Apple TV's 4K Future
On June 8th at the Apple World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC), CEO Tim Cook will reportedly introduce a new and improved Apple TV. For those who live under rocks this doesn’t mean a television made by Apple but rather a new version of the Apple TV set top box that 25 million people have bought to download and stream video from the Internet. But this new Apple TV -- the first Apple TV hardware update in three years -- will not, we’re told, support 3840-by-2160 UHD (popularly called 4K) video and will be limited to plain old 1920-by-1080 HD. Can this be true? Well, yes and no. The new Apple TV will be 4K capable, but not 4K enabled. This distinction is critical to understanding what’s really happening with Apple and television.
First we need to understand Apple’s big number problem. This is a problem faced by many segment-leading companies as they become enormous and rich. The bigger these companies get the harder it is to find new business categories worth entering. Most companies, as they enter new market segments with new products, hope those products come to represent at least five percent of their company’s gross revenue over time. The iPhone, for example, now drives more than 60 percent of Apple’s revenue. Well the Apple TV has been around now for a decade and has yet to approach that five percent threshold, which is why they’ve referred to the Apple TV since its beginning as a hobby.
Lenovo Cast brings another streaming device to home media
If you haven't been following the news today, Lenovo is currently holding its Tech World show. We have seen new laptops in various price ranges. But a hot item these days for the home theater is sticks, as opposed to set-top boxes. We've seen them from Google, Roku and Amazon, but all three had some experience in the market. Now Lenovo is jumping in feet first with its own offering.
The Chinese hardware maker has announced Lenovo Cast to allow customers to share the videos from their phones and tablets, but do so on the big screen -- obviously more comfortable than having folks gather round that hand-held device.
Lenovo unveils ThinkPad 10 Windows 10 tablet
While shipments of Android tablets and iPads are falling, Windows slates are slowly gaining traction, making progress in the consumer and enterprise markets. In the first quarter of the year, Windows saw shipments rise by 11 percent year-over-year, which is no small feat. So, obviously, we can expect to see more and more Windows tablets hitting store shelves in the coming period.
The latest Windows tablet to join the pack is Lenovo's new business-oriented ThinkPad 10. It comes with a powerful x86 processor, which allows it to run the full-fledged version of Windows -- Windows 10 nonetheless -- and well-known programs such as Office. And Lenovo is making available dedicated accessories for it, which can turn it into a small laptop replacement. Here is what you need to know about it.
Microsoft is taking out the trash -- removing stinky apps from Windows Store
Windows 10 will soon be unleashed upon consumers around the globe. So far, based on the previews, it is a damn good operating system. Fundamentally, the user interface is beautiful and should make more sense to users compared to Windows 8. While some bugs still persist, Microsoft should be able to firm everything up by the summer.
Unfortunately, there is still one glaring issue that remains -- the Windows Store is full of garbage. It is so overrun with fake apps and knockoffs, that it can be hard to find the legitimate offerings. While Microsoft has promised to clean it up in the past, the desired results never came to fruition. Today, however, the company is promising to take out the trash once again. Will this time be different?
Forensic investigations: Retrieving data from the cloud
Cloud data represents a virtual goldmine of potential evidence for forensic investigators. Together with mobile device data, cloud data sources often present critical connections investigators need to solve crimes.
However, there are a number of challenges that investigators face when it comes to data retrieval from the cloud.
Twitter releases Periscope for Android
Periscope from Twitter seems to get mixed reviews from users and the tech community. However, it isn't going away, at least as far as we know. The video sharing app received a lot of attention, which really is what Twitter wants from any improvement or new apps.
Periscope isn't new, but the app for Android is. It boasts the ability to replay your live broadcast to your followers, it can be private if you only want certain followers to see it, you can also share these broadcasts via Twitter, manage notifications and Hearts, which tracks how many viewers like your broadcast.
Microsoft brings Dolby Audio to Windows 10 -- works with Edge, not Chrome or Firefox
Consuming media -- music and movies -- is one of my favorite hobbies. While this used to happen with VHS, DVD and CD, I have transitioned entirely to using streaming and downloaded files. The majority of my consumption happens on Windows, where I use a USB DAC to get the best audio performance.
Today, Dolby announces that Microsoft has selected its technologies to be featured in Windows 10. This means consumers should benefit from an improved audio experience.
3.2 billion will use the Internet by the end of 2015
New figures released by the ITU (the UN agency for information and communication technologies) have shown that there will be 3.2 billion people online worldwide by the end of 2015.
The majority of those internet users -- 2 billion of them -- live in developing countries, according to the ITU’s analysts.
CCleaner can now clean Microsoft Edge and IE12 browsers
Piriform has unveiled its routine monthly update to CCleaner with the release of CCleaner 5.06 for Windows PCs. The new release is also available as a portable build.
There’s only one new feature of note in this latest release, and it’s currently restricted to Windows 10 users. Nevertheless, a number of other improvements make it an essential update for existing users.
AdBlock Plus is deemed legal -- again
AdBlock Plus has already been in court once this year proving itself to be legal. A German court heard a case brought by a group of TV companies who felt they were getting a poor deal when their ads were blocked.
The internet has something of a love/hate relationship with ad blockers. While surfers love the fact that they clean up the browsing experience, content creators have a source of income crimped. To try to keep everyone happy, AdBlock Plus came up with the idea of Acceptable Ads -- a sort of halfway house between blocking and permitting ads -- and this was something that featured in this most recent court case.
Quickly create stylish icons with Seanau Icon Toolkit
Creating Windows icons can be a challenge. Regular image editors aren’t optimized for the process -- that’s if they have ICO support at all -- while specialist icon designers are often bulky and complex.
Seanau Icon Toolkit is a free icon editor which applies a few tricks to make the process much more straightforward.
Mac OS X tops vulnerabilities chart for April
Security company Secunia has released its latest quarterly Vulnerability Update covering the period from February to April 2015.
It looks at the top 20 products with the most vulnerabilities each month and finds that there have been a total of 1,691 new vulnerabilities appearing in the top 20 over the three month period.
Piper.nv: An impressive night vision home security system [Review]
Home security is getting ever smarter, and Piper.nv (the more expensive night vision version of Piper) is an excellent example of this. It’s a smart camera that you access and control via your smartphone (iOS or Android). It displays 180-degree 1080p HD live video, and automatically switches to night vision when the room gets dark.
There’s much more to Piper than just a camera though. It comes packed with features to ensure your home stays safe when you’re asleep or away, and it’s very easy to set up and use.
New Instart Logic platform set to deliver faster, more reliable websites
Web developers are under pressure to deliver sites and applications faster and at the same time offer greater flexibility and a more personalized end-user experience.
Cloud application delivery provider Instart Logic is using the O'Reilly Velocity Conference to launch its latest Software-Defined Application Delivery (SDAD) platform.
Google might launch two new Nexus phones in 2015, but no tablet
Google revealed lower revenue from its Nexus devices last year, putting some pressure on the low-cost, high performance program’s future. Fortunately, it sounds like Google is planning to give the Nexus smartphone another try in 2015, according to Android Police.
Instead of having a single mobile, Google is planning two Nexus devices this year. One will feature a 5.2-inch display, the other a 5.7-inch display. LG will work on the smaller device, while Huawei will take its first role in the Nexus program with the 5.7-inch model.
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