Android smartphones shipping from factory with malware
Hardware being shipped with viruses or malware is not a new thing. In the past, there have been flash drives that were accidentally infected at the factory and made it into customers' hands. However, in the new age we live in, where nothing can be trusted, there becomes an increased paranoia in trusting hardware. There is no telling what backdoors or spy software is installed by foreign governments to spy on US Citizens. Hell, the US Government could do it too!
Sadly, it seems Android phones are being shipped pre-loaded with malware according to German security company G Data Software. Before you panic and throw your phone into a lake, please know that so far, this is only discovered to exist in Europe on what seems to be a clone of the popular Galaxy S4. In other words, if you are in the USA you are probably safe -- for now. However, there is no telling where else the trojan Android.Trojan.Uupay.D may secretly be residing.
Batch convert documents to PDF, PNG, TIF or JPG with DocuFreezer 1.0
Anyone who's tried Print Conductor will know how great it is for speeding up the wearisome process of printing out documents of different types in one go from your Windows PC.
Now the folks at fCoder are at it again, providing another free-for-personal-use tool to speed up batch processing. This time, however, DocuFreezer 1.0 is designed to speed up document conversion to PDF.
Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 is better than Apple's MacBook Air -- here's 5 reasons why
Nowadays, if you buy a brand new laptop, it is hard to buy an absolute lemon. Unless you scrape the bottom of the barrel at Best Buy and get some god-awful $200 underpowered computer, you should be fine. Hell, even that inexpensive computer may meet some people's needs. However, some of us spend many hours of each day on a computer, so it makes sense to invest in something great. If you are reading BetaNews, I'm sure you fall into that category. If you ask me which computer to buy, I would recommend many (depending on budget), but two stand out among the rest.
The Microsoft Surface Pro 3 and Apple MacBook Air are great balances between portability, power and cost. Yes, there are more powerful computers, but they are often very heavy and have terrible battery life. Portability cannot be underestimated when it comes to a laptop's value and both of these machines are super thin and light. Last month, my colleague Mihaita pondered the question of which was better based on specs alone. However, as someone who has used both, hands-on, for long periods of time, I am ready to definitively tell you that the Surface Pro 3 is better. Do you agree?
BYOD or CYOD -- which is the right choice for your organization?
Over the past few years it seems that the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) phenomenon has taken businesses by storm, and on the face of it you can see why.
Employees pay for their own devices, which means that businesses avoid the majority of the associated upfront costs. Workers are often happy to do this, as it means they can bring their favorite gadget to work and not be forced into using a corporate one they might be unfamiliar with. These employees already know the ins-and-outs of their devices and, as a result, are often much more productive when working on them. However, due to security and practical resource concerns, not all companies have adopted the BYOD approach with gusto.
Manage Windows services from the desktop with ServiceTray
If you're managing or troubleshooting a PC then it's often useful to keep track of an important Windows service. The regular services applet handles the basics, but the free ServiceTray goes further with extra features and far better real-time feedback.
Setup is simple, mostly about choosing the service to be monitored (it only tracks one at a time) and your preferred system tray icon. ServiceTray can then generate an icon in the Startup folder, or your desktop, as required.
Netflix brings Breaking Bad to 4K
4K, also known as Ultra HD, is coming. In fact, it's here, few people can yet take advantage of it, but that's OK, as there is little content to view anyway. Netflix made a small splash when it released the latest season of House of Cards in 4K, but now it is diving in deeper.
The streaming service announces that it is bringing all 62 episodes of the hit show Breaking Bad into the Ultra HD revolution. "Netflix and Sony agreed on an early subset of IMF for the transfer of the video and audio files for Breaking Bad. IMF stands for Interoperable Master Format, an emerging SMPTE specification governing file formats and metadata for digital media archiving and B2B exchange", says Kevin McEntee of Netflix.
Birst brings powerful analytics to SAP HANA
The SAP HANA in-memory analytic tool can be deployed in house or in the cloud, but to get information from it users have previously had to choose between aging legacy business intelligence (BI) tools that take months to implement and require large teams to support, or limited data discovery tools that are restricted to analysts.
