Latest News - Page 2895

The UTorrent dev team released 3.4 version of the client with a promise that it would change the way uTorrent chooses peers and therefore improves the download speeds and preventing DDOS attacks.

Other than the bug fixes and new features, BitTorrent's Adam Kelly explained how the new system works. He said,"If a BitTorrent client chooses poorly, or if there are malicious actors in the swarm, the connections between clients are not well distributed through the swarm, leading to a large number of hops from node to node. That slows down the ability to each client to pass data on to the next."

This method is called as 'Canonical Peer Priority'. The new peer selection method will now start giving more priority to those peers who are closer to you. When uTorrent received maximum number of connections for a torrent download, it will still accept incoming peers with a higher priority. It will accept a new peer by kicking out a low priority peer at the same time. This way it will help peers to get access to faster connections.

The Federal Court in Canada has ordered Ontario based internet service provider 'TekSavvy Solutions' to cough out names and addresses of 2,000 subscribed who are suspected to use peer-to-peer client to down movies illegally which is owned by Voltage Pictures who made movies movies such as The Hurt Locker and Dallas Buyers Club.

This is considered as a pivotal moment to catch movie pirates. As said by Voltage Pictures' Lawyer James Zibarras, the decision marks a shift from a time when BMG Canada Inc.'s attempt to track down illegal music downloaders was turned down by the court. He said,"That was heralded by many people as a kind of green light for downloading. This is the first time that case has been reconsidered by the court."

The court however has placed several limitation on Voltage Pictures and the way they'll use the information that they'll receive. A decision was made by Federal Court that the movie maker's communication with TekSavvy users should first be approved by the court, and that its letter should mentioned in clear letter that 'no Court has yet made a determination that such Subscriber has infringed or is liable in any way for payment of damages.'

Google has now provided a useful tool to get rid of those annoying subscriptions that you may or may have not signed up for, and even taking the trouble to locate an unsubscribe button in those unwanted promotional emails.

From this week onwards, Google will provide a clearly marked 'Unsubscribe' link for Gmail. The link will be present on top of the header field in the such promotional emails or mailing lists.

Earlier Google tested this feature with a limited number of users, but now Google has implemented this feature for everyone. The unsubscribe link should appear on most of the promotional message that would have hidden away an subscribe option. On the downside, this may have a bad effect on companies who try to build a customer base online. a number of promoters have started adding email addresses which they receive from multiple sources and mailing lists. On many cases, its either without the user's approval or hidden away in those sign up offers of anything that you're signed up for. Eventually, it may come to a point that the user may abandon the email address or the email service for good. In my opinion, its a win-win situation for everyone.

Alcatel is launching quite the number of smartphones this week, starting with the new Idol 2 smartphone. The Alcatel Idol 2 is a 5-inch smartphone, but it is also joined by its 4.5-inch brother, the Idol 2 Mini. Each of the new smartphones will arrive with 3G support, but will be joined by an "S"-branded LTE version.

The Idol 2 Mini is just 8.5mm thick, and will arrive to the market first, most likely in the first week of next month. Both smartphones will feature qHD displays, a quad-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz, Android 4.3 which is upgradeable to 4.4, NFC, an 8-megapixel rear-camera, backed up by a 2-megapixel front shooter.

The 3G-capable Idol 2 Mini will start at 169 euros (or $232) while the 4G version will be priced at 209 euros (or $287). The 3G model will arrive with a plastic build, while the 4G version arrives with a metal back and plastic at the top and bottom. There will be four colors on offer, too.

Mobile World Congress 2014 - Mobile World Congress 2014 kicks off in just a matter of hours, but Samsung has jumped the gun announcing two new smartwatches. The two new smartwatches don't feature the word "Galaxy" in their name, they're just known as Gear 2, and Gear 2 Neo.

Samsung has opted to drop Google's mobile OS Android, in favor of Tizen, something we thought would happen. The new smartwatches don't only feature Samsung's open-source OS, but they will feature revamped hardware, too.

