Microsoft revealed that it’s limited-time $100 discount on Surface Pro pricing isn’t so limited after all. The , and Microsoft cut the cost of the Touch keyboard cover as well. The reduced pricing makes the Surface Pro more attractive, but it’s still not enough to significantly sway sales. The Surface Pro is a solid, well-engineered device. On the surface (no pun intended) it’s a tablet, but inside it’s a full Windows 8 PC. It has an Intel Core i5 processor, and 4GB of RAM. Unlike many tablets—especially the very popular Apple iPad—the Surface Pro has a full-sized USB port, an SD memory card slot, and an HD AV port that can be used to connect via HDMI or DisplayPort to an external monitor with the right adapter. It has the size, weight, and portability to compete as a tablet, but it runs the full Windows 8 operating system—including all of your traditional Windows software. There are ways to do that in a limited way from an iPad or Android tablet using a remote streaming service like for the iPad, but those solutions are no match for just running your software directly on your tablet. As a PC, the Surface Pro is even more unique. It can be used at your desk, connected to a monitor, keyboard, mouse or touchpad, and other peripherals, but it can also be easily taken with you on the go, or used to watch a movie in the living room, or for reading a Kindle book while you’re riding on a bus or train. Try that with your desktop—or even your laptop to some extent.
Don't let your sensitive data fall into the wrong hands.
Facebook hopes a large wood working shop installed in one of its buildings on the Facebook campus will inspire some of its employees to apply some new thinking to the jobs they were hired to do.
Software-defined networking (SDN) promises some real benefits for people who use networks, but to the engineers who manage them, it may represent the end of an era. Ever since Cisco made its first routers in the 1980s, most network engineers have relied on a CLI (command-line interface) to configure, manage and troubleshoot everything from small-office LANs to wide-area carrier networks. Cisco’s isn’t the only CLI, but on the strength of the company’s domination of networking, it has become a de facto standard in the industry, closely emulated by other vendors. As such, it’s been a ticket to career advancement for countless network experts, especially those certified as CCNAs (Cisco Certified Network Associates). Those network management experts, along with higher level CCIEs (Cisco Certified Internetwork Experts) and holders of other official Cisco credentials, make up a trained workforce of more than 2 million, according to the company. A CLI is simply a way to interact with software by typing in lines of commands, as PC users did in the days of DOS. With the Cisco CLI and those that followed in its footsteps, engineers typically set up and manage networks by issuing commands to individual pieces of gear, such as routers and switches.
If issues persist, early adopters may have to live with faulty hardware.
Negotiations have broken down between two Internet giants and U.S. government representatives over the companies’ requests to publish information on the surveillance requests they receive, a Microsoft executive said Friday. . ”We hoped that these discussions would lead to an agreement acceptable to all,” Smith wrote. “While we appreciate the good faith and earnest efforts by the capable Government lawyers with whom we negotiated, we are disappointed that these negotiations ended in failure.” The two companies requested that they be allowed to publish data about the number of surveillance requests they receive after former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked information about the agency’s widespread surveillance activities.
The Fetch will help you find a phone you left behind; the Mini+ will let you talk with your phone without holding it to your ear. But the gadgets don't work with all HTC phones.
Nothing better to do during the long holiday weekend? Try binge-watching some great streaming TV.
When it comes to tapping into U.S. telecommunications networks for surreptitious surveillance, the National Security Agency can’t be accused of not paying its way. The government agency pays “hundreds of millions of dollars a year” to U.S. telecommunications companies for the equipment and service required to intercept telephone calls, emails and instant messages of potential interest, . For the current fiscal year, the NSA will pay $278 million for such access, and had paid $394 million in fiscal 2011, according to the . Although previous news reports of NSA surveillance noted that the agency paid the costs for tapping into communications networks, the exact amount the agency has paid has not been cited before, according to the .
Salesforce.com’s second-quarter earnings conference call featured the usual dose of chest-thumping by CEO Marc Benioff as the company posted $957 million in revenue and raised its full fiscal year forecast to at least $4 billion. But the call also revealed some telling details about the company’s strategic direction and growth. Here’s a look at the highlights. after instant messages in which he was critical of Oracle co-president Mark Hurd surfaced as part of a lawsuit with Hewlett-Packard. While Block’s departure was inevitable, he was considered a key to Oracle’s growth and success. And he’s currently filling an important hole in Salesforce.com’s strategy, Benioff said on Thursday’s call.
