Category: What’s On

NASA and the U.S. Department of State were among the federal agencies that received low marks on IT security, according to a recent report card issued by the New York-based firm Security Scorecard. Also receiving low grades were the states of Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Washington. The 2016 U.S. Government Cybersecurity Report, released earlier this month, analyzed the cybersecurity vulnerabilities of some 600 local, state and federal government agencies. It found that government organizations perform poorly in information security compared to private-sector

A lot of factors go into helping Facebook determine which News Feed items appear first on a user's page. This week, the company has added new considerations to ensure it delivers interesting content that's geared specifically to each user. One of the new factors being added to the News Feed algorithm is time spent viewing an item. Facebook figures that the longer a user reads or views an item, the more likely it is that the user finds that content interesting,

Microsoft released the latest build of Windows 10 to members of its Insider Preview program today. The release, labeled Build 14328, includes upgrades to Windows Ink, the Start button, Cortana, and the Search function. The company released a previous version of the build for mobile devices earlier this week, so this latest version focuses primarily on PC functionality. There are so many changes in the latest build that some users might want to wait around for a more stable version of

Microsoft released the latest build of Windows 10 to members of its Insider Preview program today. The release, labeled Build 14328, includes upgrades to Windows Ink, the Start button, Cortana, and the Search function. The company released a previous version of the build for mobile devices earlier this week, so this latest version focuses primarily on PC functionality. There are so many changes in the latest build that some users might want to wait around for a more stable version of

As we commemorate the 47th annual Earth Day, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a message for individuals or businesses thinking about throwing old electronic equipment and gadgets in the trash: Don’t. The agency, along with many other public and private organizations, is encouraging people to find ways to re-use or recycle the electronic machines and devices that seem to be produced by the millions each day. The agency estimated that every 1 million recycled mobile devices can potentially yield

As we commemorate the 47th annual Earth Day, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a message for individuals or businesses thinking about throwing old electronic equipment and gadgets in the trash: Don’t. The agency, along with many other public and private organizations, is encouraging people to find ways to re-use or recycle the electronic machines and devices that seem to be produced by the millions each day. The agency estimated that every 1 million recycled mobile devices can potentially yield

Cloud-based and digital transformation-related services are making strong contributions to Microsoft's bottom line, while its PC sales have proven to be a drag and Windows Phone revenues are crashing, the company reported yesterday. Microsoft's financial results for the third quarter of its 2015-2016 fiscal year showed the company with revenues of $20.5 billion, a six-percent decline over earnings in the same quarter last year. Those figures included a deferral of more than $1.5 billion in revenues related mostly to the July

Tech giant Amazon is expanding its foothold in the automated smart home space with the launch of two new Internet of Things products: the Echo Dot, and the Amazon Tap. The Echo Dot provides voice-control for home stereo systems, or it can be used to control smart home devices. The Tap is a wireless speaker that can also be used to connect to Amazon’s Alexa voice service. Both devices are being pitched as complements to the original Echo, the voice-controlled speaker

Consumers who like doing a little armchair R&D will soon get their chance, thanks to a new initiative from Sony. The electronics giant has established what it’s calling the Future Lab Program to help the company employ user feedback to refine and improve new products. The newfangled research and development effort has the goal of releasing concept prototypes that will eventually evolve in an open, creative environment -- and with help from open communication with the public.The goal of the initiative

With little fanfare, Amazon has removed the option for device encryption for tablets, phones and other products running its Fire OS 5 operating system. The decision has been met with widespread confusion and criticism, especially as Amazon yesterday filed an amicus brief in support of Apple's decision not to give the FBI access to the data on the iPhone of one of the San Bernadino, Calif. terrorists. Amazon's move on Fire OS 5 (pictured above) encryption came to light after David

Three days after a report indicated that Twitter might soon introduce an algorithm-driven timeline, fans of the microblogging site are continuing to tweet their complaints using the hashtag #RIPTwitter. The outpouring of commentary in the wake of Friday's report in BuzzFeed prompted CEO Jack Dorsey (pictured above) to respond with two tweets of his own on Saturday. In one, he noted that Twitter "never planned to reorder timelines" in the coming week.Twitter currently posts new tweets to a user's timeline in

Verizon Wireless last week started pitching an alternative to T-Mobile’s Binge On free mobile streaming service. But how does go90 stack up against the competition? Go90 (pictured above) is Verizon Wireless’ all-in-one mobile entertainment app. It offers live sports, live music, original shows and popular TV episodes -- 21,000 titles to be exact. The service also boasts 50 exclusive original series on its roster.The United States’ largest wireless carrier announced Friday that all post-paid customers can watch go90 video content on

