Samsung takes on Roomba with its own robotic vacuum
Don't feel like cleaning? That's where robotics take over. The "creatures", like home automation, are a growing segment of today's tech market. After all, who wants to vacuum or get up to turn lights on or off? Yes, we're an increasingly lazy species.
Samsung is rolling out, so to speak, an automated vacuum cleaner to rival the long-standing king, Roomba. The company wanted to push the product out in time for the holiday shopping season, stating that customers need to get ready for, and clean up after, the parties. It states that "In fact, a recent survey found that almost one-third of consumers said they stress about cleaning the floors and rugs when they think about holiday entertaining".
Marshmallow running on 0.3 percent of Android devices
Since a new version of Android is initially available only on a handful of devices, most of which feature a Nexus logo on the back, you can expect its market share to be extremely low in the first few months following its release. Lollipop, for instance, needed over two months to break past the 0.1 percent barrier -- and we are only talking about Android land here.
The latest version of Android, however, is already proving to be way more successful. In just a month, Marshmallow has reached 0.3 percent of Android devices. This adoption figure comes from Google's Android distribution share chart, which was just updated with data collected in the seven days ending November 2.
My OS X El Capitan and Windows 10 upgrade woes
What’s the next step after an operating system upgrade on a Mac or PC? To see if you can work with your existing applications. When moving to OS X El Capitan and Windows 10 I got off to a rough start, which left me frustrated.
Let’s address the El Capitan problems first. Did the upgrade install? Yes! Was I able to work? Nope.
Best Windows apps this week
One-hundred and fifty-three in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps and games released for Windows 8.x/10 in the past seven days.
This week saw a surprisingly large number of applications and only a handful of games worth mentioning. If you followed the Best Windows Apps of the Week series you know that this is not often the case as games tend to dominate the Windows Store.
Location is key to app experiences but users are reluctant to share it
According to a new survey 83 percent of app users say location is crucial to their app experiences, but nearly 40 percent are hesitant to share their location.
These are part of the findings of a study by Skyhook Wireless which looks at the extent to which people turn location services on or off for their apps and tries to understand why many smartphone users choose not to take advantage of the benefits sharing location can bring.
How to get back the Insider Hub if Windows 10 Build 10586 kills it
Windows Insiders working with the preview builds of Windows 10 are used to the odd quirk here and there. Windows 10 Build 10586, released yesterday, is no different.
This latest build is widely believed to be the Threshold 2 release that is expected to roll out later this month. While it fixes numerous issues and adds new features when compared to the RTM build, it can also remove the Insider Hub. Here's how to get it back.
Should your business make the move to Windows 10?
Deciding whether to upgrade your operating system is always a big decision. It is one that should not be made lightly, especially when it is a major upgrade like Windows 10.
Over the years, there have been mixed reviews regarding Windows upgrades. I just need to mention the word 'Vista' and some IT folk breakout into a cold sweat!
REXPaint is an amazing ASCII art editor
ASCII art is a graphics design technique dating back to the 1960s, where pictures are produced entirely from text characters.
The results are, well, basic. But they can have plenty of retro appeal, and producing them is a whole lot easier than you think.
Logitech G633 Artemis Spectrum RGB 7.1 Surround Sound Gaming Headset [Review]
While I am not a hardcore gamer, I do enjoy gaming on both my PC and Xbox One. While playing single-player games can be fun, I much prefer the online multiplayer variants. I am still blown-away at the concept of playing a game against random people from around the world. Keep in mind, my first console was a hand-me-down Atari 2600 -- you younger cats probably take it for granted.
While playing against other people is cool on its own, I also like talking with them. Whether trash-talking or planning strategies, gaming with a headset is super great. If you are going to invest in a headset, however, you should do it right. I have been searching for a really nice headset for games, movies, music and chat and recently came across the Logitech G633 Artemis Spectrum RGB 7.1 Surround Sound Gaming Headset. When looking for accessories, Logitech is always a great place to start. Will the G633 continue the long tradition of quality?
UK government started online mass surveillance after 9/11 -- but few politicians knew
On Wednesday, the Investigatory Powers Bill was published in draft form, but it was in the wake of 9/11 that the UK government started its mass surveillance programs, spying on the online activities of British citizens. Under the guise of the 1984 Telecommunications Act, this surveillance was moved up a gear in 2005. Former deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg says that very few politicians knew about it.
Clegg only learned of the surveillance programs that were used to harvest emails, phone records, and texts in 2010, and questioned whether it was necessary. The former PM makes the revelations in an article for the Guardian in which he says that after Edward Snowden NSA and GCHQ spying revelations, "the knee-jerk response from the government was to play the man and ignore the ball".
Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 10586 hits the Fast ring -- is this Threshold 2? [Update, yes it is]
Microsoft is preparing a huge update to Windows 10, codenamed Threshold 2. We don’t know exactly when it will be made available, only that it’s coming this month.
In advance of that update, Microsoft is in the process of rolling out a new Insider Preview build which has all the hallmarks of being a test run of Threshold 2, or the Fall Update, as it’s likely to be known.
Virtual reality comes to YouTube -- let PewDiePie 'brofist' your face with Cardboard
My favorite video service is probably not what you expect. No, it is not Netflix or Hulu, but the free YouTube. Yes, when I am on my PC or tablet, I prefer watching Barnacules, iJustine and PewDiePie rather than Hollywood movies and prime-time TV shows. Say what you like, but I am certainly not alone in this regard.
Today, Google is improving YouTube in a really cool way -- it is delivering virtual reality. Using the search-giant's Cardboard face mask, you can experience VR-optimized content as if you are really there! Existing non-VR content can be viewed using Cardboard too.
ProtonMail suffers DDoS attack, preventing secure email correspondence
Given all the spying that goes on these days it's no wonder that people are looking for more private ways to get online and stay in touch with one another. Secure email -- which is what Edward Snowden chose to use for his communications with journalist Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian -- is proving more and more popular.
Unfortunately, not everyone is keen on such services. One such secure email provider, ProtonMail, has been taken down today, by a DDoS attack. Who would want to attack the service? That's the million dollar question and the list of potential attackers could be quite long. A bevvy of agencies have spoken out against encryption, going so far as asking for backdoors into data, blithely oblivious to the consequences of such action. ProtonMail was designed securely and doesn't possess records of correspondence, so law enforcement can't demand data.
Linux Foundation teams with big industry players to launch Open API Initiative
As we've seen with IBM's announcement earlier today, APIs are flavor of the development month at the moment.
Now the The Linux Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux and collaborative development, is announcing the launch of an Open API Initiative to promote and facilitate the adoption and use of an open API standard.
Kaspersky Lab discovers 320 hour long DDoS attack
Kaspersky Lab has released a new report on the evolution of distributed denial of service (DDoS) and it shows some interesting figures, including the fact that a server was targeted for 320 hours straight.
The Kaspersky DDoS Intelligence Report Q3 2015 is based on the constant monitoring of botnets and observing new techniques utilized by cybercriminals. It shows that DDoS attacks remain highly localized, with 91.6 percent of the victims’ resources located in only ten countries around the world, although Kaspersky Lab has recorded DDoS attacks targeting servers in 79 countries total.
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