Author: Eva Glass

Eva Glass first rose to prominence in The INQUIRER. She continues to work behind the scenes to dig out the best stories.

Big Data gets very big indeed

Posted on September 15, 2014 by - News

server-racksRevenues for Big Data technology and services will be worth $41.5 billion by 2018 and is growing now at a 26.4 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR).

That’s an estimate by market research company IDC. Ashish Nadkarni, research director at the company, said the hype was simmering down.  “This is a sign that the technologies are maturing and making their way into the fabric of how organisations operate and firms conduct their business,” he said.

This year, infrastructure has a large share of the entire market, with a 48.2 percent slice of the Big Data pie.

While America leads the way in Big Data investment, it isn’t going to stay that way. EMEA and Asia Pacific have nearly 45 percent market share in infrastructure, software, and services.

IDC predicts there will be a mergers and acquisitions boom in the sphere.

Microsoft coughs $2.5 billion for Mojang

Posted on September 15, 2014 by - News

Microsoft campusSoftware giant Microsoft said it has bought Mojang, which makes the video game Minecraft for $2.5 billion.

The Swedish company has sold over 50 million copies but the three founders will leave the company.

Mojang said on its website change is scary, but “it is going to be good though. Everything is going to be OK.”

Mojang said Minecraft had grown and grown like Topsy.  “Though we’re massively proud of what Minecraft has become. It was never Notch’s intention for it to get this big.”

“Notch” is the brains behind Minecraft and the majority shareholder.  He doesn’t want to run such a big company and the pressure was getting too much. “The only option was to sell Mojang. He [Notch] will continue to do cool stuff though. Don’t worry about that.”

Driverless car growth set to surge

Posted on September 15, 2014 by - News

Rolls Royce Silver GhostA staggering 42 million driverless vehicles will be on our roads by 2035.

That’s the prediction of market research company ABI Research which said the numbers of driverless cars will ramp from 1.1 million in 2024 to over 42 million in 2035.

But these optimistic forecasts don’t take into account bottlenecks including user acceptance, security, liability and regulation.

Google has already been forced by the California Department of Motor Vehicles to test prototypes with steering wheel, brake and acceleration pedals installed.

Tesla said last week that it will move into the driverless car market but other car manufacturers are havering over making a decision.

“While autonomous driving under the control of a human standby driver is quickly gaining acceptance, robotic vehicles mostly remain out of bounds, especially for car manufacturers, despite Google’s recent announcement to start prototype testing. However, only driverless vehicles will bring the full range of automation benefits including car sharing; driverless taxis, and delivery vans; social mobility for kids, elderly, and impaired; and overall economic growth through cheaper and smoother transportation critical in an increasing number of smart mega cities. Many barriers remain but the path towards robotic vehicles is now firmly established with high rewards for those first-to-market,” said ABI Research director Dominique Bonte.

Majority of mobile apps are insecure

Posted on September 15, 2014 by - News

SmartphonesA Gartner report claimed that 75 percent of mobile applications fail the most basic security tests.

That poses threats for corporations, it said.  Enterprise employees download apps and also use mobile apps to access business networks. Such apps can violate enterprise policies and expose enterprises to threats.

Dionisio Zumerle, a principal analyst at Gartner said: “Enterprises that embrace mobile computing and bring your own device (BYOD) strategies are vulnerable to security breaches unless they adopt methods and technologies for mobile application security testing and risk assurance  Most enterprises are inexperienced in mobile application security. Even when application security testing is undertaken, it is often done casually by developers who are mostly concerned with the functionality of applications, not their security.”

He claimed that vendors supplying static and dynamic application testing can prevent problems on the enterprise.  And a new test, called behavioural analysis, is emerging for mobile apps.

He added: “Today, more than 90 percent of enterprises use third-party commercial applications for their mobile BYOD strategies, and this is where current major application security testing efforts should be applied,” said Mr Zumerle. “App stores are filled with applications that mostly prove their advertised usefulness. Nevertheless, enterprises and individuals should not use them without paying attention to their security. They should download and use only those applications that have successfully passed security tests conducted by specialized application security testing vendors.”

Often the biggest problem is misconfiguring devices, so for example by misusing personal cloud service through apps on smartphones and tablets.

Comcast declares war on Tor

Posted on September 15, 2014 by - News

Newspaper Seller, 1939The most popular telco in the US, famous for its happy customers and commitment to a positive future for an open internet, Comcast has declared war on the encrypted system Tor.

Comcast agents have contacted customers using Tor and instructed them to stop using the browser or risk being cut off.

According to Deep Dot Web one Comcast agent named Jeremy insisted Tor an “illegal service” and was against usage policies. The Comcast agent then repeatedly asked the customer to tell him what sites he was accessing on the Tor browser. Of course the customer told him to go forth and multiply.

What is scary is that Comcast knew that any customer was using Tor. This would mean that Comcast is spying on the online activities of its users.

There is some bad blood between Tor and Comcast. The Tor project has listed Comcast as a Bad ISP. The Tor project cited Comcast’s Acceptable Use Policy for its residential customers which claims to not allow servers or proxies.

