Firmware may have fixed Simplo battery issues, but now LG batteries have problems.
Some models of Surface Pro 3 were struck with severe battery issues, reducing their time away from the power outlet to a few minutes or less. Microsoft issued a firmware fix in late August that appeared to work, but new complaints are growing about another battery problem, as reported by InfoWorld.
Microsoft has two sources of batteries for the Surface Pro 3: Simplo and LG. The first issue, the one that's now fixed, applied to systems with Simplo batteries: affected systems saw the battery's charge capacity drop steadily, becoming unable to store any significant charge. The firmware fix reset the reported capacity. continued…
first published week of: 09/26/2016
Brett Hudson installed a Bluetooth system in his 2002 Chevy TrailBlazer to allow hands-free phone calling, but he concedes that the setup is not risk-free.
:Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times
The messaging app Snapchat allows motorists to post photos that record the speed of the vehicle. The navigation app Waze rewards drivers with points when they report traffic jams and accidents. Even the game Pokémon Go has drivers searching for virtual creatures on the nation’s highways.
When distracted driving entered the national consciousness a decade ago, the problem was mainly people who made calls or sent texts from their cellphones. The solution then was to introduce new technologies to keep drivers’ hands on the wheel. Innovations since then — car Wi-Fi and a host of new apps — have led to a boom in internet use in vehicles that safety experts say is contributing to a surge in highway deaths.
After steady declines over the last four decades, highway fatalities last year recorded the largest annual percentage increase in 50 years. And the numbers so far this year are even worse. In the first six months of 2016, highway deaths jumped 10.4 percent, to 17,775, from the comparable period of 2015, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
“This is a crisis that needs to be addressed now,” Mark R. Rosekind, the head of the agency, said in an interview.
The Florida Highway Patrol is investigating an Oct. 26 crash near Tampa that killed five people. A passenger in one car, a teenager, recorded a Snapchat video showing her vehicle traveling at 115 m.p.h. just before the collision. continued…
first published week of: 11/14/2016
With spending and hiring flat, CIOs seek efficiency in automation and outsourcing. Should IT workers be worried?
Tech executives are optimistic as they head into 2017. One of the biggest reasons for the hopeful outlook is the fact that business and IT are finally on the same page, with planned technology projects and overall strategic business goals closely aligned for the upcoming year.
Bolstering productivity and enhancing customer connections and services are two of next year's top priorities for both business and IT, according to the results of the Computerworld Tech Forecast 2017 survey. To hit those targets, enterprises will continue on the path to digital transformation, deepening their commitment to big data and analytics, as well as cloud computing and software as a service (SaaS). continued…
first published week of: 12/05/2016
Here's a ranking of the highest paying tech skills right now at 3,000 U.S. and Canadian companies that don't require a certification.
Why would an employer pay its tech workers extra cash for a skill or certification if they're already getting a salary and annual bonus?
There are a dozen good reasons why, and they all share one thing in common: None would be necessary if the company's compensation structure and pay practices were agile enough to successfully compete for talent in volatile labor markets.
The nature of the tech labor marketplace is exactly that, though, where the market value of a job or skill can move like a roller coaster depending on what’s hot and what’s not at any given moment. If your employer doesn't have built-in flexibility to react quickly and correctly it may be in real trouble finding and keeping people to execute tech enabled business strategy. continued…
first published week of: 11/21/2016
Snapchat’s current geofilter product is a nightmare for event managers, brands, and any commercial business because anyone can coat-tail or hijack the space.
Let’s say you’re holding a political rally at City Hall, and you want to buy a geofilter for the augmented Snapchat space at the event. When you go to purchase it from Snapchat, your plan gets rejected.
Why? Someone else has already bought the augmented space.
Snapchat’s current policy is “first come, first served,” and you can’t reserve a geofilter more than 30 days in advance. The first person to book at 12:01 AM 30 days ahead of an event will always get the geofilter. There’s also a cap on the number of geofilters that can exist within a designated space.
This means that anyone can hijack your digital space and promote a brand, cause or idea… as long as they “get” there first. continued…
first published week of: 09/26/2016
If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Free Wi-Fi is no exception to this adage. Security company Avast tested this theory by setting up a number of free fake Wi-Fi hotspots to see how many people would take the bait. They caught a lot of fish.
So you go to a political convention. Do a little politicking and listen to some speeches. While taking a break from the handshaking and schmoozing you decide to do a little work on your laptop. Then you get hacked.
