3D printing is not only these days, but it also is finding application in the filmmaking industry. Michael Turner, the art director behind 20th Century Fox's The Wolverine starring Hugh Jackman, spoke about the growing role of 3D printing during the local launch of the Blu-Ray edition of the film. was used to create certain props in The Wolverine, such as the armor for the Silver Samurai character, he said. "3D printing was great for that character because of the small pieces that made up the armor, and we even created swords with the printers," Turner said. "It's very fast with the modelling on the computer, so you get a real thing pretty quickly once it is designed."
Several opportunities are predicted to emerge in the coming months as more data is generated by machines or things other than human beings. Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific says that 2014 will see more IT buyers and sellers focused on (IoT). Such activity will also increase in the coming years due to a combination of low-cost sensors, cloud computing, advanced data analytics, and mobility, according to Andrew Milroy, vice president, ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific. Demand for big data analytics tools will increase in the coming days as these will improve efficiency and effectiveness of large installations. Powerful analytics tools will transform the way people do business and generate revenues for organizations.
The FBI this week issued a series of reminders to online shoppers to beware of scams and to use their common sense. "Scammers use many techniques to defraud consumers, from phishing e-mails offering too good to be true deals on brand-name merchandise to offering quick cash to victims who will re-ship packages to additional destinations. Previously reported scams are still being executed today," the FBI states. Here's a rundown of the FBI's advice, some more obvious than others.
Web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee has warned that government surveillance and censorship will threaten the democratic nature of the web. Berners-Lee made his comments as , tracking global censorship. The report, which points out how the internet is helping much of the world and ranks countries in terms of the social and political impact of the web, finishes by calling for an urgent review around the current legal framework on government snooping. "One of the most encouraging findings of this year's web Index is how the web and social media are increasingly spurring people to organize, take action and try to expose wrongdoing in every region of the world," Berners-Lee said. "But some governments are threatened by this, and a growing tide of surveillance and censorship now threatens the future of democracy. Bold steps are needed now to protect our fundamental rights to privacy and freedom of opinion and association online."
Tablets will out ship almost all other PC form factors combined next year, forming nearly 50 percent of the total market, according to a report from analysts at Canalys. The worldwide client PC market grew 18 percent in the third quarter of this year, despite desktop and notebook shipments continuing to decline. However, tablet shipment accounted for 40 percent of PC shipments, less than half a million units behind global notebook shipments. Canalys predicts this trend to continue and has forecast 285 million units to ship in 2014, growing to 396 million units in 2017.
Holiday e-commerce is expected to jump 14 percent to 17 percent this year compared to 2012, despite shoppers' financial worries and a shorter holiday shopping season. Specific shopping days, like Black Friday are expected to show strong sales, according to Kate Dreyer, a spokesperson for ComScore Inc. "Over the past several years, each holiday season has seen the continuation of many online shopping trends that are not necessarily new but nevertheless shape the dynamics of the season," Dreyer . "The holiday shopping period continues to kick off earlier and earlier—with an increasing number of retailers offering deals on and even before Thanksgiving Day—and Cyber Monday rises in prominence and promotional activity." Online shopping should be strong enough this year to actually blur the lines between Black Friday, which is the day after Thanksgiving when people tend to flock to retail stores, and Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving when people tend to make a lot of online purchases from their office computers.
The criminals behind the rapacious and terrifying Cryptolocker Trojan have lowered their ransom demands to take account of the soaring value of their preferred currency, Bitcoins, . for a decryption key in a newly detected variant of the malware is 0.5 Bitcoins, down from the previous level of two Bitcoins. This reduces the price from somewhere between $1400 and $1800 to around $350 to $600, more in line with what the gang believes people can actually afford. Put another way, as Bitcoins have surged in price must have stopped paying the ransom in sufficient numbers and the criminals noticed. They might be crooks but they're not insensitive to the basic economics of price. Despite being an untraceable way of taking payment, Bitcoins have turned out to have some disadvantages. Volumes—liquidity—are still too low which causes erratic shifts in price. Recently, prices have also been trending upwards, helped perhaps by a in which official submissions offered some hope that Bitcoins might eventually gain acceptance.
Attackers could force phones from Google's Nexus line to reboot or fail to connect to the mobile Internet service by sending a large number of special SMS messages to them. The issue was discovered by Bogdan Alecu, a system administrator at Dutch IT services company in Bucharest, Romania. Class 0 SMS, or Flash SMS, is a type of message defined in the GSM specification that gets displayed directly on the phone's screen and doesn't automatically get stored on the device. After reading such a message, users have the option to save it or dismiss it. On Google Nexus phones, when such a message is received, it gets displayed on top of all active windows and is surrounded by a semi-transparent black overlay that has a dimming effect on the rest of the screen. If that first message is not saved or dismissed, and a second message is then received, the latter is placed on top of the first one and the dimming effect increases.
Tackk, the best way I know of to create one-page websites, has emerged from beta full of new features and surprises. It's the same Tackk you know and love (or should, if you don't already), except it's bigger and better. The platform is now easier to use, offers more personalization, and, in keeping up with the times, is also much more social.
