Smile! Your DVR may email your picture to China
You may look at the DVR as that box that records your TV shows and perhaps even allows you to skip the commercials. But there is more to it than just that. Users can also record video from their home surveillance cameras and replay the clips if something happens. A lot of that data is stored in the cloud -- with some systems it is completely yours with a hardware DVR needed.
In use as a home recording device the DVR is also known as CCTV, closed-circuit television. There are quite a number of them in use all over the world, many in homes and some in businesses. It seems like a good idea for security, but things aren't always what they seem.
Warning: Comodo Antivirus included insecure remote tech support tool
A researcher from Google Project Zero discovered a serious security issue with the technical support tools supplied with Comodo software products. Tavis Ormandy found that Comodo Antivirus, Comodo Firewall, and Comodo Internet Security all included a bundled VNC server with either no password protection, or a very weak password.
GeekBuddy is a remote desktop tool used by support staff to troubleshoot customer problems, but it also serves as a backdoor that allows for near-unrestricted access to users' computers. The tool installs with full admin rights, meaning that an attacker could very easily gain complete control of a remote computer.
Syed Farook's iCloud password was changed by officials; Trump proposes Apple boycott
Apple is standing fast on its decision not to help -- publicly, at least -- the FBI to gain access to the iPhone owned by Syed Farook, one of the San Bernardino terrorists. In the latest twist in the saga, Apple has revealed that the password for the Apple ID associated with the phone was changed whilst Farook was in custody.
Apple says that this closes off another route to accessing the data the FBI seeks. Had the password not been changed, the company says, it may have been possible to retrieve backup data without the need to create a backdoor into the suspect's phone. Meanwhile, wading in to the Apple/FBI debate with all of the elegance of an epileptic elephant, serial buffoon Donald Trump has called for a boycott of Apple products -- despite tweeting from an iPhone himself.
Microsoft forms IoT-focused Open Connectivity Foundation with Intel, Samsung, and others
As someone who is historically an early adopter of technology, I surprised myself when I didn't jump head-first into the Internet of Things. Don't get me wrong, I love the IoT concepts of the connected home and smart appliances, but a lack of standards make me hesitant. As of now, my house has but one such device -- a WeMo smart outlet so I can turn on a lamp with an Amazon Echo.
A lack of standards for IoT is extremely problematic, but luckily, companies are realizing this dilemma. In fact, Microsoft announces the IoT-focused Open Connectivity Foundation with partners Intel, Samsung, Cisco and more. While this coalition is a step in the right direction, I am sure there will be many competing groups vying for adoption; the fight could last many years.
Acadia National Park goes digital, plan your visit now
If you ever have the opportunity to visit Maine then a can't-miss destination is Acadia National Park, situated along the Atlantic coast. The 47,000 acres of beauty was preserved way back in 1916 when the US government was rushing to protect huge swathes of land for future generations to enjoy.
Now the park is partnering with NIC for a new test program called "Your Pass Now". It is the first of three national parks that will trial this new approach.
Five not so obvious things you can expect at MWC 2016
At Mobile World Congress (MWC) tides will start to turn. There won’t be an overnight revolution powered by shiny new gadgets, but technologies we’ve seen evolving over recent years will start to demonstrate their real potential.
We expect to see five major technology themes come to the fore in Barcelona this year:
There is more to boosting traffic to your website than SEO
For a while now, search engine optimization (or SEO) has been applauded for its ability to boost conversions. In fact, an entire industry has been created by specialists in link building and optimizing websites for search engine results pages (SERPS). But through this, some of the basics have been forgotten -- it’s not just SEO that can help drive online sales.
Over the last five years, we’ve seen a massive rise in the number of good quality blogs appearing -- and these days you’re not likely to come across a good website without at least a news section. For the most part, businesses integrate this into their website as a way of working their way up in SERPS, by providing useful content that readers might share on social media. But blogs are also a brilliant way to naturally drive traffic and boost conversions.
Apple vs. the FBI isn't at all the way you think it is
The FBI holds an iPhone that was owned by one of the San Bernardino terrorists, Syed Rizwan Farook, and wants Apple to crack it. Apple CEO Tim Cook is defying the FBI request and the court order that accompanied it, saying that cracking the phone would require developing a special version of iOS that could bypass passcode encryption. If such a genetically modified mobile OS escaped into the wild it could be used by anyone to crack any current iPhone, which would be bad for Apple’s users and bad for Amurica, Cook says. So he won’t do it, dag nabbit.
