At its IFA 2015 press event, Samsung emphasized the customization options of the Gear S2 and the plethora of designers and partners it has to pull it off. The collaborations include companies like Case-Mate, Casetify, Chow Tai Fook, Incipio, iTFit and SLG Design (also known as TheSom) and now Samsung is showing off what they have done for the Gear S2.
Starting with Case-Mate, which will offer leather bands for the Gear S2 and Gear S2 classic. Then, there are the more colorful Casetify straps in five distinctive designs (Dark Marble, Woodland Camouflage, Coral Tribal, Diamond, White Marble). They're made of sweat-resistant thermoplastic polyurethane (try saying that three times fast).
Case-Mate bands • Casetify straps
Chow Tai Fook bands will be sold in China and Hong Kong and are quite luxurious with diamond accents and 18k gold. iTFit will offers several straps made from NATO materials, which feature woven cloth and are hypoallergenic. Finally, SLG Design and Incipio will also offer straps, some of which look quite cool for our taste.
Chow Tai Fook • iTFit • SLG Design
This all goes to show the lengths to which Samsung has gone to offer unmatched personalization for its Gear S2 and Gear S2 classic smartwatches. It'll be interesting to see how much these niceties will cost, but we doubt any of them will beat an Apple Watch Edition with an Hermes leather band.
If bigger truly is better, Samsung has just taken the wraps off the best tablet we may have ever seen. Its name is the Galaxy View and this goliath has a whopping 18.4-inch display. You read that correctly -- 18.4 inches from corner to corner of its widescreen display. Release date and pricing are currently unknown, but expect Samsung to charge a premium for this leviathan.
Ridiculous though that might sound, Samsung reckons the View serves a noble purpose: couch potato nirvana. It's geared solely towards watching video. That's something you can already do on smaller tablets, of course, but the View's huge size will make movies and TV shows a lot more immersive.
The View is far less portable than most any other tablet, of course. It's heavy, you won't fit it into a backpack, and you'll look really daft using one on the bus. It doesn't need to be tethered to a power socket though, so unlike your TV you can watch it in your bedroom, carry it into your kitchen, and even pay a visit to the bathroom, all without missing a moment of "Spongebob".
Andrew Hoyle/CNET
It's running Android at its core -- version 5.1 Lollipop, to be specific -- but Samsung will load the slate with a custom overlay that puts streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and so on right at your fingertips. (Your media selection will vary by market: The UK, for instance, gets BBC iPlayer as well.)
You can switch back to the regular Android interface if you prefer, and you'll have full access to the Google Play Store, so the full realm of Android apps and games will be available to you. With Google Docs downloaded, and with a wireless keyboard attached, the View could also make a fair replacement for a desktop all-in-one PC.
Being an easily portable media machine for the home means the View is targeted much more towards families than the Android power user. As such, Samsung hasn't equipped the View with particularly high-end specs. It has a full HD display (1,920x1,080 pixels), rather than the higher resolution ultra HD screens seen on its smaller Tab S2 line, and its octa-core processor runs at just 1.6GHz. I'm not expecting that chip to fly -- gamers will probably want to look elsewhere -- but for the movie-munching tasks it's built for, I imagine it'll cope well.
The battery is expected to provide up to 8 hours of video playback, which is enough even to sit through "The Hobbit". It has a built-in stand too, which lets it lay almost flat, making typing and sketching easier, or to stand almost upright -- better for propping up and watching flicks.
Andrew Hoyle/CNET
Samsung hasn't paired the View with a stylus, as with its Note range, but I can really see this being a benefit on future models. As well as graphic designers appreciating the larger screen, I can picture families sitting around the View, creating all kinds of fun sketches together.
Outlook
Just as Samsung's Galaxy Note phones blur the line between phone and tablet, its Galaxy View blurs the line between tablet and TV. I'm not entirely certain that's a line that needed to be blurred, but I can't deny that a large, immersive movie display that I can still move easily around the house is appealing.
