Samsung Animal Edition battery charger alerts to endangered species, but does it help protect them?
Species have been going extinct for millennia, with larger events occurring periodically. We find ourselves living in one such epoch, though it mostly goes unnoticed because these events don't happen overnight. However research quickly points out the trend, and it's one we'd rather avoid.
To do so there are endangered species acts and restrictions of other sorts to help preserve the wildlife we have left. Individuals can get involved, both physically and financially, and Samsung is releasing a new line of battery chargers to get a few specific creatures to the public attention.
Second-generation Chromebook Pixel available now at all-new Google Store
When Google announced the first Chromebook Pixel, many people scratched their heads in confusion. There was good reason for this; Chromebooks were looked at as low-cost web-browsing machines, while the Pixel was very expensive and beautiful. The developer-focused machine served as an example that laptops running Google's browser-focused operating system didn't have to be chintzy.
Unfortunately, Google allowed the Pixel to age and get stale with nary an incremental update. Hell, since Google seemingly ignored it, many people predicted the Pixel's demise. Well, I am happy to say that Google is finally updating the luxurious Chromebook Pixel.
Google Cloud Storage Nearline offers cloud backup for just $0.01 per gigabyte
Cloud storage just got a whole lot cheaper. Starting today, Google is offering Google Cloud Storage Nearline for the insanely low price of $0.01 per gigabyte. You read that correctly; one single, solitary cent for a gigabyte of cloud storage.
This is a service aimed at enterprise customers looking to archive large amounts of data without paying the Earth or compromising on performance too much. Nearline is a service designed for data which does not need to be accessed all that often, but when the need arises, there's a response time of under 3 seconds.
Google opens its first store
Not to be outdone by Microsoft and Apple, Google has opened its first ever store. Located within Currys PC World on Tottenham Court Road in London, this is not a standalone store but a "shop in shop". Going under the predictable moniker of the Google shop, shoppers can expect to find a range of hardware from the search giant.
The stores will give people the opportunity to browse and try out numerous Android smartphones and tablets. Other hardware such as Chromecasts and Chromebooks will also be available. But the Google shop is about more than just hardware, it also gives people the chance to get hands-on with Google software, and attend events and classes -- forget Google Glass, this is Google Class.
New MacBook's single port isn't the problem
Across tech sites and forums there are rumbling complaints about Apple choosing to provide just one port on the 12-inch MacBook and the compromises the design presents. The flawed approach is much bigger, and the laptop line has been this way before—where thinning down means giving up something many users want, which is why I am so surprised that little of the discussion focuses on the original MacBook Air.
Stated simply before the long explanation: If you don't mind paying $1,299 or $1,599 for the performance equivalent of a souped-up tablet, running OS X but lacking touchscreen, Apple's tiny laptop is a good choice. Otherwise, stop whining and buy something else. There is no shortage of choices in the slim-and-portable category.
The future of Ethernet looks brighter than ever
Ethernet has become not just the dominant standard, but the universal technology of local area networking. If you plug a networking cable in at work or at home, it’s almost certainly going to be using Ethernet. Over its 40-year history, Ethernet has risen from contender to unopposed winner in the LAN.
But its abilities now stretch well beyond the building at hand. In this feature we look at how Ethernet is far from having a mid-life crisis now that it’s past 40, and could be about to enter an even more dominant era than it has enjoyed over the last few decades.
Belkin announces collection of USB-C cables -- perfect for new MacBook or Chromebook Pixel
USB-C is not an Apple standard. Even before the announcement of the new MacBook, computers, add-on cards and motherboards with the port were already in development. With that said, Apple's new computer has certainly accelerated the public's interest in the next-generation of USB.
Today, Belkin announces a line of USB-C cables ready to take advantage of this new technology. If you are planning on buying the new MacBook or Chromebook Pixel you should definitely take notice.
Why Apple Watch could be doomed
"The most advanced timepiece ever created". This is how CEO Tim Cook described the Apple Watch at his firm’s official launch event.
However, will the device’s flashy exterior and high-tech internals be enough to ignite the wearable market? Will it even be enough to tempt consumers to pay the $349 for the basic edition, let alone the $10,000 for the 22-carat gold model? These are the questions that Apple execs will surely be pondering, even with the launch event being well-received for the most part. There are many hurdles that Apple will have to overcome if its first foray into the wearable market is a successful one and we’ve listed a few of them below.
New scalable storage solution to cope with the data explosion
It's reckoned that as much as 90 percent of the world's data has been created in the last two years. That's not only a frightening rate of expansion, it's a problem for IT administrators who need to think about storage on a much larger scale.
Storage specialist PROMISE Technology is launching its latest VSky A-Series product aimed at overcoming the limitations of existing storage solutions.
SXSW Accelerator continues to discover amazing new startups [Q&A]
The annual SXSW Accelerator competition presented by Oracle is set to take place on Saturday, March 14 and Sunday, March 15 at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival.
I spoke to Chris Valentine, event producer for SXSW Accelerator and Startup Village, about the competition, and what innovations and trends we can expect to see emerging this year.
Microsoft expands its partnership with Cisco offering new cloud opportunities
Microsoft and Cisco believe the next generation of tools is on the way and that the cloud will be a key feature. There's little surprise in that statement, as things have been trending in that general direction for a while now. Microsoft and Cisco aren't strangers either, as the two have been partnered before, so the latest news simply expands on that relationship.
This time around a tool is being unveiled. According to Microsoft's Aziz Benmalek "next-generation services require close compatibility between hardware, software, network, storage and compute", and the firms have teamed up for a new product called Cisco Cloud Architecture for the Microsoft Cloud Platform. Benmalek claims that engineers from both companies have worked closely the ensure the integration between products from each. The result is combining Windows Azure Pack and Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI).
The next generation of CryptoWall malware emerges
After a short-lived hiatus, the creators of CryptoWall have re-emerged with the next generation of the devious malware, coined "CryptoWall 3.0". Just as security experts thought they had a handle on the original threat, the emergence of version 3.0 sparks debate as to what signals to look out for and how to protect against the rise of ransomware variants.
So what's new? Since making its debut last fall and wreaking havoc on thousands of businesses and individuals globally, CryptoWall is the biggest name in ransomware threats. Its predecessor, Cryptolocker, started the snowball effect in 2013 as one of the first ransomware strains to enter the marketplace.
The pressures faced by professionals fighting cyber crime
IT security professionals faced increased pressure to secure their organizations in 2014 and expect that pressure to further increase this year.
A new report from managed security services company Trustwave reveals a number of issues including pressure to roll out IT projects such as cloud and mobile applications despite having unresolved security issues; the pressures of being understaffed while security threats mount; and increasing pressure from executives to protect information while being resource-constrained.
What's being connected to your PC? Device Cleanup Tool explains
If you’d like to know what someone’s doing on your PC then you’ll probably start with any software traces: browsing history, recent documents, folders, whatever it might be. There are all kinds of options, and they might tell you everything you need to know.
While they’re not so obvious, hardware traces can also be extremely useful. If you could see that an unknown phone or USB key is being connected to your PC at a strange time, say, then maybe someone is using the device to copy your personal documents.
HERE launches on iOS
When Nokia announced the availability of HERE on Google Play, it also announced that an iOS version will follow in early 2015. And today's the day when HERE is finally available on Apple's App Store.
Apple's iOS becomes the last of the major mobile platforms to get HERE, following Microsoft's Windows Phone and Google's Android. I've been waiting for this moment since I switched to iPhone 6 Plus from Windows Phone. Sure, there's always Google Maps, but its inability to work as well as HERE without an Internet connection is a major downside for me.
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