Announcement38 articles, 2016-07-20 18:01

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1 Microsoft Launches Panorama Feature forWindows 10 Mobile PhonesOnly available for devices running the Anniversary Update2016-07-20 10:02 2KB news.softpedia.com

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2 Google receives record number ofgovernment requests for user dataOver 40,000 requests received in sixmonths,Security,Web,Privacy,Government,Law ,Google2016-07-20 12:12 2KB www.v3.co.uk

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3 Microsoft Releases BSOD Fix for Windows 10Anniversary Update Builds on SurfaceNew patch available via Windows Update for insiders2016-07-20 09:27 2KB news.softpedia.com

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4 Twitter slaps a permanent ban on Breitbart'sMilo Yiannopoulos, AKA @NeroThere's a lots going on at Twitter at the moment. Yesterday, thecompany opened the floodgates, giving everyone the opportunity toapply for account verification. In the same day, Twitter also handedout a rare permanent ban to Breitbart tech editor and right wing...2016-07-20 07:28 2KB feeds.betanews.com

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5 Medidata tops Street 2Q forecastsNEW YORK _ Medidata Solutions Inc. on Wednesday reportedsecond-quarter earnings of $4.9 million. The average estimate ofseven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was forearnings of 23 cents per share. Five analysts surveyed by Zacksexpected $112.8 million. 2016-07-20 06:39 1KB www.cnbc.com

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6 The best free presentation software 2016Free alternatives to PowerPoint to stop your audience nodding offmid-presentation 2016-07-20 11:00 7KB www.techradar.com

7 Visual Studio “15” Preview 3 AvailableMicrosoft has released the 3rd preview of Visual Studio “15” (VS15),the successor to Visual Studio 2015. Continuing the iterative natureof the development process so far, this preview provides updates forthe IDE functionality, user modifiable formatting rules for C#, and anew exception helper. 2016-07-20 16:06 3KB www.infoq.com

8 Blockchain really only does one thing wellNo new technology since the dawn of the internet has captured theimagination like blockchain. 2016-07-20 15:02 7KB phys.org

9 Deezer now generally available in USMost US consumers may not be familiar with Deezer and for goodreason. While it is one of the oldest players in the music streamingindustry, having launched nine years ago in France, the service hasonly been offered alongside some audio products and carriersubscriptions so far... 2016-07-20 11:39 2KB feeds.betanews.com

10 Running any of these security suites? Youcould be in serious troubleThese major flaws don't just affect antivirus software, either2016-07-20 11:10 2KB www.techradar.com

11 Google Releases New Arts and Culture Appon Android and iOSThe application is already available in the App Store 2016-07-20 10:542KB news.softpedia.com

12 DisCoverJ automatically finds cover art foryour MP3sWhile there are endless MP3 tag editors around, cover art supportis often basic, if it’s included at all. DisCoverJ is a Java-based editorwhich focuses solely on cover art, automatically locating,downloading and tagging your MP3s with the right images. Whilethere... 2016-07-20 10:36 2KB feeds.betanews.com

13 Android Nougat's Easter egg is a feline-catching frenzyAndroid is known for having Easter eggs built into the system. WithAndroid Nougat getting closer to its release, it features a mini game,letting users collect and take care of cats. 2016-07-20 10:28 2KBfeedproxy.google.com

14 Apple Has Its Own Stagefright VulnerabilityRCE flaw exploitable via image files affects many products2016-07-20 10:25 2KB news.softpedia.com

15 Have a Closer Look at a Fake iPhone 7 inThis HD VideoFake iPhone 7 shows some of the upcoming changes2016-07-20 10:07 2KB news.softpedia.com

16 BT Broadband customers hit by connectionproblems due to DNS issuesBT broadband customers across the UK are reporting problemsaccessing websites today. The ISP is aware of the issue and iscurrently working to implement a fix, but in the meantime, thousandsof users up and down the country are experiencing DNS problems.BT broadband customers... 2016-07-20 09:52 1KB feeds.betanews.com

17 Office 365 is becoming more and morepopularCloud-based productivity suite now has 23.1 million subscribers2016-07-20 09:49 1KB www.techradar.com

18 Samsung Galaxy Note 7 with S Pen Surfacesin New Leaked RenderThe image shows the smartphone in Blue Coral 2016-07-20 09:08 2KBnews.softpedia.com

19 LG Action CAM with Snapdragon 650, 2GBRAM and built-in LTE now availableLG has released a new "Friend", but this one doesn't utilize themodular slot on the G5. Much like the 360 Camera, the Action CAMpacks a lot of power and even offers built-in LTE for livestreaming.2016-07-20 07:22 1KB feedproxy.google.com

20 Top App Leaving Windows PhoneAmazon will be pulled from the store on August 15 2016-07-20 07:201KB news.softpedia.com

21 Snapchat integrates Bitmojis into app,months after Bitstrips purchaseSnapchat has updated its app and will now offer users the ability touse Bitmoji. This comes as no surprise, as Snapchat recentlyacquired Bitstrips, the company responsible for creating Bitmojis.2016-07-20 07:06 1KB feedproxy.google.com

22 Amazon wants to turn street lights and othervertical structures into drone docking stationsIn the more than two-and-a-half years since Amazon CEO Jeff Bezosunveiled intentions to deploy aerial drones for the purpose ofdelivering packages to customers, we’ve seen a lot ofadvancements in and around the drone industry. 2016-07-20 06:152KB www.techspot.com

23 Microsoft Stream lets businesses securelymanage and share videosMicrosoft has announced a new video service called Stream that willenable businesses of all sizes to securely manage and sharevideos. Microsoft has announced a new video service called Streamthat will enable businesses of all sizes to securely manage andshare videos. From today on,... 2016-07-20 05:58 2KBfeeds.betanews.com

24 New HIPAA guidance addressesransomwareNew guidance stresses need for regular backups and confirms thata ransomware attack is a breach that must be disclosed2016-07-20 04:25 3KB www.infoworld.com

25 Businesses are rushing into IoT likelemmingsMany companies are adopting IoT without knowing if it will help theirbusiness 2016-07-20 03:58 3KB www.infoworld.com

26 European shares rise on strong results fromSAP and LonzaLONDON, July 20- European shares edged up in early trade onWednesday, with Swiss speciality chemicals and life sciences groupLonza and software firm SAP leading the market higher afterreporting solid results. Shares in SAP, Europe's largest softwarecompany, rose 3 percent... 2016-07-20 03:26 1KB www.cnbc.com

27 JavaBeans Tutorial: What Are JavaBeans?Learn about the architecture that adheres to the softwarecomponent model standard and how JavaBeans are integrated andincorporated to become a part of the whole subsystem.2016-07-20 00:00 4KB www.developer.com

28 Access to Wikileaks blocked in Turkey as itreleases emailsAccess to the Wikileaks website in Turkey has been blocked afterthe group announced, following a failed coup by Turkish militaryunits, that it would release a trove of documents on the country'spower structure. 2016-07-20 00:00 1KB phys.org

29 Trim personal finance bot raises $2.2 millionto save you moneyEver wonder how much you spend each month on Uber? The newlyreleased Trim chatbot will tell you in a text. Trim also helps youmanage subscriptions, set up.. 2016-07-20 00:00 2KBfeedproxy.google.com

30 SAP beats analysts’ expectations, reports“record-setting” revenue and profitGerman IT services and enterprise giant SAP reported encouragingnumbers for Q2 2016, beating analysts' expectations and spiking itsshare price by nearly.. 2016-07-20 00:00 3KB feedproxy.google.com

31 Pantheon Raises $29M for its WordPressand Drupal hosting and management platformPantheon, a WordPress and Drupal hosting service with a stronglineup of features for developers, today announced that it hasraised a $29 million Series C.. 2016-07-20 00:00 3KBfeedproxy.google.com

32 Product comparison engine Versusacquired by Germany’s MenschDanke GroupVersus, the Berlin-based product comparison site and enginebacked by Earlybird Venture Capital, and Dave McClure's 500Startups (amongst others), has been.. 2016-07-20 00:00 2KBfeedproxy.google.com

33 Kinsa’s new Smart Elmo Thermometer isSesame Street’s first connected deviceA Sesame Street partnership is a big coup for any company – letalone one that’s only existed for four years and produced twoIndiegogo-backed products... 2016-07-20 00:00 2KBfeedproxy.google.com

34 DeepMind’s first NHS health app faces moreregulatory bumpsIt's fair to say that Google-owned AI company DeepMind's big pushinto the health space via data-access collaborations with the UK'sNational Health Service.. 2016-07-20 00:00 2KB feedproxy.google.com

35 Indonesia's presidential palace bans playingof 'Pokemon Go'Indonesian officials have banned the playing of "Pokemon Go" fromthe presidential palace. 2016-07-20 00:00 1KB phys.org

36 Japan Pokemon fans in agonising wait forgame launchLegions of Pokemon fans were left disappointed Wednesday after arumoured release of the franchise's hugely popular smartphonegame in Japan proved wrong. 2016-07-20 00:00 2KB phys.org

37 Self-learning computer software can detectand diagnose errors in pronunciationAn inexpensive, versatile and personalized system for recognizingand correcting mispronounced words could improve languagelearning. The A*STAR-devised system gradually picks up the mostcommon speech mistakes made by an individual, and potentiallycould be applied to any language. 2016-07-20 00:00 3KB phys.org

38 343,000 FPS Phantom camera rolls as Pyrexcookware shatters from thermal shockWe’ve seen The Slow Mo Guys pop bubbles at 2,500 frames persecond and record a DSLR camera’s shutter activate at 10,000 FPSbut for their latest video, the duo brought out the big guns. I’m ofcourse talking about… 2016-07-19 18:30 1KB www.techspot.com

Articles38 articles, 2016-07-20 18:01

1 Microsoft Launches Panorama Feature forWindows 10 Mobile Phones (1.07/2)

Today, however, thepanorama feature has gonelive for Windows insidersrunning Windows 10Anniversary Update on theirdevices. What’s important tonote, however, is that thisfeature is part of the Cameraapp, which is offered asuniversal, so the panoramaapp can also be used onSurface tablets too.

