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In the latest drone flyover video of Apple's so-called "spaceship" campus, the true scale of the ambitious project has never been clearer. The footage, uploaded to YouTube this week by drone enthusiast Duncan Sinfield, shows that the gargantuan circular structure is moving steadily toward completion, with significant progress made in the last five months alone. The swish new headquarters will become the workplace of some 14,000 Apple employees when it opens its doors toward the end of this year or early next. Besides the main building, the footage also gives us a look at what'll be the circular entrance to...

A jury in the Eastern District of Texas found for patent licensing company Virnet X A jury in Texas has decided Apple must pay $626 million for infringing four patents held by a Nevada-based patent licensing company. The patents cover technology used in Apple's VPN on Demand software back to 2009, its FaceTime messaging system back to 2010, and its iMessage software. The trial follows one in 2012 in which Apple was found to infringe on Virnet X patents but managed to overturn the verdict on appeal. On Wednesday, a jury in the Eastern District of Texas found for VirnetX...

Google has called out prominent digital certificates and security vendor Comodo for disabling web security with its web browser, putting users at risk of having their systems compromised by attackers. Comodo markets several web browsers, aimed at boosting security, speed and privacy. The company also offers other security software such as firewalls and anti-virus utilities. Google's Project Zero researchers found the Chromodo web browser, installed as part of the Comodo Internet Security suite and based on the open source Chromium software, dsiables the same-origin policy. Same-origin policy is a cornerstone in web security that stops code on untrusted web sites...

Cybersecurity researchers at the University of Toronto examined eight popular wrist-worn trackers. They tested how they communicate with mobile apps and even upload and store a user's workout information on manufacturers' computer servers. The researchers conclude that several models expose users to potential internet snoops and hackers even when devices aren't being used for exercise and mobile apps are turned off. Each of the devices uses Bluetooth technology that emits a signal and a unique ID that can be detected even when the tracker is not paired with a mobile phone. This "can leave their wearers exposed to long -term...

With Apple Inc.’s intentions still unclear, there is much speculation surrounding exactly what the arrival of the global technology heavyweight could mean to Ottawa’s tech sector.Apple has remained silent about its plans for a 22,000-square-foot space under renovation in Kanata, or how its new vice-president of core operating systems, Sébastian Marineau-Mes, will build out the company’s Ottawa team.But in the rumours and discussion spurred by Apple’s pending arrival, some common themes are emerging. The most prominent is that its current space is just the beginning of what will become a much larger research and development centre that could employ as many as 200.That isn’t so far-fetched. Apple is on...

Samsung Electronics sales and general management costs; R&D costs (won) The company has cut staff and reduced R&D spending in an effort to manage the situation, but some experts criticize the moves as shortsighted In 2009, Samsung Electronics outlined a list of aggressive goals as part of its "Vision 2020." Its aim was to achieve US$400 billion (483 trillion won) in sales, rank first in the IT industry, and place fifth in the world for brand value by the year 2020. A brief spike in smartphone sales inspired confidence that its targets might be within reach. Now many executives...

My elderly parents are having an issue with malware on the new (Windows 10) laptop they bought themselves for Christmas. Specifically, they have a "Debug browser spyware 895-system32.exe" window that pops us when they open a MS Edge browser. Screen cap can be seen here: http://i68.tinypic.com/2zjm2ox.jpg Malwarebytes did not help. Any other suggestions? For the record, yes, I am logged in, my beeber is stuned, and all my base are belongs to whomever. :)

Windows 10 is already seeing early signs of success in the enterprise field, as more and more companies are looking at the new operating system and evaluating a possible upgrade in the coming months.That’s what research firm Gartner explains when looking at adoption figures in the enterprise field for both Windows 10 and Windows 7, saying that the new OS easily outclasses its predecessors.Gartner analyst Steve Kleynhans has told CW in an interview that the enterprise market has changed the way it prepares for upgrades now that Windows 10 is available, asking questions that are more related to the...

