? While numerous buyers and companies can nonetheless choose to purchase Windows seven units (and/or the Home windows 7 program), all of them pulled up small mainly because they had been afraid of the really distinctive Home windows eight?
Home windows 8 differs. The Home windows Design (previously Metro) interface is often a mystery to some. There’s no “Start” button and it is is actually made for a touch practical experience, although it really works just fantastic which has a mouse.
To start with, I do like Windows eight and utilize it each and every day. It runs all Windows seven software and provides me an incredibly traditional Home windows encounter if I need it. The “Desktop” remains to be there, soon after all. Furthermore, if you get a instant to have a look at Windows eight, you immediately realize that the Begin Menu is now larger than ever: It is the Windows Design/Metro Interface.
Almost every single Home windows update has, at the least to begin with, been considered a failure. Some, like Vista, and Windows ME, have been. But even the successes like Windows 95, ninety eight and Windows 7 had been originally judged improperly - till they grew to become ubiquitous. I’m not arguing that Home windows eight will inevitably do the same. It’s also early to know of course.
Nevertheless for people who will not know, listed here the way it operates: Microsoft launches a whole new OS and nerds and lover boys line approximately get their hands on it. Every person else steers clear, at least for a while. Consumers very a great deal settle for no matter what OS arrives on their own new Computer system and they are not jumping to obtain new PCs (a lot more on that afterwards). Organizations normally glance sideways at any OS update. They have little interest in expending far more money on new personal computers if the outdated kinds they've appear to be doing work just great. Even if they do purchase new PCs, they’ll have their IT set up regardless of what is conventional inside their place of work. This is the reason so many firms remain operating Windows XP. It might acquire a long time for them to totally up grade.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Microsoft to add dual-factor sign-on security 'soon': report
Microsoft will toughen up its products' security by adding dual-factor authentication "soon," according to a report today by Liveside.net.
Judging by details in the blog, the approach closely mirrors what Google did years ago: authorization requiring both a password (the first factor) and a special six-digit code retrieved from an authenticator app on a person's smartphone (the second factor). The smartphone code changes frequently so it can't be used for long.
We've contacted Microsoft for comment and will update this post when they respond. However, there's a strong indicator that there's truth to the report: the availability of an Authenticator app from Microsoft for Windows Phone 7.5 and 8, published last Friday with a version 1.0.0.0 release.
One commenter said the app "also works with Google's 2-step authentication," an indication that there could be a two-way street between Google and Microsoft systems. That could be very handy since Google offers its Authenticator app for Android, iOS, and BlackBerry and many people who might want to use Microsoft services will have those types of phones.
In 2012, Microsoft acquired PhoneFactor, a provider of multi-factor authentication technology that uses phones.
Dual-factor authentication makes it harder for people to get access to your account, since those trying to get access to your account need both your password and your smartphone. Even if they get access to both, they'd also need to get past your smartphone lock screen -- you do use a password or other security mechanism, right?
However, dual-factor brings a significant hassle, too.
• You must authorize your phone in advance using a pairing process.
• Software and services that tap into your account -- likely including some e-mail programs, for example -- must be reworked to handle dual-factor authentication. And until they are, you must use what Microsoft apparently will call "app passwords," and which Google calls application-specific passwords.
• You have to have your phone with you to log in to devices and services, which can be an annoyance if it's upstairs charging and you're downstairs working, or if you left your phone at home by mistake. It appears likely from the Liveside report that you'll be able to skip dual-factor authentication for frequently-accessed systems once you log in with the system once, though. And Google, at least, lets you print a set of authentication codes that you can use in an emergency instead of the dual-factor authentication.
A hassle it may be, but identity theft is a lot worse, especially in cases where hackers obtain account details for tens of thousands of account holders at a time. So it's no surprise that dual-factor authentication is gradually spreading around the industry.
Facebook, Yahoo, PayPal, and Dropbox already offer dual-factor authentication, with Dropbox customers able to use Google Authenticator. Twitter posted a job listing indicating it's interested, too.
It might cease you from downloading suspicious
After you purchase a new notebook or personal computer method that has a new functioning program, its overall performance would little question be outstanding. However, as time goes by, you can recognize the program is slowly but surely deteriorating. The very first matter that allows you to definitely detect this is often its lowered velocity. A procedure only deteriorates any time you do not consider treatment of it. It is actually thanks to put in unused courses and missing correct understanding of Computer treatment. To make certain which you retain your system’s outstanding operation, detailed underneath are a few with the ways which will help optimize your Home windows seven for better effectiveness.
Most buyers neglect this application; however, this is often actually an extremely valuable tool. Your technique is slowing down due to causes which you may not in fact bear in mind of. Whatever you can perform will be to open the Troubleshooter application that may quickly look at the problems inside of your technique and immediately fixes them. You can just click the start button, open up the user interface, type troubleshooter while in the box furnished, click on it and click on around the check button for fixing problems.
Many folks down load documents then forget about them in a while. These courses might be trial versions of game titles, software program, new music, shots, junk data files, and many others. Storing unused packages and information can substantially minimize your method functionality. Aside from that, they use a large amount of house with your really hard disk. Consequently, it truly is instructed you delete unneeded and undesired plans and files as some them may perhaps have viruses that could promptly spread as part of your boot sector which could as a result injury your booting process.
To delete these courses, you just only open up the user interface and click on on systems and functions. You are going to then see a summary of the mounted programs as well as the uninstall button.
One more component that slows down your system is definitely the amount of icons located in your process bar. Taking away these icons might help speed up your process.