As far as phones are concerned, Lumia 950, 950 XL, 550, and 650 are theones that are getting it as part of an update for the Camera app if the latestWindows 10 Mobile build available to insiders is installed.

“Today we are rolling out an update to the Windows Camera app that bringsa highly requested feature from Windows Insiders: Panorama mode.Because the Camera app is a UWP, this capability extends to PCs andtablets in addition to phones. We have tested the new Panorama modeworks with the Lumia 950, Lumia 950 XL, Lumia 550, Lumia 650, SurfacePro 4, Surface 3, and Surface Book. If you are using other devices, let usknow how this works for you and any issues you hit!” Microsoft hasannounced today.

All users should get the new panorama feature in early August, whenMicrosoft introduces the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, so for themoment, the software giant is trying to test it and get feedback from insidersto address any potential bugs before a public launch.

Users are obviously encouraged to send any bugs they find to the companyso that retail users would get a more stable experience when the panoramaoption goes live for everyone.2016-07-20 10:02 Bogdan Popa

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2 Google receives record number of governmentrequests for user data (1.02/2)

Google received over40,000 requests forinformation on user accountsfrom governments in the sixmonths ending December2015, the highest number thefirm has ever received.

The latest Googletransparency report shows atotal figure of 40,677requests, almost 5,000

higher than in the previous six months at 35,365 and marking a notablejump.

Furthermore, these requests related to a whopping 81,311 user accounts,another major increase on the 68,908 in the previous six months.

Google complied with these requests 64 per cent of the time,demonstrating that it does push back where possible. This also continuesthe general trend of Google declining more and more requests, which hasbeen as high as 76 per cent.

The largest number of requests, 12,453, came from the US relating to27,157 accounts. Google gave up some data on these requests 79 per centof the time.

The UK made 3,497 requests for information on 5,405 accounts, andGoogle complied 72 per cent of the time.

Germany was ahead of the UK for requests, and second in the list overall, at7,491 relating to 11,562 accounts. Google complied just 57 per cent of thetime, perhaps demonstrating the power of the nation’s tough privacy laws.

Other sizeable requests were seen in India (3,265), France (4,174),Australia (1,258) and Singapore (1,381).

Richard Salgado, Google’s legal director for law enforcement andinformation security, explained that the firm is proud of its work to highlightthe requests it receives, and believes that new efforts, such as PrivacyShield, to protect citizens from government agencies are to be welcomed.

“We’re pleased with some of the improvements we’ve seen in surveillancelaws,” Salgado said in a Google Public Policy Blog post .

“The European Commission and the US recently agreed on the PrivacyShield agreement, which includes new undertakings covering proceduralprotections for surveillance efforts.”2016-07-20 12:12 www.v3

3 Microsoft Releases BSOD Fix for Windows 10

Anniversary Update Builds on Surface (1.02/2)

Dona Sarkar, head of theWindows Insider program,said recently that BSODswere experienced becauseof bad drivers andrecommended Surfaceusers who were runningWindows 10 build 14393 toinstall the latest patch fromWindows Update to correctthe issue.

“Windows Insiders should no longer experience bluescreens on Surfacedevices from the camera driver issue. The bad driver is removed onupdating to 14393 and a new driver is rolling out via Windows Update,” shesaid earlier today.

Windows 10 build 14393 was released earlier this week and is one of thelatest builds launched before the debut of the Anniversary Update due onAugust 2. There are sources claiming that this build is RTM, and Microsoftwill ship it to retail users after correcting the last bugs with patches offeredvia Windows Update, so no other build would be necessary.

Today’s BSOD fix could be part of this patching schedule to addressproblems in Windows 10 build 14393, and while this isn’t confirmed just yet,this new release is one of the most stable and reliable so far. We’ll find outmore about the final build of the Anniversary Update in the next couple ofweeks, as we’re less than a couple of weeks away from its unveiling.

Keep in mind that this new update is only released for the Surface Pro 4and the Surface Book enrolled in the Windows Insider program and runningbuild 14393 (which, in turn, is only offered to the fast ring), so the bug shouldbe corrected by the time the Anniversary Update is released to retail userstoo.

This means that no BSODs or crashes should be experienced on Surfacemodels running the final version of the update coming in early August, soretail users should really thank insiders for testing and sending feedback on

this kind of issues.2016-07-20 09:27 Bogdan Popa

4 Twitter slaps a permanent ban on Breitbart's

Milo Yiannopoulos, AKA @Nero (1.02/2)

There's a lots going on atTwitter at the moment.Yesterday, the companyopened the floodgates,giving everyone theopportunity to apply foraccount verification. In thesame day, Twitter alsohanded out a rare permanentban to Breitbart tech editorand right wing pundit MiloYiannopoulos, who wentunder the handle of @Nero.

Yiannopoulos has long-beena controversial figure -- a troll, many would say -- who has spoken outagainst feminism, movements such as Gamergate, Islam, and politicalcorrectness. This is not the first time he has received a ban, but in the pastthey have been temporary. The permanent ban comes after he was involvedin a spate of tweets attacking Ghostbusters actress Leslie Jones.

Tweeted from, of all places, the RNC convention where Donald Trump wasofficial selected at the Republican party's presidential candidate,Yiannopoulos was not only highly critical of Jones' performance in themovie, but also encouraged other Twitter users to send racist and sexistmessage to her. Jones later decided to leave Twitter after the harassment:

This was not before things had escalated to such a level that Twitter's JackDorsey reached out directly to Jones:

Twitter has faced a great deal of criticism about how it deals with trolls andabuse, and in a statement the company makes it clear that it wants to beseen to be doing more:

There is already a troll-busting team in place, but Twitter promises that thereare more changes on the cards to help clean up the site:

Photo credit: Maryna Stamatova / Shutterstock2016-07-20 07:28 By Mark

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5 Medidata tops Street 2Q forecasts (1.00/2)

NEW YORK (AP) _Medidata Solutions Inc.(MDSO) on Wednesdayreported second-quarterearnings of $4.9 million.

On a per-share basis, theNew York-based companysaid it had profit of 9 cents.Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, cameto 24 cents per share.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate ofseven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of23 cents per share.

The research software maker posted revenue of $114.6 million in theperiod, also beating Street forecasts. Five analysts surveyed by Zacksexpected $112.8 million.

Medidata expects full-year revenue in the range of $450 million to $474million.

Medidata shares have decreased 5 percent since the beginning of the year.The stock has declined 22 percent in the last 12 months.

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap ) using data from Zacks InvestmentResearch. Access a Zacks stock report on MDSO athttp://www.zacks.com/ap/MDSO

Keywords: Medidata Solutions, Earnings Report2016-07-20 06:39 CNBC

6 The best free presentation software 2016

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There's nothing as boring as a bad Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.Reams of dull slides projected in a darkened room is a pretty good recipefor a nap. But use it right, with engaging visuals which add to your narrationrather than just replicating it, and PowerPoint can be a very effective way toget people's attention.

Notice, though, that PowerPoint has essentially become a synonym fordigital presentation. Microsoft's package isn't the only way to get your slides

on screen, but it's the mostrecognised one, and movingaway from it for a freePowerPoint replacement iseither going to meanmaintaining compatibilitywith existing PPT files orsome kind of specialfunctionality beyond thestandard dull slide deckformula.

The five packages we've selected here are our favourite in both categories;a couple of direct replacements, a pair of out-there alternatives, and onewhich straddles the middle ground. Whatever impact you're trying to make,these should help you without hurting your wallet.

Anyone who's used Microsoft PowerPoint will pick up WPS Presentation inminutes, and it's fully compatible with PPT and PPTX file formats

Once known as Kingsoft Office, WPS is, in interface terms, about as closeto Microsoft's office software as you're likely to find. Subtly ad-supported(you'll need to watch a brief ad if you want to perform certain functions),WPS Presentation has muscle enough in its familiar ribbon interface toperform just about every task you'd expect of a slideshow app.

It's fully compatible with PPT and PPTX files and incredibly stable, as youmight expect from commercial software that's been around for this long. Therange of templates on offer is particularly impressive. Kingsoft's onlineservice, Docer, has been providing document templates in China for sometime, and WPS Presentation integrates neatly with its English-languageversion to provide an absolute boatload of looks.

There's also a stack of animations, transitions and effects to choose from,and support for embedding numerous different file types including FlashSWF files and most video formats. While the 30-second ad breaks are a bitof a grind, the software itself is well worth a look.

LibreOffice Impress is an open source presentation tool that's compatiblewith virtually any operating system you can think of

LibreOffice Impress , has, er, impressive pedigree. It also has a raft offeatures and templates at its disposal. But don't make the mistake ofthinking it's an exact PowerPoint analog.

Certain features of more modern PowerPoint versions aren't included(internet broadcast, collaboration, animated diagrams) though LibreOfficeadds some pretty cool features of its own, like various export formats

including SWF, import compatibility with Keynote files, and full support forembedding fonts in your presentations. Plus, of course, it's completely freeopen source software.

There's another benefit, too: you'll need to do some heavy work to get Office2016 running on anything earlier than Windows 7 , macOS versions prior to10.10 or on Linux at all. But LibreOffice maintains compatibility right back toWindows XP, works with OS X 10.8 (or 10.5 thanks to unofficial builds) andsupports whatever Linux flavour you might throw it at.

