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Sara et Sara

Né(e) le 11 août 2016

10 ans

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Mes rendez-vous : les nouvelles et les souvenirs du blog de Sara et Sara.

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Mes rendez-vous

Akku für Acer AS10G31

Dokumente, die eine rechtssichere Unterschrift benötigen können jetzt auch mit mobilen Endgeräten unterschrieben werden. Als erstes deutsches Unternehmen bietet die Bundesdruckerei laut eigenen Angaben mit sign-me eine Fernsignatur-Lösung an, die den Anforderungen der Verordnung über elektronische Identifizierung und Vertrauensdienste (eIDAS) entspricht. „Mit der Fernsignatur über sign-me lassen sich bisher papierbasierte Unterschriftsprozesse komplett elektronisch abwickeln – und das komfortabel über PC, Tablet und Smartphone, rechtsverbindlich und im gesamten EU-Raum“, erklärt Ulrich Hamann, Vorsitzender der Geschäftsführung der Bundesdruckerei.


Bei dem webbasierten Service handelt es sich laut Unternehmensangaben um eine Komplettlösung: von der Identifizierung des Anwenders bis zur fernausgelösten elektronischen Signatur. Es werden nur PC oder Tablet, eine Internet-Verbindung und ein Smartphone benötigt, jedoch keine Hardware- oder Software-Installation. Für die Identitätsprüfung stehen unterschiedliche Verfahren zur Verfügung, darunter die Online-Ausweisfunktion des Personalausweises ab Ende 2017, die Online-Identifizierung und die Identifizierung am Point-of-Sale. Verlaufe die Identitätsprüfung erfolgreich, könne das Dokument elektronisch unterschrieben werden. Nach Anmeldung mit Benutzername und Passwort wird die Fernsignatur durch Eingabe einer SMS-TAN ausgelöst. Wie die Bundesdruckerei mitteilt, lässt sich sign-me über eine Web-Schnittstelle direkt in die Online-Angebote und in die Archiv- und Dokumenten-Management-Software von Unternehmen und Behörden einbinden.


Die technischen Bestandteile von sign-me – ein qualifiziertes eIDAS-konformes Personenzertifikat und Signaturkomponenten – werden auf hochsicheren Servern der Bundesdruckerei-Tochter D-TRUST gespeichert oder betrieben. Das Unternehmen TÜV Informationstechnik habe die Konformität der Fernsignatur-Lösung mit der eIDAS-Verordnung bestätigt, die Bundesnetzagentur habe sign-me in die nationale eIDAS-Vertrauensliste aufgenommen. Nun könne mit der neuen Signaturlösung in der gesamten EU rechtswirksam signiert werden.



Als wichtige behördliche Einsatzbereiche der Fernsignatur mit sign-me nennt die Bundesdruckerei öffentliche Ausschreibungen über elektronische Vergabe-Plattformen, Förderanträge oder Baugenehmigungen. Das Unternehmen bietet außerdem ein neues Whitepaper rund um die Themen Fernsignatur und elektronisches Siegel zum Download an. (ve)


Am vergangenen Sonntag meldeten Süddeutsche Zeitung, heise Online und Golem unisono, dass die elektronische Gesundheitskarte (eGK) vor dem Aus stehe. Es existierten Pläne, nach denen die nächste Bundesregierung, die noch gewählt werden muss, das Aus für das IT-Projekt beschließen wird, hieß es da. Auf diese Attacke bayerischer Medizin-Funktionäre reagierte Bundesgesundheitsminister Gröhe umgehend mit einem Dementi. Schließlich führt der CDU-Politiker derzeit einen Gesundheits-Wahlkampf und verteidigt seine Politik (und sein Ministeramt), die Einführung der eGK zu beschleunigen. Derweil reißen kuriose Meldungen um die Gesundheitskarte nicht ab. Vor allem die ärztliche Fachpresse stiftet Verwirrung, ganz im Sinne der bayerischen Funktionäre.


Fangen wir mit dem Grundwissen an: Die elektronische Gesundheitskarte ist eine kontaktbasierte Chipkarte für alle Versicherten, die in der deutschen gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung eingeschrieben sind. Der Chip auf der Karte enthält einige Fächer, in denen derzeit nur wenige Daten offen gespeichert sind: Name, Anschrift und Versichertenstatus der Versicherten. Diese Angaben werden in der Arztpraxis oder im Krankenhaus mit einem Lesegerät ausgelesen. Damit Ärzte und andere Leistungserbringer des deutschen Gesundheitswesens Daten in weitere Fächer der Gesundheitskarte verschlüsselt schreiben können, müssen sie sich neue Technik und einen elektronischen Heilberufeausweis zulegen. Diese neue Technik besteht im Wesentlichen aus einem zugelassenen VPN-Konnektor, der in das Management-System einer Praxis oder eines Krankenhauses eingebunden werden muss und die Verbindung mit der telematischen Infrastruktur des Gesundheitswesens besorgt, die seit vier Jahren im Aufbau ist.


Mangel an VPN-Konnektoren

Nach den Vorgaben von Gröhes e-Health-Gesetz müsste dies bis zum Juli 2018 erfolgen. Weil jedoch derzeit nur ein VPN-Konnektor von der Firma KoCo Connector die teure Zulassung bei der Projektgesellschaft Gematik bekommen sowie die Zertifizierung vom Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik durchlaufen hat, ist das Zeitfenster bis zum 31. Dezember 2018 erweitert worden.



Ärzte, die bis dahin die Hardware anschaffen und die Software anpassen lassen, erhalten Kosten-Pauschalen dafür. Für den Konnektor gibt es beispielsweise 2620 Euro. Dieser Betrag vermindert sich pro Quartal um 10 Prozent, wenn der Arzt den Konnektor nach dem Zeitfenster anschafft. Zwei weitere Konnektoren sollen bereit sein, wenn es daran geht, rund 200.000 Praxen von Ärzten, Zahnärzten und Psychotherapeuten anzubinden. Dazu kommen 20.000 Krankenhäuser, die mehrere Konnektoren brauchen und 21.000 Apotheken.


Damit der Markt die Preise austariert, wartet die Gesundheitsszene auf die Konnektoren von T-Systems und von der österreichischen Firma "Research Industrial Systems Engineering" (RISE). Letztere wurde eilig von der Gematik beauftragt, auch einen Konnektor zu bauen und zertifizieren zu lassen, damit "Marktvielfalt" herrsche. Aktuell ist das nämlich nicht der Fall: Lediglich von der CompuGroup wird der KoCo Connector den Ärzten angeboten, und zwar für 3650 Euro inklusive Geräte-Installation und Anpassung der Software CompGroup Medical.


Teuer und nur für Deutschland

Wir sehen: die elektronische Gesundheitskarte ist eine teure, rein deutsche Lösung, sie war niemals, wie behauptet, ein Exportschlager. Es geht aktuell um die Konnektoren und nicht um die Lesegeräte, die viele Praxen und Krankenhäuser zusätzlich anschaffen müssen, damit der Workflow stimmt: Bis jetzt haben die Praxen ein Lesegerät am Empfang. Wird das Schreiben auf der Karte scharf geschaltet, braucht der Arzt in jedem Behandlungszimmer ein (Schreib)-Lesegerät. 350 Euro bekommt er für ein Exemplar erstattet, der Rest ist seine Sache.


Wir gehen weiter: In den Apotheken sollen Infoterminals stehen, damit Patienten die Kartendaten einsehen können, denn die Karte ist kontaktbehaftet. Nichts ist's mit schnieker NFC-Kommunikation, wie sie etwa mit dem "neuen" Personalausweis möglich ist. Wer fordert, dass die Versicherten selbst ihre eGK auslesen können sollen, vergisst, dass für Tablet und Smartphone spezielle Kartenleser mit Bluetooth oder WLAN-Modul erforderlich sind. Beispielsweise kostet der Cyberjack Wave von RainerSCT ab rund 100 Euro aufwärts. Gerätchen, die zum Beispiel im Restaurant an den Tisch kommen, wenn die Rechnung mit Karte bezahlt wird, haben nun mal ihren Preis.


Wien, 16. August 2017 – Noctua hat heute neue Modelle seiner auf besonders hohe Belastungen ausgelegten 24V industrialPPC Lüfter vorgestellt. Der in der neuen Q100-Revision zur Motorsteuerung eingesetzte NE-FD4 IC ist für den AEC-Q100 Standard des Automotive Electronics Council approbiert. Die hohe mechanische Robustheit und der IP67 zertifizierte Wasser- und Staubschutz der bisherigen Modelle werden in der neuen Revision um extreme elektrische Störfestigkeit und eine ausgeklügelte Einschaltstrombegrenzung ergänzt. Damit eignen sich die neuen Lüfter nicht nur ideal für Anwendungen im Automobil-Bereich, sondern auch für den Einsatz in sensiblen oder harschen elektronischen Umgebungen.



„Mit ihrer robusten Polyamid-Konstruktion und dem IP67 Wasser- und Staubschutz hat uns die industrialPPC-Serie seit ihrer Einführung 2014 im Industriebereich eine breite Vielfalt neuer Märkte erschlossen“, erklärt Roland Mossig (Noctua CEO). „Ganz gemäß dem Slogan ‚Protected Performance Cooling‘ haben wir die Lüfter nun auch in elektronischer Hinsicht noch widerstandsfähiger gemacht, damit sie nicht nur gegen Umwelteinflüsse, sondern auch gegen elektronische Störfaktoren geschützt sind.“


Der in der Q100-Revision zur Motorsteuerung eingesetzte NE-FD4 IC ist für den AEC-Q100 Standard des Automotive Electronics Council zugelassen, bei dem integrierte Schaltungen unter extremen Belastungen auf ihre Ausfallsicherheit geprüft werden. Ihr erweiterter Schutz gegen Stoßspannungen und Stoßströme entspricht den strengen Anforderungen des AEC-Q100 Standards und ermöglicht nicht nur den Einsatz im Automobil-Bereich, sondern auch in anderen anspruchsvollen elektrischen Umgebungen mit Einschaltstößen von Elektromotoren oder anderen induktiven Lasten.


Die spannungsstabilisierte Einschaltstrombegrenzung der Lüfter sorgt für ein sanftes Anlaufverhalten und bewirkt damit eine massive Reduktion von Einschaltstößen in der Versorgung, die andere elektrische Komponenten im Schaltkreis beeinträchtigen könnten. Damit lassen sich die neuen Q100-Lüfter auch in sensiblen elektrischen Umgebungen sicher betreiben.

Mes rendez-vous

Akku für Compaq Presario CQ61

Die Botschaft ist eindeutig: Von Hardware- und hardwarenahen Trojanern geht weltweit eine große Bedrohung für bestehende IT-Systeme aus. Allerdings wird diese Gefahr von vielen IT-Verantwortlichen und Entscheidern in Unternehmen entweder nicht wahrgenommen oder zumindest unterschätzt. Dabei gibt es bereits Gegenmaßnahmen, mit denen Gerätehersteller und Nutzer eine bessere Absicherung für die Geräte erreichen können. Dies geht aus einem Bericht des Fraunhofer-Instituts für Kommunikation, Informationsverarbeitung und Ergo-nomie FKIE hervor, der einen umfassenden Überblick über die Bedrohungslage durch Hardware- und hardwarenahe Trojaner liefert.