Apricorn’s Aegis Portable 3.0 is a handsome 2.5-inch, silver and black, USB 3.0 external drive with an integrated cable—and it ships in both hard-drive and SSD flavors. If that isn’t a siren’s call to see just how much of a performance boost you get from a solid-state drive in an external USB 3.0 enclosure, I don’t know what is. Apricorn thoughtfully shipped us both versions so we could answer that call. There’s no outward difference between the SSD version (outfitted with a 256GB SanDisk SD6SB1M256G1022I) and the hard-drive model (which comes with a 1TB, 2.5-inch Toshiba MQ01ABD100), aside from the fact that the SSD version weighs an ounce or two less. The Lab ran both models through PCWorld’s 10GB-file stress tests, copying data to and from a 16GB RAM drive, and the differences were as vivid as Apricorn’s advertising claims—at least when writing data to the drives. The 256GB SSD version wrote our single 10GB file at 334 megabytes per second, which is almost three times faster than the hard-drive version’s 115.5 MBps. wrote the same test file at 93 MBps, and other external USB 3.0 hard drives we’ve tested typically measure anywhere from 50 MBps to 80 MBps.
Black Friday is known for its epic tech deals, but why shell out cash when you can get stuff for free? Or even for profit?! This year, several retailers absolutely will drop the prices of smartphones from $200+ to, well, free. Or even below free. With some of the gift card deals out there, you’ll be able to pick up a brand-new phone and pocket $20, $30, even $100 in cash. Sounds like a good time to buy, right? A word of caution—none of these phones are really free. All of these deals come with a stipulation: You will have to sign a new two-year contract, which means a decent-size monthly bill for the next two years. Additionally, since these are all smartphones, you’ll have to pay for calls data. That might not be an issue if you have a shared-data family plan but, if you open a new account, you should expect to pay at least $80 per month, or about $1920 over the next two years. Also, if you break your existing contract to buy a new phone, you’ll pay an additional fee.
With the look of Google Plus and Facebook-like elements, a new social network named feels as cozy as a well-worn shoe. But beneath the familiar veneer, it’s quite different. Syme encrypts all content, such as status updates, photos and files, so that only people invited to a group can view it. Syme, which hosts the content on its Canada-based servers, says it can’t read it. “The overarching goal of Syme is to make encryption accessible and easy to use for people who aren’t geeks or aren’t hackers or who aren’t cryptography experts,” said co-founder Jonathan Hershon. Hershon is part of a bright trio who have self-funded Syme’s development while working out of their homes and studying at McGill University in Montreal. Hershon is studying psychology, Louis-Antoine Mullie is a medical student with a strong technology background, and Christophe Marois, who works on the user interface, studies music.
Attackers are exploiting a new and unpatched vulnerability in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 that allows them to execute code with higher privileges than they have access to. The vulnerability is located in NDProxy.sys, “a system-provided driver that interfaces WAN miniport drivers, call managers, and miniport call managers to the Telephony Application Programming Interfaces (TAPI) services.” “An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run arbitrary code in kernel mode,” Microsoft said in a published Wednesday. “An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full administrative rights.” This is an elevation-of-privilege (EoP) vulnerability, not a remote code execution one, which means that attackers need to already have access to a low-privileged account on the targeted system in order to exploit it.
The U.S. Army will pay Apptricity, a supply chain and financial software developer, $50 million to settle a copyright infringement claim that it used but didn’t pay for thousands of copies of logistics management software. Apptricity, of Irving, Texas, said it settled with the Army and the U.S. Department of Justice for a fraction of the software’s value. The Army was accused of not paying for 100 server and 9,000 device licenses. The company claimed its software worked “so well that it went viral,” according to a . It was used in relief efforts following the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti and in the Middle East to track the movement of equipment and supplies. The settlement, reached through alternative dispute resolution proceedings, includes licenses for ongoing use of the software by the Army.
Our deal hunters are over-caffeinated and haven't slept in days, but we are happy to announce that Black Friday is here and the deals are smoking hot. Leading the way are the best prices we've seen on some of Dell's hottest PCs, like the Inspiron 15 Core i5 Laptop for $449. Also is all time low $379 on the Dell UltraSharp U2413 IPS Monitor for only $379.99 after $220 coupon code! HDTV shoppers have every reason to be joyful, with TVs from around $200 and even a 4K TV for under $500. Rarely discounted Herman Miller Chairs are in effect with 15% off, the lowest of the year. Scroll down to check out these hot, limited-time deals and be sure to visit to find the latest and greatest Black Friday offers. Lowest Prices of the Year on Laptops, Desktops, & Electronics with free shipping: ).
Google’s practice of combining personal data from different Google services violates the Dutch data protection act, the Dutch data protection authority (DPA) said Thursday. But Google will not face any enforcement actions for now. In March 2012, Google introduced a new privacy policy that allows Google to share personal data across all its products and services. However, Google made the changes without having adequately informed users, and without asking for their consent, the Dutch DPA said in . “The investigation shows that Google does not properly inform users which personal data the company collects and combines, and for what purposes,” it said. By doing this, Google “spins an invisible web of our personal data, without our consent,” which is forbidden by law, the DPA said. Just inviting users to agree to a general privacy policy and terms of service does not suffice, the Dutch DPA said.