Apple's latest version of Keynote is available free to anyone with an AppleID. It's a little more simple than the downloadable program, but is still a well-crafted tool

Apple's flagship presentation software is, we think, the best part of the suiteformerly known as iWork, and it's free to anyone who owns a post-2013Mac. But we think Keynote's best incarnation is the one that comes as partof its iCloud online app suite, mainly because anyone with an Apple ID -Mac, Windows or Linux - gets free access through a web browser.

It's a pretty good translation of the package, though it's a little closer to theiOS version than the desktop one. This means there are a few caveats you'llhave to live with. Documents created with the full version sometimes includeelements which aren't supported by the online version, and while you'll haveno problem creating some very flashy presentations with the numerous 4:3and 16:9 templates, the simplistic tools mean they won't match thecomplexity of those created by its desktop counterpart.

Anything you do create can be shared online by sending simple link to anyrecipient, or you can take your pick of Keynote, PDF or Powerpointdownloads.

Powtoon's quirky animations aren't suitable for the boardroom, but arecertainly attention-grabbing

If you've seen animated infographics online, you might already have an ideaof what Powtoon can offer; it's perfect for creating video presentationsslightly more lively and charming than the standard PowerPoint fare, withroyalty-free music and eye-catching looks. Whether its blend of cartoonyassets and sprightly animations is the right thing for you is another question.Such frivolity may help you stand out, but it might single you out as apresenter who isn't taking things seriously. That said, Powtoon 's dedicatedSlides section provides a more traditional editor for making morestraightforward slide decks, and anything you create there can be latertarted up in the Studio section.

It's all rather nice, although free Powtoon accounts can't download files foroffline use and are restricted to a very limited asset selection and license -

at US$19 (about £14.42, AU$25.38) per month, the full thing is probablygoing to look prohibitively pricey.

Prezi's dynamic presentations look sharp and professional, though the freeedition isn't suitable for presenting private business plans

Prezi 's take on presentations is very different, since it does away with slidedecks altogether in favour of a massive canvas. Cram it full of all yourpertinent info, lock off views representing the most important areas, thenzoom, twist, reveal and jump between them for a truly dynamic presentation.It's all very special and next-generation, and it's certainly easy enough to getsome brilliant looks out of Prezi's online tool, but there are some bigdownsides too. Primarily, the free edition makes all of your presentationspublic by default, presumably to discourage business users from exploitingthe tool without paying for it.

There's a secondary negative too: many people, faced with Prezi'ssometimes unpredictable movements, find themselves becomingsomewhat seasick when watching particularly active presentations. So becareful with your movements, and watch a few of the advice videos onPrezi's website so you're sure you're doing it right.

Article continues below2016-07-20 11:00 By Alex

7 Visual Studio “15” Preview 3 Available

Microsoft has released the 3 rd preview ofVisual Studio “15” (VS15), the successor toVisual Studio 2015. Continuing the iterativenature of the development process so far,this preview provides updates for the IDEfunctionality, user modifiable formattingrules for C#, and a new exception helper.

The IntelliSense pop-up dialog has beenmodified to include a filter that allowsdevelopers to filter what choices appear.The default shows all of the choices, butfilters now exist to limit matches by type—such as method, properties, or classes. The behavior of this pop-up can beset via Tools | Options | Text | Editor | C# (or Visual Basic) | IntelliSenseunder filtering and highlighting.

Style analyzers were previously introduced in past previews, and nowthree new capabilities have been added for this preview:

Incorporating a feature from VS2015 Update 3, there is a new quick fixoption to add a reference to a NuGet package.

In an effort to simplify debugging, a new Exception Helper has been addedwhich provides a popup dialog box that includes information about anexception being highlighted in the editor. This dialog also includesinformation on inner exceptions for this dialog when applicable.

Generally speaking the IDE sees some more changes. A new externalprocess provides a new service host that will appear in the task manageras ServiceHub. Host. CLR.*.exe and node.exe. Microsoft says this changewill eliminate the local http traffic used by the former system.

The Reload All Projects command has been replaced by Reload Solution.In theory this will improve performance in conjunction with switchingbranches in Git. Best practice in use will be to use Reload Solution afterswitching branches in Git. Similarly, performance for toggling betweenFolder View and Solution View has improved.

The use of user profiles in VS15 is growing. Upon signing in to VS15, anew Roaming Extension Manager uses the cloud to maintain a list of theextensions that you are using. You can think of the Roaming List as a sort ofpersonalized gallery of extensions that you have chosen to use on one ormore of your systems. Selected extensions will fall into one of the followingcategories:

Icons are used to denote the state of the first three categories—so oneshould easily be able to see the current state of the extension and how it isbeing used.

Microsoft has provided the full release notes for VS15 (note that thisincludes the cumulative list of all features provided by VS15).2016-07-20 16:06 Jeff Martin

8 Blockchain really only does one thing well

Designed to run unregulatedelectronic currency, theblockchain is promoted bymany as having far broaderpotential in government,identity, voting, corporateadministration andhealthcare, to name justsome of the proposed usecases. But these grand

designs misunderstand what blockchain actually does.

Blockchain is certainly important and valuable, as an inspiration for brandnew internet protocols and infrastructure. But it's a lot like the WrightBrothers' Flyer, the first powered aeroplane. It's wondrous but impractical.

Not quite eight years ago, in November 2008, a mysterious and stillunknown developer going by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto launchedbitcoin –- the first practical electronic cash that didn't rely on a digitalreserve bank. A decentralised crypto-currency scheme requires globalconsensus on when someone spends a virtual coin, so she cannot spend itagain. Blockchain's trick is to broadcast every single bitcoin transaction tothe whole community, which then in effect votes on the order in whichtransactions appear. Any attempt to "double spend" (move the same bitcointwice), or to introduce a counterfeit coin that hasn't been seen on thenetwork before, is detected and rejected.

With no umpire, the continuous arbitration of blockchain entries requires amassive peer-to-peer network in order to resist distortion or manipulation.

Anyone at all is free to join the blockchain network, as a holder and spenderof currency, and/or as a node contributing to the consensus process. Theincentive to participate comes in the form of a random reward paidwhenever the ledger is settled, which is roughly every 10 minutes. The oddsof a node winning the reward go up with the amount of computing power itadds to the network, and so running a node is dubbed bitcoin "mining".

The only authoritative record of anyone's bitcoin balance is held on theblockchain. Account holders operate a wallet application, which shows theirbalance and lets them spend it, moving bitcoin to other accounts. Counter-intuitively, these "wallets" hold no money; all they do is control accountholders' private keys, and provide a user interface to what's in theblockchain.

In fact bitcoin is entirely ethereal, with not even virtual coins. The Blockchainonly records the movement of bitcoin in and out of account holders' wallets,and calculates virtual balances as the difference between what's been spentand what's been paid.

The only way to spend your balance is to use your private key, to digitallysign an instruction to the network, specifying the amount to move, and theaddress (that is, the public key) of where to move it to. If a private key is lostor destroyed, then the balance associated with that key is frozen foreverand can never be spent. Ever.

There has been a string of notorious mishaps where computers or diskdrives holding bitcoin wallets have been lost, together with millions of dollarsof value they controlled. And predictably, numerous pieces of malicioussoftware have been developed specifically to steal bitcoin private keys and

balances.

The enthusiasm for crypto-currency innovation has proven infectious; thefeeling is that if blockchain "squared the circle" in payments, then it musthave untold powers in other domains.

In particular, many commentators have promoted blockchain for identitymanagement .

The conspicuous thing about proposals to put "identity on the blockchain" isthat they overwhelmingly come from blockchain advocates and not identitymanagement experts. What's missing in the great majority of blockchain-for-identity proposals – and indeed in most of the non-payments use cases– is a careful statement of the problem and proper analysis of whydistributed consensus is important.

What the blockchain can't do

Sadly, when you look closely, the blockchain just doesn't do what mostpeople seem to think it does. There is nothing "on" the blockchain. All itholds is a record of bitcoin movements and associated metadata. Themetaphor of recording anything "on" it belies the need for additionaltechnologies and processes over and above blockchain, to decide how torepresent physical items in code and to oversee the assignment of thosecodes. These necessitate extra key management, registration ofownership, and governance.

Blockchain does nothing about these realities, neither does any otherdistributed ledger technology that has followed in bitcoin's wake. Blockchainwas expressly designed to manage crypto-currency without any keymanagement or registration. No one is trusted in the naked bitcoin world.No administrator and no third party is needed to vouch for any wallet holderor network node. The lack of friction is great for the unbanked (as well asillicit users) and it also helps build the peer-to-peer network, which must bemaintained at a huge scale in order to guard against those untrustedparticipants conspiring against the system.

And it's best to remember that the incentive to run blockchain nodes comesfrom the mining reward. Take bitcoin away from non-payment use casesand it's unclear who will pay for the infrastructure, and how. The originalblockchain is not separable from bitcoin. Now, there is certainly plenty offresh research and development being done on alternative consensusmechanisms and participation models. But nothing yet is up and runninglike the established public blockchain, and nothing else has yet been provenwith blockchain's security properties.

Blockchain does just one thing: it establishes the order of entries in adistributed ledger, so as to prevent double spend without an umpire. The

truth of the contents of the ledger is an entirely different matter. Blockchaindoesn't magically make the entries themselves trustworthy, let alone thepeople that created them.

Despite the hype, blockchain is not a "trust protocol"; it's actually theopposite. Just think about it: it's not as though paying by bitcoin stops youfrom being ripped off. For anything of value other than bitcoin to betransacted via the blockchain requires additional layers of agents, thirdparties and auditors – things that just don't square with the trust-freearchitecture.

