Twitter monetizes emoji with targeted ads
I don't consider myself a millennial, but according to some sources, my year of birth makes me one. Other sources list me as a "Gen Xer". No matter the box in which you put me, I love emojis -- something often associated with millennials. Why do I love them? As someone who recognizes the value of body language in communication, the written word can often lack sentiment, leading to misunderstandings. Emojis can enhance your emails, texts, and tweets, helping the reader to better understand your intention. In other words, they aren't inconsequential.
As emojis become more popular, companies will undoubtedly try to somehow monetize their use. Today, Twitter announces just that. The social network will offer targeted advertising based on a user's emoji use. This is significant, as according to Twitter, more than 110 million emojis have been used in tweets in the last couple years. Whoa.
Average data breach cost rises to $4 million
The average cost of a data breach has jumped 29 percent since 2013, a new report by IBM Security and the Ponemon Institute says. This brings the figure up to $4 million per breach.
The number and the severity of these incidents keeps on growing, the two companies said in the report.
ASUS ZenPad Z8 tablet for Verizon has six-core CPU, dual front speakers, USB-C, and Android M
Android tablets are rather boring and uneventful nowadays. While the Nexus 9 was great, the 2013 Nexus 7 remains the best such tablet ever. This is a very sad state of affairs for the Android community. Google and manufacturers have just never been able to produce the elusive "iPad killer". Apple's line of tablets remain the best after all these years.
Today, ASUS announces a tablet that actually has me excited. Seriously, I haven't felt this way about an Android tablet in a while. The 7.9 inch LTE-enabled ZenPad Z8 -- which is a Verizon exclusive -- has a hexacore processor, USB Type-C, expandable storage, and Android M. While it may not be the Android tablet that "kills" Apple's tablet, the specs are quite impressive, and the price is amazingly low.
Nokia launches Internet of Things management platform
Nokia has decided to unite all of its connected-device technologies and products to form a new Internet of Things (IoT) management platform called Impact.
Impact, which stands for the Intelligent Management Platform for All Connected Things, is the company’s new tool for managing all of the devices powered by IoT technology. During its unveiling this week, Nokia pointed out the platform already supports 80,000 different device types.
Why organizations need a risk-based approach to securing payment card data [Q&A]
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) has done much to cut credit card fraud by ensuring that businesses comply with the rules.
But Charles White founder and chief executive of UK-based risk consultancy Information Risk Management (IRM) argues that it has now become little more than a tick box activity which enterprises go through to gain accreditation.
Abracadabra! Microsoft acquires Wand Labs to conjure up some chat bot magic
Continuing the spending spree that started with snapping up LinkedIn earlier this week, Microsoft today announces that it has acquired Wand Labs. The mobile developer has a chat-centric focus, and will help Microsoft to build on the Conversation as a Platform ideas Sayta Nadella has been championing of late.
Neither Wand Labs nor Microsoft has shared details of the amount of money that is changing hands, but the acquisition will assist Microsoft in developing its Bot Framework. Wand Labs' natural language technologies will extend the capabilities of Windows, Bing, Microsoft Azure and Office 365, particularly with intelligent agents and chat bots.
Wearable shipments will break past 100 million mark in 2016
The wearables market is expected to grow by 29 percent in 2016, with IDC expecting more than 100 million units to be shipped by the end of the year. Two categories will account for the vast majority of shipments, namely wrist bands -- 51.4 million units -- and watches -- 41.8 million units.
IDC predicts that other types of wearables, like eyewear and clothing, will make for just 8.7 million units, out of the total of 101.9 million wearables it expects to be moved in 2016. The market as a whole is expected to see a 20.3 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to reach 213.6 million units in 2020.
Opera now lets you block ads on Android, iOS and Windows 10 Mobile
Opera Software made a bold move earlier this year when it introduced a native ad-blocker in its desktop Opera browser. While controversial, this feature is not enabled by default though promises to offer some major benefits, like a 40 percent boost in performance compared to an extension like AdBlock Plus.
However, folks are not only saying "No" to advertisements on their PCs but also on their smartphones and tablets. In fact, mobile ad-blocking usage has seen a 90 percent rise year-over-year, with more than 400 million devices said to run an ad-blocker. The latest versions of Opera Mini for iOS and Windows 10 Mobile and Opera for Android now cater to that growing audience too, as they too feature a built-in ad-blocker.
