Yahoo has redesigned its Sports, Movies, Music, TV, omg, Games and Weather sites with a more consistent look and some personalized tools, the company said Tuesday. Yahoo is positioning the sites’ redesign, described in a , as a way to demonstrate value to users, partly through offering personalized tools like improved tracking of people’s games history, “so you can get back to your favorite ones faster,” the company said. With the redesign, Yahoo is also making a pitch to advertisers. Previously the aforementioned sites did have display advertising, but under Tuesday’s changes stream ads will now also appear in shaded gray boxes alongside the sites’ news and media content. So too will Yahoo’s billboard ads, which offer interactive content like links for purchasing movie tickets. Yahoo is now placing two new types of ads across several of its sites as part of a redesign announced Tuesday.
The VMware vCloud Hybrid Service will start offering a fully supported Suse Linux Enterprise Server by the end of the year, making it the first commercially supported Linux OS that the cloud service plans to offer. “We have a lot of customers already running Suse Linux in their private data centers who are looking to move to public clouds. They will now be able to use the same tools that they use to manage their [private VMware] to manage their instances in the public VMware cloud,” said Frank Rego, Suse’s VMware alliance manager. Suse announced the pending offer at VMware’s , being held this week in San Francisco. On Monday at the conference, VMware formally launched its in May.
A new Web-based service for cybercriminals automates the creation of fake scanned documents that can help fraudsters bypass the identity-verification processes used by some banks, e-commerce businesses, and other online services providers, according to researchers from Russian cybercrime investigations firm Group-IB. The service can generate scanned copies of passports, ID cards, and driver’s licenses from different countries for identities supplied by the service users, fake scanned utility bills from various companies, as well as fake scanned copies of banking statements and credit cards (as shown above) issued by a large number of banks, said Andrey Komarov, head of international projects at Group-IB, via email. It is common practice for banks, payment and money transfer providers, online gambling sites, and other types of businesses that engage in money transactions via the Internet to ask their customers for scanned copies of documents in order to prove their identities or verify their physical addresses, especially when their anti-fraud departments detect suspicious account activity. Using image manipulation software to change the photo, name and other details on a scanned ID is obviously not a new practice, but services like the one identified by Group-IB that automate the whole process and produce high-quality results are new on the cybercriminal market, Komarov said.
A COBOL (common business oriented language)-based system used to support New York’s $160 billion state pension fund has become the subject of controversy, with some officials claiming it poses a potential security risk and others defending it as “battle-tested,” albeit set to be replaced. Dubbed MEBEL (member, employer, benefits, executive and legal), the system dates back more than 25 years, according to an audit by the state Department of Financial Services. It “supports the core business processes of the retirement system including benefits processing, calculating and payment, employer billing and reporting, and enrollment and termination of membership,” the audit adds. “Using a system that is more than 25 years old for such a high volume of transactions is dangerous, particularly because the systems and programs MEBEL was intended to interface with are also now very outdated and there are a small and dwindling number of specialists able to use and maintain them,” the audit states. The audit also found that MEBEL had been using versions of IBM’s z/OS mainframe operating system and Microsoft’s SQL Server that were so out of date, they weren’t supported by the vendors. While the state has upgraded SQL Server it won’t do the same for z/OS until later this year, according to the audit.
NASA has released an animation of an ambitious project that includes capturing a near-Earth asteroid and sending astronauts into space to study it. While it sounds like science fiction, President Obama has added the asteroid initiative to his fiscal year 2014 budget request. He initially announced plans for the mission in April 2010 and it could be executed as early as 2021. The near-Earth asteroid would first be robotically captured in a maneuver akin to throwing a bag over something. The mission would seek an asteroid that is 7-10 meters in diameter, weighing about 500 tons.
The U.S., of course, led the list of countries fighting for access to Facebook’s user account data.
All but two of the top 30 companies targeted by "patent trolls" seeking licensing fees are in the technology sector, with Apple leading the way.
As screen sizes have come down, so has the entry-level pricing for Ultra HD TVs.