Lofty claims are made for blockchain's ability to decentralise all sorts ofthings. But in truth, blockchain only decentralises the adjudication of theorder of entries in a ledger. It is not a general or native "Internet of Value" asclaimed by authors like Don and Alex Tapscott. It was expressly designedfor electronic cash; it has no native connection to real world assets.

Few businesses have escaped the call to evaluate blockchain technologies.If you've been persuaded to have a look, then as a first step, re-examineyour security and record keeping needs. Take the time to understand whatblockchain does, and all the things it leaves to be done by other systems. Ifyour business is decentralised and your assets are purely digital, thenblockchain has a lot to offer, but otherwise, it's just another database.

Explore further: Goldman Sachs seeks patent on virtual currency2016-07-20 15:02 phys.org

9 Deezer now generally available in US

Most US consumers may notbe familiar with Deezer andfor good reason. While it isone of the oldest players inthe music streaming industry,having launched nine yearsago in France, the servicehas only been offeredalongside some audioproducts and carriersubscriptions so far.

That is about to changethough, as Deezer is now, finally, widely available in US. Just like its maincompetitors, it can be sampled on all the major platforms, includingAndroid, iOS, macOS, and Windows, with customers getting unlimitedaccess to the "world's largest music streaming library", live radio, news, and

podcasts.

Deezer has apps available on the Apple App Store, Google Play andWindows Store, and can also be accessed from the web at Deezer.com.The service is offered free of charge to users in the first 30 days, after whichthey'll have to pay $9.99 a month for the Premium+ plan.

"We’ve already received an overwhelmingly positive response sinceoffering Deezer via our partners Sonos, Bose and Cricket, and now lookforward to making our service available to everyone", says Deezer CEO Dr.Hans-Holger Albrecht. The company notes that its service will continue to beavailable through Cricket Wireless and to Bose and Sonos subscribers.

Deezer's library includes more than 40 million songs and over 40,000 newsstories and podcasts, but those that is not the only selling point that thecompany is hoping will attract US consumers.

There is also Flow, which helps you discover songs based on things likealgorithms and contextual info, live radio, which gives users quick access toradio stations and info on the currently playing song, and lyrics, which is self-explanatory.

What Deezer currently fails to offer is a subscription that rivals GooglePlay's or Apple Music's family plan. Either service gives access to up to sixusers for $14.99 a month, which is better value than what Deezer offers atthis stage. Spotify has this plan too, in case you're wondering.2016-07-20 11:39 By Mihăiță

10 Running any of these security suites? You

could be in serious troubleA good number of internetsecurity suites carry worryingflaws that could leave usersopen to exploit, according tosome new research.

Cybersecurity firm enSilofound no less than sixcommon problems whichaffect over 15 different AVproducts, all of which derive

from the errant implementation of code hooking (used to monitor operatingsystem functions) and injections techniques.

Microsoft's Detours, the most widely used hooking engine, is affected.

Attackers can use these flaws to get around Windows (or other apps)mitigations against exploits, and the affected security suites include many ofthe major players such as AVG, Avast, Bitdefender, Kaspersky, McAfee,Symantec, Emsisoft and Webroot among others.

All of these antivirus makers have been informed, and some have moved tofix the issue in the last month, enSilo noted – without specifying any names.The bad news is that patching this one up involves recompiling the productin question, so it's far from a trivial fix.

It's not just security suites which are hit by this, either, as the Detourshooking engine is used by many software makers, so this flaw could affect alarge amount of other programs and potentially millions of users.

In a blog post , enSilo observed: "Most of these vulnerabilities allow anattacker to easily bypass the operating system and third-party exploitmitigations. This means an attacker may be able to easily leverage andexploit these vulnerabilities that would otherwise be very difficult, or evenimpossible, to weaponise.

"The worst vulnerabilities would allow the attacker to stay undetected on thevictim's machine or to inject code into any process in the system. "

The good news, such as it is, is that Microsoft has a patch to address thisinbound for Detours next month. And hopefully security firms are on the ballwith their own fixes – it might be a good idea to get in touch with yourprovider to check up on whether these issues have been addressed.

Via: PC World

Article continues below2016-07-20 11:10 By Darren

11 Google Releases New Arts and Culture App on

Android and iOSGoogle Arts & Culture app allows users to search for artifacts and artworksfrom more than a thousand museums from across 70 countries. It's only tobe expected that Google will add more museums and locations in this appin the next period of time.

Users can search for anything, including shoes, jewelry, paintings,sculptures, and any other type of artwork that they would have access to onlyif they searched for it online or actually visited the museum that showcasesthem.

The app boasts the option to scroll through artworks by time, and for

instance, explore a painter'sevolution through their art. It alsoallows users to browse by color orlearn about an artist's influences andmuses. What's more, it also comeswith one new story per day,exploring the world of art andculture.

Google Arts & Culture supportsGoogle Cardboard for taking virtualtours of the street art scene inmultiple current or even ancientcities, like Athens or Rome. Googlehas also launched an Arts & CultureYouTube channel where users cansome explore content that's featured in the app as well.

In addition, the application displays the opening hours for various museumsaround the world, and it shows users special events hosted on certain days.It also includes a feature called Arts Recognizer, which allows users to pointtheir smartphones to a painting, which will trigger the app to automaticallydisplay information about the painter and the artwork. Google Arts & Cultureis available on Android and iOS.

Just recently, Google has also released Motion Stills app, which allowsusers to create stable GIFs out of live photos.2016-07-20 10:54 Alexandra Vaidos

12 DisCoverJ automatically finds cover art for

your MP3sWhile there are endless MP3 tag editors around, cover art support is oftenbasic, if it’s included at all. DisCoverJ is a Java-based editor which focusessolely on cover art, automatically locating, downloading and tagging yourMP3s with the right images.

Installation is straightforward on Windows, Linux and Mac. There’s noadware or other hassles and you’re ready to go in seconds.

Tagging is just as easy. Simply drag and drop your MP3s onto disCoverJ,click the Search button bottom-right, and watch.

DisCoverJ uses multiple search engines to find your artwork (iTunes,Amazon, Google, Bing, Deezer, Spotify, Discogs, Gracenote), downloadsit, tags the files, and displays the results.

We were surprised how fast andaccurate this could be. Most of ourtest files were tagged correctly andwith no issues at all.

There were some errors, though,and the interface doesn’t makethese easy to fix. For example, we’dhope to be able to multiselect abatch of tracks, right-click andchoose a "remove" option to get ridof the incorrect artwork, but there’sno way to do that. Instead you mustclick each track individually, thenclick a Remove button to clear thatimage.

One way around this is to try and fine-tune the search process, perhapsreducing the chance of errors. If you notice the errors are coming from aparticular search engine, for instance, you can drop it down disCoverJ’ssearch order, making the program more likely to use other engines, instead.If that doesn’t help, there’s also an option to manually check whateverimages the program has found, before they’re applied.

Put it all together and there are probably enough safeguards here, but becautious anyway. Try the program out with copies of 30 or 40 test files,before you think about batch processing several thousand.

DisCoverJ is a free program which runs on Windows, Linux and Mac, andrequires Java.2016-07-20 10:36 By Mike

13 Android Nougat's Easter egg is a feline-

catching frenzyGoogle's Android operating system, aside from being widely used all overthe world, is also pretty much known for having Easter eggs inside thesystem. These things appear in Developer Previews, as well as finalreleases. This tradition has been observed ever since the days of AndroidGingerbread, up to the latest version.

Its latest version, recently dubbed as Android Nougat, isn't an exception.While the past two versions of Android, namely Lollipop and Marshmallow,featured Flappy Bird-inspired Easter eggs, Nougat's Developer Preview 5focuses on something more casual (and cute): collecting cats.

To access the feline-inspiredtreat, which is inspired by thegame Neko Atsume , youcan head over to theSettings app, and tap 'AboutPhone.' Tap 'AndroidVersion' several times, untilyou are greeted by a large'N' logo. Tapping the N lettera few times will result in asmall cat emoji appearingbelow the giant N.

You can now pull the notification center down, and then tap on edit. Scrollingall the way down, you will see a cat tile accompanied by "???? " togetherwith "Android Easter Egg. " Drag it onto the notification drawer.

After this, you will notice that the cat tile has been replaced by an "EmptyDish" tile. Tapping it will make four choices appear: Bits, Fish, Chicken, orTreat. Whatever you choose will now replace the Empty Dish tile. Touchingand holding it will take you to a blank screen.

What's next? A whole lot of waiting.

After waiting for some time, you will be greeted with a notification from"Android Neko," which states, "A cat is here. " You will see an image of acat, along with an identification number. You can name the cat to your liking,or delete it, by touching and holding a respective feline friend.

Android N was showcased by Google back in March, and has releasedDeveloper Previews since then. By the end of June, the new version waschristened as 'Android Nougat.' It is expected to be released to devicesworldwide in the coming months.

Source and Images via Digital Trends2016-07-20 10:28 Justin Luna

14 Apple Has Its Own Stagefright Vulnerability

The vulnerability resides in the way Apple products process certain types ofimage files. Affected products include OS X, iOS, tvOS, and watchOS.

Tyler Bohan of the Cisco Talos team discovered the issues, which can beexploited by sending a malformed image attached to an email to victims,embedded in a Web page, via iMessages, MMS messages, and all sortsof other applications.

The problem resides in thefact that some Appleproducts will try toautomatically process theimage received from theattacker to create andpresent a thumbnail.

When this happens, theApple product loses controlover how it handles itsmemory space, andmalicious code embedded

in the image will execute, allowing the attacker to take control of the device.

Even if the remotely executed code runs within the privileges of thecompromised application, there are many local privilege escalation issuesthat can help attackers get admin rights and then execute code with broaderaccess, adding the device to their botnet or installing more intrusivemalware.

