Seagate shows off the fastest SSD in the world -- 10 gigabytes per second!
It is becoming a cliché, but the best upgrade you can make is moving from a mechanical HDD to an SSD. In 2016, however, all solid state drives are not created equal. While it used to be that having any SSD was awesome, this is simply not the case anymore. As higher capacities become less expensive, and interfaces become speedier, that SATA SSD you bought a few years ago may not be so great anymore.
Case in point, today, Seagate shows off what it claims is the fastest SSD ever. How fast is it, you ask? 10 gigabytes per second! Yes, that is gigabytes, folks, and not gigabits. It utilizes a 16-lane NVMe PCIe interface. Oh. My. Gosh.
FBI makes clandestine changes to rules governing access to NSA data
A secret court accepted changes to the rules governing the FBI's access to NSA data about US citizen's international emails and phone activity. The Guardian received confirmation from US officials that the classified changes were made to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Fisa).
The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Group (PCLOB) has previously revealed that the FBI was able to search through NSA's collection of trawled data about international communication. The classified nature of the latest changes mean it is impossible to know exactly what they entail, but they are described as being a step towards "enhancing privacy".
FBI should break Apple's encryption and keep it a secret
At the end of last month, Apple released a letter to its customers protesting about a US court order that could force the company to give the FBI a back door entry to individual iPhones. The case has brought the debate about government access to personal data and the protection of civil liberties to the fore once again. It has also made society and industry look more closely at the mechanics of data encryption and ask what makes the technology effective.
At its most basic, encryption provides a layer of protection for data at every stage of its journey from sender to recipient. If anyone tries to intercept or access the data without permission, they find themselves with a screen full of unintelligible gobbledygook. But encryption is only strong if there are no weak links in the chain. Apple argues that the FBI’s court order requesting a back door into its OS (Operating System) would force the company to create such a weak link in its encryption. This would undoubtedly speed up investigations of high profile crimes, but would come at high cost to the millions of law abiding iPhone users.
Linux Mint updates password policy after getting hacked and failing its users
Linux Mint is a good operating system. The problem, however, is that it really doesn't need to exist. Mint is based on Ubuntu, which is a wonderful OS on its own. Ultimately, the biggest reason for Mint's existence is the Cinnamon desktop environment, and that is certainly no reason for an entirely new OS. One of the things keeping Linux behind on the desktop is the sheer number of unnecessary distributions, such as Mint, but I digress.
When Linux Mint forums and ISOs were compromised, many of its users felt betrayed. After all, Linux is supposed to be safe and secure -- this hack was a major blemish to the community overall. Of course, this is unfair -- the kernel was not hacked, only Mint's servers. Today, as a reactionary response to the hack, Mint is changing password policies.
The benefits of a fully agile workplace -- or why you should not stop at scrum
In theory, the scrum methodology is an excellent way to make the product development cycle more efficient. Scrum is better able to incorporate customer feedback by delivering the product in small iterations in close collaboration with the customer. Dividing one long marathon into a series of "sprints" creates a customer-centric, agile mentality that significantly improves upon an inflexible waterfall approach.
But in reality, scrum is just a piece of the puzzle, a good first step on a longer journey. Scrum only works as it’s intended when it’s functioning within a fully agile environment -- otherwise, any efficiency gained from scrum is lost when it inevitably encounters other departments using more traditional productivity methods. Agile can’t just be a process a company executes: it’s something a company must become.
Firefox 45 unveils improved Synced Tab features, but removes Tab Groups
Mozilla has unveiled Firefox 45 FINAL, its desktop browser for Mac, Linux and Windows. The new release focuses its changes on the browser’s use of tabs, and also becomes the base for the new Extended Support Release.
New features include instant tab sharing in Hello and a new Synced Tabs button, but one feature has been removed: Tab Groups.
