Carolina Panthers will defeat Denver Broncos in Super Bowl 50 says Microsoft and Madden 16
Super Bowl 50 is almost here! While my beloved New York Jets are not in the big game, I will still tune in. Why? Not only should it be exciting football, but it is a shared social event. Many people watch -- even those that aren't NFL fans -- for things like the commercials and the overall camaraderie and competition. Oh, there is a lot of snack-eating too!
This Sunday, February 7, the two competing teams are the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos. The former will be the champions. Well, at least according to predictions by both Microsoft's Bing and the Madden 16 video game. Will they be right?
Android 6.0 Marshmallow update brings Adblock Plus to Samsung phones and tablets
Earlier today we learned that a new API is bringing adblocking to Samsung's own mobile web browser. Adblock Fast was the first to take advantage of the new option and now, hot on its heels, comes the big guns -- Adblock Plus.
Today Samsung is rolling out an Android 6.0 Marshmallow update and once this has been installed, Adblock Plus can also be installed. The extension brings content blocking capabilities to Samsung's own web browser, but you'll have to jump through the relevant hoops to gain the privacy and bandwidth preserving capabilities.
Samsung unveils 'smart living' products at its Southeast Asia Forum 2016
Samsung has been in the Internet of Things market for some time now, with smart devices and a line of automation products aptly named SmartThings. Now the company is unveiling the latest in its line during a show in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The event, known as "Samsung Southeast Asia Forum 2016", was used to unveil all sorts of products for the new year, including TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, even new watch faces for the Gear S2.
DDoS attacks are now more sophisticated
Kaspersky Lab has released its report into DDoS attacks for the fourth quarter of 2015, and it claims that the global reach of attacks shrunk, but the sophistication of those attacks grew.
According to the report, in the fourth quarter of 2015, resources in a total of 69 countries were attacked. In the previous quarter, that number stood at 79. Similar to the previous quarter, in the last three months of 2015 the majority of attacks (94.9 percent) took place in just ten countries, with the US, China and South Korea being the most affected of the bunch.
Just how successful is Windows 10?
As you’ll have seen earlier, according to figures from NetMarketShare, Windows 10 overtook Windows 8.1 in January, taking just six months to do so. StatCounter, which also measures operating system usage, shows Windows 10 achieving the same feat in that month, although its figures are slightly different.
To mark this achievement it seems only right to compare Windows 10’s growth with that of past Windows releases to see how the new OS is really doing.
Samsung will unveil Galaxy S7 on February 21
The unveiling of a new Galaxy S smartphone is nearly as predictable as the introduction of new iPhones. Weeks before MWC, Samsung starts to tease the first Unpacked event of the year and, when the curtain finally lifts, it takes the wraps off its next flagship smartphone. A year ago, it was Galaxy S6 being presented, joined for the first time by an edge version.
Things appear to be no different this year. Samsung has just released a teaser for its first Unpacked event of 2016. It will be held in Barcelona, one day before this year's MWC conference kicks off. What will be unveiled? "The Next Galaxy", of course.
ASUS VivoMini VC65 is world's smallest PC with four 2.5-inch drive bays
When people buy a new computer, there is a good chance they will be attracted to a diminutive offering. While the mini computer is not a new concept they can, quite often, be under-powered or limited in their expandability.
Enter the ASUS VivoMini VC65 Series. This new computer series is designed to not only save physical space, but with optional Intel Skylake processors, offer high performance too. Plus, more importantly for some, it can be configured to accommodate up to four 2.5 inch storage drives!
Tron is the ultimate PC cleanup script
Your PC is misbehaving, and there’s no obvious cause? Then it’s usually time to start working through the generic "fixes": run an antivirus scan, clear your temporary folders, enter "sfc /scannow" and more.
But if you’ve tried everything you know, without success -- or you don’t have hours to spend in front of the keyboard -- then maybe it’s time to call in some heavy-duty support.
It's all a facade: Encryption may do nothing to reduce surveillance or increase privacy
Living in a technological age where there is a near-fanatical obsession with privacy, a move towards encryption seems to make perfect sense. While there have been calls from some governments to ban encryption and demands for decryption keys to be handed over, there is a drive by companies and online services to try to increase security and privacy with encryption.
But a new report (Don't Panic: Making progress on the encryption debate) from Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society suggests that encryption may be all but pointless when it comes to curtailing surveillance. While governments and surveillance agencies may balk at the idea of people using encryption to 'go dark' online, and many people embrace the idea as a means of increasing their privacy, the report suggests that the task of surveillance is not going to be made impossible, and could be helped by the Internet of Things (IoT).
Microsoft's aggressive tactics pay off as Windows 10 overtakes Windows 8.1
A month ago, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 was on over 200 million devices. It also claimed that Windows 10 adoption was accelerating, which seemed to be in clear contradiction of NetMarketShare’s monthly usage figures. The pattern there showed adoption of the new OS to be slowing month after month.
That wasn’t the case in January however, as the latest usage figures from NetMarketShare show Windows 10 starting the new year at a fair pace and finally doing something it’s been threatening to do for the past couple of months -- overtaking Windows 8.1.
BlackEnergy 3 malware targets Ukranian power facilities
The BlackEnergy malware first appeared in 2007 as a relatively unsophisticated program that that generated random bots to support Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.
Endpoint security specialist SentinelOne has detected a new variant of the program which was used last month to attack a Ukranian power facility. It also believes that this latest variant may be state-sponsored.
How to perfect your email signature
Despite the fact that countless emails are sent every day -- both internally and to clients/customers -- many people don’t give their email signature the attention it deserves.
However, conveying the right corporate image -- big or small -- requires thought, so Cloud Solutions has come to the rescue by creating an infographic with some top tips for improving your email signature.
Personal computers approach retirement age
My birthday was this past week. When I came to Silicon Valley in 1977 I was 24 years old. Thirty-nine years later I am 63 and a lot changed around me in those four decades. I went from young to old. The personal computer industry, of which I consider myself to be a part, went from being two years old to 41 -- an even greater change than I have experienced.
And the point of this column is to write a bit about how personal computers have matured and where they are going, because I am pretty sure the PC is going away. And I have figured out why.
Samsung rolls out OTA update to bring adblocking API to Android handsets
2015 was the year that adblocking became one of the central debates concerning the web, and this looks set to continue through 2016. Adblock Plus is one of the best-known names in the field, but Apple also got in on the action by permitting adblocking tools for iOS. Now it's Samsung's turn to get in on the action.
The handset manufacturer is today starting the rollout of an over-the-air update that adds a new adblocking API to Android. Samsung has partnered with Rocketship Apps, and the company's Adblock Fast is the first app to take advantage of the API -- and there is a claimed 51 percent speed boost to be enjoyed.
With Project Natick, Microsoft is like SpongeBob -- puts data center under the sea
Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? SpongeBob SquarePants! Depending on your age, you might absolutely adore that character or possibly not be familiar at all. Me? I fall into the former. While it is a kids show, I find it to be quite entertaining.
You know who else might be a fan of Mr. SquarePants? Microsoft. Yes, believe it or not, the company has built an underwater data center, located in California, named 'Project Natick' for the ocean. In other words, like SpongeBob, the data center will live under the sea. While it is only in a testing phase, it is still cool nonetheless. Hopefully it operates quietly, however, as if it is noisy, it might bother Squidward's clarinet playing.