Enterprises should block Tor to protect data, says IBM
Cyber crooks looking to hold your data hostage and extort money use the Tor network, and enterprises should block it if they value their data, a new report says.
The IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence Quarterly 3Q 2015 paper says hundreds of thousands of malicious events have originated from Tor in the US so far this year.
Windows 10 vs Windows 8.1: Which is fastest?
The comparisons were inevitable right from the start. When Microsoft releases a new operating system then people are going to look at it against the previous version, especially when the old one was a bit hated and unsuccessful. It really wasn't bad, but perception is everything, and the folks who heard it was bad steered clear of it.
But how do the two platforms stack up against one another in a performance test? The researchers at security firm AVG Labs decided to take a look.
Second Formula E championship starts in October, introduces new rules
The Formula E championship is set to return in just under two months and will be accompanied by some new rules and updated cars. The new season begins in Beijing on 17 October and takes in nine other locations including Berlin, Paris and London.
Teams are now allowed to modify their cars, within limits, in order to gain an advantage. Last year, all the vehicles were identical but for the upcoming season, drivetrains and gears can be customized. All the cars will have the same battery power unit, however, something that Audi driver Lucas di Grassi believes will generate a close contest.
IDC guesstimate: Windows tablets will have most market share gains through 2019
The tablet market is expected to witness yet another decline in shipments, with IDC estimating an eight percent drop in 2015 compared to last year. However, by the end of 2019, the market is said to recover, thanks in most part to a boost from Windows tablets which will help increase shipments by nearly 13 percent over this year's estimate.
Windows tablets do not currently contribute by a significant amount to overall shipments, as they are estimated to have a market share of just 8.4 percent in 2015 from 17.7 million units. That being said, they are the only slates that will display dramatic growth, expected at 59.5 percent by the end of the year compared to 2014. By the end of 2019, their market share is expected to reach 17.5 percent, thanks to shipments of 41.7 million units.
LG Rolly Keyboard is a folding keyboard for your tablet or smartphone
However much on-screen keyboards improve, they're no replacement for a good, old-fashioned keyboard. Traveling with a tablet, it might not be convenient to lug about a full-sized wireless keyboard but LG thinks its Rolly Keyboard could be the answer.
As the name suggests, this is a portable keyboard that 'rolls' up for easier transportation -- well, it rolls up into a square stick rather than a round roll, but you get the idea. Also known as the KBB-700, the Rolly Keyboard features almost full-sized keys, and can be paired with two devices via Bluetooth.
84 percent of people support eliminating passwords
Spare a moment to consider the plight of the humble password. It has become an essential component of modern life, but it would be wrong to say we've grown to know and love it.
In fact a survey by mobile authentication specialist LaunchKey shows that 84 percent of respondents would like to do away with passwords altogether and 76 percent believe their information would be more secure with an alternative form of authentication.
Virginia shooting shows the power of social media, and the danger of autoplay videos
Social media is an incredibly powerful tool. It's not without good reason that ad campaigns start on Twitter and Facebook in the hope of going viral. As with any medium, social media is full of positive and negative content. Content you're interested in seeing, and stuff you really aren't.
But the difference with the likes of Facebook and Twitter is that you're not always in control of what you see. The horrific shooting live on TV in Virginia highlights this perfectly. As with any tragedy or big news story, many were quick to take to social networks to share information and thoughts. They also shared video footage of the killings which automatically played in people's timelines.
How do you know if the cloud is right for your business? [Q&A]
The rapid growth in cloud adoption might suggest that every workload businesses currently have on-premise is destined for some sort of cloud-based service. The reality is that, other than for small companies, that's probably not the case.
Entrusting key applications to a third party requires intelligent planning in many areas such as management, portability, security and support requirements. What can IT organizations do to reduce risks, tame the complexity and increase their potential for success? We spoke to Jerry McLeod, vice president of business development at hybrid cloud management provider HotLink to find out.
Insert special characters into any document with WinCompose
Numbers, letters, basic symbols and punctuation -- your keyboard covers all the typing basics. But what if you need to enter accented characters, math symbols, superscripts, or anything else a little less standard?
WinCompose is an open source tool for Windows which can insert special characters and symbols into just about any document or application.
Turn your smartphone's camera into a 3D scanner with Microsoft's Mobile Fusion app
Microsoft has been really busy lately, and now it has shown one of the things it has been working on -- a 3D scanner inside a regular smartphone.
The app, called MobileFusion, turns your average smartphone camera into a high-tech 3D scanner, allowing you to scan objects and turn them into 3D models for viewing, sharing and 3D printing, right in front of your very eyes.
Translate website text by pointing at it with TransOver
If you need to translate website text then there are plenty of services and apps available, most of which have piled on the features as they try to stand out from the crowd. But while that sounds great in theory, in practice it can mean wasting time navigating a bulky interface to get what you need.
TransOver is a Chrome extension with more of a back-to-basics approach. There’s no copying URLs, no opening new tabs or panes -- you’re able to translate text by selecting, clicking or just pointing at it.
Just hover your mouse over a word, for instance, and by default a tooltip appears with appropriate definitions.
Facebook is now working on its own digital assistant called M
Sounding like a character from a James Bond movie, M is Facebook's personal digital assistant. Ready to compete with the likes of Cortana, M will live inside Facebook Messenger and take artificial intelligence a step further. Rather than just helping you to find information or create calendar entries, M will actually perform tasks on your behalf.
Once up and running, M will be able to book restaurants for you, purchase shopping, and more. It will also be possible to use the service to ask for advice -- such as looking for somewhere to visit nearby, or gift suggestions -- and Facebook says the AI behind M is "trained and supervised by people".
Apple: iPhones thriving in China
Even though China’s smartphone market is saturated, and now relies only on people replacing their devices instead of buying their first one, Apple still bets a lot on that market.
In its third quarter earnings the iPhone business grew by more than half, to $31bn (£19.64bn) on 47.5 million shipments. According to a report by the IB Times, sales in China more than doubled to $13bn (£8.24bn), over a quarter of Apple’s revenue. The company did not say exactly how many iPhones it sold in China last quarter, but it was an 87 percent increase on a year earlier.
Amazon Underground offers a way to get over $10,000 worth of Android apps and games entirely free
Why pay for something when you can get it for free? Provided free, really is free of course (so many "free" things these days come with hidden costs). If you’re an Android user you’ll want to sit up and pay attention to a new app from Amazon which provides a way to get your hands on all of the apps and games that are actually available for free throughout the Amazon Appstore.
Better still, while the apps and games offered might include in-app purchases in other stores, in Amazon Underground, everything is entirely free. Find an app you like and you'll pay nothing for it, ever.
Many workers are not familiar with the cloud, VoIP, fiber broadband
A pretty staggering amount of folks in the UK still don’t have a clue what some basic technology terms mean, such as the cloud, according to a new survey.
This research comes from telecoms outfit Daisy Group, which questioned British employees to find out how clued up they were on the subject of connectivity, and also subsequently surveyed some 1100 SME owners and managers in the UK.
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