That’s the big picture story dominating the tech news this week. However compelling, I’m pretty sure it’s wrong. Apple isn’t defying the FBI. Or at least Apple isn’t defying the Department of Justice, of which the FBI is supposed to be a part. I believe Apple is actually working with the DoJ, which doesn’t really want to compel Apple to do anything except play a dramatic and very political role.
Verizon has the best cellular network in US
Each carrier would like you to believe that its network is better than those of its rivals. It may be touted as the most reliable or the fastest but, at least in one regard, it definitely takes the cake. Such claims can be hard to believe though when they come directly from the horse's mouth. After all, it is easy to lead the pack when you decide exactly what the rules are.
RootMetrics has conducted its own tests to find out which major US carrier has the best cellular network and, based on its findings, Verizon comes out as the clear winner, well ahead of AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile.
Majority of UK businesses want to move their IT infrastructure to the cloud
A significant portion of UK businesses, 63 percent of them, plan to move their entire IT infrastructure to the cloud in the near future, according to a new report by the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF).
The adoption rate of the Cloud among UK’s businesses currently sits at 78 percent, the same as a year before, but "substantially higher" than when the research was first conducted back in 2011, the report says. The report also says that the adoption is likely to increase to 85 percent in the next two years.
Dark data and why you should worry about it
How much of your company's data do you actually use? According to search technology specialist Lucidworks, businesses typically only analyze around 10 percent of the data they collect.
The rest becomes what the company calls 'dark data' -- information that lurks unused. Much of this data is unstructured and doesn't fit into any convenient database format. This means that companies don't have the tools to make sense of it or simply find they have too much to handle.
Why is Microsoft not selling HoloLens to consumers?
HoloLens is one of the most exciting things that Microsoft is working on. First showcased more than a year ago, this headset could transform how we interact with technology on a daily basis, making it possible to display holograms on top of everyday objects. Imagine having a huge TV that is playing your favorite show showing up on your bedroom wall, or seeing snow falling down around you on a hot summer's day. The possibilities are virtually endless.
But while HoloLens has no doubt captured the imagination of many consumers, Microsoft has not made a kit available to the general public, choosing instead to only offer it for developers and businesses. Question is, why not consumers as well?
AirFoil 5.0 adds multiple Bluetooth speaker support, speaker groups
Rogue Amoeba has released Airfoil for Windows 5.0 and Airfoil for Mac 5.0, a major new version of its tool for streaming audio from computers to supported networked devices, including AirPlay hardware such as Apple TV and AirPort Express.
Version 5 adds support for Bluetooth devices, plus introduces a new free tool -- Airfoil Satellite -- that turns other PCs, Macs and iOS devices into clients for the main Airfoil tool.
Apple is using a straw man argument to fight the FBI
Listen to Tim Cook and you’d be forgiven for thinking that Apple was standing up for the little guy, sticking up for the likes of you and I in fighting the FBI. The FBI, Apple would have you believe, wants Apple to break encryption, thereby weakening security for everyone. But that's not really the case at all.
The FBI has not asked for encryption to be broken; it wants access to data on the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone, and it wants to do so by using the (as yet unknown) PIN that has been used to lock it. Get it wrong too many times and the device is wiped. The FBI wants custom firmware to be made available that would allow it to brute force the PIN. It's nothing to do with cracking encryption, but that's not what Apple wants you to believe. It's an exercise in misdirection and a classic straw man argument. The problem is, if the straw man goes up in flames, will Apple too?
Canonical to release Snappy Ubuntu Core Linux image for Samsung ARTIK IoT platform
Ah, Linux. What can't the open source kernel do? For many projects, operating systems based on it have proven remarkably adaptable -- being made to work with countless hardware configurations. While Windows may remain king of the desktop -- for now -- Linux has its fingers in many pies for which Microsoft's offering is just too bloated. It remains to be seen if Windows 10 IoT will be embraced.
Today, Canonical announces that it will be releasing an Ubuntu Core image for Samsung's IoT-focused ARTIK platform (5 and 10 modules). What does this mean? Well, developers can now leverage one of the most popular Linux distributions on this hardware. This creates amazing potential for ARTIK.
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