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Showing posts from January, 2014

5 ways Facebook changed us, for better and worse

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By Doug Gross (CNN) - Ten years and 1.2 billion users into its existence, there's no question that Facebook has changed our lives. Whether it was an inspired vision, deft execution, a bit of dumb luck or a combination of all three, Mark Zuckerberg's social juggernaut has ingrained itself into the daily lives of digital-age users in a way that forebears like MySpace and contemporaries like Twitter could only imagine. Which is not to say it's all 'likes' and 'shares' and happy kid pics. As with any new (or newly discovered) technology, the impact of the end product is largely in the hands of the user. We are, after all, only human - with all the joy and sadness, decency and ugliness that that entails. So here, as Facebook turns 10 on Tuesday, is a look back at five ways the social network has changed us - for better and for worse. Share! Share! Share! The good: Wedding announcements? Thing of the past. Birth announcement? Just slap an Instagram shot of that bo

Take it from Facebook and Microsoft: The future of hardware is open

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Service Desk Comparative Report Gartner's recent magic quadrant for IT Service Support Management included no vendors as leaders or innovators. Learn why and how ITinvolve is delivering an innovative service desk solution that empowers IT staff through social collaboration and visualization to improve incident analysis and triage to speed incident resolution time.

Microsoft offering store credit bounty on PS3s

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An ad encouraging customers to ditch their PS3s has been released to some mailing lists. Microsoft is offering $100 of credit to its store when trading in Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles. The promotion is an effort to further promote the Xbox One and encourage gamers to trade up on their current console. The fact that they are also encouraging trade ins of Sony's devices has raised a few eyebrows. An ad has been emailed out to several customers encouraging them to 'ditch' their PS3 in exchange for store credit towards the Xbox One. The terms and conditions require for the consoles to be in working order and without any broken or missing parts, with original chargers and accessories and can't be locked by a password. Whilst Microsoft is likely to re-sell the Xbox 360s, it is unclear what Microsoft intends to do with the Playstation 3s that it receives. The offer is only available for residents of the US, Canada and Puerto Rico and is only valid in physical Microsoft

Dell Wyse Cloud Connect Officially Launched, Priced At $129

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A year ago Dell announced that it was working on a new product which was then called as Project Ophelia. This device which was shown by the company at CES 2013 is the size of a thumb drive which turns any compatible TV or monitor into a PC, gaming machine or even a set-top box. The company has finally launched this product which is now called Dell Wyse Cloud Connect and costs $129, a little bit over the $100 estimated price a year ago. It has a size slightly larger than a USB stick and can turn any display into a PC. While it is aimed at enterprises and educational institutions it will also appeal to individuals who want a portable solution in carrying a PC without bringing with them a laptop. Technical Specifications Operating System: Android 4.1, Jelly Bean Display: HDMI/MHL equipped video interface, 1080p Full-HD resolution support Processor: Multi-core Cortex-A9 ARM System-on-Chip (SoC) Networking: 802.11 a/b/g/n dual band wireless Ports: MHL/HDMI video interface, DisplayPort video

Google could be looking to Nest to build exciting new products outside of smart ...

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When Google first purchased Motorola to the tune of $12 billion back in 2011, some analysts predicted Google was in it only for the patents and to some extent, they were. But other than simply bolstering their patent portfolio to help defend Android her hardware partners, some saw it as an undercover move by Google to get into the hardware business. But now that Google is ready to call it quits with Motorola, who will the search giant turn to for building new hardware? The answer could lay in Nest. According to sources from TechCrunch, Google has big plans for Nest - whom they recently purchased for $3.2 billion - outside of building smart thermostats and smoke detectors. Does this mean we could see a Nest built smartphone or tablet in the future? Not so fast... It's being said Google didn't buy Nest solely for their popular thermostat, but to get a hold of their amazing product team. Have you guys ever seen a Nest up close? It really is a thing of beauty. Tony Fadell, Nest'

