Monday, April 13, 2015

The Apple Watch's cure for notification overload? More notifications

Skype can now translate English to Chinese, Italian in real time | Florida teen charged with felony hacking for using password his teacher showed him

Network World Voices of Networking

The Apple Watch's cure for notification overload? More notifications
Smartwatches targeted at fixing people's compulsive reactions to smartphone notifications only make the problem worse. Read More


WEBCAST: Aerohive

Gigabit Speed Wireless Networks with 802.11ac
With the development of 802.11ac, WLANs surpass the gigabit speed barrier. Watch this webinar recording featuring author of "802.11ac: A Survival Guide" (O'Reily), Matthew Gast, for a discussion on 802.11ac and why it's posed to become the 802.11 standard of choice and how to incorporate it into your network plans. View now>>

In this Issue


WHITE PAPER: IBM

Reduce loan processing with IBM Connections Cloud
Working with IBM Business Partner Silanis Technology Inc., Signature Mortgage implemented a cloud-based solution using Silanis e-SignLive integrated services and the IBM SmartCloud Engage social collaboration service. Signature Mortgage now processes loans in less than 25 days, compared to a national average of 45 to 60 days, and loan volume Learn More>>

Skype can now translate English to Chinese, Italian in real time
Star Trek fans know of the Universal Communicator, which is a part of the Star Fleet logo worn on their chests. It instantly translates alien speech into English and vice versa, enabling inter-species communication. We've all wanted something like that, and Microsoft is getting very close with Skype Translate.Skype Translate is a function in its Skype communication tool that translates languages in real time. It takes English audio and converts it to the foreign language in both audio and text. The audio comes out in a natural-sounding voice, instead of the usual computer-generated voice, and text is displayed in the Skype client."Today, we meet another chapter for Skype Translator on our journey to enrich the way we communicate with family and friends around the world. Our long term goal is to translate as many languages as possible on all relevant platforms, and deliver the best Skype Translator experience for our more than 300 million connected customers," Yasmin Khan of the Skype team wrote in a blog post.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More

Florida teen charged with felony hacking for using password his teacher showed him
A 14-year-old middle school student in Holiday, Florida, was arrested this week and charged with "an offense against a computer system and unauthorized access," which is a felony, the Tampa Bay Times reported this week.The student reportedly used an administrator password to log into a teacher's computer and change the background image to a photo of two men kissing.He was initially suspended for three days for the prank, but Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco suggested that the criminal charges relate to the level of access he had obtained by logging onto the network as an administrator, according to the report. For example, he could have seen the questions for the state's standardized tests, although Green said he didn't actually tamper with anything other than the teacher's PC background image, the report says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More

Apple Watch Reviews: Complete Roundup
Like clockwork, the embargo on Apple Watch reviews ended on Wednesday morning, just two days ahead of when pre-orders of the device are scheduled to open up. Per usual, Apple sent review units to a few outlets who have now lifted the veil of secrecy from Apple's highly anticipated wearable. Below are a few of the more notable excerpts from the initial grouping of Apple Watch reviews.Nilay Patel of The Verge: Let’s just get this out of the way: the Apple Watch, as I reviewed it for the past week and a half, is kind of slow. There’s no getting around it, no way to talk about all of its interface ideas and obvious potential and hints of genius without noting that sometimes it stutters loading notifications. Sometimes pulling location information and data from your iPhone over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi takes a long time. Sometimes apps take forever to load, and sometimes third-party apps never really load at all. Sometimes it’s just unresponsive for a few seconds while it thinks and then it comes back.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More

Smart home hacking is easier than you think
Last March, a very satisfied user of the Honeywell Wi-Fi Thermostat left a product review on Amazon.com that shed some light on an unexpected benefit of the smart home – revenge.The reviewer wrote that his wife had left him, and then moved her new lover into the home they once shared, which now featured the Honeywell Wi-Fi thermostat. The jilted ex-husband could still control the thermostat through the mobile app installed on his smartphone, so he used it to make the new couple's lives a little less happily ever after:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More


WHITE PAPER: IBM

Better Decision Making with IBM Social Business Solutions
This paper presents IBM's comprehensive portfolio of social business tools that take advantage of social context. It shows how these tools work together to connect to the right people faster. The case studies feature companies using IBM social business solutions for better decision making. Learn More

IDG Contributor Network: Spotty indoor cell coverage is on its way out
The days of strolling down a street, smartphone connected to somewhat speedy mobile internet connection, only to have the connection thwarted when you enter a large building, may be numbered.Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) think that scalable "small cells" are the answer to a vexing building-penetration issue.For the end user, asking for a Wi-Fi password at every stop-and-call may become a thing of the past if these small cells take off and work as promised.What are they? Small cells are distinct from an MNO's macrocells, which are mounted on rooftops and other structures, and are served by a cellular base station. Macrocell antennas are the ones you see dotted around your neighborhood.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More