Benchmark your hard drives with Microsoft’s open-source Diskspd
Benchmarking your PC’s hard drives is easy, at least in theory. Download some freeware, point it at your hardware, and you’ll have some vaguely performance-related figures within a very few seconds.
That’s fine for getting a basic speed measurement, but if you’re got more heavy-duty requirements -- benchmarking a server, say -- you’ll need something far more configurable.
Xiaomi's new Mi Powerbank Pro is a 10,000 mAh external battery with USB Type-C
USB Type-C is slowly starting to gain traction in the smartphone market, as more handsets are being introduced with this wonderful new connector. Last month, we saw two new flagships -- LG's G5 and Xiaomi's Mi 5 -- unveiled with USB Type-C. But, for consumers, having it on a new smartphone may actually be an issue.
An external battery, for instance, is generally charged via microUSB, which means that, when it runs out of juice, you will not be able to use the USB Type-C cable, that is used to charge your device, to also charge the external battery. This can make having a smartphone with the new connector feel like a drag, but Xiaomi has decided to (also) offer a USB Type-C external battery so you can have a great experience.
Codenvy and Microsoft streamline the developer workspace
Developers often work on portions of a project in isolation, which can lead to problems when the time comes to put everything together as a whole.
Now Codenvy and Microsoft are collaborating to modernize the way organizations build software by connecting developer workspaces with enterprise developer tools for a continuous, agile experience.
76 percent of project managers aren't sure how their work helps the business
If you've ever worked in a large organization you've probably had the feeling of not knowing how, or indeed if, what you do contributes to the enterprise as a whole.
Rest assured you’re not alone, according to research from project management solutions company Changepoint, 80 percent of project management executives have no real-time insights into how the organization's projects are aligned with overall business strategy.
Discuss the Office documents you share -- Skype comes to OneDrive
OneDrive, Microsoft's cloud storage solution, is more than just a safe backup for your files. It's also home to the company's online version of Office. Users can access Word, Excel, and more all for free from right there on the website.
The company is also the proud owner of what is, arguably, the top communication app, in the form of Skype. The question when Microsoft purchased Skype was "How will it use this?" Gradually those answers have come around and now there is another instance of the technology being leveraged.
Dropbox now has half a billion users [Infographic]
Dropbox is one of the leading players in the cloud storage market, attracting a large number of consumers and business clients since making its debut in mid-2007, on the merits of its namesake service alone: today, it boasts more than half a billion customers.
With over 500 million users under its belt, Dropbox is now one of the most popular -- if not the most popular -- cloud storage services. The company has added 100 million customers in the last nine months alone.
GPD Win is a pocket-sized Windows 10 laptop
Lugging around a full-size laptop so you can do a spot of work from anywhere can be a pain. Even using a Windows 10 slate, like the Surface Pro 4, doesn’t really lessen the load as you’ll likely need to include a keyboard cover and maybe a mouse.
GPD Win is an interesting solution. It’s a 5.5 inch handheld PC/Gaming console running Windows 10 and it’s clear a lot of thought has gone into the design.
GCHQ: US and UK tech firms need to work together to solve encryption challenges
The head of GCHQ, Robert Hannigan, has called for greater co-operation between tech companies and governments. Speaking at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Hannigan referred to the "highly charged atmosphere" surrounding the encryption debate in a barely-concealed reference to the on-going battle between Apple and the FBI.
He said that in the coming months Prime Minister David Cameron will set out plans to improve the relationship between tech companies and intelligence agencies. He was at pains to stress that the controversial snooper's charter (or Investigatory Powers Bill) would not be used as an excuse to allow governmental spying or to introduce a ban on end-to-end encryption.
The spam map of the United States
What do California and New York have in common? They're both major centers of spam email according to new research, between them accounting for almost half of spam sent in the US.
The study from Comodo Threat Research Labs examined all of the email Comodo filtered for customers in the second half of 2015, specifically looking at spam, and conducted an IP address analysis of the millions of pieces of email spam that came into the Threat Research Labs.
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