Get started with Raspberry Pi
We’re big fans of the Raspberry Pi here at BetaNews. The super-cheap credit card sized computer was created to help get kids back into programming, just as they did in schools in the 1980s and 1990s, but the ARM GNU/Linux board has found an appreciative audience outside of the education system, with over 3 million Pis sold since 2012.
Getting started with the device is easy enough, and there’s plenty of help and advice available on the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s website, but if you want a simple, straightforward guide then Manchester based NeoMam Studios has put together an infographic covering setting up, getting started and more.
Get more from the command line with EventSentry SysAdmin Tools
Although Windows has a reasonable set of command line tools, they’ve not changed much in recent years. Microsoft presumably hopes you’ll master PowerShell and build anything else you need for yourself.
Alternatively, you could just install EventSentry SysAdmin Tools, a free collection of 35+ (mostly) console-based programs to help you with various file system, network and monitoring tasks.
The right way to manage the downsides of BYOD
For many organizations, bring your own device (BYOD) is now a fact of life. More than 70 percent of employees use their own smart phone or tablet to access corporate data. However this doesn't mean we should simply accept the trend and moving on. While many organizations have seen benefit in exploiting employees' willingness to invest their own money in mobility, others have seen a rise in cost and complexity.
The built-in assumption that organizations will save money under BYOD by sidestepping the cost of devices doesn't tell the whole story. The price of mobility goes beyond hardware and there are a number of hidden costs under BYOD that mobility managers need to grapple with.
Harvard scientists develop a self-organizing thousand-robot swarm
The Harvard school of engineering and applied sciences (SEAS) have created the "first thousand-robot flash mob". The swarm consists of 1,024 "kilobots" that collaborate and provide "a simple platform for the enactment of complex behaviors".
Michael Rubenstein, a research associate at SEAS, said "Biological collectives involve enormous numbers of cooperating entities -- whether you think of cells or insects or animals -- that together accomplish a single task that is a magnitude beyond the scale of any individual".
Xiaomi's MIUI 6 beta is here and the Android ROM shames Google's stock experience
As a Linux user and lover, I prefer Android smartphones to iOS. While I love the freedom and functionality of Google's mobile operating system, there is one thing I hate -- the UI. That is a pretty big deal and usually a deal-breaker for a consumer. However, I put up with the dreary UI and clunky app drawer because I can customize it with different launchers, wallpapers and icon packs. While this is passable, I long for a redesign to mimic something similar to iOS 7. I crave beauty and art, but alas, Google seems disinterested in doing anything radical -- Android L "Material Design" seems too safe and boring.
The design savior for many years has been the Chinese-born ROM, MIUI; however, as more and more devices ship with impossibly hard-to-hack locked bootloaders, the gorgeous ROM has not been ported to as many devices; even unofficially. And so, users have been limited to MIUI-styled launchers, but not the full experience. Excitingly, MIUI 6 is now released in beta form, but sadly, most Android users will not be able to flash the beta, or the final version for that matter. This locked bootloader nonsense is a tragedy, as MIUI 6 is sexy as hell and puts Google's vision of Android to shame.
Microsoft pulls download links to Windows 8.1 August Update, recommends users uninstall some updates
The August Update for Windows 8.1 (once rumored to be Update 2) has been pulled from the web and is currently no longer available for download after Microsoft received complaints that it was causing errors and system instability for some users.
If you attempt to visit the original download links you’ll be met with a message stating "The resource you are looking for has been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable".
Amazon App Store holds a Coin sale
Amazon's app store utilizes its own currency system, in the form of Coins. These can be used by customers to purchase apps, but like other monetary inventions, it does cost real money. However, Amazon is currently holding a sale.
The company is offering its Coins at a discount, saving customers 20 percent off the regular price. That's a nice saving for the apps you want to grab.
SingularLabs releases free clipboard manager Remembr
Shane Gowland’s SingularLabs has announced the release of Remembr 0.0.0.1, a simple free clipboard manager for Windows.
As with similar programs, Remembr lives in your system tray, and maintains a list of the text and images you copy to the clipboard.