As you can see, the core issue and the exploitation chain for this bug isalmost identical to Stagefright , a severe vulnerability discovered in theAndroid OS last August, which is the reason why Google created theAndroid Security Bulletin a month later.

According to Bohan's technical write-up , the five issues are found in theway Apple software deals with TIFF images via the Image I/O component(CVE-2016-4631), how it deals with OpenEXR images via the Image I/Ocomponent (CVE-2016-4629, CVE-2016-4630), how it deals with DAE(Digital Asset Exchange) in Scene Kit and other apps (CVE-2016-1850),and how it deals with BPM images via the Apple Core Graphics API (CVE-2016-4637).

Apple has put out security updates to fix the above-mentioned issues in iOS9.3.3 , tvOS 9.2.2 , watchOS 2.2.2 , and El Capitan v10.11.6. Other, non-related security updates are also available for iTunes 12.4.2 for Windowsand Safari 9.1.2 .2016-07-20 10:25 Catalin Cimpanu

15 Have a Closer Look at a Fake iPhone 7 in This

HD VideoThis video published by NWE shows what's said to be a fake iPhone 7purchased from China that integrates all the changes that have beenrumored lately, including a new and larger camera unit that’s moved closer

to the top left corner, as wellas the overly discussedantenna lines that are nowplaced at the top and thebottom of the phone.

As you can see, the iPhone6s and the iPhone 7(although this is a clone) aresuper similar, and we expectdimensions of the twohandsets to be identical - rumor has it that the new model will be 1mmthinner than the existing one, but you’ll barely see that when using it orholding the phone in hand.

The audio jack will be replaced by a secondary speaker grille, but it’s veryimportant to note that the iPhone 7 won’t be stereo, only that it’ll offeranother speaker grille, which would most likely make the device a bit louder.The only port will be the Lightning one, which will be used for all purposes,including charging and listening to music. Rumor has it that Apple will offer anew type of headphones in the box featuring this kind of connector, butadapters will also be sold separately.

Given the fact that this video shows an iPhone prototype, there are somechances that it could be slightly inaccurate, although we expect these to bethe real changes coming on the iPhone 7. Confirmation will finally beprovided in September, when the iPhone 7 sees daylight.

Please upgrade to a HTML5 browser (IE9+, Firefox 31+, Chrome 31+,Safari 7+, Opera 27+) or download the video file2016-07-20 10:07 Bogdan Popa

16 BT Broadband customers hit by connection

problems due to DNS issuesBT broadband customers across the UK are reporting problems accessingwebsites today. The ISP is aware of the issue and is currently working toimplement a fix, but in the meantime, thousands of users up and down thecountry are experiencing DNS problems.

The problem is also affecting customers of Plusnet, a separate branch ofBT. The company says that "Engineers are working to fix things as fast aspossible", but this will come as little comfort to those who find they areunable to go about their daily business.

The BBC reports that the problems have been attributed to "power issues

at one of [BT's] internetpeering partners' sites inLondon". Thousands ofreports have been made toDown Detector , whose liveoutage map shows that theproblem centers aroundLondon, but extends northwell beyond Manchester andinto Scotland.

BT acknowledged theproblem on Twitter:

Have you been having trouble with your BT Broadband or Plusnetconnection? If so, you might want to try using Google's DNS addresses(8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) to see if that helps.

Photo credit: chrisdorney / Shutterstock2016-07-20 09:52 By Mark

17 Office 365 is becoming more and more

popularOffice 365 is going fromstrength to strength,according to some newnumbers released along withMicrosoft's latest fiscalresults.

The cloud-based productivitysuite now has 23.1 millionsubscribers, no less – notbad considering that at theend of 2014, just a year and a half ago, the number of Office 365 users was9.2 million.

Redmond also said that revenue from Office consumer products and cloudservices was up 19% year-on-year, making a worthy contribution to thecompany's total revenue of $20.6 billion (around £15.7 billion, AU$27.5billion) for the quarter running up to the end of June.

Office commercial products and cloud services picked up 5% growth, whichMicrosoft says was driven by Office 365's commercial revenue growth of54%.

Azure revenue was also very healthy, more than doubling up with a rise of102% year-on-year – and Azure compute usage also doubled.

As for Surface devices? These hybrids saw revenue increase 9% year-on-year, mainly driven by sales of the new pieces of hardware ( Surface Bookand Surface Pro 4) which made up for the fizzling Surface 3.

Commenting on his company's performance, chief executive Satya Nadellasaid: "This past year was pivotal in both our own transformation and inpartnering with our customers who are navigating their own digitaltransformations. The Microsoft Cloud is seeing significant customermomentum and we're well positioned to reach new opportunities in the yearahead. "

Article continues below2016-07-20 09:49 By Darren

18 Samsung Galaxy Note 7 with S Pen Surfaces

in New Leaked RenderThe image posted by EvanBlass shows the Galaxy Note7 in Blue Coral color as wellas the S Pen. The handsetappears to have a dual-curved display, two openingsat the top for the irisscanning biometric setup,and the USB Type-C port atthe bottom.

This is the first leaked imagethat reveals the S Pen, whichis said to come withadditional functionality. TheS Pen seems to be offered

in the same Blue Coral color, with the tip of the stylus in a metallic shadesimilar to the one the phone has on the sides. A Samsung representativehas recently stated that the S Pen will have added functionality.

Another rumor has surfaced, with Mai Nguyên from Luxury Mobile (viaPhoneArena ) revealing that the S Pen will have the ability to workunderwater. Galaxy Note 7 is expected to come with IP68 certification, andthe blogger claims that users will be able to write on the Note 7's displaywith the stylus underwater.

This seems interesting, and it's enough to get us all excited, but it remainsto be seen how Samsung will actually pull that off. Nevertheless, the GalaxyNote 7 will be officially unveiled on August 2, at an event held in New York.

Word is that pre-orders for the smartphone will go live immediately after theunveiling event, which wouldn't be out of the ordinary, considering that third-party accessories are already available on multiple websites. In addition, T-Mobile is said to launch a BOGO deal for the Galaxy Note 7, but thatremains to be seen.2016-07-20 09:08 Alexandra Vaidos

19 LG Action CAM with Snapdragon 650, 2GB

RAM and built-in LTE now availableInitially making its debut inMay , LG has nowannounced the availability ofits LG Action CAM. Althoughit doesn't slot into themodular compartment of theG5 , LG's new "Friend" ispositioned to compete withthe likes of those offered byGoPro, meaning it offersquite a bit of power under thehood.

Just to reiterate the specifications, the Action CAM is powered by aQualcomm Snapdragon 650 processor, 2GB RAM, and packs a 12MPcamera with a 150-degree wide angle lens capable of recording up to 4K.The camera also offers GPS, gyroscope, an accelerometer, and is IP67rated, which will allow users to submerge the camera in up to 1 meter ofwater for up to 30 minutes. Perhaps the most vital part of LG's latestcamera is the fact that it will pack an LTE antenna, which will allow users tolivestream directly from the camera to supported websites and services.

The LG Action CAM is now available in South Korea and will makes it wayto other markets in the coming weeks. Unfortunately, pricing is unavailableat this time.

Source: LG2016-07-20 07:22 Timi Cantisano

20 Top App Leaving Windows Phone

Amazon has confirmed after weeks of uncertainty that it’s discontinuing its

Windows Phone app, but thecompany hasn’t provided areason to explain itsdecision. Amazon is nowemailing users whopreviously installed theWindows Phone app to tellthem about the change, butalso to point them to the

official website, which is supposed to let them continue shopping evenwithout a dedicated application.

But given the loyal Windows Phone userbase, it’s hard to believe that manyof those who previously used Amazon would turn to the website to shoponline unless they really have to.

“Our records indicate that you have previously installed the Amazon App forWindows Phone from the Microsoft App Store. We will be retiring the appyou currently have on your device, meaning its contents will no longer beupdated. You will still have access to the app until 15 August, 2016. Weencourage you to visit Amazon.co.uk on your mobile browser where you willhave access to our newest shopping features and customer experience,”the email sent to users reads.

Amazon will indeed pull its app on August 15 from the Windows Phonestore, and although some people think that the company would insteaddevelop a universal app for Windows 10, it’s hard to believe this canhappen, despite the fact that Amazon was a supporter of Windows 8 fromthe very beginning.2016-07-20 07:20 Bogdan Popa

21 Snapchat integrates Bitmojis into app, months

after Bitstrips purchaseSnapchat has updated itsapp today to offer its users amore personalized way tospruce up content with theaddition of Bitmoji. If you areunfamiliar, Bitmojis arepersonalized emojicharacters created in thelikeness of the users that canbe sent to family, friends andenemies.

The news above comes as no surprise, as Snapchat recently acquiredBitstrips, the company responsible for Bitmoji, a few months back. In orderto use Bitmoji in Snapchat, you will have to either create a new accountwithin Snapchat or link the account - both of these actions can be donewithin the Stickers section.

Snapchat continues its string of updates that bring further amusement andusability to the app. Recently, the company debuted 'Memories' that allowsusers to save Snaps and Stories to the cloud. The Snapchat Bitmoji updateis now available for iOS and Android devices via their respective downloadportals.

Source: Snapchat2016-07-20 07:06 Timi Cantisano

22 Amazon wants to turn street lights and other

vertical structures into drone docking stationsIn the more than two-and-a-half years since Amazon CEOJeff Bezos unveiled intentions to deploy aerial drones forthe purpose of delivering packages to customers, we’veseen a lot of advancements in and around the droneindustry.

That said, there’s still an enormous amount of work that needs to be done,both legally and logistically. Amazon is well aware of these challenges andhas been taking the necessary steps to move forward with its plansaccording to a recently approved patent.

