Microsoft Offers Devs an Edge

Microsoft on Wednesday made its new Edge browser available to participants in the Windows Insider Program. Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president, operating systems group, made the announcement at the company's Build developers' conference, being held in San Francisco through Friday. Edge is available through the Windows 10 Preview, accessible to Windows Insiders. It incorporates Cortana, Microsoft's personal assistant. That lets it "learn what you care about and helps you get things done," Belfiore said.

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Apple Watch Could Be a Password Alternative

With password tolerance levels at all time low, alternatives to the pesky and insecure authenticators are beginning to abound. One of those alternatives could be the Apple Watch. Even before Apple's latest gadget began shipping last week, MicroStrategy announced it was extending its Usher enterprise security solution to the Apple Watch. Usher, launched earlier this year, lets an enterprise use smartphones to authenticate its users and eschew user names, passwords and tokens.

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Vivid Vervet Doesn't Have Much Meat on Its Bones

You will not see much new in Ubuntu 15.04, aka "Vivid Vervet" -- as in East African monkey -- unless you peer under the hood. The release of Ubuntu 15.04 for the desktop includes mostly maintenance and bug fixes, along with new integrated menus and dashboard usability improvements. Perhaps the most significant technical change in this desktop release is the adoption of Systemd to replace the default init manager system. A significant number of continuing Linux distros are joining the SystemD party line.

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Can LG's Hot G4 Smoke the Competition?

LG on Tuesday unveiled its latest flagship smartphone, the G4. The official launch followed weeks of leaks about the device's design and features. The G4 has an f1.8 aperture lens; a new IPS Quantum display, which is generally seen in the latest TVs; a body curved in LG's "Slim Arc" design; and six genuine leather color options. Its rear 16-MP camera has a manual mode and comes with a color spectrum sensor -- a smartphone technology first, said LG. It has an 8-MP front camera. The G4 has a new, human-centric user interface, UX 4.0.

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IoT: Why Security Pros Need to Prepare Now

Have you ever heard of the Cullinan diamond? If you haven't, it was the largest diamond ever discovered: a 3106 carat diamond found in 1905 in South Africa. What's interesting about the Cullinan diamond isn't so much the discovery of the stone itself but what happened afterward: specifically, the cutting of the diamond. The Cullinan diamond was split into a number of smaller pieces -- nine large pieces and dozens of smaller ones -- by Joseph Asscher, a noted diamond cutter of the time.

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Other Shoe Drops in White House Security Breach

Last year's breach of unclassified White House computer systems reportedly was far more intrusive than initially thought and included the theft of some presidential correspondence. No classified systems were compromised, including the servers that control the message traffic from President Obama's BlackBerry mobile device. However, much of the information the unclassified servers handle -- such as schedules, email exchanges with State Department officials, and discussions of personnel moves, legislation and policy -- is considered sensitive.

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Gadget Ogling: Pretty 3D Printing, an Eye-Catching Engagement Ring Box and a Sturdy Smartphone

3D printing is fascinating. It still seems wild to me that you can download schematics for anything and have a plastic version of a physical object in your home a short while later. However, not many printers can switch up the color or the types of filaments you use in your creation. The Pallette could change that, with a peripheral to pump in more vibrant hues and brighten up that mono-colored trinket you're ready to print. What's especially interesting is the possibility of adding different elements to the object, like carbon fiber or wood.

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Treyarch: Black Ops III More Ambitious Than World at War

Activision on Monday announced the launch date for Call of Duty: Black Ops III -- Friday, Nov. 6. The company is departing from its tradition of Tuesday releases. Instead of conflicting with school and work schedules, the Friday release will give players the weekend to dive into the sci-fi shooter and get a feel for the new gameplay mechanics. Some may groan at Black Ops III's futuristic story arriving just a year after Advanced Warfare. However, Treyarch's Black Ops III works a slightly different angle.

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Can Microsoft Take Back Momentum From Google and Apple?

