A Gartner report about the security software market out Thursday shows that No. 2 ranked McAfee enjoyed the most overall growth last year, Trend Micro slipped but stayed No. 3, and Symantec held onto its top spot with 19.6% of the $19.1 billion market. Gartner’s report looked at 12 market segments that included endpoint security products for both the enterprise and consumer markets: The three “giants” of the market, as Gartner puts it, remain Symantec, McAfee and Trend Micro, with 35% combined market share. McAfee, which was acquired by Intel in 2011, showed the highest overall year-to-year growth, with revenues rising from $1.22 billion to $1.68 billion in 2012, a 37% increase that Gartner says can be attributed to organic growth but also partly to accounting rules that allowed Intel a write-down. Symantec revenues rose 2.6% from $3.65 billion in 2011 to $3.75 billion. Trend Micro, which has had traditional strength in the Japanese market, saw revenue drop from $1.2 billion in 2011 to 1.17 billion, a 2.7% decline.
Seagate is a dominant company in the hard-drive sector, but it has played only in the enterprise space when it comes to solid state storage. That changed with the introduction of the 600, an SSD aimed squarely at the broader consumer base. One of the first SSDs to feature Toshiba's new 19nm MLC NAND, the 600 also leverages the Link-A-Media LM87800 controller that Corsair has employed with great success in its . The 600 is available in both 7- and 5mm profiles, which makes them particularly suited for thin form-factor computing. We reviewed the 7mm version (Seagate model number ST480HM000. If you want the 5mm variant, look for Seagate's model number ST480HM001. Seagate shipped us a 480GB version of the 600 and a 400GB version of the 600 Pro (model number ST400FP0021, available in only a 7mm height). Both drives have the same amount of NAND on board, but the Pro uses 80GB for error correction and replacing worn-out cells. This provides a longer life and safer operation in mission-critical roles. The 600 has a slightly racier black and white paint job; beyond that, our test drives were physically identical SATA 6Gbps units with tamper-proof cases. The 600 isn't the fastest SSD we've tested, but it proved upper crust in all phases of our testing. The drive wrote a 10GB mix of files and folders at 393.8MBps and read them at 394.1MBps. With large 10GB files those numbers jumped to 626.3MBps writing and 467.8MBps reading. These results placed the drive anywhere from fifth to eighth place in individual tests. When the scores are aggregated, this drive becomes the third fastest we've tested behind Samsung's 840 Pro and OCZ's Vector.
Good news Verizon customers with a Galaxy S3: your phone is about to get a serious that will bring a host of fixes and new features to S3 users, including Multi-Window capability and the Best Shot camera feature. The Galaxy’s Multi-Window option is a powerful feature for heavy multitaskers who use a variety of apps. It allows them to operate two apps at the same time, and adjust, switch, or close each window. The ability to smoothly operate multiple apps simultaneously on a smartphone is directly dependent on the capability of its processor. Utilizing a processor, the S3 can multitask without any lag. In addition to Multi Window, the software update will incorporate the Best Shot feature, which takes a burst of five photos in quick succession, then picks the best one to give you better odds of a crisp, well-lit image. In addition to those notable updates, S3 users will see a slew of customary . They will be able to bill their Verizon account when making purchases on Google Play, making the app buying experience more seamless. NFC will be easier to turn on and off, Wi-Fi will be easier to use in Hotspot mode, and Lock Screen function will be improved. Additionally, users will also be able to rearrange their icons by frequency of use with Contextual App Link, and there will also be a Contextual Tag feature which lets users tag weather, locations, and friends in videos and photos.
Phew. Maybe Windows Blue (or Windows 8.1, as Microsoft is now officially calling it) won't be so . But Microsoft is betting big that a fresh coat of paint will be enough to bring users back into the fold. On paper, at least, Microsoft's of some of the new key features within Windows Blue take some definite strides forward, with entirely new components, such as Internet Explorer 11, anchoring the new release. Microsoft hasn't abandoned its original vision. Rather, it’s just compromised it a bit by delivering features that users have been clamoring for. What Microsoft still isn't overtly acknowledging, however, is that there are two groups of users: those who have seen Windows 8, have been baffled, and have walked away; and a second group, who understand how Windows 8 works and what Microsoft is trying to do. Antoine Leblond, Microsoft's corporate vice president who authored today's , is clearly addressing the latter group. In many ways, the fundamental problem with Windows 8 is that the modern interface of the Start screen works best on a tablet—this despite the fact that the vast majority of users first experience it on a PC. The array of apps and widgets is bold and beautiful—and daunting. Apps dominate the entire screen, and even the ability to "snap" two apps to the same screen doesn't eliminate the fact that a of screen space goes to waste.
