MediaPortal adds automatic media-scraping, Windows Media Center-inspired skin
Team MediaPortal has released a major update of its open-source media server and center for Windows. MediaPortal 2.1 opens with completely reworked media management tools, with a wide array of content now automatically scraped for metadata and artwork.
Users gain better visual indicators of watched series and individual movies, plus a number of new skins make their debut, including one aimed squarely at Windows Media Center users.
'Fatboy' ransomware uses a location-based charging model
A new ransomware-as-a-service product named 'Fatboy' has been advertised on Russian language forums. What makes it different is the way it uses a sliding scale to charge its victims.
Threat intelligence company Recorded Future has revealed that Fatboy uses the Economist's Big Mac Index -- designed to explain exchange rates -- to ensure victims in areas with a higher cost of living will be charged more to decrypt their data.
Microsoft to make big Surface announcement in Shanghai on May 23
Earlier this week, Microsoft made huge news by announcing both a new operating system (Windows 10 S) and computer (Surface Laptop) for education. Next week, the company will hold its annual Build 2017 developer conference. Surely the company will relax a bit for the rest of the month, right?
Nope. Today, Microsoft shocks the technology community by unveiling yet another event for the month of May. Not only is the timing a surprise, but so too is the location. You see, the company will be making a big Surface announcement in Shanghai! Microsoft says it will "show the world what's next."
Google Photos gets 'Mother's Day Movies' feature
We are finally in the month of May, meaning the holiday of Mother's Day is almost here. If your mom is still living, you should take the opportunity to spend time with her on that day. If traveling to her is not possible, picking up the phone is a good option too. Whatever you can do to make her feel loved and appreciated is a positive thing.
If your mom -- or any mother in your life -- is tech-savvy and uses a computer, Google Photos has a new feature that could really make her day. Called "Mother's Day Movies," it prompts you to select multiple photos of the mom and her children from your Google Photos library. The service then creates a "movie" using the images, which you can share with her.
Sunvell T95X TV box: a web-focused, cloud-based client for those on a budget [Review]
Businesses often envision the modern desktop computer as being a boring piece of kit, one that not only costs a lot of money but also doesn’t offer much in terms of innovation.
The reality is slightly different; between dongle PCs, mini and micro PCs as well as all-in-ones, there’s plenty of innovation around if you know where to look.
Watching users fail is key to building a good product
Just 40 hours of engineering work to go live with a state-of-the-art smartphone application? It’s only possible if you have the right framework and if you forget perfectionism in favor of real user feedback. At Spreadshirt, we want it to be easy for our users to buy, sell, create and share ideas on over 200 products on our ecommerce platform. Whether they use a desktop, tablet or smartphone, we want our users to have a great experience.
Back in 2014 we had created a t-shirt designer for tablets, to reflect the rise of the touch screen. It worked on smartphones, but that was a rare use case back then. This web app has been perfected through many iterations. But the mobile times changed. And exactly as we had already envisioned in 2016 smartphone traffic was up 22 percent and tablet traffic was down at less than 10 percent. We needed a new design tool to focus on the experience for our visitors from smartphones and find out what their specific needs and issues were. Watching users fail holds the greatest learnings when you develop complex applications, such as our smartphone t-shirt designer.
How to scale a microservices-based app
The promise of microservices is that you can divide and conquer the problem of a large application by breaking it down into its constituent services and what each one actually accomplishes. Each can be supported by an independent team. You get to the point where you can break the limits on productivity that Fred Brooks described in his book, The Mythical Man-month.
Aside from being able to throw more people at the problem and -- unlike what Brooks observed -- actually become more efficient once you get a microservices-based application into production, you can quickly start thinking about how to scale it. Think resiliency and high-availability. And you can easily determine what services don’t need scaling, or high availability.
The future of self-driving cars relies on big data
Autonomous cars depend on information. They’re equipped with technology to gather and communicate a vehicle’s position, speed, direction, and braking status. They also recognize traffic signals, proximity to pedestrians, and hazardous objects on the road. With voluminous data being computed in near real-time, self-driving cars can respond to dangers afoot or notify the car owner of imminent mechanical issues, in which case it might automatically set up an appointment with the nearest auto body shop.