So zeigt der Bericht eine Dimension der Bedrohung für Computer, Embedded Devices und das Internet of Things (IoT) auf, die vielfach bei IT-Sicherheitsüberlegungen unbeachtet bleibt. Denn anders als bei klassischer »Malware« für PCs, gibt es nur wenige IT-Security-Lösungen, die Wirkung gegen Hardware-Trojaner zeigen.

Manipulationen an der Hardware bzw. der eingesetzten Firmware können in ganz unterschiedlichen Lebensphasen erfolgen. In einigen Fällen werden bereits während der Entwicklung Hintertüren eingebaut oder Geräte während der Produktion oder dem Transport manipuliert.


Entdeckung schwieriger

Solche präparierten Geräte können einen immensen Schaden im Unternehmen anrichten, da sie zum Ausspähen persönlicher Daten und Firmen-geheimnisse bis zur Sabotage von Produktionsprozessen eingesetzt werden können. Zwar sind Hardware-Trojaner in vielen Fällen schwerer zu installieren und implementieren als eine vergleichbare klassische Malware, allerdings ist es auch sehr viel schwieriger, diese überhaupt zu entdecken, erläutert Peter Weidenbach von der Abteilung Cyber Analysis and Defense am Fraunhofer FKIE.


Die immer größer werdende Verbreitung von Hardware- und hardwarenahen Trojanern erklären sich die FKIE-Forscher damit, dass diese Bedrohungslage bislang relativ vernachlässigt wurde – sowohl von den Geräteherstellern wie auch den Nutzern. Neben einer Aufstellung der potenziellen Infektionswege und Angriffsmöglichkeiten für Hardware in den unterschiedlichen Geräteklassen enthält der Bericht daher auch eine Zusammenstellung von Handlungsoptionen und Schutzmaßnahmen. Es gibt viele Gegenmaßnahmen wie die konsequente Netztrennung, Signaturen oder eine automatisierte Firmware-Analyse. Wenn bestehende Optionen gezielt eingesetzt würden, wären wir schon einen großen Schritt in Sachen Cybersicherheit weiter, erklärt Weidenbach.



Immer mehr Angriffsstellen

Längst sind allerdings nicht mehr nur klassische IT-Geräte wie Festplatten, Netzwerkkarten, Router oder Drucker von der Bedrohung durch Hardware-Trojaner betroffen. Die hardwarenahen Trojaner haben Einzug bei den Geräten gehalten, die unter dem Schlagwort Internet of Things (IoT) zusammengefasst werden: beispielsweise Smart-TVs, aber auch Kühlschränke und Überwachungskameras. Damit ist fast jedes elektronische Gerät anfällig für eine derartige Manipulation. Dies betrifft auch Geräte, die in sensiblen Bereichen wie der Medizintechnik oder bei kritischen Infrastrukturen eingesetzt werden.


Dass der Countdown läuft, betont auch Thomas Tschersich, Senior Vice President Internal Security and Cyber Defense bei T-Systems, in seinem Vorwort zu dem FKIE-Bericht. Durch die zunehmend vernetzte Welt werde die Angriffsfläche für Cyberattacken zwangsläufig größer. Aus diesem Grund sei es unerlässlich, dass Schwachstellen unverzüglich nach ihrer Detektion beseitigt werden. Der FKIE-Bericht liefere hierfür einen guten Überblick und schaffe die dringend notwendige Transparenz. Nur wenn wir verstehen, wie die Angreifer arbeiten und welcher Schwachstellen sie sich bedienen, können wir als Industrie wirksame Gegenmittel entwickeln und Boden im Kampf für die Sicherheit aller Nutzer gut machen, so Tschersich.


Um die Detektion dieser Schwachstellen kümmern sich Peter Weidenbach, Raphael Ernst und Dr. Elmar Padilla, die sich für die Zukunft eine Qualitätssicherung in Form einer neutralen Prüfstelle bzw. eines Prüfsiegels wünschen. Weidenbach: »So könnte jeder, vom Hersteller bis zum Nutzer, seinen Beitrag zur Netzwerksicherheit leisten.«


Es gibt jedoch etliche Gutachten, die zu dem Ergebnis kommen, dass all die von den Autobauern bisher angebotenen Maßnahmen die Gerichte nicht davon überzeugen werden, dass auf Fahrverbote verzichtet werden kann.


Ich möchte nicht über die Entscheidungen von Gerichten spekulieren. Wenn alle an einem Strang ziehen bin ich zuversichtlich, dass wir die NOx-Emissionen auch an viel befahrenen Straßen deutlich senken werden.


Im Ergebnisprotokoll des Dieselgipfels heißt es, dass die Autohersteller in einem zweiten Schritt prüfen werden, ob technische Nachrüstungen zu wirtschaftlich tragbaren Konditionen durchgeführt werden können.


Aus heutiger Sicht wäre der technische und wirtschaftliche Aufwand zur Hardware-Nachrüstung von Euro-5-Fahrzeugen unverhältnismäßig hoch. Wenn man das richtig macht, wie es die Kunden von Mercedes-Benz gewohnt sind, muss man sehr stark in die Konstruktion des Fahrzeugs eingreifen. Man muss umfangreiche Tests durchführen und gegebenenfalls auch eine Neuzertifizierung vornehmen und darauf achten, dass auch die Langzeitqualität stimmt. Deshalb ist ein Software-Update die angemessene Maßnahme, die schnell und flächendeckend greift.



Es gibt aber Unternehmen wie etwa die Baumot-Gruppe, die behaupten, eine technische Nachrüstung wäre bei den meisten Dieselautos kostengünstig möglich. Die Bau­mot-Gruppe hat dies auch bei einem VW Passat vorgeführt.


Sollte ein Drittanbieter zusätzlich solch eine Maßnahme für Euro-5-Fahrzeuge anbieten, würden wir ihm die dafür erforderlichen Informationen zur Verfügung stellen. Wenn er darin ein Geschäftsmodell sieht, kann er solch ein Nachrüstpaket in eigener Verantwortung verkaufen.

Wann werden denn die Software-Updates von Mercedes-Benz kommen?


Die ersten Updates kommen in den nächsten Wochen. Aufgrund der hohen Anzahl von Fahrzeugen und Varianten wird es aber eine längere Zeit dauern, bis wir die Updates für alle betroffenen Fahrzeuge verfügbar haben. Es geht jetzt also kurzfristig los und wir werden das intensiv und Schritt für Schritt abarbeiten.


Auf der IAA zeigen Sie als Zukunftsstudie einen Smart, der autonom unterwegs ist, den man per App bestellen kann und bei dem auf der gewählten Route dann auch ein zweiter Passagier zusteigen kann, wenn man nicht allein fahren will. Wann werden solche Roboterautos Realität im Stadtverkehr?

Wir werden in der nächsten Dekade solche autonomen Fahrzeuge anbieten. Es ist also nicht mehr weit weg.

Mes rendez-vous

Battery for Toshiba PA3729U-1BAS

Hollywood studios have always limited distribution to a local country inside the EU, believing they can get more money by licensing movies exclusively in each territory.This was the perfect trigger for 21st Century Fox, which owns programming assets in the US, India and Australia, as well as the UK. Since the European Commission made this order, Sky, 39 per cent controlled by 21st Century Fox, has moved to sell service to British viewers who live overseas within Europe, and has pushed its Now TV service in Spain, but only in English for the many UK viewers there who have watched Sky with impunity, from the satellite feed by buying access in the UK and taking their decryption card to Spain.Now that activity has been legitimized, and Sky is on a global quest to grow its OTT businesses as broadly as possible in a pre-emptive strike on local pay TV businesses.It had already helped fund iFlix in May 2015 with a $45m investment to chase Asia Pacific SVoD domination, in partnership with the Catcha Group and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company and iFlix has tied up deals with Hollywood and most of the local telcos to push into markets ahead of Netflix.And in September it bought into French OTT service Molotov for $4.5m, which might help with the marketing of its News services to French speakers, contained in this announcement.Sky’s European prowess currently spans the UK, Ireland, Germany, Italy and Austria, but previously it had no presence in France or Spain; aside from its loyal legion of expats with huge satellite dishes and those getting Now TV via a VPN.


Back in October Cisco moved to take control of the 1Mainstream assets, just a few months after Sky had put its last tranche of cash into the fledgling OTT start up and it looks now like Sky saw the chance to take control of its underlying OTT technology by partnering with one of its all-time favorite technology firms.Remember Cisco bought NDS for $5.0bn in 2013, a company which had been hived off only a year earlier from 21st Century Networks, and which originally had its relationship with Sky in the UK, managing encryption for it.Cisco bought 1Mainstream in October last year, not only to please Sky, but also because it needed a more flexible, more recently written, end to end OTT system.1Mainstream has always written pure iOS, Android and TV apps, and has existing DRM relationships with Widevine and PlayReady, and already plugs into multiple CDNs. It comes with its own subscriber management and entitlements databases, and offers an online promotions system and its own CMS based analytics engine. In the past, it has worked with Envivio encoders although Sky is now pretty much exclusively Elemental, and it uses the Wowza streaming engine, and offers support for the Freewheel programmatic advertising system.



1 Mainstream was acquired by Cisco alongside (in the same week) ParStream, a big data analytics firm, and Lancope, a cloud security firm, but we’re not sure if either of those are significant to OTT delivery.Prices of the OnPrime services vary from the lowest at around £8.99 ($11.50) in Hindi, to £17.99 ($22.75) and each come with a free month trial. We suspect now that Sky will partner with local MNOs and operators to do the marketing on these, in operator partnerships right the way across Europe and even beyond. It is even possible that Sky could engineer their sale in the US, although we imagine that such a move would come directly from Fox.In the meantime, the UK’s BBC has teamed up with the UK independent broadcaster, ITV to bring a British based service to US viewers, based on much the same logic. They are calling it Brit-Box, and it is advertising-free, paid SVoD, which will launch early next year. AMC Networks, which operates BBC America in the US, as a joint venture with BBC Worldwide, is likely to take the lead in bringing this to US viewers. BritBox will make British TV available as soon as 24 hours after being first broadcast in the UK.


On-call Welcome again to On-Call, our weekly column in which we recount readers' tales of jobs gone wrong, often at times or for reasons that are just plain wrong.This week, meet “Aaron”, who once worked for a construction company he says “didn't need in-house IT but had delusions of grandeur and so employed me.”The company had just one server and about 30 users. Aaron says “most were former builders and mostly clueless when it came to technology.”“One such user had climbed the ranks from bricklayer to contract manager and was constantly finding fault with IT where there was none. Then one day he came in to the office declaring that he could solve all of his problems. He had seen something on TV that he claimed would make him much more efficient.”“Said item was the IBM Transnote, which our very own Lucy Sherriff covered at the time of its launch in the year 2001.


It has a digital notepad attached, for making handwritten notes. IBM says that the digital pad can be used to fill in customised forms so will be marketed at industries where there is a lot of form filing - for example, insurance firms. "Anywhere where there is a lot of duplication," an IBM spokeswoman said.
Lucy quoted the price of the machine at £2,059. Aaron remembers that price tag as rather excessive at the time, so when the chap asked for one “I laughed and said that there was no chance of us purchasing this for him.”But this user had leverage and “the call came from above that he absolutely needed this and we were to order it in immediately.” So Aaron swapped it for his perfectly functional laptop and got on with other things.Until a couple of months later when “the magical machine was placed before me with the claim that it was faulty and its fan must be broken as it was so noisy.” Aaron was pretty sure the user just couldn't figure out how to work IBM's magic digital notepad, but assured the user he would take a look at it immediately.Two weeks later Aaron told the user he'd sent the machine to IBM for repairs. But it was really still on the shelf.