The subsidiary was designed to directly compete with T-Mobile's Simple Choice plans with competitive rates.
The U.S. intelligence community is reportedly using a fifth of its $52.6 billion annual budget to fund cryptography-related programs and operations. Some of those funds are invested in finding weaknesses in cryptographic systems that would allow breaking encrypted communications collected from the Internet and elsewhere, according to a portion of a top-secret document and obtained from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. The document is the fiscal year 2013 budget proposal summary for the National Intelligence Program, which spans 16 agencies with over 107,000 employees. The entire report called “FY 2013 Congressional Budget Justification” has 178 pages, according to the Post, but the newspaper only published 17, including a 5-page statement signed by U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. In his statement, Clapper listed the primary areas of investment for the intelligence community which included Signals Intelligence (SIGINT). In respect to SIGINT he wrote: “We are bolstering our support for clandestine SIGINT capabilities to collect against high priority targets, including foreign leadership targets. Also, we are investing in groundbreaking cryptanalytic capabilities to defeat adversarial cryptography and exploit internet traffic.”
Not that Microsoft was fooling anyone before, but the Surface tablet discounts that the company previously advertised as “limited time” are now permanent. will remain priced at $349 for 32 GB, and $449 for 64 GB, a discount of $150 in both cases. Microsoft is also offering a black Touch Cover bundle with both Surface RT models for an additional $50. retains its $100 discount on all models, bringing the price to $799 for 64 GB and $899 for 128 GB. No Touch Cover or Type Cover bundles are available with the Surface Pro. Microsoft has also slashed the price of its standalone Touch Cover accessories by $40. Regular covers now cost $80, and Limited Edition covers are $90. Pricing for the Type Cover, which has actual mechanical keys compared to the Touch Cover's pressure-sensitive sensors, remains at $130.
The Australian Sex Party, a political organization, has a hard time getting some love from Google. The search engine has rejected several AdWords advertisements related to the party’s position on marijuana legalization and voluntary euthanasia. AdWords is Google’s pay-per-click product that shows advertisements related to keyword searches and content. The Australian Sex Party, founded in 2009, is fielding 54 candidates in Australia’s upcoming federal election, which will take place on Sept. 7. The party also supports same sex marriage, the decriminalization of personal drug use and better public transport. The Sex Party has requested a manual review of its AdWords advertisements, which were placed through Google’s automated systems, said Fiona Patten, the group’s president.
Absent flashy, headline-grabbing new features, Adobe's updates for are simply improvements to the program's existing core features and functions. Alongside the app's enhanced user interface, Flash CC's new ability to export projects to HTML, to full HD video and audio, and to test animations directly via USB on mobile devices, are designed to benefit the vast majority of users. Adobe has overhauled the familiar Flash user interface in this version. It is now a fashionable dark gray, which looks very professional (but can be switched back to light gray). The timeline and code editor have also been improved, alongside numerous other interface elements. A full screen editing mode, which shows only the canvas, hiding all the palettes, is a great addition. The workspace canvas has also been adjusted. In the past, you were limited to a maximum size. That limitation is now gone, so you can import large graphics for a scrolling background—great for game developers creating a jump-n-run (side scroller) game. Flash's new 64-bit architecture works well with late model MacBook laptops and will surely scream with the recently introduced Mac Pros. Adobe has rewritten most of Flash's code to convert it to a native cocoa application. For artists who like to work anywhere from a client's workspace to their home office, Flash CC automatically syncs preferences of your Flash installations through the Creative Cloud.
You don't have to be a hard-core audiophile to appreciate Helium Music Manager, but music fans with will get the most out of this application. This music organizer and player that helps you stay on top of extensive collections of files. It features an attractive design, but sometimes it's just a bit harder to use than it should be. I like how easy Helium Music Manager makes getting started: Launch the application, and it displays a wizard that lets you select which files you'd like to add to its music library. The process is quick, though adding thousands of files obviously takes a bit of time. Once your files are available through Helium, you can see its organizational features at work. Chief among them is Helium's tag editor, which lets you work with individual files or batches, to speed things along. Casual users may be overwhelmed with how many options there are for tagging audio files, but music aficionados will appreciate the choices. Unfortunately, many of Helium's other management features are not available in the free version. You have to upgrade to either the $29 Premium or $49 Network (up to 5 users) versions to take advantage of the features that allow you to analyze and repair MP3 and FLAC files, and locate and manage duplicate files. Rival MediaMonkey offers this kind of de-duping feature in its free version.
