When you’re putting big projects together, megabytes can turn into gigabytes and even terabytes before you know it, especially if you’re studying a visual arts field like filmmaking, animation, or photography. Many newer laptops limit internal storage space in favor of an ultra-portable design, assuming you’ll turn to external resources to store large files. Cloud storage is a great option, but it relies on Internet connectivity, which isn’t always available when you need it, and can be expensive for storing large amounts of data. The solution? An external hard drive. These affordable devices are becoming an increasingly popular way to keep your work safely stored and available anytime you need it. Generally speaking, external hard drives come in two flavors -- desktop and laptop –- and both have their strengths. Desktop-class drives need to be plugged into the wall to run, tend to have a larger capacity than laptop drives, and are usually somewhat cheaper. But they’re not very portable, and when you’re running from dorm room to classroom to deliver your latest animation, packing it up and then plugging it in is not very convenient.
In a bid to purge insecure software from the Windows Store, Microsoft Tuesday announced that it would remove apps that it deems to have critical vulnerabilities. Within 180 days, Microsoft said, those apps must either be patched or they will be removed. And if an insecure app is being exploited in the wild, it risks getting pulled even sooner, executives said. The policy will also be extended to apps found in the Windows Phone Store, Office Store, and Azure Marketplace. Microsoft outlines the vulnerabilities found within its own software, publishing the a list on the second Tuesday of each month, when it issues patches. But with the launch of Windows 8 and Windows RT, the Windows Store has become an important clearinghouse for distributing apps, and Microsoft has become more of a gatekeeper. “We want our customers to know that, if there’s a problem, we’ll be working on a solution,” wrote Dustin Childs, the Group Manager for Response Communications for Microsoft Trustworthy Computing, a blog post . “But there are some things that can affect your computing experience that I can’t directly control. For example, we can’t directly update third-party apps that you install from the Windows Store if they have a problem. But we can influence when they get updated.”
A U.S. government board focused on privacy and civil rights should push Congress to rein in the National Security Agency’s mass collection of telephone records and Internet communications, privacy advocates said Tuesday. The U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, established by Congress in 2004 to be a watchdog of government antiterrorism efforts, should also demand that the NSA and other government agencies be more transparent about the data they collect, said privacy advocates speaking at a board meeting in Washington, D.C. While two former government officials defended the NSA’s collection of U.S. phone records and overseas Internet communications, other speakers told the board the agency has exceeded its legal authority, particularly when collecting U.S. records. Recent revelations about NSA data collection and surveillance show a lack of congressional and court oversight, said Jameel Jaffer, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union. Congress needs to limit what information the NSA and law enforcement agencies collect because internal privacy safeguards won’t work, Jaffer said. “You don’t know what the privacy safeguards are going to look like three years from now, five years from now” when there may be another terrorist attack, he said.
After leaving his post as CEO of SAP’s Business Objects division about three years ago, John Schwarz had a revelation. Before him, Schwarz said in a recent interview, was an opportunity to “redo BI from a clean sheet of paper.” That thought led to the formation of Visier, an analytics software provider where Schwarz serves as CEO. While Schwarz was at Business Objects, customer satisfaction surveys found that the vendor’s BI software was well-liked among IT users, “but you talk to the actual business users and the results were far less satisfactory,” he said. “IT could get the tools up and running, but then they flipped it over to the end user and they said, ‘it’s too difficult.’” Visier’s approach from the beginning was to “throw the whole BI technology idea out and start at the other end of the spectrum,” Schwarz said. “Start with the user and go back to the data. As long as you can start up a browser, you can use our application.”
Images reported to be taken by the by Microsoft Windows Phone Manager Joe Belfiore in advance of Nokia’s upcoming launch event on Thursday. The Lumia 1020, previously codenamed the EOS, is getting a lot of attention for its impressive 41 MP camera. The number of megapixels isn’t the only thing that’s getting Lumia 1020 this much buzz. After all, the Lumia 808 also comes with a 41 MP sensor. Additional features and advanced software on the 1020 are making it sound more like a camera-smartphone hybrid than a smartphone with a killer camera. One rumored feature on the 1020 is the ability to snap 5 MP and 32 MP shots simultaneously: the former for immediate sharing and the latter for printing or saving. Plus, Belfiore’s leaked photos showed up at different sizes (2947x1658 and 2352x1568), suggesting that you can adjust the resolution of your images. This would be a welcome feature for many photographers who frequently fill up their internal memory snapping pictures of kittens. Additionally, the Lumia 1020 will use Nokia’s Pureview sensor (also featured on the 920 and 808) to take high quality images in low light situations. The 1020’s camera is also expected to include sophisticated (if not new) like: Optic Image Stabilization, LED and Xenon flash, a “lossless zoom” feature, and settings for ISO, white balance, manual focus, and shutter speed.