But the many disadvantages of the Tandy 200 included slow operation, a liquid crystal screen that was hard to see, and minimal storage capacity. Articles which had not yet been used by the paper - and could therefore still go astray - had to be deleted to make room for the next one.It was tempting, then, to contemplate the next generation of portables. They had virtually limitless memory compared with the Tandy, their backlit screens were easy on the eye and they ran much faster. But they were power-hungry: they had hard disks and built-in fans to keep the works cool, not to mention fancy software such as Windows. They needed heavy nickel-cadmium battery packs, but could not do without mains power for long.If you avoided using the hard disk too often, and switched off the machine while you thought, a battery pack could last four hours. That might seem plenty of time to finish one's work, but it was never that simple.Unless nickel-cadmium batteries are charged up fully, then drained fully, they lose their ability to retain any charge at all. Short of carrying a battery charger and spare packs, the peripatetic computer-user sooner or later has to use the mains to power the machine in the middle of a work session, with the kind of consequences described above.

Mes rendez-vous

Battery for Dell Inspiron N4010

The crew's consternation is understandable. Not only do US transport officials take a dim view of Note 7 handsets on aircraft (particularly as there has already been an in-aircraft fire) but an in-flight blaze is many pilots' worst nightmare – barring a sudden reduction in the number of wings.While Virgin America declined to say if any action had been taken against the unfunny prankster, your humble hack hopes they make him walk home next time. It is possible Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge phones call themselves Note 7s in their Wi-Fi network names – meaning it may have been a software bug rather than prank.On-call Welcome to another festive edition of On-Call, the column in which we recycle readers' horror stories.Today, as we seek something, anything, to write in the pre-Christmas news drought, we bring you a trio of tales from the bulging On-Call inbox. Which we must say is swelling this week: it looks like some of you might not be super-busy!But we digress. First let's hear a story from “PJ” who told us that when he was a student, back in the 1980s, he had a job testing Telemetrix CAD machines.PJ says those machines had “a fancy screen and control box looking like a PC tower that held a number of foot square PCBs plugged into the base. The front of the box slid forward and you could lift the board out.”


One of PJ's colleagues came back from the field where he'd been asked to fix a machine in which the board kept coming out of their mountings, which of course made the machine fail.So PJ's mate stripped down the machine and found pastry flakes in the bottom and notified the client of this strange finding.At which point he was told that the user operating that machine had been told, repeatedly, to stop warming his lunchtime pie on top of the boards.A colleague went through all the usual tests, checked logs, probed hardware to detect any faults. But nothing was awry. Next came a reformat and rebuild, but still the problem persisted. A faulty laptop hinge, perhaps? Nope.By this time Jake had seen the problem happen while the user sat down typing away in an utterly innocuous fashion.Which was when one of Jake's colleagues asked “"You don't have any metal in you or anything?"



“Well yes I do, actually,” the client replied, explaining the presence of a metal plate in his arm.And that plate was the culprit, as it triggered the magnetic lock on his laptop locking it at random.Jake says he and his mate recreated the issue by having the client wave his arm/wrist along the bottom of the laptop.The support chap with a working Sonic Screwdriver!
Lastly, meet “Baker”, who got caught up in the excitement when Christopher Eccleston helmed the Doctor Who revival. So excited that “I replaced the large cylindrical plastic tube that I never worked out what it was quite for in my standard issue IT toolkit with an evidently fake plastic Sonic Screwdriver.”Said implement made “the whirry noise and light up when extended”. Baker made it because “one of the senior engineers was a massive Whovian and being new to the role it didn't hurt to grease a few wheels by feigning an interest in your coworkers hobbies.”This all happened at a financial services company for which Baker provided second line support. First line support was done in-house. Together they fought a problem in a new build of the firm's standard operating environment whch did not agree with a Windows NT4 sound driver and an IE6 update.


Fixing it was easy: Baker could remote in to each PC and replace the corrupt driver with a different version that made the problem go away.But first line support had to sign off on every job, so Baker had to visit each PC as well as fix it from afar. After fifteen such visits in one day, he was a bit over it.Which was when, on visit 16, he encountered a rather unpleasant co-worker.“Now, this guy's a dick from twenty paces,” Baker told us. “He's already harassing a co-worker as I enter the floor, double checking my job sheet to see while I politely interject myself between him and the poor recently-harassed co-worker who I'm fairly certain headed to the bathroom for a good cry.”“Immediately he's giving me shit, not missing a beat, as if somehow I'm responsible for Microsoft's coding.”“It's been a long day of may asshats, so I decide to make myself laugh, if no one else.”Baker therefore brought out his Sonic Screwdriver, activated its lights and whistles, ran it up and down the side of the PC and then gave a theatrical flick to finish the job. During which Baker pushed the PC's hidden power switch and the machine whirred into life."That seems to have sorted it,” he told the user. “Would you care to give it a go?”


At which point the user, in unpleasant tones, asserted that Baker's performance was just that. And not very good either."No, no, it's sorted" Baker reassured, before grabbing the mouse and demonstrating the newly-repaired machine was now in full working order.Cue “Glorious, glorious silence. From both the machine and the user. Just a contorted look of WTF across his red face.”Baker says he signed off with a cheery “"If it gives you any more problems, please drop us a call and we'll be right back!" and managed to make it back to his office “before cracking up completely.”If you've fooled a user do let me know. And seeing as tomorrow will be the last On-Call for the year, perhaps you have a tale of working during the festive season? In either case, click here to send me your story. The OnPrime service – which emerged this week from Sky in the UK and Germany, offering a number of foreign language packages for visitors - seems to be built around the end to end over-the-top* (OTT) service which Sky has been investing in for years from US firm 1Mainstream.It put $2m into the company in 2013 and another $5m in March 2015, and used the end to end TT service in its Sky News rollout.Sky is exceptionally advanced for a Direct to Home player in the use of OTT video and first launched its TV Everywhere service, a precursor to its current Sky Go apps, in 2005, before renaming it Sky Go in 2009. It has since come out with its own SVoD service Now TV in the UK and Italy, but uses the Sky Online brand in Germany.



For a full set of OTT services, it needed to address the needs of non-native overseas visitors (which are so common across Europe). OnPrime is about giving customers a taste of their home in their native language services and these have now been launched.Sky News now becomes available in Arabic, French and English, Bollywood services in Hindi are available in a service called Star Pack, with content from its partner Star of India, also a 21st Century Fox subsidiary.And there is a Russian pack in Ukrainian and Russian, another South Asian package with multiple local languages, and a full Arabic pack.Right now, it is available only on an Apple TV, but will shortly be released on all Apple iOS devices, Android, Roku, laptop and tablet browsers and the Sony PS3/4 and Microsoft Xbox One. Although OnPrime TV can currently only be received in the UK and Germany, it will in due course be rolled out to other countries in Europe, potentially ALL of them.One of the clear drivers behind Sky is the ruling by the European Commission against Paramount back in July, and since then Sky has been an adamant first mover, taking advantage of the ruling. Effectively it means that geo-fencing is not allowed inside the EU, which means if you have the right language rights to programmes, you can distribute them anywhere in the EU, regardless of what the rights owner says.In July, the European Commission eliminated the key stumbling block to create a Europe-wide content major, by eliminating key language contained in contracts of top US studios, starting with Paramount.

Mes rendez-vous

Batterie pour Dell Precision M6600

A noter que les disques SSD proposé en option atteignent désormais des volumes respectables de 256 Go. « Il y a de la demande mais les prix restent un frein », explique Lionel Bohar qui rappelle que la vitesse, la robustesse et le gain sur l’autonomie de la batterie (estimé autour de 5%) constituent le principal attrait des disques à technologie mémoire Flash. « Le client nomade part sur du SSD », confirme le responsable.Autre option apparemment appréciée des client, la carte Instant-On qui autorise un démarrage quasi instantané de la machine sous environnement Linux personnalisé autour des principales applications de messagerie. « Cela permet d’envoyer un email rapidement sans avoir à attendre le démarrage complet du système », assure le porte-parole de Dell. De quoi, là encore, économiser sur l’autonomie de la batterie. A titre d’exemple, la version 6 cellules du E6410 est annoncée avec une autonomie de 7 heures pour un poids du PC de 2,2 Kg.


L’E6410 se décline en ATG, sa version semi-durcie. « Il s’agit de la même configuration que le 6410 enrobée d’une surprotection avec un écran deux fois plus lumineux. » L’ATG adresse la tranche de marché non servie entre les portables classiques et complètement durcis pour les usages sur environnements exterieurs mais pas nécessairement extrêmes (typiquement les chantiers BTP ou le PC devra résister à la poussière, quelques gouttes de pluie, aux transports mouvementés, aux chocs…). Le tout pour 150 euros supplémentaires.Enfin, même si ce n’est pas une nouveauté en soi, Lionel Bohar rappelle l’attrait du Latitude 13. Ce 13,3 pouces, toujours sous architecture Intel, plutôt destiné aux PME, rencontre « une demande plus importante que prévue ». Son kilo et demi, sa finesse, son autonomie de 5h30 (avec batterie 6 cellules) et son prix inférieur à 500 euros HT attirent visiblement l’attention. Un bon compromis avec les netbooks « trop limités en puissance et ergonomie ». En mai, Dell complètera son offre ultra portable en direction des grands comptes avec un nouveau 12 pouces: le E4210.



Dell, qui s’est fait tailler des croupières en 2009 par HP et Acer sur le marché mondial, compte bien ne pas leur laisser l’avantage. Une situation que Lionel Bohar attribue à l’absence, jusqu’à récemment, d’un modèle indirect propre aux PME et grand public. Lesquels ont constitué les principaux consommateurs de PC alors que les grandes entreprises, touchées par la crise financière, repoussaient leurs achats. Mauvaise pioche pour Dell qui a donc perdu sur les deux tableaux. Mais la situation d’attente touche à sa fin. « Les clients recommencent à passer commandes », assure le responsable qui ajoute que l’extension vers le modèle indirect va bientôt porter ses fruits. Quant à l’offre grand compte, Dell met notamment en avant l’homogénéité de son offre et services à l’échelle mondiale. « Les Latitude sont présents à l’identique partout dans le monde, c’est important pour les clients globaux. »


L’ensemble des machines est livrée sous Windows 7 et Vista (et leurs différentes déclinaisons commerciales) en 32 et 64 bits. A noter que Windows XP reste proposé, soit en version professionnelle, soit en «mise à niveau» depuis Vista. Le Latitude E6510 démarre à 929 euros HT, le E6410 est proposé à partir de 899 euros et sa version ATG à 1 149 euros.120.000 iPad pré-vendus en 24 heures. La politique de changement payant de la tablette en cas de défaillance de la batterie ne décourage pas les aficionados.Les précommandes du tout dernier iPad d’Apple ont comblé les attentes de la firme. Les premières heures ont connu une affluence de taille vers les sites d’Apple. Pour preuve, 50.000 unités ont été achetées dans les deux premières heures, la tablette a généré pas moins de 54 millions de dollars de recettes en six heures…


Même s’il existe indéniablement un effet de mode comparable à d’autres lancements de produits Apple, l’ iPad connaît de beaux débuts. A en croire le magazine Fortune, les premières estimations de vente aurait permis à la firme de générer 75 millions de dollars en une seule journée. Un succès encourageant pour un produit que personne n’a testé ni pris en mains… Si ces chiffres se doivent d’être vérifiés, il apparait certain que la confirmation de ces chiffres de ventes se fera lors de la prochaine présentation des résultats trimestriels d’Apple.