As the trend famously codified by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore—that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit would double every two years—seems to be flagging, one top engineer suggests that it is time to rethink chip design to buy performance increases. Instead of just focusing on reducing chip size and cranking up processor speeds, engineers need to look at making tweaks or possibly even change fundamental microprocessor architecture to ensure chips are faster and cheaper to produce, said Robert Colwell, director of the microsystems technology office at DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), in a talk on Monday at the Hot Chips conference in Stanford, California. Colwell dismissed arguments that Moore’s Law will continue to hold, and said engineers should give serious thought to the design and economics of chip making. “I pick 2020 as the earliest ... when we can call it dead. That’s only seven years away,” Colwell said. “I’m thinking 7-nanometers. You can talk me into 2022, you might be able to even talk me into 1-nanometer. But you’re not going to into 1-nanometer... I think physics dictates against that.”
[] The line between e-commerce and entertainment is blurring again: Amazon today is launching a system that lets developers through third-party Android apps. To put it another way, consumers will be able to buy stuff from Amazon from within an app on their Android phone without taking the trouble to visit Amazon’s storefront. Although it’s early days, Amazon’s developer partners already have a few apps ready to go. The app, for example, has everything you’d expect from a pregnancy app, including a weekly journal, information about the pre- and post-natal process, and a social network. And of course, BabyBump will allow users to buy pregnancy- and baby-related products. Amazon has made the development process as simple as possible for developers and has already signed up nearly two dozen. Using the Amazon API greatly simplifies the sales and development process; there’s just one vendor to deal with and one piece of code to deploy.
Facebook received more than 25,000 requests from governments about its users during the first half of 2013, with nearly half of those requests coming from U.S. law enforcement and related agencies, the company said. , released Tuesday. Other countries with high numbers of requests: India with 3,245, the U.K. with 1,975, Germany with 1,886, and Italy with 1,705. The “vast majority” of the requests related to criminal cases, Colin Stretch, Facebook’s general counsel, wrote in the report. In many cases, the requests seek basic subscriber information, such as name and length of membership, while in other cases, law enforcement officials seek IP addresses or account content, he wrote.
Google has told Android developers that they can start offering free apps in Iran, while Apple has removed Iran from among the countries to which sales of its products are prohibited. “Developers, starting today you can make your free apps available in Iran,” Google in a Google+ post on Monday. The move appears to be linked to the U.S decision in May to lift sanctions on the export of a variety of consumer communications devices and software and services including mobile phones to Iran. Exports of the devices to Iran had been blocked since the 1990s, but ahead of presidential elections in the June in the country, the U.S. decided that its new license would empower the Iranian people as the Iranian government intensifies its efforts to stifle their access to information.
Four new smartphone OSes intend to challenge Apple and Google’s dominant position. Mozilla’s Firefox OS is the first out of the gate, but Canonical, Samsung Electronics and Intel, as well as Finnish upstart Jolla Mobile, are also getting their alternatives ready. Phone makers and mobile operators are worried about the Android-iOS duopoly the smartphone market has evolved into. This concern has given birth to a new generation of OSes that its respective backers are hoping can make a mark. Of the four challengers, Firefox OS is the furthest along and is already in devices on the market.
The new phone is rumored to have a 20-megapixel camera and pro-level lenses.
, hitting the so-called RTM milestone for the much-awaited update to Windows 8. Both Windows 8.1 for x86 machines and Windows RT 8.1 for ARM-based devices have begun shipping to makers of PCs, tablets and laptops, Microsoft said via a blog Tuesday. However, commercial and enterprise developers, as well as other IT pros, will have to wait until mid-October to get their hands on the OS update, prompting a chorus of boos from them. In the past, the RTM release also meant the OS was ready “for broader customer use,” but that’s changed now, in part because the OS has to work with such a broad variety of devices, Microsoft official Antoine Leblond.
