Tech news

2017 may be the year that developments in the tech world truly were overshadowed by other world events: deepening divisions in the United States and the looming threat of war with North Korea; numerous sexual misconduct scandals; terrorist attacks in Europe and elsewhere; and the announcement of yet another royal wedding in the United Kingdom, to name just a few. With all of that going on, it would be easy to overlook Apple's introduction of another iPhone or Nintendo's comeback with a hit video game console. from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2CiBBRp

One of the issues with virtual reality is that expectations have been overset massively with TV shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation , which promised an artificial reality indistinguishable from reality. VR failed. It didn't have to -- there is a pattern to bringing out successful technology that is repeatable. You create a complete experience regardless of cost, then cost-reduce it. Sadly, the more common path is to try to hit an aggressive price point first and deliver a crippled experience. from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2BMvoxI

Open Garden has announced the launch of a new peer-to-peer service that allows users to share Internet connections and unused plan data for free, with compensation in a new Ethereum cryptocurrency as an extra incentive. The company is offering the service through an app that can be downloaded from Google Play. The system requires no hardware other than an Android phone to participate in the Internet access sharing. The typical customer will used the service for sharing a home or small business Internet service, or to connect with neighbors. from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2p1poLo

The United States on Tuesday accused North Korea of responsibility for a global ransomware attack that locked down more than 300,000 computers in 150 countries earlier this year. The U.S. now has enough evidence to support its assertion that Pyongyang was behind the WannaCry attack in May, Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bossert told reporters at a White House press briefing. If the United States has new evidence linking North Korea to WannaCry, however, it hasn't released any of it to the public, which could pose problems. from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2Bnyzf8

BoxLock Home is a smart padlock designed to allow delivery persons to leave your packages in a secure place when you're not around. The driver scans the package and goes through a verification process to unclasp the lock and place your package inside the container. Of course, you'll get a notification when the process is complete. I'm not really sure I need it. I work from home and am usually around to take in deliveries. Still, I'd rather not have a box lying in clear view of everyone on the street. from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2BmXJKS

Is social media evolving into an antisocial medium? Days after one of its former execs argued that the answer is yes, Facebook published a post addressing the issue. "I think we have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works," Chamath Palihapitiya, who once served as vice president for growth at Facebook, told an audience at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. "The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we've created are destroying how society works." from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2Bh5YrG

Given how many big names have fallen over the last few weeks due to sexual misconduct, abuse and harassment, you'd think I'd name 2017 as the year of power abuse. However, while I know a lot of folks think the issue is dying down, I don't see that at all. There are entire industries that have yet to be hit by this, and Congress hasn't even finished cleaning house or putting in place rules to prevent this activity. Last week I pointed out how Google was abusing its power in holding Amazon Echo Show customers hostage to force Amazon to sell products it didn't want to sell. from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2D049N5

Microsoft has announced new AI features and functionality for several of its flagship products and services. Harry Shum, EVP of Microsoft Artificial Intelligence and Research, demonstrated some of the new capabilities at an event in San Francisco on Wednesday. Building on the progress the company has made in integrating AI over the past year, the new enhancements are designed to help users perform increasingly complex and complicated tasks. Machine reading comprehension will improve an AI-based system's understanding of context, for example. from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2BtAjCB

The iPhone 8 and iPhone X ranked No. 2 and No. 3 respectively in overall searches on Google this year, and No. 1 and No. 2 respectively in the consumer tech search category on the Google Trends Year in Search 2017 list released Tuesday. Bitcoin ranked No. 2 in global news searches, and "how to buy bitcoin" ranked No. 3 among how-to searches on Google in 2017. The Nintendo Switch, Samsung Galaxy S8, and Xbox One X were the third, fourth and fifth most frequently used consumer tech search terms. from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2AKqlgH

