WebCatalog runs your favorite web apps natively
WebCatalog is an open-source cross-platform tool which runs your favorite websites and services as native desktop applications.
A huge list of supported services includes Amazon, Basecamp, BBC iPlayer, Bing, Dropbox, Evernote, Facebook Messenger, Gmail (and just about every other Google app), iCloud, iCQ, OneDrive, Netflix, Outlook.com, Skype, Spotify, Twitter, WhatsApp, Wikipedia and more.
Generation Z finds products online but prefers to shop in-store
The Gen Z population -- those born between the late 1990s and the mid-2000s -- still value the in-store experience even though they're likely to search for products online.
This is among the findings of a study into shopping habits by retail analytics specialist Euclid Analytics. It reveals that this age group like to see, hold and try on products before buying and 28 percent of Gen Z shoppers want to engage with store associates while shopping, the most of any generation.
Microsoft shuts down So.cl social network
The So.cl experiment will soon be over, as Microsoft's Fuse Labs just announced that it will shut down the social network this month. Launched nearly five years ago, So.cl was meant to appeal to users wanting to share search queries and results.
So.cl seemed to be eyeing a very limited audience from the start, a belief confirmed over the years by the lack of any official figures from Microsoft about its userbase. Alexa puts So.cl's global ranking at just over 466,000 -- to put things into perspective, MySpace is currently in the 3,075th place.
Over 60 percent of organizations hit by ransomware in 2016
Ransomware continues to be a major problem, a new report reveals that more than 60 percent of organizations suffered some form of ransomware attack in 2016.
The good news is that 54 percent successfully retrieved their data without resorting to paying the ransom. These are among the findings of the fourth-annual Cyberthreat Defense Report from security research firm CyberEdge Group.
IBM Q is the first initiative to build commercial quantum computing systems
Your business will finally get the chance to use a quantum computer to do... well, whatever a business could use a quantum computer for. IBM has just announced IBM Q -- "an industry-first initiative to build commercially available universal quantum computing systems."
Its systems and services will be delivered via the IBM Cloud platform, and IBM believes it could be used to "deliver solutions to important problems where patterns cannot be seen because the data doesn’t exist and the possibilities that you need to explore to get to the answer are too enormous to ever be processed by classical computers."
How to disable ads in File Explorer in Windows 10
Microsoft has used Windows 10 as a vehicle for advertising in a variety of ways over the months since its launch. We've seen ads in the Start menu, via taskbar popups and on the Lock screen; now you can find them in File Explorer.
Users have reported the appearance of advertisements for Microsoft's own OneDrive service as they browse the contents of their hard drive(s). You may well think that this is unacceptable, so we'll show you how to disable ads in File Explorer. Even if they haven’t shown up for you yet, there's no harm in taking preventative measures.
IT executives believe service management is key to digital transformation
A new survey reveals that a majority of IT executives believe investment in IT service management (ITSM) is important to gain the agility needed to compete in an era of global, cross-industry disruption and digital transformation.
The study of more than 250 IT executives for enterprise management specialist BMC conducted with Forbes Insights reveals that 88 percent of respondents say ITSM is important to their digital transformation efforts.
wtrace is a process monitor for Windows
wtrace is an open-source console-based process monitor for Windows. It’s essentially a stripped-down version of Sysinternals Process Monitor which you can run at the command line.
The program is entirely portable, with no drivers or Windows services involved. Just unzip the single executable and run it from an elevated command line.
Microsoft and Samsung react to Vault 7 CIA leaks -- Google, Linux Foundation and others remain silent
The Vault 7 document and code cache released yesterday by WikiLeaks revealed that many big software companies were being actively exploited by the CIA. Apple, Microsoft, Google, Samsung, and even Linux were all named as having vulnerabilities that could be used for surveillance.
Apple was one of the first of the companies mentioned in the documents to speak out and address concerns and security. But while the iPhone manufacturer has quickly indicated that it has fixed "many" of the vulnerabilities, Microsoft and Samsung have merely said they are looking into the issues raised. Other companies and groups mentioned have made no comment at all.