If cash is tight, upgrading to a solid-state drive is one of the biggest PC bangs you can get for your bottom dollar. Seriously, these puppies are face-melting fast, and the cheapest SSD you can buy blows the spinning platters off the fastest traditional hard drives you can buy. But what if that's still not fast enough? What if you've got a ? Intel just might have you covered, oh impatient one. At the company's annual Intel Developer Forum this September, Intel plans to demonstrate a way to overclock its self-branded SSDs, as part of and upcoming Ivy Bridge-E Extreme Edition processors. While overclocking processors, graphics cards, and even RAM is all relatively commonplace, overclocking SSDs is virtually unheard of—but that doesn't mean it isn't theoretically possible. Solid-state drives rely on NAND flash memory, and like those other frequently tweaked PC components, NAND is regulated by clock speeds and other technical fineries, all of which are regulated by the firmware in your drive's SSD controller.
There’s good news, and not-so-good news. The good news is the number of people accessing the network over broadband continues to increase. The not-so-good news is that the term “broadband” is so broad that it’s difficult to tell how good the good news really is. The Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project , while dial-up remains steady at three percent. The problem is the things considered to be “broadband” cover a wide range of connection speeds. The used by Pew was, “At home, do you connect to the Internet through a dial-up telephone line, or do you have some other type of connection, such as a DSL-enabled phone line, a cable TV modem, a wireless connection, or a fiber optic connection such as FIOS?” Whether a home relies on a 3G wireless connection, a DSL connection, a cable modem connection, or happens to be lucky enough to live in an area served by Google Fiber, all these technologies are considered “broadband.” However, Google Fiber is thousands of times faster than some 3G wireless connections, so it’s a little silly to lump them together at all—never mind suggesting they’re all “high-speed broadband.”
, shut down due to Twitter API changes, and has re-emerged as Tweeki 2, a whole new iteration of the Pokki Twitter app. The change becomes apparent before you even log in. Tweeki 2 is based on a new partnership with Intel, which means you must create an Intel Services Identity before you can start using Tweeki. Once you do, you can use this single log in to bring up all your Twitter users on any PC, including unread counts for timeline, mentions, and DMs. This feature works surprisingly well, but it's important to note than when logged in on two PCs at once, actions you perform on one PC, such as switching between users, will also affect Tweeki on the other PC. Once logged in, you'll become acquainted with the new Tweeki interface. In a strictly sized window (you cannot change the size), you'll find six different columns: timeline, mentions, DMs, lists, profile, and search. In addition, a compose button opens up a compose bar which you can hide when not using it, and another button on the left opens up the users and settings menu. For here you can add users, switch between users, sign out of the current user, and access the notification settings.
Hamster Free Zip Archiver comes across as cute and cuddly, thanks to its nicely designed user interface and a bouncy GIF animation. And once you start using it, you can almost hear a whirring hamster wheel. It's fast. The Hamster website claims that it takes advantage of multi-core computing to go faster. That claim held up when I tested Hamster on a new Windows 8 PC Quad-Core. The company claims it's faster than its competitors on older machines, too. Thanks to its drag and drop interface, it's easy to use, too. To create a compressed file, you simply drag and drop the files you want to include onto HFZA main screen. Hamster tells you the folder's current size and asks you to choose between the ZIP and 7Z formats. Choose your file format (ZIP is faster, as it was when using 7-Zip), whether or not you want to split the file up, and whether or not you want to lock the file. You then press "compress," and Hamster does its job. Hamster's actual compression results were less impressive: It reduced my folder to only 26MB, so there is no extra advantage, file size-wise. But, like PeaZip, Hamster offers the ability to split compressed files. To send an email, you can split the file in two as long as the recipient also has Hamster ready and waiting to put the file back together again.