A Comcast spokesperson insisted that the outfit did respect customer privacy and security and would only investigate the specifics of a customer’s account with a valid court order.

However, this did not happen in the case of Comcast’s treatment of Ross Ulbricht, alleged Dread Pirate Roberts.

Comcast previously collaborated with the FBI by providing information on alleged Silk Road mastermind Ross Ulbricht’s internet usage. Ulbricht was most certainly never given a warning by Comcast or given time to contact a lawyer before he was arrested in a San Francisco library last October.

 

BlackBerry buys a UK company

Posted on September 12, 2014 by - News

blackberry-juicerMobile manufacturer BlackBerry said it has bought a UK company Movitu. Financial details of the transaction weren’t revealed.

Movitu makes so called virtual identities for mobile operators that lets many numbers to be active on a single device.

BlackBerry said this help device management for bring your own device (BYOD) and corporate environments.

The Movitu Virtual SIM platform lets business numbers and personal numbers be used on the same device with separate billing for voice, for data and for messaging.

The advantage is that employees can use the same phone for both company business and their own personal use.

The Virtual SIM capabilities will be offered by BlackBerry through mobile operators for all main smartphone operating systems, including Android, iOS and Windows.

Curved screens don’t yet make the grade

Posted on September 12, 2014 by - News

curvyA report said that even though products from Samsung and LG that use flexible OLED materials for displays, they’re not really curved screens yet.

Strategy Analytics (SA) said Samsung’s launch of the Note Edge last week and the LG G-Flex a few months back took curved screens one step closer to reality.

However, SA said that these smartphones are not really flexible screens but rather have curved rigid screens.

OLED screens offer a number of benefits over LCD screens because they are lighter, thinner and probably last longer.

But these devices are the precursors to truly flexible second generation screens which will offer new deisgn such as smartphones with tablet sized foldable screens.

“A number of challenges will need to be overcome,” said Stuart Robinson, director at Strategy Analytics. “More of the phone’s components need to be flexible to make a truly flexibile phone, not just the display. This includes the cover material, the batteries as well as the semiconductors and other components.”

Other challenges include tools and processes that will allow cost effective volume production, he said. The thinks it’s likely that flexible OLED displays will become the preferred display tech in products within the next 10 years.

LTE poses security threat

Posted on September 12, 2014 by - News

locksThe rise of the internet of things, which is likely to mean billions of devices are connected to LTE has security fallibilities that need to be quickly addressed.

That’s according Dr Martin Nuss, chief technical officer of Vitesse Semi, speaking to an audience at 4G World.

Nuss said that small cells are an integral part of LTE, LTE-A deployments and Carrier Heterogenous Networks. Their accessibility makes them easy to hack, he said.

Even though LTE networks are far more secure than wi-fi hotspots, but small cell based stations using LTE and located at street level is a new security risk.

Small cell backhauls are also likely to happen over third party access provider networks that don’t have the same standards as wireless operators.

Nuss also warned of timing security. Small cell susceptibility t GPS jamming and spoofing is another problem.

By 2018, he said, small cells will be everywhere and so implementing them is a matter of careful network planning and awareness of the risks.

Notebook sales slow in the third quarter

Posted on September 12, 2014 by - News, Products

notebooksWhile the computer industry saw comparatively small growth for notebooks in the second quarter, it looks like the third quarter will be much slower.

The third quarter always used to be buoyant for PC sales until sales started to slow a few years ago as smartphones and tablets came into their ascendancy.

Taiwanese wire Digitimes reports that ODMs (original design manufacturers) largely based on the island has fallen quite short of expectations.

It attributes the growth in the second quarter not to a rise in interest in the platforms any more, but because Windows XP was phased out in the spring.

People realised that if they were going to buy a notebook, it would be as well to do it then and move to a new Windows operating system.

Reports earlier this week suggested that sales of tablets in North American and western European markets had reached a degree of stasis too.  Most people who wanted a tablet have got one.

Corruption uncovered at Huawei

Posted on September 12, 2014 by - News

Chinese_YuanChina’s largest telecom equipment maker, Huawei, has found four employees in violation of the company’s policies on corruption.

The four were discovered during an internal inspection and the case has lead the company to conduct training sessions on how to avoid bribery.

Huawei had not provided any details about the case. News outlet Caixin, which first reported the inspection last week, said a total of 116 employees were implicated in soliciting and accepting bribes from outside sales agents in exchange for rebates.

In a statement Huawei said firmly implementing an open, transparent and stable channel policy, in order to pursue fairness and justice in the market, and to “fight firmly against any form of employee practice that fails to meet the standards we set for ourselves.”

This is probably a bad time for something like this to happen. The Chinese government is carrying out a crackdown on corporate misbehaviour within both foreign and domestic firms. This is seen as more popular and less tricky that controlling corrupt Communist Party officials at a local level.

Chief Executive Ken Hu told the Financial Times  that graft inspections were done every year and “nothing new,” adding that it only attracted media attention this year.

 

Google: Change your passwords!

Posted on September 11, 2014 by - News

google-ICSearch engine behemoth Google advised users of its Gmail email software to change their passports after a Russian website was hacked.

Apparently five million passwords were hacked from a Russian site called Bitcoin Security with people from the UK, Spain and Russia.

It’s not entirely clear what all those passwords were doing on the Russian site in the first place.

Google said it was advising folk to set up two step verification on their accounts.

A representative said Google had no evidence that its own servers had been compromised.

The passwords relate not only to Gmail but other Google services.

AMD’s Read discusses firm’s future

Posted on September 11, 2014 by - News

AMDlogoThe CEO of AMD, Rory Read spoke at a Deutsche Bank tech conference earlier this week and the transcript makes interesting reading.

He’s pretty clear that AMD needs to diversify and to move to more profitable businesses, such as Pro Graphics. Gross margins there yield 50 percent to 70 percent.  The next generation AMD server chips will deliver between 55 percent to 65 percent gross margin.

He said corporations started buying again and it’s not just the demise of Windows XP that is the reason.  He said they will continue to do refreshes and there will be another four to eight reasonable quarters. Server chip sales at the commercial level will be good.

AMD is  “over indexed” on consumer entry notebooks and that’s a problem, “it’s a dollars and cents play, both with the OEM and with the channel partners. You have got to diversify out.”

AMD is develping next generation products for 2015 and 2016 codenamed Carrizo.

He said AMD’s decision to go fabless was the right move and gives it more flexibility. He said 28 nanometre processors will be the dominant node for the next three to four years.  It will move to 14 nanometre.  He said that AMD’s relationship with Global Foundries (GloFo) has “fundamentally improved” over the past three years after a choppy relationship.  TSMC will also play a role in the future.

Kids think Apple is smug

Posted on September 11, 2014 by - News

blue-appleA survey claimed that only one in 10 American schoolkids are interested in the recently announced Apple iWatch.

The survey, conducted by Chegg, also reveals that Apple doesn’t hold the allure for college and high school kids it formerly had.

Seventy one percent of these students think Google is “cool” while only 64 percent think that Apple is “cool”.

And 29 percent think that Apple is smug.

They also believe that Apple has been hyped up the US press, with 24 percent believing the firm may have lost its edge.  Over half of those surveyed described the iPhone 6 as “more stle than substance”.

So what do the kids want?  Acording to the survey they want phones with better battery life, more memory, and that are waterproof and durable.

Chegg surveyed 1,586 college students and 446 high school students between August 30th and the Apple introductions earlier this week.

A survey claimed that only one in 10 American schoolkids are interested in the recently announced Apple iWatch.

The survey, conducted by Chegg, also reveals that Apple doesn’t hold the allure for college and high school kids it formerly had.

Seventy one percent of these students think Google is “cool” while only 64 percent think that Apple is “cool”.

And 29 percent think that Apple is smug.

They also believe that Apple has been hyped up the US press, with 24 percent believing the firm may have lost its edge.  Over half of those surveyed described the iPhone 6 as “more stle than substance”.

So what do the kids want?  Acording to the survey they want phones with better battery life, more memory, and that are waterproof and durable.

Chegg surveyed 1,586 college students and 446 high school students between August 30th and the Apple introductions earlier this week.

Google pushes further into health care

Posted on September 11, 2014 by - News

330ogleAmbitious search giant Google has bought a company which helps people with Parkinson’s disease.

The firm, Liff Labs, will become part of Google’s R&D division – Google X.  Google X works on projects such as driverless cars and Google glasses.

Financial terms are not disclosed but according to a Google blog, a spoon made by Liff includes sensors that can pick up tremors in a patient’s hand are cance them.

Google has already made forays into health care, including the collection of genetic and molecular data and “smart” contact lenses. It is understood that Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s mother has Parkinson’s and his chance of developing the disease is greater than average.

Liff Labs said in a prepared statement that the acquisition will let its invention reach more people living with Parkinson’s.

Data centres face revolution

Posted on September 11, 2014 by - News

server-racksFour disruptive forces are set to change the face of the data centre by 2016.

That’s according to market research firm Gartner, which estimates that although the data centre market seems poised for growth, existing assumptions will be challenged.

Vendors like the 50 percent or more gross margins in storage and networking hardware and software but  one vendor might decide to slash its margins, so forcing a price war in the data centre industry.

Traditional data centre firms will also face disruption from cloud computing which will reduce the demand of for total amount of compute to total workload.  And Amazon, Google, IBM, Microsoft and Baidu are offering platform as a service, with the existing companies failing to offer something equally compelling.

Thirdly, economic warfare between the BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will largely increase competition in the data centre infrastructure market.

Last, Gartner thinks that buyers will come to regard multinational providers as untrustworthy. Also there is an increase in small white box assemblers.

Gartner believes that while Intel, AMD, Western Digital and Seagate will sit pretty for the next fee years, the first two will see erosion from ARM and other architectures.  Storage will shift to flash.