Latest News - Page 2737

One of the big parts that Apple left out of its Watch unveiling last year was the battery life, something that is shaping up to be more than lackluster. Sources familiar with the device have told 9to5Mac that Watch users can expect just 3.5 hours of battery life with standard use, and just 2.5 hours of heavy use.

Watch will be powered by Apple's S1 processor, which should have the same type of performance as its A5 processor that is powering the current iPod touch. Watch will be running a cut down version of iOS codenamed SkiHill that will be providing content to a Retina-class display that will be pushing content out at 60FPS. If the Watch is being used with its built-in fitness tracking software, users can expect around four hours of battery life.

Mixed use of the Apple Watch has battery life at around 19 hours, and during standby and low-power modes, Watch users can expect around 203 days of use from a single charge. Battery life has been a big problem for Apple, which is reportedly one of the big reasons behind the company delaying Watch from last year, to this year.

Police in Israel have reportedly arrested a hacker accused of stealing unfinished songs from Madonna's latest album. Adi Lederman, a 38-year-old Israeli, will face charges related to intellectual property theft and aggravated fraud, and has allegedly stolen and sold other music online.

Madonna's album "Rebel Heart" is scheduled for release in March, but songs were leaked online in December. Not surprisingly, the musician asked fans not to listen to the stolen songs, pleading to music fans that the song theft was the equivalent of a personal and professional violation.

"I am profoundly grateful to the FBI, the Israeli Police investigators and anyone else who helped lead to the arrest of this hacker," Madonna wrote on her Facebook page. "I deeply appreciate my fans who have provided us with pertinent information and continue to do so regarding leaks of my music. Like any citizen, I have the right to privacy. This invasion into my life - creatively, professionally, and personally remains a deeply devastating and hurtful experience, as it must be for all artists who are victims of this type of crime."

The exploitation of the mostly dormant stable of DC characters continues to explode, with CBS and Warner Bros TV moving forward with a modern take on 'Supergirl'. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the studios have now cast their lead, with 'Glee' actress Melissa Benoist filling her super shoes.

Created by Otto Binder and Al Plastino in 1959 as a female counterpart to 'Superman', 'Supergirl' has gone through numerous revisions over the years, but the most famous is her depiction as Superman's cousin, who features many of the same powers, but the same affliction to the radioactive pieces of their former homeworld, Kryptonite.

The hour-long series has been given a full season order by CBS and is expected to air later in the year.

A whopping 93 percent of organizations are vulnerable to insider threats, and the problem continues to be confusing for business leaders, according to Vormetric's "2015 Insider Threat Report." The threat report also discovered 59 percent of respondents believe privileged users pose the biggest threat to their organization, and preventing a data breach is a major priority for IT security spending.

Trying to keep companies secure from insider threat - both accidental and malicious - is a problem that only seems to be getting worse, as companies are unsure how to address evolving security problems. As such, experts are concerned the number of massive data breaches, which captured headlines in 2014, will continue in 2015 while companies remain flustered.

"As the past year demonstrates, these threats are real and need to be addressed," said Alan Kessler, CEO of Vormetric. "Organizations wishing to protect themselves must do more than take a data-centric approach; they must take a data-first approach. Although we are heartened that 92 percent of organizations plan to maintain or increase their security spending in the coming year, our larger concern is about how they plan to spend that money."

It looks like "Resident Evil - The Final Chapter" will begin filming in August, according to actress Milla Jovovich. The film was expected to begin filming in 2014, but was postponed due to Jovovich's pregnancy, as the Ukrainian actor is expected to give birth in about 10 weeks.

Jovovich has gained 30 pounds because of her pregnancy, and wants to ensure she is able to physically take care of herself and her child - as she prepares for what will likely be her final role as Alice.

"I have to be ready to start filming 'Resident Evil - The Final Chapter' in August of this year," Jovovich recently said. "And I will also be nursing an infant simultaneously so I don't want to be on any extreme diets to get ready to go back to 'action hero' mode!"

Just 56 percent of employees believe their password habits in the workplace are secure, according to Software Advice's "Password Use in the Workplace" report. Companies are struggling to teach their employees to hold more responsibility with security, and the problem will continue throughout 2015.

"Our findings suggest that users either remain unaware of the rules despite the hype, do not believe them to be good advice or simply find them too burdensome, and thus opt for less secure passwords," according to the report.

Proper cybersecurity must start from the top and trickle down to regular employees, though that doesn't seem to be happening, according to the survey. Only 54 percent of employees report their employers require them to create complex passwords.

If it's tech-related, it seems Google wants a piece of the action - and the company is willing to spend money to help get the job done. The search giant racked up $16.83 million in federal political lobbying throughout 2014, according to the Consumer Watchdog group.

Google's lobbying figures put it ahead of Comcast, Verizon, IBM, Time Warner Cable, and other big spenders. More importantly, Google is investing more into political action over Microsoft ($8.33 million) and Facebook ($9.34 million), as the company expands into new business ventures.

Google recently invested $1 billion into SpaceX, while Google wants net neutrality laws revamped, to help fund autonomous vehicle research, and other ventures.

