Latest News - Page 2715

Lenovo was busted preloading the Superfish adware software on consumer notebooks, and its customers were clearly not happy. Following its Superfish headache, Lenovo wants to become "the leader in providing cleaner, safer PCs" to its customers.

The company continues trying to repair its public relations nightmare, recently promising a reduction in preloaded applications. In the future, pre-loaded software will include Microsoft Windows, security software, Lenovo applications and programs that must be installed so built-in hardware can function - but Lenovo will list what is installed.

Cybersecurity experts and US government officials said customers should remove Superfish because it leaves users vulnerable to SSL spoofing techniques that can compromise security. Lenovo will also offer a free six-month subscription for the McAfee LiveSafe service, with additional information expected in the next week.

Augmented and virtual reality devices will drastically increase in popularity, rising from 3 million units in 2015 up to 55 million in 2020, according to ABI Research. Head-mounted displays (HMDs) will lead the way, but mobile-reliant devices will see early success, with tethered solutions needing a bit more time to mature.

"There is a lot of excitement and hype focused on getting consumers to try out virtual reality, including the LG G3 shipping with an HMD in some markets, and Mattel's View-Master AR toy," said Michael Inouye, senior analyst at ABI Research. "These early experiences will be like any new toy-novel for a while and then fall off in use, with new content potentially driving periodic re-engagement."

It's unknown if gaming and movies will help drive VR, even though hardware developments are being made. Meanwhile with AR, which is increasingly popular in the enterprise, consumers find a lack of apps difficult to help embrace the technology - and ABI Research thinks it may be a matter of time:

Demis Hassabis is an artificial intelligence expert and founder of the now Google-owned DeepMind Technologies - so he has a unique insight into AI research.

Hassabis and his team have developed a custom algorithm giving AI the ability to learn in a similar fashion to humans - a groundbreaking notion that will give some people greater fear of AI one day taking over. Even so, Hassabis believes it will be quite some time before humans have to worry about their own wellbeing due to AI:

"We're many, many decades away from anything, any kind of technology that we need to worry about," said Hassabis, speaking during a recent news conference. "But it's good to start the conversation now and be aware of as with any new powerful technology it can be used for good or bad."

US investigators are monitoring a resident in Michigan suspected of using social media to recruit - and inspire - Islamic extremism. Ahmad Musa Jibril, encouraging followers to "spread Islam by the sword," is a Palestinian-American living in Dearborn, Michigan. He is on probation after being released in 2012 for an insurance fraud conviction.

A federal judge restricted Jibril's Internet usage in 2014, but his following on social media has continued to grow. Investigators are searching through his Twitter followers and those who have "liked" his Facebook page, looking for digital fingerprints into possible extremist activity.

"There is nothing to suggest he has changed his views," said Peter Neumann, a British researcher, in a statement published by CBS News. "He has toned them down because he realizes that if he doesn't tone them down they will come after him."

Bookstore chain Barnes & Noble won't separate its retail business from its NOOK Digital Business, though said the company's college business will be spun off. It was previously believed the NOOK and college book store businesses would become a single entity independent of the retail operation.

"Retail and the NOOK Digital Business will be able to leverage a more integrated technology infrastructure for improved efficiency and to better serve digital customers," said Michael Huseby, CEO of Barnes & Noble. B&N invested more resources into its NOOK reader and e-book library, but has fought for profitability.

B&N has faced increased pressure from online businesses, and is looking for ways to improve retail and online sales. The company still has 649 retail stores, but needs new methods to keep up with Amazon, while also adapting as more consumers read content on mobile devices.

Mobile gaming is big business for companies in the United States, with the market growing more than 20 percent in 2014 alone, according to The NPD Group. The expanding popularity of mobile gaming is creating a lucrative opportunity for game downloads, apps, and free-to-play services - with smartphones, tablets, and other mobile electronics becoming more prevalent.

"Mobile is the third largest gaming category in the U.S., and grew in excess of 20 percent over the past year," said David McQuillan, president of global games at The NPD Group. "We believe that information that allows gaming companies to fully capitalize on this explosive growth is paramount..."

The news comes as The NPD Group announced its expanding the Checkout Tracking SM service so it is able to monitor in-app and full-game mobile purchases, providing better insight into consumer buying behavior.

Ahead of Mobile World Congress, LG has just unveiled the LTE-capable version of its Watch Urbane. Watch Urbane LTE will be better detailed during MWC 2015 by LG next week.

The new LTE-capable smartwatch is just a great-looking wrist-mounted cell phone, with the ability to make voice calls without the need of a smartphone. Not only that, but the Watch Urbane LTE is also capable of translating foreign speech, take voice calls, share your GPS location, track your fitness, and monitor your heart rate and atmospheric pressure. Also, just in case, there's an SOS button that lets you place an emergency call to your contacts.

