UK government says app developers won’t be forced to implement backdoors
The UK government is sending mixed messages about how it views privacy and security. Fears have been mounting since Prime Minister David Cameron wondered aloud "in our country, do we want to allow a means of communication between people which we cannot read?" -- his view obviously being that, no, we don’t want to allow such a thing.
Following the revelations about the spying activities of the NSA and GCHQ, public attention has been focused more than ever on privacy and encryption, Cameron having also suggested a desire to ban encryption. Today, some fears were allayed when it was announced that the government was not seeking to require software developers to build backdoors into their products. That said, the government said that companies should be able to decrypt 'targeted' data when required, and provide access to it.
Millennials don't want a job in cyber-security
Those 800,000 IT experts Europe will be missing by 2020 won’t be that easy to find, as the new study suggests that Millennials are not really crazy about a career in cyber-security.
These are the results of the annual study of millennials entitled Securing Our Future: Closing The Cyber Talent Gap. According to the study, young adults are not really interested in cybersecurity, but what’s even worse -- the number of young women in the US interested in a cyber-career is five times smaller.
YouTube Red is instant gratification
Wow, and weird, is my reaction to YouTube Red, which is live starting today. The experience is so different from the regular service, I am stunned. Fast-loading is the first thing, so be careful what you click—or turn off autoplay. Videos on Facebook feel like a moped racing a Lamborghini compared to YT Red.
Using this 2012 MissFender video as example: Pressing the stopwatch on my Nexus 6P at the same time I click to enter the URL, 9 seconds passes before I can start watching the vid. The time includes the auto-loading ad, how long it plays before YouTube permits me to skip, and lag caused by my own responsiveness dismissing the advert.
Microsoft fails to fix Surface Book problems and cherry-picks positive reviews
Ripples of excitement met the Surface Book when it was announced, but it's a device that has divided opinions. The price is enough to make many people balk, and the looks are not to everyone's taste, but it's the performance that Microsoft is pushing -- even if it is unwilling to back up its claims with benchmarks.
There are, however, lots of reports of problems, some of which are shared by the Surface Book and Surface Pro 4. Even before launch there was a firmware update prepared, but if you were hoping that it would fix problems with a flickering screen, freezing caused by the video driver, and problems with charging after re-attaching the keyboard, you'll be disappointed. Not that you know there was any disappointment out there thanks to the cherry-picking of positive reviews Microsoft has indulged in...
Chase Pay mobile payments service arriving in 2016
JP Morgan Chase announced its own smartphone payment platform on Tuesday, called Chase Pay. The platform, due to make its debut mid-2016, will be a direct competitor to the likes of Apple, Google and Samsung.
Chase Pay is built upon the Current C, a retailer-led mobile payment system that has largely been written off by Silicon Valley techies for its reliance on barcodes rather than the more sophisticated NFC (near-field communications) technology adopted by its competitors.
College partners with Dell and Red Hat -- embraces open source and Linux solutions
While not all open source solutions are better than the closed source alternatives, opting for the former for underlying infrastructure is generally a good idea. This will provide a business with flexibility and stability while sometimes saving money too.
A Singapore school, the Yale-NUS College, had some needs revolving around the cloud, so it wisely chose two open source friendly companies to help -- Dell and Red Hat. The OpenStack cloud solution, a product that was co-created by the two aforementioned companies, has been a huge success for the college.
EU Antitrust Commission might still investigate Google
Google might have changed its name to Alphabet, but the stand-off it has with the European Union’s Antitrust Commission won’t go away.
In an extensive interview for The Wall Street Journal, European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager explains she still has the company in her sights.
Samsung announces 18.4-inch Android tablet -- but why?
Samsung does not shy away from releasing tablets that consumers might find too big, proof being that, last year, it introduced the 12.2-inch Galaxy Note Pro and Galaxy Tab Pro. Today, the South Korean maker is taking things a step further by announcing an even larger slate, which, this time around, even the most-avid fans of big tablets might struggle to appreciate.
With an 18.4-inch display, the new Galaxy View is heavily optimized for content consumption, dwarfing in size even most large laptops, begging the question if the struggling tablet market actually needs another niche device.
77 percent of Brits think the internet is getting more dangerous
It may not be entirely surprising in the wake of recent high-profile attacks like that on TalkTalk, but a new survey of almost 3,500 users from UK broadband comparison site Broadband Genie reveals that we're losing trust in the internet.
Among the findings are that 75 percent of Brits believe companies aren't doing enough to secure their personal data, and 15 percent said they had their personal data exposed by a leak or a hack.
Get in the spirit of Halloween as The Enfield Haunting arrives on Hulu
It's that time of year when the ghosts, witches and various other ghouls and monsters begin prowling our neighborhoods. We pretend to be scared, and some people genuinely are afraid around this time of year, but really it's all in good fun, which makes a good scary movie a must-see.
Hulu has you covered, announcing the availability of the three part The Enfield Haunting series. The show is based on "real" events (just suspend disbelief) that took place in Enfield, located in London, England.
Kaspersky Safe Kids: free parental controls for all your devices
Parental controls are often regarded as a premium extra by security companies, and are only bundled with their most expensive high-end suites.
If you’re working on a budget then it could make more sense to opt for a specialist tool, and Kaspersky Safe Kids Free gives you a lot for no cost at all.
Zuckerberg: we have a moral responsibility to those without internet access (and to kill game invites)
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg took part in a Q&A session at the Indian Institute of Technology in Dehli, responding to queries ranging from the Internet.org project to Candy Crush notifications. Not for the first time, he found himself jumping to the defence of the program which aims to connect millions of people to the internet. He denied that the walled-garden of Internet.org went against the idea of net neutrality, but conceded that people had to "follow the basic rules of what Internet.org is".
He pointed out that existing net neutrality laws made exceptions for free services, but these loopholes have been described by critics as 'fatal'. In a wide-ranging talk, Zuckerberg also announced plans to kill one of the biggest irritants of the social network -- game invites for the likes of FarmVille and Candy Crush.
New clothing company aims to make geeks chic
The popular image of male IT workers with pens in their top pockets or wearing crumpled T-shirts maybe about to change.
Seattle-based Ya Joe is launching a new online direct-to-consumer clothing line aimed specifically at tech guys. Its website explains why each item was created and how it can be worn in real-life situations, with realistic fitting guides that are true to size.
Half of IT security pros think their organizations are unlikely attack targets
According to a new study published by the Ponemon Institute and sponsored by behavioral analytics specialist Prelert, half of IT security practitioners in the US view their organization as an unlikely target for attack.
The report also reveals a lack of cyber-preparedness with 61 percent of respondents admitting a lack of confidence in their organization's ability to detect advanced threats.
30 percent of iPhone buyers are Android switchers
As expected, Apple has broken its Q4 iPhone sales record, moving 48.04 million smartphones last quarter. That is an improvement of 22.33 percent year-over-year, from the 39.27 million units sold in Q4 FY2014. The boost in revenue is even higher at 36.03 percent, rising to $32.2 billion from $23.67 billion a year prior.
Android users seem to have contributed a great deal to Apple's record quarter, as 30 percent of iPhone buyers last quarter were Android switchers, according to the company's CEO, Tim Cook.
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