Category: What’s On

Are you ready for a smartphone battery that lasts twice as long as your current one? According to researchers, that battery is coming. MIT News reported this week that a new kind of lithium battery is on the way to being commercialized. Called lithium metal batteries, they can reportedly pack the same energy as standard lithium-ion cells in half the size -- or put twice as much energy (and therefore staying power) into a battery the size of a standard lithium

Just months after its public launch, the self-driving truck startup Otto has been purchased by the ride-hailing giant Uber for an undisclosed amount. According to a Bloomberg estimate, the deal could be valued at about $680 million. Uber, whose "anyone-can-be-a-cabbie" business model has already shaken up the taxi industry, is also looking to provide autonomous car services in cities. Later this month, the company plans to begin testing self-driving cars on the streets of Pittsburgh, although a human -- an Uber

By better integrating its Inbox software with calendar apps, Salesforce aims to make it easier for sales and marketing professionals to access customer data during meetings and on the go. Coming out in October, Salesforce's new Inbox Calendar boosts the company's existing email support by linking customer relationship management (CRM) data to a user's calendar.Announced earlier this week, Salesforce Inbox Calendar was developed to help sales professionals spend less time opening other apps and searching other data sources for relevant information

Starting Sunday, AT&T is launching new wireless plans that it said will eliminate data overage charges for customers. Instead of generating extra fees once they exceed their monthly data caps, the network speeds of customers with Mobile Share Advantage plans will be slowed down to limit further data consumption. Verizon, the largest wireless company in the U.S., made similar changes to its mobile plans last month with the addition of a "Safety Mode" app that lets customers slow down their data

A new certification program is aimed at assuring users that USB Type-C chargers won't damage their devices or fail to provide adequate charges. Announced yesterday by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), the program sets compliance standards for original equipment manufacturers of USB-C products. Introduced in 2014, the USB-C standard for universal serial bus connections is a more compact type of connector that's easier to plug in and supports faster charging and data transfers than older model USB cables. When used with

As more and more enterprises give up license-based software in favor of faster, more convenient cloud services, the software industry itself is changing dramatically, according to a recent report from the advisory firm PwC (formerly known as PricewaterhouseCoopers). Although legacy software companies that have moved into the cloud are reaping the benefits of the growing "as-a-service" ecosystem, they are also facing some risks. The "PwC Global 100 Software Leaders" report, released late last month, finds that the revenues for the top

Has Samsung finally come up with a giant killer of a mobile device that can give it genuine leverage against Apple in that market? If the early reviews of the Galaxy Note 7 are any indication, that just might be the case. The Samsung Galaxy Note 7, set for release this week, has drawn almost unanimously positive reviews from technology media outlets. The Galaxy Note 7 is the large-screen phone that Android users have been eagerly awaiting. The screen size of

While it already offers several ways for users to make video calls over various platforms, Google today launched a new phone-based app called Duo that's designed for simplicity. Available for both Android and iOS smartphones, Google Duo doesn't require anything more than a phone number to launch once the app is downloaded. Unlike Google's Hangouts messaging, voice and video calling tool, people don't even need Google accounts to use Duo.Announced earlier this year at Google's I/O developer conference, Duo offers end-to-end

With the clock ticking toward Apple's scheduled fall release of the iPhone 7, iOS 10, macOS Sierra and more, the rumor mill about new products and changes by the company is switching into high gear. Several outlets are reporting leaked images purporting to show the iPhone 7 Plus in new colors, including black and rose gold. There are also reports that Apple is in talks that could lead to Twitter livestreaming NFL games on Apple TV, and an analyst is predicting

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