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.

IBM, Intel gang up on cloud

Posted on September 8, 2014 by - News

Clouds in Oxford: pic Mike MageeIntel and IBM said they will work together to improve security for cloud computing.

IBM said “SoftLayer” will be the first cloud venture giving bare metal servers using Intel cloud technology that will give security and monitoring down to the microprocessor level. Intel TXT is built for larger enterprises including governmental agencies, financial services companies and healthcare organisations.

The premise is that as large corporations move to a cloud and data centre model, they want to be sure that the computers are as secure as those managed on their own sites.

SoftLayer is an IBM company that provides a global cloud platform built to scale.  100,000 devices are under management, while 18 data centres in Europe, Asia and the USA are in that web too.

IBM customers will buy SoftLayer servers that have a trusted platform module installed.  Intel TXT will let such customers build trusted computing pools of IT resources in the cloud.

SoftLayer belongs to the Intel Cloud Technology programme and uses Xeon E5-2600 V2, Xeon E3-1200 V3 and Xeon E5-4600 microprocessors.

Google panics over privacy rules

Posted on September 8, 2014 by - News

330ogleSearch giant Google has got itself in a flap because it is being forced to remove thousands of items that people don’t like on the web.

Reuters said Google will hold its first meeting in Madrid tomorrow in a bid to discuss the free flow of information.

This all follows a ruling in May that allows citizens  of the European Union the right to be anonymous on the web.

Apparently, by mid July, Google had received over 90,000 requests to remove information on its search engine. Google has refused a chunk of the requests but people have the right to appeal against the refusals.

Reuters quotes French watchdog Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin as saying that the seven debates to be held over Europe were part of a spin war.

This month, representatives of Microsoft, Yahoo and other companies operating search engines are being asked to cooperate to create guidelines for the removal of personal data, if requested.

Apple rumoured to unveil smartwatch

Posted on September 8, 2014 by - News

Apple's CEO Tim Cook - shot from WikimediaA number of fashion journalists has been invited to Apple’s big launch in San Francisco tomorrow and that’s led to speculation that it will, after all, show off a smartwatch.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that fashion editors and bloggers “in unprecedented numbers” have been invited to the jamboree.

Apple is currently suffering from a perception that it has not really shown off anything new since the introduction of its iPad some years back.  Its share price on Wall Street has suffered too.

But even if Apple’s CEO Tim Cook (pictured) does show off a smartwatch, Taiwanese suppliers reported just last week that several components were still in early testing stage and that it is unlikely that an Apple smartwatch will be available to buy until 2015.

Apple also joins a slew of other vendors hoping that smartwatches will really light up peoples’ lives.

The launch tomorrow, could be rather banal, with Apple just introducing another iPhone to its range.

Microsoft intros MSN beta

Posted on September 8, 2014 by - News

Microsoft campusSoftware giant Microsoft said it has introduced a beta version of its new MSN.

The company said it’s designed for a world where the cloud and mobile are the name of the game.  It has content from major worldwide media and comes with productivity tools.

The software is available on the web right now and will soon be available for Windows, Apple iOS and Android too.

Microsoft claims MSN’s existing audience is 425 million people.

Steve Lynas, the MS suit in charge of MSN, waxed lyrical about the thing. “Microsoft’s DNA is about empowerment,” he said weirdly.  “The new MSN brings together content from over 1,000 publishers with experiences that help people live fuller lives.  We’ve completely reimagined the experience to embrace this opportunity.”

Media mates include the Guardian, the Independent, Sky News and the Telegraph.  It has struck similar deals in other countries across the world.

It’s got reviews of over 1.5 million bottles of wine, and 300,000 recipes.

You can have a dekko at Microsoft’s latest rock star by clicking here.

Apple iPhone is favoured by thieves

Posted on September 8, 2014 by - News

Apple_iPhone_5_white-330x330A report from the UK Home Office said that thieves are brand conscious and prefer stealing Apple iPhones compared to the rest of the pack.

The report said over 50 percent of all phones stolen between January 2012 to January 2014 were iPhones.  Other brands appealing to thieves are Blackberry and Samsung devices. People who have had their phones stolen believe the value of the personal data to be more than £760.

While vendors have made improvements to security that appear to have put off some thieves, the report analyses their effectiveness in some detail.

It suggests that the introduction of Apple iOS7 this time last year “has affected the black market value of some stolen iPhones”.  An analysis based in London suggests reduction in thefts because of iOS7.

phonechart

Samsung’s intro of Find my Mobile and the Reactivation Lock have also probably reduced thefts.

People worried about losing their mobile phones should register their mobile devices at no cost at immmobilise.com, use PIN locks, don’t leave your phone hanging about, install a tracker app.  If a phone is stolen, it should be reported to the network straight away, and report it to your local cop shop.