ExpressVPN on Tuesday launched a suite of open source tools that let users test for vulnerabilities that can compromise privacy and security in virtual private networks. Released under an open source MIT License, they are the first-ever public tools to allow automated testing for leaks on VPNs, the company said. The tools are written primarily in Python, and available for download on Github. Originally used to conduct automated regression testing on ExpressVPN's own software, the tools allow users to check VPNs that might not be providing complete protection to users, said Harold Li, vice president at ExpressVPN. from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2CbsS0y

Apple will release a professional version of its all-in-one iMac desktop computer with a $5,000 price tag on Thursday. Up to now, all-in-one computers in general and iMacs in particular have been seen as stylish offerings for home and family, but Apple has changed that in a big way with the iMac Pro. Apple has given the Pro workstation-class graphics, processors, storage, memory and I/O -- all without increasing the size of the iMac. Creative professionals, the target audience for the Pro, have a choice of muscular Xeon processors with eight, 10 or a whopping 18 cores. from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2z9U8xa

Some HP laptops users came with a preinstalled program to capture the keystrokes of users, a security researcher recently discovered. The researcher, Michael Myng aka "ZwClose," discovered the keylogger software while trying to solve a keyboard problem for a friend. The software is turned off by default. After Myng contacted HP about the program, it quickly released a patch to get rid of it. "A keylogger is a very dangerous piece of software," said Lamar Bailey, director of security research and development at Tripwire. from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2nWh4fG

Newcomer ArchMerge Linux offers a big change for the better to those switching from the Debian Linux lineage to the Arch Linux infrastructure. ArchMerge Linux is a recent spinoff of ArchLabs Linux, which is a step up from most Arch Linux offerings in terms of installation and usability. Arch Linux distros are notorious for their challenging installation and software management processes. ArchMerge Linux brings a few extra ingredients that make trying it well worth your while if you want to consider migrating to the Arch Linux platform. from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2yj0AhG

We are coming up to the end of the year, and it's a good time to look forward. Next week, I'll look back and call out my product of the year. Stepping outside of politics and the obvious war between the Democrats, Republicans and common sense, there is the war between Amazon and Google, which likely will redefine the growth of digital assistants. There's also the war between Intel and Qualcomm in the personal computing arena. With both Google and Intel behaving foolishly, I'm going to call the battles for Amazon and Qualcomm. from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2C2wKRk

Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform, an SoC built for immersive multimedia experiences including extended reality, on-device artificial intelligence and high-speed connectivity. The SoC will power next-generation Android flagship smartphones and Windows 10 notebooks based on ARM architecture. Xiaomi reportedly will use it in its forthcoming Mi 7 flagship, to be released next year. The SoC incorporates Qualcomm's Spectra 280 ISP, its Adreno 630 visual processing subsystem, and the company's SPU. from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2AIvB3m

A long-simmering dispute between Google and Amazon has escalated into a front-burner feud, following Google's decision to block its YouTube video service from Amazon's Echo Show and Fire TV. Google apparently decided to cut off YouTube as retaliation for Amazon's refusal to carry its products, including Chromecast and Google Home. Further, Amazon has not made its Prime Video service available to Google Cast users. Amazon also recently stopped selling some smart home products from Nest, another subsidiary of Google parent Alphabet. from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2BJ1ciI

As powerful men drop like flies due to their inability to resist abusing their authority, it's clear that the problem is widespread. Similarly, it's likely that we'll find the problem of alleged industrial espionage is not limited to Uber. You see, when people misuse authority -- and the sexual harassment problem is a massive misuse of authority -- folks typically don't just misuse it in one area. For some time, I've suspected that the harassment issues were just one aspect of a bigger problem. from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2A1UJ5V

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given the KardiaBand its stamp of approval, AliveCor announced Thursday. The device is the first FDA-cleared personal electrocardiogram accessory designed for use with an Apple Watch. The KardiaBand allows users to take EKG readings in order to distinguish between normal sinus heart rhythms and atrial fibrillation, the most common type of serious heart arrhythmia, which can lead to strokes or other heart-related problems. The KardiaBand can record an EKG in just 30 seconds. from TechNewsWorld http://ift.tt/2BqGW4Y