Archives for News

Microsoft: Bye Bye Android

CNET by  July 17, 2014 6:31 AM PDT

Microsoft exec Stephen Elop is making it abundantly clear: Microsoft has no intention of staying in the Android business.

In a memo emailed to employees on Thursday, Elop said Microsoft’s devices business will concentrate “on the areas where we can add the most value” and noted that Nokia X smartphones, which run on heavily modified versions of Android, will migrate to Windows Phone.

“We plan to deliver additional lower-cost Lumia devices by shifting select future Nokia X designs and products to Windows Phone devices,” Elop, executive vice president of Microsoft Devices & Services, wrote in his memo to employees. “We expect to make this shift immediately while continuing to sell and support existing Nokia X products.”

Nokia’s X line of devices was the company’s attempt to attract more budget-conscious customers to its platform. This was also a major story in the ongoing Microsoft-Nokia saga, since it ran on Android — Microsoft’s chief competitor in the mobile market. It was initially believed that Microsoft would stick with Android on Nokia X devices, but according to Elop, the cheaper end of the smartphone market is a key area of growth …


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Training Tomorrows Technicians

MAT²® – the Michigan Advanced Technician Training Program – is an innovative, industry-driven approach to education.

Manufacturing sectors and technology industries are experiencing a shortage of employees with the knowledge, skills and competencies necessary to operate and maintain new systems-based technology. The MAT²® program is an educational model developed in conjunction with global technology leaders to combine theory, practice and work to train a globally competitive workforce. MAT²® will provide you:

For More Information Click Here


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Let's Lift Our Voices…Good Luck Aereo!

Aereo was just put to death by the US Supreme Court ruling, but its leader feels that you should let your congressional representative know how mad you are about this…if you are mad about it!

Internet Advisors

A Letter to Our Consumers: Standing Together for Innovation, Progress and Technology – Let’s Raise Our Voices

Photo of Chet KanojiaOn Saturday, many of you received the news that we decided to pause our operations temporarily, as a result of the United States Supreme Court’s reversal of a lower court decision in favor of Aereo.

Your response in support of the Aereo team has been overwhelming and touching. Your tweets, emails and Facebook posts have made it clear how important it is for so many Americans to have access to a cloud-based antenna to watch live broadcast television. Many of you have asked, “What can we do?”

Today, I’m asking you to raise your hands and make your voices heard. Tell your lawmakers how disappointed you are that the nation’s highest court issued a decision that could deny you the right to use the antenna of your choice to access live over-the-air broadcast television. Tell them your stories of why having access to a cloud-based antenna


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Malware Spoils 4th Travel Plans

July 4, 2014

Fourth of July Malware Campaign Targets Vacationers

Cybercriminals Launch Carefully Timed Malware Campaign to Coincide With Major US Travel Holiday

 SUNNYVALE, CA — (Marketwired) — 07/04/14 — Researchers from Proofpoint, Inc. (NASDAQ: PFPT), a leading security-as-a-service provider, have discovered a nasty piece of malware which is targeting vacationers who visit US travel sites, just in time for the July 4th holiday.

The discovery shows that popular travel destination websites for cities including Boston, Salt Lake City, Houston, Monterey, Rochester, Myrtle Beach,Victoria and Utah Valley have been exploited and are serving malware to unsuspecting visitors. Proofpoint can also confirm that the command-and-control infrastructure of the cyber criminals behind the attacks all appears to be based in the Ukraine.

In response to the discovery, Mike Horn, VP, Threat Response Products at Proofpoint, said: “This is a good example of how poorly protected websites play a big role in the distribution of malware. Users might be directed to these sites by a search engine and they have no idea that just by visiting the site they can become infected. We are also seeing a large number of phishing campaigns which direct people to the legitimate travel sites which have …


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Microsoft Gives Away 1TB with Office 365

Realizing that business users and consumers alike are producing far more digital content than a few years ago, Microsoft has increased the amount of free OneDrive cloud storage available to Office 365 subscribers by 50 times.

Today, OneDrive comes with seven gigabytes of free storage, and Office 365 comes with 20 gigabytes of OneDrive storage. As of today, that’s changed: Microsoft will increase the free quota to 15 Gbytes, and OneDrive subscribers will receive a whopping 1 terabyte with their subscription. The changes will roll out over the next month.

“We chose that quota few years ago, and frankly, times have changed,” said Angus Logan, the head of product marketing for OneDrive, of the old limits. “The amount of storage that people are needing now, the amount of digital storage they’re spinning off, is quite a bit. Instead of recording 50 Kbytes of notes, I could end up recording 500 megabytes of video with my notes. Or everytime I take my Lumia and push that hardware button it uploads 10 megabytes to the cloud. It’s just a lot more than we needed before.”