Reports of an imminent and broad Microsoft business reorganization keep mounting, including an anonymously sourced article from The Wall Street Journal’s AllThingsD blog that says CEO Steve Ballmer will unveil the plan on Thursday. Microsoft critics have pointed out for years that the company has a product lineup that is too big and too varied, and that it could make sense to split up the house that Bill Gates built into more independent subsidiaries or even spin off some units entirely. This, observers have said, could bring more agility and innovation to the different teams by streamlining the decision-making process both at the product development and business strategy levels. Currently, Microsoft has products as disparate as the Xbox gaming console, the Bing search engine, and the SQL Server enterprise database.
A good pair of headphones is every student’s best friend. Whether you’re seeking inspiration or tuning out the crowds, headphones help you focus, put you in a good mood, and transform your boring trek across campus into a tuneful experience. Since so many people want, use, and lose headphones, electronics makers crank them out by the million in a bewildering array of styles and models. Since you’ll be wearing them a lot, you want them to look good and feel good. Here are some tips that will help you buy the headphones that are right for you. Earbuds are everywhere. Many come equipped with rubber nubs that slip on for comfort and stability. These are great if you’re going to be exercising with your earbuds in, because you can pull off and wash or replace those nubs when they get grimy. You can also opt for a washable or waterproof set, if you’re willing to shell out the extra cash. Buying earbuds can often be a guess-and-check process, because you never know what’s going to fit best in your ear. It tends to be worthwhile to spend a little extra money, because cheap earbuds are quick to disintegrate. Unless you’re on an extremely tight budget, be wary of spending less than $20 on any pair.
Two French Internet watchdogs have lost their teeth following a change in the law on Tuesday and a ruling by the Constitutional Court last week. Those accused by the High Authority for the Distribution of Works and the Protection of Rights on the Internet (Hadopi) of illegally downloading copyright works in France no longer risk losing their Internet access, following a change in the law promulgated Tuesday, although it will now be easier to fine them. And it will take another change in the law before network operators need fear the French telecommunications regulator, Arcep, which last week lost the power to impose penalties on companies breaking its rules. France was one of the first countries to introduce a so-called “three strikes” law to discourage the unauthorized downloading of copyright works. Internet subscribers who failed to secure their connection, allowing it to be used for illegal downloads, were warned, first by email, then by registered letter and finally with a convocation to be interviewed by Hadopi. If illegal downloads continued, a court could suspend subscribers’ Internet connections and fine them up to €1,500 (US$2,000). Now they face only a fine.
to communicate with a Fitbit, sort through an iTunes music library, and pay for in-app purchases via Google Wallet. Google recently announced a slew of updates and additions to the APIs (application programming interfaces) available to developers making packaged apps for Google’s browser. You may not have heard of packaged apps, as they're currently still in the development stages. Packaged apps are built on top of Chrome using Web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The big difference between packaged apps and regular Chrome apps is that packaged apps are standalone programs that operate in a separate window and can—crucially—run offline. They are also stripped of all the typical browser “chrome” such as the URL address bar and tabs, to more closely resemble a typical PC application. with its own selection of Chrome-based apps that aren’t dependent specifically on Linux, OS X, or Windows. Google has been steadily working on improving the functionality of packaged apps as it gets the feature ready for a primetime release. Some of big new features tipped by Google on Monday include the ability for packaged apps to communicate with Bluetooth devices using the 4.0 spec. Chrome’s new Bluetooth support includes the ability to talk to low energy devices like fitness bands and heart rate sensors.
The prospect of downloading data, sending text messages and making calls without incurring huge roaming charges while travelling in Europe came a step closer on Tuesday when politicians voted in favor of new legislation. A call to end roaming fees by 2015 was unanimously approved by the European Parliament’s Industry Committee on Tuesday. Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) inserted text into the draft law saying that Europe’s digital market still cannot be considered a level playing field because “artificial borders are maintained by mobile operators with the sole aim to increase their revenues.” “Unbalanced profit margins on roaming not only create excessive costs for users, but also hamper growth and prosperity,” according to a committee statement.