The View's make-or-break will certainly be its price and if Samsung hopes to get this massive slate into families' homes the world over, it'll need a very affordable price tag. There's so far no word on exactly how much this monster will cost, or indeed when it'll be on sale, but we'll update this analysis with all the news as we get it.
Google received an "A'' from investors for its third-quarter report that ushered the Internet search leader into a new era under Alphabet, its recently formed parent company.
The numbers released Thursday indicated that Google is making significant strides in the increasingly important mobile-device market, with its earnings surging 45 percent to nearly $4 billion, or $5.73 per share.
Ruth Porat, Alphabet's chief financial officer, cited improvements in mobile search and more mobile traffic on Google's YouTube video site as keys to the quarter.
Alphabet, which replaced Google as a publicly traded stock earlier this month, won extra credit by announcing plans to spend nearly $5.1 billion buying its own shares over an unspecified period. Buying back stock is something Google never did in its 11-year history as a publicly traded company.
Apple has removed hundreds of apps from the iTunes App Store that secretly collected personal information from anyone who downloaded them. Most of the 256 affected apps were made in China, but they were available worldwide on the app store and were downloaded 1 million times, according to app analytics service SourceDNA, which first discovered the problem.
The apps' creators used a software development kit from a Chinese advertising company called Youmi, which allowed the developers to put ads in their apps. That's kosher.
But Youmi's software gathered information about the people who downloaded the apps, including their email addresses and iPhone serial numbers -- sending all that data to Youmi's servers. That skirted Apple's strict privacy guidelines for app developers.
And the way Youmi designed the software hid that fact from the developers and Apple's iTunes App Store gatekeepers.
SourceDNA did not say which apps were affected. The company told Apple about the problem on Sunday, and Apple removed the apps on Monday.
"This is a violation of our security and privacy guidelines," Apple said in a statement. "The apps using Youmi's SDK will be removed from the App Store and any new apps submitted to the App Store using this SDK will be rejected."
Anyone who already downloaded the apps will still be able to use them but the apps won't be updated.
The data collection does not appear to be the developers' fault, since Youmi was disguising the fact that its software was sending that data to its servers. Apple said it is working with the app developers to update their apps, ensuring they are safe for customers and in compliance with the app store's guidelines. The apps are banned from the store until they are fixed.
This is the third big lapse in Apple's typically tight app store security in the past month.
Last week, Apple (AAPL, Tech30) banned a group of apps that were able to peek into encrypted communications between the iPhones they were installed on and the servers the phones communicated with.
In late September, the app store suffered a major attack, forcing Apple to remove dozens of popular apps that had been infected by malware. The malicious apps were capable of duping customers into giving up their iCloud passwords and opening dangerous websites.
"Starting today, we will notify you if we believe your account has been targeted or compromised by an attacker suspected of working on behalf of a nation-state," he said.
Anyone who comes under attack will be given a warning, advising them their account has been compromised.
They should then check their computer for malware or viruses as well as change their password to lock out spooks or hackers," Stamos continued.
"To protect the integrity of our methods and processes, we often won't be able to explain how we attribute certain attacks to suspected attackers.
"That said, we plan to use this warning only in situations where the evidence strongly supports our conclusion.
"We hope that these warnings will assist those people in need of protection, and we will continue to improve our ability to prevent and detect attacks of all kinds against people on Facebook."
At a certain point after it unveiled the brand new iPhone 6s family, Apple has quietly added support for Bluetooth 4.2 to its year-old iPhone 6 series and the iPad Air 2. Back in 2014 when they launched, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus featured Bluetooth 4.0, while now it seems that Apple has equipped the phones with either the hardware to support the latest Bluetooth 4.2 standard, or has pushed a firmware to make the improvements possible. Naturally, the iPhone 6s family also comes with the same Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity.
So what is the benefit of having this latest version of the Bluetooth spec? It's mostly about speed: 4.2 brings a 2.5-fold increase in speeds and a 10-fold increase in data capacity. It also improves on its privacy, security and power efficiency aspects.
All of this coincides with the expected upcoming launch of a new, Bluetooth 4.2-enabled Apple Keyboard, Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad.
At the same time, the original iPad Air, iPad mini 2, and iPhone 5s all remain on Bluetooth 4.0.
