It's time for business-led IT to come out of the shadows
In the past, business-led IT spending -- and by that I mean technology investments outside the IT budget -- has been viewed by IT as unusual or threatening and pejoratively labelled "shadow" or "rogue" IT.
Whatever the perceptions, we all agree this trend is here to stay. According to CEB's latest research, business leaders now spend an additional 40p on technology for every £1 spent through the traditional corporate IT budget. Interestingly, much of the business-led IT budget is dedicated to innovation and new capabilities. In fact, we estimate that three quarters of all spending on IT innovation now occurs outside the traditional IT budget.
Sorry Android users, Apple does it again -- iPhone 6 and 6 Plus set new preorder record
Believe it or not, I am relatively platform agnostic. I've never understood the need to pick a side. On the desktop front, I use Windows 8.1, OS X Mavericks and Fedora 20. My bedtime tablet is an iPad Air, my work tablet is a Surface Pro 3 and Android is typically my phone of choice. Unfortunately, many Android and Windows users seem to strongly dislike Apple, which I have never totally understood. How do you hate a successful, forward-thinking company that makes products people like? Even if you do not prefer its products, anger and hatred seem excessive.
Android has been dominating in smartphone marketshare, and many users of Google's platform have been salivating as they daydream about the iPhone losing relevance. Guess what? It isn't happening. Pundits have discussed whether the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus would be a success and today, we're one step closer to the answer. You see, Apple works its magic again, as the new iPhones set an overnight preorder record.
Latest Windows 9 videos show live tiles and the virtual desktop feature
After having released some screenshots from Windows 9 build 9834, an early build of the forthcoming Technical Preview which is expected to debut later this month, WinFuture.de released a video showing off the new Start menu in action.
The site has now followed that up with two new videos. The first gives us another look at the new Start menu and live tiles, while the second shows us how the new virtual desktops will work.
Apple's next big thing is even bigger for Invensense
Analysts and the Apple faithful alike fawned over the new device when Apple introduced the Apple Watch on Tuesday, the company’s first new product of the Cook era. However, if you’re one to believe rumors, an upstart company called Invensense may stand to gain the most from Apple’s latest device.
An increasing amount of evidence now suggests that the San Jose, Calif. based company stands to cash in on the Apple Watch, as it is believed that Invensense is supplying Apple with the components necessary to power the Apple Watch’s most compelling features.
Apple takes the lead in the health and fitness race
The health and fitness industry is one that Apple has been involved in for a while now. Its partnership with Nike has seen a bunch of dedicated apps appear on several previous iPhone and iPod models. Apple's latest batch of products is no exception. In fact, the fruit-themed company has made the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch much more fitness-focused than any of its previous products, which clearly suggests that the company sees this area as a potentially lucrative one.
The first illustration of this comes through the iOS 8 operating system, which will be available as a free upgrade from 17 September. iOS 8 will be released with a health app, as well as a tool for developers called 'HealthKit,' which will bring information from a potentially unlimited amount of health apps straight to your fingertips.
Want to know if your Gmail account is vulnerable? There's an app for that
Google is an amazing company that offers many products and services that make our lives better. For example, Gmail, YouTube, Maps and Android help many people every day. Unfortunately, there is one downside to living in Google's world -- having one password.
You see, with Google services, one password gains access to them all by utilizing a central account. If your password is exposed, nefarious people can wreak havoc across Google, including your precious Gmail account. Unfortunately, this recently happened to 5 million users and you could be one of them! Don't panic -- there is now an app for iOS and Android that can tell you if you are affected.
T-Mobile brings free Wi-Fi calling to its customers, and it's terrible news
At its seventh Uncarrier event in San Francisco, T-Mobile unveiled plans to clutter up the internet for everyone -- T-Mobile customers and non-T-Mobile customers alike. On the face of it, things sound great. The T-Mobile Personal CellSpot offers free Wi-Fi calling and "fast data". The Cellspot is essentially a router which can be yours for a deposit of $25 but the difference is that it has been tweaked so that it prioritizes HD Wi-Fi calls over other traffic on the network. If you live in an area with poor mobile reception -- which can be just as frustrating as having to put up with a terrible internet connection -- this might sound like wonderful news, but when you look at the bigger picture, it is really such good news?
Let's try to ignore the fact that in order to get hold of one of the Personal CellSpots, you need to stump up a refundable deposit -- whoever heard of renting their router? -- and ask the first question: who actually needs "HD" phone calls? Pictures are HD, and there really have been very few complaints about the overall quality of voice calls on mobiles over the years. This is just gimmicky and inefficient. T-Mobile CMO Mike Sievert indicated that customers would enjoy the portability of the device -- easy to take on the road and set up anywhere. But how many people take a router away with them? Is this really going to become the norm?