Microsoft is holding its Build event this week, marking the beginning of its major push to launch Windows 10. Build is in San Francisco this year, which effectively puts it right in the back yard of both Apple and Google -- a nice "in your face" move. I was the featured launch analyst for Windows 95 two decades ago and there, even though the post launch was hardly flawless, Microsoft ripped Apple a new rear orifice, wounding the company so badly that one of the founders eventually had to return to save it.

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Dev Aims to Light the Way for Apple Watch Gaming

Coinciding with the official Apple Watch launch on Friday, a slew of apps and games are making their debuts. One of the early hopefuls is WayForward, which last week unveiled its Watch Quest, hoping to get a jump on the competition. Some developers have been awaiting the opening of the WatchKit APIs in full before they put the might of their software engineering ability into the Apple Watch. The WatchKit API limits developers to creating widget-like glances, Watch notifications, and side-loaded apps powered by the might of a paired iPhone.

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Take Your Apple Watch Face and Love It!

Apple is known for fantastic product design, but it's not known for customization. The first iPhone hit the world nearly eight years ago, and yet our "customizable" home screen options are limited to the organization of app icons and some wallpaper choices that can produce color tints through translucent layers. So all of us future Apple Watch owners likely will have to settle for a handful of Apple-developed watch faces. I've been hoping for months that Apple would let third-party designers rethink how to show time through watch faces.

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YouTube Marks 10 Years of Nondisruptive Revolution

YouTube on Thursday celebrated its first full decade. It was 10 years ago to the day that cofounder Jawed Karim uploaded the site's first video. It was a humble beginning: a 19-second clip of elephants, with Karim declaring that the pachyderms have "really, really long trunks." In fairness, it may have been in keeping with other notable firsts. In speaking for the first time on a telephone, Alexander Graham Bell said, "Mr. Watson -- come here -- I want to see you." Thomas Edison's first phonographic recording was "Mary had a little lamb."

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Google's Low-Fee Fi: Ho-Hum

Google on Wednesday announced Fi, a program that combines the wireless networks of carrier partners Sprint and T-Mobile with more than 1 million free, open WiFi hotspots Google has verified as fast and reliable. Users' devices will move automatically to the fastest connection -- 4G LTE being the standard in the United States, accessing 3G or 2G if only those speeds are available. The program will work in more than 120 countries. The $20-a-month Fi Basics plan gives users unlimited domestic talk and text in the U.S. Data is another $10 per GB.

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Breach Outbreaks Fuel Encryption Adoption

As data breaches make headlines around the world, more companies are turning to encryption to protect their information jewels. That is one of the findings in a study released Monday, conducted by the Ponemon Institute and sponsored by Thales E-Security. "Mega breaches and cyber attacks have increased companies' urgency to improve their security posture," says the report, which is based on a survey of more than 4,000 IT and security professionals in 10 countries.

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Ubuntu's Vivid Vervet Makes Snappy Entrance

Canonical on Tuesday announced the release of Ubuntu 15.04, aka "Vivid Vervet," as in East African monkey. It will be available for download on Thursday. The new OS offers tools for cloud, device, client and Internet of Things development. The Ubuntu desktop release includes mostly maintenance and bug fixes, along with new integrated menus and dashboard usability improvements. Ubuntu 15.04 for cloud and servers comes at a critical time to attract companies adopting cloud technologies.

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Government Surveillance: What to Do, What to Do?

The CIA has been trying to hack into iOS for years. British and American agencies reportedly have collaborated to create a map of the Internet and Web users. The United States National Security Agency has, together with the UK's GCHQ, reportedly stolen SIM card encryption keys from Gemalto. The FBI is frothing at the mouth over Google's and Apple's encryption of their mobile OSes. Vulnerabilities in Signaling System 7 telephony protocols let third parties eavesdrop on cellphone calls and intercept text messages, despite encryption.

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Google Dresses Up Android Wear

Google on Monday released an update to Android Wear -- the first significant feature refresh for its wearable device software since its introduction more than a year ago. "This update is overdue," said Ian Fogg, senior director and head of the mobile and telecoms team at IHS Technology. "With other products, Google adds features fairly continuously," he noted. "Android Wear hasn't had as much focus from Google over the last year as some of its other products."