In addition, self-driving vehicles aren’t disposed to human-prone errors resulting from distracted driving, tired driving, or driving while inebriated. They’re constantly alert, vigilant, and have a panoramic view of the road. All of this demonstrates how big data is becoming the cornerstone to the driverless car’s future. What’s more, it’s already making great strides toward self-driving capabilities, driver safety, and enhanced customer experience.
Microsoft releases Windows 10 Insider Build 16188 to the Fast ring, with lots of new features
While many users are still waiting to upgrade Windows 10 to the Creators Update, Microsoft is forging ahead with the next big update, codenamed Redstone 3.
We’re back to the regular weekly update schedule, and new features are beginning to appear in the preview builds. In Build 16184 we saw the introduction of the new My People app, and in the latest release, Build 16188, there are even more new features to try out.
'Start' is a do-everything new tab page for Chrome
If you’re bored with Chrome’s standard "new tab" page, there are hundreds of free extensions to make it better. Whether you’re after gorgeous photos, better searching, more productivity tools, there’s something, somewhere that can help.
If you don’t have time to look, that doesn’t have to be a problem either -- just install something like Start -- A Better New Tab, which crams in just about every feature you could possibly want.
Google releases DIY open source Raspberry Pi 'Voice Kit' hardware -- here's how to get it
Google has long been focused on artificial intelligence. Its Google Now and voice assistance projects have used AI to better the lives of users. The Google Home voice-based hardware unit brings its assistant to life, making traditional inputs and displays unnecessary. With just the power of your voice, you can interact with the device -- nothing else is needed.
The search giant has decided to take artificial intelligence to the maker community with a new initiative called AIY. This initiative (found here) will introduce open source AI projects to the public that makers can leverage in a simple way. Today, Google announces the first-ever AIY project. Called "Voice Kit," it is designed to work with a Raspberry Pi to create a voice-based virtual assistant. Please keep in mind that the Pi itself is not included, so you must bring your own. For this project, you can use a Pi 3 Model B, Pi 2, or Pi Zero. Want a Voice Kit? Here's how to get it. Heck, you might be getting one for free and you don't even know it.
Facebook to hire just 3,000 more people to moderate the content of its 1.9 billion users
There's been a lot of disturbing content on Facebook in recent weeks and months -- murders, rapes, assaults, shootings and more. After a fatal shooting was shared on the site, Facebook vowed to do more to combat this sort of material.
As the social network announced that it now has 1.9 billion users, it also announced that it is to employ an extra 3,000 people to help moderate content. This brings the company's total number of moderators to 7,500. Can this possibly be enough to manage the posts of nearly 2 billion people, and who on earth would want to be tasked with viewing some of the most gruesome content to determine whether or not it should be removed?
Your clouds don't need to clash
Increasingly, two models for cloud are emerging -- the public or shared cloud and private cloud. While the definitions of these models might still be fluid, that has not stopped the rise of loud, passionate defenders of each who are willing to fight to the death to defend the idea that their cloud model will ultimately reign supreme. Needless to say, this "clash of clouds" can be intimidating for many enterprise IT professionals seeking to develop a cloud strategy where it might seem the wrong choice could result in the end of their business (or at least their careers).
Relax.
DDoS attacks could cost enterprises over $2.5 million in revenue
A new report from information services specialist Neustar looks at the frequency and cost of DDoS attacks and what is being done to counter the threat.
In terms of revenue loss, three percent of organizations report average revenue loss of at least $250,000 per hour, with 51 percent taking at least three hours to detect an attack and 40 percent taking at least three hours to respond, that means an attack could cost over $2.5 million.
Corsair unveils GLAIVE RGB wired gaming mouse with replaceable magnetic thumb grips
There is no shortage of gaming peripherals nowadays, and today, Corsair is introducing yet another to the market. The company's latest mouse, which is simply called "GLAIVE," is a wired affair. As with many gaming peripherals, it features RGB lighting for a fun and customized experience.
What makes GLAIVE particularly cool is that it has replaceable thumb grips, so the user can find the best grip for themselves. Making the change is really simple too, as it connects with magnets. The optical DPI sensor can even be set to an insane 16,000 DPI. Your settings can move with you, as it has on-board memory for storing profiles.
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