Foursquare Now Lets You Order In Directly From US Restaurants

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Foursquare is teaming up with GrubHub Seamless, the company announced Thursday, meaning users are now able to order delivery from thousands of restaurants directly through Foursquare. A new GrubHub or Seamless icon will appear at the bottom of the Foursquare app when a user is viewing a participating restaurant. You'll be able to place your orders directly through the app; Foursquare announced that more than 20,000 restaurants from across the United States will now have that function within Foursquare. You can look specifically for GrubHub Seamless restaurants by searching for their cuisine type and adding the word 'delivery' to the end of the search. For example, searching 'pizza delivery' would return restaurants from the GrubHub Seamless network. Foursquare matched its own restaurant database with the GrubHub Seamless database to identify participating restaurants, according to a company spokesperson. GrubHub and Seamless finalized a merger in August after announ

Google Maps' open

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A A The Berlin startup scene has its first big exit of 2014, and indeed one of its largest yet: navigation veteran Telenav has picked up local OpenStreetMap specialist Skobbler for $23.8 million. It's not just good news for Berlin, either. For those involved in OpenStreetMap (OSM), a global, crowdsourced, open-source mapping project, it represents a potentially healthy consolidation. OSM founder Steve Coast recently joined Telenav, and Skobbler is the leader in OSM integration and commercial use. The team's all together now, and all those 1.5 million OSM contributors will now see their work put to greater use - with a good deal more investment, too. The nice thing about OSM is that, even when the data finds its way into commercial maps, anyone can still download it and find their own use for it. This is a markedly different model from Google's, in which contributors can improve Google Maps but can't then get data out of it. As far as apps go, the big beneficiary here is

Microsoft Enhances Windows Intune, Outlines MDM Vision

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Microsoft VP Brad Anderson: 'Microsoft's vision is to enable people to be productive on all the devices they love while helping IT ensure that corporate assets are secure and protected.' Don't count Microsoft (MSFT) out of the race to win mobile device management (MDM) market share. This week Microsoft is offering a top level view of its mobile device management approach and announcing enhancements to Windows Intune, its cloud-based device management tool. First, a run down of the new Windows Intune features, which include the following: Support for e-mail profiles that can configure a device with the correct e-mail server information and related policies -- and it can also remove that profile and related e-mail via a remote wipe. In addition to the unified deployment mode and integration with System Center Configuration Manager, Windows Intune be able to stand alone as a cloud-only MDM solution. There is also support for new data protection settings in iOS 7 -- includi

Microsoft Enhances Windows Intune, Outlines MDM Vision

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Microsoft VP Brad Anderson: 'Microsoft's vision is to enable people to be productive on all the devices they love while helping IT ensure that corporate assets are secure and protected.' Don't count Microsoft (MSFT) out of the race to win mobile device management (MDM) market share. This week Microsoft is offering a top level view of its mobile device management approach and announcing enhancements to Windows Intune, its cloud-based device management tool. First, a run down of the new Windows Intune features, which include the following: Support for e-mail profiles that can configure a device with the correct e-mail server information and related policies -- and it can also remove that profile and related e-mail via a remote wipe. In addition to the unified deployment mode and integration with System Center Configuration Manager, Windows Intune be able to stand alone as a cloud-only MDM solution. There is also support for new data protection settings in iOS 7 -- includi

Google Rides Ads, Apps to $17 Billion Revenue Quarter

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By Chris Preimesberger | Posted 2014-01-30 Email Print Most of this success is based on continued good news in terms of its bread-and-butter business -- attracting eyeballs for advertising purposes. Google, with all of its acquisition moves, robot R&D, moonshot ideas and edgy Earthbound projects, above all knows how to run a successful business. This is a company that went public in August 2004 at $85 per share and plainly knows how to make money in the new economy. The stock closed Jan. 30 up $28 on the day at $1,139, and then kept moving north to $1,182 in after-hours trading, up another $43. The Mountain View, Calif.-based search and web services giant revealed another stellar quarterly earnings report Jan. 30, totaling $16.9 billion -- or $9.90 per share -- in revenue versus $14.4 billion in the year-ago quarter. Profit was $3.4 billion compared with $2.9 billion in Q4 2012. About $10.55 billion of revenue emanated from Google's sites and $3.52 billion from partner sites,

