exactly? To put it simply, "next gen" refers to a server with increased processor speed, enhanced management features and greater energy efficiency. Although they are not a one-size-fits-all solution, next-gen servers can yield large benefits for small businesses, resulting in cost savings of up to 40% due to reduced power consumption and more efficient cooling as well as greater compute power and ease of management. Overall, the greater management capabilities that come with next-gen servers are a huge time saver for any organization, especially for businesses that might have smaller IT shops. Simple management makes things easier on IT staff and reigns in the sprawl of management features that you typically see in server environments. There is more control of where the compute is used and which parts of the organization are driving the compute, so even a limited IT staff can do more with less. Next-gen servers enable IT to focus on critical issues throughout the company rather than focusing on frequent and/or unexpected maintenance requests. The superior management features of next-gen servers are due to the enhanced
. on the company's site today. Services to help track costs and usage in AWS's cloud have been seen by somewhat lacking from AWS, which has led to a growing market of third-party tools. These range from being able to help users monitor usage and costs but they also help optimize the use of AWS's cloud by determining the best size of virtual machine instance that is needed based on the workload. The addition of more detailed billing features announced today adds to AWS's current tools, such as CloudWatch, which allows users to estimate their monthly bill based on usage to-date, programmatically access that information and consolidate billing from multiple accounts into a single payment system.
Keeping good notes can make you more productive, and help you get lots of little details off your mind. But while many people can agree that keeping notes is a good idea, the endless variety of note-keeping systems shows that there are quite a few opinions on what's the best way to go about this. MyShelf Desktop is a free utility that emphasizes one principle: Keep your notes off the cloud, but sync them with your various computers and mobile devices. Vendor encomit UG offers Linux and Mac versions, as well as PC and mobile. I just wish it were easier to use. Each note on MyShelf Desktop is composed of several parts. An element can be one or more paragraphs of text, or an image. MyShelf shows each element as a 200x200-pixel square, no matter how large an image is or how much text the element contains. This means larger images become cropped, and elements with lots of text get scrollbars. Elements are shown next to each other, like sticky notes, so that each element looks independent rather than like a part of one note. The end result can be quite confusing. The interface proves even more problematic when trying to search within notes: You can easily run a full-text search on all notes, but MyShelf will return the entire matching note, not just the matching element. So if you have a note with hundreds of words across multiple elements which contains the word "cat" somewhere, the entire note will pop up when you search for "cat," with no indication of where that word might be within, or even if the hit is actually for "category" or "Catalonia". Worse still, the limited space each element gets means that the word "cat" might be buried within one of the longer elements of your note, requiring scrolling to find. There is no way to find out which element contains the word: You'll just have to scroll through them all, manually scanning each element, until you stumble upon the word you were looking for.
Gmail ran into technical difficulties again on Friday, the fourth such issue in a little over a week, and all happening after Google announced the elimination of its free Google Apps edition. .
Google will begin to phase out its Sync service for consumers and discontinue several other services in early January. The shuttering of the services, described as "winter cleaning" by the company, was announced . "Last January, we renewed our resolution to focus on creating beautiful, useful products that improve millions of people's lives every day. To make the most impact, we need to make some difficult decisions," the company said. Google Sync allows access to mail, calendar and contacts via Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. Google said it will continue to offer the same functionality through the IMAP and CardDAV protocols.
The W700 can be used as a normal Windows 8 tablet, but ships with a docking station/stand and Bluetooth keyboard that allow you to use it as you would a normal touchscreen PC. It's a good idea that, unfortunately, isn't perfectly implemented. at an engineering sample of the W700. This review is based on shipping hardware. Measuring 11.6-inches wide by 7.5-inches tall and a little less than a half-inch thick, the tablet portion of the W700 is larger than average. Weighing in at 2.1 pounds, this is not a tablet that is comfortable to hold for extended periods, so rest it on your stomach if you plan to read War and Peace. The W700 controls are the standard Windows tablet variety. On the right side is the power button and rocker volume control. On the front, there's the Windows 8 button for switching between the Metro interface and desktop mode.
, including a way to automatically upload full-size photos from an Android phone. Users can enable full-size photo uploads in Google+ settings, by tapping on “Instant Upload,” then tapping “Set upload size.” The first 5 GB of full-size photo uploads are free. After that, users will have to buy more storage, starting at $2.49 per month for 25 GB of total storage. As with before, users can auto-upload an unlimited number of photos at standard-size, with a resolution of 2048 pixels wide. Instant uploads appear in a private album on Google+, so they can be shared or just stored away for safekeeping. . To make invitations easier, users can copy and paste their event URL into an e-mail or IM, and after the initial invitation goes out, they can send follow-up messages and see who's viewed the invitation. Guests may now specify how many other people they're planning to bring.
My poor dad has the worst luck when it comes to technology. Seems like every day he's bumping into some new problem with his phone, laptop, or an accessory. The latest: His Lexmark inkjet printer suddenly refused to print. —to connect to his laptop and poke around for problems. , a free utility that does what Windows seemingly can't.
Next year could well be the one many IT leaders finally start to get their mobile computing management house in order. The process of integrating consumer smartphones, tablets and other devices into the workplace has been chaotic for many organizations, although there have been some notable accomplishments. Or at least, there have been some accomplishments in setting strategy, if not actual practice. Nobody in IT boasts they have figured out the world of mobile computing with its constant influx of new smartphones and tablets that raise security and other management worries and pose the long-term potential need for storing data in the cloud. IT shops have by now been wresting with the demands of the bring your own device (BYOD)-demand for several years, at least back to the introduction of the iPhone five years ago.