Kaspersky discovers StoneDrill wiper malware
Security researchers from Kaspersky Lab have found a very powerful malware, one which is capable of completely wiping the contents of a disk. Announcing the finding, the security company says the malware, which it dubbed StoneDrill, was found on just two machines so far, one in the Middle East, and one in Europe.
The researchers claim StoneDrill is both similar and "very different and more sophisticated" than another wiper malware -- Shamoon 2.0. They actually stumbled upon StoneDrill while investigating Shamoon 2.0.
Apple says it has fixed 'many of the issues' exposed in WikiLeak's CIA hacking data dump
Yesterday WikiLeaks unleashed Vault 7 online, revealing a wealth of information about the CIA's hacking tools and techniques. Included in the data dump was the suggestion that the CIA was actively exploiting vulnerabilities in iOS and other software to listen in on people. Apple has responded by saying that "many" of these security holes have been fixed.
Importantly, the company is unable to say that all of the vulnerabilities being used -- or that have been historically used -- by the CIA have been addressed, but it does insist that it "will continue work to rapidly address" problems that are found. A number of iOS security flaws have been exploited by the CIA to surveil individuals, or even take remote control of devices.
Pioneer unveils BDR-211UBK BD/DVD/CD writer with 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray playback support
As more consumers embrace the cloud for storage, and fewer computers ship with optical drives, it is easy to think that the concept of burning Blu-ray, DVD, and CD discs is outdated. Yeah, maybe it is. With that said, some people -- including yours truly -- still like to store data on optical discs. Heck, some people use their computers to play video and audio from these discs too.
The newest type of optical video disc is Ultra HD Blu-ray, allowing the user to experience 4K content. Unfortunately, these discs require entirely new hardware -- they are not backwards compatible. Today, Pioneer (one of the most respected optical drive manufacturers) announces its newest internal BD/DVD/CD writer -- the BDR-211UBK. This drive has a very cool feature -- it can play those newfangled Ultra HD Blu-rays.
Kingston Digital launches ultra-fast 3.2TB DCP1000 PCIe NVMe SSD for data centers
Solid state drives are wonderful upgrades for consumer computers, but the possibilities also exist in the enterprise. Quite frankly, reliably maintaining data and large databases can be critically important to the success of many businesses. If an organization can get an edge, such as faster performance from their storage drives, it could be prove to be very valuable.
Today, Kingston Digital announces that it has begun shipping its all-new DCP1000 SSD for data centers. The ultra-fast PCIe NVMe SSD features 7GB/s speed and up to 3.2TB of storage capacity. Yeah, this thing is godly.
Using technology to fight climate change
2016 was the warmest year on record -- around 1.2 degrees C warmer than pre-industrial levels to be exact. Whilst this doesn’t sound very much, evidence has already shown that an average rise of 1 degree C across the whole of the Earth’s surface would result in huge changes to the climatic extremes we see today.
Meanwhile, our forests and oceans aren’t faring much better. The significant decline of the planet’s rainforest has been documented throughout my lifetime and, according to a report last year by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, by 2050 there could be more plastic by weight in our oceans than fish. Add to this the recent findings that the Earth is on track to lose two-thirds of its wildlife by 2020 and it’s easy to see that we are already in a pretty dire state.
Microsoft releases Visual Studio 2017, Visual Studio for Mac Preview 4
Microsoft today releases Visual Studio 2017 and the fourth preview of Visual Studio for Mac. The latest official version of its longstanding IDE for Windows adds improvements related to productivity, performance, mobile apps, cloud development, DevOps and the ecosystem surrounding Visual Studio.
Visual Studio 2017, according to Microsoft's blog post announcing the release, features an improved startup and project load times, better navigation, the ability to edit files without having to open a project or solution, CMake support and Linux support for C++, Xamarin Forms Previewer, a new Connected Services experience, the ability to build .NET Core 1.0 and .NET Core 1.1 apps, support for Azure App Service and more.
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