My New Year’s tech resolutions
Some years I make resolutions, others I don’t. The ones I make are usually the same -- lose weight and get fitter (something I finally achieved this year thanks to the Zombies, Run app), get that novel finished and land a book deal (another tick in the 2012 "done" box), and cut back on the amount of caffeine I consume (well, you can’t win them all).
For 2013 I thought I’d make a short list of tech-related resolutions, things I genuinely plan to do or achieve, and share them with you. So, in no particular order, here they are:
[Wayne] The tech I used most in 2012
To paraphrase Ferris Bueller, "Technology moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it". Smartphones and tablets are being updated, iterated and replaced so quickly these days. Take the iPad. Apple rolled out a new version in March, and then replaced it with a faster model in November. You’re never at the cutting edge for long, so you need to enjoy that moment while you can (not that it really matters if your tech devices are a generation or two behind, of course -- so long as they work and do what you need them to).
My colleague Alan Buckingham wrote the first of the BetaNews team’s personal tech retrospectives yesterday. Now it’s my turn.
Tiny, sugary sweet Linux PCs get eaten up
Make it small, make it cheap, and people will buy it.
Two tiny, single-board Linux computers with sweet names that debuted at nearly the same time have attracted disproportionately large attention from PC consumers this week: the Raspberry Pi, and the FXI Cotton Candy. The Raspberry Pi is a bare, uncased board that costs $35, and the Cotton Candy is a finished, ready to run PC-in-a-USB stick that costs $199. Both sport ARM processors, both will run Linux variants.
Unlock superior machine learning performance on Ubuntu Linux with AMD ROCm 5.7 and RDNA 3
The landscape of Machine Learning (ML) is constantly evolving, and the tools that power this tech revolution are accelerating at an equal pace. AMD has recently unveiled its ROCm 5.7 platform on Ubuntu Linux, marking a significant stride towards empowering ML practitioners with robust resources.
This latest update is designed to harness the parallel computing prowess of the newly introduced Radeon RX 7900 XTX and Radeon PRO W7900 graphics cards, both of which are built on the advanced AMD RDNA 3 GPU architecture.
Canonical withdraws Ubuntu Desktop 23.10 ISO after discovery of hate speech in translations
Friday 13th has indeed proved unlucky for anyone looking to download the Ubuntu Desktop 23.10 ISO -- it is currently unavailable having been pulled just hours after launch.
The decision to withdraw the Mantic Minotaur ISO was taken after it was discovered that a contributor had inserted malicious translations into the installer. Although Canonical has not revealed the content of the user-submitted translations for the Linux distro, it has been described as "hate speech".
Critical OpenSSL vulnerability severely delays Fedora Linux 37
Fedora 37 was due to be released before the end of October, but if you expected to have the Linux-based operating system by Halloween, you will be very disappointed. You see, due to a critical bug in OpenSSL, the Fedora developers are halting the release until November 15 at the earliest.
The patched version of OpenSSL will come out on November 1, so the developers are targeting November 15 as a realistic date to have Fedora 37 tested and ready to go. Of course, it could end up being even later than that.
Fedora 29 Linux distribution now available for download
Two days ago, it was announced that IBM will be buying Red Hat. While we don't know how the marriage between the two companies will work out, I am cautiously optimistic. I mean, look, Red Hat is a solid organization, and if IBM is true to its word about allowing the RHEL-maker to operate independently, it should largely be a non-issue.
Personally, as a hardcore Fedora user, I can only pray that IBM doesn't mess with my favorite operating system. The acquisition won't be closing for a while, however, and today, after a short public beta period, Fedora 29 is released without any input from IBM. The best desktop Linux operating system simply gets better than ever, and it is time to celebrate by downloading it.
Amazon Prime Day 2018 is July 16, but you can score some early deals NOW!
Amazon Prime Day. Sigh. Yet another annual holiday dedicated to shopping -- we are at peak capitalism, I suppose. To be honest, it's not much different than Black Friday or Cyber Monday. If you have the money to spend, you might as well score some great deals and stimulate the economy, right? Heck, if you are an American, you will probably spend money even if you don't have it!