The U.S. government has decided to release data annually on its secret spy orders and the number of people affected by them, the country’s intelligence chief said Thursday. The government will release the total number of orders issued during the prior 12-month period, and the number of targets affected by the orders, Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper said in a statement on “IC on the record,” the . The disclosures will be broken down under certain categories such as data requests under the business records provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and National Security Letters issued by the government, he added. The move follows demands by lawmakers, rights groups and Internet companies that the government should release more information on the secret collection of data from telephone and Internet companies by the National Security Agency.
to a proposed new privacy policy it published on Thursday. "It is astonishing to find the facial recognition again in the new proposed privacy policy that Facebook published yesterday. We therefore have directly tried to contact officials from Facebook to find out if there is really a change in their data protection policy or if it is just a mistake of translation," Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information Johannes Caspar said in an email on Friday. The Hamburg data protection commissioner, already at odds with Facebook over its use of face recognition technology, reopened its proceedings against the company in August last year, telling the company to either obtain explicit consent for face recognition from users, delete the data, or face a lawsuit, Caspar said at the time. facial recognition for all European users in September last year, and said it would delete all face recognition templates for existing users in Europe.
If you love to eat and spend free time playing free games, this is the place for you. Enjoy these tasty morsels of bite-sized fun.
Good Technology has integrated its Dynamics Secure Mobility Platform with Salesforce.com’s Mobile SDK to help developers build mobile applications that are more secure and easily managed. The growing popularity of smartphones and tablets combined with the BYOD (bring-your-own-device) trend presents several challenges to IT departments, including developing mobile applications and then efficiently managing and protecting them. Salesforce.com’s Mobile SDK (software development kit) helps with the former and Good’s Secure Mobility Platform offers the latter. The goal with the integration is to make it easier for Salesforce.com developers to build apps compatible with Good’s containerization technology, which offers features such as app-level encryption as well as compliance and jailbreak detection. Enterprises can also put in place data loss prevention and automated actions that lock and wipe applications without impacting a user’s device or personal data, according to Good. The Mobile SDK, which is available for Android and iOS, is a key part of Salesforce.com’s accelerating mobile push. It lets developers choose between building applications directly for Apple and Google’s OSes, web applications or so-called hydrid applications—which make it possible to embed HTML5 apps inside a native container.
Dorm rooms are tiny, but that won’t stop you from having friends over after a long day of classes. But while might be fine with watching a movie on your laptop, its screen is too small for a group of people—and with your limited space (and college student budget), you can’t really splurge on a tricked-out entertainment system either. You can, however, create your own basic setup with two key devices: a high-quality display and an awesome set of speakers. Instead of a TV, consider picking something a little more versatile, like an all-in-one PC or an HDTV monitor. The ($550) is an HDTV monitor with a built-in TV tuner, so you can use it as a spare monitor for your laptop and for watching TV. The tuner supports your dorm’s cable network, and you can access myriad web apps from the display’s home screen—it includes streaming staples like YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and Pandora. Videos look sharp on its 1080p resolution display. Because it’s Wi-Fi enabled, you can stream content from the monitor’s apps without needing your laptop hooked up. And thanks to the USB jacks on its side, you can connect your mouse and keyboard and browse the Internet through its built-in browser.