During the Republican National Convention, IT security company Avast security set up fake Wi-Fi hotspots to see who would fall for their trick. As it turns out, a lot of people fell for it. Avast estimated more than 1,200 people logged into the fake hotspots, some with politically leaning names like "I VOTE TRUMP! FREE INTERNET," and "I VOTE HILLARY! FREE INTERNET," and some with an official ring to them like "Google Starbucks" and ATTWifi at GOP."
Of those, 68.3 percent exposed their identities.
This isn't a new trick for actual hackers, but a popular one in travel friendly spots, or big events. The Democratic National Convention and Olympics are expected to be breeding grounds for fraud.
"There are so many free applications and hardware devices available that almost anyone can do it," said Jerry Irvine, member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Cybersecurity Leadership Council and CIO of Prescient Solutions. continued…
first published week of: 08/08/2016
Apple is deeply invested in artificial intelligence and augmented reality when it comes to future products, CEO Tim Cook acknowledged in a recent interview.
"Look at the core technologies that make up the smartphone today and look at the ones that will be dominant in smartphones of the future — like AI," Cook told the Washington Post, which raised the issue of Apple's prospects given its financial dependence on the iPhone in a slowing smartphone market. "AI will make this product even more essential to you," he asserted.
"It will become even a better assistant than it is today. So where you probably aren't leaving home without it today — you're really going to be connected to it in the future. That level of performance is going to skyrocket."
Apple is stepping towards that goal with gradual improvements in Siri, such as third-party developer support. Cook in fact described it as "broadening Siri in a huge way" to the Post, although the AI assistant's chief rivals — Amazon Alexa and Google — already have similar third-party app hooks. continued…
first published week of: 08/29/2016
Republican FCC or Congress could get rid of Title II and net neutrality rules.
The net neutrality rules implemented during Barack Obama’s presidency don’t seem likely to survive Donald Trump’s administration.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler crafted the rules to survive lawsuits filed by Internet service providers, and the strategy worked when a federal appeals court upheld the rules in June of this year. But that doesn't mean a new presidential administration can't overturn them.
The FCC rules say ISPs may not block or throttle lawful Internet traffic or speed up Web services in exchange for payments from online service providers. A similar set of net neutrality rules was previously struck down in court, leading to Wheeler’s decision to reclassify broadband providers as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act. The commission’s Title II authority was enough to put the rules on solid legal ground.
But once the FCC is in Republican hands, the agency will have multiple options for taking the rules off the books. One is “forbearance.” Wheeler used the legal tool of forbearance to avoid applying the strictest types of Title II regulation (such as rate regulation and tariff requirements) to consumer Internet service providers. continued…
first published week of: 11/14/2016
Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, speaks in Washington, D.C. on July 24, 2012.
Erin Kirk-Cuomo/DOD
Michael Flynn, the man President-elect Donald Trump plans to name as U.S. national security advisor, believes the government is falling behind on cybersecurity.
Trump named Flynn to his cabinet on Friday after the former military intelligence leader acted as the top military advisor to Trump's presidential campaign. Flynn previously was director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and has served in U.S. intelligence operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Flynn holds strong views on cybersecurity. He’s called U.S. cyber capabilities “underwhelming.” continued…
first published week of: 11/21/2016
The Sunway TaihuLight in China has claimed the top spot in the Top500 list of the world's most powerful supercomputers for the second time in a row.
Xinhua
Twice a year, the Top500 list outlines the world's most powerful supercomputers, and the US has always held the title of most units in that list – that is, until it was knocked off its perch by China back in June. With the latest rankings released this week, the former champion is clawing its way back to the top, with the US and China now tied for 171 systems each within the top 500.
This time last year, the US held the lead easily, with 200 of the 500 most powerful supercomputers, almost double that of China. By June 2016, that figure dropped to 165 while China's jumped to 167, including the top two positions on the list – both of which remain unchanged in the latest rankings.
With over 93 petaflops of processing power, the Sunway TaihuLight is far and away the most powerful supercomputer in the world, absolutely smashing its nearest competitor, the Tianhe-2, which is humming away on a still-not-to-be-scoffed-at 34 petaflops. But two new entries have shaken up the top 10: the Cori supercomputer at Berkeley Lab's National Energy research Scientific Computing Center, debuted at number five with 14 petaflops, and right behind it was the Oakforest-PACS in Japan, at 13.6 petaflops. continued…
first published week of: 12/05/2016