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US Navy Gears Up for Cyberwarfare

The U.S. Fleet Cyber Command, part of the U.S. 10th Fleet, reportedly is developing a strategy for modernizing its cyberoperations and transforming the Navy's network into a cyberwarfare platform. The strategy will seek to advance five key goals: operating the Navy network as a warfighting platform; conducting tailored signals intelligence; conducting offensive operations in cyberspace; expanding cybersituational awareness; and launching Navy cyberforces -- essentially teams of cyberexperts who will conduct cyberwarfare.

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We'll Soon Live in an Imaginary World

Virtual and augmented reality and holographic image technologies are coming at us with the speed of a freight train, and it won't be long until we'll no longer be able to distinguish between what is real and what isn't. How we are getting there is kind of interesting. There are some initiatives going on behind the scenes, as well as some breakthroughs, that shortly will make our experience of the world we are living in very different from what it is now. It's not just for gaming, but for a variety of efforts.

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Gadget Ogling: A Juicy Wristband, a Gamy Wearable and a Dorky Dongle

Asus is taking a common-sense approach to the fitness tracker game by debuting a new watch with a 10-day battery life. Thanks to its square screen, the soon-to-be-released VivoWatch resembles a smartwatch more than, say, a Fitbit. Although details are scant, it appears to have a monochrome screen, which must help extend that all-important battery life. It has a stainless-steel build, and dust and water protection. Its features include a heart rate monitor and sleep tracker.



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Riding in Driverless Cars Could Be Sickening

Self-driving vehicles could increase the likelihood of motion sickness in some riders, suggests a UMTRI study released last week. Motion sickness, also known as "kinetosis," is a condition marked by symptoms of nausea, dizziness and other physical discomfort. Three factors that contribute to motion sickness -- conflict between vestibular and visual inputs, inability to anticipate the direction of motion, and the lack of control over the direction of motion -- could be elevated in self-driving vehicles, the researchers noted.



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China's Great Cannon Could Point Anywhere When Next Fuse Is Lit

China has a new censorship tool that is causing alarm. It's known as the "Great Cannon." The University of Toronto's Citizen Lab identified the tool in a report released last week. The Great Cannon was first used in March, to launch a large-scale DDoS attack on GitHub and GreatFire.org, Citizen Lab said. The attack apparently was designed to thwart efforts to circumvent Chinese censorship. However, the Great Cannon could "be used to attack any target anywhere in the world," said Tomer Weingarten, CEO of SentinelOne.



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LG Lends Substance to G4 Rumors

LG on Thursday confirmed rumors about the basic look of its upcoming G4 flagship smartphone with a post on its Facebook page. Details about LG's forthcoming G4 flagship smartphone recently were leaked on a Korean microwebsite, generating considerable buzz on the Internet. Photos and other information were published by a number of outlets before the microsite disappeared. Almost everything revealed about the G4, other than its appearance, still falls in the category of rumor, although it's possible the leak was intentional on LG's part.



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Opening Windows Source Code Could Improve Security

Microsoft Technical Fellow Mark Russinovich raised a few eyebrows at ChefCon earlier this month, when he aired the possibility of Windows becoming an open source program. Sure, Microsoft's attitude toward the open source movement has mellowed over the years, but the prospect of the company rubbing elbows with the likes of Linux overloads the imagination. Still, there could be real benefits to making Windows an open source operating system -- among them, better security.



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Guitar Hero Strikes Back

Activision on Tuesday took the wraps off Guitar Hero Live, setting the video gaming stage for a battle of the bands. Though Guitar Hero's original developer left the group years ago to work on Rock Band, the series is in capable hands. DJ Hero developer FreeStyle Games has been prepping Guitar Hero Live for its fall release, which may be right around the time Rock Band 4 appears. The philosophies of the two music games always have been different, and these latest versions are no exception.



