Category: What’s On

Apparently, Google is working on a new operating system called Fuchsia but not much is known about it. Early evidence indicates that the new operating system might be a catchall OS that can run on computers, mobile devices and even Internet of Things devices. So far, Fuchsia consists of some work on Google’s code repository and on the GitHub code-sharing Web site. News of the new OS emerged from a page that surfaced on GitHub. There has been no official confirmation

Major U.S. Hotels Hit by Payment Card BreachHEI Hotels & Resorts is warning guests who stayed at some of its properties that they might have had their payment card data stolen while making purchases at onsite restaurants, gift shops and spas. The security breach affected 20 properties, including some Marriott, Starwood, Sheraton and Westin hotels, at various times between March 1, 2015 and June 21, 2016 according to the hotel chain. First reported to the chain by its card processor, the

A federal appeals court yesterday ruled that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) overstepped its bounds when it issued an order to preempt state rules limiting the development of municipal broadband networks in Tennessee and North Carolina. The decision was welcomed by the telecom industry, which has in some places fought against city-led efforts to expand broadband services to more people. Supporters of local broadband expressed disappointment and called the ruling a setback for expanding Internet access to underserved areas of the

Users like the convenience of Google’s Drive suite of applications, but the Docs, Sheets and Slides apps haven’t received high ratings from mobile users, especially when it comes to using them to make tables and charts. However, an update to the Docs, Sheets and Slides apps for Android released this week aims to make them easier to use than ever. For instance, when users copy a body of cells in Sheets and paste it into Docs or Slides, the selection will

While Salesforce didn't shout from the rooftops about its recent decision to acquire the "living document" platform provider Quip, it clearly sees big potential in integrating Quip's offerings into its own. Quip, a four-year-old San Francisco-based tech firm with just about 40 employees, is on track to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Salesforce, which is paying an estimated $750 million for the company.Since news of the transaction emerged with Salesforce's August 1 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission,

Despite recently weakening consumer sales for both the iPhone and iPad, Apple devices and software have enjoyed a growing presence in business enterprises. Out of net sales of nearly $234 billion in 2015, some $25 billion came through sales to large business customers, according to Apple's most recent annual report, released in October. While those sales were just a small fraction of the company's overall revenues, they grew by 40 percent over enterprise sales in 2014, significantly more than Apple's overall

The newest smartphones in Samsung’s Galaxy line come with contactless mobile payment capability. That’s good news when it comes to convenience, but it might be bad news when it comes to security. During a presentation given recently at the Def Con security conference in Las Vegas, a computer science student demonstrated a variety of attacks against Samsung Pay, Samsung’s mobile payment service.The attacks Mendoza described were able to intercept or fabricate payment tokens, which are the single-use codes created by users'

A reported data breach affecting retailers using Oracle's Micros point-of-sale systems could be linked to a Russian hacking group that stole up to $1 billion from banks in 2014. The attack on Oracle's computer systems and Micros customer portal first came to light on July 25, according to IT security writer Brian Krebs. That's when a Micros customer contacted the KrebsOnSecurity blog to report "a potentially large breach at Oracle's retail division."We reached out to Oracle for a comment on the

Eyeing the opportunity to grow its e-commerce sales, Walmart today announced it will shell out $3.3 billion to acquire the online retailer Jet. Since launching a year ago, Jet has grown rapidly to reach $1 billion in merchandise sales. While Walmart dominates the brick-and-mortar retail ecosystem in the U.S., its online sales trail that of its greatest e-commerce competitor, Amazon. In 2015, Amazon reported net sales of $107 billion, while Walmart's online sales came to $13.7 billion, compared to its total

Recently uncovered security flaws could mean trouble for owners of devices that run the Android operating system. Researchers at security firm Check Point recently discovered the vulnerabilities, together labeled Quadrooter, which may affect as many as 900 million Android devices. Speaking about the discoveries last week at the Def Con security conference in Las Vegas, Adam Donenfeld, Check Point's lead mobile security researcher, revealed four new privilege escalation exploits that can be used to remotely gain root access to Android handsets.To

Software security firm Symantec has identified a group called Strider that's aiming spying-related malware at individuals and organizations in Belgium, China, Russia and Sweden. Apparently active since at least late 2011, Strider has kept a low profile and could be a nation-state attacker, Symantec said. Strider uses "stealthy," hard-to-detect malware called Remsec that provides backdoor access to infected computers for stealing data, logging keystrokes and other actions, according to Symantec. The organization appears to be highly selective, with only 36 attacks

