Motorola and Google unleash the mark of the beast with Digital Tattoo for Moto X
While I consider myself to be a relatively forward-thinking and open-minded guy, I do not blindly accept everything the media and corporate America shovels in my direction. For instance, I am very hesitant to support Google Glass and self-driving cars. I am hardly a conspiracy theorist -- just a realist in light of Snowden leaks.
Today, Motorola announces a new feature for the Moto X -- unlock with a tattoo. Yes, the company expects users to embrace a skin-worn unlocking method. While I am sure Motorola's intentions are good (I hope), this is not something I plan on utilizing.
CCleaner for Mac 1.08 adds support for Yosemite Developer Preview, improves browser cleaning
Piriform Ltd has released CCleaner for Mac 1.08, a minor update to the Mac version of its freeware cleaning tool. Unlike the Windows version, which is updated monthly, CCleaner for Mac’s updates are more sporadic -- this is the first new release since November last year.
The new version opens by adding support for the OS X 10.10 Yosemite Developer Preview, which should mean it’ll work with the final version when it’s released later this year, although a further update for official compatibility is likely.
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Today in Tech History
Help fund a solar-powered Raspberry Pi school
The Raspberry Pi Foundation’s Eben Upton was inspired to create his bare-bones credit-card sized computer after noticing a decline in the number of children learning to code. He wanted to create a cheap computer designed to be programmed, much like the BBC Micro, which was hugely popular in UK schools back in the 1980s.
Although the Raspberry Pi has since found a massive audience outside of schools, it’s still an educational tool at heart, and its low cost and energy efficiency make it ideal for introducing computers into rural schools in developing nations.
Amazon scores massive boost in apps prior to Fire phone launch
Nintendo has Mario. No matter how much more powerful Xbox One or PlayStation 4 are over the Wii U, neither console has Nintendo's Italian mascot. And so, if you want games featuring Mario, no other console will do. In other words, software matters just as much, if not more, than hardware. This is not just true of game consoles, but all computing platforms too. For instance, if you need Microsoft Office, Linux would be a poor choice -- you should use the platform that runs the software you need.
The most heated platform battleground nowadays is smartphones -- iPhone, Android and Windows Phone to name a few. Amazon recently announced its intention to enter the battle with the Fire phone. Yes, it runs Android, but it is so customized that it is essentially a new platform. Despite the phone's innovative hardware, it will not have access to Google play, and that makes consumers nervous. Like I said earlier, software matters. Worry no more. Today, Amazon announces that high-quality developers are embracing the Fire phone in a big way.
Nokia Lumia Icon Windows Phone goes to San Diego Comic-Con
Eighth in a series. What goes around comes around. It's cliché but describes my return to Nokia after abandoning the brand five years ago. I never expected to come back, and the app experience, while a backwater compared to Android or iOS, is little different than when I left. Cameras are great and app selection limited, but it's hugely improved because of Microsoft.
Nokia was in 2009 still the world's mobile handset leader, except for one major market: The United States. As such, Symbian dominated mobile app development, even as iOS rose in prominence. (Remember: Apple opened its app store in July 2008, and the first Android phone shipped a few months later.) But the majority of apps and supporting services, developed by Nokia and third-parties, best suited the rest of the world. Americans had limited choices on the company's handsets.
Little Box Challenge -- Google will pay you $1 million for power inverter shrinkage
On the TV show Seinfeld, George Costanza infamously declared "I was in the pool!" when a woman walked in on him changing clothes and saw him naked. You see, a part of his body got smaller due to swimming in cold water, something he and Jerry dubbed "shrinkage". While that shrinkage is bad, other types are good.
In the technology world, with the exception of displays and monitors, smaller is usually better, as it allows for a smaller footprint. It also allows things to become more efficient, such as die shrinkage with a CPU. Today, Google announces that in conjunction with IEEE, it will pay cash to anyone who can dramatically shrink a power inverter.
Need access to your Mac drives in Windows 8? Paragon HFS+ for Windows 8/8.1 Free Edition does the job
Are you a Mac user who’s just installed Windows 8 alongside OS X via Boot Camp? Or perhaps you’re a Windows user who’s just been tasked with the job of getting data from (or to) a Mac-formatted hard drive. In either event, to get full access to your hard drive requires third-party help.
Previously, gaining full read and write access to a drive formatted using Apple’s HFS+ file system would cost you money. If you’re a Windows 8 user, however, then give thanks for the release of Paragon HFS+ for Windows 8/8.1 Free Edition 1.0.
New software platform looks to open up the internet of things
We're only just beginning to see the potential of the internet of things. A wide range of devices able to exchange information over the web presents many opportunities for companies to deliver new products and services.
According to Gartner estimates, the IoT will include 26 billion units by 2020, and by that time, IoT product and service suppliers will generate incremental revenue exceeding $300 billion, mostly in services.
Chromebook shipments continue to rise, Acer leads the way
Google's Chromebooks have been making inroads as of late. Many schools have been adopting the platform, and there have even been stories of businesses moving over after the death of Windows XP. The latest numbers released show that this trend is continuing.
TrendForce reveals that shipments of Chrome OS devices have risen to 1.8 million in the second quarter of 2014, with Acer leading the way, ahead of all other OEMs.
Maps.Me: a travel app which works anywhere
Every smartphone user needs a good mapping app, something to get them from A to B with the absolute minimum of hassle.
Google Maps is a great first choice, and of course there’s plenty of other options. But if you need something that will work anywhere, up mountains or down dirt tracks, then Maps.Me is a must-have.
The greatest threats to the Android ecosystem
All mobile apps can be hacked. A group of hackers with enough time and dedication can gain access to, and reverse engineer, even the most secure app environment.
Android represents 80 percent of the smartphone OS market, according to ABI research, and its open development environment exposes the platform to certain unique threats from hackers and malware.
Verifying identity is the key to securing corporate data
As more and more data moves to the cloud and to distributed environments this stretches the ability of traditional endpoint security solutions to keep it safe.
Access management specialist Ping Identity has released an infographic showing how existing security technology falls short when it comes to protecting vital information housed by businesses and enterprises.
Microsoft account Android app simplifies using two-factor authentication
While two-factor authentication acts as an effective security barrier against malicious attacks, it also makes the login process more cumbersome for legitimate users by requiring them to type in security codes, on top of usernames and passwords. Luckily, there are dedicated apps that can make things easy.
One such app is Microsoft account (the choice of name is not particularly inspired), which was just released by the software giant to allow its Android users to manage -- validate or deny -- log in requests, when two-factor authentication is turned on for their Microsoft accounts.
Kaspersky Internet Security 2015: An accurate and reliable security suite [Review]
Kaspersky Internet Security 2015 is a capable product which delivers everything you’d expect from a security suite: antivirus, firewall, browsing protection, a spam filter and more. The technology scores highly with the independent testing labs, too, so we were interested to see what the new build had to offer.
Installation was quick and easy. Unlike some of the competition, you’re not forced to remove anything else vaguely security-related: Kaspersky warns you about possible conflicts, but whether you uninstall any problem programs is up to you.
Why C++ is the perfect choice for modern app development
It feels a bit ironic to be discussing, in 2014, if C++ is a viable, or more importantly, a great choice for multi-device, multi-platform app development. It’s ironic in the sense that despite the attention Objective-C, Java, and C# get for app development, most of the software we use on a daily basis is written in C/C++ and after all these years represents the largest community of developers.
There are many reasons to use C++ for your current and future app development and I will discuss five key reasons after a brief history.