Tech

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Apple has the Mac to thank for its next generation of devices

from cnet.com

Thirty years later, the Mac's journey is far from over. It's had an even greater influence on the company's touch devices than the Apple II did on the Mac.

When Apple introduced the Mac 30 years ago, it was already a successful computer company with the Apple II, a product that would continue to be successful for years after the launch of Apple's new darling. If it had taken the approach Microsoft had with Windows 1.0, and laterWindows 8 and Surface, it would have grafted a graphical interface onto the Apple II -- something that actually eventually happened toward the line's decline with the Apple IIGS -- and perhaps provided a more limited number of expansion slots.

Instead, the Mac was almost a complete break from Apple's first hit. It had an integrated monitor, eschewed color, said farewell to its ProDOS interface, and seemed to offer a keyboard only reluctantly, omitting cursor keys to push people toward the mouse.

As the company has pointed out at its product introductions over the years, its stubborn commitment to match tailored user interface experiences to devices has been shown in theiPod's click-wheel and the iPhone's multitouch display. Indeed, unlike Microsoft, which is pushing hard to conflate laptops and tablets, Apple sees its user interfaces as a defining difference between them.

The Mac's journey is far from over. When the company introduced its Mavericks operating system, it noted that it wanted a naming scheme that could serve for the next 10 years of OS X. That said, when Apple began the tablet explosion with the iPad, and even at iOS' debut in the iPhone, we saw more of the Mac in Apple's touch devices than we did of the Apple II in the Mac. These characteristics include:

Icons and the dock Unlike the Mac, which departed completely from the Apple II's user interface, the iPad has some strong similarities to the Mac. While there's no desktop, windows, or menus, the iPad features icons and a dock. Apple has even brought the iPad's Launchpad interface and full-screen apps to the Mac, though veteran users mostly ignore at least the former.

A closed box Like the first Mac, the iPad was designed to be minimalist and unobtrusive. One of the great debates in Mac history was about how open the Mac should be toward expansion. Jean Louis Gassée, former head of Macintosh development, argued that the Mac should be open to expansion and advocated for the powerful Macintosh II line of PCs. (His license plate read OPENMAC.) With Steve Jobs' return, though, the Mac again reverted to a closed box limited to external expansion, a journey that has culminated in the now small, but mighty, Mac Pro. Similarly, the iPad has minimal expansion and, unlike other tablets, lacks onboard support for USB, HDMI, and microSD cards. And Apple still has a proclivity for its own connectors -- Apple Desktop Bus on early Macs and Lightning on the iPad.

Single-tasking With the arrival of iOS 7, Apple added full multitasking to the iPad and iPhone. But the first iPad, like the first Mac, had limited multitasking. Curiously, one of the reasons for justifying such a limitation in iOS' early days -- power consumption -- had little relevance for Apple's famous beige box.

Over the next few years, tablets are likely to displace clamshells further as the go-to device for many casual computing tasks, particularly those that Jobs emphasized at the iPad's introduction -- e-mail, Web, video, and books. Samsung even recently introduced a 12-inchGalaxy Tab Pro, and rumors are that Apple may break the 10-inch barrier as well. This will enable tablets to further encroach on the turf of the Mac and traditional PCs. But regardless of the Mac's trajectory, its tradition of breaking with convention and focusing on new user experiences -- even if it means giving up competitive features -- has carried through to Apple's next generation of devices. Deep within, the iPad has the soul of an old machine.

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Refrigerator Hack: 750, 000 Spam Emails Sent by Smart Gadgets

from hngn.com

By Julie S | Jan 18, 2014 08:21 AM EST

Refrigerator Hack: 750, 000 Spam Emails Sent by Smart Gadgets

A security firm revealed that even "smart" appliances are vulnerable to hack attacks. A group of cybercriminals have used a "smart" refrigerator to send 750,000 spam emails. (Photo : Reuters)

A security firm revealed that even "smart" appliances are vulnerable to hack attacks. A group of cybercriminals have used a "smart" refrigerator to send 750,000 spam emails.