In the patent, titled, “Multi-use UAV docking station systems and methods,”Amazon proposes using common vertical structures including streetlights,cell towers, church steeples, office buildings, parking decks, telephone /electrical poles and radio towers as docking stations for its aerial fleet.

Said docking stations would be able to recharge drones while others couldalso feature an integrated package locker or serve as safe zones duringinclement weather. Docking stations could even include solar panels,weather monitoring tools and security cameras, the latter of which couldalso be used by local authorities for both traffic monitoring and crimeprevention. And with Wi-Fi, docking stations could serve as free Wi-Fihotspots.

The patent was filed on December 14, 2014, and approved a little over aweek ago on July 12. PatentYogi discovered and wrote about it a few dayslater.

As always, it’s important to point out that just because a patent is approved

doesn’t mean we are guaranteed to see it come to fruition. Often times,companies file for patents as a proactive measure to stifle the competition.2016-07-20 06:15 Shawn Knight

23 Microsoft Stream lets businesses securely

manage and share videosMicrosoft has announced anew video service calledStream that will enablebusinesses of all sizes tosecurely manage and sharevideos.

From today on, any user witha business email addresswill be able to sign up for the preview of the new service in seconds. WithStream they can then begin to upload, share and tag videos from theirorganization. It will also be simple to discover relevant videos since thecompany will employ machine learning to help users find trending videosand will also give them the ability to search by hashtag, most liked videos orother key search terms.

Channels will play a large role in Stream and users will be able to contributeto an existing channel based on team, group, topic, etc. They will also haveability to start their own channel either as an organization or as adepartment within an enterprise.

Microsoft is setting its new service apart from YouTube or other videoservices by focusing heavily on delivering an experience catered tobusinesses. The company has made secure video management a priorityand it will be a straightforward process determining how widely a video isshared within your organization. Azure Active Directory will be used tomanage and protect the sensitive corporate content users upload to theircompany-wide channels.

Videos will be available from any device and can be viewed anywhere atanytime using Stream. It will also be possible to socialize videos by sharingthem via email, embedding them into company web pages or by "Liking"your favorites.

Microsoft’s Stream is the company’s own response to the popularity ofOffice 365 video which was introduced in late 2014. The new service hasbuilt upon the success of the former and eventually the two experiences willconverge into one cohesive video platform.

If you or your organization is interested in a more secure and professionalway to deliver video to your employees or costumers, you can sign up foryour free trial of Stream here .

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities LtdPublication. All rights reserved.2016-07-20 05:58 By Anthony

24 New HIPAA guidance addresses ransomware

The guidance recommendsthat organizations identify therisks facing their patientinformation, create a plan toaddress those links, set upprocedures to protectsystems from malware, trainusers to spot malware, limitaccess to sensitiveinformation to just the peoplewho need it most, and havea disaster recovery plan thatincludes frequent data

backups.

"The new guidance, to a great extent reiterates what has already been inplace, but is a bit more specific," said Dana Simberkoff, Chief Complianceand Risk Officer at Jersey City, NJ-based AvePoint Inc. "The emphasis ison education, which is a good component of a good data protectionprogram. "

Ransomware typically gets onto a system through malicious emailattachments or links to malicious websites, both of which can be addressedto some degree with employee education.

"The second mistake organizations make is granting too much access topeople who don't need access to that information," she said. "Organizationsshould focus on providing the least access possible for employees to dotheir jobs. "

Understaffed IT departments, however, often err on the side of too muchaccess, she said.

"By giving people more access than they need, they avoid having thosefolks come back every time they need something," she said.

However, limiting the access rights of individual users means that if those

users get effective, there's less data that the malware can get to.

The new guidance is a summary of industry best practices, whichorganizations should already have been doing, she said.

"The only thing that's surprising about the guidance s that it's a little bit late,"she said.

In addition to providing recommendations for organizations to help themdefend against ransomware, the new guidance also clarifies that aransomware attack does, in fact, count as a breach because "unauthorizedindividuals have taken possession or control of the information. "

"When electronic protected health information is encrypted as the result of aransomware attack,

a breach has occurred," the HHS guidance said.

One exception, however, is if the data had already been encrypted by theorganization itself, and the hackers who got access to it would not havebeen able to do anything with it. But it depends on the type of encryption.

For example, if a cybercriminal gets access to a laptop with full diskencryption, and the laptop is powered down, the that would be unreadableto the attacker.

That's not the case if the laptop was powered up, however, and the userwas logged in.

"If the ransomware accesses the file containing the PHI, the file containingthe PHI will be transparently decrypted by the full disk encryption solutionand access permitted with the same access levels granted to the user," theguidance said.2016-07-20 04:25 Maria Korolov

25 Businesses are rushing into IoT like lemmings

Companies are rapidly adopting IoT even though many don't know if they'regetting a good return on their investment.

Two-thirds of companies are now using or planning to use IoT, according toa global survey by research firm Strategy Analytics. That's up from just 32percent last year.

But 51 percent of those aren't sure whether the new technology is paying off,said Laura DiDio, an analyst at the firm.

That doesn't necessarily mean the internet of things isn't saving them moneyor improving their businesses, DiDio said. But many organizations evaluate

and deploy new technologiesin such a fragmented waythat they don't know the fulleffects of their actions. It'sactually better with IoT thanwith most other newtechnologies, where an evenhigher percentage can'tmeasure the benefits, shesaid. But a disorganizedapproach isn't helpful in anycase.

IoT comes in so many forms that it can fly in under the radar. In buildingmanagement, for example, it may just come as an added feature for anexisting system and never get labeled as IoT. Or one department will seekout IoT on its own.

In other cases, the CEO hears about IoT and and dictates that the companywill adopt it without even examining the costs and benefits, DiDio said.That's not the best way to go about it.

"You have to get all the stakeholders involved from the get-go, and often thatdoesn't happen," DiDio said.

Any localized IoT deployment can have broader implications because ofthings like data security, which was the top technical challenge of 56percent of survey respondents.

And while data analytics is a common motivation for deploying thetechnology, many companies aren't ready to make use of what they'recollecting. The survey showed that 42 percent found they had too much datato analyze it all efficiently. Meanwhile, 27 percent weren't sure whatquestions to ask about the information, and 31 percent simply don't storeany IoT data.

"We're still very much at the early stages of the learning curve," DiDio said."It's challenging. "

Though a majority of companies have some IoT now, only 25 percent havean end-to-end deployment. Most companies will need vendors, systemsintegrators or consultants to help them get there, DiDio said. Big IT playersare doing their part to cover the bases by forming partnerships and buyingsmaller, specialized companies.

The survey results came from 350 respondents, including small, medium,and large enterprises. They're using IoT for tasks that include videosurveillance, smart building controls and health care.

2016-07-20 03:58 Stephen Lawson

26 European shares rise on strong results from

SAP and LonzaLONDON, July 20 (Reuters) - European shares edged upin early trade on Wednesday, with Swiss specialitychemicals and life sciences group Lonza and softwarefirm SAP leading the market higher after reporting solidresults.

Lonza shares rose 5.4 percent, the top gainer in the pan-EuropeanFTSEurofirst 300 index, as the company raised its guidance for 2016 afterreporting the strongest earnings growth in its history during the first sixmonths.

Shares in SAP, Europe's largest software company, rose 3 percent asunexpectedly strong growth in high-margin packaged software licensesfuelled its quarterly earnings. Its second-quarter operating profit rose 9percent.

The pan-European STOXX Europe 600 and the FTSEurofirst 300 wereboth up 0.2 percent in early deals.

Gains were capped by weaker miners, with the European Basic Resourcesindex falling 2 percent, the worst sectoral performer, as prices of metalsdropped.

Anglo American fell 5.5 percent after lowering its full-year guidance, whileBHP Billiton was down 2.2 percent after it fell 3 million tonnes short of itsiron ore production guidance for fiscal 2016.

(Reporting by Atul Prakash; editing by John Stonestreet)2016-07-20 03:26 CNBC

27 JavaBeans Tutorial: What Are JavaBeans?

JavaBeans are basically POJOs (Plain Old Java Object),defined according to the norms based on the softwarecomponent model. Like any physical component of asystem, a software component is also a partiallyindependent and replaceable part of a system that fulfills aclear function in the context of a well-defined architecture. Bean componentarchitecture follows a similar pattern. Beans are important becauseJavaBeans helps in building a complex system from the parts of softwarecomponents. So, when we talk of JavaBeans, we are basically talking aboutthe architecture that adheres to the software component model standard

and how JavaBeans are integrated and incorporated to become a part ofthe whole subsystem.

Analogically, think of a computer. It is a complex system composed of manyindividual components, such as memory devices, IO subsystem, processor,and so forth, or you may consider components as inductors, capacitors,resistors and so on. These components are partially independent becausethey are complete by their architectural design yet may not function inisolation. But, when integrated with compatible components, we get a clearcut functionality. Putting them together makes them whole.Characteristically, they can be reused without the slightest change.However, tangible components have compatibility issues with othercomponents of the subsystem if one wants to replace/update it later. Thesame is true for software components, but they are inexpensive and lessabrupt than their hardware counterpart. So, the primary motivation ofbuilding software components is twofold:

According to the JavaBeans Specification, "A Java Bean is a reusablesoftware component that can be manipulated visually in a builder tool. " So,following the footprint of the component architecture model, JavaBeans arereusable. And, on the basis of their built structure and user requirement,JavaBeans can be built to function in two modes:

Introspection is the core concept of JavaBean technology and the basicbuilding block of the Java Bean API. It is a mechanism of analyzing a beanand providing the necessary information about what it actually does, itscapabilities. Design tools obtain required information about the beanthrough introspection. The functionalities of a bean are reflected through itsproperties. There are two ways that a bean developer can inform its userabout the properties, events, and methods it contains.