Almost 10,000 Department of Homeland Security employees awoke this morning to find that their personal information had been stolen from the agency’s servers and leaked on the Internet. For his next trick, the same hacker said he'll release the personal details of 20,000 FBI staff members. The information in the data dump includes names, job titles, e-mail addresses, and phone numbers. The attacker targeted not only DHS employees, but also included individuals listed as contractors for the agency. Other DHS staffers,

iPhone owners who use third-party repair services are finding their devices can suddenly become useless "bricks" after they update the iOS operating system. Apple confirmed yesterday that the disabling "Error 53" occurs because the company wants to prevent Touch ID-related security problems that could be introduced by unauthorized repairs.Reports about the iPhone-killing Error 53 have circulated at least since the spring, when The Daily Dot's Mike Wehner wrote that his iPhone 6 Plus died after he disabled the device's Touch

Symantec is the king of tech security. Yet the Norton antivirus software maker just took a $500 million strategic investment from Silver Lake Partners, a firm known for making technology investments in companies like Dell. The question is why? Why exactly would the king of tech security need such a massive amount of cash from an outside investor? Has something gone wrong inside the company’s software machine? What does this investment ultimately mean for users?We asked Rob Enderle, principal analyst at

Citing a desire to gain a foothold in the growing market for the Internet of Things, the leadership of Mozilla said it is ceasing development efforts on its Firefox smartphone operating system. Mozilla is ending development on Firefox OS for smartphones after version 2.6 is released in May.The development team that had been working on the OS will now work on initiatives related to connected devices and with other Mozilla teams, according to Mozilla.The company is focusing its efforts on

If the customer is "at the center of everything," so, too, should be a company's system for managing customer relationships, according to a recently published white paper. In other words, customer relationship management software (CRM) needs to be more than just a way to handle queries about products or fielding feedback from clients. It needs to be used as a central platform for connecting people, processes and data, as well as a means of identifying opportunities to increase efficiency, improve service,

CRM giant Salesforce is adding some lightning to its customer success platform. The latest iteration of Salesforce Lightning aims to raise the bar on customer relationship management by with a platform that taps cloud, mobile, social, IoT (Internet of Things) technologies and data science. Salesforce launched Lightning in 2015 as a multi-tenant, next-generation metadata platform that enterprise workers can use on any device. It quickly gained traction, boasting 90,000 customers and 55 partners today.Salesforce SteelBrick CPQ, SalesforceIQ Inbox and Field Service

Two of the largest manufacturers of mobile accessories are teaming up. Salt Lake City, Utah-based Zagg said it is acquiring California-based Mophie for $100 million. Zagg is best known for its screen protectors and Mophie for its battery cases, which are used in the iPhone among other devices. Zagg will be handling the manufacturing in both areas as Mophie becomes part of Zagg. Mophie CEO Daniel Huang will continue with his current responsibilities, reporting to Zagg CEO Randy Hales, according to

Regular readers of the Reddit website might soon see their long wait for an official mobile app coming to an end. In an online post about things to expect from the site in 2016, co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman yesterday revealed that an Android app for Reddit is currently being tested in a private beta version and an iOS app "should follow it out soon." Now in its 11th year, Reddit has experienced a number of ups and downs over its

Yahoo Makes Over Mobile App, Home Page in the U.S.Google long ago overshadowed Yahoo, but the company is still working to acquire and retain new users to its network of sites. To that end, Yahoo has just updated its mobile app and home page in the United States. Simply stated, Yahoo is giving prominence to news, content and video on its home page. Viewers will see the content that matters most to them based on personal preferences, whether that’s sports, politics,

Perhaps taking aim at the well-entrenched presence of other tech giants in the education market, Apple confirmed Thursday that it has acquired LearnSprout, a San Francisco-based startup that specializes in education analytics and used for tracking the performance of students. The purchase of LearnSprout should give Apple some ammunition as it tries to challenge the existence of Microsoft’s software programs and Google’s Chromebook in the classroom.Apple didn’t comment on the reasons for the purchase in a statement to Bloomberg, which first

Thanks to Apple's introduction of the WKWebView rendering engine beginning with the iOS 8 version of its mobile operating system, Google said it has been able to update its Chrome Web browser so it can perform far better on iPhones and iPads. Rolling out today, version 48 of Google Chrome for iOS is faster, more responsive and far more stable than previous generations of the browser, according to Google. The switch to WKWebView from the previous iOS rendering engine has enabled