Last week, Nvidia announced the GeForce GTX 780, the successor to the , and $650 is a hard sell even for demanding gamers. One week later, Nvidia has closed that gap with its new, $400 GeForce GTX 770. Unlike the GTX 780 and Titan, the GTX 770 rocks the same GK104 GPU featured in last year's 600-series graphics cards, but don't let that fool you: This card is anything but dated. Going by the specs in the slide above, the GTX 770 is essentially a refreshed, slightly souped-up version of last year's flagship GTX 680, sporting a similar architecture with slightly higher core and memory clock speeds. Despite that, Nvidia claims the GTX 770 is actually than its true generational counterpart, the GTX 670.
. But this time around, I want to touch on two issues I didn't cover back then: How to turn on and off the little, tile-based slideshow on the Start screen, and how to control what pictures turn up on that slideshow, and in the Photo app in general.
Desktop diehards will find a present waiting for them in Windows 8.1, the impending upgrade colloquially dubbed “Windows Blue.” A wonderful, horrible, oh-so-teasing present. isn’t. Instead, clicking the old familar button will dump you into the modern UI Start screen. While the new feature is notable for adding a helpful visual cue to an operating system rife with hidden menus, it isn’t exactly what people begging for the return of the Start button were looking for. One much-clamored-for, keyboard- and mouse-friendly feature will be making a debut in Windows 8.1, however. The update adds the option to boot directly to the desktop, bypassing the modern UI start screen completely. (Actually, you can boot into several alternate locations, including the All Apps view.)
With an eye on next year’s European elections, on Thursday called on the European Parliament to support her longstanding plans to end roaming charges and guarantee net neutrality. Though contrary to media reports no concrete legislation was presented, Kroes has been pushing for an end to roaming charges for some time and has managed to reduce them substantially in recent years. Her aim to see net neutrality enshrined across all 27 E.U. member states is also well documented, and her speech reiterated her position. Kroes has been laying the groundwork for net neutrality for years. When she first appeared in a hearing before the European Parliament as a candidate for digital agenda commissioner in January 2010, she said that ISPs “shouldn’t be allowed to limit the access to service or content out of commercial motivation.” In April 2012 she instructed BEREC (the Body of Regulators on Electronic Communications) to carry out a study on the implications of net neutrality and in July 2012 she launched a public consultation on the subject. to net neutrality.
Microsoft is expanding its enterprise services in China with a new Global Service Delivery Center in the country, the second of its kind in the world, the company said Wednesday. The company is building the center in Chongqing, where it signed an agreement with the municipal government, Microsoft said in a statement. in the country, including hiring an additional 1,000 employees in China over the next fiscal year. Microsoft’s goal is to expand to 15 provinces and 20 cities in China as a way to bring more cloud computing services to its customers. The country has 22 provinces, not including Taiwan, which it also claims, and five autonomous regions. from Chongqing’s government.
Mobile payments startup Payleven has struck a deal that calls for Apple to start selling chip-and-PIN readers in its retail stores across Europe. Payleven’s chip-and-PIN reader can be connected to an iPhone, iPad or Android device via Bluetooth, allowing users to take payments from major card providers such as Visa and MasterCard. The device can be used anywhere where a mobile or Wi-Fi connection is available and is intended to be used by small businesses and sole practitioners such as plumbers, electricians or outdoor market stalls, Payleven said in a news release Thursday. The device is available for £99 ($150) and has no fixed monthly fee. Payleven charges 2.75 percent per transaction. "Anyone who wants to buy one can go to an Apple retail store in London right now and get one,” said a Payleven spokesman.
Western Digital, a company well known for manufacturing consumer and enterprise hard drives, as well as small NAS boxes for the SMB market, is expanding its focus on the latter market with a new line of rack-mount storage systems. Its first product is the Sentinel RX4100, a 1U rack-mount version of its existing Sentinel DX4000 desktop NAS. The RX4100 is powered by a dual-core Intel Atom D525 CPU with 4GB of DDR3/800 memory, and it runs Microsoft’s Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials operating system. This is a scaled-down version of Microsoft’s more robust Windows Small Business Server 2011 product. As such, it can’t run full-blown business applications such as database software, but its graphical user interface makes it easy for employees who aren’t IT professionals to manage data storage, client backups, share files, and set up remote access. “Small businesses have the same storage needs as the enterprise,” said Western Digital’s VP SMB Tom Gallivan in a pre-announcement briefing, “but they don’t have the people to manage it. We’re focused on making it easy for business owners to focus on managing their business versus managing their IT infrastructure.” Gallivan said WD chose Microsoft’s operating system because “90 percent of small businesses operate on a Windows LAN. With our solution, the customer can have the system and up and running within 30 minutes of taking it out of the box.” The RX4100 comes with 25 client computer backup licenses. The device also supports Apple Filing Protocol (AFP), and Mac clients can use it as a Time Machine backup target. “We’re seeing a lot of environments where people want to bring their Macs and use Time Machine,” said Gallivan.
