Google shows interest in Indian startups, launches Launchpad to mentor 20 of them

Indian tech

In yet another major push into the Indian technology sector, Google has kick-started its Launchpad startup mentorship program in the country. The company has announced plans to offer three-month mentoring to 20 shortlisted startups. The move signals the search giant’s growing interest towards Indian startups.

Launchpad -- which was started two-and-a half years ago -- is run by Google’s developer team. They examined more than 1,450 ventures and shortlisted 20 startups from it. Half of the startups in the curated list are in the B2B space while rest of them cater to businesses. A few of them focus on education and healthcare verticals.

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Motorola claims more mindshare than market share

Bye bye, Moto: Lenovo takes Motorola Mobility from Google's hands

Motorola is getting lots of attention from the media. With smartphones as good as Moto G and Moto X, it's easy to understand why. Because of this, you might think that Motorola is selling lots of devices. After all, if it's so popular then that's a given, right? Well, that's not the case, at least not yet.

In reality, Motorola claims more mindshare than market share. According to parent company Lenovo, the long-lasting smartphone vendor only shipped a tad over 10 million units in the last quarter of 2014. That puts it on the same level as Microsoft, which, Strategy Analytics says, is only at three percent market share. Motorola is far, far away from leading players in this regard.

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Clustrix launches updated eCommerce database

eCommerce

Availability and performance are key factors to success in the eCommerce field but as sites grow, the software used to support them needs to be able to keep pace.

San Francisco-based database company Clustrix is rolling out the latest version of its ClustrixDB product to help businesses cope with expansion and reduce the risk of slowdowns and outages.

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How busy were you last Tuesday? Desktop APM can help

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Spend a day on some personal PC task and you’ll probably only be interested in the end results. Did you find the information, produce the document, achieve everything you wanted?

Go to work on a commercial project, where someone else is paying, and you’ll probably want a far more detailed breakdown. Which applications did you use, for how long, and just how much work was involved?

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UK companies pay more attention to cyber security

Security

We reported a few weeks ago on research showing that cloud security was becoming a concern outside the IT department and having an impact on the boardroom.

Now a new study in the UK by Tom Neaves, Managing Consultant at security specialist Trustwave backs this up, showing that cyber security is increasingly becoming a corporate issue.

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I added a PowerColor AMD Radeon R7 250 2GB GDDR5 to my AMD AM1 desktop

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Last year, I declared that AMD's AM1 platform was one of my favorite things of 2014. It's not hard to see why; it is inexpensive, uses very little electricity and offers ample performance for the average home user. For example, my desktop uses a GIGABYTE GA-AM1M-S2H motherboard that retails for $35, while the Athlon 5350 Kabini Quad-Core 2.05GHz APU is $65. In other words, for about $100 you can start building a really nice computer.

While the Athlon 5350 supports 4K, the motherboard only has HDMI, which can be problematic with some monitors (even with adapters). Plus, a portion of the system RAM is used for the integrated video. This is particularly tough on an AM1 PC, as it only supports single channel memory. In my testing, the best performance is with a single stick, which maxes at 8GB. With that said, I wanted to try adding a discrete card to my desktop, so Windows can utilize the full 8GB. My requirements? I wanted an AMD card, it had to do 4K, had to have DisplayPort and had to be low-profile to fit my Micro ATX case. Enter the PowerColor AMD Radeon R7 250 2GB GDDR5.

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Relying on Windows 10 security is risky for business

Windows 10 security lock

Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows 10, unveiled earlier this month, places a fresh emphasis on corporate security. But there are already industry rumblings that over-reliance on Microsoft’s new security features could be dangerous.

Windows 10 is designed to run across the types of devices common to most business users: PCs, laptops, tablets and smart phones. In order to safeguard users’ privileged data, the new OS uses a two-factor authentication system utilizing biometric ID in the form of a finger or thumb print. Users can enroll a single device, such as a smart phone, which will effectively become their mobile credential. It will enable them to sign-in into all of their PC’s, networks, and web services as long as their smart phone is nearby.

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Check and manage Win7+ and Mac security with OPSWAT GEARS

OPSWAT-GEARS-200-175

How secure is your computer? Finding out can take a little work. You might have to check your antivirus, firewall, backup program, maybe the Windows Action Center and various other system settings.