Google today announced a brand new Android One smartphone, which, for the first time ever, is made for Africa. Called Infinix HOT 2, the handset is - like every other Android One device - affordable. The new smartphone is already available in Nigeria, where customers can buy it for around $88 via various retailers, as well as online via Jumia (the largest online retailer in Nigeria). In the near future, the handset will also be released in Egypt, Morocco, Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Kenya.
Currently running stock Android 5.1.1 Lollipop, the Infinix HOT 2 will be updated to Android 6.0 Marshmallow at some point. The smartphone (pictured above) comes in five different colors: black, white, blue, red, and gold. The gold model has 2 GB of RAM, while the other four only have 1 GB. Other features include a 5-inch display with 720 x 1280 pixels, a quad-core 1.3 GHz MediaTek processor, dual SIM support, 8 MP rear camera, 2 MP front-facing camera, and 16 GB of expandable internal memory.
The Android One initiative is now almost 1 year old, and it's slowly expanding throughout the world (as the launch of the Infinix HOT 2 is proving).
A Leeds-based hacker used a notorious piece of malware called BlackShades to spy on people via their webcams.
Investigators from the National Crime Agency found images on the computer of Stefan Rigo, 33, including ones of people involved in sexual activity, some of whom were on Skype at the time.
Rigo was arrested in November last year during an international investigation.
He has been given a 40-week suspended sentence and placed on the sex offenders' register for seven years.
Rigo targeted a variety of victims after gaining remote access to their computers' webcams.
Incriminating images on his computer were discovered after a forensic examination.
Out of 14 confirmed individuals he spied on - roughly half were people he knew personally, an NCA spokesman told the BBC.
Victims 'unaware'
Investigators found and arrested Rigo after raiding two addresses in Leeds.
The hacker had used his ex-girlfriend's details to purchase BlackShades, a remote access trojan (RAT) which allows for a high level of surreptitious control over a victim's computer.
"The problem with RATs specifically is a lot of the time people don't know they're being affected," the NCA spokesman said.
"In the case of Stefan Rigo that we were looking at, his victims weren't aware."
BlackShades has been around since 2010 and has been sold for as little as $40 (£26), explained Jens Monrad at cyber security firm FireEye.
"The application in itself is not that difficult to detect but typically the attackers will wrap some sort of exploit around the application," said Mr Monrad.
"Even with patches the victim will still be vulnerable so long as there is a hole in the operating system."
Mr Monrad recommended that computer users be careful of clicking on suspicious links or downloading dubious email attachments.
Cam scams
The criminal market for webcam hacking tools is highly active, according to Mr Monrad, since malicious hackers are often able to exploit their victims after taking covert images of them.
There have also been cases in which hackers sold access to specific cameras.
Connected security cameras in buildings may be at risk too, though there are sometimes difficulties in publicly discussing how secure they are.
One researcher recently cancelled a forthcoming talk on the issue following legal pressure from the manufacturers of widely-used surveillance cameras.
Gianni Gnesa was due to discuss "vulnerabilities found on major surveillance cameras and show how an attacker could used them to stay undetected" at the HITB GSEC security conference in Singapore.
The Register reports that a legal threat from one, unnamed, manufacturer resulted in Gnesa withdrawing his presentation.
Searching on the new Apple TV won't always be limited to iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, Showtime, and HBO.
When the new Apple TV launches later this month, its universal search features will only work with a select number of apps. But it’s not going to stay that way forever.
Apple CEO Tim Cook recently told BuzzFeed that Apple plans to offer an API for universal search, so that any app can feed into the results. “I think that many, many people will want to be in that search. And that’s great for users,” Cook said.
At launch, Siri’s search results will come from five streaming services: iTunes, HBO, Hulu, Netflix, and Showtime. That’s a fairly short list, and one that leaves out some major sources such as YouTube, Crackle, Watch ABC, and PBS.
By comparison, Google already offers an open API for search results on its Android TV platform, and it’s likely that Amazon will do the same with Alexa voice search on Fire TV devices (though it’s worth noting that neither of those platforms currently include Netflix in their searches). Roku’s system is a bit more closed down, but supports roughly 20 streaming services with its universal search features.