This year, Amazon Prime Day is on July 16. There will be many deals to be had on all product categories, including tech. If you are in the market for a new laptop, smartphone, or other device, it is probably a good idea to wait until July 16 before pulling the trigger on any purchases. For instance, this year, Huawei is offering some particularly nice deals on some of its smartphones and wearables.
Oh wow, the LG G7 ThinQ looks damn nice
Earlier today, LG revealed its latest Android flagship smartphone. It is called the "G7 ThinQ" and oh wow, it looks damn nice! I suppose I shouldn't be surprised -- LG has long made impressive smartphones. With the exception of the fairly terrible LG G5, both its "G" and "V" series have been consistently great.
This new G7 ThinQ has something that may annoy you, however -- a notch. Yeah, all the manufacturers seem to be copying the iPhone X in this regard. It's a very polarizing topic -- some folks like a notch, while others hate it. Me? I don't really care either way, to be honest. LG has taken a cool approach to handling the notch on the G7 ThinQ, however. You see, using software trickery, you can make the notch disappear -- sort of. The top of the screen gets filled in with black, so it appears there is no notch. Some may call this gimmicky. I call it clever. And it is.
Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM gets a 'Freestyle Collection' makeover
Ultimate Ears Bluetooth speakers are just the tops. They are well built, sound great, and are reasonably priced. Its lowest cost offering, the WONDERBOOM, is a remarkable value at just $99. Heck, the little guy is waterproof and floats.
Today, the WONDERBOOM gets a makeover thanks to the all-new "Freestyle Collection." The internals remain the same (meaning it will still sound wonderful), but the outward design gets a fresh coat of paint with five new styles.
GLAS is Microsoft's gorgeous Cortana-powered smart thermostat
Microsoft has announced its entry into the smart office market with the launch of a new thermostat.
GLAS, which was revealed in a YouTube video this week, targets businesses and stores looking to establish a smarter, more connected workplace.
You can create a hacking tool for just $20
If you have $20 to spare and some "basic programming knowledge," you can create a powerful hacking tool that can collect huge amounts of user credentials, easily. The best part about it is that you don’t even need to use any malware or viruses -- everything can be clean as a whistle.
The news was revealed by security experts Kaspersky Lab, which was able to create such a device using a Raspberry-Pi microcomputer that was then configured as an Ethernet adapter.
SanDisk announces world's first 1TB SDXC card
My first computer in the 1990's came with a 4GB hard disk drive -- very spacious at the time. When my friends saw the capacity, I was instantly the envy of the neighborhood. Nowadays, 4GB is rather pitiful. Modern memory cards, some smaller than a postage stamp, can dwarf my first computer's capacity. That's technology, folks -- everything gets better, and your current tech loses its luster.
Today, SanDisk (a Western Digital company) announces a product that is a major milestone in the technology market -- the world's first 1TB SDXC card. In other words, that is a monstrous 1,000 gigabytes. To put that in perspective, Apple only just stopped putting 16GB storage capacities in the iPhone. This card, which is only a prototype for now, will be a dream for photographers, allowing them to save more photos than ever before. Of course, if the card fails, that is a lot of data to lose...
The Internet of Things gets its own day (and lots more Things)
The idea of connected devices is nothing new, the University of Cambridge had a connected coffee pot, to save on trips down the corridor to see if it had finished brewing, as early as 1991.
But as more and more devices go online we've come up with the idea of the Internet of Things. This, apparently, is such a good idea that it also now has its own day on April 9.
How to securely manage the Windows 10 devices in your network
Microsoft’s decision to make Windows 10 a free upgrade means that, according to industry analysts, more than 350 million Windows machines are expected to be on Windows 10 within the next 12 months. This can create a huge gap between enterprise IT teams and employee devices.
While "free" has accelerated the adoption of Windows 10, what truly sets this release apart from others is that Microsoft plans to expand Windows 10 to an unlimited number of devices via the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT is becoming an increasing topic of conversation both in and outside of the workplace, in particular in discussions around how to secure these connected devices.
Recent Headlines
Most Commented Stories
© 1998-2024 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy.