Microsoft garnered just a "niche" in the global tablet market in the first quarter of 2013, following a period of user confusion after the launch of Windows 8 and Windows RT tablets, analysts say. According to Strategy Analytics, Windows 8- and Windows RT-based tablets of the global market in the period, with 3 million units shipped to retailers. It is the first full quarter that Windows tablets have been compared with Android and iOS, Strategy Analytics said. Apple's iOS tablets, including the Mini, led the way in Q1 holding nearly half of the market—48.2 percent—with 19.5 million units shipped. Android tablet shipments from a variety of manufacturers totaled 17.6 million, or 43.4 percent of the tablet market.
Microsoft's failure thus far to significantly spark PC and tablet sales with has put high expectations on an expected 2013 refresh of the OS, dubbed "Blue." But changes to the operating system's feature set, tweaks to its user interface (UI) and modifications to some of its subcomponents are actually solutions to minor problems, analysts said. They point to more important issues like pricing and positioning, app shortages, and enterprise reluctance as beyond the scope of an upgrade. (See also ) Microsoft has said little of Blue, the code name for the , reportedly to ship this summer or fall, as well as the moniker for the company's faster-paced development and release schedule. It's only acknowledged the code name and touted what it's called a new "continuous" update strategy for Windows on desktops, tablets, servers, and smartphones. For example, last week Microsoft's CFO Peter Klein used the "Windows Blue" label, and added, "With Windows 8, we are setting a new, accelerated pace for updates and innovations."
State-of-the-art cyberweapons are now powerful enough to severely disrupt nations and the organizations responsible for their critical infrastructure, Kaspersky Lab founder and CEO Eugene Kaspersky says. The comments were made in a recent speech to a select audience of UK police, politicians and CSOs. That Kaspersky was invited to give the speech to such a high-level gathering is a clear signal that the British government takes the threat posed by cyber-weapons seriously. "Today, sophisticated malicious programs - cyberweapons - have the power to disable companies, cripple governments and bring whole nations to their knees by attacking critical infrastructure in sectors such as communications, finance, transportation and utilities. The consequences for human populations could, as a result, be literally catastrophic," said Kaspersky.
With HD-resolution cameras now standard-issue items in smartphones, 4K-resolution cameras falling into consumers' hands and multi-core processing power standard issue on desktops and laptops, the need for video editing suites with high-end features has moved into the mainstream. In this roundup, I explore four well-known video editing packages -- Adobe Premiere Pro CS6, Corel VideoStudio Pro X6, CyberLink PowerDirector 11 and Sony Vegas Pro 12 -- that are suitable for the ambitious amateur or for the professional who wants to complete a quick project. These are available both as standalone items and as parts of larger suites or packages, and there's a price range and a feature set for most every budget or need. (Note: Only Adobe offers a version for Mac users.) , the 4K video format generated by Red pro-level cameras. Not a big deal to those editing cellphone footage, but a potential deal-killer if you end up working with such high-tier technology. Core i7-3770K quad-core (eight-thread) system running at 3.5 GHz, with 16GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD system drive and a 2TB secondary drive; NVIDIA loaned me a Quadro 5000 GPU.
Imperva used this week's Infosecurity Show in London to announce what it believes is a key innovation for its line of web application firewalls - crowd-sourced threat data. Called ThreatRadar Community Defense and incorporated into the firm's latest SecureSphere 10.0 release, the system analyzes attack patterns detected hitting the networks of participating customers, which are then fed into its reputation protection and policies in what is said to be close to real-time. , this type of pattern analysis across offers better defense against the types of large-scale attacks experienced by its customer base. "Together, Imperva ThreatRadar Reputation Services and Community Defense pull crowd-sourced data from around the world to provide heightened insight into the identity of these attackers," said Imperva's co-founder and CTO, Amichai Shulman.
A 3D-printed gun capable of firing multiple rounds may be unveiled soon. Cody Wilson, the 25-year-old founder and director of nonprofit organization Defense Distributed, recently told that the end product of Wiki Weapon, the initiative to create an operational 3D-printed gun, may soon be ready to unveil to the public. In a March , Wilson said he hoped to have a printable gun ready by the end of April. While Wilson was sparse with details, he did tell Mashable that the prototype would be a handgun consisting of 12 parts made out of ABS+ thermoplastic, which is known for its durability and is commonly used in industrial settings. The firing pin would be the only steel component of the 3D-printed gun, which will be able to withstand a few shots before melting or breaking, Mashable reports.
North Korea's sole 3G network operator has managed to double its subscriber base in a little over a year and is about to hit 2 million users. Koryolink launched service in the final days of 2008 and has become one of the most visible foreign partnership success stories in the country. The network operator is jointly owned by Egypt's Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding (OTMT) and North Korea's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. Orascom holds a 75 percent majority stake with the remainder in the hands of the government. Before Koryolink's service began, mobile phones were an unusual sight in Pyongyang, but that has changed in recent years. Visitors speak of seeing scores of citizens talking and texting from mobile handsets.
Every day is a beautiful day in the fiberhood, unless blazing fast Internet speeds haven't come to your town yet. The chosen ones in Kanas City, Austin, and Provo are getting Internet connections that are 100 times faster than average at very low prices, thanks to project. Unfortunately, you and I don't live there. So we're stuck in a bandwidth backwater. As Internet trolls like to say: U mad, bro?
Indiana University has dedicated the fastest supercomputer owned by a university to date -- the new Big Red II system. Speaking at the dedication, the eminent HPC scientist Paul Messina said that Big Red II is a unique advantage for Indiana. ] "It's important that this is a university-owned resource. ... Here you have the opportunity to have your own faculty, staff and students get access with very little difficulty to this wonderful resource," he said.