Réussite économique mais le doute subsiste encore sur la « méthode Apple», notamment en matière de politique de changement de batterie de l’iPad. En effet, si la batterie devient défectueuse, l’utilisateur devra se rendre dans un Apple Store. La tablette sera alors envoyée chez Apple, qui va tout simplement procéder à l’envoi d’un iPad neuf.

Une opération qui n’est pas gratuite puisque le changement sera facturé 99 dollars pour une tablette neuve. Un nouveau produit sera donc proposé à l’utilisateur qui devra prendre soin de sauvegarder ses données via iTunes au préalable, Apple ne fournissant aucun service de récupération dans ce cadre.Outre l’aspect écologique regrettable, la manipulation devrait durer une semaine. Une manière de masquer, qui sait, certains défauts de la tablette à l’image des iPhones. Apple conserve ainsi la main sur ses produits et nie souvent les demandes d’explications sur des cas de batteries chauffantes ou des écrans fissurés.Chrome OS pour les entreprises se distinguerait de la version de base par l’ajout de fonctionnalités d’administration.A l’occasion de la RSA Conference (qui s’est déroulée du 1er au 5 mars à San Francisco), ingénieur chez Google, Will Drewry a annoncé que Mountain View préparait une version entreprise de Chrome OS, rapporte le site NetWorkWorld.com. Système d’exploitation destiné aux netbooks principalement et architecturé autour de la notion d’application en ligne, Chrome OS est annoncé pour la fin de l’année. Sa version entreprise arriverait en 2011, selon le porte-parole de Google.

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Battery for ASUS G46VW

Both Phil and Bill, another reader who got in touch, complained about a lack of information from DomainMonster throughout the degraded service.DomainMonster's status page – which currently suggests everything's A-OK – was often unavailable during the outage. Replies to support messages were made but these often took days to appear, possibly because festive-period support staff were overstretched.Reg reader Bill pointed out that the latest extended outage of DomainMonster's hosted email service had a similar effect on users, if not necessarily been down to the same cause, as when the service went TITSUP for around a week back in 2014. Bill described the latest problems as a repetition of 2014 events, covered in a Reg article at the time here.The latest outage resulted in multiple frustrated complaints directed towards DomainMonster's hard-pressed social media support team via Twitter.Copies of correspondence forwarded to El Reg provide a timeline of sorts. A day after the outage begun on 22 December, DomainMonster was telling customers it was on top of the issue but there was still a large backlog of emails that need to be delivered.


By 29 December, and without any resolution in sight, the firm began blaming DNS problems for the snafu. It seems the domain was using the old email DNS records, its support staff told our tipster Phil. We moved across to new records recently, however the old set should still work but recently we have had reports of issues caused by the old set.Only by the start of the new year had DomainMonster isolated the issue, which it blamed on a networking problem. We believe that this is a network issue and our data centre team are looking into this, support staff said. This issue seems to be preventing our external and internal email services from talking to each other and this has caused a massive backlog of email.Critics blame poor network architecture choices for creating the problem in the first place. Two of the three listed @domainmonster DNS servers are still down and all three sit behind the same router in London, said one such critic, Alastair Mackinlay, in a Twitter update on Sunday. A spokesperson for DomainMonster has been in touch to say: We are always working hard to ensure our system can be the best it can possibly be for our customers, and this mail connectivity issue was the result of one of our planned system upgrades. We are really sorry for any inconvenience caused, as we know email is one of the most important assets to our customers. We would like to assure our customers the issue has now been resolved.CES 2017 With two Seagate LaCie drive revisions, we see the storage industry doing what it does best at a device level; capacity and connectivity upgrades so as to store more data and get at it faster.



The LaCie d2 and Rugged products are nattily designed by Neil Poulton and are external drives for creative video, image and music workers, or anyone else working on complex collections of files on their laptop or all-in-one desktop. The d2 is a single 3.5-inch drive while the Rugged is a shock-protected 2.5-incher inside a bright orange rubberised case. Both have been given capacity and connection upgrades to cope with storing and accessing, for example, higher-resolution videos and images, and more detailed music files.The Rugged drive is a shock-insulated 2.5-inch drive inside a bright orange rubberised protective case. There was a bus-powered version in June 2014 with 1TB or 2TB disk capacity, or a 250GB or 500GB SSD inside instead. Transfer speeds were up to 122MB/sec from the disk model and up to 387MB/sec from the SSD version.The 2017 Rugged Thunderbolt USB-C has up to 5TB of capacity from its 5,400rpm BarraCuda disk drive. For faster data transfer, there is a 1TB SSD version with speeds of up to 510MB/sec; Seagate saying this is a 30 per cent increase over the previous SSD generation. The disk version transfer speed is up to 130MB/sec.


It gets USB-C connectivity, which combines USB 3.x and Thunderbolt connectivity, supporting 40Gbit/s Thunderbolt 3. The integrated Thunderbolt 3 cable is compatible with Thunderbolt 1 and 2 standards.With Thunderbolt 3, users can daisy-chain dual 4K displays or a single 5K display to a storage device. LaCie has been adding USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 connectivity to its external drives throughout 2016. The USB-C protocol supports gen 1 (5Gbit/s) and gen 2 (10Gbit/s) USB 3.x protocols. Apple's updated MacBook Pro only offers USB-C connectivity, with dongles available to convert from USB 2.0 to USB-C for example.The Rugged drive is shock, dust, and water resistant to IP54 standard, meaning it is protected against drops of up to two metres (6.6 feet), dust, water, and being run over by a 1-tonne car. It can be protected against unauthorised access with separately downloadable AES 256-bit software encryption*, and has a three-year warranty.The Thunderbolt 2 d2 external 3.5-inch drive was announced in September 2014. Inside its Neil Poulton-designed aluminium case it contained a single Seagate 6TB 7,200rpm drive with transfer speeds of up to 220MB/sec though dual Thunderbolt 2 ports. Up to six of these devices could be daisy-chained together and USB 3.0 is also supported. Seagate said there would be a USB 3.0-only model with 3, 4 and 5TB capacities.


This d2 could have an SSD upgrade via a 128GB PCIe flash card installed through the d2’s rear panel.The 2017 d2 has up to 10TB of capacity from a 7,200rpm BarraCuda Pro 3-5-inch disk drive and transfer speeds up to 240MB/sec. It has USB-C and dual Thunderbolt 3 port and supports USB 3.1.Seagate made no mention of any add-on SSD card for the updated d2 and said the new d2 has a 5-year warranty.The new Rugged drive will come in 2TB, 4TB and 5TB HDD and 500GB and 1TB SSD capacities starting at $249.99. The updated d2 drive will come in 6TB, 8TB and 10TB capacities starting at $429.99. Both new Rugged and d2 drives will be available at LaCie resellers worldwide this quarter. Lenovo has a ThinkPad T570 notebook computer coming out which will be able to use Intel Optane 3D XPoint memory as a cache.XPoint is the faster-than-flash, slower-than-DRAM non-volatile memory being produced by Intel and Micron. Optane is Intel's brand, QuantX is Micron's. An Optane cache should be faster than a cache using flash.The T570 will reportedly arrive in March with a 15.6-inch display and a starting price of $909. Expect to pay much more for a top-end model.The specification will include a range of compute and storage options, such as Intel Kaby Lake CPUs, Nvidia GeForce 940MX graphics, 32GB of DRAM, a 4K touch display option and Windows 10, plus the ability to use 16GB of M.2 PCIe-connected Optane cache – when Intel ships it.



Lenovo is providing an Optane-equipped server test bed in IBM's BlueMix cloud.With this spec (PDF) such a notebook with XPoint glamour could make Apple's MacBook line look outdated, out-performed, and vastly over-priced – especially if Lenovo is not alone in enjoying Intel's Optane largesse. The latest Linux 4.10-rc2 build nearly didn't happen because L-triptophaniac developers were Christmassing, but Linus Torvalds decided to set it free as a New Year treat.Explaining the build, Torvalds wrote that “rc2 is ridiculously and uzrealistically small. I almost decided to skip rc2 entirely, but a small little meaningless release every once in a while never hurt anybody”.DAX (direct access for files, which reads from and writes to storage directly) drivers got the most work, with fixes from Jan Kara. Torvalds describes the rest as “trivial small fixes”.Since it's less than a month since the production version of Linux 4.9 landed, there's still plenty of time for the devs to catch up with the graphics, processor support, and broader laptop and mobile targets planned for 4.10. Updated Russian hackers have not penetrated America's electricity grid, in spite of an end-of-year media flurry saying they did.

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Batterie pour Dell Latitude E5420 ATG

Cet iPhone est plus fin que la génération précédente et propose une batterie de plus grande taille. Il propose également une caméra en façade, ainsi qu’un capteur arrière amélioré, lequel profite de la présence d’un flash. L’écran semble présenter une résolution supérieure à celle du 3GS, quoiqu’il propose une diagonale légèrement inférieure.
Un dernier article de Gizmodo précise la capacité de la batterie de ce smartphone.Elle est de 5,25 W-h contre 4,51 W-h précédemment. Ce nouvel iPhone mesure 11,43 x 5,87 x 0,94 cm, pour un poids de 140 grammes. Faute de pouvoir l’allumer (rappel, ce terminal a été désactivé à distance) ou de le démonter, les autres caractéristiques de cette machine ne sont pas encore connues.

Enfin! Il existe au moins un constructeur qui a compris qu’un ordinateur portable capable de fonctionner une journée de travail entière devait devenir la norme, et non plus une caractéristique optionnelle. Ce constructeur, c’est Apple.La compagnie vient en effet de présenter ses nouveaux MacBook Pro. Au menu, une autonomie maximale de 10 heures pour le modèle 13,3 pouces (2,04 kg), de 8 à 9 heures pour la version 15,4 pouces (2,54 kg) et de 9 heures pour le portable 17 pouces (2,99 kg).


Autre nouveauté, le choix des processeurs : Core 2 Duo, Core i5 ou Core i7 suivant les modèles. Du solide. Vous trouverez 4 Go de mémoire vive en standard, extensibles à 8 Go. La partie stockage se compose d’un disque dur classique ou d’un SSD, d’une capacité pouvant monter jusqu’à 512 Go.
Tous ces ordinateurs sont pourvus d’une carte graphique performante : NVIDIA GeForce GT 320M à mémoire partagée, NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 256 Mo ou NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 512 Mo, suivant les modèles.« Avec des processeurs plus rapides, d’excellentes cartes graphiques et jusqu’à trois heures supplémentaires d’autonomie de la batterie, le nouveau MacBook Pro associe performances et efficacité », commente Philip Schiller, vice-président senior worldwide product marketing d’Apple.