Open Broadcaster Software shares your desktop with the world
You’ve taken some great new photos, finished your best-ever presentation, achieved total mastery of some major game -- whatever the reason, it’s now time to share your talents with the world.
If your needs are simple then you could take a few screenshots. Run a screen capture tool. Send a few emails. And maybe that’ll be enough.
Companies shouldn't 'over think' internet of things security
The internet of things opens up a vast range of new opportunities for individuals and businesses. But as we saw yesterday with expert predictions on the impact of the Apple Watch it also brings additional risks.
Analysts at Gartner are predicting that by 2017 more than 20 percent of businesses will have security devices aimed at protecting services and devices in the internet of things.
Best Windows 8 apps this week
Ninety-eighth in a series. Welcome to this week's episode of the best new apps and games for Microsoft's Windows 8.x operating system. This week saw the release of several high profile apps in store including the official New York Times Crossword application and the simple but addictive game Dots Out.
Both are not 100 percent free however, which explains why no app was awarded the best app of the week title.
Dropbox lets users know about government activity regarding their data
We've grown accustomed to "transparency" reports in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations. We all now realize we are being watched and listened to, and that tech companies like Google and Microsoft, complicit or not, have given up user data, though the latter is currently fighting a court order to do so.
"Over the past year, revelations about government surveillance have shown that we need more transparency into when and how government agencies get access to people’s information online", states Bart Volkmer of Dropbox.
Get $100,000 worth of Google Cloud Platform credit for your startup
Having a startup business is all the rage nowadays; it is as trendy as a Pumpkin Spice Latte. Actually, if you go to Starbucks, you can probably overhear chatter from hipsters about some lamebrain scheme to launch a business. Of course, the business must have a wacky name to make it cool; throw a bunch of consonants (vowels are so passé) in a hat, pull out 5 and that's the new business name.
Despite the deluge of posers thinking they will be the next Mark Zuckerberg, there are legit people with sound business ideas too. These up-and-coming startups need all the help they can get. Today, Google announces that some startups can receive $100,000 worth of Cloud Platform credit.
OutlookStatView delivers detailed reports on your Outlook accounts
Use Outlook for a while and it’s all too easy to let the messages pile up. Soon your inbox is a bloated mess, too large to tackle easily, and so you just try to ignore everything older than the last week or so.
NirSoft’s OutlookStatView helps out by drilling down into your accounts and producing some detailed reports. Who’s sending you the most emails? The bulkiest attachments? How many messages are you handling each hour, day, week, month, year? It’s all just a click or two away.
Yahoo resisted NSA Prism requests -- US government threatened $250,000 daily fines
It's transparency time once again! After Edward Snowden opened the can of NSA surveillance worms, internet users' collected attention has been focused on online privacy. We still don’t know the full extent of the monitoring that took place, but more information continues to leak out. All of the big names -- Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, and the rest -- have slowly trickled out little snippets about government data requests. A new blog post from Yahoo's general counsel Ron Bell sheds further light on the resistance the company put up against requests for data.
Just like Google and Microsoft, Yahoo is keen to let it be known that it tried to stick up for the privacy rights of its customers. A new cache of documents -- stretching to War And Peace baiting 1,500 pages -- from seven years ago shows just how much of a fight Yahoo tried to put on its users' behalves. Way back in 2007, the US government started to request information about users from a number of online companies. Yahoo was one of the companies who -- initially, at least -- refused to comply, and tried to fight the government in court.
Mobile carriers are trying to control your texting
Who owns your telephone number? According to Section 251(b) of the Communications Act of 1934, you own your number and can move it to the carrier of your choice. But who owns your texting phone number? It’s the same number, just used for a different purpose. The law says nothing about texting so the major wireless carriers (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon) are claiming that number is theirs, not yours, even if you are the one paying a little extra for unlimited texting. And the way they see it, unlimited is clearly limited, with carriers and texting services not offered by the Big Four expected soon to pay cash to reach you.
Those who’ll pay to text you include mobile carriers not in the Big Four led by the largest independent, US Cellular, as well as so-called over-the-top texting service providers that presently offer free texting services. These companies include pinger.com, textplus.com, textnow.com, textme.com, and heywire.com. Service continues for now but the incumbents are threatening to shut it down any day. T-Mobile started trying to impose fees several weeks ago and Sprint, I’m told, will start trying to charge next week.
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