Today’s best gaming desktop computers are universally fast, powerful, and sexy. They’re a lot like high-end sports cars, complete with flashy lights and sleek metal chassis. Origin takes the sports car analogy one step further with its Haswell-powered Genesis Z87 system: It offers the option of a semi-custom paint job or a totally custom laser etching on its case—provided you’re willing to open your wallet wide. ), but it’ll put a sizable dent in most bank accounts. The Genesis Z87 has all the components you’d look for, plus a few extras. Housed in a large Corsair 800D chassis painted “Shredder Red” (a black paint job that looks like the case has been skinned to reveal a red undercoat), the Genesis sports an unlocked Intel Core i7-4770K processor (overclocked to 4.7GHz), 16GB of DDR3/1866 memory, and three Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 graphics cards. It also has two 256GB Samsung 840 Pro SSDs running in RAID 0; a 1TB, 7200rpm hard drive; and Wi-Fi 802.11a/c (along with Bluetooth and a gigabit ethernet port for connectivity). The system also features all the other goodies you expect to see on high-powered gaming systems, including a 1200-watt power supply, six USB 3.0 ports, a 40-in-1 card reader, a Blu-ray burner, interior LED lighting, and 7.1-channel surround sound. Each video card has two DVI ports, one HDMI-out, and one DisplayPort to support multimonitor setups.
Maybe a new app will help you wrangle those massive piles of email.
Laptops are awesome. They’re convenient, portable, and relatively powerful: the perfect combination for college. But sometimes you just want the comfort of a display, a full-sized keyboard and mouse, and speakers that don’t make every singer sound like a screaming banshee. Well, you have two choices: You can get a traditional desktop computer and a stand-alone display and speakers, or you can buy an all-in-one that integrates the computer, display, and speakers into a single chassis. A desktop might cost a less (don’t forget to factor in the price of a display and speakers), but it won’t move well. All those internal components can be jarred loose in transit, creating major troubleshooting headaches every time you set it up in your next domicile. And if you’re a typical college kid, you’ll be moving—again and again—for the next several years. Fortunately, all-in-ones have become more powerful dropped in price over the past several years. The five all-in-ones we’ve gathered here are perfect for college students: They have large touchscreens, good speakers, solid media editing and encoding capabilities, and big hard drives. Those are features you’ll be thankful for when finals—and parties—come around. Each of these computers can easily handle productivity tasks—word processing, number crunching, and Web surfing—without breaking a sweat, but they can also deliver excellent audio and video experiences when you’re ready to relax. Yes, there are more powerful AIOs on the market, and the ones we’ve picked might not be the best choice for graphic design or media-production majors, but any one of them will help you manage your school work watch Netflix.
If Indiana Jones used a smartphone, this would probably be it.
You've looked over your budget, and things are pretty grim. If you splurge on that brand-new $50 game, it'll cost you a week's worth of groceries. You can last that long without eating, right? Don't go hungry. Instead, check out these awesome PC games that cost nothing, nada, zilch. Hours of endless fun can be yours at the low, low price of free. We'll start by taking to the skies for a breathtaking tour of Hawaii.
A 17-year-old Australian who in February claimed to have breached networks at Microsoft and Sony will plead not guilty to charges stemming from a police raid on his home. Interestingly, none of the charges lodged against Dylan Wheeler relate to his claims to have breached the networks and extracted software tools used to develop games for the XBox One and PlayStation systems. According to documents shared by Wheeler, he is charged with possession of child exploitation material, dishonestly obtaining credit card information, possession of identification information with the intent of committing an offense, and disobeying a data access order to reveal his passwords.
Like some other Chinese brands, Xiaomi doesn’t exactly have the easiest name for westerners to pronounce. But on Thursday, the name was spoken worldwide after the company hired a former Google executive to lead its global expansion. The is the latest in a string of successes for a company that only began selling Android phones in China two years ago. Xiaomi product launches are so anticipated in the country that its phones routinely sell out, forcing millions of customers to wait for more stock. Expectations for the company are also high, with some saying Xiaomi is China’s answer to Apple. But to expand outside its home market, Xiaomi faces a difficult road that other Chinese handset makers are still trying to navigate, according to analysts. They point to challenges with raising brand awareness, potential patent disputes, and whether Xiaomi can go head-to-head against foreign tech giants with a history of innovation. “There’s still some debate as to how much is Xiaomi an innovative company, and how much of their innovation is just really good public relations,” said David Wolf, a technology consultant at public relations firm Allison+Partners. “I think we are coming to the point where we are going to find out.”