US government departments are increasingly worried about high-profile data breaches, with cyberattacks targeting US infrastructure increasing, according to General Dynamics. US military spending has declined, but due to rising cybersecurity threats, spending to help defend networks has grown significantly in certain sectors.

Cybersecurity related to preventing insider threats has proven popular, with up to five government departments interested in insider threat protection over past few months. Trying to defend against threats from the inside can be extremely difficult, but cybersecurity experts tend to look for unusual employee behavior before information is compromised.

"Across the board, I see this as still being a growth area for us," said Nadia Short, VP and GM of cyber systems at General Dynamics, when speaking to Reuters. The contractor has merged its cyber and engineering departments, providing additional expertise and streamlined security developments.

It would appear China was able to steal details regarding F-35 fighter jets being sold to the Australian military, according to former NSA contractor Edward Snowden - but the US Pentagon said classified data on its F-35 fighter program remains safe.

"Classified F-35 information is protected and remains secure," according to a statement published by Reuters. US government departments and its contractors face a high volume of Internet-based attacks, with criminals interested in stealing information - which can be used or sold - as organized state-sponsored attacks continue to increase.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government said the accusations revealed by Snowden are "groundless," though China is known to conduct cyberespionage campaigns against military and political rivals.

System manufacturer MAINGEAR is embracing the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 video card, rolling out the new GPU in its VYBE, SHIFT, and FORCE desktop models. All three models can be customized based on consumer needs, with MAINGEAR pointing out that the new GTX 960 "delivers up to 60 percent faster performance and improves energy efficiency."

The VYBE gaming desktop is powered by an Intel Core i5 CPU, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 GPU, and 8GB of DDR3 RAM - with a current promotional price of $999.

"The integration of NVIDIA's GTX 960 GPU further cements MAINGEAR as the dominant leader in high performance gaming hardware," said Wallace Santos, founder and CEO of MAINGEAR, in a press statement. "NVIDIA's newest GPU delivers the performance of high-end video cards without the premium price. We are impressed by its features and the extra horsepower."

Sixty-one percent of companies increased their cybersecurity budgets by an average of 34 percent in 2014, despite a number of high-profile data breaches still taking place, according to Identity Finder and the Ponemon Institute. Companies showed the most interest in the following security resources: Security incident and event management (SIEM), endpoint security, intrusion detection and prevention, encryption, and Web application firewalls.

Companies want to step up spending related to cybersecurity, but must ensure they are investing resources in the appropriate places. For companies breached, the information is rather frightening: 95 percent didn't discover a breach for at least three months, while 46 percent admitted they found a data incident on accident.

"This study shows that organizations are dedicating greater attention and financial resources towards managing sensitive information and preventing data breaches, which is certainly encouraging news," said Dr. Larry Ponemon, founder and chairman of the Ponemon Institute. "However, 2015 is predicted to be as bad or worse as 2014 as more sensitive and confidential data and transactions are targeted by attacks and collateral damage."

Acer has introduced two new Chromebook models, the Chromebook C910 and Chromebook C740, designed for students in the classroom at appealing price points.

The C910 has a 15.6-inch display providing full HD IPS (1920x1080 resolution) or HD (1366x768) resolution, according to Acer. Both models have Intel Core i3-5005U CPUs or Intel Celeron 3205U CPUs.

The Chromebook C910 will be available in 16GB or 32GB SSD and 4GB RAM, with a starting MSRP of $299.99. Meanwhile, the Acer C740 will be available with a 16GB SSD and 2GB or 4GB of RAM, with a starting MSRP of $259.99.

While The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt might not be coming out for a little while yet, CD Projekt Red and Fuero Games are working together for a MOBA title being released this week on Android and iOS.

The Witcher Battle Arena is a new mobile MOBA title, which is set within the universe of The Witcher. In the free-to-play MOBA game, gamers will battle it over a 3-on-3 game, but you can also play the singleplayer side of things which is available, too. Heroes within The Witcher Battle Arena will feature their own special, distinct abilities and skills that will allow players to find the characters that work best for their play style.

The developers have said that The Witcher Battle Arena is not a "pay-to-win" experience, as it is a fully free-to-play title. Gamers can unlock any of the purchasable in-game content through playing the game. The developer explains: "Everything in the game is unlockable for free, just by playing the game. Our system is honest, well balanced and doesn't keep you playing for ages to unlock something. If you want to get something unlocked faster, you can purchase it for a reasonable price. It's that simple".

During its Windows 10 event yesterday, Microsoft went right out in another direction actually exciting the technology community by announcing HoloLens. HoloLens, if you haven't already read up on it, is a wireless holographic viewing unit, which takes an interesting turn on the world's of VR and AR devices.

HoloLens features spatial sound, which means that you'll hear sounds behind you when wearing the headset, on top of the copious amounts of sensors that constantly pull information into the headset from the real-world around you. The headset features its own CPU and GPU, as well as a third processor, something Microsoft calls a holographic processing unit. Something HoloLens does right straight away is that it is wireless, compared to every Oculus Rift that we've seen so far.