Smart appliances are household devices that are able to connect to the Internet including computers, home Internet routers, media PCs and smart TVs. These devices can communicate to the smartphone, tablet or laptop through Wi-Fi. One example is a "smart" refrigerator which can tell the owner when it's time to change the filter. This new technology was designed to simplify tasks at home and save energy costs. However, since these appliances are able to connect to the Internet, it makes sense that cybercriminals were able to find a way to exploit them.

SHARE THIS STORY

A report from U.S security firm Proofpoint Inc. revealed that cybercriminals have hacked over 100,000 smart appliances and used them to send out more than 750,000 spam emails across the globe. Just imagine your refrigerator sending an email to your smartphone, laptop, or tablet.

David Knight, general manager of Proofpoint's Information Security division, said in a press release, "Botnets are already a major security concern and the emergence of thingbots may make the situation much worse."

"Many of these devices are poorly protected at best and consumers have virtually no way to detect or fix infections when they do occur. Enterprises may find distributed attacks increasing as more and more of these devices come on-line and attackers find additional ways to exploit them," he added.

The hack attack allegedly happened between December 23, 2013 and January 6, 2014, three times a day. Proofpoint reported 25 percent of the spam emails sent to both personal and business email addresses were from smart appliances.

The security firm also noted that the hacker behind this attack is difficult to trace location-wise because several IPs were used.

Friday, January 17, 2014

How Intel is buying a piece of the tablet market

from pcworld.com

James Niccolai@jniccolai

Jan 17, 2014 5:20 PM
print

Intel has an ambitious goal for 2014: get its Atom chips into 40 million tablets, or four times the number of tablets that had Intel inside in 2013. But rather than do it by tailoring its products to what tablets now demand, the cash-rich company has another plan: pay tablet makers to use its chips.

That’s essentially what Intel is doing through a program first disclosed at its financial analyst meeting in November. Intel will pay tablet makers to cover the additional component costs of using its Bay Trail chips instead of ARM-based processors, and it will also help cover the engineering costs of designing an Intel tablet.

The Intel division that makes Bay Trail will incur a “significant increase” in its operating loss to pay for the plan, CFO Stacy Smith said at the November meeting, but the upshot is likely to be a lot more tablets based on Intel chips, potentially even from big players like Samsung.

”Basically, they’re making an investment to make up for them being slow to get into the market,” said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research.

CEO Brian Krzanich shed a bit more light on the plan during Intel’s quarterly earnings call Thursday when he was asked what proportion of Intel-based tablets will be supported by its so-called “contra revenue” subsidies.

After a bit of hesitation, Krzanich said that “the majority of projects we have in 2014 use some level of contra revenue.” That confirmed what many analysts suspected: If you pick up a Bay Trail tablet this year, chances are Intel will have paid the manufacturer to cover the cost of using its chips.

It’s not hard to see why Intel is being aggressive: PC sales are in the toilet and the chip maker has been left behind in the hottest market in personal computing. The vast majority of tablets today use ARM chip designs manufactured by the likes of Samsung, Apple, Nvidia, Qualcomm and China’s Rockchip.

One cause of Intel’s problems is that Bay Trail was designed for the high end of the tablet market, where Windows 8 has performed poorly. Intel now sees its biggest opportunity in lower-priced Android devices, but it’s stuck with Bay Trail until new Atom chips code-named Broxton and SoFIA come out in 2015.

Analysts say Bay Trail is a good performer but doesn’t have as much functionality integrated onto the chip as other tablet SOCs, so it creates a higher “bill of materials” for tablet makers. That means they need to buy additional components for functions like communications, or print additional layers onto Bay Trail circuit boards, Krzanich said Thursday.

With contra revenue, Intel is paying tablet makers to cover the additional bill of materials (BOM) costs. “This is not a price reduction; it’s truly a BOM cost equalizer,” Krzanich said. It will also pay for “non-recurring engineering” costs, which means it will cover the cost of taking an ARM tablet design and porting it to an Intel chip.

Intel hopes the subsidies will seed the market with x86 tablets, and that next year, when Broxton and SoFIA appear, it will no longer need to pay them. Those chips will be more integrated than Bay Trail. SoFIA, for example, will come in two versions, one with integrated 3G and one with both 3G and LTE.

The bill of materials cost for a Broxton tablet will be US$20 less than for Bay Trail, Krzanich said. SoFIA, with its greater integration and smaller die size, will cost even less, he said.