EarlyClaim reserves usernames so you don’t end up with a crappy handle
You never know when the next Twitter is going to crop up. When a new service like Pinterest, Vine, or Skype appears, if you're not quick off the mark there's a high chance you'll miss out on your preferred username. You want MarkWilsonWords? Sorry, that went ages ago… you'll have to settle for MarkWilsonWord09868. Getting stuck with a crappy username sucks, but it's very hard to monitor all of the new services that pop up so you can bag your ideal name as early as possible. This is something that EarlyClaim can help with.
It's a free service that seeks out new startups and reserves a username on your behalf -- you just say what handle you'd like, and EarlyClaim does the hard work for you. For businesses, it is important to have a brand identity that is the same across different social networks (who is going to take notice of Coca Cola 1897 on Facebook?) but it's also something that is valuable to individuals. How many times have you signed up for a site only to find that you're unable to secure the username of your choice and had to opt for something far inferior? Every time you use that service there is a constant reminder that you weren't fast enough at signing up.
HaveClip synchronises clipboards across your network
There are many ways to exchange data between applications, but the clipboard is probably the simplest. Copy here, paste there: easy.
The open-source HaveClip takes this idea to the next level by synchronizing clipboards across your network. Copy text, an image, maybe a file on one computer -- Windows, Mac or Linux -- and it’ll be (almost) immediately available from another.
Constantly turned on -- the bleak reality of being permanently connected
We expect, and are expected, to be contactable at any given moment -- and indeed we often expect the same of others. Send a text, and you expect a response. Pen an email, and you expect to receive one in return, and fast. Hit up someone on Google chat and an all-but-instant reply is all but expected. Maybe this doesn’t sound like you, but I can guarantee that you fit on the spectrum, and also that the people you are in contact with make the same demands of you. When did this change? It used to be that you'd call a landline number and if you didn’t get a reply you might just try again a few hours later. The fact that we now carry mobiles with us virtually 24/7 means that it is weird if someone doesn't answer the call.
They can’t be busy! Try again! Still no reply? Send a text. And an email. And an IM. If it was limited to office hours, it might be understandable -- and bearable -- to some extent, but there has been a massive slip in end-times. It is acceptable to send emails to someone at any time of day. You may have woken up at 3 in the morning and thought of something relating to work, or even just something that made you laugh, and felt the need to share it immediately. The recipient, in all likelihood, will be alerted to this email on a smartphone or tablet if they don’t happen to be sitting at their computer. At 3 in the morning, it might not wake them up, but at, say, 8pm how likely is it that the email will be ignored? The recipient's working day just got extended by several hours.
Despite Microsoft's takedown, GameOver Zeus botnet rises again
Back in early June Microsoft announced it had taken down the GameOver Zeus botnet, in an effort to protect customers. But, thwarting the internet bad guys is much more difficult in practice than it is in theory. Now security researches claim the phoenix is rising from its ashes.
The folks at Arbor Networks, a security research firm, have been keeping regular tabs, and have noted a sudden and very rapid growth. The rise is actually due to a new variant that seems to be spreading quickly, but has become most prevalent in the US.
Best Windows 8 apps this week
Ninety-fourth in a series. Welcome to this week's episode of the best new apps and games for Microsoft's Windows 8.x operating system.
Microsoft released the August Update for Windows 8.1 this week which offered minor improvements and fixes only.
Traditional development practices don't work for mobile apps
As IT teams face more demands from business units for new mobile applications they'll need to adopt practices that are different from traditional development techniques.
This is according to IT research company Gartner which says that users find it challenging to effectively describe what a mobile app needs to do and therefore the approach of sitting down with a business analyst to define requirements doesn't work.
Updated YouTube app begins rolling out, Xbox One first on the target list
YouTube is the top destination on the web for videos -- not all are the highest quality, but they account for a large portion of the internet memes these days. While watching on the PC is fine, and what most users settle for, the ideal viewing method is on the big screen.
Today the video service announces the gradual roll-out of its new TV app. The company plans to get it to all set-top boxes, but the Xbox One seems to have topped the priority list.
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