Over 60 percent of organizations suffer security breaches in 2013

Lurking virus

A survey of more than 750 security decision makers and practitioners in North America and Europe finds that more than 60 percent have suffered some form of security breach in 2013.

In its first Cyberthreat Defense Report the Cyber Edge Group aims to provide an all-round view of organizations’ security threats, response plans, processes, and investments.

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Sony sells VAIO, cuts 5,000 jobs and exits PC manufacturing

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Sony is pulling out of the PC business and is selling the VAIO brand to Japanese investment fund Japan Industrial Partners (JIP). The announcement came after industry speculation about what might be happening in Sony's future after the company responded to rumors that it was in talks with Lenovo about a possible sale by saying that it was looking to "address various options for the PC business". No details about the fees involved have yet been revealed, but it is hoped that an agreement will be reached by the end of March.

Citing "drastic changes in the global PC industry", Sony's announcement came as the company revealed its financial results for Q3 2013. Analysis of the results showed that the "target of returning the TV and PC businesses to profitability will not be achieved within the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014", hence the need for reform. This means that Sony will now concentrate "its mobile product lineup on smartphones and tablets". An estimated 5,000 jobs will be lost.

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Nadella’s success at Microsoft probably depends on Gates

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Microsoft has a new CEO in former cloud and server chief Satya Nadella and readers have been asking me what this means? Certainly Nadella was the least bad of the internal candidates but an external selection would have been better. Whether it works out well or not probably comes down to Bill Gates, who leaves his job as chairman to become Nadella’s top technical advisor.

You might ask why Nadella, whose technical chops are easily the equal of BillG’s (and a lot more recent, too) would even need Gates in that advisory role? I believe the answer lies in my recent column where I argued that the best new Microsoft CEO would be Gates, himself, because only he could stand up to departing CEO Steve Ballmer.

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Microsoft goes for the gold -- Olympic games come to Bing

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The Olympic games are a very special time, where the top athletes from around the world compete on behalf of their respective country. Sadly, this year, the winter games are tainted by terrorist threats and an anti-equality stance by the host country. Also, some visitors to Sochi, Russia are finding that the living conditions in the hotels are abhorrent -- undrinkable water, dirty rooms and more.

But enough about the bad stuff, Microsoft wants to help you focus on the positive things -- the actual sporting events, with the help of Bing. It may get the silver medal when it comes to search-engine market share, but that won't stop it from going for the gold in this respect.

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Save web page pictures automatically with SavePictureAs

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If you're browsing the web and find an image you'd like to keep, then the procedure is almost always the same: right-click, select "Save image as", and choose your preferred destination. That's simple enough, too, but if you’re saving lots of pictures in the same session then it can get a little tedious.

SavePictureAs is an open-source tool which speeds up the image saving process (in all the main browsers, and most of the minor ones) by automating most of its steps. All you have to do is move the mouse cursor over a picture, press a customisable hotkey, and watch as the program simulates a right-click, selects "Save image as", points the browser at your favorite folder, and saves the picture with its default file name.

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Xbox One set to receive its first update on February 11th

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The Xbox One hit the market late last year, just in time for the big holiday shopping season, and only one week behind rival Sony’s PS4. Now, only a few scant weeks after the big launch, the company is announcing the first update to the system.

The news is released through Xbox Live chief Larry Hryb, who many know better as Major Nelson. Today Hryb stated "on February 11, the first update will be delivered to customers who sign into their Xbox One. It features many new improvements -- including lots of behind-the-scenes updates for developers building apps and games for Xbox One, several new features we believe Xbox fans will love, stability and product updates to improve the customer experience, and continuous improvements to the quality of Kinect voice so commands become more fluid and responsive over time".

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37signals becomes Basecamp and drops all but its eponymous product

Basecamp

The name 37signals may not mean much to people outside of tech and business circles. This is a company that produces something that is better known than its own name: Basecamp. The very fact that 37signals is primarily, or even solely, associated with Basecamp seems as good a reason as any to consider a rebrand, and this is precisely what the company is doing. While some people content themselves with blowing out candles on a cake, 37signals celebrates its tenth birthday by renaming itself Basecamp.

