GOOGLE'S NEXUS 6P AND 5X WIN SOME LOVE

GOOGLE'S NEXUS 6P AND 5X WIN SOME LOVE

Unknown   06:44   No comments:

The reviews are out for Google's Nexus 6P and 5X, unveiled late last month, and they can be summed up in two words: Love them!

They're described as "the best Nexus devices ever produced" and "Google's answer to Apple's iPhones," but those tired phrases are rolled out with every new Nexus or flagship Android smartphone, so what else is new?

The camera, for one. The phones' cameras apparently are a big improvement over previous Nexus cameras.

Speed and the improved security offered by the fingerprint sensor are other plus points.

Google and its partners -- Huawei for the 6P and LG for the 5X -- finally havenailed the camera and battery life -- two of the features that traditionally have been weak in Nexus devices, wrote Ron Amadeo for Ars Technica.

Read More

SXSW MAY PUT ONLINE HARASSMENT IN THE SPOTLIGHT

SXSW MAY PUT ONLINE HARASSMENT IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Unknown   06:37   No comments:

ManageEngine OpManager, a powerful NMS for monitoring your network, physical & virtual (VMware/ HyperV) servers & other IT devices. Deploy and start monitoring in less than an hour. Trusted by over a million admins world-wide. Try it for free.


SXSW Interactive might include a daylong event on combating online harassment, Re/code reported Tuesday.

The news followed SXSW's cancellation of two planned panels that were expected to focus on opposite ends of the Gamergate debate.

Threats of on-site violence spurred the decision to cancel both panels, according to SXSW officials.

Caroline Sinders of IBM Watson, Katherine Cross of the CUNY Graduate Center, and Randi Harper, founder of the Online Abuse Prevention Initiative, were slated to speak at SXSW in March during a session titled "Level Up: Overcoming Harassment in Games."

Even if the event organizers should reinstate "Level Up," the participants have not decided whether they would speak at SXSW, Harper told Re/code.

The other cancelled session, "SavePoint: A Discussion on the Gaming Community," was sponsored by the Open Gaming Society.

In the week following the announcement of the two sessions, "SXSW has received numerous threats of on-site violence related to this programming," said Hugh Forrest, the director of SXSW Interactive, in explaining the cancellation decision.

SXSW takes pride in offering a place for diverse ideas and people, but preserving the "sanctity of the big tent" requires keeping the dialogue "civil and respectful," he said.

"If people cannot agree, disagree and embrace new ways of thinking in a safe and secure place that is free of online and offline harassment, then this marketplace of ideas is inevitably compromised," said Forrest.

Read More

Nintendo's Miitomo Smartphone 'Game' Fails to Charm Investors

Nintendo's Miitomo Smartphone 'Game' Fails to Charm Investors

Unknown   03:44   No comments:

Nintendo shares fell 9 percent on Thursday, and partner DeNA's stock dropped 15 percent after Nintendo announced that it would wade into the mobile waters next year with social mobile app Miitomo.

Based on the Mii digital avatars made popular by the Wii, Miitomo will seek to connect players through trivia, Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima said in an investors conference call, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The app, due to launch next March, will be a free-to-play game that will include add-ons that people can buy. Players will engage in social trivia with friends and new acquaintances

Read More

Sony Talks VR and 2016 Games in Paris

Sony Talks VR and 2016 Games in Paris

Unknown   03:43   No comments:

While Microsoft has been driving home the potential hits it has for the holidays, Sony has sat silent. That changed this week at Paris Games Week, when Sony set the tone for the next year or so by touting 21 games, mostly exclusives, poised to redefine the PlayStation 4 experience.

It's what PlayStation fans have been waiting for -- a listing of completely new games. Sony had been focusing on minting indies and HD remasters.

At its first-ever appearance at Paris Games Week, the company put on a console-selling show that evidenced the potential of the latest PlayStation and the upcoming PlayStation VR headset.

Sony provided updates on previously announced games Street Fighter V(PS4/PC), Uncharted 4 (PS4), Wild (PS4), Star Wars: Battlefront (all consoles and PC) and others. There was even a commitment to release procedurally generated space explorer No Man's Sky (PS4/PC) -- that'd be June 2016.





The Highs

The company also announced several new games, two of which Mike Schramm, head of the qualitative analyst team at EEDAR, found especially compelling. That's the pair of Gran Turismo Sport games, the next entry in the hallmark series, and Quantic Dream's Detroit: Become Human.

Gran Turismo Sport will tie in several special events with real-world honors from the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile. Detroit: Become Human is a sci-fi saga with androids from the studio that developed Beyond: Two Soulsand Heavy Rain.