Ces machines sont disponibles dès aujourd’hui aux prix de base de 1149 euros TTC (13,3 pouces), 1749 euros TTC (15,4 pouces) et 2249 euros TTC (17 pouces).Avec l’adoption, relativement massive, des premiers iPad, surgissent les premiers bugs. Notamment au niveau du module wifi. Dans une note mise à jour le 5 avril, Apple alerte sur les possibles dysfonctionnements de la connexion sans fil.Il apparaît notamment que la connexion wifi ne s’effectue pas automatiquement au démarrage de l’ardoise électronique ou à sa sortie de veille. « Cela peut se produire avec certains routeurs Wi-Fi bi-bande quand: quand on utilise le même nom pour les deux réseaux; quand on exploite des paramètres de sécurité différents pour les deux réseaux », explique Cupertino.


Autrement dit, ce n’est pas vraiment la faute de l’iPad et il serait facile d’y remédier. Simplement en attribuant des noms de connexion différents pour chaque type de réseau d’une part, et en s’assurant que les paramètres de sécurité sont bien les mêmes pour les deux types de réseaux (WEP, WPA, WPA2…). Ce qui est relativement vérifiable dans le cadre d’un réseau privé (résidentielle notamment) mais moins évident depuis un point d’accès public. « Si les symptômes persistent, conseille Apple, réinitialisez vos paramètres reseau. »Tout en rappelant qu’il est préférable de disposer de la dernière version du firmware du routeur wifi.

La connexion wifi n’est pas la seule à poser des problèmes. La charge de la batterie aussi. Celle-ci s’effectue normalement via le port USB 2.0 d’un ordinateur, de préférence par l’intermédiaire de l’adaptateur 10W USB fourni. Or, certains utilisateurs ont constaté que la charge ne s’effectuait justement pas.Là encore, l’iPad n’est pas directement en cause aux yeux de son constructeur mais plutôt la vétusté des équipements auxquels la tablette d’Apple se raccorde. Autrement dit, les interfaces USB 2.0 des ordinateurs «trop anciens» ne sont pas en mesure de fournir assez d’ampérage pour alimenter l’iPad. Seule solution préconisée dans ce cas, mettre l’ardoise électronique en mode veille pour initier sa charge. Ou changer de PC.Bref, rien de bien dramatique pour l’iPad mais de petits inconvénients qui obligeront l’utilisateur à adapter son comportement. Notamment son utilisation en extérieur en cas de forte chaleur. Certains utilisateurs ont constaté l’apparition de messages les alertant d’une surchauffe de l’appareil… C’est sûr qu’en plein soleil et protégé par un étui, la température doit s’élever au-delà de la limite des 35° Celsius recommandés par Apple. Pour l’heure, aucune explosion de batterie (voire d’écran fissuré) n’est cependant constatée.


En attendant la commercialisation de l’iPad en France prévue pour la fin avril, découvrez en vidéo les premiers usages qu’en fait la rédaction d’ITespresso.fr.En attendant que son modèle indirect porte ses fruits, Dell compte sur la sortie de crise pour renouveler son offre grands comptes.Dell vient d’annoncer sa nouvelle gamme de notebooks Latitude qui, pour mémoire, s’adresse aux grands comptes et secteur public. Un rafraîchissement de gamme essentiellement motivé par l’intégration des nouveaux processeurs Intel Core i7, i5 et i3 annoncés en début d’année.« Nous ne sommes pas forcément en avance sur l’annonce dans les gammes professionnelles, reconnaît Lionel Bohar, directeur marketing de Dell pour l’Europe, mais nous cherchons la stabilité pour répondre aux attentes des grands comptes. » Ces quelques mois de décalage auront donc été mis à profit pour tester processeurs, Centrino vPro et pilotes afin de garantir une stabilité de la plate-forme sur laquelle les responsables informatiques déploieront la même image système sur l’ensemble des machines tout au long de leur cycle de vie.



es Latitude E6510 15 pouces LED (15,6 précisément) et E6410 14 pouces (14,1) visent à répondre aux besoins de performances et de confort des utilisateurs grands comptes: Core i7 et i5 cadencés entre 1,6 et 2,66 GHz avec 3 à 8 Mo de cache de niveau 3, jusqu’à 8 Go de mémoire DDR3 en 1066 MHz ou 1333 MHz, disque dur 500 Go ou 256 Go chiffré, Wifi 802.11 n, WiMax 802.16e, graveur DVD ou lecteur Blu-ray, module de protection TPM 1.2, détecteur de chute libre… Comme habituellement, de nombreuses options sont proposées: Bluetooth 3.0 Dell Wireless 375, lecteur carte à puce, lecteur d’empreinte, etc.

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Battery for Lenovo FRU 42T4783

Razer had been making headlines throughout CES thanks to a lineup of visually compelling (if not particularly practical) demos, including the Project Ariana VR gaming projector, and the Project Valerie notebook, a monster gaming rig that sported a trio of 4K screens and pushed the definition of laptop PC.Though in recent years CES has shifted toward smart cars and wearables, the gaming gear displayed by Razer and other high-end PC builders remains a big draw for the event, and Razer had been claiming a number of awards from the expo floor prior to the demo units going missing.The company says it is working with both local law enforcement in Las Vegas as well as show staff to help track down the nicked hardware. Razer is also requesting that any show attendees who may have information get in touch with its legal department. Pics It's that time of year again, when over 100,000 people cram into the Las Vegas Convention Center to show off the latest in consumer electronics gizmos, make deals, and exchange interesting viruses to get the inevitable conference cough.This year's CE has been about par for the course – dull keynotes, some interesting gadgets and a hell of a lot of dross. We've taken a look at some of these to save you traveling to the fetid hell that is Las Vegas.AirBar: One of the most consistent complaints Apple fans have had about the new MacBooks (besides the poor spec, high price, and lack of upgradability) is that they have no touchscreens.Now, however, Apple and PC owners can add touchscreen capabilities with AirBar, a nifty little device that sits under a laptop screen and scans upwards for finger gestures. It's a cheap and cheerful way of adding a function many people want.


There is a hitch – it uses USB 2.0, so Apple fans will still have to get a converter to USB Type-C for the latest MacBook line. But it's a cunning invention that is unobtrusive and very useful.Samsung Chromebook Plus: With Chromebooks gaining ground slowly but steadily, Samsung has unveiled a couple of new models, but it's the Plus that really caught our eye.It's got a lot of power under the hood, a 12.3-inch touchscreen HD display, supports stylus use, and is double-jointed so that it can pass as a tablet. It can also run Android apps within the Chrome OS, albeit sometimes with limited functionality. But if you're a Chromebook fan it's well worth a look.Alexa on Smartphones: Amazon's personal assistant Alexa might only be sitting in the Echo at the moment, but that will change.Huawei was the first smartphone manufacturer to build Alexa into a smartphone with its Mate 9, but it won't be the last. The technology will be going up against Siri on iOS and Google's Assistant, and its success is by no means certain.



But enough people seem to like Alexa and more competition in this sphere is always welcome. Alexa on mobile may be another Fire-like failure, but Amazon's making a serious play and may pull off popularity.Willow breast pump: At first sight this was heading for the bad category – tech bros telling women how to manage their feeding – but after having talked to some mothers, it looks like rather a good idea.Conventional breast pumps are clumsy and cumbersome devices. The Willow is quiet, can be worn while doing other things, and expresses a baby's nutrition without inconveniencing the mother.The firm will make a lot of money from the consumables (plastic milk bags and sterile tubes), but the idea is a good one and should prove valuable.Autonomous cars: Various motor manufacturers have been showing off their autonomous vehicles and the results have been very mixed.Faraday unveiled its electric supercar, and we're a tad cynical about the whole thing. It's likely to have the lifespan of a snowflake in a blast furnace.Other manufacturers will probably have longer lifespans, but it's still very early days for the self-driving car. Certain functions have been added but we're a long way from never having to drive the commute, and that's assuming legal and liability issues can be worked out.


Acer Predator 21X: OK, we all know gamers pay over the odds for a good gaming laptop, but Acer is asking $9,000 for the 21X and that's more than a touch too much.Yes it has a curved screen, and plenty of grunt under the hood. But bring one of these to a gaming convention and everyone's going to be wondering who has more money than sense – and it won’t be hard to spot the suspects.Yes, gamers spend money. But come on Acer, don't take the piss.Artificial intelligence: It seems as though everyone has a product claiming to have AI built in – but that's not how it works.It's possible to get an intelligent system if you have the processing power and data-handling capabilities, but too many people at CES seem to think that putting a low level of predictive software in something makes it the equivalent of HAL.We've seen people claiming to have AI smartwatches, for goodness sake. If the IT industry wants to avoid AI becoming nothing more than a buzzword, it needs to pull itself together and stop over-egging the pudding.VR/AR: We had hoped to see some real advances on the virtual and augmented reality front, but there was precious little to be seen.



Lenovo had a lowish-cost headset (pictured), but it's very much a me-too device along the lines of Oculus or HTC. There was little added in here to really excite users.There were plenty of startups showing off prototype VR/AR devices but it's unlikely that many of them will see the light of day in a commercial setting. It seems we'll have to wait a little longer for a bold, new, virtual future.Updated DomainMonster finally resolved problems with its hosted email service on Tuesday, more than two weeks after they first began on 21 December.Reg readers affected by the problem were eventually told that a data centre networking issue was to blame for the extended outage. This remains unconfirmed since neither DomainMonster, a UK provider of domain name service, nor its owner Host Europe have provided a substantive response to our queries at the time of publication.Inbound messages were worst affected in the outage, during which email servers hosted by DomainMonster barely functioned form 21 December until Tuesday afternoon, according to Reg reader Phil.Between December 21 and yesterday I received a fraction of normal email volumes (my guess would be a quarter to a third), all delayed, he said. I'm sure that some incoming emails were bounced back to their senders (I sent some test emails) but some did get through. I don't think that outbound emails were affected.

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Akku für Samsung AA-PB6NC6W

Rosenblum Silverman Sutton S F Inc. CA lessened its holdings in NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) by 33.7% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 66,892 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock after selling 34,065 shares during the quarter. NVIDIA Corporation accounts for 3.9% of Rosenblum Silverman Sutton S F Inc. CA’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest position. Rosenblum Silverman Sutton S F Inc. CA’s holdings in NVIDIA Corporation were worth $9,670,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).


Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. State of Alaska Department of Revenue bought a new position in NVIDIA Corporation in the 1st quarter valued at $182,000. DUPONT CAPITAL MANAGEMENT Corp bought a new position in NVIDIA Corporation in the 1st quarter valued at $388,000. Greenleaf Trust bought a new position in NVIDIA Corporation in the 1st quarter valued at $203,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its stake in NVIDIA Corporation by 77.6% in the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 192,836 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $21,006,000 after purchasing an additional 84,238 shares during the period. Finally, Arete Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in NVIDIA Corporation by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,884 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock valued at $314,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.41% of the company’s stock.


NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 10th. The computer hardware maker reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.32. The firm had revenue of $2.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.96 billion. NVIDIA Corporation had a return on equity of 39.59% and a net margin of 27.41%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 56.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.53 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that NVIDIA Corporation will post $3.60 earnings per share for the current year.


The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 24th will be paid a dividend of $0.14 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 22nd. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.33%. NVIDIA Corporation’s dividend payout ratio is 15.86%.