Cook said the search results will highlight which services are free, or available with an existing subscription that the user already has, though it’s unclear if Apple will denote ad-supported content. Cook also didn’t give a timeframe for releasing the universal search API.
Why this matters: Siri and voice search are key features in the new Apple TV, which has a microphone built into its remote control. But while Siri looks to be more powerful than voice search on other platforms, its usefulness will remain limited until more apps can participate. If Cook is talking about an open API already, hopefully that means developers won’t have to wait too long.
This story, "Apple TV aims open its universal search to all apps" was originally published byMacworld.
On the Internet, nobody knows you're not in the mafia
You could be whoever you wanted
The origins of what we think of as modern hacker culture emerged from the same California milieu as the 1960s counterculture, and it shows.
In 1973, programmers from Berkeley who had worked on the time-sharing Berkeley Operating System launched Community Memory, the first public bulletin board system, and prominent among these pioneers was Jude Milhon, aka St. Jude. She passed away in 2003, much beloved.
At the other end of the state, a few years later Susan Headley fell in with a gang and helped hack into DEC's systems; she went by the name Susy Thunder. Why not take on a kooky new name? It was a sign of the times.
The company originally known for its search engine officially becomes Alphabet at the market close on Friday
This is the last day that Google is operating without a parent company.
After the close of markets Friday, the company officially will become Alphabet and will trade as such on Monday. Google will become a business unit running under the Alphabet umbrella and will focus on core Internet-related businesses, including search, YouTube and Android.
The company announced the official change on its investor relations page.
"Long-term, this could be a big deal, but it must be more than a name change," said Patrick Moorhead, an analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy. "Non-Google companies under Alphabet need to show a few things – like they need to enable innovation and autonomy."
Google announced in August that it was creating a parent company and that Google would become one of its wholly owned subsidiaries.
Alphabet is set to replace Google as the publicly traded entity and shares of Google will be the same number of shares of Alphabet. The company will still trade under the ticker symbol GOOG.
Google won't be the only subsidiary under the Alphabet umbrella.
Google X, the company's secretive research arm that came up with the autonomous car, will become its own business, as will Capital and Ventures, which will concentrate on funding startups.
Before the reorganization, everything the company was working on – search, Android, Chrome, Google Glass, robotics, driverless cars, drones and even smart contact lenses fell under the Google corporate umbrella. With this move, Google will shed all of its research projects, which aren't money makers, and will concentrate on its Internet-based businesses, like search, which is a huge money maker.
Similarly, the company, which has become known for its "moon shots" or outrageous-sounding research, should be able to put even more muscle behind new projects.
Google's research projects, like smart contact lenses that can read blood sugar levels for diabetics, will have its own executives overseeing the work.
With less attention split between money makers and big dreams, Alphabet is expected to be able to do a better job at both.
"This is a big deal because if they can accomplish what they're looking to… this puts in place a future operating model for a large company to truly innovate," said Moorhead. "I think this puts a meaningful separation between businesses generating cash, and research and science projects. For the company, it could mean they can keep driving profits today and invest in the far future."
This story, "Good-bye, Google as we know it. Hello, Alphabet" was originally published by Computerworld.
Showtime, HBO Now, and CBS join the app roster, while TCL and HiSense will start building Google’s software into their televisions.
Although Chromecast was the star of Google’s recent TV announcements, Android TV hasn’t been completely forgotten. Several new streaming services have arrived on the platform, and several more companies are promising to build Android TV into their television sets.
The new apps include Showtime and HBO Now, which offer standalone subscriptions for $11 per month and $15 per month respectively. Android TV still lacks apps for Showtime Anytime and HBO Go, which are free for subscribers to those channels through a traditional pay TV package. (One big caveat: Google says these new apps are only on “select” devices for now; HBO Now, for instance, isn’t on Nvidia Shield Android TV yet.)