"Sony also featured some impressive gameplay from Wild and Horizon Zero Dawn, two games that were previously announced. Both gameplay sessions featured some new and interesting details, from Wild's different shamanic powers in its vast, open world to Horizon: Zero Dawn's trapping gadgets and its item and crafting systems," Schramm told TechNewsWorld.






Some of the biggest news wasn't released in a singular announcement: PlayStation VR, previously code-named "Morpheus," is a serious contender in next year's virtual reality war, and Sony has the software to see the VR headset succeed, according to Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.

Read More

SXSW May Put Online Harassment in the Spotlight

SXSW May Put Online Harassment in the Spotlight

Unknown   03:40   No comments:

ManageEngine OpManager, a powerful NMS for monitoring your network, physical & virtual (VMware/ HyperV) servers & other IT devices. Deploy and start monitoring in less than an hour. Trusted by over a million admins world-wide. Try it for free.


SXSW Interactive might include a daylong event on combating online harassment, Re/code reported Tuesday.

The news followed SXSW's cancellation of two planned panels that were expected to focus on opposite ends of the Gamergate debate.

Threats of on-site violence spurred the decision to cancel both panels, according to SXSW officials.

Caroline Sinders of IBM Watson, Katherine Cross of the CUNY Graduate Center, and Randi Harper, founder of the Online Abuse Prevention Initiative, were slated to speak at SXSW in March during a session titled "Level Up: Overcoming Harassment in Games."

Even if the event organizers should reinstate "Level Up," the participants have not decided whether they would speak at SXSW, Harper told Re/code.

The other cancelled session, "SavePoint: A Discussion on the Gaming Community," was sponsored by the Open Gaming Society.

In the week following the announcement of the two sessions, "SXSW has received numerous threats of on-site violence related to this programming," said Hugh Forrest, the director of SXSW Interactive, in explaining the cancellation decision.

SXSW takes pride in offering a place for diverse ideas and people, but preserving the "sanctity of the big tent" requires keeping the dialogue "civil and respectful," he said.

"If people cannot agree, disagree and embrace new ways of thinking in a safe and secure place that is free of online and offline harassment, then this marketplace of ideas is inevitably compromised," said Forrest.

Read More

Walmart Catches the Drone Delivery Bug

Walmart Catches the Drone Delivery Bug

Unknown   03:38   No comments:

ManageEngine OpManager, a powerful NMS for monitoring your network, physical & virtual (VMware/ HyperV) servers & other IT devices. Deploy and start monitoring in less than an hour. Trusted by over a million admins world-wide. Try it for free.


Walmart on Monday filed a request with the Federal Aviation Administration to begin deploying commercial drones to transport goods from outside vendors to its distribution centers, as well as to customers' homes.

The company, which has been testing drones in indoor flights, wanted an exemption in order to deploy small unmanned aircraft systems, wrote Shekar Natarajan, Walmart vice president, logistics strategy, in a letter to FAA Administrator Michael Huerta. Its goal was to create a more efficient delivery system to move merchandise.

"With this application, Walmart seeks to continue its role in not only making the present distribution system more efficient, but also to conduct research and development to support the future extension of that distribution directly to customers by using UAS for deliveries to customers at Walmart facilities, as well as to consumer homes," explained Natarajan.

Read More

Using Tech to Fix the Horrid US Political Debates

Using Tech to Fix the Horrid US Political Debates

Unknown   03:34   No comments:

I Watched with interest last week's Republican debate and realized very quickly that whatever that was on my TV, it sure as hell wasn't an actual debate. The idea is for us to be able to compare the qualifications and positions of a variety of candidates and then make a more informed choice -- but if every candidate is asked a different question, then how do we compare the answers?

Also, wouldn't the best debate require having all of the candidates on stage? It often seems that the candidates are all debating folks from the other party who aren't in the same room they are.

Seriously, wouldn't this work better if it were more like a good job interview? First you have a set of focused events, during which you ask pointed questions about individual backgrounds. Then you put the folks who survive that process on stage, and ask about how they'd apply their skills to real problems. From that group, you choose the best.

It seems strange that Americans likely put more rigor into hiring a gardener than in selecting the next leader of the free world. Tech could fix that.