The front-facing camera has been moved from the face of the smartwatch into the strap on the body itself, an IR port is provided so that it turns the Gear 2 smartwatches into a full living room remote. As for hardware, we have a 1.63-inch 320x320 Super AMOLED display, single-core processor at 1GHz, 512MB of RAM and 4GB of on-board flash.

While Facebook might be acquiring WhatsApp for a hefty $16 billion, it looks like the messaging application company might not be too good with encrypting its messages. With over 450 million active users, this becomes quite the user base for government spies, hackers, and more.

WhatsApp's use of secure sockets layer (SSL) encryption is meant to support version 2 of the protocol, which is capable of being hacked into, and monitored by a third-party. The messages being flown back and forth between WhatsApp users can even be manipulated. WhatsApp has failed to use a technique known as certificate pinning, which is designed to block attacks using forged certificates to bypass Web encryption.

Pinning allows an app to work only when communicating with a server using a specific certificate, and because this certificate is hardwired into the app, it will simply reject connections with any other attempts of a false certificate. Security consultancy firm Praetorian, has chimed in, with Paul Jauregui writing: "This is the kind of stuff the NSA would love. It basically allows them-or an attacker-to man-in-the-middle the connection and then downgrade the encryption so they can break it and sniff the traffic. These security issues put WhatsApp user information and communications at risk".

We reported about Google working on its own smartwatch all the way back in August of last year, but it looks like the Mountain View-based search giant is reaching the launching point of its new smartwatch.

TechCrunch is reporting that Google will "officially" begin shipping its smartwatch sometime in the second half of next month, but members from within Google's smartwatch team say that the date will be pushed back until June. Alternatively, Google could launch the smartwatch early, without its full feature set, which would be unfortunate.

According to people familiar with the matter, an early version of Google's smartwatch featured a metal band, square face, colorful digital display with a gradient background where colors gently fade from one to the other. Google will reportedly ship its smartwatch with a plastic band versus a metal band, like the Pebble Steel, but it is just one of the many prototypes the company is working on.

Mobile video editing company muvee recently announced its muvee Action Studio app for Google Android users looking to edit GoPro videos.

The app allows users to enjoy Fast Mode, Automatic Mode, and Pro Mode editing settings to quickly and easily edit videos from their mobile device. Fast Mode edits videos without decoding them, allowing users to trim and splice videos together; Automatic Mode has a unique setting that allows the app to cut videos to music tracks; and Pro Mode allows shots to be refocused, reframed, with a wider selection of editing tools available.

"I was snowboarding in Lake Tahoe with my GoPro and wanted to quickly put some highlight clips together to music and post on YouTube," said Terence Swee, muvee founder and CEO, in a press statement. "I did not want to bring a PC along with all the other equipment I was already lugging. I then realized that there must be a ton of GoPro users who are out mountain biking, diving, surfing or kayaking... in places where you don't want to bring a PC. But we always have our phones with us. I thought: 'I should be able to edit my GoPro videos on my phone immediately!' Now we can."

Just 23 percent of international B2B (business-to-business) marketing and sales teams are using tablets to help close deals out in the field.

Using a tablet is a good way to present during in-person sales meetings, while also able to demonstrate solutions in front of customers.

"Maybe if they talked to a lot international and smaller companies you get a high number, but there's no question that in the U.S. the majority of sales organizations are using tablets," said Tim Bajarin, President of Creative Strategies, in a statement to TabTimes.

3D printers are really going to change the world, with the technology being used more and more in the healthcare industry. 3D printed human tissue, prosthetics and much more are being printed, but now 3D printers have saved a young boy's life.

14-month-old Roland Lian Cung Bawi, son of two Burmese immigrants living in Owensboro, Kentucky, had major defects to his heart. The defects included a hole in his heart, as well as misaligned aorta and pulmonary arteries, and if left untreated, he would have died not long after. Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Erle Austin, stepped in, taking 2D images of Roland's heart, which he then showed to his fellow surgeons, as he attempted to correct Roland's young heart.