Nobody likes managing passwords -- remembering, maintaining and regularly changing them is a chore that most computer users avoid. Now, Canadian software developer AgileBits is aiming to make that chore easier -- or at least cheaper. AgileBits' 1Password password manager now has a new subscription plan for individuals. AgileBits' family and team password management platforms have been successful, so now it has introduced a service that’s aimed at individuals for use at work or at home.Simple and Safe The Toronto-based AgileBits is

Online business software provider Zoho has come out with new offerings for multichannel commmunication and marketing-focused email management. The tools are designed to help companies build better relationships with customers who communicate with them in a wide variety of ways. Released last week, the latest version of Zoho's software for customer relationship management (CRM) features what the company said is the first email client designed specifically for salespeople. Zoho SalesInbox provides marketers with multiple ways to organize email messages according to

Today, Facebook officially took the wraps off what co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg called the "biggest and most advanced hardware lab" in the company's history. Designed for Facebook engineers and designers working on everything from improved data center equipment to virtual-reality cameras, the Area 404 lab covers 22,000 square feet, "the size of half a football field," at the company's offices in Menlo Park, Calif., Zuckerberg said. The facility takes its name from the standard HTTP 404 error message delivered when

The good news is that most of the people who buy the Apple Watch like the product. The bad news is that not as many are buying the device as last year. Although the Apple Watch is still the leader in the new world of smart watches, holding a 47 percent market share in 2016, that figure is down from the 72 percent share it held in the second quarter of 2015, according to figures compiled by market research company

The culmination of the world’s first tournament of automated computer security systems is set to take place in Las Vegas, Nevada on August 4. The Cyber Grand Challenge (CGC) will be hosted by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) in the Paris Hotel, where seven security teams will put their automated systems to the test for a chance to win almost $4 million in prizes. “Today's approach to cybersecurity depends on computer security experts: experts identify new flaws and threats and

A federal judge sentenced a man to six months in federal prison Thursday for hacking into hundreds of Apple and Google accounts and stealing scores of personal photos, including some belonging to celebrities. U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt also issued a $3,000 fine to Andrew Helton, who pleaded guilty to a federal hacking charge in February, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles.Helton, a 29-year-old resident of Portland, Ore., acknowledged that for two years starting in March 2011

Well that didn’t take long. Just two years after its debut as a standalone app, Facebook is reporting that Messenger has reached more than 1 billion active monthly users. That's in addition to the more than 1 billion users on WhatsApp, the company’s other popular messaging app. Facebook's main app, with 1.5 billion active monthly active users, is believed to be the single most popular iOS app on the market, giving the company three apps with more than a billion users

Data centers are notorious for how much energy they require. Now, however, Google thinks it has found a way to mitigate that problem. Over the last few months, the tech giant has been using an artificial intelligence (AI) system built by DeepMind to control certain parts of its data centers to make its vast server farms more environmentally friendly. DeepMind is the British AI company that Google bought for more than $600 million two years ago. The company is famous for

By transitioning Skype from a peer-to-peer architecture to a cloud-based one, Microsoft aims to enable the messaging and file-sharing service to better keep up with changing technologies and user habits. While the move hasn't been completed yet, changes made so far have already helped support a number of new features on Skype, including mobile group video calling, near-real-time translations of conversations and bots for automated, artificial intelligence-powered services.The transition to the cloud will help make the service more mobile-friendly and effective

Seldom does a week go by without news, rumors and speculation about new phones, but the past week was especially busy with smartphone chatter. Apple, Motorola and Samsung have all been in the headlines over the past several days regarding phones they have in the works. Apple iPhone 7 LeaksA few days after photos appeared of the upcoming iPhone 7, a video emerged that seemed to show the new smartphone -- two months in advance of its anticipated release. A China-based

Efforts to upgrade U.S. communications infrastructure to 5G technology got a big boost from the federal government today. The Obama Administration just announced the launch of a $400 million Advanced Wireless Research Initiative, led by the National Science Foundation (NSF), designed to accelerate the deployment of next-generation wireless technology. The program will invest in efforts by researchers experimenting with and testing novel technologies, applications and services capable of making wireless communication faster, smarter, more responsive and more robust over the next

During its Shape Tech Expo in San Francisco this weekend, AT&T plans to demonstrate how it is using drones to inspect its cell towers from the air. The company is also looking at other future applications that could include using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to provide improved LTE coverage during crowded events or disasters. AT&T has been testing various uses for drones over the past year, and the company is already using the technology to inspect cell towers. Among the other