Another tick for Microsoft is that the company has unveiled a release timeframe: with the launch of Windows 10, later this year. Microsoft will be pushing Windows Holographic, which will feature many different applications and pieces of software that will work in the HoloLens headset, such as Skype, Minecraft and hopefully, much more. NASA even had a Mars walking application to demo with Windows 10 and HoloLens, which is simply a tease of what is possible with Microsoft's wearable. The company is also rolling out a service called Holo Studios, which allows HoloLens users to create 3D objects, as well as move and manipulate projected images in space. These creates go a step or ten further, by allowing them to be printed, something that the DIY space is going to expand on, rapidly.

We only just reported that DirectX 12 will be providing CPU-bound games with up to 50% more performance, but the new version of Microsoft's API will be completely exclusive to Windows 10.

This is going to hurt some gamers, but with the offer of providing Windows 10 for free for Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 users, the sting won't be felt for too long. We shouldn't be too surprised, as previous versions of Windows have had exclusive rights to the latest version of DirectX. Windows Vista had DirectX 10 for example, but let's not even begin to talk about Vista.

The reason behind DirectX 12 being exclusive to Windows 10 is that Microsoft is making the desktop OS free to everyone who owns the last three versions of its OS. So anyone who wants to get in on more performance, or better quality graphics (DX12 games) then there is nothing bad here at all.

During its Windows 10 event, Microsoft teased so much that we've had to cover it in multiple stories, but one of the more PC centric talks was about DirectX 12.

DirectX 12 will ship with Windows 10 later this year, and will provide developers with more power and control over their games, which will provide them with the ability to give gamers more complex, and better performing games. Microsoft's Phil Spencer teased that DX12 will reduce the power consumption of DX11 by 50%, which will allow many more mid-range mobile devices to run "high-end" mobile games.

Spencer also announced that Unity has adopted DirectX 12, which is big news in itself. This will allow games like Fable Legends to use DX12 to work between Windows 10 and Xbox One owners, and even cross-platform play, which is super exciting.

During AMD's Q4 earnings call, CEO Lisa Su teased that the company will have "very good" graphics products that will ship in Q2 2015. Su confirmed that AMD has multiple product launches to spread out over "the next couple of quarters", with those quarters being Q2 and Q3. Most of which will be released between April and June.

Su did explain what is happening with the GPU side of the business, in that AMD had a large quantity of its Hawaii-based R9 290 series GPUs, most of which are rapidly declining. The company then increased its inventory in the anticipation of continued demand, but it fell off very quickly - mostly because the cryptocurrency market began to shrink rapidly. Thanks, Bitcoin miners. During Q4, Su said that company took the required actions to get the inventory levels back to normal, and moving into Q1 2015, AMD took even more drastic actions. I would dare say that NVIDIA's Maxwell-based GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 video cards had something to do with that.

Su continued: "Think on the computing and graphics business, we can improve our execution and there is a lot of focus, at least from my standpoint, to ensure that our 2015 product launches are quite strong. So that's important for us to really stabilize that business, and that will certainly be key to our second half performance. I think from where I see it going forward, we are very focused on correcting the channel and normalizing that business. I think we have some good products that are coming out for it. So I do see opportunities for a return to a more healthy channel business going forward".

Earlier this week, we reported on the campaign to return 'The X-Files' to the small screen, kicked off by none other than Scully herself - actress Gillian Anderson. Now the other half of the team, David Duchovny who played Fox Mulder has shown his hand, revealing he too is keen to see the show return.

Speaking to USA Today, the actor revealed that he was "more than happy and excited to bring it back and do it again with Gillian and Chris", the man who created 'The X-Files' in 1993. Giving fans a little more certainty, Duchovny continued "I'm assuming that it will happen sooner rather than later now. We'll see what form, how many. Certainly I can't nor would I be interested in doing a full season. It will be in some kind of limited form. We're all old, we don't have the energy for a full season."

It now looks that everything is falling into line to make the first new 'X-Files' stories since 2008's 'I Want to Believe'.

The Solar Impulse 2 is a solar-powered plane that is set to travel across the globe, using a healthy dose of vitamin D as its only power source. Last year the plans were revealed by the team behind this massive project, set to travel the whole distance without refueling.

The route of travel has now been revealed, set for kick-off in March 2015. Starting in Abu Dhabi, this aircraft will transgress the globe, stopping first in Asia, followed by America, southern Europe and Northern Africa. These pit-stops are described as refueling breaks for the staff and crew on board, not actually for the plane itself.

Coming in at 4850 lbs and with a 236 ft wingspan, this aircraft is a beauty to witness. Powered by 17,000 solar panels which charge a 2072 lb lithium battery, this plane will soar through the sky at an average cruising speed of 88 mph.

With 2400 jobs on the line globally, cuts are said to be happening across multiple positions including the eBay sister company, PayPal. Set to start this quarter, the cuts were revealed in its fourth quarter results which were published today.

These cuts make up for 7 percent of their total workforce, with this move being described by IT News "as a cost-cutting measure ahead of the planned spin-off of its PayPal payments division."

eBay are also allegedly offering up their enterprise unit for potential sale or public offering, claiming this division doesn't fit in with the payment (PayPal) or marketplace (eBay) units.