With the 10th anniversary of the iPhone approaching, features and design for the celebratory version of the device have been leaked or rumored in the last week. According to various reports, at least one new model will be available with a curved OLED screen similar to that of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. This high end model, however, is estimated to sell for just over $1,000 and to be marketed as a premium option alongside the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus.
Account security is one of the most vital pieces of the busy and interconnected world right now and nobody wants strangers accessing their personal information online. You might use a password manager as well as two-factor authentication like we mentioned in a previous post, but now there’s another way to stay protected.
In response to similar approaches from Google and Dropbox, Facebook has added support for safe login security keys. When you log into your account, this device will prove your identity rather than a code which sends to your phone. In addition to the superior security, they’re also potentially faster. With just a tap on the device you can have access to your Facebook account and feel safer in knowing only you can unlock it. It’s a welcome move from the company in an age where cyberattacks and identity theft are on the rise and as a universal rule on the internet, it’s never a bad time to strengthen your defences.
With bootable USB media becoming more and more common and fewer machines even shipping with a CD drive, ISO image files and other forms of portable software is becoming the new standard for software distributions. To supplement this shift, Rufus aims to convert any ISO image into a boot drive in a matter of minutes.
Rufus is an easy to use portable software for Windows devices to create bootable USB drives using ISO images. This includes options to properly identify images such as installation disks or operating systems and then it will compare the image to the available disk size. The process itself does not take a particularly long time but it does depend on the size of the ISo and speed of the USB drive.
For anyone looking for a PC mic, a USB connection is a must. Mic jack connections with the standard 3.5mm cable don’t have the connections or data flow to properly translate sound into usable data for a computer. To go beyond this, however, would be to use tools like Behringer’s new MIC500USB to achieve that famous tube “warmth” without having to record in a studio with rackmounted tube preamps.
With the potential to push past the lithium ion cells in the majority of mobile tech today, scientists from the University of Central Florida have created a supercapacitor battery prototype. This model works like new even after 30,000 recharges and has an estimated lifetime 20 times longer than traditional mobile battery sources.
Supercapacitors can be charged quickly because they store energy on the surface of a material rather than using internal chemical reactions. This two dimensional sheet is predominately made of graphene and prioritizes surface area to maximize its storage.
For anyone who wants both security and style in a portable drive, Western Digital’s My Passport line continues to be one of the more practical options on the market. WD recently refreshed the design and feature set, and the result is a portable drive that feels less like a generic black brick and more like a polished, everyday tool you’d actually want to carry.
The drive is available in a range of colors and finishes, which sounds cosmetic on the surface, but it reflects a broader shift in how external storage is positioned: not just as backup hardware, but as part of a daily workflow. The enclosure is compact, bus-powered (no external power brick), and easy to throw into a laptop bag without thinking twice.
Functionally, WD has doubled down on the features that actually matter. Automatic backup can be scheduled using WD Backup software, which means files are copied quietly in the background instead of relying on you to remember to drag folders over once in a while. The drive also supports password protection and built-in 256-bit AES hardware encryption through WD Security, which gives you a layer of protection that doesn’t depend on third-party software.
Kingston Technology announced last week that it is shipping the most the world’s largest capacity USB drive from DataTraveler. Their Ultimate GT offers up to 2TB of storage and USB 3.1 Gen 1 (USB 3.0) performance. Tech enthusiasts and professional users with high-capacity storage needs will have the ability to store immense amounts of data in a portable form factor with use cases such as up to 70 hours of 4K video stored on the drive.
Representatives from Kingston have stated “We are always striving to create new and better storage solutions to meet our customers’ needs especially in an ever-increasing digital world.” With the release of the DataTraveler Ultimate GT, users can push the boundaries of their mobile storage needs and ensure that they have more than enough space to store their video, photos and files in the most portable medium available.
With the spark of uncertainty in various global markets after the events of the new year, not even the giants are able to get by unscathed. Toshiba’s board on Friday approved plans to make its core memory chip business a separate company for outside investment. With it goes more than just ownership, but private equity and investments in the specific sectors being split off.
Toshiba’s memory chip business is the world’s biggest NAND flash memory producer after Samsung, and it accounts for the bulk of Toshiba’s operating profits. The sale, however, is looking to sell roughly 20 percent of its holdings for over 200 billion yen. Aiming to complete the sale by the end of the financial year, Toshiba will announce the final figure for the writedown on February 14th when it reports third-quarter results.
Rasberry Pi’s Pixel is a lightweight operating system released by the foundation behind the affordable $35 Rasberry Pi computer and it is now available for PC or Mac users who want to renew their old hardware! The Linux-based OS comes as a downloadable image you can either burn to a DVD or load onto a USB drive to boot directly into the Pixel environment.
What does this mean for your old laptop that has been lying around? It means you can once again use it for basic tasks and web browsing via Chromium, which comes pre-installed. This is, however, a prototype build. Some bugs and hardware compatibility issues are expected, one of which is a recognition error with modern Mac systems but altogether, nothing that would be harmful to your system. The creative prioritization was for the purpose of distributing this Mac and PC version because it was believed to be most useful in schools with outdated hardware. With Pixel, these machines will once again be able to access information in modern fashion.
In light of misinformation and explosively popular falsehoods we’ve seen in the last few years, Facebook has taken steps to create consequences for spreading objectionable content. This month the US Trademark and Patent Office published Facebook’s application for a detection tool on their platform. As stated in the application, its primary purpose is to improve detection of pornography, hate speech, and bullying. Last month, however, Zuckerberg emphasized the need for “better technical systems to detect what people will flag as false before they do it themselves.”
The system described is largely consistent with Facebook’s current protocols for objectionable content but it also adds layers of machine learning to improve efficiency. The move comes at a time when Facebook is under increasing public pressure to reduce the spread of propaganda through its network. Although they have expressed commitment to making improvements, they are proceeding with caution to the idea that machine learning can separate fact from fiction but due to the audiences receptive to some of the more questionable content, clear standards may be the first necessary step for implementation.
Phishing emails and information theft can be both frustrating and unsettling. They flood inboxes every day, hoping to catch you when your guard is down. Most scams don’t rely on sophisticated technology — they rely on human habits. A rushed click, a moment of distraction, or a message that “looks close enough” is often all it takes. The good news is that basic awareness goes a long way, and a few simple habits can dramatically reduce your risk.
Step 1: Never Click on Shortened Links
Ever wonder how data from a server in Beijing can reach a computer in San Diego? As deceptively simple as it sounds, that data goes through a cable. Cables spanning various distances, numerous speeds, and controlled by an incredible variety of owners, run through the ocean to connect these different sides of the world. Google, in a partnership with Facebook and China Soft Power Technology, is looking to take the next leap in the quality and speed of these vital methods of data transfer. That leap comes in the form of a few 8,000 mile cables, and it’s called the Pacific Light Cable Network.
The Pacific Light Cable Network, or the PLCN, will transmit 120 terabits of data per second between Los Angeles and Hong Kong and is expected to be functional by 2018. According to Google’s submarine networking infrastructure director, this will decrease latency in certain cases and will provide a much faster and more reliable experience when communicating between the two regions.