Dell announces availability of Dell Wyse Cloud Connect

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Dell has announced the availability of Dell Wyse Cloud Connect, an ultra-compact and highly mobile cloud-access device designed to deliver desktop virtualisation and personal cloud services to any HDMI- or MHL-enabled display. The pocket-size device delivers a full-HD experience with enterprise-level security, manageability and reliability. Organisations of any size can now deliver streaming cloud services and IT solutions in a cost-effective, mobile offering for work, home and on the go. 'Cloud Connect is among the most cutting-edge mobile thin client solutions that we have tested at our labs,' says Joseph Korah, Senior Director and Head of Kochi Operations, Cognizant. 'With its ability to work seamlessly with Citrix, Microsoft and VMware environments, the solution holds great potential for the futuristic enterprise that is looking for ways to improve productivity at work and on the go for its enterprise workforce.' According to Dell, Cloud Connect represents a new end

Dell finally ships Android

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Dell has started shipping the Android-based Wyse Cloud Connect, a US$129 device that is slightly larger than a USB stick and can be used by consumers to watch movies in HD or by enterprises as a virtual desktop client. The product has been a long time coming; under the code-name 'Project Ophelia' the device was demonstrated over a year ago at the International CES trade show in Las Vegas. The concept is simple, just connect it to a computer display or a TV via MHL or HDMI, attach a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and you're up and running. Cloud Connect runs Android 4.1 and is powered by a 'multi-core' ARM Cortex-A9 processor. It has 1GB of RAM and 8GB of integrated storage that can be expanded using a Micro SD card slot. The maximum resolution is 1080p, and it communicates using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. The device is powered either via the MHL interface or separately through the integrated USB port. Consumers can use the device to do the same things they use their Android-

Man claims hacker took PayPal, GoDaddy accounts hostage in exchange for his ...

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Facebook Naoki Hiroshima says he was extorted into giving up his valuable single-letter Twitter name after a hacker staged an elaborate online attack that infiltrated his PayPal and GoDaddy accounts. A California man claims his online accounts were held hostage by a hacker in exchange for the rights to his $50,000 Twitter handle. 'I had a rare Twitter username,' Naoki Hiroshima wrote in an online post Tuesday addressing the step-by-step takeover of his one-letter handle: @N. 'I've been offered as much as $50,000 for it. People have tried to steal it. Password reset instructions are a regular sight in my email inbox,' he claimed. 'As of today, I no longer control @N. I was extorted into giving it up.' According to the unknown villain, whose emails to Hiroshima were documented in his post, all that the attacks required was some 'very simple engineering tactics.' In an email detailing his steps - after the Twitter handle was acquired - the hacker claims

This Dongle Is Dell's Idea Of A New Kind Of Corporate PC That Should Make ...

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DellDell this week released a new dongle device that puts a corporate PC in the palm of your hand: the $129 Dell Wyse Cloud Connect. This device is interesting for a couple of reasons. It offers a clue to the enterprise 'post-PC' world. It runs on Android. The dongle plugs into any monitor or TV with an HDMI or MHL port and turns that into a PC running your corporate apps. There is a caveat, however: To gain access to your corporate network, your IT department would have to buy this device and other IT equipment, configure it and control it. The whole setup is known in the enterprise world as 'desktop virtualization.' Desktop virtualization isn't new, but Dell and other enterprise tech companies (Citrix, VMware) think it's going to be an increasingly popular way that enterprises let employees access corporate software on their personal PCs, smartphones and tablets. It's a trend known as 'bring your own device' (BYOD). A consumer could also buy the do

Why You Don't Want to Be Microsoft CEO

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Technology Photo illustration by 731; Mug photograph by Don Nichols/Getty Images The job hasn't been posted-at least not yet. But the opening has been public knowledge since Aug. 23, and for some reason no candidate has stepped up to grab what would appear to be a dream gig: chief executive officer of . In fact, much of the news around the position so far is the long list of people who've decided they'd rather fulfill their dreams elsewhere. Steve Mollenkopf, No. 2 executive, was a serious candidate until he opted to take a promotion to CEO at the semiconductor company. CEO John Donahoe and former CEO Paul Maritz both took a pass on the Microsoft job, say five people with knowledge of the talks who aren't authorized to speak on the record. And there was so much chatter about CEO Alan Mulally being on the list that he publicly announced he was staying at the carmaker. Through spokesmen, the others declined to comment. For its part, Microsoft says things are proceeding as

This Dongle Is Dell's Idea Of A New Kind Of Corporate PC That Should Make ...

