What you need to know about digital twinning
Formula 1 driving can be dangerous, as weather or malfunctions can cause fatal accidents. Teams are solving this problem by getting drivers to test racetracks in a virtual car. As automation is integrated into more factories, manufacturing has evolved to mix physical and virtual objects, just like racing. Here is how the latest industrial trend, digital twinning, is shaping the future of manufacturing.
It may seem odd for drivers to test racetracks online rather than in person. However, sensors can collect analytics data about the conditions of any racetrack across the world and create those conditions on one computer. Drivers can interact with any weather condition and monitor their cars before entering the race to reduce accidents. But, where does the technology originate from?
Microsoft buys Cycle Computing to strengthen cloud business
Microsoft has announced its plans to buy HPC company Cycle Computing in order to allow its customers to do more in the public cloud.
According to the company, the deal will enable its users to use high-performance computing as well as other "Big Computing" capabilities that will improve how they run their workloads in the cloud.
DockCase is a MacBook Pro protective leather sleeve with integrated USB-C dock
The MacBook Pro is a wonderful laptop. It offers excellent performance, a sleek design, and one of the best keyboards on the market. There really isn't much to complain about, other than a lack of ports. You see, Apple went all-in with USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports on its new laptop, meaning some users would need to rely on dongles for connecting legacy devices.
There are countless dongles, adapters, and docking stations on the market nowadays, all looking to provide a fix for this port pain-point. Today, a new such product from a company named "Seesaw" becomes available for pre-order on Kickstarter. The "DockCase," as it is called, intrigued me because of its unique design. You see, it is a protective leather sleeve for the MacBook Pro with a USB-C docking station built in. It sounds weird, I know, but it actually makes a lot of sense.
Push authentication can replace the password
For a vestige of the past, the password has managed to hold on and remain alive -- even though some of the top people in computing said that it had already died over a decade ago. In one of his more famous predictions, Microsoft founder Bill Gates said that passwords were on the way out already in 2004. Problem is that Gates, for all his wisdom, didn’t tell us what to use to replace passwords.
"There is no doubt that over time, people are going to rely less and less on passwords," Gates said at the RSA conference in 2004. "People use the same password on different systems, they write them down and they just don't meet the challenge for anything you really want to secure." How prescient he was, it turns out. There were hackers back in 2004, but hacking was nothing like the major international industry it is today -- responsible for tens of billions in losses every year, and endangering businesses large and small.
Ransomware attacks almost double in first half of 2017
The percentage of ransomware attacks almost doubled in the first half of 2017 compared to the first half of 2016, from an average of 26 percent to an average of 48 percent of the main attack categories worldwide.
This is according to a mid-year cyber attack trends report from threat prevention company Check Point. It also finds that 23.5 percent of organizations were impacted by the RoughTed malvertising campaign, and 19.7 percent of organizations were impacted by the Fireball malware over the same period.
Bitcoin price breaks $4,500
The price of Bitcoin has increased dramatically this year. The most popular cryptocurrency went from a low of $958 on January 1 to $2,000 on May 19, $3,000 on June 11, and, finally, $4,500 today. The effect? Its market cap rose from $15.5 billion to $73 billion, making it more valuable than well-known major tech companies like Twitter, HP, Nokia, NXP, Baidu, Salesforce and PayPal.
But Bitcoin's rise didn't have an effect just on its market cap, as it also boosted the cryptocurrency market as a whole. Today, its value is estimated to be around $144 billion, up from only $11.3 billion a year ago. It is pretty incredible, if you think about it.
Fastly adds the power of edge computing to Google BigQuery
Companies continue to be keen to exploit the power of big data analytics, and one of the most popular platforms for doing this is Google's BigQuery.
Edge cloud platform Fastly is announcing a new integration that allows the real-time streaming of logs to BigQuery. This, the first of a number of planned integrations with Google's Cloud Platform, aims to deliver better performance and faster real-time insights.
PowerPoint vulnerability enables malware spreading
Researchers have discovered that cyber attackers are exploiting a vulnerability that allows them to elude antivirus software to deliver malware via Microsoft PowerPoint.
The flaw itself exists in the Windows Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) interface and attackers have previously used it to deliver infected Rich Text File (.RTF) documents. Trend Micro's researchers noticed that attackers have now infected PowerPoint files to deliver malicious code.
90 percent of organizations will adopt VMware in the cloud by 2018
A new study from cloud data management company Druva shows a strong trend among businesses towards moving virtual workloads to the cloud.
It reveals that in the VMware market 90 percent of companies are aiming to migrate their workloads by 2018, with a clear preference for AWS (47 percent), followed by Microsoft Azure (25 percent).
72 percent of security pros say encryption backdoors won't stop terrorism
A new survey of information security professionals carried out at last month's Black Hat conference suggests that the majority think encryption backdoors are ineffective and potentially dangerous.
The study carried out by machine identity protection company Venafi finds that 72 percent of respondents don't believe encryption backdoors would make their nations safer from terrorists.
Google adds Q&A to search and Google Maps on Android
Android users now have a new "Question & answers" option in both Google Maps and search. This is not a general Q&A feature along the lines of Yahoo Answers, but a way to ask questions about businesses.
This appears to be Google's attempt to draw people away from the likes of Facebook when they want to ask questions about hotels, restaurants and other places they may visit. Business owners are able to respond to questions -- as are users -- and they are encouraged to create FAQs to prevent the same queries being posted time and time again.
Download Google's experimental data-sipping Search Lite app
Technology companies are increasingly realizing that if they are to break into emerging markets, they're going to have to reduce the amount of data their apps use. Facebook Lite, Twitter Lite and LinkedIn Lite are just some of the less demanding apps to have been launched recently.
Google doesn’t want to miss out on the action. It is currently testing a data-light version of its search app for use in countries with slow connections. Search Lite (or Search (Test App)) is currently available to download from Google Play in Indonesia -- or from other sources if you're elsewhere in the world.
Newton email officially available on Windows
Newton is my favorite email app, not least because I can use it on all my devices -- no matter if they run Android, iOS, macOS or Windows, the last of which arrived in private beta in early-May. Now, after four months of testing, it is ready for prime time.
The Windows version of Newton arrives today in Windows Store, and it's designed with Windows 10 users in mind. CloudMagic, the company behind the app, has included pretty much every feature that Newton has on other platforms, meaning the experience should be pretty similar to Android, iOS and macOS.
Google Home now lets you make free calls
If you're a Google Home user living in the US or Canada, Google is now rolling out the ability to make free phone calls.
The announcement sees the company making good on a promise from I/O 2017, and it extends the call-making capabilities of Google Assistant from smartphones to Google Home. There are, of course, a few limitations to keep in mind.
Hackers take over HBO's social media accounts and publish '4th Wave HBO Leak'
The nightmare continues for HBO. After suffering a hack and then leaks of various shows including Game of Thrones, hackers have now struck at the network's social media accounts. The hacking group OurMine took control of the main HBO Twitter accounts, as well as those for various shows, including Game of Thrones.
OurMine is no newcomer to the scene -- the group has previously hacked Mark Zuckerberg and Netflix's Twitter accounts. Separately to this, what has been dubbed the "4th Wave HBO Leak" has been made available online. This time the data dumps include content relating to Game of Thrones season 7, and Westworld season 2.
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