I'll close with my product of the week: the TiVo Bolt, which is clearly the best DVR ever built -- and it has to be to compete with the cord-cutter solutions

Read More

Gadget Ogling: Smarter Smartphone Gaming, Modular Watches, and Vampiric Charging Cables

Gadget Ogling: Smarter Smartphone Gaming, Modular Watches, and Vampiric Charging Cables

Unknown   03:26   No comments:

Welcome, one and all, to another edition of Gadget Dreams and Nightmares, the column that somehow musters the energy to scour the latest in gadget announcements for those that deserve our praise or scorn, while still full of turkey from this week's Canadian Thanksgiving.

In our post-poultry bliss, we look at a smartphone with a focus on encryption, a modular smartwatch, a game controller for mobile devices, and a cable to power your own device with someone else's.

Read More

Salesforce's Message to Europe

Salesforce's Message to Europe

Unknown   03:18   No comments:

SAlesforce last week said it would invest US$100 million in emerging sales force partners in Europe. The company previously announced a similar program for the Americas, and it hopes to discover valuable new companies and business solutions.



Paul Greenberg and the team at CRM Idol (of which I have been a part) have been doing the same thing -- trying to discover interesting emerging companies in the CRM space for several years now, minus the money.

Even without millions of bucks at stake, the casting call always brings in some cool ideas from around the world, so I have no doubt there are plenty of companies in Europe that will vie for a chance at an investment.

Read More

PRM's Next Act

PRM's Next Act

Unknown   03:17   No comments:

Partner relationship management, or PRM, has seen its ups and downs over the first part of this century.



Running an indirect channel is vitally important to any vendor trying to extend its reach without incurring the high costs of building up a sales team and all that supports it. Many vendors figure it's more economical to pay partners for performance than to endure the corporate buildout, and they have a good point.

That said, it's important to understand that the indirect channel isn't for every business. Some need to field large sales teams to ensure that their messages are delivered accurately. This is especially true where a vendor continuously has to bring to market new products that need to be sold rather than purchased.

One great example is pharmaceuticals, where patents give the inventor a set number of years to exploit a new drug. After the patent expires, the secondary market can make and distribute very similar products. Doctors and allied healthcare professionals really need the continuous education that pharmaceutical reps provide.

That's not the case with a wide variety of products and services that may not be on any particular patent and that approach commodity status except that they have specific attributes that might be key to assemblies of larger offerings -- for instance, electric motors.

No, they're not all the same and specific applications call for very specific types. If you're in such a market, selling through an indirect channel makes a great deal of sense.

Read More

Sony Shears PS4's Price

Sony Shears PS4's Price

Unknown   03:11   No comments:

Sony last week knocked US$50 off the price of the PlayStation 4, putting the console on par with the $349 Xbox from rival Microsoft.

A cost cut also went into effect in Canada, where the price dropped from Sony's recommended price point of CA$449.99 to $429.99.

Touting upcoming multiplatform games Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 and Star Wars: Battlefront, Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Shawn Layden asserted that there never has been a better time to pick up the PS4.

Sony is delivering on its commitment to make the PS4 the "best place to play," he said, by cutting its MSRP and putting the console within reach of more consumers heading into the holidays.

The highly anticipated PS4 exclusive, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End was still "on the horizon" after being delayed a while back, Layden noted.

That delay left Sony touting exclusive content on multiplatform games, such as timed exclusivity on Black Ops 3 DLC, noted George T. Chronis, director of qualitative analysis at DFC Intelligence.

Read More

Another Day, Another Billion Android Users at Risk

Another Day, Another Billion Android Users at Risk

Unknown   03:10   No comments:

ManageEngine OpManager, a powerful NMS for monitoring your network, physical & virtual (VMware/ HyperV) servers & other IT devices. Deploy and start monitoring in less than an hour. Trusted by over a million admins world-wide. Try it for free.


Google on Monday released an over-the-air update for Nexus devices, which includes patches for the latest Stagefright vulnerabilities and other flaws.

Android's Stagefright media processing feature, which recently imperiled 1 billion devices around the world, was once again putting them at risk, Zimperium revealed last week.

Zimperium found two new vulnerabilities that manifest when Android's Stagefright media playback engine handles specially crafted MP3 audio or MP video files.

The first vulnerability, which Google named "CVE-2015-6602," is in libutils. It exists in "all versions of Android since the very first AOSP (Android Open Source Project) code push," said Zuk Avraham, Zimperium's CTO.

The second vulnerability, in libstagefright, impacts only devices running Android 5.0 and higher, he told LinuxInsider.

It has been named "CVE-2015-3876," Google spokesperson Elizabeth Markman said.

Google will post its latest patches to AOSP as well as on its Android Security Updates forum, Markman told LinuxInsider.

No exploit has been found in the wild for either vulnerability, Avraham said.

Read More