Near-field communication (NFC)—the ability to touch two devices together to exchange data—is becoming commonplace in mobile devices, and now it’s appearing in one of the most non-mobile technologies out there: a printer. Yes, a printer. Brother International on Tuesday announced the MFC-J870dw, a $150 color inkjet multifunction for SOHO users. Printers in this price range are usually run-of-the-mill products, but the MFC-J870dw’s built-in NFC connectivity is unique among inkjets. Touch an NFC-equipped device to the MFC-J870dw, and you should be able to print from it. Other nice features on this model include ethernet and Wi-Fi connectivity, automatic duplexing, and the ability to print on specially coated CD, DVD, and Blu-Ray media. The two-year warranty is nice, too. A printer with NFC isn’t as bizarre as you might think. Consider that many of the SOHO users for which this printer is intended will probably also have the smartphones, laptops, and tablets where NFC has the greatest presence. So why not have a printer that can join the party?
Starting this week, Microsoft will give resellers up to $10 for each device they sell from a list of 21 Windows 8 touch-enabled PCs and tablets, company executives said. The new program is the latest move by Microsoft to kick up sales, which on the PC side have been downright depressing. Research firm IDC, for instance, has forecast a decline of nearly 8 percent for 2013, and has already hinted that the . In tablets, Microsoft has had little luck in making much of an inroad into a market dominated by operating systems built by rivals Apple and Google. But the selective nature of the incentive program—fewer than two dozen different devices qualify—shows it’s also a continuation of a strategy Microsoft has used since last summer’s launch of the Surface line, when the company said it entered the hardware business to have a platform that really flaunted Windows 8. Both Tami Reller, the CFO of the Windows division, and Jon Roskill, who heads the firm’s global partner group, talked up the new program, dubbed “TouchWins,” at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) Monday.
Hardware appliances used by broadcasters to transmit emergency communications contained vulnerabilities that could be exploited over the Internet, although patches are now available. The appliances from Digital Alert Systems, which is a division of Monroe Electronics, are a crucial component of the , a national program intended to disseminate public safety information over broadcast outlets within about 10 minutes. Monroe Electronics issued a for its DASDEC products on April 24, which the company said fixed several security problems. The most serious vulnerability in DASDEC could allow an attacker to login remotely since the systems shared a root SSH key. In that scenario, an attacker could take over the system and issue emergency messages.
What application springs to mind when you think of creating visual aids to accompany your business presentation? For most people, it’s Microsoft’s PowerPoint. But that’s certainly not the only game in town. Plenty of other tools and services are cooler, faster, easier to use, and—in almost all cases—less expensive. We’ve rounded up five compelling alternatives to PowerPoint, including Web apps that let you dispense with installing software, and mobile apps that allow for presentation-building (and presenting) on the go. Not included are well-known options such as , all of which offer basic slide-builders that can easily pinch-hit for PowerPoint and don’t cost a dime. Those tools, however, haven’t changed much in recent years. Our goal is to showcase presentation options that will help you get your point across a little differently, so your audience’s eyes don’t glaze over in the middle of your pitch. And if your business saves a bit of cash in the process, all the better! for iPad is designed to turn your ideas into beautiful presentations in about the time it takes to ride the train to work. The secret? It gives you built-in access to a wealth of free art.
If you’re anything like me, you’ve built an impressive media empire inside your PC. You’ve compiled album after album of sweet jams. You’ve got reams of cherished photos from all your adventures, and your video collection spans everything from smartphone gag reels to family movies to high-resolution videos ripped from your DVD collection. Problem is, they are all trapped in your PC. What if you want to watch one of your videos on the big, beautiful HDTV in your living room, or listen to your complete music collection on a storage-strapped smartphone? The solution is simple: Turn your PC into a media slinger, a machine that can stream your music, movies, and photos wherever you want them to go. It’s easier than you might think, though the tricky part is deciding just which server solution you want to use—and how much you want to spend. The first step is to make sure your computer is up to the task. Server software can place a heavy load on your PC, especially when it first indexes your media library—but also when it’s actively streaming. What’s more, you’ll need to leave your PC running 24/7 if you want your media library to be available around the clock.
A privacy group has filed legal action against the U.K. government for conducting mass surveillance on citizens across the U.K., including accessing data about people located in the U.K. that is collected and passed on by the U.S. National Security Agency. Privacy International, a charity in London that works in the area of privacy, has charged in a statement Monday that “the expansive spying regime is seemingly operated outside of the rule of law, lacks any accountability, and is neither necessary nor proportionate.” The claim in the Investigatory Powers Tribunal is based on disclosures through newspaper reports by former NSA contractor, Edward Snowden, about the surveillance programs of the NSA and British intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). The tribunal was set up in 2000 to consider complaints about the use of intrusive powers by intelligence services, law enforcement agencies and public authorities. One of the programs cited in the complaint is called Prism and reportedly gives the NSA real-time access to the content on servers of Internet companies like Facebook and Google. The Internet companies have denied their participation in the program. The other program referred to in the complaint, called , is said to be a GCHQ program for tapping fiber-optic cables and sharing the data with the NSA.