Fossil fuels Intel fashion wares

Posted on September 8, 2014 by - News

cocoSemiconductor giant Intel has long been looking for a way to diversify its business, caught as it is in the rise of smartphones and tablets and the decline of PCs.

It demonstrated that fact a few  years back by devoting its entire CeBIT press gig to designer handbags and now it seems to want to go a different way again.

It has signed a deal with the Fossil Group, a company which specialises in fashion accessories.  The big idea is to work to identify emerging trends in wearable technology – a sector that has already met with some derision.

And, as if to underline how silly this is all becoming, both companies are using the “iconic” word.  “Fossil will work with Intel to enable fashion brands within the company’s portfolio to participate in wearable technology in a fashionable way.”

Fossil, said CEO Kosta Kartsotis, said combining his firm’s fashion lifestyle brands with Intel’s expertise will let his company be a leader in the segment.

But there’s a financial element involved, because Fossil will tie up with Intel Capital.  Intel Capital has already invested in companies including Thalmic Labs and Basis.

No one knows how big the wearable sector will be. Or how small.

PC sales up. Secretly

Posted on September 8, 2014 by - News

A not so mobile X86 PCSales of PCs in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region showed growth in the second quarter, stopping a continuous seven quarter decline. That applies to both notebooks and desktop machnes.

So says market research company IDC, which said growth in the quarter amounted to 2.2 percent, up by 4.5 million units.

Oddly, the bulk of the growth came in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Palestine and Afghanistan.  Why is that odd? Because, according to Fouad Rafiq Charakla, research manager at IDC, no vendor make any official shipments of PCs into these countries.

Saudi Arabia and Pakisan showed growth in the region.  “The healthy shipments seen in most countries can either be attributed to a recovery from instability – be it economic political or social – or to previously low PC penetration rates. Bearing this in mind, Egypt and Nigeria are expected to be among the region’s fastest growing PC markets in 2014,” Charakla said.

The top dogs in the region are HP, Lenovo, and Dell. But the last suffered a shortfall year on year. Acer and Asus came fourth and fifth respectively.

Apple supplier taken to task

Posted on September 5, 2014 by - News

Photo of China from satellite - Wikimedia CommonsA report by China Labor Watch and Green America has alleged that one of Apple’s suppliers in mainland China exploits its 20,000 workers.

According to the non-profit organisations, the Catcher factory, based in Suqian makes iPhone and iPad parts but it’s alleged to have health and safety, environmental, and human rights violations.

Apple had promised to encourage the company to reform problems in April last year, but the report said that there are still serious problems at the factory.

Those include a lack of proper ventilation, inadequate equipment for people handling toxic materials, locked safety exits, dumping of industrial fluids and waste into groundwater and nearby rivers, excessive hours for all workers, forced overtime, hiring discrimination and other problems.

You can find the full report here (PDF).

Apple wakes up to security

Posted on September 5, 2014 by - News

blue-appleApple’s CEO, Tim Cook, has admitted to the Wall Street Journal that it needs to improve security on its users accounts.

But Cook said that it wasn’t Apple’s fault that hackers had broken into iCloud.  He said the hackers used various methods to get passwords for iCloud accounts but none of the material came from Apple servers.

He did, however, promise to do something to beef up security.  He told the Journal that Apple will now tip people off if someone changes a password, or when a new device attempts to access the iCloud.

That’s going to be carried out within two weeks, said Cook.

Apple has been widely criticised for its laissez faire attitude towards the recent hacking, and no doubt Cook has agreed to do an interview to defuse a situation that might spoil the launch of  yet another iPhone next week.

Brits are nuts about their smartphones

Posted on September 5, 2014 by - News

smartphones-genericA third of British people look at their smartphones just after they’ve woken up, according to a survey conducted by Deloitte.

Before they attend to essential functions, 11 million UK adults check their phone within five minutes of waking.  They first check their text messages, then their email and then turn to Facebook and the like.

And, said Deloitte, one in six British adults look at a smartphone over 50 times a  day.  That’s not true for silver surfers. People between the are of 65 to 75 only look at their smartphones 13 times a day.

Ed Marsden, a lead telecoms partner at Deloitte somewhat understated the matter. He said: “Mobile phones have clearly become something of an addiction for many and has led to some people looking to unplug their devices and undergo a digital detox.”  Yes, there really are digital detox courses.

Twenty percent of people surveyed said they chose a network with the best internet connection, rather than quality for phone calls.

Dell updates PC line

Posted on September 5, 2014 by - News

Dell logoGiant PC supplier Dell said it has released redesigned additions to its Latitude and Optiplex PCs.

The Latitude 7000 Series 2 in 1, the Latitude 3000 and 5000 series laptops and the Optiplex 9020 and 3020 desktop PCs come with a set of fresh functions.