But it does not end there. In addition to taking a new name from its popular online collaboration and project management tool, the company is switching its focus so that Basecamp is its only product. The announcement appears on the company's website, explaining that the decision will allow all energies to be channeled into the tool that gained greatest success:

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VirusTotal adds AegisLab as a file scanning engine

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VirusTotal has announced the addition of AegisLab as a new file scanning engine. The Taiwanese company was already working with VirusTotal on its URL scanner, but this should raise its profile significantly.

The good news continued in AV Test’s latest Android Security report, where AegisLab’s Antivirus Premium 1.1  and AhnLan’s V3 Mobile 2.1 were the only packages to score maximum marks for protection.

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VLC Media Player increases stability, fixes bugs and regressions

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VideoLAN has released VLC Media Player 2.1.3, the latest minor release of its open-source, cross-platform media player for Windows, Mac and Linux. Version 2.1.3 comes with the promise of fixing multiple bugs and regressions introduced in previous 2.1.x releases.

Important fixes involve improving audio and video output management across most platforms, and also include decoder and dexmuxer improvements too.

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Geo-Tag Mapper plots geotagged photos on an interactive globe

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Geotagging photographs sounds great, at least in theory. You buy a camera with GPS, and it records exactly where you take every picture, very useful when you’d like to return there later (or just if you’ve just forgotten where you saw that amazing sunset).

This isn’t quite as easy as it should be, because most image viewers and graphics tools don’t recognize or use positional data. There are some exceptions, though, and the latest, Geo-Tag Mapper, provides a very easy way to visualize your photos by their location.

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DirecTV joins the HBO GO party on Roku

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HBO GO for Roku set-top boxes launched back in late 2011, but, like many streaming networks, users are required to prove they subscribe to the channel through a participating cable or satellite provider. It's a frustrating problem that hopefully will slowly go away -- the Super Bowl was just streamed by Fox Sports without this restriction.

One major provider that wasn’t part of the Roku family was DirecTV, but that is now changing. The device maker and TV service have reached an agreement to make HBO GO available to those who enter DirecTV as their television service.

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Verizon Motorola Moto G gets Android 4.4 KitKat

Motorola Moto G

The Motorola Moto G is one of the most interesting smartphones launched in 2013. It comes with a powerful processor, large screen and, most importantly, a very attractive price. The base 8 GB model costs a mere $179 off-contract, while the 16 GB version can be had for $20 more. Users also get 50 GB of free Google Drive storage for two years.

But, there is another reason why the Moto G is interesting -- KitKat. Motorola has promised to update its entry-level smartphone to the latest version of Android, quickly rolling it out for the international version. Now, those who have the Verizon model can also experience what KitKat has to offer.

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Why performance testing matters in the mobile world

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The success of a mobile app is closely related to its performance, including stability, responsiveness and load times. This is one of the key findings of a report released by mobile performance specialist Appurify, alongside the launch of a new performance optimization and testing tool.

According to the report over 90 percent of developers see a direct correlation between the performance of their apps and the reviews they receive in app stores. But it also warns that developers have become too reliant on user reviews to spot quality issues with 60 percent saying they check their reviews daily.

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Evernote for Mac adds descriptive search feature, aims to make finding information quicker and easier

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Evernote Corporation has released Evernote for Mac 5.5, a minor refresh of the cloud-based note-taking service’s desktop tool. Version 5.5 contains one major new feature of note: support for descriptive search.

The feature, currently only available to English-language users, is accompanied by a number of minor bug fixes and tweaks. It follows on from the recent updates to both Evernote for iOS 7.3 and Evernote for Android 5.7

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Jelly Bean surpasses 60 percent Android distribution

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It is that time of the month again when we take a look at the latest Android distribution data. Google has released a new chart, based on the number of devices accessing the Play store in the seven days ending February 4, placing Jelly Bean as the most popular sweet with over 60 percent share in the green droid realm.

In early-February, the most popular Jelly Bean iteration is once again Android 4.1, thanks to a strong 35.5 percent distribution. It is also the most popular version of the mobile operating system, a title that it's relished since July 2013 when it finally topped the outdated Gingerbread. In the Jelly Bean branch, Android 4.1 is followed, in this order, by Android 4.2 and Android 4.3, with 16.3 percent and 8.9 percent distribution, respectively.

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