OPSWAT GEARS is a free utility which tries to do everything you need from a single interface. It works on individual PCs (Windows 7+) or Macs, and can also be used to check and manage security on up to 25 network computers (switching to the paid version removes that restriction).

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Nest talks numbers on money and energy the thermostat can save

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The programmable thermostat concept isn't new, but today's versions are becoming increasingly smarter. Now it's not just programmed, but actually learns from your habits and it can even integrate with other things in your home -- the Internet of Things. There is, perhaps, no better example than Nest, which has become quite popular with the tech crowd.

But what is the real advantage in all of this? Saving energy, and therefore money. Now Nest is reveling the numbers it has been collecting. In an effort to continuously improve its offering, the company keeps tabs on what is going on.

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What's the point of AdBlock Plus if Google, Microsoft and Amazon can pay to bypass it?

What's the point in AdBlock Plus if Google, Microsoft and Amazon can pay to bypass it?

Ads are pretty much universally hated; in the list of lovable things in the world, ads rank pretty far down. On TV, in movie theaters, in magazines and online, ads are forced upon us and are impossible to avoid. Except that's not true online. Ad-blocking software can be used to filter out the stuff you don’t want to see, making for a happier web browsing experience.

However, it turns out that installing an ad-blocking tool like, ooh... I dunno... AdBlock Plus... is not enough to prevent the appearance of unwanted advertisements. Some time ago we learned about the whitelist operated by AdBlock Plus and now the Financial Times reports that big companies like Google, Microsoft and Amazon have paid to be included on the list so their ads are no longer blocked.

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Surprise! Adobe Flash has a security flaw on Windows, Mac and Linux

hacker attack

Well, it's been a week since we've heard about a security vulnerability in Adobe Flash -- that's like a lifetime in terms of this program. While the application is slowly receding, it's far from dead and that means users have reason for worry. Of course, using Flash at all is a general concern -- it's a highly targeted platform for attackers.

Now Adobe is issuing it's latest warning, this one for "drive-by attacks". The flaw is technically known as CVE-2015-0313, though that moniker does little good for the end-user. What people really need to know is that the problem has been found to be used on the web.

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SanDisk announces 'automotive grade' flash storage for your car

SanDisk_Automotive_SD_Card1

As more and more concerns about distracted driving are popping up in the media, it feels like more and more products are being developed that can cause said distraction. Texting and driving for instance, is a very dangerous behavior, but I see it happening all the time. Surely no message is more important than your life or someone else's.

With all of that said, technology does not have to be a distraction in the car. Actually, if implemented correctly, technology should enhance the focus of drivers and lead to fewer fatalities and accidents. Today, SanDisk announces new storage products designed specifically for your car. The company calls the products "automotive grade", but what does that really mean?

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How the cloud boosts business security

Cloud security

One of the most interesting aspects of the "Cloud Computing in 2015" infographic produced by QuoteColo is this: 94 percent of business managers state that security has improved after adopting cloud applications.

While reading this stat on an infographic is comforting, we want to explore the statistic more to discover why and how cloud applications have made businesses more secure. But before we can get into why cloud applications have made businesses more secure, we need to talk about the false illusion of porous cloud security.

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How to remove the build number watermark from Windows 10's desktop

How to remove the build number watermark from Windows 10's desktop

Hundreds of thousands of people around the world are currently running Windows 10 Technical Preview ahead of the official launch. While it's fun to try out a pre-release of the upcoming operating system it does mean having to put up with a few problems here and there, as well as the occasional niggle.

One thing that irks many Technical Preview users is the fact that the current build number is emblazoned on the desktop. It doesn’t really get in the way, but it looks kind of ugly. If you'd like to get rid of this unsightly watermark, there's no need to tinker with the registry or hack files by hand -- there's a nifty tool that will take care of it for you.

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IBM announces new cloud-based identity protection

cloud lock

Many of the things we do online require an ID and password, but typically whilst this makes things easier for the site it doesn't always do a lot to protect the user, who may be revealing more information than they need.

For example you may have to reveal your full date of birth and address to a video streaming service in order to verify your age and region, running a risk that the information may fall into the wrong hands.

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