Dell claims its the only vendor to offer encryption, advanced authentication and malware prevention from a single source – and this helps its customers save time and cost.

The Latitude 7000 machine combines a business Ultrabook and a detachable tablet in one device, with a 12.20inch display and an instant go feature similar to those found in smartphones and tablets.

The Optiplex machines have a chassis design of only 1.2 litres and are aimed at places where space is at a premium.

Dell said its Chromebox   – a cloud based unit – offers multiple ports, Ultra HD resolution and several mounting options.

Dell also introduced the 55 Monitor, which, as its name suggests, has a 55-inch wide screen.

All machines are already available or will be available during this month.

Storage revenues fall

Posted on September 5, 2014 by - News

storageWhile still worth $5.9 billion, external storage systems revenue fell by 1.4 percent in the second quarter of this year, according to IDC.

The market research company said a decline in high end systems was coupled with a drop in midrange storage sales too.

While EMC stayed in first place, its market share fell in the quarter from 31.2 percent the year before to 30.1 percent.  NetApp and IBM tied in second place but they also saw drops in their sale.

HP appears to have profited from their market share drop, as it moved to fourth place, while Dell and Hitachi tied for the fifth position.

Moving from external disk storage to the total storage market the top four vendors were EMC, HP, IBM and Dell.

Get your mind melded

Posted on September 5, 2014 by - News

mind-meldHumans just got a step closer to being able to think a message into someone else’s brain on the other side of the world.

Researchers from Harvard Medical School teaching affiliate Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Starlab Barcelona in Spain, and Axilum Robotics in Strasbourg, France have successfully achieved brain-to-brain transmission of information between humans.

The team used a number of technologies that enabled them to send messages from India to France without performing invasive surgery on the test subjects.

The test involved seeing if a person could communicate directly between two people by reading out the brain activity from one person and injecting brain activity into the second person.

Alvaro Pascual-Leone, MD, PhD, director of the Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre wondered if it was possible to bypass the talking or typing part of internet and establish direct brain-to-brain communication long distance.

Using a combination of internet-connected electroencephalogram and robot-assisted, image-guided transcranial magnetic stimulation, the team was able to communicate words from one human to another.

The set up was similar to those used in brain-computer interface studies. A human subject had electrodes attached to their scalp, which recorded electrical currents in the brain as the subject had a specific thought.

Normally the data is interpreted by a computer however this time it the output device was another human.

The words “Ciao” and “Hola” were translated into binary. This was then shown to the emitter subject, who was instructed to envision actions for each piece of information: moving their hands for a 1 or their feet for a 0. An EEG then captured the electrical information in the sender’s brain as they thought of these actions, which resulted in a sort of neural code for the binary symbols — which in turn was code for the words.

The researchers think that this represents an important first step in exploring the feasibility of complementing or bypassing traditional means of communication.

It is not quite a Vulcan mild meld yet. The bit rates were two bits per minute which is slower than an asthmatic ant with a heavy load of shopping.

Potential applications, however, include communicating with stroke patients.

Microsoft shows off three smartphones

Posted on September 4, 2014 by - News

skippieSoftware giant Microsoft said it has released Nokia Lumia smartphones all using the Windows Phone 8.1 operating system.

The Lumia 830 comes with a 10 megapixel PureView camera that uses Zeiss optics, comes with Office Mobile, and 15GB of free OneDrive storage.  It will cost around £300 or so.

The Lumia 730 Dual SIM and Lumia 735 have front facing wide angle five megapixel cameras, and are intended to be used for Microsoft Skype – both of these will be introduced this month and cost around £200 or so.  They both come with 15GB of free OneDrive storage.

Microsoft also introduced Screen Sharing for Lumia Phones HD-10 which lets you beam content from a smartphone to an HDMI screen.

It has also updated Lumia Denim for the 930, Lumia Icon and the Lumia 1520.

Posted on September 4, 2014 by - News

Dyson 360 EyeJoining a gaggle of other producers of robotic vacuum cleaners, Dyson said it will introduce its own model, dubbed the 360 Eye.

According to the company, the machine uses a 360 degree vision system to map out the room it’s cleaning so that it knows where it’s been and knows where to go.

The machine generates high centrifugal forces to grab dust and pollen from its surroundings. The motor can spin at up to 78,000RPM and Dyson claims it will generate the highest suction of any robot vacuum cleaner.  It uses the Dyson equivalent of continuous tank tracks to trundle round the room and has two types of bristle that can handle both carpets and hard surfaces.

It also comes with an app for iOS and Android devices that lets you control the unit when you’re not at home and see maps of cleaning progress.

The robo cleaner won’t be available until next year, and Dyson gave no hint of how costly it will be.