Now though cloud BI specialist Birst is launching a new product to make data analysis more accessible.
My Nokia Lumia life begins
Second in a series. Sunday started an unexpected journey long anticipated. I walked out of Microsoft Store San Diego holding my first Nokia since abandoning the brand in 2009. Before Nokia imploded, first unable to respond to Apple innovations and next by adopting Windows Phone as primary platform, I preferred the handsets -- using over the years the N95, N96, N79, N97, and N900.
I am the proud owner of the Lumia Icon, which marks my family's slow migration to Verizon from T-Mobile. AT&T would make more sense, since the iPhones my daughter and father-in-law use would work unlocked. If the Lumia 930 were available, I could go to the Blue rather than Red network from Pink (which becomes Yellow if purchased by Sprint). My initial reaction is surprisingly good, of the handset and Windows Phone 8.
Avast's new Android app removes ransomware from infected phones and tablets
Of all the malware threats out there, ransomware is arguably the nastiest. It locks your computer, encrypts your files, and then demands payment to free your data. You can remove it easily enough, but doing so won’t get you your files back. And unfortunately ransomware is beginning to make its way on to Android devices.
Avast has just released a Ransomware Removal app which will eliminate this type of threat from infected Android phones and tablets. It scans your device, tells you if you’re infected and if you are it will remove the malware and (according to Avast) decrypt your hijacked files.
Spanning launches new mobile app for Salesforce admins
We reported towards the end of last year that cloud backup specialist Spanning had expanded its portfolio of software to cover Salesforce.
It's now taken things a step further by launching a mobile app for Salesforce admins to allow them to monitor and control their backups from anywhere.
Icaros enables Explorer thumbnails for almost any video type
Windows Explorer does a reasonable job of displaying thumbnails for standard image types, but it’s not so good with videos. You might get lucky with a few basic formats, but others -- FLV, MKV -- are usually ignored, leaving you with basic placeholder thumbnails which tell you nothing at all.
If that sounds familiar then Icaros may be able to help. It’s a collection of Windows shell extensions, powered by a custom version of FFmpeg which can extract thumbnails from just about any media format every created.
Ramp up the resolution: Google and Bing can now use more detailed imagery on maps
If you have ever bemoaned the fact that maps are too blurry on Bing, too grainy on Google, moan no more! US restrictions on the quality of satellite imagery that can be used by online services such as these has been lifted by the US government.
The ban is to be removed after satellite photography firm DigitalGlobe made an appeal to the US Department of Commerce. Security concerns meant that satellite images were limited to a 50cm resolution, but this is to be boosted to 40cm and beyond.
Dropbox now speaks four new languages
Cloud storage service Dropbox has previously moved into other nations, attempting to globalize its platform in an effort to gain new users. Now the company is expanding a bit more, with the introduction of four new languages.
Both Dropbox and Carousel, which is the service's photo and video app for iOS and Android, are receiving this language update. Danish, Dutch, Swedish and Thai are all included in this new update.
Software innovations aim to improve web application performance
The move of apps and data to the cloud places greater demands on network infrastructure, and the risk of poor performance affecting the business can put organizations off making the switch.
Cloud delivery specialist Instart Logic has announced a new software product that aims to improve application delivery performance by up to 50 percent regardless of form factor. It does this via a mix of InstantLoad load cache optimization and SmartVision vision-based image analysis.
China leaks $2bn of secret Microsoft Android patents
Microsoft has maintained for the last three years or so that every Android phone ever made infringes on patents locked away somewhere in Redmond. High-profile legal cases, like Microsoft's suit against the Android-powered Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader, and its successful lawsuits against five major Android smartphone manufacturers, have fueled a huge amount of public speculation as to what exactly those patents are.
The problem is, Microsoft hasn't been saying, and with only a few exceptions has taken every measure possible to keep them hidden from the public.
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