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Dell this week released a new dongle device that puts a corporate PC in the palm of your hand: the $129 Dell Wyse Cloud Connect. This device is interesting for a couple of reasons. It offers a clue to the enterprise 'post-PC' world. It runs on Android. The dongle plugs into any monitor or TV with an HDMI or MHL port and turns that into a PC running your corporate apps. There is a caveat, however: To gain access to your corporate network, your IT department would have to buy this device and other IT equipment, configure it and control it. The whole setup is known in the enterprise world as 'desktop virtualization.' Desktop virtualization isn't new, but Dell and other enterprise tech companies (Citrix, VMware) think it's going to be an increasingly popular way that enterprises let employees access corporate software on their personal PCs, smartphones and tablets. It's a trend known as 'bring your own device' (BYOD). A consumer could also buy the dongle

Dell finally ships Android

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Dell has started shipping the Android-based Wyse Cloud Connect, a US$129 device that is slightly larger than a USB stick and can be used by consumers to watch movies in HD or by enterprises as a virtual desktop client. The product has been a long time coming; under the code-name 'Project Ophelia' the device was demonstrated over a year ago at the International CES trade show in Las Vegas. The concept is simple, just connect it to a computer display or a TV via MHL or HDMI, attach a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and you're up and running. Cloud Connect runs Android 4.1 and is powered by a 'multi-core' ARM Cortex-A9 processor. It has 1GB of RAM and 8GB of integrated storage that can be expanded using a Micro SD card slot. The maximum resolution is 1080p, and it communicates using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. The device is powered either via the MHL interface or separately through the integrated USB port. Consumers can use the device to do the same things they use their Android-

Average User Rating

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SwiftKey Note is a free note-taking app for iOS that marries digital organization app Evernote with SwiftKey's predictive keyboard to make taking notes on your phone or tablet faster and more accurate. The app is one of the first steps for SwiftKey to grow its presence on Apple's mobile operating system. Unless you jailbreak your iDevice, you can't customize it in the same way you can with an Android phone or tablet. The stock Apple keyboard is the one you get, but this is SwiftKey's way around that. SwiftKey is not the first to bring a new keyboard to iOS, as several apps such as Flesky and TouchPal X have come before it, but its predictive typing and seamless integration with Evernote make Note a cut above the rest. SwiftKey's visionLet's get one thing out of the way first: Though this is a note-taking app, SwiftKey isn't in the business of organizing your notes. The company's goal is to change the way you type on mobile devices, hopefully making the p

Titanfall Was Exclusive To Xbox Because EA Thought Xbox One Would Dominate

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Console exclusivity is a funny thing. Sometimes exclusivity is due to hardware limitations for the developer; maybe they couldn't get a certain thing working right with a specific console, so they limited the outing to the console that provides them the most leeway in their design scope. Sometimes exclusivity is based on budget; some developers or studios or publishers don't have the funds to port the game to every console. And sometimes, a game is exclusive to a brand because the publisher thinks it will sell more. In the case of Titanfall , Electronic Arts thought that the game should be exclusive to the Xbox consoles (and PC) based on their forecasts of where they thought the Xbox One would be come March. Gamezone managed to get in a word with EA's Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen, who stated that... 'I think you should assume that we made that decision when it was back a few years ago when we decided to go exclusive,' 'We had some forecast at that tim