The 2D scans were not precise enough, which left surgeons offering alternative solutions on how to fix his heart. Austin turned to the School of Engineering at Louisville, where they used a Makerbot Replicator 2X to create a 3D-printed model of Roland's heart, with all of the defects. The 3D-printed heart was printed in three separate pieces so that the surgeons could take it apart and look inside.

Following former NSA contractor Edward Snowden's disclosure of widespread spying by the U.S. government, there has been a massive push to develop privacy-centric software and hardware. During the 2014 RSA Conference, which begins on Monday in San Francisco, data security and privacy solutions will be demonstrated at a frantic time in the industry.

In addition to the "Blackphone" being publicly unveiled, Google Android apps to better protect smartphones and tablets from sophisticated malware will also be shown off. Software security company AVG plans to release a "privacy fix" to identify what information companies can easily find about individual users.

If government snooping wasn't enough, the Android OS is being targeted with malicious apps, while PC users are under fire from advanced malware.

Sunnyvale, California based Exablox announced that they have reached an installation base that now exceeds 1PB. Touting themselves as "the company reimagining storage", Exablox entered the market mid last year with their OneBlox Appliance. They attribute their quick market adoption partly due to their go to market strategy of allowing customers to choose their own drives, as opposed to having to buy drives from them. In a related press release, they also just announced the capability of supporting the new HGST 6TB drives so their cost per capacity is looking to be even more attractive in 2014.

Allowing customers to choose their own drives is not unique to Exablox, as other storage vendors in the space have been doing this for years. However, most of the vendors allowing this flexibility do not also provide the same level of enterprise features that the OneBlox Appliance is capable of - features like inline deduplication, continuous data protection, and scaling out on-the-fly. This combination of cost savings and enterprise class software features could certainly make them a force to be reckoned with, especially in the small-medium enterprise space.

Furthermore, looking through their datasheet, it appears they have locked on to another major factor for this space- ease of use. With a supposed 3 minute installation and a cloud based management software, it could certainly appeal to IT shops that need to have a couple hundred TB's, but don't want to babysit it. Not to mention, it definitely looks sleek.

VideoLAN crew worked on Windows 8, RT and phone app version of VLC player with the help of Kickstarter fundraiser. After a year's time, the group's hardwork paid off as its player has finally received approval, and soon will be listed in Windows app Store.

The VLC player will be released for Windows 8, 8.1 and RT. After the release, the company will be starting to work on the windows mobile version of the app. The BETA version had several audio issues, along with other development issues for the Windows OS.

Earlier, VideoLAN said that it will first release VLC player for Windows 8/8.1 x86 first and then RT, though the next comment said that VLC player for Windows RT will be submitted 'soon'.

Companies searching for new methods to keep networks safe and defend against cyberattacks are increasingly turning to strong authentication and one-time passwords, according to market research firm Frost & Sullivan.

Strong authentication is the technique used by banking and financial institutions, while one-time passwords are single-use passwords that better protect against phishing and other security breaches.

Smaller boutique security vendors have popped up to help fill the void in a booming security market. Since more companies and consumers are scrambling for security solutions this will lead to a market of acquisitions as larger companies gobble up smaller, niche security firms.

Thermaltake introduces two new NiC series CPU coolers, also called as "non-interference coolers". These CPU coolers ensures that you can install memory kits is heatspreaders of any size. There are 2 models introduced in this series: NiC L31 and NiC L32.

Depending on the memory kit, CPU cooler and even CPU fan setup, sometimes the heatspreaders can be an obstacle which usually prevents you to install in the first 2 DIMM slots at the very least. These coolers on the other hand ensures that its NiC series coolers are not a problem for such scenario.

These coolers use 8mm direct contact heat pipes and supports up to 160w and 180w CPUs. The coolers are designed in a way that fans with 25mm thickness with push-pull configuration, the setup will not be an obstacle even for desktop motherboards with Quad channel setup. The fan spins between 500- to 1800 rpm.