Microsoft's leaked Windows Refresh tool lets you start anew in Windows 10
Yesterday, something went horribly wrong with my PC leaving me with no option but to use the Windows 10 Reset option to wipe all my programs and start over. It was the first time I’d had to use it, and things went smoothly enough, even if it took forever to get everything setup again afterwards.
The ability to Reset Windows 10 -- re-installing the OS while keeping, or removing your personal files -- is a great idea (although admittedly not as good as being able to install Windows over the top of itself as you could with XP), and now Microsoft is spinning it off into a standalone tool.
Build your own ransomware blocker with NoVirusThanks File System Protector
Constantly in the headlines, ransomware is the menace of the moment, and even the best antivirus engines can’t guarantee to keep you safe. NoVirusThanks File System Protector can help by restricting access to particular folders and file types, ensuring only trusted applications gets to open or modify your files.
You could create a rule which blocks any process from accessing the C:\Locked folder, for instance. Or you might just stop processes modifying all files in that location, or perhaps a specific file type.
Auslogics BoostSpeed 9 released with Win10 Tweaker
Auslogics has released Auslogics BoostSpeed 9 ($59.95), the latest edition of its comprehensive PC maintenance suite, with a whole new module of Windows 10 tweaks. The "Privacy Tools" section has options to enable/ disable WiFi-Sense, Cortana, location sensing, data syncing, peer-to-peer Windows updates, and more.
New visual tweaks enable customizing the preview size for Aero Peek, and activating a "secret" dark theme for Windows 10 apps.
The mainframe is dead... Long live the mainframe!
Rumors are flying within IBM this week that the z Systems (mainframe) division is up for sale with the most likely buyer being Hitachi. It’s all a big secret, of course, because IBM management doesn’t tell IBM workers anything, but the idea is certainly consistent with Big Blue’s determination to cut costs and raise cash for more share buybacks. And the murmurs are simply too loud to be meaningless. Think of this news in terms of a statement made last week by an IBM senior executive: "In a world of Cloud Computing, it does not matter what equipment or whose hardware the cloud runs on. We are a Cloud company…"
This move by IBM would not surprise me in a bit. It is my guess IBM wants someone else to make and support the hardware. They’ll be happy to sell time sharing services, AKA cloud services. They’ll be happy to let someone else sell and maintain systems.
Microsoft rolls out Windows Store update that allows you to choose install locations for apps
The advent of app stores has meant that software installation is very hands-off process these days. Select the app you want, hit install, and everything is taken care of for you. On one hand, this is great as it simplifies and accelerates things, but it also removes an element of control from the user.
With an update to the Windows Store app in Windows 10, Microsoft is changing this. Building on the ability to move apps from one drive to another, Windows 10 Anniversary Edition will now ask where you would like to install larger apps -- a real boon for people with more than one hard drive.
Most of us rely on social media for news
In the lives of many consumers, social networks have begun to replace traditional news outlets as their primary source of news, making it much more difficult for publishers who still rely on a more traditional business model to earn revenue from their stories.
In its annual report on digital news, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) highlights the rise of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter and how they transformed the way news media is consumed today. The institute conducted a study across 26 countries that found that over 50 percent of all the Internet users turned to social media to get their news.
Microsoft releases Starbucks for Outlook Add-in
Do you ever see people working at Starbucks and think they are sort of pretentious? Understandably, seeing someone working in public is weird, but there is actually a lot of sense being made here. As someone who works in Starbucks almost every day (yeah, really), I can attest to the fact that it is a fabulous place for productivity. Obviously it has coffee and free Wi-Fi, which are the biggest pluses, but the overall atmosphere is conducive for work too. Since it can be a neutral meeting place, there is no awkwardness in ending a meeting and leaving -- it is very casual.
Today, Microsoft releases the Starbucks for Outlook Add-in. This is a marriage made in heaven, as coffee and Outlook are two of the most important things from a productivity perspective in many businesses. This add-in for Outlook lets you easily schedule a meeting at the famed coffee shop.
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