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SuperX OS Greases the Classic Linux Wheel

SuperX OS is a solid Linux distribution that dispels all of the criticisms about using free open source operating systems. SuperX is a relatively new distro developed by Libresoft. Based on Ubuntu and Debian, it adds a highly customized KDE desktop environment. Version 3.0 -- dubbed "Grace" after computing pioneer Grace Hopper -- was released March 23. The maturity and impressive performance of this latest release makes the SuperX OS a prime replacement choice for whatever distro you now use -- it is that good.



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Apple Devs Play WWDC Lottery

Apple on Tuesday announced that its 26th annual Worldwide Developers Conference will take place in San Francisco June 8-12. The event will include more than 100 technical sessions on developing, deploying and integrating the latest iOS and OS X technologies. Attendees will get access to the latest innovations, features and capabilities of the OSes, as well as best practices for enhancing an app's functionality, performance, quality and design. As in the past, Apple will issue the $1,600 tickets to the event through random selection.



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New Smart Drone Breaks $1K Barrier

A new aerial drone from 3D Robotics packs two computers and an array of powerful features for $999. The computers -- one on the craft and one in the controller -- have enabled it to make some radical breakthroughs in autonomous flight and camera control, according to 3DR. Built on 1-GHz Cortex A9 ARM chips running Linux, the computers allow operators to preprogram the drone's flight path so they can concentrate on shooting video or stills from the unmanned aircraft system and not be distracted by piloting tasks.



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Reactions to New MacBook Run From Tepid to Cold

Early reviewers last week weighed in on Apple's new MacBook, and for the most part, they were underwhelmed. The new MacBook is 13.1mm thick, weighs 2 pounds, and has a 12-inch Retina display. Apple has touted it as the future of the notebook, pointing out that it had to reimagine every element to make the device lighter, thinner and better. Reviewers praised the device's light weight, its sharp screen, the full-sized keypad, the new Force Touch feature and even the solitary USB-C port, although it is not backward-compatible.



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Apple's Storm Clouds

An Apple shop recently dumped Apple for Dell following a surprising revelation. Over most of the last two decades, the only time I've seen a move like this was when some change in IT forced it, and a lot of staffers subsequently would quit. This move was largely user-driven. Then, last week, one of Apple's biggest fans actually panned an Apple product, effectively calling it pretty but stupid. Finally, the reviews on the new Apple Watch were decidedly mixed, even though the product was wrapped with one of the better marketing campaigns I've seen of late.



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Gadget Ogling: Capacious Cases, Dumb Domestic Drones, Smarty-Pants Cups

When it comes to adding extending your smartphone or tablet battery life during the day, Mophie's been trying to make life easier a little longer than most, with time to iterate on its battery pack cases. The company's going a little further now, as it expands its Space line of cases that house not only batteries, but external storage for iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and iPad mini. There's a bit of a catch as you can't access files stored in the case from any app other than Mophie's own Space app.



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Flir Debuts Triple-Threat Video Cam

Flir Systems on Tuesday made a foray into the consumer market with a new video camera that can be used for home monitoring, sports, and even as a dash cam. The new Flir FX video camera, which supports WiFi, is a compact unit capable of capturing HD, as well as integrating with cloud-based analytics and a set of application-oriented mounts. The mounts allow the camera to be used for a variety of purposes, such as monitoring the inside or outside of a home, capturing sports action, or recording an automobile trip.



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Reality Check: Should We Buy an Apple Watch for Its Potential?

Because there are so many Apple-loving fanatics who are hopelessly addicted to their iPhones, the first wave of Apple Watch sales won't give us a reliable indicator as to whether it is a real success... or not so much. Because we're talking about Apple here, there will be a couple million customers who will love it and make it work -- even if, deep down, they're slightly disappointed. Such is the power of Apple and the loyalty of an Apple fan. So -- do the reviews even matter?