CBS All Access, a $6 per month service with a live broadcast feed and on-demand programming, is also joining the roster. There’s also a new app for Disney Movies Anywhere, which provides streaming access to your Disney film purchases Google Play, iTunes, or Blu-Ray/DVD.
In addition to the new apps, Google announced some new TV partnerships, with HiSense, TCL, and “several other” manufacturers planning to launch Android-based smart TVs. Google is also working with pay TV operators to put Android TV in their set-top boxes, though this is unlikely to affect the U.S. cable market. Initial partners for that effort KDDI and Telecom Italia.
Unlike Chromecast, which uses a phone or tablet as the remote control, Android TV provides a more traditional interface, with a proper remote control and big-screen apps. It’s available on a handful of set-top boxes, and is currently built into to some smart TVs from Sharp and Sony.
Why this matters: Android TV is just about a year old now, and has come a long way in terms of app support. The platform is getting to the point where mainstream buyers might want to take it seriously, though Android TV boxes are still a tough sell next to the $35 Chromecast dongle, which to date has sold more 20 million units.
This story, "Android TV gets HBO Now and Showtime as Google reveals more apps, smart TV partners" was originally published by TechHive.
Maybe it happened to you before. You were browsing through your work emails and spotted one with an unusual subject. In the message, the sender is politely asking you to sign into your work account again because of some technical issues, and has kindly provided you with a specific link for this purpose. As the address appears to have come from inside the company, you click it and try to sign in.
The process however, does not seem to be working, even after you have inserted the correct user name and password several times. So, you just move on with work and ignore the incident. But, only a few hours later, you suspect something is wrong, as your computer has started to act weird.
After calling your company’s IT support, you find that you have been the victim of a phishing attackand consequently have given away your login data. Listening to your boss mentoring you on security guidelines, you realize how complicated cyberspace has become and how vulnerable you are as a user.
But fear not, there are good habits that will help protect you from treacherous emails, suspicious websites and even malicious apps. Now that it’s October and European Cyber Security Month, it’s a perfect opportunity to pick up some new habits:
First of all, change your mindset – start by paying more attention to detail
Be careful about everything you encounter in the digital world. Be it an unusual work email, a link that your colleague sent you during lunch or anything that you found during a break on your social network.
In case you don’t know the sender or there is something dubious about the content, the best thing to do is to avoid it.
Don’t panic and click
You realized that you made a mistake and surfed a malicious web? Take a deep breath, think rationally, and if you aren’t sure what to do, ask some of your more experienced colleagues or IT support for help. Don’t do things in a rush
If nobody is around, don’t rush to find the solution. It is better to let the content idle, than haste and make more mistakes on the way.
Lock your computer with a password
Think of security also in the physical world. You need a break for coffee or have to leave your workspace? Keep the screen locked.
It might sound annoying, but the same rule applies for all your mobile devices – work and private – especially if they store sensitive company data and you lend them to other people. If passwords aren’t your kind of a thing a PIN lock – or even a pattern – is better than nothing.
Stick-it notes with passwords on your worktable?
An absolute no-go. Use a password manager by a trustworthy vendor instead, as it encrypts and protects your data with other security features. Protect your devices with a security solution
All this can come to nothing, if your computer or mobile device isn’t safe. So don’t hesitate andinstall a security software from a renowned vendor or ask your IT department to do it for you.
For over 12 hours, some Windows 7 users were left scratching their heads over a bizarre update that was seemingly pushed out by Microsoft.
The update, which purported to be an important language pack, baffled users of Windows 7 as it attempted (and failed) to automatically install itself.
No, you’re not reading Klingon. That really is what the update said – a bunch of random characters and non-working links.
As Ars Technica reports, the bizarre message resulted in many users suspecting that Windows Update was broken or possibly had been compromised by malicious hackers.
The fear that Windows Update could be subverted to spread malware is a reasonable one – after all, in 2012 security researchers revealed how the Flame worm exploited Microsoft’s updating systemafter generating code-validating certificates seemingly “signed” by the company.
Fortunately, that wasn’t the situation in this particular case. Rather than malice, someone at Microsoft had goofed up.