Workers who wish to connect their Windows machines to Google’s calendar, contacts and email services have some good news and some bad news: Google’s Sync now supports Office 2013. But it doesn’t really work. Those who live entirely within Google’s ecosystem—such as ChromeOS, which taps into Gmail, Calendar, and other Google services—aren’t affected. Neither are people who use Outlook.com running on top of Windows and a Windows tablet. last November (although existing users are still being supported). But Google also said it would continue to support Sync for paying customers of Google Apps indefinitely, leaving Sync's syncing capabilities a key enabler for small businesses. (As a sidenote, Google also said it would replace its proprietary Sync technology with open protocols: IMAP or POP protocols to access email, CalDAV to access calendars, and CardDAV to access contacts.)
You work hard to protect your PC from the malicious thugs of our digital world. You keep your antivirus program up to date. You avoid questionable Web sites. You don’t open suspicious email attachments. You keep Java, Flash, and Adobe Reader up-to-date—or better yet, you . But against all odds, a clever new Trojan horse slipped through the cracks, and now you’re the unhappy owner of an infected PC. Or perhaps a less-vigilant friend has begged you to clean up a plague-ridden mess. Obviously, you need to scan the computer and remove the malware. Here’s a methodical approach that you can use to determine what the problem is, how to scan, and what to do afterward to protect the PC from future invasions. Is the PC in question really infected? I’ve seen people blame “another damn virus” for everything from a bad sound card to their own stupidity. The first step in restoring the system’s health is to determine whether what you’re dealing with is a virus rather than a problem with hardware, software, or user error.
The sky is falling! The sky is falling! Or to put the precipitous decline of the PC industry more aptly, it appears as though the bottom is finally falling out. . That’s a Very Bad Thing by all accounts—especially since last year’s 4 percent decline already had the PC industry reeling. Here’s the thing, though: All of those forecasts are dead wrong. Chicken Little, the sky ain’t falling. In fact, consumer hunger for PCs has never been stronger, as long as you adjust for what what you might call an accounting error. A rose by any another name is still a rose. And tablets—the very tormentors causing the old PC guard such intense pain—are truly PCs, despite fevered claims to the contrary.
Server revenue worldwide was down 7.7 percent year-over-year in the first quarter, as weak economic conditions and server consolidation by customers slowed sales, according to research firm IDC. Revenue in the market dropped to $10.9 billion in the quarter, the fifth-time in the last six quarters the server industry saw year-over-year decline. Server shipments also fell in the period by 3.9 percent year-over-year. Customers, both large and small, continue to reduce their total number of servers as a way to improve efficiency, IDC said Wednesday. This led to revenue contraction for every market region in the quarter, except Asia Pacific. During the period, revenue from midrange and high-end systems were down year-over-year by 18.3 percent and 17.1 percent, respectively. Hewlett-Packard rose to the number one position in the server market with 26.9 percent market share, while IBM fell to second place, with a 25.5 percent share. Both companies posted declining year-over-year revenue growth on weak demand for their x86-based server products.
Drupal.org has reset account passwords after it found unauthorized access to information on its servers. The access came through third-party software installed on the Drupal.org server infrastructure, and was not the result of a vulnerability within Drupal, the open source content management software provider said in a late Wednesday on its website. The information exposed includes user names, email addresses, and country information, as well as hashed passwords. The breach has affected user account data stored on Drupal.org and groups.drupal.org, and not on sites running Drupal software. Drupal.org is the volunteer-run home of the Drupal project, which keeps track of the Drupal code and contributed work, while Drupal Groups is used by the community to organize and plan projects. Investigations are still going on and Drupal may learn about other types of information that may have been compromised, wrote Holly Ross, executive director of (Drupal Association, which maintains the Drupal.org site.