Microsoft announced that Windows 10 has become a recommended update for Windows users. Windows 10 will no longer be a required update for users to upgrade to. Although some users have encountered problems with the new operating system, Windows 10 surpassed both Windows XP and 8.1 in terms of the number of users who now use the operating system. Windows 7 still has the most number of users.Beta News reported Microsoft has been accused of pushing Windows 10 on users, and users complained that it was being automatically downloaded to their computers without their permission. Microsoft sought to silence...

When health care company Theranos announced that it could conduct dozens of blood tests with a finger prick, it sounded too good to be true. Once valued at a staggering $9 billion and greeted by the press with fawning magazine features, Theranos’ troubles have slowly been coming into focus since last fall. The company claimed last year that its proprietary technology can “perform hundreds of tests, from standard to year, from a pinprick and tiny sample of blood,” rather than from blood drawn through a vein in the arm. But last week, after months of heightened scrutiny, the government placed...

Applying a small voltage causes an atom to relocate, turning the switch on or off. The quantity of data exchanged via communications networks around the globe is growing at a breathtaking rate. The volume of data for wired and mobile communications is currently increasing by 23 and 57 percent respectively every year. It is impossible to predict when this growth will end. This also means that all network components must constantly be made more efficient. These components include so-called modulators, which convert the information that is originally available in electrical form into optical signals. Modulators are, therefore, nothing more than...

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Windows 10 has surpassed Windows XP to become the second most-used operating system in the world. NetMarketShare figures from January show Microsoft's latest version is running on 11.85 percent of global PCs, edging out Windows XP, which runs on 11.42 percent of machines. The news will be a boost to Microsoft as it aims to get as many people to upgrade as possible. Microsoft wants 1 billion devices running the operating system globally in 2018. To reach this goal, the company is offering free upgrades to customers running Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 for Windows 10's first year of availability....

We don't incessantly stare at other people when we speak to them, and we don't expect them to stare back. Programming companion robots to understand this kind of social protocol is tricky but crucial, according to researcher Sean Andrist, a Ph.D. student at the University of Wisconsin's Department of Computer Sciences. An interesting write-up over at IEEE Spectrum details Andrist's research, which involves the "gaze mechanisms" that we humans take for granted when interacting with one another. The goal is to improve the function of both physical humanoid robots and virtual avatars by establishing rules that govern when, why and...

I am trying to remove useless apps from my Galaxie 5s... problem is getting past factory authorization in order to edit and remove unwanted apps.

Why schlep data cross-country when we live on the coast, near free cooling? Microsoft has revealed that it's trialled an underwater data centre. Project Natick saw Redmond sink a capsule about a mile offshore from Seattle, an approach felt to have potential because about half of humanity lives on or near coastlines. Microsoft's thinking is that it's a good idea to put data centres near their users, rather than taking data on latency-inducing cross-country journeys. Throw in the fact that immersion in water is a handy way to get temperatures down and the idea was felt to have merit by...

A San Francisco startup has created a $15 computer. Pine 64 is now taking pre-orders for its Quad core 64-Bit expandable single board supercomputer, which will ship in May. The product can be combined with a keyboard and mouse to function as a full Android 5.1 computer. The company recently raised $1,731,465 on a Kickstarter campaign that had a goal of $31,416.

The good news is that companies see customers as the main beneficiaries of their IoT efforts, according to the survey. Here’s how business leaders expect IoT initiatives to impact their businesses in the long term, as in a five-year planning horizon... The not-so-good news is that many companies rate their organization as not great in their ability to executive using in-house resources. For example, just over a third (35%) of business leaders say their business is excellent or very good at strategy definition while 27% rate it as poor or fair. And while 29% rather their business as excellent or...

Commentary: A proposal by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler calls for cable companies like Comcast to "unlock the set-top box." Unlocking isn't enough. The box should die, once and for all, and be replaced by apps. There's no technological reason that Comcast, or Time Warner Cable, or Charter or any other cable TV provider needs to provide physical hardware at all. There's no need for warehouses full of cable boxes or arduous "service windows" where the technician supposedly shows up "sometime between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m."-- or not--to fix (or more likely just replace) your device. Full-fledged pay...

President Barack Obama says he'll ask Congress for billions in new spending to help students learn computer science skills. Obama announced the plan in his weekly radio and Internet address on Saturday. He says developing analytical and coding skills is a must for jobs in the new economy. ...