Twelve hours after users started questioning the odd Windows update, Microsoft curtly blamed itself for the errant update in a statement sent to Ars Technica: “We incorrectly published a test update and are in the process of removing it.”
Of course, even if no serious harm was caused by this false update the incident does raise serious questions for Windows users – in particular, Windows 10 home users who are forced to accept security updates, whether they want them or not.
Automatic updates are a good thing – if they work.
But every time Microsoft pushes out a buggy update or suggests that it isn’t running Windows Update properly, users’ confidence is shaken.
When getting together for a meeting with new people, it can be nice to know their background and what they do. That information is usually tied up in their social networking profiles, but it can be hard to remember to creep on someone until after they're right in front of you.
Microsoft is aiming to make it easier for people to do just that with a new integration the company announced Thursday between its digital assistant Cortana and enterprise social network LinkedIn. When users connect their LinkedIn account with Cortana, the assistant will be able to look through their calendar and link the identities of people who are attending the same event with their LinkedIn profiles.
A screenshot of the Cortana integration on Windows 10.
Once that happens, Cortana can then show information from those profiles inside information about a user's upcoming event. That usually includes things like name, profile photo and job title.
Of course, the new functionality can also be a little bit creepy, since that sort of personal information isn't usually connected with calendar data. It's also a win for LinkedIn, which will likely get more information about how people are professionally connected with one another.
This new feature could be a harbinger of things to come for Cortana, which Microsoft has been pushing as one of the tentpole features of Windows 10. The virtual assistant already connects with Office 365, which it uses to gather information and provide insights about work relationships, meetings and documents.
The functionality is rolling out slowly to users starting Thursday, though it's not clear when Microsoft will complete the process of enabling it for everyone. Until then, users will have to make do with just looking at LinkedIn on the Web in order to get their personal information fix.
Apple store employees are pictured as the Apple iPhone 6s and 6s Plus go on sale at an Apple Store in Los Angeles, California.
Apple said Monday it sold 13 million of its new iPhones over the weekend, in a record-breaking launch for the newest models of its iconic smartphone.
The California tech giant began selling the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus in nine markets, including China, on Friday.
On Monday, the company said the devices will be available in 40 additional markets October 9 including Italy, Mexico, Russia, Spain and Taiwan.
"Sales for iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus have been phenomenal, blowing past any previous first weekend sales results in Apple's history," said chief executive Tim Cook.
Apple has also unveiled new lease and finance terms for US customers, which analysts said could boost sales and shorten the upgrade cycle, at a time when carriers are moving away from smartphone subsidies.
The iPhone 6S and 6S Plus have the same overall dimensions as the last version, with new technologies under the hood.
One of the key new features is called "3D touch," which responds to pressure exerted on the screen to allow users to look inside messages and applications.
The 6S has the 4.7-inch (about 12-centimeter) display of its predecessor and the 6S Plus -- which updates one of the more popular handsets in the "phablet category" -- has the same 5.5-inch screen.
But the devices have more powerful processors that allow for improved graphics, harder glass and a new aluminum body. Pricing will be kept at the same levels as the earlier versions.
A Google logo is seen at the entrance to the company's offices in Toronto.
Technology titans Microsoft and Google on Wednesday announced that they have agreed to end all patent infringement litigation against each other.
Legal battles between the companies included suits over technology for Internet-linked mobile devices, WiFi and digital video.
Details of the agreement were not disclosed, but the tech behemoths said it includes cases related to Motorola Mobility.
"The companies will dismiss all pending patent infringement litigation between them, including cases related to Motorola Mobility," Microsoft and Google said in a joint statement.
Google last year sold Motorola Mobility to Chinese computer giant Lenovo in a deal valued at $2.9 billion, but held on to patents.
"Separately, Google and Microsoft have agreed to collaborate on certain patent matters and anticipate working together in other areas in the future to benefit our customers."
The kind of collaboration the industry rivals have in mind was not disclosed.
Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella has made a priority of making the company's applications and cloud services available across mobile devices, regardless of what software powers the hardware.
Microsoft would also like to boost the popularity of Windows smartphones and tablets with popular Google offerings such as YouTube.