Windows Intune: The Next Wave Releasing the First Week of February 2014

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Last week, in Upcoming Windows Intune Release Installs Endpoint Protection By Default, I noted that next version of Windows Intune would release in the first quarter of 2014. That sometime now happens to be next week, the first full week of February 2014. In a post on the Microsoft Server & Management blogs, Brad Anderson lays out the company's continued efforts to provide robust and secure solutions for BYO and Consumerization. Brad also says he'll be expanding on these topics and talking about them more in the coming months. Obviously, we'll hear a LOT about these at TechEd 2014 where they are, this year, merging the Microsoft Management Summit with Microsoft's larger event. Tip: Want to know what hot topics will be on display at TechEd each year? Just follow Microsoft's blogs and Download Center to get a very good idea. Here's what Brad says is coming in the Windows Intune update next week: Support for e-mail profiles that can configure a device with the

New Domain Names Could Boost Your Online Presence

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Advertisement If you've been in search of a new, more industry-specific domain name for your company's website, you're in luck: Seven new extensions, including .guru, .bike, and .ventures, became available Wednesday. Hundreds of additional domains are to follow starting next month, with a few new ones offered each week. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the nonprofit in charge of domain names, green-lighted new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) in 2011. The first seven to become available were purchased by Bellevue, Washington-based Donuts, a registry that will sell addresses to businesses and individuals via registrars such as GoDaddy.com starting this week. According to TechCrunch, Donuts applied for 304 gTLDs and currently has contracts for more than 100. Next week will bring the .camera, .photography, .lighting, .equipment, .gallery, .graphics, and .estate domains. It will take time to measure the extent of the benefits from more specific

Facebook serves up Paper, a Flipboard

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The social networking giant continues to push the mobile strategy with yet another app. (Credit: Facebook) Facebook on Thursday unveiled Paper, a Flipboard-like reader app, as it continues to broaden its mobile offerings. Paper is made up of stories and themed section, tying together your News Feed with other themes and topics ranging from sports to food, with stories from publication. It will be available in the US on Feb. 3. Paper is just the latest step in Facebook's strategy to push more into the mobile world. Beyond its core Facebook app and Instagram, it has steadily launched mobile products such as its Messenger app. During its earnings conference call on Wednesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company was working on more standalone mobile apps. It marks a reversal of its ill-fated Facebook Home strategy, which essentially took over an Android phone with its own custom user interface. As it turns out, people like Facebook, but not that much. Still, Facebook's mobile pus

Facebook Announces News Reader App 'Paper'

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Well that didn't take long. Just 24 hours after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised more standalone apps in 2014, the company announced Paper on Thursday, a standalone news reader mobile app that has reportedly been in the works for years. The new app will surface content from 19 different 'sections,' including sports, tech, pop culture, and 'LOL.' The app also has a 'Newsfeed' section, which is the same News Feed users are accustomed to on the native apps, but with a new design. Each section will have a rotating carousel of images across the top, and individual cards and stories below that image. The new app was specifically designed to look different than the native apps, and has larger images and content cards without the typical blue trim present on Facebook's native apps. Users will be able to select which sections they wish to subscribe to, and all content will be curated through a process that includes an algorithm and a human selection. For now

GoDaddy Admits Hacker's Social Engineering Led It To Divulge Info In @N ...

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An update in the @N account hacking case has just come through from GoDaddy, one of the companies involved in the somewhat convoluted social engineering case. The company admits that one of its employees was 'socially engineered' into giving out additional information which allowed a hacker to gain access to Naoki Hiroshima's GoDaddy account. The hack, which we detailed in a post earlier today, was performed by calling up PayPal and GoDaddy to gain access to Hiroshima's personal email, which was then used to extort the @N Twitter user handle from him. Hiroshima outlined the hack in a post on Medium, which garnered a lot of attention. We received responses from Twitter that the matter was being looked into and PayPal was spurred to issue a denial that it had provided credit card information, and to note that its employees were trained to avoid social engineering attacks. Social engineering is a method of hacking in which attackers utilize personal or not-so-personal info

