Workers find meetings productive
You’ve probably heard it a million times, how meetings are actually a waste of time and do little good. You’ve also heard how people usually browse social media and look at the ceiling during these meetings, and that it would be more productive watching paint dry.
Turns out, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Unified communications solutions company ShoreTel conducted a research into what the current workforce thinks about meetings, and the overall opinion is vastly positive.
What's the deal with online journalism?
Not very long ago I started answering questions on Quora, the question-and-answer site. My answers are mainly about aviation because that’s my great hobby and one of the few things besides high tech that I really know a lot about. But there was a question last week about Internet news coverage that I felt deserved better answers than it was getting.
So I contributed an answer that has been read, so far, only 388 times. I don’t like making a real effort that is so sparsely read. So here, with a little mild editing, is my answer to "What are the flaws in online journalism and media today?" And "How can they be addressed?"
SanDisk Extreme 256GB microSDXC UHS-I Card is 'world’s fastest'
Micro SD cards are small enough -- any smaller and it would be downright ridiculous. Think about it, folks, they are already too easy to lose. A better way to push the envelope with these miniature storage cards is speed and capacity.
Today, Western Digital announces the SanDisk Extreme 256GB microSDXC UHS-I, which it claims to be the world's fastest such card. Whether you are recording 4K video on a GoPro, or accessing files on your smartphone, the storage media can never be too fast, am I right? In addition to the aforementioned card, the company also announces the less-expensive and slightly slower 256GB SanDisk Ultra microSDXC UHS-I card, Premium Edition.
Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14376 for PC and Mobile arrives on the Fast ring
The much awaited Windows 10 Anniversary Update might not now be arriving until the start of August, but the Windows Insider previews continue to roll out at an impressive pace.
Today, Microsoft releases Build 14376 for both PC and Mobile to the Fast ring, and also pushes out Build 14372 to the Slow ring. Build 14376 contains over 1,800 fixes compared to the previous build released last week, which is quite some going.
Apple pays just £12.9 million in UK taxes
By booking sales through its international headquarters in Ireland, Apple was able to only pay £12.9 million in UK corporate tax during 2015. This is a nine percent increase from the previous year, in which it paid £11.8 million.
The European Commission has been investigating Apple’s tax arrangements in Ireland for two years now and the results of the probe are set to be released as early as next month. If the company’s tax arrangements are found to be unlawful, it could end up repaying billions to the Irish state.
Evernote ramps up its prices by a third and imposes restrictions on free users
Evernote has today announced that it is increasing the prices of its paid-for packages, whilst simultaneously increasing the restrictions on free Basic accounts. Both the Plus and Premium tiers are increasing in price by a third, while those looking to avoid having to pay will find that they are now limited to syncing data between just two devices.
Evernote says that the price increase reflects a "significant investment of energy, time, and money" that will be needed "to deliver the Evernote we envision" -- something the company admits it has a "long way to go" before achieving.
Facebook launches Share and Save extensions for Chrome, redesigns Social Plugin buttons
Facebook is all about sharing and consuming, and today the social network launches two new extensions for the Chrome browser that make it easy to do both. The Share to Facebook and Save to Facebook extensions do very much what you would expect, encouraging not only sharing, but also the use of Facebook as a bookmarking tool for articles you want to read later.
As well as these two extensions, Facebook is also rolling out redesigned Social Plugin buttons. The Like button that you see adorning so many websites is getting a modern makeover, losing the iconic Facebook 'f' logo, and gaining an emoji-lover-friendly thumbs up icon instead.
Happy fifth birthday, Google+: It's like you were never here
I tend to look back fondly at the technology that has left a mark on me throughout the years. Memorable trips down memory lane involve things that have been a part of my digital lifestyle for many, many years. Google+ is one of them. As a longtime member, I should be reminiscing now as today the social network turns five. But, for some reason, the only thing that I can think about is knowing from the get go that it would never be the next big thing. It looks like I was onto something.
Google+ is one of the largest social networks, but if you are an active user like me you are probably wondering what all those other members are up to because few of them seem to share new things these days. As time goes by, it feels like Google+ is shrinking to a small crowd of enthusiasts. Few people seem to care about it lately, and I am slowly joining the ranks of those who can't be bothered anymore.
Security researchers find major vulnerabilities in Uber
A group of hackers from a security company in Portugal managed to hack into Uber and get their hands on a bunch of data that should remain hidden.
The team of three experts, Vitor Oliveira, Fábio Pires and Filipe Reis from Integrity, found a total of six flaws: they managed to use promotion codes, found private emails using UUID, found users’ phone numbers, created driver accounts, validated them, found where you went, who your driver was, and who you are and, ultimately, date of the trip, driver name and picture, the ID and the cost of the trip. The route map was also disclosed.
Passwords suck, and consumers want biometrics
The golden rule of password security is never use the same credentials on multiple sites. The idea is if one site suffers a breach, hackers can try the now-stolen credentials on other sites. This makes sense, yet many people still do it. You know what? I don't blame them. It can be impossible to remember all of the unique passwords, and writing them down is frowned upon too. What can be done to fix this?
Enter biometrics. Rather than use a password, a user's face or fingerprint can be used. More and more smartphones, tablets, and laptops are offering biometics, but sadly, the web is lacking. Consumers are understandably frustrated, and according to a new survey, more than half of them would prefer biometrics to passwords for daily use.
New solution allows intelligent management of data growth
The amount of data companies have to deal with is getting bigger and bigger, it's expensive to store and time consuming to manage. Little wonder then that businesses are looking for solutions that can automate the process.
Komprise, emerges from beta today with a solution that lets companies automate the management of enterprise data with analytics and insight -- across both cloud and on premise.
Oops, looks like Windows 10 Anniversary Update is arriving later than planned
Microsoft’s big Windows 10 Anniversary Update introduces a ton of new features and improvements to the new operating system, including a revamped Start menu, support for extensions in Edge, Windows Ink, and more.
Windows Insiders have been testing these new features for a while, and it’s looking very much as if the Anniversary Update will be a great improvement. The big update was set to be released on July 29, the same day as the free upgrade offer ended, but according to an accidental release from Microsoft, it seems as if the software giant is going to miss that window.
67 percent of used drives for sale contain sensitive data
An analysis of 200 second-hand hard disks and solid state drives purchased from eBay and Craigslist in the first quarter of 2016 reveals that 67 percent of them contained personally identifiable information.
In addition 11 percent held sensitive corporate data, including company emails, CRM records and spreadsheets containing sales projections and product inventories. The study comes from mobile diagnostics and secure erasure specialist Blancco Technology Group.
Microsoft finally lets users say no to Windows 10
Microsoft has used every trick in the book to get Windows 7 and 8.1 users to upgrade to Windows 10. From making the new operating system free, and introducing an app to simplify the upgrade process, to fooling users into requesting an upgrade even if they really don’t want it.
The latest approach has been to change the behavior of the red corner X in the Get Windows 10 popup. People who clicked the button to close the message assumed they’d rejected the new OS, but had in fact sanctioned the upgrade. Microsoft even went so far as to remove the X in some cases, so people couldn’t even close the popup without agreeing to install the upgrade either immediately, or at a time arranged by Microsoft.
Almost a third of IT professionals ignore cyber security alerts
Just over 30 percent of IT professionals admit to sometimes ignoring security alerts because of high volumes of false positives.
This is among the findings of a new survey from Skyhigh Networks conducted along with the Cloud Security Alliance which also reveals that 20 percent of companies have more than ten security tools that generate alerts.
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