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Chrome Web Store Gives Bad Extensions the Boot

Google recently purged some 200 extensions from its Chrome Store inventory. Extensions and add-ons let users add functions and features to the Chrome Web browser, but bad extensions can expose users to a greater risk of spyware and malware. A major problem with many browser add-ons is ad injectors. The clean-up resulted from an extensive search for embedded code that violates Google's policies, triggered by increasing user complaints. Google has been studying add-on security risks with a team at the University of California, Berkeley.



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Emojis Get Real in New iOS

Apple on Thursday released a new version of iOS that adds racial diversity to its emoji library. In addition to the fair-skinned faces found in prior versions, the new assortment includes brown, black and golden yellow mugs. What's more, there are emojis of same sex couples and families, too. "Emoji have become huge for people. This is how a lot of teens now communicate," said Carolina Milanesi, chief of research and head of U.S. business for Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. "For some people, it's important."



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Devs Rev Up for a Weekend of Galactic Problem-Solving

More than 10,000 software and hardware developers, scientists and space fans will spend this weekend huddling in rooms in 136 cities around the world to participate in NASA's fourth annual International Space Apps Challenge -- a hackathon for space wonks. Using IBM's Bluemix, they will develop apps, software, hardware, data visualization and platform solutions to help space exploration missions and to improve life on Earth. The participants will leverage publicly available data from more than 200 NASA sources, including real-life NASA missions.



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Heartbleed Threat Won't Fade Away

This week marks the first anniversary of the Heartbleed vulnerability that caused a panic across the Internet last year. While the flaw appears to have faded from the recollections of Net denizens, it still poses danger at many sites in cyberspace. Heartbleed was discovered in April 2014 in an open source library, OpenSSL, used by the SSL protocol. SSL is used to encrypt data in transit on the Net. By exploiting the flaw with a specially crafted packet, hackers could extract data from a server's memory in 64K chunks.



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Early Reviews Give Apple Watch One and a Half Thumbs Up

The prelaunch reviews of the Apple Watch are out, and though they're generally favorable, they include a few niggling complaints. A select group of reviewers were loaned an Apple Watch for a week. Overall, their consensus is that it's a fine device for tracking health and fitness, it's great for making digital payments, and it has excellent battery life. Also, taking phone calls on the Apple Watch was easier than they expected. However, it took reviewers some time to figure out what to do with the device and how to do it.



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Flexible Aluminum-Ion Battery Recharges in 60 Seconds

Stanford University researchers on Tuesday revealed they had stumbled onto a breakthrough that could lead to the adoption of fast-charging, long-lasting batteries in the near future. The turning point occurred when the researchers were trying out materials to serve as a cathode, and they began experimenting with graphite. Using one of the aluminum-ion prototypes, they were able to charge a battery comparable to one used in a smartphone, in roughly 1 minute.



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Gadget Ogling: Dashing Buttons, a Plug-In PC and a Smart Teakettle

Amazon Dash is a series of WiFi connected buttons you dot around your home for various products. Once you run out, hit the button, and Amazon will ship out more of what you need. Run out of things like trash bags, razors, detergent, diapers, paper towels, dog food or toilet paper, and Amazon can ship you more at the touch of a button. It's wonderfully simple and a shining example of how the Internet of Things can better and enrich our lives beyond letting us open a door with a smartphone tap or changing the color of light in a room with an app.



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Roku Offers Shiny New Streamers

Roku on Monday unveiled its new Roku 3 and an updated Roku 2. The Roku 3 brings voice search and private listening via a headphone jack on the remote control. The Roku 2 received a buff so that its speed falls in line with the company's latest flagship streamer. Roku's share of the streaming hardware market fell from about 48 percent in 2013 to about 27 percent last year, according to Parks Associates. While Roku's share of the market has shrunk over the last few years, the sector has grown immensely.



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Parsix 7 Morphs GNOME Into a Better Desktop

Linux GNOME desktop distros are a dime a dozen. What makes Parsix a shinier dime than many of the others is how the tweaking of the GNOME desktop makes this distro such a pleasure to use. Dubbed Nestor, Parsix 7 is wrapped around Debian GNU/Linux Wheezy 7.0. The project's goal is to provide a ready-to-use and easy-to-install operating system based on Debian's testing branch and the latest stable release of the GNOME desktop environment. The Parsix distro meets that goal -- and goes even beyond.