It's important to implement the defragmenter every so often since it removes fragmentation from the tough disk and rearranges all of the facts saved in it. It will eventually aid unlock house which could therefore support increase the velocity of your technique. To go to the defragmenter, you simply simply click the start button, click the user interface and critical in disk fragmenter.
To get rid of unneeded files that choose up some room of one's tricky disk, you may use the disk cleanup system to eliminate short-term documents, distinct the recycle bin and eliminate pointless system data files. To find the disk cleanup button, you visit the Start out button, click on control panel, crucial in disk cleanup and choose the travel you wish to clean up.
To enhance the beginning up velocity of one's computer system, it really is essential to disable other visible results. Just visit the user interface, search efficiency facts and tools and mark the box Alter for very best functionality. Aside from that, it is strongly recommended to restart your system commonly to obvious your memory and uncontrolled procedures. Nonetheless, usually do not restart making use of your main swap since it may possibly problems your operating technique.
It can be essential that you choose to have an effective Computer system antivirus program put in as part of your personal computer as being the antivirus system will help protect against destructive codes from entering and most likely detrimental your program. It might cease you from downloading suspicious information, blocking all chances for viruses and codes to enter your technique.
When our system starts slowing down, we generally blame our functioning process; even so, it truly is our obligation as entrepreneurs to keep our methods secure and up to date. We should always be the ones to maintain its speed and performance by increasing and shifting our storage habit and by allowing go of unused plans and documents. Keep to the suggestions shown previously mentioned and you are going to be certain of an optimized Home windows seven.
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Facebook didn’t let any one sign into devices
For any organization that has struggled with mobile for many years,
Facebook Dwelling is Facebook getting the mobile encounter ideal. Inside the
brief hands-on time I had at the event, it was clear this can be just the very
first important step forward inside the company’s mobile obsession. It is
sophisticated and contemporary - just what Facebook needs on modest smartphone
screens.
As soon as you have got Facebook Residence in your Android telephone, your lock screen turns into a very quite Cover Feed - Facebook’s new term for its stream of photographs and status updates that take up the complete screen. Without even unlocking your telephone, you see the newest updates out of your mates inside a slow pace that allows you to essentially read and follow. Unlocking the phone and going right to your Facebook Residence screen is as speedy and quick as swiping towards the left for a new photo or status update, or swiping your profile photo at the bottom on the screen.
Facebook didn’t let any one sign into devices with their own accounts, so our only practical experience was having a demo device that, presumably, held an employee’s account.
The phone’s lock screen also displayed the user’s most current notifications - for example, a new like or message. Just swipe to the ideal on a notification and you’ve removed it. That is just 1 of several quick gestures Facebook has included, creating it less difficult than ever to interact with posts. “Like” and “comment” buttons are appropriate there within the bottom left corner, but you are able to just as quickly double-tap to like a post. Tap and hold a photo in Cover Feed and it'll zoom out so you may see the full image. Let go and also the photo zooms back in and requires up the screen. Swiping left and ideal for distinct updates is rapid and smooth.
You'll be able to access all your apps by tapping the center household button or, when the phone is locked, by swiping your Facebook profile photo up toward the Apps alternative. From there, you also get the speedy Status Update, Photo and Check-In buttons above your pages of apps.
Facebook Household isn’t thoroughly polished pretty but. It could use a lot of other characteristics - posting content material directly from the household screen, rather than having to go into the app drawer comes to thoughts - and finesse. There's no customization for Cover Feed, so if you wish to scroll vertically through a more common News Feed (just like the one you see the present Facebook mobile app) you must visit your app drawer and open the principle Facebook app. And once you tap on a friend’s face within a post, you visit the key Facebook app at the same time.
As soon as you have got Facebook Residence in your Android telephone, your lock screen turns into a very quite Cover Feed - Facebook’s new term for its stream of photographs and status updates that take up the complete screen. Without even unlocking your telephone, you see the newest updates out of your mates inside a slow pace that allows you to essentially read and follow. Unlocking the phone and going right to your Facebook Residence screen is as speedy and quick as swiping towards the left for a new photo or status update, or swiping your profile photo at the bottom on the screen.
Facebook didn’t let any one sign into devices with their own accounts, so our only practical experience was having a demo device that, presumably, held an employee’s account.
The phone’s lock screen also displayed the user’s most current notifications - for example, a new like or message. Just swipe to the ideal on a notification and you’ve removed it. That is just 1 of several quick gestures Facebook has included, creating it less difficult than ever to interact with posts. “Like” and “comment” buttons are appropriate there within the bottom left corner, but you are able to just as quickly double-tap to like a post. Tap and hold a photo in Cover Feed and it'll zoom out so you may see the full image. Let go and also the photo zooms back in and requires up the screen. Swiping left and ideal for distinct updates is rapid and smooth.
You'll be able to access all your apps by tapping the center household button or, when the phone is locked, by swiping your Facebook profile photo up toward the Apps alternative. From there, you also get the speedy Status Update, Photo and Check-In buttons above your pages of apps.
Facebook Household isn’t thoroughly polished pretty but. It could use a lot of other characteristics - posting content material directly from the household screen, rather than having to go into the app drawer comes to thoughts - and finesse. There's no customization for Cover Feed, so if you wish to scroll vertically through a more common News Feed (just like the one you see the present Facebook mobile app) you must visit your app drawer and open the principle Facebook app. And once you tap on a friend’s face within a post, you visit the key Facebook app at the same time.
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