Even with SoFIA, though, Intel will make a significant concession: The chip will be manufactured not in Intel’s own fabs but by contract manufacturer TSMC. That reflects Intel’s need to get the product out quickly, said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst with Insight64.

”When Intel looked at all the different pieces of [intellectual property] they would need for a low-cost, integrated part, many of them are available off-the-shelf at TSMC. They realized it would be easier just to port Atom to TSMC’s 28-nanometer process,” he said.

To put Intel’s target of 40 million tablets this year in context, Apple sold about 70 million tablets in its fiscal year that ended last September.

Some analysts think Intel will reach its target. “If you’d asked me six months ago, I would have been a lot more skeptical,” said McCarron at Mercury Research. But the contra revenue plan makes it “cost neutral” for tablet makers to use Bay Trail, he said.

In addition, Intel chips and Microsoft’s OSes are no longer “bolted together” as they were in the past. “The breaking of that, and actually seeing vendor interest in Intel-based Android systems, changes everything,” McCarron said.

The subsidies should help Intel find its way into millions of low-cost tablets produced in China, but Bay Trail may also find traction among top-tier vendors such as Samsung, Hewlett-Packard and Dell, said Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy.

”I expect there to be more Intel silicon overall at Samsung in the future,” Moorhead said. He expects the 40 million tablets to be split about evenly between China’s Shenzhen region, where many low-cost tablets are produced, and top-tier OEMs.

”The ones to keep an eye on are Apple and Samsung,” McCarron said. “It’s difficult to imagine Apple making the transition—that’s a difficult one for me to get my head around. But Samsung might be a little more open and flexible.”

For Intel, finding more business among tablet makers is a matter of urgency. “This market is moving on, and Intel needs to be a part of it,” Brookwood said

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Getting Started With Google Chromecast: The Unofficial Manual

from readwrite.com

As the new year arrives, many of us are greeting it with shiny new gadgets, courtesy of the holiday season. And one in particular has been a noteworthy hit—Google’s Chromecast streaming device, which is still holding strong as Amazon’s bestselling electronic.

Unlike many other new gadgets this year, this $35 TV dongle—which can “cast” or send streaming media to your television from the Internet—is incredibly affordable, making them perfect gifts and stocking stuffers for early adopters and non techies alike. The only downside for the latter: There’s no manual in this box.

That’s pretty common with electronics these days. Software updates so often and swiftly, core features can change from one minute to the next. Still, if your parent is wondering where to plug this in or your spouse can’t figure out how to “cast” shows from that trusty mobile device, then pass this on as the unofficial, missing manual.

Begin At The Beginning: Setup

On one end of the USB stick-like device, you’ll find the HDMI plug that goes into your TV. (If the space between ports is crowded, owners can use the included HDMI extension cable.) The other end features a micro USB port, where the charge cable would plug in, if necessary. Older televisions may not power Chromecast, but later models with more recent versions of HDMI might be able to supply the necessary electricity.

To find out which one you have, plug it into the TV first without the power cable, and see if it comes on with the television. If not, then you know you need to plug in the charge cable and wall adapter/power brick. (Don’t forget to choose the appropriate source on your television.)

Next, you’ll need to add your Chromecast to your Wi-Fi network. You can do this a couple of different ways, either by downloading the Chromecast mobile setup app on your Android or iOS device, or the desktop application. (You don’t need to do both, unless you want to have Chromecast settings control across all of your devices.)

Once Chromecast has been plugged in and the setup app has been installed, launch the application and follow the prompts. Be sure to have your Wi-Fi network name and password handy.

One look at your Google gadget tells you why these steps are necessary. The dongle has no keyboard, button or interface of any kind, so there’s no way to add the gizmo to your network without something acting as the input for it. In this case, it will be your mobile phone, tablet or computer.

Essentially, Chromecast creates its own network, and your mobile or laptop joins it, so they can communicate. Once that happens, you can use the ancillary device to name your Chromecast and add it to your wireless Internet network.