Negotiators had been talking for hours with the hunkered-down killer of five police officers in downtown Dallas when the man suddenly resumed firing with an assault rifle. Fearing additional casualties, the officers deployed a small, remote-controlled robot to carry an explosive device near shooter Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, which they then detonated, killing him."We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to detonate where the suspect was," Police Chief

Typing PIN numbers and passwords into a smartwatch or similar wearable can leave you vulnerable to hackers, according to researchers from Binghamton University and the Stevens Institute of Technology. The researchers found that it's possible for attackers to figure out secret access codes by tracking and measuring "fine-grained" hand movements used when inputting security information into wearable devices. In 5,000 key-entry tests for three different security systems over nearly a year, the researchers found they were able to successfully crack 80

Three months ago, after 10 months of negotiations, Canadian tech giant Mitel Networks Corp. announced that it would buy video conferencing solutions provider Polycom Inc. for close to $1.9 billion. Now it appears that Polycom has had a huge change of heart. Today private equity firm Siris Capital Group LLC said it has agreed to acquire Polycom for $2 billion in cash and take it private. Previously, the plan was to consolidate the enterprise communications businesses of Mitel and Polycom.The deal

Three months ago, after 10 months of negotiations, Canadian tech giant Mitel Networks Corp. announced that it would buy video conferencing solutions provider Polycom Inc. for close to $1.9 billion. Now, it appears that Polycom has had a huge change of heart. Today, private equity firm Siris Capital Group LLC said it has agreed to acquire Polycom for $2 billion in cash and take the company private. Previously, the plan was to consolidate the enterprise communications businesses of Mitel and Polycom.The

Quantum computers promise to enable faster, far more complex calculations than today's silicon chip-based computers. But they also raise the possibility that future computers could retroactively break the security of any digital communications that exist today, which is why Google is experimenting with something called "post-quantum cryptography." While quantum computer development remains in its early stages, some such computers are already in operation. In theory, future generations of quantum computers could "decrypt any Internet communication that was recorded today, and many

Tech giant Google made a bid to expand its cloud services offerings to big media companies yesterday with the announcement that it has acquired Anvato. The company provides a software platform that automates the encoding, editing, publishing, and distribution of video content across multiple platforms. The Mountain View, Calif. startup has already won over some major media companies on its own, including NBC Universal, Fox Sports, and Univision. Anvato will now become part of the Google Cloud Platform, a group that

iPhone and Mac fans who want to test out Apple's latest operating systems can now download the public beta versions of both iOS 10 and macOS Sierra. Both were released today, a few months before the final versions are launched in the fall. Apple has described iOS 10 as the "biggest release ever" of its mobile operating system. New features arriving with this update include expanded capabilities for Siri, Apple's intelligent digital assistant, as well as "differential privacy," a new technology

Pivotal, the developer of the Cloud Foundry open source cloud development platform, is teaming up with Canonical, the company behind the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution. Announced today, the partnership means that Ubuntu is now the preferred operating system for Cloud Foundry. Cloud Foundry was originally developed by VMware and is now owned by Pivotal Software, a joint venture by EMC, VMware and General Electric. Canonical and Pivotal have worked together over the years, so today's news formalized the long-standing relationship between

Despite some setbacks with an earlier program aimed at getting more people online, Facebook is pushing ahead with a new effort to provide wireless Internet access to remote parts of the world: the OpenCellular wireless access platform. Designed to support a variety of connection options from 2G to LTE, the OpenCellular system will be open sourced so telecom operators and other organizations can more easily build locally appropriate infrastructure to work with the platform, according to Facebook engineer Kashif Ali.The system

Enterprises that depend on Symantec’s antivirus products to protect their networks may want to rethink their strategies. According to Google’s Project Zero, Symantec’s flagship enterprise security product is riddled with vulnerabilities that could be putting millions of companies at risk. The bugs affect all Symantec and Norton branded antivirus products, the Google team said. “These vulnerabilities are as bad as it gets,” Google researcher Tavis Ormandy wrote on Project Zero’s Web site yesterday. “They don’t require any user interaction, they affect

Chipmaker Qualcomm is expanding its support for Google’s new mobile virtual reality technology, Project Tango, with today’s announcement that the technology will be supported on its popular Snapdragon 820 processor, along with future processors in the Snapdragon 600 and 800 tier. “Tango is an excellent example of the innovative thinking that delivers valuable next-generation mobile experiences today,” Brent Sammons, senior marketing manager at Qualcomm, wrote on the company’s blog today. “It has the potential of becoming ubiquitous within mobile devices.”Leveraging a