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Microsoft Could Throw Windows Wide Open

Open sourcing the code for Microsoft Windows is "definitely possible," Microsoft engineer Mark Russinovich reportedly said last week during a panel discussion at ChefConf. The company isn't acknowledging any movement in that direction as yet, but Russinovich's remarks are a strong indication that the Microsoft of today isn't the trenchant foe of the paradigm it was in the past. Open source code has become a part of business life, and Microsoft has accommodated that reality, he acknowledged during the ChefConf session.



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John Oliver Tackles Surveillance in Surprise Snowden Scoop

Comedian John Oliver boldly went where few journalists from the mainstream media have dared to tread, grilling whistle-blower Edward Snowden about his leaking of thousands of NSA documents to the press. He raked Snowden over the coals for not having read every one of the documents, insisting there's a difference between understanding what's in documents and reading them. The documents were "passed to the journalists," Snowden responded, "and they're using extraordinary security measures to make sure this is reported in the most secure way."



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Fiorina's and Clinton's Presidential Runs: The Irony Is in the Analytics

There will be a lot of irony in the U.S. presidential primaries and general election as campaigns ramp up later this year. Last time, with Mitt Romney, we saw a business multimillionaire and ex-governor get schooled in how to use analytics by a guy who wasn't even that experienced in politics. Well, there are two women running for president this time -- Carly Fiorina and Hillary Clinton -- and it's likely that analytics, which comes from the male-dominated technology industry, once again will deeply influence the outcome.



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The Apple Watch as Bullsh*t Filter? We Can Only Hope

In "iPhone Killer: The Secret History of the Apple Watch," David Pierce doesn't reveal any serious secrets -- because Apple never does -- but he does illuminate the early days of the Apple Watch, centering on an interview with Kevin Lynch, Apple's vice president of technology. It's an interesting read for sure -- an easy recommend for any Apple enthusiast. And the most interesting "secret?" The Apple Watch was created as a bullsh*t filter designed to save the world from the tyranny of iPhones. No kidding.



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Samsung Galaxy S6: If Looks Could Kill

Samsung's upcoming pair of flagship smartphones are distinguished by their form factors. The Galaxy S6 edge is almost identical to the $650 Galaxy S6, but, for an additional $100, users get a display that spills over its sides, allowing notifications to appear along its marquee-like edges, without rousing the handset's display in full. Reviews of the S6 and S6 edge have been warm all around, holding true to a trend that's been going on for several Galaxy releases.



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Obama Draws Cyber Line in Sand

President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed an executive order that gives the Secretary of Treasury the authority to impose sanctions on entities found responsible for or complicit in carrying out a cyberattack harmful to U.S. interests. The Secretary of Treasury will have to consult with the Secretary of State and the Attorney General before enacting the powers granted under the order. "Starting today, we're giving notice to those who pose significant threats to our security or economy," said Obama.



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Google Goes Crazy for Chromebooks

Google has announced two new budget-busting Chromebook computers, a tablet/notebook convertible with a full swivel screen, and a Chrome computer-on-a-stick. The Haier Chromebook 11 and the Hisense Chromebook both are available for preorder for $149. The Asus Chromebook Flip will hit the market this spring with a $249 price tag. The Asus Chromebit will be available this summer for less than $100. "Chromebooks ... could and should put increasing pressure on lower-end PCs and laptops," said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.



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Surface 3 Targets Windows-Loving Prosumers

Microsoft has raised the curtain on its new Surface 3 tablet, targeting users who want a robust Windows tablet at an iPad price. Up to now, those looking for a full-featured Windows tablet had to spend $799 for a Surface Pro 3, but some customers will find their needs can be met with the new $499 Surface 3. "It allows Microsoft to continue to market and promote all of the innovations of the Surface Pro 3 and have a go-to product for those who aspire to get a Pro model, but it's not in their budget," noted Directions on Microsoft's Wes Miller.



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