Introspection may be implemented in the following manner.

The values assigned to the property of a JavaBean class determine itsfunctionality. A property is a publicly accessible attribute that helps inmodifying the behavior of a bean class. Although a property is publiclyaccessible, its direct use (read/write) is actually restricted by actualimplementation to access data with member functions. Properties are alsoobservable; that means they can trigger notification to interested partiesregarding value changes. The method setter or getter is used to set or getthe value of the bean property respectively. There are generally two types ofproperties: simple and indexed.

Simple properties are read/write with getter, setter methods. The namingconvention is:

For a boolean property, a method of the form isPropertyName( ) is used to

access by convention.

If the property contains multiple values, the pattern followed is this:

A JavaBean can trigger and respond to events. The model it follows forevent handling is called the delegation event model. The method signaturethat is used to add or remove a listener for a particular event is as follows:

If we do not implement a BeanInfo interface, the design pattern implicitlydetermines the availability of information to the bean user. On implementingthe BeanInfo interface the control to manipulate bean, information isexplicitly provided by the pattern. This is achieved through various methodsavailable such as follows (*):

(*) excerpt from Java API Documentation

JavaBeans' architecture provides a platform-neutral componentarchitecture. According to the JavaBean specification, when the top-levelbean is contained within a platform-specific container such as MicrosoftWord, ActiveX, or any proprietary software, the JavaBeans API should beintegrated into the platform's local component architecture. On occasionsJavaBean can bridge between architectural platforms, providing aseamless integration of components in a Java application.2016-07-20 00:00 Manoj Debnath

28 Access to Wikileaks blocked in Turkey as it

releases emailsThere was no immediatestatement Wednesday fromTurkey'sTelecommunications Board,a government agency thatregulates access towebsites.

The Turkish government haspreviously banned access towebsites deemed to becarrying material critical ofTurkey, including YouTube

and Twitter. Some opposition media websites were blocked followingFriday night's coup attempt, which was quashed by security forces loyal toPresident Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Wikileaks said on Twitter that Turks who are blocked from accessing itswebsite can "use a proxy or any of our IPs" to get access to the documents

on Turkey's ruling party.

Explore further: US on Turkey's Twitter ban: more tweets than before2016-07-20 00:00 phys.org

29 Trim personal finance bot raises $2.2 million to

save you moneyEver wonder how much you spend each monthon Uber? The newly released Trim chatbot willtell you in a text.

Trim also helps you manage subscriptions, setup spending alerts and check your bank balance.But there is no app, only a bot that can be linkedto SMS or Facebook.

“Anything that you can do on your mobile bankingapp, you can do with trim with the exception ofmoving money,” said CEO and co-founderThomas Smyth. He founded the businessalongside fellow Yale alumni Daniel Petkevichand the duo is based in San Francisco.

Ashton Kutcher believes in the concept, and is aparticipating in their 2.2 million financing round through Sound Ventures.Eniac Ventures led the round, with Version One Ventures and CoreInnovation Capital also participating.

“I love backing teams like Thomas and Daniel who are passionate aboutadvocating and moving the financial needle for average American families,”said Tim Young, general partner at Eniac.

Trim first launched seven months ago, with a focus on identifying andcanceling unwanted subscriptions. The team estimates they have savedusers $6 million so far.

Now with more features, Smyth expects that the service will be analternative to not only banking apps, but also personal finance apps. Hebelieves that “people prefer to use the messaging interface.”

The service is free, but Smyth says that they will eventually monetize bycharging for premium features.

It’s only been a few months since Facebook launched chatbots , but manybusinesses are testing the concept out to see whether it will catch on. Fromcustomer service to news digests, users can communicate with a robot to

get an AI-powered response.2016-07-20 00:00 Katie Roof

30 SAP beats analysts’ expectations, reports

“record-setting” revenue and profitGerman IT services andenterprise giant SAPreported encouragingnumbers for Q2 2016,beating analysts’expectations and spiking itsshare price by nearlyfive percent in pre-markettrading Wednesday asits non-IFRS EPS increased

2 percent to €0.82 ($0.90). Analysts had predicted a quarterly EPS of$0.78.

The leap is owed in part to the strength of the company’s increasing cloudand software business, for which it reported revenue of (IFRS) €4,359million ($4,800 million), a 7 percent jump over the year-ago quarter’s figure.Following the news, CEO Bill McDermott enthusiastically reiterated SAP’sguidance for 2016.

“Our groundbreaking new architecture is accelerating momentum across allbusinesses – cloud, core, and business networks. As a result, SAPdelivered a unique trifecta of double digit growth in software, cloud andoperating income. Our S/4HANA pipeline has never been stronger and weconfidently reiterate our full year guidance,” he said in a statement.

The news builds upon SAP’s last four quarters, each of which beatexpectations, and during which time the company saw a healthy uptick in itsrevenue, particularly in its Cloud and SAP Business Network solutions, thelatter of which includes Ariba, Fieldglass, and Concur. The company’s ever-important new cloud bookings also continued to gain momentum, seeing anincrease of 28% and reaching €255 million ($280 million).

SAP’s operating profit (IFRS) jumped a whopping 81 percent to €1.27billion ($1.4 billion), and its Non-IFRS cloud subscriptions and supportrevenue rose 30 percent to €721 million ($794 million). It also announced itsin-memory computing platform S/4HANA now has more than 3,700customers.

Earlier this month, SAP made its first major foray into the steadilyemerging Internet of Things business with its acquisition of Norwegian

company Fedem Technology AS to boost its capabilities in predictivemaintenance, structural integrity monitoring, and other Industry 4.0applications.

The company has also made significant investments to its cloud portfolio sofar this year with the announcement last month of products including SAPHANA smart data integration, SAP Cloud Identity Access Governance,SAP Data Services and SAP HANA smart data quality. It’s also launchedSAP Exchange Media and SAP Vehicle Insights.

Stay tuned this week for earnings reports from competitors looking to eatSAP’s lunch including Oracle, Microsoft and Amazon, which will moreroundly portend SAP’s status in the competitive IT/cloud services space.2016-07-20 00:00 Chris Nesi

31 Pantheon Raises $29M for its WordPress and

Drupal hosting and management platformPantheon , a WordPress andDrupal hosting service with astrong lineup of features fordevelopers, todayannounced that it has raiseda $29 million Series Cround. Investors in this roundinclude previous investorsFoundry Group, OpenViewInvestment Partners, andScale Venture Partners, aswell as new investor Industry Ventures, which put $8.5 million into this round.This new round follows Pantheon’s $21.5 million Series B round in 2014and brings the company’s total funding to $57 million.

As Pantheon CEO and co-founder Zack Rosen told me, the company tohelp build the foundational technology for the web and eventually get to thepoint where it powers 30 percent of all sites. For now, though, he’s happy tosimply make progress to getting to 1 percent, which he thinks the companywill achieve in a few years. To help make that happen, the company plans tolaunch a migration toolkit next week that will allow website owners to moreeasily bring their existing site to the company’s platform.

As Rosen told me, Pantheon now hosts 150,000 sites and while thecompany doesn’t release customer numbers, Roses says that the companyis seeing customer growth of over 100 percent year-over-year. To host all ofthis, Pantheon currently has 1.2 million containers in production.

On group of users the company is especially focussing on its agencies. Itnow has partnered with 2,500 agencies and 50 resellers.

As Rosen told me, the team decided to treat this round of funding likeits one. “We control our burn and are very deliberate in how we deploy ourfunding,” he added. It’s no secret that raising funding is getting harder andRosen noted that VCs now want to see more numbers and ask tougherquestions before they commit to a round. He does see a positive side ofthis, too, though. “It’s bad for the industry when VCs don’t ask the kind ofquestions they should be asking and companies that should be funded getfunded — and then down the road they don’t have great results,” he said.“That makes it harder for everyone else.”

The company wants to use this new round of funding to build out its productand make it easier for developers to build their sites on its platform.

As part of today’s funding announcement, the company also announced thatit has hired Niall Hayes, who previously led technology at KIXEYE and ranthe CityVille studio at Zynga, as its VP of Engineering. In addition, ChrisMoody, Twitter’s VP of data services and the former CEO of the Twitter-acquired Gnip, is joining Pantheon’s board.2016-07-20 00:00 Frederic Lardinois

32 Product comparison engine Versus acquired

by Germany’s MenschDanke GroupVersus , the Berlin-basedproduct comparison site andengine backed by EarlybirdVenture Capital, and DaveMcClure’s 500 Startups (amongst others ), has beenacquired by Germany’sMenschDanke Group, whichowns several shopping andonline discount properties.

Terms of the deal remain undisclosed, though a source tells me it is a low 8figure price, so perhaps as little as $10 million. Versus had raised a total of$3.8 million in funding.

What I do know for certain, however, is that the deal sees MenschDankeGroup acquire the Versus brand and all of its assets, while the startup’steam of 9 people will remain with the company. Versus CEO and founderRamin G. Far will be sticking around while the transition takes place but willstep down by October.

MenschDanke Group also says it will continue to operate Versus as aseparate brand, and that the deal is viewed as a “perfect fit” for its group ofcompanies, which will be used to cross promote Versus’ multilingualcomparison engine.

MenschDanke’s companies include gutscheinpony.de (a voucher andcoupon business); schnaeppchenfuchs.com (an online discount shoppingdestination); and tripdoo.de (an online travel shop), which together attracted70 million visitors last year, helping to generate sales for partner retailers inexcess of €750 million.