Apple Watch already sold out of all models
If there was any doubt as to how consumers would take to the Apple Watch, I think we can put them to rest. Just six hours after the Apple Watch opened up for pre-orders, Apple's initial supply was completely sold out.What's more, even folks who were lucky enough to have their orders processed may see shipping times of 4-6 weeks. All in all, it's clear that demand for Apple's hotly anticipated wearable is extremely robust. While it remains to be seen just how revolutionary and game changing a product the Apple Watch will or will not be, things are certainly off to a good start.As for current shipping times, MacRumors recently compiled this list which should provide a ballpark figure for which Apple Watch models might ship sooner than others.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More

Microsoft flip-flop: Do Not Track to be off by default, to favor tracking not privacy
Do you remember when Microsoft said it was “putting people first” and enabling Do Not Track (DNT) by default in Internet Explorer because the company believed “that consumers should have more control over how information about their online behavior is tracked, shared and used?” Microsoft changed its tune and thought process on DNT.“As industry standards evolve, how we implement those standards evolve as well,” wrote Microsoft’s Chief Privacy Officer Brendon Lynch. “So to reflect the current requirements of the privacy standard for tracking preferences, Microsoft is changing how Do Not Track (DNT) is implemented in future versions of our browsers: We will no longer enable it as the default state in Windows Express Settings.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More

How Connecticut set itself up to be the first gigabit state
Connecticut needed this. Lately, the only noteworthy contribution my home state has made to the national news is Aaron Hernandez, an apparent psychopath who earned millions of dollars playing football while (allegedly) murdering anyone who looked at him the wrong way.But it looks like the third smallest state in the country is on its way to becoming the first to offer ubiquitous 1-Gigabit internet to its residents. The website EfficientGov.com has a pretty comprehensive breakdown on the project: 46 municipalities that make up about half of the state's population have agreed to endorse a plan for public/private partnerships to expand 1-Gig broadband internet access.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More


WHITE PAPER: IBM

Information Governance Best Practices
When should you implement integration governance? According to this Gartner research note, you should start now if you are an IT professional considering an initiative like master data management (MDM), e-discovery, information archiving or cloud migration. Learn More

LG's split screen software allegedly undermines your PC's security
Does LG's Split Screen software “destroy” your PC’s security? It does according to Christopher Bachner’s write-up on Developer’s Couch.He purchased an ultra-wide LG monitor and installed LG’s split screen software. While he likes the hardware, Bachner is “utterly disappointed" with "how LG treats security." The TL;DR version is that instead of writing software properly, they just disable your security in order to make their software work.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More

Microsoft already looking ahead to Windows 10 revision
Microsoft is already working on updates to Windows 10 even though the OS isn't even completed. The updates seem to somewhat mirror what the company did with Windows 8 in shipping incremental updates rather than holding off for a big Service Pack.The folks at Neowin have struck again with an interesting scoop, claiming that an update codenamed "Redstone" will hit in two waves, in June and October of 2016. This is somewhat like Windows 8 in that it went through steady updates rather than let it get way out of date while waiting for enough content to justify a service pack.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More

IDG Contributor Network: A better way to store solar power for data centers
As any data center operator will tell you, data centers use large amounts of power. In fact, one data center can use enough energy to power 180,000 homes.What with the costs and the eco-issues with fossil fuels, there's a race on to try to find better ways of powering these cathedrals to digital life.Many heavy data center users are looking to place their centers near sources of renewable power, for example. Facebook has opened one in Sweden that's near a hydro-electric plant.Solar is also pretty good, and wind-power turbines are another alternative power source attracting knee-jerk exuberance, despite their disadvantages, like uneven supply.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More

Why augmented reality is expected to be four times bigger than virtual reality
Virtual reality (VR) has gained a lot of attention in both the technology and mainstream consumer markets over the past few years, and rightfully so. It's a jarring experience not only for the user who gets fully immersed into the move or video game they view through the device, but also to anybody who happens to see somebody with an Oculus Rift strapped to their face. That latter aspect is a big part of the reason why one analyst expects the less-invasive augmented reality (AR) to be the more successful of the two.Augmented reality has taken a back seat in the emerging tech world in the last few years, and suffered a particularly big setback when Google withdrew its Glass headsets from consumer markets in January. The world's first big introduction to AR fell flat, earning a negative reputation (at best) among everybody except those who wore them.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More

Microsoft gives one of Windows Phone's best features to iOS, Android
Windows Phone is not setting the world on fire, which means that only about 3% of all mobile phone users even know about some of its cool features. Rather than keep those features to itself, Microsoft is making them available to other platforms.The company has announced that Office Lens, its photo scanning app that crops pictures and automatically drops them into OneNote or Onedrive, is available for free at Apple's App Store, and that the Office Lens Android Preview is available for testing.The idea behind Office Lens is comparable to the Scannable feature in Evernote. It lets you take a quick picture of a whiteboard, receipt, billboard, or anything else similar and quickly scan and save it to a storage service. The app will auto-crop receipts, whiteboards, and anything else where there is a white object against a dark background.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here Read More


SLIDESHOWS

How 20 (mostly) tech companies' logos have evolved over the years

Some of today's biggest tech companies launched with logos that are now unrecognizable.

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