Our finds for Black Friday include a 4K HDTV, DSLR camera bargains from major makers, and clutch of HDTVs at great prices.
Authors and artists seeking to release works under a Creative Commons license now have more flexibility and choice when they want to share their works, Creative Commons said Thursday.
Google’s video-chat service Hangouts wilfully infringes on the still pending trademark of Hanginout, the company said in a lawsuit filed with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California on Tuesday. Hanginout, based in Carlsbad, Calif., makes . The app allows users to interact via recorded videos. They can find and follow people and celebrities, ask them questions and receive instant personal video responses. The company was founded in 2011, but said in the court filing that it has been developing its products since 2009.
Apple has been sued by patent company DSS Technology Management for infringing two patents relating to the use of wireless peripheral devices, parent company Document Security Systems said Wednesday. DSS has accused Apple’s products including its iMac, Mac mini, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, iPod nano and the forthcoming Mac Pro of infringing one or more of the claims of its patents in providing wireless Bluetooth connections to a plurality of peripheral devices. DSS said in October it acquired two patent portfolios from two different owners in the third quarter, covering semiconductor manufacturing and the use of low-power Bluetooth peripherals. It said it would monetize its acquisitions through licensing. The patents bearing U.S. Patent Nos. are both titled “Personal Data Network.” In July, Lexington Technology Group, a privately-owned company that owned and managed intellectual property assets, became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Document Security Systems and “provides strategy” for DSS’ IP portfolio. It was renamed as DSS Technology Management.
You can do this with most good photo editors, although the exact look will depend on the filters and effects available, and your own choices. The instructions below are for two consumer-oriented editors-- (Pos), which is free. But be careful if you install either of these. If you don't pay attention, both may try to install additional programs you may not want.
Nokia has started shipping two new low-end touch-screen phones running its own Asha software platform. It hopes they will allow it to compete more effectively with cheap Android-based products. The Asha 503 is available in countries such as France, Italy, the UK and Portugal. Other countries are expected to follow in the coming weeks. Nokia will announce more specific dates later locally, it said. The main markets for the Asha 502 will be India, the Middle East and Africa. The Asha 503 3G phone is the new flagship model of the family and will cost US$99 before taxes and subsidies. It has a 5-megapixel camera and a 3-inch screen protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass 2. The dual-SIM Asha 502 has the same screen size and camera resolution as the 503, but no 3G, which helps make it $10 cheaper.
The Thanksgiving holiday is a time for turkey, family, football—and for an onslaught of electronics deals. The big question, of course, is whether Black Friday or Cyber Monday is the best day to jump to get the most bang for your hard-earned cash. Should you skip Black Friday altogether and wait until Cyber Monday to see if the deals get any better? The short answer for would-be tech buyers is “No.” The big secret: despite its name, Cyber Monday is actually pretty middling for tech deals.
China’s recent crackdown on online rumors may have quieted the nation’s social networking websites, but local authorities take that as a sign of progress and want to regulate the Internet even more. In a rare question-and-answer session on Thursday, Chinese official Ren Xianliang spoke at length with journalists on the nation’s efforts to control the Internet. Few details were given, but China plans to exercise greater authority over the nation’s social networking services, including Sina Weibo and WeChat. “You brought up that Sina Weibo’s activity has fallen, but this just means that our crackdown on online rumors has been effective,” said Ren, who is the deputy director of China’s State Internet Information Office. “The rumors have declined significantly, but this hasn’t affected the normal flow of information,” he added. Ren spoke to the media two weeks after the government said it was in managing the online flow of information. China already is notorious for blocking popular websites such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter as a way to weed out anti-government content. Locally, domestic Internet firms must self-censor, and often delete user posts on sensitive topics.
Because pumpkin pie tastes better topped with a big ol' dollop of Netflix and Hulu Plus.
Not every Black Friday tech sale is worth it. Here are the ones that are.
Instead of waiting outside your local Best Buy on Black Friday, why not stay home and shop online? You can skip the crowds, avoid aching feet, and duck the drama of parking the car at the mall. Online shoppers also have a : Online rebate sites. These sites, such as , work on the simple principle that retailers will do just about anything, including shelling out cash, to gain paying customers. The rebate sites act as referrers—they refer you to retailer’s websites, and the retailer gives them a bonus if you make a purchase. To inspire you use their sites (instead of heading directly to the retailer’s site), online rebate sites offer you a small portion of that bonus. In other words: Free money. If you make large purchases online, and you can find an online rebate site that partners with that retailer, you can earn anywhere from one to 45 percent of your money back—just by clicking through a website. On top of that, many online rebate sites will be offering additional deals for Black Friday, such as extra cashback and shopping bonuses. Additionally, do your research, and you may find that many of the fantastic deals advertised on the first day of the holiday shopping season… .