The trend of cyberattackers targeting retail and fast-food chains is continuing in 2016. Nationwide fast-food chain Wendy’s is the latest to announce it is investigating a possible credit card breach stemming from its POS (point-of-sale) system. "Reports indicate fraudulent charges may have occurred elsewhere after payment cards were legitimately used at some restaurants," Wendy's spokesman Bob Bertini told Reuters. "Until this investigation is completed, it is difficult to determine with certainty the nature or scope of any potential incident. We have

Has the mighty iPhone reached its selling peak? If good sales, as opposed to outrageously great sales, are any indication, that could be. Apple said on Tuesday that it sold 74.8 million iPhones during its fiscal first quarter, which ended December 26. That marks the slowest quarter of growth since the company began selling the smartphones in 2007. In the same period in 2014, Apple sold 74.5 million units were sold, meaning sales were basically flat. Analysts had expected the company

Compared to rival tech companies like Google and Facebook, Apple doesn't say much publicly about its virtual-reality ambitions. Occasionally, though, the company's aspirations are revealed through a business acquisition or a new hire. This time, speculation is being fueled by Apple's recently revealed hiring of Doug A. Bowman, a leading VR researcher who has until now been director of Virginia Tech's Center for Human Computer Interaction. Bowman's hiring, according to a report published Friday in the Financial Times, is "the strongest

Did you know that over 20 million people a year are victims of human trafficking? That’s according to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center. What if banning smartphone encryption could stem the rising tide of human trafficking, a form of modern-day slavery from which perpetrators force victims to engage in commercial labor services or sex acts against their will?Sacramento County Assembly member Jim Cooper just introduced a bill, AB 1681, that sets the stage for law enforcement to investigate and prosecute

Details about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S7 smartphone emerged this week in advance of its anticipated release. A Hungarian Android blog reported benchmark scores for the single-core and multi-core versions of the phone, which are significantly higher than those of last year’s Samsung Galaxy S6. The scores come from Geekbench, a cross-platform processor benchmark whose scoring system separates single-core and multi-core performance.The single-core version of the S6 received a benchmark score ranging from around 1250 to 1450; while the multi-core S6

Microsoft's latest update to Skype now hides a user's IP address by default. The change is likely to be noticed most by gamers who in the past have been targeted for online harassment and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks via user details found through their Skype accounts. Skype recently rolled out the ability for users to hide their IP address from others they communicated with using the app, but the latest update now makes that the default option.In a blog

Lower power. Longer range. That’s the story behind Wi-Fi HaLow, a new technology the Wi-Fi Alliance has just introduced to help tap into the momentum around low power Wi-Fi solutions that cater specifically to the Internet of Things (IoT). The Wi-Fi HaLow designation, which aims at products leveraging IEEE 802.11ah technology, works at and below the one gigahertz frequency band without sacrificing range. In fact, HaLow promises even longer range and lower power connectivity than current standards. The Wi-Fi Alliance is

Redmond is reporting that Windows 10 has been activated on more than 200 million devices since the operating system was released five months ago. In a blog post, the company’s corporate vice president of Windows and Devices, Yusuf Mehdi, said that as of today, there are more than 200 million monthly active devices around the world running Microsoft's new OS. Mehdi also said Windows 10 adoption is speeding up, with more than 40 percent of the total number of active devices

Ride-sharing app company Lyft today announced that it has raised $1 billion in new funding, including a $500 million investment from General Motors. The additional funds bring to $2 billion the total amount of capital the firm has attracted since it was founded in 2012. Under the new arrangement, Lyft and GM [Image credit: General Motors] will work together to build a network of on-demand, self-driving cars aimed at redefining the world of personal mobility. The alliance includes plans for GM

As of next week, AT&T customers who want new cellphones will have to update their devices by paying the full retail prices upfront or through monthly installment plans. That's because the carrier is doing away with its previous program that offered new phones to customers who signed two-year contracts for AT&T service. First reported by Engadget yesterday, the change was confirmed today by an AT&T spokesperson who told us, "Starting January 8, AT&T Next will be the primary way to get

As of next week, AT&T customers who want new cellphones will have to update their devices by paying the full retail prices upfront or through monthly installment plans. That's because the carrier is doing away with its previous program that offered new phones to customers who signed two-year contracts for AT&T service. First reported by Engadget yesterday, the change was confirmed today by an AT&T spokesperson who told us, "Starting January 8, AT&T Next will be the primary way to get