NVDA has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. B. Riley restated a “buy” rating and issued a $135.00 price objective on shares of NVIDIA Corporation in a research note on Monday, May 8th. Pacific Crest restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $90.00 price objective on shares of NVIDIA Corporation in a research note on Monday, May 8th. Zacks Investment Research upgraded NVIDIA Corporation from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, May 8th. Canaccord Genuity restated a “buy” rating and issued a $155.00 price objective (up previously from $125.00) on shares of NVIDIA Corporation in a research note on Wednesday, May 10th. Finally, UBS AG restated a “buy” rating and issued a $132.00 price objective on shares of NVIDIA Corporation in a research note on Wednesday, May 10th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. The stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $144.98.


Launched one year ago, CPU Champ specializes in educating computer owners about different parts of the Central Processing Unit (CPU). According to Terrence, the idea to start CPU Champ was conceived in college while he studied Computer Science. Terrence notes that his deep interest in computer hardware inspired him to launch a site and educate online users how different CPU parts work. Apart from describing different components, CPU Champ also makes reviews for top selling CPU components to help computer owners buy the right components.


“cpuchamp.com was started as a college idea. I had great love for computer hardware while in college and really loved helping people with their computer hardware issues,” Terrence says.


Despite the fact that the Central Processing Unit functions as the brain to a typical personal computer, most users know little about its functions. Most important parts of a computer such as the RAM, hard drive and computer graphics card are all located in the CPU. When one or several of these parts malfunction, the computer will perform poorly or fail to perform at all. According to Terrence, lack of information about the CPU makes computer owners mishandle their machines.


“Lack of knowledge about how CPU components work is a common problem among very many computer owners. Due to that, most people tend to mishandle their computer when a CPU component malfunctions. The end result is usually expensive,” Terrence says.


With the addition of email subscription, Terrence hopes to offer his CPU advice and comparison reviews to as many people as possible.


Das Gaming-Notebook Gigabyte Aero 14 hatte im vergangenen Jahr bereits einiges an Interesse auf sich gezogen und nun legt der Hersteller mit einem noch etwas größeren und leistungsfähigeren Modell nach. Das Aero 15 kann auch zum Spielen genutzt werden, richtet sich aber eher an professionelle Nutzer, die unterwegs häufiger mit leistungshungrigen Anwendungen wie der Videobearbeitung zu tun haben.


Viel erwarten darf der Käufer bei dem Gerät durchaus - immerhin sind selbst die günstigeren Ausstattungsvarianten zu Preisen um die 2.000-Euro-Marke zu haben. Unsere Kollegen von ValueTech TV, bei denen Videos und Fotos zum Arbeitsalltag gehören, haben sich daher einmal genauer angesehen, ob das Aero 15 eine Überlegung Wert ist.



Sicherlich wenig geeignet ist das Notebook für Nutzer, die schon etwas Wert darauf legen, dass man dem Gerät die hohe Investition auch ansieht. Denn besonders edel kommt das Gerät nicht daher. Hier wären dann wahrscheinlich Dells XPS-Serie oder ein MacBook Pro die bessere Wahl. Wer sich vom Äußeren aber nicht beeindrucken lässt, der bekommt mit dem Rechner umso mehr Leistung geboten.


Gigabyte sorgt hier beispielsweise dafür, dass das 15.6-Zoll-Display ab Werk vorkalibriert ist und man auch ohne Spezialwerkzeuge bereits eine möglichst farbechte Darstellung geboten bekommt. Befeuert wird die Bildausgabe dabei von einer Nvidia GTX 1060, die der Core-i-CPU bei den genannten Aufgaben ziemlich viel abnehmen kann.


Auch ansonsten lässt die Ausstattung je nach Bedarf wenig zu wünschen übrig und es gibt auch eine ordentliche Ausstattung an Schnittstellen - von USB 3.0 über USB Type-C mit Thunderbolt 3-Support bis hin zu WLAN nach 802.11ac und Bluetooth 4.2. Das Arbeiten unterwegs wird auch dadurch erleichtert, dass der Akku mit seinen 94 Wh ausreichend hohe Laufzeiten garantiert.


Following the sell-off seen in the previous session, stocks are regaining some ground during trading on Friday. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 are rebounding after ending Thursday's trading at their lowest closing levels in a month.

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Batterie pour IBM ThinkPad X41

Selon la Banque Mondiale, 6 milliards de téléphones portables seraient en circulation. Cela représente 75% de la population terrestre. Des chiffres en constante augmentation qui devraient rapidement atteindre le ratio d’un téléphone portable par être humain.Le succès des téléphones portables et autres smartphones n’est pas prêt de s’arrêter. A en croire la Banque Mondiale, 75% des êtres humains auraient désormais un téléphone portable, et les chiffres continueraient d’augmenter.“Dans le monde, le nombre d’abonnements à la téléphonie mobile – sur forfait ou prépayés – est passé de moins de 1 milliard en 2000 à plus de 6 milliards aujourd’hui, dont près de 5 milliards dans les pays en développement” explique la Banque Mondiale. D’après elle, le ratio d’un téléphone portable par terrien devrait très vite être dépassé.


“La téléphonie mobile offre de formidables opportunités en fournissant un accès basique aux informations en matière de santé, en permettant de régler en espèces, en favorisant la création d’emplois et en stimulant la participation des citoyens au processus démocratique.” Pour toutes ces raisons, les téléphones portables et en particulier les smartphones sont devenus très populaires dans les pays du tiers monde. Que ce soit dans les pays d’Afrique du Nord durant le printemps arabe, en Chine durant les Jeux Olympiques ou dans les pays d’Asie du Sud Est durant les inondations, les smartphones ont beaucoup servi, que ce soit pour capturer des photos, des vidéos ou partager des statuts qui ont parfois permis l’acheminement des secours. Pour beaucoup, les téléphones portables sont devenus des biens de première nécessité.



Lorsque le temps est venu de faire son choix parmi des dizaines de smartphones différents, il peut être fort difficile de trouver celui qui vous ira comme un gant. Le plus souvent, le public se base sur la réputation des constructeurs, sur les conseils du vendeur, voire sur les tendances dans son cercle d’amis. Pour vous aider à faire votre choix de manière un peu plus délicate, nous vous avons concocté un petit dossier…
Les smartphones sont de plus en plus nombreux, variés et proposent des fonctionnalités multiples.Pour beaucoup, c’est l’étape la plus importante. La Belgique ne proposant pas d’offres d’abonnement permettant d’acquérir le dernier iPhone à 1€ ou le Galaxy S3 à 1 cent, il faut impérativement limiter son budget. Les adolescents optent généralement pour des smartphones entrée de gamme (entre 85 et 150€), tandis que les jeunes travailleurs ont un budget beaucoup plus large (250 à 500€), les mordus de technologie peuvent dépenser des fortunes et les adultes qui ne s’intéressent que très peu aux smartphones prennent généralement le modèle le moins cher – se traduisant en paroles par le traditionnel “du moment que ça téléphone et permet d’envoyer des SMS…”


De notre point de vue, il vaut mieux étendre son budget, pour éviter de rechanger de téléphone 6 mois plus tard, sous prétexte qu’on en a déjà fait le tour ou qu’il ne nous convenait pas tout à fait. Élargir ses horizons est toujours une bonne chose, même si au final, on retourne à quelque chose de plus traditionnel…L’utilisateur lambda aura sans doute tendance à opter pour un smartphone entrée de gamme, avec des appareils qu’on trouve facilement à partir de 60€ et qui proposent déjà toutes les fonctionnalités de base qu’on est en droit d’attendre de la part d’un téléphone portable : emails, Facebook, téléphoner, envoi de SMS, jeux, 2G, appareil photo, Wifi et parfois même GPS. Plus les prix grimpent, les plus options fournies avec le smartphone sont modernes, avec l’ajout par exemple de la 3G, d’Office, d’un GPS intégré, d’un écran ultra-résistant, etc. etc.


De quel type de smartphone avez-vous besoin? Si vous n’envoyez que des SMS et vous connectez à Facebook deux fois par jour, un appareil à 65€ peut amplement suffire. En revanche, si vous êtes un mordu de photographie et voulez un appareil qui tienne la comparaison avec un compact, pour pouvoir capturer le moment présent et le partager sur les réseaux sociaux instantanément, alors il vous faudra un appareil nettement plus performant… Chaque smartphone ou presque a des atouts exclusifs qui le rendent plus intéressant qu’un autre en fonction de vos besoins.De notre point de vue, il peut être intéressant de dresser une liste des fonctionnalités que vous aimeriez retrouver dans votre future acquisition, voire de vous poser quelques questions:Pas de secret, il vous faut un appareil 3G ou 4G. Dans ce cas de figure, il y a moyen de trouver des appareils à partir de 150€, mais pour profiter pleinement des formules data, avec téléchargement d’apps, jeux, GPS, etc., mieux vaut investir pour un appareil milieu de gamme (250€).De plus en plus d’appareils proposent une armature renforcée, notamment pour les sportifs. On en trouve facilement à 250€, et ils sont parfois équipés d’écrans ultra-résistants. Pour 85€, vous aurez généralement un smartphone assez résistant niveau coque mais disposant d’un écran qui se griffe beaucoup plus facilement.



Le processeur a ici toute son importance. Un appareil de type Asha vous permettra tout à fait de jouer, mais pas aux dernières révolutions techniques. Mieux vaut donc opter dans ce cas de figure pour un iPhone, un Android milieu de gamme ou un Windows Phone, bien que le catalogue de jeux de ce dernier soit encore limité.De plus en plus de constructeurs proposent des appareils waterproof. Et si l’appareil que vous convoitez tant n’est pas disponible dans ce modèle, sachez qu’il existe des solutions pour étanchéifier votre smartphone. Cela ne signifie pas pour autant que vous pourrez plonger à -50 mètres avec lui durant des heures, mais cela sera suffisant en cas d’accident ou de chute dans l’eau.De plus en plus d’appareils proposent des écrans de plus grande taille. Vous pouvez le demander à ceux qui en possèdent un : difficile de revenir à un plus petit modèle une fois qu’on est passé au XXL. Les smartphones à écran large demeurent cependant généralement plus chers que la moyenne.Lorsque vous essayez les différents modèles, comparez-les toujours aux photos prises avec un iphone 4S. Si les photos sont de moins bonne qualité, elles feront sans doute pâle figure sur les réseaux sociaux d’ici un an. Une bonne optique coûte cependant assez cher puisqu’il faut débourser au minimum 300€ pour des photos de bonne qualité sur smartphone.

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Akku für Dell Inspiron 1570

HIAWATHA, Iowa, Aug. 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Crystal Group, a leading designer/manufacturer of rugged computer hardware will be showing its broad range of fully rugged solutions during DSEI 2017 (Defense and Security Equipment International) at the ExCel Center, London, United Kingdom, on September 12-15 (Stand No: N5-182, USA Pavilion).


At DSEI, Crystal Group will demonstrate how its advanced rugged computer technology can address the changing defense & security challenges found in air, land, naval, security and joint operations. The company will showcase its expertise in designing and manufacturing rugged computers specifically for Size, Weight and Power (SwaP) sensitive harsh military and industrial environments.


Crystal Group's exhibition includes high performance rugged computers and SWaP sensitive rugged embedded computers.


The RS363SF Rugged 3U Server is powered by an Intel® processor and provides high-performance computing and high capacity data storage in a small size SWaP package with a depth under 13 inches (33.02 cm) to fit virtually any rack space. The unit's versatility offers three (3) removeable 3.5 HDD or six (6) SATA/SAS bays. The RS363SF CPU options include Intel Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge or Broadwell designs.