Meanwhile, Versus currently comprises 160 million live productcomparisons and sees more than 2 million unique web sessions per month,and 1 million native mobile sessions per month.2016-07-20 00:00 Steve O

33 Kinsa’s new Smart Elmo Thermometer is

Sesame Street’s first connected deviceA Sesame Street partnership is abig coup for any company – letalone one that’s only existed for fouryears and produced two Indiegogo-backed products. But Kinsa’s line ofsmart thermometers clearly struck achord with the team behindeveryone’s favorite educationalmonsters. The hardware startup’sthird official product is also the firstconnected device to get theSesame stamp of approval.

“Kinsa approached SesameStreet,” the startup’s VP ofmarketing Lauren Davis toldTechCrunch. “We’re a very mission-driven company, as is Sesame Street.In order for our mission to come to life, we need to get as many parents andchildren to use Kinsa thermometers as much as possible. They were ourfirst choice as a partnership.”

The Elmo Smart Ear Thermometer is an update of the company’s existingear thermometer that heavily incorporates the beloved red Muppet into boththe product design and app. The thermometer is a sort of oblong, limblesstake on Elmo, colored bright red, with an orange button standing in for hisnose. The app — which is peppered with Elmo’s voice, spoutingencouraging phrases like “good job” — will be available both for the new

devices and users with existing Kinsa ear thermometers.

Sesame Street’s VP of Licensing, Gabriela Arenas explained that theorganization is looking toward introducing more technologically mindedpartnerships. “We have partners who have been with us for 40 years-plus,”Arenas said. “But we have new companies partnering with us, as well. It’s afantastic time to be involved with new technology. We want to be involvedwith companies that are resonating with the new generation. If a company isnew and has some technology that can drive that, that’s a good opportunityfor us.”

The Elmo Smart Ear Thermometer launches today through Kinsa’s site,priced at $60. It will also be arriving in Target’s new “Connected Baby”section starting next month.2016-07-20 00:00 Brian Heater

34 DeepMind’s first NHS health app faces more

regulatory bumps“The vast majority ofpayments made to suppliersin healthcare systems arenot often as connected tooutcomes as we would like.

“Ultimately we want to getpaid when we deliverconcrete clinical benefits.We want to get paid tochange the system and

improve patient outcomes.”

So the reality is that the publicly-funded NHS is freely providing health data-sets to a company that is using them to train machine learning modelswhich, should they prove successful, could be used to bill the NHS in future— based on these trained models being more effective than alternativecare options.

At present the Royal Free collaboration does not involve DeepMindapplying AI to the data it is getting. But the pair have a wide-rangingmemorandum of understanding in which DeepMind states its ambition todo so within the five-year initial timespan of the partnership.

Clearly the company has been moving very quickly in the health sector —and rather more quickly than certain NHS regulatory bodies would prefer.

(An ICO probe following criticism of the data-sharing arrangement between

DeepMind and the Royal Free also remains “ongoing”, according to aspokeswoman.)

Given the accelerating pace of AI here, as I’ve said before , speed really isof the essence for the public to have a robust discussion about the rightsand wrongs of handing profit-driven entities free access to publicly-fundeddata-sets.

The reality is that very valuable publicly funded data-sets are being freelyhanded over to train AI models that might well in future be charging thesame NHS for their services.

So the question remains whether we are comfortable with a freemiumcommercial model being leveraged to acquire advantageous access totaxpayer-funded data-sets.

And, ultimately, what is the true cost of free?2016-07-20 00:00 Natasha Lomas

35 Indonesia's presidential palace bans playing of

'Pokemon Go'Hastily printed warnings thatsay "Playing or huntingPokemon prohibited in thepalace area" were put uparound the palace complexin Jakarta on Wednesday.

"This is the office of thepresident, not a playground,"said Bey Machmuddin, chiefof the palace's press bureau.Last week, CabinetSecretary Pramono Agungsaid he had captured a number of Pokemon at the palace. But someofficials have voiced worries that the game could be a security risk.

Police have been banned from playing the game while on duty, and localmedia reported that Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu had warned thatthe game might be used by foreign countries to detect sensitive information.

"Pokemon Go," which uses Google Maps and a smartphone to overlayreality with Pokemon creatures, has been a blockbuster hit in the U. S. andother countries where it is available. It has not been officially released inIndonesia but is already popular here.

On Monday, Indonesian police briefly detained a Frenchman after hetrespassed on a military base in a West Java town while hunting forPokemon creatures.

In this Monday, July 18, 2016 photo, people gaze at their smartphones asthey play "Pokemon Go" in Jakarta, Indonesia. Indonesian authoritiesbanned the playing of "Pokemon Go" from the presidential palace onWednesday, July 20, 2016, as they voiced worries that the game could be asecurity risk. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

Explore further: How to play Pokemon Go2016-07-20 00:00 phys.org

36 Japan Pokemon fans in agonising wait for

game launchThe app has now beenreleased in more than 30countries, but Japan—whereNintendo started the mythicalcreature franchise 20 yearsago—has been kept waitingwith no official launch date.

Technology websiteTechCrunch on Tuesday hadflagged the rollout in Japan,but it backtracked within aday, saying it had been

delayed.

The Nikkei business daily said Japanese fans may get relief this week.

But the agonising wait sparked a round of national hand-wringing in JapanWednesday.

"Pokemon Go: When will it come out in Japan? " cried a headline in theafternoon edition of the top-selling Yomiuri newspaper.

But some took to social media to express their frustration at the delay inlaunching the game on Pokemon's home turf.

"Wouldn't it be better to say that the Japan release will be in the autumn ifthe Pokemon Go release is delayed several times and cause thisconfusion? " @im_usami001 wrote on Twitter.

User @aquasonic00 added: "Wanting to play Pokemon Go in Japan ASAP

(o^^o). "

Nintendo and the Pokemon Company have declined to comment on anyofficial release date. US-based Niantic—which developed the game—hasnot replied to requests for comment.

Forbes earlier cited Niantic chief executive John Hanke as saying worriesthat Japan's server capacity was not powerful enough to keep up withexpected demand delayed the game's rollout.

Since its global launch two weeks ago, Pokemon Go has sparked aworldwide frenzy among users who have taken to the streets with theirsmartphones in a bid to capture and train the creatures for battles.

Explore further: Pokemon-mania vindicates Nintendo's mobile game shift2016-07-20 00:00 phys.org

37 Self-learning computer software can detect

and diagnose errors in pronunciation"The majority of research in this fieldfocuses on one language, or onetype of native-language speaker,"explains Nancy Chen at the A*STARInstitute for Infocomm Research,who led the effort along with AnnLee at the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology. "We wanted our systemto be more general. "

Computers typically 'learn' byrecognizing patterns hidden in largedata sets, such as the tendency ofnative Mandarin Chinese speakersto express 'v' sounds in English as'b'. Most current speech recognitionsoftware learns these rules from training data—compiled recordings oflanguage beginners that have been marked by a linguistics expert forphonetic mistakes. "But the process of having humans transcribe howsounds are mispronounced is time-consuming and labor-intensive, anddoesn't scale well from language to language ," says Chen. Instead theresearchers developed an unsupervised learning system that could trainitself.

Lee had previously created a rudimentary model that groups phonemes intodistinct acoustic units—'a's, 'e's, and 'i's—by measuring the differences

between the speech sounds. The model then sifts mistakes and storesthem as mispronunciation patterns to seek out.

To improve the model's ability to recognize mispronounced phrases, theA*STAR–MIT team introduced two techniques. First, instead of storingevery possible error, the system only considers the most likely errors whenassessing sound bites. "Unsupervised learning is a noisy process, so ithelps to only consider estimated guesses that you are more confident with,"explains Chen.

The second technique involves checking errors not just against a standardnative speaker's voice, but also against the learner's own voice. Byaccounting for the learner's unique vocal characteristics, the system avoidsdetecting errors where they do not exist. "Smartphone apps can collect a lotof data specific to a user, which allows us to build a compact speechrecognizer tailored to an individual," Chen elaborates.

The researchers tested their upgraded system on native English learners ofMandarin, and found that it halved the number of unlikely errors identified bythe earlier model and reduced the number of undetected errors to levelscomparable with a trained learning system.

Chen's team is currently advancing supervised and unsupervised learningtechniques to also assess melody in speech, which affects the meaning ofwords in tonal languages like Mandarin.

Explore further: Bilingual avatar speaks Mundie language

More information:

Lee, A., Chen, N. F. & Glass, J. Personalized mispronunciation detectionand diagnosis based on unsupervised error pattern discovery 2016 IEEEInternational Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing(ICASSP), 6145–6149 (2016). DOI: 10.1109/ICASSP.2016.74728582016-07-20 00:00 phys.org

38 343,000 FPS Phantom camera rolls as Pyrex

cookware shatters from thermal shockWe’ve seen The Slow Mo Guys pop bubbles at 2,500 frames per secondand record a DSLR camera’s shutter activate at 10,000 FPS but for theirlatest video, the duo brought out the big guns. I’m of course talking about thePhantom v2511 , an insane high-speed camera that can record in excess of343,000 frames per second.

In this video, the guys tinker with thermal shock using some Pyrexmeasuring cups. Apparently if you drop cold water (or as you’ll see, nothing

more than air) into a very hotPyrex measuring cup, it’llshatter violently. Lucky for us,The Slow Mo Guys wereable to capture it inglorious… well, slow motion.

As the frame rates climb,resolution unfortunatelydrops but you can still seeclearly what’s happening at343,915 FPS.

Fun fact: a 5.1-secondrecording at that insane frame rate generated 19.5 hours of footage.

Found is a TechSpot feature where we share clever, funny or otherwiseinteresting stuff from around the web.2016-07-19 18:30 Shawn Knight

Total 38 articles.

Created at 2016-07-20 18:01