LG has also baked in NFC capabilities that allows for NFC-based payments to be made, something that is exclusive to the Watch Urbane LTE right now. The new LG Watch Urbane LTE features a 700mAh internal battery, up from the 410mAh in the non-LTE versions. As for the OS, it runs LG's proprietary wearable platform, and not Android Wear like competing smartwatches.

By 2018, 40 percent of large enterprises will have some type of plan to respond to aggressive cybersecurity business disruptions, a drastic increase from zero percent in 2015, according to the Gartner research group.

Gartner describes an aggressive business disruption attack as a coordinated and sophisticated effort to interfere with and damage business operations - wiped data, servers knocked offline, intellectual property stolen.

"Entirely avoiding a compromise in a large complex enterprise is just not possible, so a new emphasis toward detect and respond approaches has been building for several years, as several attack patterns and overwhelming evidence support that a compromise will occur," said Paul Proctor, VP and distinguished analyst at Gartner. "Preventive controls, such as firewalls, antivirus and vulnerability management, should not be the only focus of a mature security program."

With six 16x16 displays giving you the ability to run various applications, the Cuberox PC project sets out to be the perfect home solution.

When turned off this product looks like just a general cube, but this waterproof casing houses a fully-functional computer within. Running on a Linux operating system, this product allows users to run different applications on each side of the cube, alongside giving developers full reign of application support and development through APR written on JavaScript.

Achieving a full waterproof seal thanks to wireless charging, this Kickstarter project also features some cool things like built-in speakers and a multicolor smart backlight. If you're feeling extra special you can partake in multiplayer games or even apparently install office on your device.

Out of all of the trade shows I've ever been to, Computex is definitely my favorite - so when the opportunity comes for you to win a chance to go, you take it! GIGABYTE is offering one lucky person the chance to attend Computex 2015 in its new GIGABYTE Z79 - X99 BIG XTU Challenge on HWBOT.org.

In order to enter, you'll need to tweak your systems for a very specific benchmark - Intel's XTU. Overclockers can submit their scores in order to reach a secret target, where you'll rack points up in order for the chance to win cash prizes, hardware, and the coveted trip to Computex 2015 in Taipei, Taiwan in June.

There are over $4000 in prizes up for grabs, four GIGABYTE motherboards, and then the trip to Computex 2015 up for grabs. GIGABYTE explains the competition: "Each of the 4 rounds will have 10 secret target scores which will be revealed only after their submission period. But to guide you, a target range will be announced in advance. Your goal is to submit as many scores within that range during a 3 days period and try to hit the secret score. Participants who hit the secret target score will cumulate a point and have a chance at winning the Grand Prize or cash prize!"

Apple has just sent invitations to select members of the media for an event on March 9 which it has teased as "spring forward". This is a reference to Daylight Savings Time, which could mean we're going to see a much more detailed look at Apple Watch.

We have heard that Apple wants to ship its first-gen Watch in April, so this event is perfect timing. It shouldn't just be about Watch either, as we can expect to hear about other products like the 12-inch Retina MacBook Air, which should be a revised Air. The new Air should sport a thinner profile, edge-to-edge keyboard, and a USB Type-C connector that will replace the full-sized USB port on the current MBA.

Throwing another rumor out there, is that Apple could show off the iPad Pro, with its 12.9-inch (or so) display. We don't know about that yet, as there haven't been too many leaks on the larger-screen iPad lately, but it could still happen.

Making Wiz Khalifa proud, this black and yellow build spotted on the EK Water Blocks Facebook page is jam-packed with ASRock, Intel and EK Water Blocks components.

Finally a build that isn't featuring rigid tubing, this mod project has interestingly placed the Kingston HyperX SSD Na'Vi Edition directly onto the power supply, likely due to space constrictions.

Alongside providing yellow died liquid for aesthetics, even the RAM has been properly color coordinated alongside brilliantly sleeved cables. This fully water cooled system only features one video card this time, but it's still going to be enough for general duties.

Joel "emilio" Mako was slapped with a Valve Anti-Cheat ban (VAC ban) whilst playing in a match against rival team HellRaisers in an online tournament match, which saw his gaming team releasing him immediately.

VAC ban's generally come in waves, with multiple players being banned in one go and this action happening often weeks after their cheating experience took place - this helps create confusion as to exactly what cheat program the hackers have used as they are not told exactly what got them banned.

Mako claimed he was not guilty and in an interview with HLTV he stated that "I am leaving this in Valve's hands. I cannot prove my innocence, but I know they can."