By comparison, Logan noted, Dropbox offers 2 Gbytes for


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Aereo Letter to Customers (Post Supreme Court)

 

A Letter to Our Consumers: Standing Together for Innovation, Progress and Technology – An Update on Aereo

“The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.” –Charles Kettering, inventor, entrepreneur, innovator & philanthropist

Photo of Chet KanojiaA little over three years ago, our team embarked on a journey to improve the consumer television experience, using technology to create a smart, cloud-based television antenna consumers could use to access live over the air broadcast television.

On Wednesday, the United States Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision in favor of Aereo, dealing a massive setback to consumers.

As a result of that decision, our case has been returned to the lower Court. We have decided to pause our operations temporarily as we consult with the court and map out our next steps. You will be able to access your cloud-based antenna and DVR only until 11:30 a.m. ET today. All of our users will be refunded their last paid month. If you have questions about your account, please email support@aereo.com or tweet us @AereoSupport.

The spectrum that the broadcasters use to transmit over the air programming belongs to the American public and we believe you should have a


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How Supreme Court ruling affects Aereo, the Cloud, and You!

The court was loud and clear: Aereo’s streaming TV business is illegal. But the decision raises more questions than it answers.



aereoantennaarray2.jpg
An array of Aereo antennas Aereo

The chief of streaming-TV startup Aereo has said that his mission to bring unbundled broadcast TV to the Internet has greater stakes than just the fate of his company — and that it’s the crusaders, taking on those with power, who fill graveyards.

Aereo CEO Chet Kanojia may end up correct on both counts. A 6-3 Supreme Court decision Wednesday found that Aereo, whose antenna-plus-cloud-storage technology streams over-the-air TV signals, is illegal if it continues to operate without paying broadcasters any fees. The ruling handed a victory to the networks’ owners, some of the biggest media companies in the world, in their fight to shut it down.

The decision kills Aereo as we know it, but it may affect more than just one service operating in just 13 cities for little more than an analyst-estimated 100,000 subscribers. While the Supreme Court answered one question clearly, it raised many others for Aereo, its customers, its foes and its relative peers, services like Dropbox and Apple’s iCloud that might be collateral damage. For consumers, the …


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Lauren and Tim's Fitness Gadget Review

 

Please NLauren and Tim Bestote:

The pros and cons lists are not comprehensive lists of each fitness band’s features. Rather they are just some of the distinguishing features we found most useful for each.

Fitness gear

Fitbit Flex – $99.99

Pros: Comfortable, great phone app, easy to use, tracks sleep and can even go back to log sleep after the fact, vibrating alarm, tracks water and food consumption.

 Cons: no display, hard to keep the 2-piece band dry and can get moldy where the tracker fits in.

This is a great product for someone who just wants to keep track of basic fitness, sleep, and food. The display shows 5 dots that help track your progress, but has no ability to tell time, or give exact feedback directly from the band.

Striiv Touch – $99.99

Pros: Comfortable, small, water-resistant, smartwatch, phone notifications directly to your wrist, sleep tracking, great phone app.

Cons: Battery life with constant use is only about two days.

This is a personal favorite of the products tested. Striiv has done a great job making fitness fun and accessible for everyone. The striiv touch has an in-app game to help you meet your daily step goal, as well as being …


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Samsung Galaxy Tab S unveiled

NEW YORK — Samsung lifted the lid on its latest creation in New York: the Galaxy Tab S.

The device’s design remains vastly in line with its other Galaxy Tab counterparts, except for a thinner and lighter shell. But it packs a powerful punch with new features, technologies, and some enterprise goodies.

It’s the Korean electronic giant’s latest bid to take on Apple, its arch-rival Apple in the mobile space, with its flagship annual tablet.

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How Could IRS "Lose" Thousands of Emails?

By JOSH GERSTEIN and RACHAEL BADE | 6/17/14 6:52 PM EDT Updated: 6/18/14 11:11 AM EDT

News that the IRS lost tens of thousands of emails sought by Congress unleashed a loud round of forehead slapping around Washington, and the obvious question: How could this happen?

It seems impossible to some that in this age of digital dominance, emails relating to a controversy involving federal government officials could simply vanish.

But transparency advocates and experts in retrieving email from antiquated government computer systems say they’re not at all surprised. The reason: The IRS’s record-keeping procedures — like erasing backup tapes every six months — have been known for years as critical weaknesses in government record collection. These observers say all of the warning signs were there for years before large troves of messages from as many as six IRS employees caught up in the tea party scandal were destroyed through a combination of equipment failures and inadequate archiving procedures.

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