That’s App-tastic!: Discovering What To Cast

When Chromecast first launched, there were only four apps that worked with it. Now, there are 14, including Google’s own YouTube, Google Play TV & Movies and Google Play Music. Not a huge selection, but they cover some of the biggest and most popular offerings. Beyond those mentioned, you can currently use Netflix, Hulu, HBO GO, Pandora, VEVO, Red Bull.TV, Songza, Plex, PostTV, Viki and RealPlayer Cloud. Bear in mind that most of these require subscriptions with the individual services.

Google created a dedicated page listing Chromecast-friendly apps, and you may want to bookmark it. Over time, as more apps support the device, they’ll likely be added there for quick reference.

Once you have an app that you want to cast from, the task is simple. Just launch a compatible app and look for the cast icon.

When you see it, just tap that and choose your Chromecast to begin casting the content to your TV screen.

Here’s what it looks like on a Netflix video playing on an iPhone.

It’s the same icon in HBO GO, but in a different position.

And Pandora.

You can also stream videos and music using the related websites on your laptop, thanks to the Chrome browser.

Casting only works from the Chrome desktop browser (computer) or the individual supported apps (mobile). They also let you play, pause, scrub or adjust volume on the TV stream, like a remote control. Just be sure to have the specific app on screen (or website on your computer), when you need to change playback settings.

Note that you can't cast website videos via Firefox, Safari or Internet Explorer. It also won't work using any of your phone's Web browsers. This means you can't use your phone's Chrome browser app to cast.

Advanced Chromecasting tips: To stop TV casting and resume playback on a device, the user simply needs to select the Chromecast icon (on their mobile or laptop) and choose their device. The video or music stream will pick up at the same point the TV left off.

If several mobile users are on the same Wi-Fi network, any of them can also take control of the stream. They just need to launch the same app that's casting and tap the Chromecast icon on their devices. In the case of YouTube, multiple phones and tablets can even see and add videos to a unified "TV Queue," which works like a playlist. (Once joined to a YouTube Chromecast event, the "TV Queue" appears inside the app. Tap it to see what's playing and what else is in line to play. Search for other YouTube videos, and a "+ TV Queue" option pops up.)

Other Ways To Cast

See also: Chromecast May Be Breaking Out Soon

The section above outlines the primary use for Chromecast, which receives the stream directly from the Internet. Since the transmission doesn’t go from your phone or computer to the TV, there’s no hit on battery life.

Additionally, you can cast something directly from your computer to your television—whether a full Chrome browser tab, a compatible media file or your whole desktop screen. But be warned that it will zap your battery and, if it’s an older model, the laptop could struggle with this task.

Tab casting and desktop casting are experimental features, but they can come in handy if you want to share photos with a room full of people or pipe your own videos to the TV. You’ll need the Google Cast extension for the Chrome browser to make this work. Once you add it to your browser, you’ll see the Cast icon you’re already familiar with sitting at the top of the browser window, near the URL bar. Bear in mind that tab casting can transmit audio, but desktop casting does not.

Tab casting is rather interesting for another reason. Thanks to this feature, anything you can open and play within a Chrome browser can play on your television. This includes many unsupported video sites—particularly at full screen playback—as well as select video files (including H.264 MP4 files and WMV vids), audio clips and songs, and images. You can open computer media files in Chrome easily, whether by dragging and dropping them on your Chrome browser or, within the application, going to "File -> Open File…"

See also: Google Announces 10 New Streaming Apps For Chromecast

Plex and RealPlayer Cloud also allow you to send your own files to Chromecast now as well, and they offer cloud streaming (to all of your devices) as well as organized libraries or folder structures, so you can find specific items easily.

The Google streaming stick’s affordability and relative ease of use has made it very popular among mainstream consumers. And the company’s recent Chromecast hackathon and rollout of new apps bode well for a future of widespread Chromecast support, making for a very happy year for online streaming fans.

Enjoy.

Feature image by Madeleine Weiss for ReadWrite.

Addition: A few Chromecast users have contacted me to report glitches with their units. Indeed, I have also noticed hiccups in my own Chromecast streaming as well. But in my case, the blame fell on an inconsistent wireless signal in my home. The device is entirely Wi-Fi dependent, so if your signal's not strong or inconsistent, this could cause problems. Other users, with routers placed in the same room with their Chromecasts, tend to have smoother operation with their units. So if you experience issues, check your Wi-Fi signal and router placement.