Rdio shuts down December 22nd, provides a way to save your music
Recently streaming music service Rdio was purchased by Pandora which plans to merge it into its own offering. That process is about to become complete in the next few days, but there is good news for Rdio users, or at least as much as they can expect.
The streaming service will cease operations on December 22nd. The good news, if there is any in this, is that users will be able to save their music.
Outlook online to get a better address book and flight confirmations
Outlook has been a popular desktop app for what seems like ages and now it's online aiming to compete with services like Gmail and Yahoo. In order to differentiate itself from rivals Microsoft needs extras that attract customers to its offering.
Now the company is announcing a couple of updates including improvements to the address book and flight notifications for busy travelers.
Enterprise mobility will be the main IT focus in 2016
According to a new report from Harris Poll announced this week, enterprise mobility will top IT investments in 2016. The survey reveals that more than 90 percent of IT Decision Makers (ITDMs) see enterprise mobility as the critical function for customer engagement, competitiveness and operational productivity in 2016.
Additionally, nearly three in four (73 percent) respondents indicate that they intend to mobilize their whole organization.
Critical patches issued after spying backdoors found built into Juniper firewalls
Networking manufacturer Juniper has discovered backdoors built into its firewalls. The company says that a number of its devices running the ScreenOS operating system include serious vulnerabilities that could be used to take remote control of networked devices, or to decrypt VPN traffic.
The company says that the security issues were unearthed during an internal code review and has issued an out-of-cycle fix to address the vulnerabilities. Network admins are advised to treat the threats seriously, and to make use of the available patches immediately.
Holiday 2015 Gift Guide: Stocking stuffers
Here we are, days before Christmas, and you're thinking about last-minute stocking stuffers. I've got an eclectic selection of things I would want to get or give for December 25th. Some of them will demand rushing online to take advantage of last-minute shipping offers. Others require no shipping at all, like music subscription services. Confession: Some items will require a larger stocking but no wrapping.
I present the list alphabetically, and in no order of preference.
SmartThings adds 8 new products to beef up your connected home
The connected home, or The Internet of Things, as it's frequently called, is a growing market. New products seemingly come along on an almost daily basis and new businesses spring up around it. We recently told you about Mivetek, but it's far from the only player on the field in this game.
SmartThings, the home automation solution from Samsung, is announcing a new line of products that are compatible with its hub. Four are lights, three are locks, and one aims to help you with your gardening.
Microsoft will offer custom Windows 10 to the Chinese government
Microsoft has signed an important deal with the Chinese government, one which will see the American company deploy its latest operating system directly to the government agencies.
The Verge has reported how the Redmond-based software company will deploy a customized version of Windows 10 to the Chinese government through a newly-formed company called C&M Technologies.
Microsoft 'Hello Cloud Challenge' gives students chance to win $1,000 over Christmas vacation
High school can stink; it is no secret. Besides the arguably boring classes, isolating cliques, and mentally deranged bullies, getting up early in the morning as a teen is such a drag. Of course, getting an education is wonderful; it's just too bad that it can't be more exciting, and without the aforementioned baggage. Don't worry, things should get better at college.
Luckily, Christmas vacation is approaching, meaning students can get a break from school for a bit. This means sleeping in late, playing video games and hanging out with friends. But what if you could win $1,000 too? Well, thanks to Microsoft, you have the chance to do just that!
IT pros want more storage to keep up with the times
A survey commissioned by X-IO Technologies reveals that almost half of IT professionals (48 percent) do not believe their current storage array would work with the next generation of storage media
Furthermore, more than a half (57 percent) of IT professionals expect that their budgets are going to shrink or at the very least stay the same in 2016. This may indicate that any further changes to their storage requirements, especially in the wake of the IOT hype and big data explosion might not find a budget.
Google dedicates $1 million to independent research for Drive security
Google is placing an increased importance on security in 2016. The company has set aside $1 million to fund independent research into the security of its Drive cloud storage service, and will continue to offer a bug bounty program.
Acknowledging that "keeping files safe in Google Drive is super important", Google says that next year it will make the money available to independent security researchers. The money comes in addition to the funds that are used to employ hundreds of security experts at the company, with independence bringing an extra level of scrutiny.
Microsoft delays Windows 10 Mobile rollout
Microsoft announced in early October that the Windows 10 Mobile rollout for existing Windows Phone 8.1 devices would kick off in December. But, with less than two weeks to go before the end of the year, the software giant now says that the much-awaited software upgrades will not be available until later than expected.
Microsoft expects Windows 10 Mobile software upgrades to be made available starting "early next year" for "select existing Windows 8 and 8.1 phones". That is, assuming everything goes according to plan.
Keep your mobile photos safe from snoopers with ToolWiz Photos
The top quality cameras on modern smartphones make it easy to record just about every detail of your life, wherever you are and whatever you’re doing.
But while that’s great in theory, it can lead to problems if someone else accesses your phone and sees something you weren’t expecting to share.
Best Windows apps this week
One-hundred and fifty-nine in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps and games released for Windows 8.x and Windows 10 in the past seven days.
Several popular applications received updates this week including Netflix, TripAdvisor, AccuWeather and NPR One.
Could the Internet of Things spark a data security epidemic?
Internet of Things this, Internet of Things that -- it’s all anyone can talk about these days. And rightfully so, when you consider the development and adoption of IoT products are driven by multiple factors, including an increase in broadband penetration worldwide, the development of wireless communication technologies, advances in 'smart' device capabilities and an increased demand for personalized, omnichannel customer experiences.
But transitioning to an IoT-dominated world is a delicate balancing act. On the one hand, you have businesses benefiting in many ways. For instance, connected devices allow them to better understand their customers’ needs and preferences by analyzing their behavioral patterns. For consumers, on the other hand, it’s all about personalization, personalization, personalization -- getting from point A to point B faster than ever before -- in a more relevant and personal way. Furthermore, most conversations around data protection solely focus on elaborate 'hacks', when in reality, the most immediate and grave security threats aren’t always sophisticated or complicated. It’s time that we flip the IoT conversation on its head to focus on the increasingly common data vulnerabilities and less complicated security threats -- of which, consumers are lacking awareness.
HTML5 Video for Netflix comes to Firefox for Windows
Yesterday we told you that Netflix for Windows 10 had received an update, but that's not all that's coming to Windows. Firefox also has plans to up the ante with HTML5 Video for Windows. This is the much-utilized format on the internet today.
Netflix is announcing that Firefox now comes with the latest HTML5 premium video extensions, such as Media Source Extensions (MSE), which the streaming service utilizes in an effort to adapt its streaming to the bandwidth of each viewer, and Encrypted Media Extensions (EME), that allows for the viewing of encrypted content.
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