Nissan and some other big brands have suspended advertising campaigns on Facebook after ads were apparently displayed next to offensive content on the site. The campaigns were put on hold in the U.K. just as Facebook rolled out to help it more quickly identify and remove hate speech and other forms of offensive content on its site. Those changes were announced Tuesday following calls for action from groups including Women, Action and the Media and the Everyday Sexism Project, which pointed to images posted on Facebook that encourage or make jokes about violence against women. The Japanese carmaker Nissan, the U.K.’s Nationwide Building Society and Unilever’s Dove brand all were concerned about their ads being displayed next to such content, according to a report in the Financial Times.
Google is kicking off its latest effort to help Gmail users manage their messages—a redesigned inbox. The new inbox, which , sorts incoming messages into labeled buckets. The messages it deems most important flow into the Primary bucket, while social network notifications from sites like Google Plus are grouped under a Social tab. Email from sites like Groupon announcing vendor deals go into a Promotions category, while receipts and confirmations go into an Updates bucket. Both mobile and desktop users will have access to the inbox, which lets people drag and drop messages from one category to another and instruct the system to drop messages from particular senders into a particular bucket. Gmail users who don’t like the new inbox can toggle back to the groups unread and important messages first, followed by starred messages. Users can also create their own category labels—the Gmail equivalent of folders.
Microsoft has rolled out the first phase of integrating Lync and Skype. Merging the two together makes both services better, but an even better solution would be to eliminate one of them altogether. In a , Microsoft explains that Skype contacts can now be added to Lync, and Lync users can be added to Skype. The current integration allows voice calls and instant messaging between the two services, but video calling has not been integrated yet. Lync integration with Skype is available for Lync 2010 and , but it must be enabled. The IT admin can configure Lync-Skype connectivity on the Lync server, or within the Lync admin center in the Office 365 portal. Skype users need to be using a current version of the Skype client software, and they must log in using a Microsoft account to take advantage of the Lync integration. If you have a login for SkyDrive, Xbox Live, Windows Phone, or Outlook.com, then you already have a Microsoft account you can use with Skype.
You may be too concerned about privacy and security to leave naked files lying around on a remote server. That's completely fair, but don't let it keep you from using the cloud. BoxCryptor is a free Windows desktop app that creates an encrypted folder that can be placed inside your cloud storage folder.
Medium isn't the first outlet to with Facebook, but it is one of the more eloquent ones. In a lengthy monograph on the subject published this week, writer Jeswin opined on its increasing irrelevance to his life, calling the bulk of his news feed "absolutely useless" and the sharing system "completely broken." Last month, reporter Christopher Thompson announced that he would be , much to the consternation of friends and family. His reasoning was much the same as Jeswin's: Keeping tabs on all the people he'd met in his life had become "a complete waste of my time." In his piece on the topic, he added, "I found myself checking Facebook often, and it was really providing no value to my personal or professional life. I got tired of reading about people complaining and spreading negativity. And what put me over the edge was when I read a status update from someone that was nothing but lyrics from a rap song." That's a common sentiment that was somewhat formalized this week by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which released a focused in on the essential callout: "Focus group discussions with teens show that they have waning enthusiasm for Facebook, disliking the increasing adult presence, people sharing excessively, and stressful 'drama,' but they keep using it because participation is an important part of overall teenage socializing." The self-loathing Facebook user seems to be an incredibly popular phenomenon, and anecdotally it looks like it's spilling over to business users, too. I checked in with several small business owners and found that concerns over Facebook range include difficulties reaching disinterested users, problems with phony user profiles, negative and , and simply trying to stand out in what has become a mammoth wall of noise.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged the Nasdaq stock exchange with violations of securities law for its “poor systems and decision-making” during Facebook’s initial public offering, the agency has announced. Nasdaq has agreed to pay $10 million, the largest SEC settlement with a stock exchange, to settle the agency’s charges, the . A disrupted Facebook’s IPO in May 2012, despite anticipation that the social network’s IPO would be the largest in history, the SEC said. When that happened, Nasdaq officials “made a series of ill-fated decisions,” the agency said in a statement. “Exchanges have an obligation to ensure that their systems, processes, and contingency planning are robust and adequate to manage an IPO without disruption to the market,” the SEC said.