The RE1401 NUC (Next Unit Computing) measures 6.3 x 1.9 x 4.8, weighs only 2 lbs. It is small enough for size-constrained areas yet rugged enough to withstand the harshest environments including shock and vibration. It is ideal for military and industrial installations requiring computer processing and data collection where size and weight are a consideration.


About Crystal Group Inc.


Crystal Group Inc., a technology leader in rugged computer hardware, specializes in the design and manufacture of custom and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) rugged servers, embedded computing, networking devices, displays, power supplies, and data storage for high reliability in harsh environments. An employee-owned small business, Crystal Group provides the defense, government and industrial markets with in-house customization, engineering, integration, configuration management, product lifecycle planning, warranty, and support services.



Crystal Group products meet or exceed IEEE, IEC, and military standards (MIL-STD-810, 167-1, 461, MIL-S-901); are backed by warranty (5+ year) with in-house support; and are manufactured in the company's Hiawatha, Iowa, USA, facility certified to AS9100C:2009 and ISO 9001:2008 quality management standards.


Andra AP fonden decreased its position in shares of NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) by 39.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 25,500 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock after selling 16,800 shares during the period. Andra AP fonden’s holdings in NVIDIA Corporation were worth $3,686,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.


Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of NVDA. RB Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in NVIDIA Corporation during the second quarter worth about $272,000. D. Scott Neal Inc. bought a new stake in NVIDIA Corporation during the second quarter worth about $258,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in NVIDIA Corporation by 46.6% in the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 5,257,325 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $572,695,000 after buying an additional 1,672,231 shares during the last quarter. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. NY increased its stake in NVIDIA Corporation by 6.7% in the first quarter. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. NY now owns 308,211 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $33,573,000 after buying an additional 19,245 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Menora Mivtachim Holdings LTD. bought a new stake in NVIDIA Corporation during the first quarter worth about $17,244,000. Institutional investors own 66.41% of the company’s stock.


The unfinished books of Sir Terry Pratchett have been destroyed by a steamroller, following the late fantasy novelist’s wishes.


Terry Pratchett docudrama reveals moment author realised he was 'dead'

Read more

Pratchett’s hard drive was crushed by a vintage John Fowler & Co steamroller named Lord Jericho at the Great Dorset Steam Fair, ahead of the opening of a new exhibition about the author’s life and work.


Pratchett, famous for his colourful and satirical Discworld series, died in March 2015 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.


After his death, fellow fantasy author Neil Gaiman, Pratchett’s close friend and collaborator , told the Times that Pratchett had wanted “whatever he was working on at the time of his death to be taken out along with his computers, to be put in the middle of a road and for a steamroller to steamroll over them all”.


The news reports that hate groups are growing in size as well as voice is confounding in many ways and deeply disturbing.

First, what does it mean in a person’s life that they get out of bed every morning thinking first and most passionately about the people or groups that bring hate to the mind and heart? Guided by the core of hate, the day passes with anger, hostility and aggression underlying all activities. I know that for some the hate comes from a real or presumed situation. Jobs and economic stability are, and have been for decades, at the core of some of the hatred. It has always been presumed that immigrants willing to work for low wages have taken jobs away from the working class already residing in the United States. So those who are unemployed blame the immigrant or the stranger or the one who is willing to work for low wages. The facts of the situation and the path forward elude the one who is hating because it is always easier to blame others for our problems.



Second, what does it mean in a person’s life that they blame other individuals or groups for their problems? The working world is changing at a pace so rapid it is hard for anyone to keep up. Factories have moved out of the country but those remaining are no longer hiring at the rate or the salary base of even 20 years ago. Robotics and 21st century technology have taken as many unskilled or basic skilled jobs as moving offshore. Statistics are hard to find but it is clear that the factories remaining in the United States do not need the workforce numbers they did even 20 years ago. Blaming other workers for the problem of unemployment might feel good for a while but it is not only wrong but unproductive. A person who wants a good future needs to find ways to become employable — more education or training being the best route to employability. The workforce required by our businesses needs to be skilled, be it mechanical, computer hardware or software, or something else. An example of this problem is the coal mining industry. Coal mining as a profession is finished, much like blacksmithing it is a relic of a bygone era. Coal miners are the current workforce in need of new opportunities. There are so many possibilities for these hard workers but the current government cannot get out of its own way to support new work.


Third, in the 1970’s Alvin Toffler wrote a book called “Future Shock.” He defined this as a condition found in both individuals and entire societies suffering “too much change in too short a time.” Toffler and others posited that in the near future workers would no longer be employed by the same company or even in the same profession for the entirety of their working lives. The estimate was every five years for changing jobs and often careers. Flexibility is the key personally and multi-skilled the key professionally.

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Battery for Toshiba PA3636U-1BAL

PC World told El Reg that 30 days of historic backups should have been available through KnowHow cloud but this is contradicted by the victim herself, who said only two backup points, each from the same day she was infected with the CryptoWall ransomware, were available.El Reg heard about Amy’s woes after a friend of hers got in touch with us and pointed us towards a post (extract below) about her experiences on PC World’s Facebook page earlier this month.Yesterday an email came through which i opened (it was from what looked like a completely standard email address) a virus flooded my laptop instantly corrupting all my files and saved documents getting pass my antivirus, I was thankful for my cloud. I had someone look at it and eventually completely remove the virus but i had to completely reboot and reset my laptop after, i would lose Microsoft Office but I could cope with that.
We logged on to my cloud and to my horror it had updated all my documents to the corrupted version, I was sure it would be ok so phoned Knowhow thinking i would be able to restore from a different date.Knowhow told me it automatically over writes documents and doesn’t keep revisions of older documents and backups. I have lost everything, years of work and important documents that I've worked hard for gone. I was so shocked they don't offer this, even my IPhone lets me select dates i want to restore from.


Do not rely on Knowhow completely, I would have happily purchased a hard dive but was advised this would be enough. Google drive is good too as it keeps revisions. I'm Gutted!!PC World suggested that Amy’s machine might have been infected with the ransomware for weeks before she discovered the problem, a suggestion she strongly denied.It was Cryptowall, Amy said. It came through as an invoice. It wanted me to pay £1000 to get a key to unlock files and the price doubled every 14 days.“I know exactly where the virus came from and had it removed the day it hit my laptop,” Amy told El Reg. “The ransomware had been on my laptop for a matter of hours when it was removed and I contacted Knowhow that evening the same day.”“30 days worth of back up was definitely not available for me to access from my end, I had a choice of two times on the same day, one being when they had backed up with the corrupted files and one later in the day when my laptop had been reset,” she added.Chris Boyd, a senior malware intelligence analyst at Malwarebytes, said that the case illustrates the wider potential shortcomings of cloud-based backups as a defence against ransomware.“In general, cloud backup is another useful tool to help ward off the threat of ransomware, but isn't applicable in all situations,” Boyd told El Reg. “Individuals and businesses may rightly balk at uploading potentially sensitive documents into the cloud where they suddenly have no control over it, and should look into file encryption of their own to ensure nothing valuable leaks.”



“Offline backups would be the best way to go, especially as you have full control over the data at all times. Not all cloud backup hosts offer the ability to roll back to specific dates, which is a disaster in situations where malware butts heads with an automatic upload. Off-the-shelf backup solutions are fine for most things, but should go hand in hand with a layered approach which could include AV [anti-virus], anti-malware and exploit protection,” he added.Asked what expectation its customers reasonably have about the capabilities of KnowHow cloud in mitigating against the growing problem of ransomware attacks, Dixons Carphone (PC World’s parent firm) said its system keeps 30 days of backups by default. PC World is clear in saying that customers shouldn’t rely on its cloud backup service in isolation while simultaneously saying it offers a safety net – one that seems to have failed in Amy’s case, at least.Our cloud service automatically backs up a customer’s machine and keeps on file 30 days of previous back-ups which is why we are able to restore this customer's data.
Essentially this means that any file back up has 30 different back up version any of which the customer could restore from even if an encrypted file has been backed up. However if a customer had not noticed they had a virus for more than 30 days all of the previous day versions would have also been back up as an encrypted file.The back up servers as a matter of course run daily virus and malware scans however these files would not be identified as suspicious as they were not a virus threat themselves.To ensure total protection a customer would also need to run a form for anti virus / malware software on their machine to ensure no threats occur initially.El Reg also asked for a response to Amy's criticism in general – and the point that older files were over-written so she couldn't back up to the last known safe point – in particular. We haven’t had a satisfactory explanation on this point as yet.


Media interest in the case, or perhaps her own dogged efforts to raise the issue on social media, meant that Amy was recently referred to PC World’s Cloud services team, members of which made a spirited go at restoring her files.Amy praised the efforts of PC World staff in attempts to restore her files despite only partial success on this front.“PC World have been nothing but helpful since I had contact with them last Friday, we have managed to save a few files,” she told us. “Although it seems to have been a struggle and definitely not something I could have restored myself.” Analysis UK Chancellor George Osborne's budget may have provided a sprinkling of sweeteners for businesses and middle class savers alongside the headline-grabbing sugar tax last week, but details on digital infrastructure plans were distinctly lacking.No mention was made of the Universal Service Obligation (USO) in the 148-page document, which David Cameron promised last year would give everybody the legal right to request a broadband connection capable of delivering a minimum speed of 10Mbps by 2020.At the moment providers remain in the dark as to whether connecting the last five per cent of the country will be a publicly funded project, much like the previous Broadband UK (BDUK) scheme from 2012.According to Culture Secretary John Whittingdale, £680m will be spent on providing connectivity to 95 per cent of premises by the end of 2017. Yet, given the budget's radio silence on the USO, it might be reasonable to speculate that if money were to be set aside for the project we'd know about it by now.One alternative for creating a dedicated pot of cash for the scheme, is the introduction of a levy on providers – although it has been pointed out that this may be unfair for smaller urban-based providers. It is also unclear whether consumers would pick up the bill.



It also remains uncertain what tech will be deployed to reach the final five per cent. Speaking in front of a select committee last week, BT's chief exec Gavin Patterson said that if the company were tasked with providing a fibre rich deployment under the USO, it would cost up to £2bn. Such a move would not yield a return on investment for BT, he said, noting that a cheaper option would cost hundreds of millions of pounds and include 4G and satellite broadband.Certainly a strategy that offers a range of options for connectivity, and – crucially – a range of providers, is one a number of observers seem to favour.Chair of the Internet Service Providers' Association Chair James Blessing said a number of its providers are already working toward this goal: ISPA supports the objective of a USO, especially in the hardest to reach areas where commercial rollout is challenging. As we await government’s consultation, it is important that the process is open, technology neutral and does not negatively impact existing networks.But Labour MP Chi Onwurah, a former head of telecoms technology at Ofcom, warned that the absence of a strategy could lead to a repetition of what she's sees as BDUK's mistake of hav63ng one just one supplier responsible for the roll-out.