This new wearable device is a fitness tracker done right, giving you the ability to charge your products while you enjoy some self-enjoyment alone time.

The Wankband has been put into production by Pornhub and utilizes a small inner valve within the band to send a weight speeding up and down with every stroke in order to produce some 'handy' power.

Currently in development stages, this landing page will give you a little more information in a Safe For Work environment - or you can watch the clean video above and wait for more information, which will be released "in the coming months."

Battlefield Hardline isn't too far away now, so EA is getting down and dirty with getting the game out there, with Mike Gloseski from EA taking to the official Battlefield website to talk the game up.

Glosecki concentrated on the PC side of things, addressing the 'power of PCs', 'how stable will the game be on PC' and more. When talking about the power of PCs, Gloseski said that the PC "allows you to customize the experience to your liking" and that you can set specific graphical details in the game, compared to its console counterparts. He added: "You can adjust your field of view or run higher than 60 FPS if you choose. You can even play with a three monitor setup for an immersive experience. Lastly, you get to use a mouse and keyboard which gives you the best control setup for a first person shooter".

One of the better additions to this post was that he tackled a big question: "how stable will the game be on PC". Glosecki said: "I think we can all agree that Battlefield 4's stability at launch was less than stellar. In order to address stability for our game at launch, we've had the game up and running in the multiplayer environment for the last two years with both the development and quality assurance teams playing in daily matches". Another nice change is that the developer is "also making changes to Battlelog to include a new pop-up on how to activate the plugin in your browser since this was an issue for some of our players".

With pre-orders currently open for the first batch that is set to ship out 4-6 weeks after the Apple Watch release, Brikk is looking to initially sell of 30 of these devices to hungry executives and celebrities.

There are some much cheaper options available for around the $7,500 mark, however, for now we're focusing on the LUX Watch Omni which features 24K yellow gold and is priced between $69,995.00 - $74,995.00 as $69,995.00 - $74,995.00 according to their website. Coming in a 38mm and 42mm face version, expect to receive goodies such as an aluminum zero Halliburton case with carbon fiber and suede leather interior, a certificate of authenticity with a diamond inside and your general inclusions of a charging cable, charging plug and user guide.

Yes, you read that properly - even the certificate of authenticity comes with a diamond located within.

Twenty-eight percent of consumers know nothing or very little about mobile malware, while another 26 percent said they are aware of cyber threats but aren't worried, according to the "Consumer Security Risk" survey from Kaspersky Lab.

In addition, 31 percent of Google Android smartphones and 41 percent of tablets aren't password-protected, while 58 percent of Android smartphones and 63 percent of tablets have some form of anti-virus software.

"It is not surprising that mobile users are facing online threats more often now: devices are capable of doing so much more, and many more people are using them, so of course they will attract fraudsters," said Victor Yablokov, head of mobile product line at Kaspersky Lab. "To avoid falling victim to scams, users are advised to protect their devices against cyber threats and be especially careful with any sensitive data store on them."

Even with the rising sophistication of cyberespionage campaigns, US critical infrastructure is less likely to suffer from a single major incident - and faces a higher risk of continued low-to-medium attacks.

"Rather than a 'cyber-Armageddon' scenario that debilitates the entire US infrastructure, we envision something different," said James Clapper, director of national intelligence, in a recent report. "We foresee an ongoing series of low-to-moderate level cyberattacks from a variety of sources over time, which will impose cumulative costs on US economic competitiveness and national security."

Clapper's statements were made as part of a report submitted to the Senate committee, with growing concern regarding cybersecurity.

Overkill Software has announced that Payday 2: Crimewave Edition will be released for the Microsoft Xbox One and Sony PlayStation 4 this June. The game will run in 1080p, with the game studio also including enhanced textures, and faster frame rates for console players.

"We're relaunching Payday 2 for the new platforms," said Almir Listo, producer at Overkill Software, told Eurogamer. "You'll get a year's worth of post-launch updates for the PC version available from the get-go - that's both the paid-for and free content."

Payday 2 has racked up 9 million copies sold for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 after launching in August 2013.

FireEye's Mandiant found that the average data breach was discovered in 205 days, dropping from 229 days (2013) and 243 days (2012). Enterprises were only able to self-detect 31 percent of breaches, with third-parties and the government helping identify cybersecurity incidents.

Companies are becoming more vigilant in detecting cybercrime-related activity, such as credit card companies noticing fraudulent behavior.

"Over the last several years, organizations like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have gotten increasingly involved in notifying US businesses that they have been identified as being compromised," said Ryan Kazanciyan, technical director at Mandiant, in a statement to eWEEK. "The result of the FBI's efforts has led to increasing numbers of victim notifications."