Several malicious Android apps designed to steal mobile transaction authentication numbers (mTANs) sent by banks to their customers over SMS (Short Message Service) were found on Google Play by researchers from antivirus vendor Kaspersky Lab. The apps were created by a gang that uses a variant of the Carberp banking malware to target the customers of several Russian banks, Denis Maslennikov, a senior malware analyst at Kaspersky, said Friday in a . Many banks use mTANs as a security mechanism to prevent cybercriminals from transferring money from compromised online banking accounts. When a transaction is initiated from an online banking account, the bank sends an unique code called an mTAN via SMS to the account owner's phone number. The account owner has to input that code back into the online banking website in order for the transaction to be authorized. In order to defeat this type of defense, cybercriminals created malicious mobile apps that automatically hide SMS messages received from numbers associated with the targeted banks and silently upload the messages back to their servers. Victims are tricked into downloading and installing these apps on their phones via rogue messages displayed when visiting their bank's website from an infected computer.
Some suggestions for parents on how to talk to your kids about the tragedy in Connecticut.
The Solar Impulse team has had a busy week in the U.S., but that hasn't included the 'round-the-world flight they'd hoped for by now.
Major news organizations and internet users misidentified social-media accounts as belonging to the Newtown, Conn., killer, leading to denunciations and even death threats.
28 people, including 18 children, killed in shooting at a Connecticut elementary school.
The new trailer for Kathryn Bigelow's
Something slightly odd seems to be going on with the Higgs boson. Different measurements of its properties are showing two slightly different masses, according to scientists who presented their latest data on Dec. 13.
The doomsday predictions that the internet would become a centralized, globalized tool for governments to suppress and eavesdrop on speech didn't come to fruition Friday, after a two-week secret meeting between world governments failed to reach a consensus.
Best Buy announced Friday that it is giving the billionaire the month of February to present his financing plan. That likely means he hasn't been able to come up with the cash to do the deal.
Navigation has become treacherous on the Mississippi River as the worst U.S. drought in half a century brings water levels close to record lows.
Gearheads at Michigan Tech and General Motors have developed three-wheelers specifically designed for wounded veterans who compete in marathons and other endurance events.
For every device connected to the internet, 10 more will join it in the near future. As that happens, our world will transform more in the next 20 years than it has in all of human history, writes Cisco's John Chambers.
U.S. surveillance recently caught a frightening image: forces loyal to Syrian dictator Bashar Assad beginning preparations that could lead to the use of chemical weapons.
The FDA's list of hazardous compounds in cigarette smoke contains radioactive polonium-210 and two well-known isotopes of uranium. Cigarette makers flagged the problem internally by the 1960s and studied it in secret. Wired Science blogger Deborah Blum explains more.
A sweeping census involving more than 100 scientists and lasting almost a decade has estimated that Panama's San Lorenzo forest is home to an estimated 25,246 arthropod species. The study is the most extensive survey of insects, spiders, and their relatives ever undertaken and should help researchers get a better understanding of what factors influence biodiversity.
Believing that human trafficking is worsened by the internet's anonymity, the sponsors of California?s Proposition 35 thought they had a simple solution to combatting the problem: require convicted traffickers to register as sex offenders. But in its zeal to restrict free speech online for some, Prop. 35 actually restricts free speech for all.
New research shows that male pedestrians who are struck by cars are more than twice as likely to die from their injuries as their female counterparts.
A handy cheat sheet to help you distinguish your Oin from your Gloin.
The 1977 animated television adaptation of The Hobbit - like its title character, perhaps - holds up far better than expected, 35 years later.While the story has been compressed to a TV-friendly 77 minutes and there are some visual and plot liberties taken, the cartoon is largely true to its source and still has a cinematic feel, thanks to the detailed animation and gorgeous backgrounds, and the decision to retain the tale's menacing moments and darker turns.
The ubiquitous POV camera, long used by 'extreme' athletes to chronicle their insane stunts, has become an invaluable training tool for elite skiers, snowboarders and cyclists.
The problem with
Wired editors and contributors pick the 10 greatest games that defined 2011, featuring
The holidays are here, and it?s never too late to start thinking about fun stuff to bestow upon family and friends. (That?s actually not true. Order soon!) We?ve gathered our favorite science-themed gifts: From archaeology to infectious disease to particle physics, these things are sure to be more popular than the latest biography of a dead scientist you probably would have settled for.
Nike continues its full-court press into basketball quantification with a new signature shoe from King James.
The crowdfunding site is fueling all sorts of cool projects that would never have gotten off the ground without its help. It's also enabling ridiculous projects that should be brought back down to earth. Can you tell the real campaigns from our made-up ideas?
Google Fiber -- the search giant's brand-new, ultra-high-speed internet service -- is only available in Kansas City, and even there, it only runs to homes, so there's no trying the thing out during a Kansas City hotel stay. But if you really want a taste of those 800 Mbps speeds -- that's about 100 times faster than your average internet connection -- there's another option. You can rent a room at the hacker house.
What would
The cure to soothing the savage commuter ? whether stuck in traffic or waiting for an overdue bus or train ? could be staying connected to fellow travelers through social-networking apps.
Google's daily brainteaser helps hone your search skills.
How strong is a hobbit? How heavy is Smaug? Wired Science blogger Rhett Allain considers these important issues of size and scale.
A petition demanding the President Barack Obama administration build a Death Star like the one in Star Wars reached 25,000-plus signatures Thursday, a threshold requiring the government to respond whether it will build the fictional weapon capable of annihilating planets with its super laser.The petition on the White House website's "We the People" page demands ...