Sony announces PS Vita Slim for UK launch

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Sony has confirmed that the slim version of the PlayStation Vita will be released in the UK next Friday, February 7th. The new model of the company's handheld is 20 percent thinner than the original device as well as 15 percent lighter. It trades the OLED screen for an energy-efficient LCD one. There's also 1GB of built-in storage. Sony has set an estimated price of £180 for the new device. There's no word on if the new model will also be making its way to the US and other parts of Europe. Tags PlayStation Vita About the author

Want 4K content? Don't bother looking to the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One

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4K on PS4 and Xbox One? Forget it... 4K gaming and movie streaming via next gen games consoles is rapidly shaping up to be a pipe dream. When the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One first broke cover there was a roiling cauldron of speculation that the new consoles might (at some point) usher in a new era of Ultra HD game graphics or at the very least act as a conduit for 4K movies. Executives from rival camps didn't exactly go out of their way to downplay their potential. Months later, official references to 4K remain cautiously worded. The cauldron has cooled. I reckon both the PS4 and Xbox One landed too early for 4K to be a realistic proposition. Sony began conceptualising the new PlayStation back in 2008, the Xbox One would have had a similar gestation period. Dollars to donuts neither were conceived with 4K in mind. For 4K gaming you'll need a high-end gaming PC4K on consoles? Forget it 'The Xbox One can't even deliver on its promise of an integrated set top box EPG experi

Samsung Galaxy S5 Release Date Coming: First Image Sample Leaks As ...

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More evidence in favor of the Samsung Galaxy S5 has surfaced as a recently leaked photo -- supposedly taken by the upcoming device. Tech informant @evleaks shared on Tuesday a blurry photo of nothing in particular; however, its accompanying EXIF data indicates that the photo was captured by a device with the model name SAMSUNG-SM-G900V, which could be a variant of the Galaxy S5.

Brace yourself for flood of new domain names

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Move over .com. Looks like .book, .google and .apple are on the way Computerworld - Brace yourself. The Internet is about to get a lot busier and more cluttered. The Internet addresses that we are accustomed to using -- .com, .net and .edu - will be getting a lot of company next week. On Feb. 4, more top-level domains, which connotes everything to the right of the dot in an online address will be made available. They will be the first of what will probably be hundreds of new top-level domains, according to James Cole, spokesman for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, ( ICANN), the organization that oversees registries and Internet domain names. The new domains, such as .bike, .wed and .book are on the way, according to Cole. They'll be joined by new domains for major companies, including .google, .ford and .apple. Cole said there have been 1,930 applications for new domains. Hundreds are expected to hit the Internet, and the flood will begin next week. 'It&

GoDaddy Admits Hacker's Social Engineering Led It To Divulge Info In @N ...

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An update in the '@N' account hacking case has just come through from GoDaddy, one of the companies involved in the somewhat convoluted social engineering case. The company admits that one of its employees was 'socially engineered' into giving out additional information which allowed a hacker to gain access to Naoki Hiroshima's GoDaddy account. The hack, which we detailed in a post earlier today, was performed by calling up PayPal and GoDaddy to gain access to Hiroshima's personal email, which was then used to extort the @N Twitter user handle from him. Hiroshima outlined the hack in a post on Medium, which garnered a lot of attention. We received responses from Twitter that the matter was being looked into and PayPal was spurred to issue a denial that it had provided credit card information, and to note that its employees were trained to avoid social engineering attacks. Social engineering is a method of 'hacking' in which attackers utilize personal or

Slideshow: Facebook Drives Open Hardware

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SAN JOSE, Calif. - Move over, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Dell. Open-source hardware is here, ready for datacenters large and small. That was the message from the fifth annual gathering of the Facebook-led Open Compute Project (OCP). Microsoft contributed to the growing OCP pot the details of its current datacenter server design. Its engineers joined the project's working groups, adding the heft of an operator that, like Facebook, is already running more than a million servers in its global datacenters, increasingly based on freely available hardware designs. The event sported an unusually active show floor where Microsoft showed its new server designs, hoping others will make and use them. Like Facebook, the datacenter giant now believes it can drive to lower-cost services than its rivals by making its designs open. Facebook saved an estimated $1.2 billion in the last three years using the approach, Microsoft claims. 'Open-source is not just for the big guys,' said Frank Fr