Citrix has added native video and audio chat to its Podio enterprise social suite to complement the other communication and collaboration features in the product. Podio’s video and audio chat feature is launched from the suite’s browser-based interface, so users can initiate these types of communication sessions without moving to a separate product, the company said Tuesday. Currently, the audio and video chat sessions can only be established between two users, but groups will be supported at a later date. The goal is to accommodate ad-hoc audio and video chats that don’t require formal planning and scheduling and that can be launched quickly within the context of the other Podio tasks.
A noisy malware campaign against South Korea is revealing deeper secrets. from security vendor McAfee into the March 20 “Dark Seoul” attacks, which wiped data from bank computers, shut down ATMs and crippled government websites, describes a much less conspicuous parallel operation designed to steal classified military data. McAfee’s report asserts that “the attacks on South Korean targets were actually the conclusion of a covert espionage campaign.” Two groups, the Whois Hacking Team and the NewRomanic Cyber Army Team, were thought to be behind the March 20 attacks. But McAfee now suspects both teams are part of the same group due to similarities in the attack code used.
You can talk about all the fancy graphics, crazy guns and manic run-and-gun gameplay all you want, but the modern shooters of today are missing that special something—immersion. Rising Storm is different. Red Orchestra 2's expansion, Rising Storm, takes you away from the European theater of WWII and throws you deep into the jungle and beaches of the Pacific. It lacks the glamour and polish of games like Call of Duty and Battlefield, but it compensates with the rarified charm that comes from spending a few hours in a Pacific Rim trench. The average Rising Storm match looks less like a competitive videogame than a scene cut from a World War II documentary. We won't truly ever be able to understand what the soldiers of WWII went through, but Rising Storm may be the closest I'm willing to get. Huddled in a foxhole on the beach of Iwo Jima or in a ravaged trench in the jungles of Guadalcanal, you keep your head down as you hear, and feel, the bullets whizzing by. Rising Storm does suppression so well, you can't help but freeze and retreat slowly, crawling on your stomach until you feel relatively safe. If all hell begins to break loose around you, the screen grays out, a red pulsing color surrounds the screen, sound becomes garbled and you lose your ability to zoom. All you can do is hunker down and hope it stops so you can regain your composure. scary. You get shot a few times, you run to cover and wait until the screen stops glowing—time heals all wounds. Not here though—here, the danger is real. One well-placed shot can send you right back to the respawn queue where you wait up to 20 seconds to respawn back where you started—a significant sprinting distance away. Even if the shot doesn't kill you, you only have a short time to use one of your two bandages to patch up before you bleed out. Staunch the bleeding and you'll still be hobbled: a leg wound means you can't run as quickly, while a wounded arm will skew your aim. Suffer a wound to the heart and head and, well...you're dead.
The U.S. government can no longer refuse to litigate wiretapping cases on the grounds that they would expose state secrets and undermine national security, a federal court has ruled. The ruling concerns two cases in a series of many tied to claims that the federal government has been working with telecommunications companies such as AT&T to collect massive amounts of data about U.S. residents without a search warrant. Plaintiffs have said such searches were instituted following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in violation of privacy rights. Similar privacy concerns have entered into the national discussion following recent leaks involving a government surveillance program known as and a separate telecom metadata collection program. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court legal immunity for telecom carriers that allegedly participated in a National Security Agency surveillance program over the past decade.
Thanks to increasingly sophisticated analytics tools, virutally every business owner now has access to an array of information about his or her customers: Where they live, what language they speak, their gender, and even their income levels. You know what pages on your website they look at, and through your sales analytics, you know what products they buy. Sure enough, an upcoming survey from shows that 53 percent of marketers say they have an excellent understanding of their customers’ past purchase behavior, and 42 percent say they have an excellent understanding of their customers’ demographic information. In theory, that information can be used to develop an insightful picture of your customers, which can in turn be used to customize product and service offerings. The problem: This information doesn't seem to be particularly useful in its current form when it comes to truly understanding how customers behave, and businesses don't really realize it. Mike Fisher, president of Yesmail Interactive, says "When it comes to deeper insights that can be used to build one-on-one relationships with customers, most marketers don’t have access to the necessary data."