Samsung Electronics has started mass producing DDR4 memories that it expects will go into enterprise servers in next-generation data centers. A successor to the DDR3 (Double Data Rate 3), DDR4 memories are expected to offer higher performance, reliability and lower power consumption than its predecessor. as to whether the market is ready to transition in volumes from DDR3 memories which are still being designed into servers and other products. Some analysts have forecast that the component will get designed into servers and later PCs only by 2015. Samsung said on Thursday that early market availability of the 4-gigabit (Gb) DDR4 devices, which use 20-nanometer process technology, will create demand for 16GB and 32GB memory modules.
Hate Plus, the add-on-cum-sequel to 2012’s Analogue: A Hate Story is wonderfully written, but doesn’t invite nearly the level of emotional investment as its predecessor.
Do you have a small website that isn't performing as well in Google's search results as you think it should? Google's Matt Cutts is asking small website owners to submit sites and explain why they deserve to outrank other websites on Google.
Twitter was busy this week with two announcements. First, Twitter announced that it has made Lead Generation Cards available to all advertisers. Meanwhile, Twitter made conversations easier to follow by putting tweets in chronological order.
Being able to perform a thorough backlink analysis is a fundamental element to any link building campaign. What's more, running backlink analyses can help develop your fundamental knowledge of links, link building strategies, and link quality.
At SES San Francisco, Bill Hunt will show you how to mine your search keywords and social data for new revenue opportunities. Here, Hunt shares some insights on where to find data and some tips and tricks for getting started with keyword research.
Don't expect any personalized responses from Google, considering there are 250 million domain names, and Google took manual action on 400,000 websites just in January 2013. They also receive about 5,000 reconsideration requests every week.
Trendrr creates big data social analytics products for TV and media brands, including Curatorr, which allows clients to curate tweets for broadcast, or analyze discussions on social networks to create ranking lists or voting systems.
Disgruntled business owners recently vented their frustrations at a Yelp town hall meeting. Not surprisingly, the majority of the complaints had to do with the site's reviews filter. Business owners are still insisting that the filter is rigged.
Facebook has drastically changed its contest rules for businesses. What was once restricted is now available. Brands can choose to run contests on the timeline with a variety of entry and voting mechanisms, as well as through a third-party app.
It's absolutely critical to understand and remember the differences between correlation, causation, and coincidence. Here we define each term, and look at some examples that you likely have (or will) encounter while monitoring your rankings.
Revenue from paid search grew to 44 percent of revenue from all search engine traffic, including organic, MarketLive reported. Paid search made up about one-third of search engine visits. One-third of all traffic came from smartphones and tablets.
Discovering the less obvious or intuitive interests of your target audience is a phenomenal opportunity to unlock insights into topics and content that can capture their attention and drive search and social engagement in surprising ways.
Today's Google Doodle celebrates Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, a defining moment in the American Civil Rights Movement, which he gave August 28, 1963 during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedoms at the Lincoln Memorial.
YouTube has decided to retire Video Responses due to extreme low click-throughs. Many are lamenting the passing of this little-used feature. But what's worth commenting on are the features that YouTube has quietly given video marketers.
Google's "(not provided)" designation in Google Analytics is up. Way up. But it's not the same for all industries. Some experience this nuisance more than others, with the tech industry in first position, according to the study.
There are times that hidden technical problems get rolled out to a website that can negatively impact SEO. Learn about four mistakes that can sending dangerous signals to Google and Bing, and how to make sure those problems never happen to you.
We've all been told that creating unique, awesome content is our key to visibility gold and customer loyalty. But how do we do it, consistently? Awesome content isn't going to write itself. It doesn't just happen. This is how you write it.
Voucher sites and car classifieds websites were among the industries hit hardest by Google's Panda updates. But some sites have snatched recoveries from the jaws of Panda and have now seen traffic return – and even grow. Here's how they did it.
If your website has received a manual action notice called "Hidden text and/or keyword stuffing", the solution is pretty easy: simply remove it. Google also says you should document your cleanup process for the reconsideration request.
For years, EdgeRank has been the name of the algorithm Facebook uses to determine which posts users see in their news feed. However, Facebook is no longer using the term EdgeRank. Despite dropping the name, the framework is still alive and well.
Big changes are coming to Bing's shopping results. Bing announced it is integrating shopping information directly into the main search results to show users product features, specifications, reviews, and related products.