Passwords with dozens of characters are supposed to be a natural defense against hackers, because they're that much harder to crack compared to short passwords. But not anymore. can now crack passwords with around 55 characters, an increase from 15-character support in the previous version. Jens Steube, Hashcat's lead developer, said in the software's release notes that support for longer passwords was “by far one of the most requested features.” ” users' passwords, essentially using cryptography and adding other unique information to each individual password. This makes it harder for hackers to discover the actual passwords after stealing them, but with the help of cracking software, hackers can still make lots of rapid fire guesses to eventually figure out people's hashed passwords. (Hashcat, for instance, can make 8 billion guesses per second.) With cracking software, weak passwords are the first ones to go, because they're easily guessed by the software's algorithms. A strong password amounts to a last line of defense, and long passwords had proven particularly tough to guess.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison typically uses his annual OpenWorld conference keynotes to deliver the company’s biggest announcements and strategic positioning, and this year they will apparently involve an in-memory database and Oracle’s PaaS (platform as a service) offerings. On Sunday, Sept. 22 Ellison will deliver his first keynote, which is titled “Oracle Database 12c In-Memory Database and M6 Big Memory Machine,” according to an announcement released Tuesday. The first likely refers to something during an Oracle earnings call. While Oracle released an , on the call Ellison referred to an upcoming product he described as a “vertical, columnar compressed, high-speed in-memory vertical database” that would be out at the end of this year.
Samsung, it seems, doesn't believe in cultivating an air of mystery for its product launches. The Galaxy Note III and long-hinted-at Galaxy Gear smartwatch will both be unveiled just ahead of the IFA Berlin trade show.
Put a fork in it, because Windows 8.1 is done. this weekend. , with boxed discs and third-party hardware appearing on physical store shelves the day after. .
Windows 8 may be seeing sluggish demand, but Dell believes its the best OS for business tablets and plans to roll out more products built with the operating system later this year, a senior executive said Tuesday. “The reason that our Windows tablets are more secure and easier to manage than Android-based products and iOS-based products is because of Windows on our tablets,” said Dell vice chairman and president of global operations Jeff Clarke. “And we are not going to change that.” Clark made the comments while speaking to journalists at the Dell Solutions Summit in Beijing on Tuesday. He added that the company was focused on building tablets for business users, and not for consumers. “In business tablets we can differentiate our offerings from our competition,” he said, pointing to Dell’s work in making the devices more secure and easier to deploy for businesses. Windows-based tablets still only make up a small portion of the tablet market, with a share of 4.5 percent in this year’s second quarter, according to research firm IDC. In contrast, Apple’s iPad had a 32.5 percent of the tablet market, while tablets running Google’s Android had 62.6 percent.
Killer is Dead, the latest title from Suda51 and Grasshopper Manufacture, is a fairly boring game with a heaping dose of misogyny ladled on top.
Spelunky is a self-improvement seminar wrapped up in the guise of a sublime platformer.
Citrix Systems will use its NetScaler Control Center for VMware to manage NetScaler functionality within virtualized networks that use VMware's NSX platform. Most of the time VMware and Citrix are tough competitors, but when it comes to managing next-generation data centers the two companies have found some common ground. They are partnering to allow administrators to programmatically add NetScaler application delivery functionality to hosted environments. NSX was announced on Monday at VMware's VMworld user conference. It will deliver networking and security functionality in software, and in the process decouple management from the networking hardware.
Samsung Electronics claims that Ericsson demanded billions more for patent licenses after their license agreement expired in 2007. The company made its claim in a document filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) on Monday. Ericsson wants the ITC to ban the import of Samsung’s Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note, and Galaxy Tab 7.7, as well as other Samsung products including TVs. Ericsson alleged that the products infringe on its patents in a complaint filed with the ITC against Samsung in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Technologies at issue relate to electronic devices for wireless communications and data transfer including radio frequency technology and standardized communication protocols including GSM, GPRS, EDGE, W-CDMA, LTE, and 802.11 Wi-Fi.
Apple made its first tablet PC, featuring handwriting recognition, in 1993. Benj Edwards takes a look at why the Newton failed.
Vertrauen ist durch Geld ersetzbar: In einem Experiment zeigten Forscher, dass sich in kleinen Gruppen viele Menschen freiwillig helfen. Als sie die Gruppengrösse steigerten, änderte sich dies jedoch drastisch.