A secret surveillance court has exceeded its legal authority by allowing the National Security Agency to , a privacy group said in a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), allowing the NSA to collect all Verizon phone records. The surveillance court “exceeded its statutory jurisdiction when it ordered production of millions of domestic telephone records that cannot plausibly be relevant to an authorized investigation,” EPIC’s lawyers wrote. The surveillance court’s authority to issue “such a sweeping order” exceeds congressional authorization in the Patriot Act, said Marc Rotenberg, EPIC’s president. The surveillance court’s order “is contrary to both the text and purpose of the statute,” he added.
Microsoft is rolling out a more flexible licensing policy for its CRM Online application that could make it more competitive with the likes of Salesforce.com, but in one instance it also introduces a price increase. While Microsoft’s CRM (customer relationship management) software uses the same codebase for both the online and on-premises versions, until now CRM Online was available at only one pricing level, . Meanwhile, on-premises CRM customers have been able to choose from three different pricing models. “Many of our online customers have asked us for more options,” said Paco Contreras Herrera, director of product marketing for pricing and licensing, in a Monday. “They want the same flexibility for our online service.” In the next major update to Dynamics CRM, which is , online customers will be able to choose from three different pricing levels.
Your email address is like your home address: Never give it out unless absolutely necessary. Thus, if you're registering online for some freebie, promotion, or Web site that you just know is going to deluge you with ads and other spam, it makes sense to supply a disposable address—something you can access as needed for confirmation messages or the like, but that won't otherwise interfere with your primary inbox. . Use it in place of your own address, then head to the site to retrieve any messages you might need. . Presto, there's your disposable email. For example, I might use hasslefree@maildrop.cc.
Color me disillusioned. First, US representative Anthony Weiner uses Twitter as his own personal Chatroulette and then Lance Armstrong admits that he got some help from science in order to win all the Tour de Frances. And now we find that AdBlock Plus ( to pay to get their ads “whitelisted.” Nothing is sacred. ABP is a browser extension available on as Mountain View claims the software interferes "with another service or product in an unauthorized manner." The popular open source software gives users the ability to block “banners, pop-ups and video ads”—but not all ads are treated equally. As early as 2011, ABP has allowed specific ads to be “whitelisted” under in the extension's settings.
Salesforce.com customers now have access on the company’s AppExchange marketplace to an application that delivers the full functionality of the Box cloud storage and file sharing service within Salesforce.com’s CRM suite. The Box application was built using the Box Embed HTML5 framework and provides Box collaboration features like editing, commenting and task management within a Salesforce record, according to Aaron Levie, Box’s CEO and co-founder. The application also lets users preview files from within user records, as well as access an entire Box “folder tree.” Users can also create new documents, search Box content and share files. “We wanted to make sure we had a deeply contextual integration, so that when you look at a single customer record within Salesforce.com that it was connected to the content you’re viewing in Box,” Levie said.
Microsoft is adding a set of BI (business intelligence) tools to its hosted Office 365 service, including some capabilities not yet offered in stand-alone Microsoft software products. Power BI for Office 365 “brings together our entire BI stack and offers it as a service,” said Eron Kelly, general manager for SQL Server product marketing. Power BI will offer users what Kelly calls “self-service BI,” or “the ability for the end user closest to the business problem to bring together data and information.” Microsoft will unveil this service at the company’s Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) this week in Houston.
Microsoft will hand over its most recent version of the operating system, Windows 8.1, to OEMs in late August, Microsoft’s Windows marketing chief told its partners on Monday morning. Speaking at its Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), Tami Reller, corporate vice president and chief marketing officer for Windows, said that Microsoft would make the RTM (release to manufacturing) version of Windows 8.1 to OEMs by late August. Microsoft did not say when Windows 8.1 would be released to consumers in its final form, but history suggests that Microsoft should at least be on track to ship by October. The upshot, Reller said, is that of Windows devices shipping this holiday season, "many of them will have Windows 8.1," she said. Microsoft’s WPC, as its name suggests, is Microsoft’s chance to communicate its roadmaps to its partners; Microsoft began its partner program about 20 years ago. According to chief executive Steve Ballmer, 90 percent of the revenue Microsoft realizes “in some way, shape or form” is generated by the partners Ballmer addressed today as part of a 3.5-hour keynote address.
Was den Ausschlag gab, ist nicht bekannt.
Mobile Communication bei Jugendlichen.
Manuel P. Nappo, Leiter "CAS Mobile Business", über den neuen Studiengang.
Für operativen Support der Integrations- & Technologiepartner zuständig.
Web hat sich seit dem Start im Jahr 1995 stark verändert.
Jobportal schaltet neu den Bereich "Sales/Marketing/E-Business" auf.
Sämtliche Daten werden offenbar ohne rechtliche Kontrolle gesammelt.
Industrie bleibt regional.
Website für Orange Cinema neu aufgesetzt und gestaltet.