ASUS and GIGABYTE Technology made plans to ship over five millon DIY motherboards by first quarter of this year. Both companies have been competing head-to-head in China's DIY PC market for entry-level, mid-end and even high-end models.

Though ASUS' 2014 shipments haven't changed, GIGABYTE has noticed a significant increase, mainly due to increase of demand in towns and cities. ASUS shipped about twenty million seven hundred thousand motherboards during 2013 witnessing a 6.8% decrease compared to the previous year, whereas GIGABYTE shipped twenty million motherboards, a 5.3% bump.

At the same time, sources reported that MSI International, ASRock, Elitegroup, Biostar & Colorful Technology and Development may have its shipments dropped by 10% at the very least.

An interesting trademark was filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office from Oculus VR, the startup behind the Oculus Rift VR headset. The trademark is for an exhibition dedicated to all things VR called RiftCon.

The company filed for the RiftCon trademark on February 14, while everyone was busy binge watching House of Cards, and includes the following description: "Organizing exhibitions for cultural, educational, or entertainment purposes; organizing exhibitions in the fields of interactive entertainment, virtual reality, consumer electronics and video game entertainment industries for cultural or educational purposes; entertainment services, namely, arranging and conducting of competitions to encourage use and development of interactive entertainment, virtual reality, consumer electronics, and video game entertainment software and hardware".

The idea of VR-focused exhibition is great, as the world of virtual reality hasn't even reached the consumer level yet. Oculus is on the forefront of this, but it'll be more interesting to see this RiftCon event happen as the launch platform for the consumer version of the Rift headset, and continue each year to showcase all things VR.

A researcher was caught using Harvard's Odyssey cluster of 14,000 cores that's usually meant for researching new clean energy methods for mining dogecoins.

The assistant dean for Research Computing at Harvard University, James Cuff, sent an email to the rest of the researchers with a message that "Odyssey and Research Computing resources can not be used for any personal or private gain or any non research related activity. Accordingly, any participation in "Klondike" style digital mining operations or contests for profit requiring Harvard owned assets to examine digital currency key strength and length are strictly prohibited for fairly obvious reasons. In fact, any activities using our shared resources for any non scientific purpose that results or does not actually result in personal gain are also clearly and explicitly denied."

As one would expect, the researcher no longer has any access to its facilities on a permanent basis. The email also added that though the researcher was caught 'eventually', its most likely that he or she already made a significant profit at the University's expense. Since the mining operation lasted many days using the Odyssey cluster, the profit could have been in thousands of dollars as the value of a single dogecoin was roughly $0.0012.

Wearables have tremendous potential for the enterprise and consumer markets, but the industry still has multiple challenges to overcome. Companies are focusing more on the enterprise wearable market at the moment, but technology breakthroughs should trickle into consumer markets as familiarity and stability increase.

(From right to left: Bruce Hawver, SteelSeries CEO; Paul Travers, Vuzix CEO; Fred Ishii, Iron CIty Micro Display founder; Mark Spitzer, Google X Director of Operations; and Jessica Lessin, moderator)

During the recent Kopin Wearable Technology Launch Event in Santa Clara, California, panelists spoke during a round table discussion and shared their views on what needs to change for the future of wearables to accelerate even faster.

To appease OEM hardware manufacturers upset with disappointing Windows 8 sales, Microsoft reportedly will slash 8.1 prices it charges to OEMs by 70 percent. Instead of paying a license fee of $50 for mobile products that cost $250 or less, OEMs will now only have to pay $15 per unit.

Microsoft said it did 1.24 billion hours of Windows 8 testing during development, hearing about user displeasure of the Metro interface. New CEO Satya Nadella must try and determine if Microsoft will move on to the next version of Windows, or put full effort into trying to raise adoption as quickly as possible.

Using market-development funds and other incentives, larger hardware OEMs were paying around $30 per unit, according to a report published by Bloomberg Technology. Microsoft offers MDF money, similar to other companies, based on sales, revenue generated, using a tier system with its partners.