Those still hoping for a Windows 7-styled Start experience for Windows 8.1—a.k.a. Windows Blue—will apparently be disappointed, according to two new reports filed Wednesday. that Windows 8.1 does include both a boot-to-desktop option and a Start button, as previously suspected. But the Start button essentially just moves the Start charm from the right-hand portion of the screen, where it's normally hidden, to a more prominent role in the the left-hand, bottom corner of the screen. Foley did say that users will be able to reorganize the traditional "Metro" Start page, by default, into an "all apps" view, which will veer somewhat closer to the Windows 7 Start experience. And both Thurrott and Foley seem to indicate that both the Desktop as well as the Start screen will be able to share common background images, making the transition from one to the other more natural. (To enable the "All Apps" view within Windows 8, go to the Start screen, type a and click or touch the "all apps" button in the lower right.) To recap: To switch from the Desktop to the Start screen under Windows 8, users can do one of two things—find the Start charm by sliding the Charms in from the right-hand portion of the screen, or by pressing the Windows key on the keyboard.
You can keep your Google Drive files private, or you can use it as one huge file sharing network. Many Google Drive users allow public access to their files, which means that if they have a certain type of file that you also need, you can request a copy...if you can find it.
Die EU-Kommission will Roaminggebühren bei Telefonaten im europäischen Ausland im kommenden Jahr ganz abschaffen. Die zuständige Kommissarin Neelie Kroes rief das Europäische Parlament auf, im Frühjahr 2014 ein Gesetzespaket zu verabschieden, das ein Ende der Zusatzkosten vorsieht.
Microsoft holt den „Start“-Button in der neuen Version seines Betriebssystems Windows 8.1 auf die Oberfläche zurück. Das aus früheren Versionen bekannte Startfeld erscheine künftig auf dem Bildschirm, sobald man die Maus in die untere linke Ecke bewege, teilte Microsoft heute in einem Blogeintrag mit.
Die angeblich seit Monaten laufenden Verhandlungen zwischen dem sozialen Netzwerk Facebook und dem israelischen Navigationsdienst Waze über eine Übernahme sind einem Bericht zufolge geplatzt. Streitpunkt sei ein Umzug der Mitarbeiter von Waze an den Facebook-Sitz in Kalifornien gewesen.
Der US-Elektronikriese Apple rückt einem Bericht zufolge von seinem langjährigen Zulieferer Foxconn ab: Apple werde sein geplantes günstiges iPhone, das im Laufe dieses Jahres in die Läden kommen soll, vom Foxconn-Konkurrenten Pegatron fertigen lassen, berichtete das "Wall Street Journal" in seiner Online-Ausgabe. Pegatron hat seinen Firmensitz wie Foxconn in Taiwan, lässt aber auch viel in China produzieren.
Der Microsoft Gold Partner Ambit führt ab sofort exklusiv sämtliche Microsoft-Dynamics-CRM-Kurse für den IT-Aus- & Weiterbildner Digicomp in der Deutschschweiz durch. Dies teilen die Beiden Unternehmen in einem gemeinsamen Communiqué mit.
Google investiert weiter in den Standort Schweiz. So sind heute neue Büroräumlichkeiten auf dem Hürlimann Areal eröffnet worden. Somit arbeiten gegenwärtig laut Communiqué 1100 Personen für die Suchmaschinenkönigin am Entwicklungsstandort Zürich, - dem grössten ausserhalb den USA.
Der US-Satelliten-Fernsehbetreiber Dish stockt seine Übernahmeofferte für das Internet-Unternehmen Clearwire deutlich auf. Je Anteilsschein bietet Dish nach eigenen Angaben nun 4,40 Dollar. Damit wird Clearwire mit insgesamt 6,5 Milliarden Dollar bewertet.
Die Telekomanbieterin GGA Maur hat das Spreitenbacher Kabelnetzunternehmen Antesa übernommen. Damit wolle man die Marktpräsenz auf dem Gebiet der Stadt Zürich und in angrenzenden Gemeinden ausbauen, wird im Communiqué dazu betont. Die Kaufsumme wurde nicht bekannt gegeben.
Der japanische Elektronikriese Panasonic will in seiner Auto- und Industrie-Sparte in den kommenden drei Jahren rund 5.000 Stellen einsparen. Das sind knapp fünf Prozent aller 110.000 Arbeitsplätze in diesem Bereich. Der Jobabbau sei Teil der Strategie, die Rentabilität zu steigern, sagte der Chef der Sparte, Yoshihiko Yamada, in Tokio.
Heute, Donnerstag, startet Microsoft mit dem Verkauf des Surface Pro in West- und Mitteleuropa, unter anderem in der gesamten Dach-Region, und damit auch in der Schweiz. Der grosse Bruder zum Tablet Surface RT soll eine etwas andere Zielgruppe ansprechen.