Windows 8.1's SmartScreen technology makes for happy CAMPers
The biggest threat to any operating system is malicious code gaining access to it. Whilst the User Account Control (UAC) introduced in Vista went some way towards guarding against this, many people found it so annoying that they turned it off.
Since most attacks arrive via the browser, Microsoft's introduction of SmartScreen Application Reputation technology in IE9 was a much more significant step. App Rep is a form of content agnostic malware protection (CAMP) and aims to prevent the execution of malware by barring any applications that aren't explicitly trusted. With the launch of Windows 8 SmartScreen App Rep was extended beyond IE to protect the operating system as a whole.
Mega graduates out of beta, gets new look
Cloud storage service Mega arrived with a bang early this year, after its controversial founder Kim Dotcom revealed that users will get a whopping 50 GB of storage at no cost. The man's involvement with the defunct Megaupload certainly piqued people's interest, with more than three million users trying or relying on the service within the first month.
More than nine months after its launch, Mega has announced, via its official blog, the end of the beta stage. The cloud storage service now touts "significant improvements and optimizations" as well as a refreshed look for the site. Let's take a look at what's new.
Facebook and Microsoft join forces to make the Internet a safer place
The Internet Bug Bounty program is the latest initiative that can be used by hackers, security experts and anyone with time on their hands to reap rewards by uncovering security problems.
This time, however, it is not an individual app or website that's the subject of the program, but the entire Internet. It is a wide-reaching program which has the backing of Facebook and Microsoft; both companies with a vested interested in making the Internet safer.
[Updated] Twitter starts trading on NYSE -- company valued at $18.2bn, shares rocket from $26 to $45
Today Twitter makes its debut on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). In typical Twitter style, the company announced its share price via tweet, ending weeks of speculation about the price point that would be decided upon.
Rather than the anticipated $15 to $20, the IPO (Initial Public Offering) of 70 million shares are up for grabs priced at $26 each -- effectively valuing the company at $18.2 billion.
Amazon’s new graphical cloud helps make desktops obsolete
Amazon Web Services quietly released on Tuesday a pair of new instances on its EC2 cloud computing service. Not just new instances but a whole new type of instance aimed at 2D and 3D graphical computing. For the first time from AWS in a generally available instance, developers and users will have access to virtual machines with GPUs.
It’s like putting a PC in the cloud. More properly it is like putting your PC in the cloud. I think this has great disruptive potential. And that means we’ll see similar services coming soon from other cloud providers.
Amazon gives a Preview to new content
Amazon Prime, at least the video arm of it, has been rolling along and seemingly gaining momentum recently. New original content has debuted, with some shows picked up for a season run, and more are currently in the pipeline. However, finding this menu of new videos has not always been easy, save when the company displays links on its homepage.
Rather than relying on a fortunate link or a search of the content, Amazon is giving viewers an option to fast-forward straight to what's new, and do so ahead of your friends.
jAlbum now faster and more responsive
jAlbum AB has released jAlbum 11.6, a performance-oriented update of its cross-platform web album builder that’s free for personal use. In addition to improving performance, version 11.6 adds a few minor changes and includes a number of notable bug fixes.
The main highlight of version 11.6 comes with vastly improved performance when editing videos, both when selecting a representing thumbnail and starting or stopping editing. Also notable is an improvement to the user interface, which is now more responsive when managing images that lack cached thumbnails.
Happy 10th birthday, Fedora Linux!
People celebrate birthdays every year but the celebrations have expanded beyond humans. A search of YouTube reveals people baking birthday cakes and having celebrations for their pets. However, birthdays can be celebrated for anything, including Linux distributions.
Today, The Fedora Project (which is owned by Red Hat Inc.) celebrates 10 years of bringing open-source joy to the Linux Community. It is hard to believe that the operating system choice of the controversial Linus Torvalds is now 10 years old. That's like...a really long time in internet-years.
Internet Explorer 11 not cute enough for you? Download the official Anime version
Inori Aizawa, the official mascot for Internet Explorer (in Singapore at least) is an Anime heroine who spends her time fighting against the dark side of the web.
On her official Facebook page she describes herself as a personification of Internet Explorer, and the parallels between her life and the browser are clear. "When I was younger", she says, "I used to be a clumsy, slow and awkward girl. However, just like the story of ugly duckling, people told me that I have really matured and changed over the years. I feel confident in my abilities now, and I'm eager to show you what I can do. Why don't you get to know me a little better?"
Activate the hidden 'Slide to shut down' option in Windows 8.1
One of the (many) complaints people had about Windows 8, was how unnecessarily awkward it was to shut it down. Windows 8.1 makes that aspect of things much easier. You can still go through the Charms bar, but you can also now right-click the new Start button and shut down, or sign out there.
There is another method though, and that’s to use the "Slide to shut down your PC" option. This isn’t activated by default, but it’s easy to summon, and you can create shortcuts for it.
Can smartglasses have a role in the workplace?
Google Glass has caused a bit of a stir, whether it's for the ability to turn us all into government spies or for causing the slightly distracted Google gaze. But there's been relatively little discussion of how smartglasses might be useful for business.
Until now that is, because a new report by Gartner says that smartglasses have the potential to boost worker efficiency in areas like healthcare, manufacturing and field service.
Prefetcher shows which programs launched on your PC, and when
Prefetching is an excellent Windows Vista/ 7/ 8 performance-boosting technology where the system monitors applications as they start, detects any dependent files they might need, and preloads them when the program next starts. This can drastically cut down disk access times as an application switches from one file to another, making a real difference to your system boot and application launch times.
There’s more to prefetching than PC optimization, though. You can also use this data to monitor which programs are being launched on your system, and when. And you can view the files a program accesses when it first starts, which could be useful when troubleshooting. All you need is a forensics tool like Sanderson Forensic’s Prefetcher to interpret the data for you.
Develop enterprise mobile apps in record time with built.io
With the increasing trend towards using mobile devices in the workplace, IT departments sometimes struggle to keep up with demand from their users. As we've seen elsewhere, this can lead to employees using unauthorized software.
Companies interested in speeding up the build time for mobile apps will want to take a look at San Francisco-based raw engineering’s built.io product which comes out of beta and is generally available from today.
Nexus 5 Bumper Case vs Cruzerlite Bugdroid Circuit Case -- which deserves your money?
While the Nexus 5 is relatively inexpensive (in smartphone terms) at $349, you should still protect your investment. Android fans will likely want the official bumper case, but that costs $35 -- a bit expensive at 10 percent the cost of the device itself.
I decided to purchase an alternative, third-party case, so that I can compare the two. The Cruzerlite series of cases are quite popular on Amazon -- they are inexpensive, look good and get great reviews. And so, I chose the Cruzerlite Bugdroid Circuit Case which is almost a third cheaper at $12.95. The question becomes, which deserves your hard-earned money?
AT&T Nokia Lumia 1520 available to pre-order, launches soon
When Nokia unveiled the Lumia 1520, the Finnish maker did not provide an exact launch date for its new Windows Phone 8 phablet. However, the device was announced to be available in a limited number of markets, including US.
Ahead of the official launch, Microsoft decided to shed some light regarding the US availability of the Lumia 1520 on AT&T. On the software giant's online store, the phablet is now listed as available to pre-order, with the release date set for November 15.
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