Unbeirrbar und wider alle Evidenz beschwören die Grünen weiterhin die Gefährlichkeit der Fracking-Methode zur Öl- und Gas-Gewinnung. Warum die Angst der Umweltaktivisten vor Fracking ungerechtfertigt ist.
Um den Hirschkäfer ranken sich zahlreiche Mythen. Und die alten Griechen benutzten ihn sogar zum Spielen. Jetzt zeigen Studien, dass der grösste Käfer Europas mit unserer Kultur gut zurechtkommt.
Die Aufständischen bauen einen Teil ihrer Waffen selbst. Diese sind erstaunlich primitiv – und dennoch tödlich.
Spektakuläre Bilder und 7000 beschädigte Gebäude: Vor einem halben Jahr stürzte ein Meteorit über Russland ab. Wissenschaftler untersuchen die Ursache dafür und präsentieren nun erste Ergebnisse.
Aus den Alpen eingeschleppte Ameisen werden in Süddeutschland zur Plage. Über ganze Landstriche hinweg bilden sie Superkolonien. Biologen glauben, dass sich das Insekt weiter ausbreiten werde.
Das am Samstag geborene Pandajunge konnte im Zoo von Washington erstmals untersucht werden. Es wiegt 137 Gramm und ist gesund. Das Geschlecht ist jedoch noch nicht bekannt.
Untersuchung auf Downsyndrom: Der umstrittene Test für Schwangere wurde auch aus psychologischen Gründen eingeführt. Nun zieht der Hersteller eine Bilanz.
Flugzeugingenieure entwickeln immer neue Flügelenden, um Kerosin einzusparen. Dabei dürfen sie die Ästhetik nie aus den Augen verlieren: Kunden verlangen nach sexy Winglets.
Ein automatisiertes Taxi, das Fahrgäste einsammelt und an ihr Ziel chauffiert: Diese Projekt schwebt dem Google-Konzern laut einem Tech-Blog vor. Die ersten Verhandlungen sollen laufen.
Der Nachwuchs bei einem Panda-Weibchen im Zoo von Washington sorgt für Begeisterung. Das winzige Bärchen quiekt bereits und scheint laut Zoodirektor Dennis Kelly gesund zu sein.
Mit Hilfe eines Tauchroboters haben Wissenschafter aus Deutschland die heisseste Stelle des Pazifiks entdeckt. Zudem fanden sie Spuren von Gold.
Millionen Chinesen trinken vermutlich Wasser, das mit natürlichem Arsen verseucht ist. Das zeigt eine neue Risikokarte von Schweizer Forschern.
US-Wissenschaftler haben eine Atomuhr konstruiert, die mindestens zehnmal stabiler als alle bisherigen tickt. Das spezielle Kernstück ist der Taktgeber.
Das Doppelte des Neuenburgersees: Diese Fläche könnten einst drei neue Naturpärke in der Schweiz umfassen. Die Projekte in Neckertal, Schaffhausen und Simplon haben noch einen langen Weg vor sich.
Wespen und Zecken – beide Tierarten profitieren zurzeit vom guten Wetter. Erstere finden in Gärten ein grosses Nahrungsangebot – und stören so manchen Grillabend. Doch lange schwirren sie nicht mehr in der Luft.
Ein ein Kilo schwerer Tumor füllte die Bauchhöhle des Mädchens fast komplett aus, es schwebte in Lebensgefahr. Schweizer Chirurgen konnten die Geschwulst in einer komplizierten OP entfernen.
Zweieinhalb Jahre nach der Atomkatastrophe von Fukushima kämpfen die japanischen Behörden mit dem seither schwersten atomaren Zwischenfall in der Anlage.
Seit diesem Sommer gelten angepasste Organzuteilungsregeln: Lebern von erwachsenen Spendern müssen prioritär Kindern bis 25 Kilogramm zugeteilt werden. Ein Jurist wittert Diskriminierung.
Der Flughafen Zürich muss am Ende der sehr kurzen Piste 28 ein Bremssystem erstellen. Damit soll verhindert werden, dass ein Flugzeug in die Glatt fällt, falls es das Pistenende überrollt.