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Battery for Dell Inspiron 15 -1564

You don't know everything about everything, so keep your contact list and rota up to date and accessible. Make sure the company's starters and leavers process is integrated with this list (I wish I had a fiver for every call-out list I've seen that contained people who had left and/or died). Keep the master on a shared server, and have an automated synch on your laptop that keeps your local version up to date. Why the latter? Because you're stuffed if you need to call someone and the master list is on the failed system. (And yes, I've been bitten by that one).What does BCM have to do with diagnosing faults? In a word: time. If something has gone really pear-shaped, you need to be able to focus on figuring out what's wrong and getting it fixed. With a well-structured BCM regime you can invoke the necessary BCM call-outs and let them get on with all the ancillary stuff like informing customers/press/suppliers and helping supply you with more brains and hands to help out; you can therefore get on with the bit that most needs your skills – diagnosing the issue.When you've figured out the problem and fixed the underlying cause, always set aside time to consider (and preferably discuss with others) how and why the problem happened. Reflect on what you did, and what (if anything) could have been done better. Apply these considerations to your documentation, processes, procedures and training. After all, you can spend your life thinking “what if X went wrong” and catering for those ideas in your processes, but you don't get a better “what if” than a real-life failure.


The Skype story on Microsoft's reinvented Windows platform is anything but smooth. When Microsoft launched Windows 8 in October 2012, complete with a new touch-friendly app environment, it included a new Skype application rebuilt for the new modern platform. This is our big step forward together with Microsoft to introduce a completely new Skype experience, which is designed to be always on, immersive, effortless and fun to use, said then Skype exec Mark Gillett at the time.Windows 10, released in July 2015, featured a revamped Universal Windows Platform (UWP), based on Windows 8 but adapted so that application run in windows, and across multiple devices including phone, tablet, Xbox and desktop Windows.At this point Skype seemed to be retreating from the UWP. We’re updating PC users of the Windows modern application to the Windows desktop application, and retiring the modern application, said Skype's Aga Guzik, while also referring to forthcoming task-based apps for messaging, phone and video.In November 2015, previews of those task-based UWP apps appeared, initially on desktop Windows 10, and then also on Windows 10 Mobile. They were not a big hit with users, who complained of bugs and limited functionality. Most users stuck with the desktop app. Incidentally, those on Windows RT (the ARM version of Windows 8) still have the original Windows 8 Skype app.



Now Microsoft is changing tack again. We’re going to deliver a performant, fully featured UWP hub app. Messaging, calling and video all in the same application. You can think about that as ultimately replacing the Win32 app and of course the Silverlight app on Windows Phone, said Barbie Stafford, Director of Product Marketing.Stafford told The Reg that while the task-focused apps tested really well in research, feedback after release was different, especially for desktop and laptop users with large screens. What people actually do when they get their hands on the tech is different from what they said they would do. Our large screen users top request was to bring messaging, calling and video together in one app, she said.The new UWP Skype will be released shortly in preview, as part of the Windows 10 Insider programme, first on PCs and later on Windows 10 Mobile. The initial release will include calls, messaging, availability, emoticons and Mojis (short video clips), photo sending and joining existing group chats. The preview will NOT include some features, including creating group chats, group voice or video calling, and screen sharing, though according to Stafford it will be a fully functional app when it goes into general availability.The user interface for the UWP app will feature an adaptive user interface so that it is suitable for a variety of screen sizes. It also features what Stafford called a streamlined user experience, removing clutter like rarely-used status updates, and eliminating the old-school top menu in favour of right-click options on objects like contacts.


UWP apps require Windows 10, so the existing desktop Skype will continue for users of Windows 7 and earlier, and will remain an option on Windows 10 as well.Microsoft is also persevering with the separate messaging and video apps. We'll continue to add features, said Stafford. Why not make the new app smart enough to replace the task-focused apps by presenting a simplified UI on small screens? I can't comment on that, said Stafford, though logically this is what should happen. Over time we will streamline all Skype for Windows 10 experiences into the Skype Universal Windows Platform app, says the press release, which may imply that this is the plan long-term.In the meantime, it appears that Skype users on Windows 10 will have three ways to make a call, with the most complete set of features still reserved for the existing desktop application.



As a popular first-party application, Skype gave Microsoft an opportunity to show the benefits of Windows 10, but instead it has illustrated the pitfalls of supporting two distinct platforms within one operating system.Browsing the Skype community forums it is also clear that what users most desire is reliable connections and consistent features across all Skype's platforms, and constant changing of mind about what the Windows 10 client should look like does not further that goal.That said, the Skype team is right to move on from the poor existing task-focused Windows 10 applications, and rolling all the features into a single adaptive UWP app does make sense, so perhaps better times are ahead for Skype's 300 million monthly users.The shortcomings of consumer-grade backup services in protecting against the scourge of ransomware have been exposed by the experiences of a UK businesswoman.Amy W, who runs a small business in the Newbury, Berkshire area, was convinced that the KnowHow cloud was the only backup technology she'd ever need1 when she bought a laptop from PC World.Eight months later, however, in the aftermath of a ransomware infection, Amy discovered that the KnowHow cloud backed up all her newly encrypted files and didn't keep any revisions, leaving her unable to restore files from a historic clean backup.

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But if someone gets their laptop nicked from the back seat of their car when parked in central London, they're stupid and the agreement should oblige them to stump up the cost.Before you send any email outside the company, think for a second before hitting “send”. If it has attachments, count to 10 before you do so. Are you sending anything that might be confidential or sensitive? Why are you sending it? Are you sure it's within your authority to send it? Is the recipient authorised to receive it? All users should err on the side of hitting “cancel” and consulting their manager or the company's legal officer if there's any doubt.If your company uses ID badges and card-swipe doors, encourage staff to challenge anyone who's not displaying their badge – even if they know them. You can never be 100 per cent sure that someone is meant to be there.Everyone I've ever worked with who's responsible for premises or security has bemoaned how hard it is to get people not to “tailgate” – that is to let the person in front swipe their entry card then follow them in without doing so yourself. And anyway, we're all taught that holding doors open for people is good manners. It's a security nightmare, though.


For instance, I was once sitting at my desk when I spotted someone whose Windows account I'd disabled a few hours earlier at HR's request because he'd left at short notice. I questioned his presence, and it turned out he'd come back to pick up something he'd forgotten and someone had held the door open for him on their way in. Happily he was a good guy and the separation had been amicable but that's not usually the case. So be strict about tailgating. And it's actually really easy to get the message across – check out item 10 for how to do it.Get your users to report stuff that they think suspicious – either hazardous or with the potential for a breach of confidentiality or process. Give them a way to do so identifiably but with guaranteed confidentiality (never anonymously – you can't follow up). Users are your eyes and ears on the ground – put it across to them that by reporting infringements they're helping the firm.Anyone who has gone through some kind of accreditation for process-based activity (ISO9001, for example) will know that the point of a process is that it's a standard way to do things that ensures uniformity. This doesn't mean that every department has to do things the same way: of course, sometimes you have instances where one or another department has a special system that requires some variation to the standard process.



In such cases you simple encompass the differences in an appendix or a separate sub-process. (My preferred approach is to have a company-wide process or policy that applies to everyone and then detail department-specific stuff separately). What isn't acceptable, though, is for self-important individuals to decide the processes and policies don't apply to them and do their own thing – the common situation being that they're desperate to get a lucrative deal over the line. In a company that doesn't have accreditations, it's bloody annoying and rude. In a company with accreditations, this kind of behaviour has the tendency to cause the ISO adjudicator to take away the certification.If you drill security and compliance into people, some may be tempted to take it to extremes and over-apply it. If it sounds daft, I've seen it. Make it clear that security comes second to safety: if my secure data vault's on fire and I'm inside, I really want you to break down the door and help me out.All of the above must be part of what all users sign up to conform to as part of their contract with the company – whether as employees, temps, contractors or part of some other third-party agreement. It's not a big deal – it should be part of the standard employee handbook, after all – and it's hard to think of a reasonable argument why people shouldn't be obliged to work with the company to keep things private.


Be reasonable and fair when enforcing the rules. I'm a great believer that an honest mistake is an opportunity to learn, and I don't beat people for honest mistakes; I help them understand why they shouldn't have done it that way. But if someone does something grossly negligent, get HR involved.You'll be amazed, when someone gets punted for emailing proprietary information to the competition, how everyone else is suddenly a whole lot more conscious of how they conduct themselves. If you want those new features, you'll need to re-install the whole thing rather than just doing an upgrade. If you're willing to endure that process, go get the trial code here and prepared to endure a 10GB download. Samsung Electronics has announced it's started baking RAM using a “10-nanometer (nm) class*” process and says the 8GB chips it's emitting are the first in the world to be manufactured in this way.Don't start trying to figure out how 10nm compares to the width of a human hair or the head of a really small pin, because that asterisk up there is Samsung's and leads to a disclaimer to the effect that “10nm-class denotes a process technology node somewhere between 10 and 19 nanometers, while 20nm-class means a process technology node somewhere between 20 and 29 nanometers.” Samsung's not saying just how big, or small, this RAM is.Even if Samsung is building at 19.9999999999 nanometers, the product is impressive because it involves “quadruple patterning lithography” and “ultra-thin dielectric layer deposition”. The former technology is all about doing more at smaller scales, so that chips end up with a higher “resolution” of features. The latter is about getting useful substances into useful places and in the case of this DRAM means getting insulators in place to stop current leaking.



Samsung's promising 10nm RAM in modules from 4GB to 128GB, the former for laptops and the latter for servers. All should hum along at 3,200 megabits per second while using about ten or twenty per cent less power than their bulk and clumsy 20nm predecessors.128GB RAM modules will be very welcome for those who operate servers at scale, as they will allow lovely loads of memory. Whether that will still matter once storage and memory all-but merge is anyone's guess. While we wait for that to happen, server-wranglers can dream of amazing density, gamers can dream about even faster fragging and laptop-luggers can dream about being expected to work everywhere, all the time, with even battery life removed as an excuse for not answering emails. Wireless networking is regarded by many as the way to go for corporate networking. No need for expensive structured cabling, no need to re-patch stuff when someone moves desk, and sufficiently secure to make it suitable for corporate use.I am inclined to agree with that last point: rank up the encryption to WPA2-AES and use 802.1x for admission control and you'll do OK. As for the rest... it's just tosh. Wireless sucks for general networking.Those of us old enough to remember Ethernet before the switch was invented will be familiar with how a shared-media Ethernet LAN degraded as you connected more and more devices. And for those who aren't old enough to remember: performance dropped like an anvil thrown off a skyscraper.

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Battery for Dell Inspiron N3010D

The projected image from his laptop came up Page not found – a common occurrence for Chinese internet users who live behind the censorship apparatus built by Binxing and run by the Chinese government.To the audience's amazement, Binxing then tried to bypass the firewall using a VPN installed on his computer – the same tool secretly installed by millions of Chinese to get around censorship efforts, but whose use is heavily frowned upon by officials.As his compatriots looked on, Binxing then had the equally frustrating experience of dealing with a slow and unstable connection to the outside world, with the link falling over twice as he tried to access Facebook and Google.In the end, he resorted to using Baidu to grab a screenshot of the Google homepage and continued with his talk. But a planned question-and-answer session at the end of the talk was abruptly cancelled.Binxing's problems were likely linked to an expansion of the Great Firewall in an effort to remove any mention of the Panama Papers leak story from this week.As has been reported by China Digital Times – a service run by the University of California, Berkeley – the Chinese government has expanded its censorship of news surrounding the offshore banking habits of the world's elites to include not only relatives of high-ranking Chinese officials, but any mention at all of the Panama Papers.


The millions of files from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca show that the families of at least eight current and former members of China's politburo are among those shown to have used offshore accounts to hide or obscure their wealth. The company today offered guidance for its first quarter, predicting sales of about 49 trillion Korean won and profits of around 6.6 trillion won ($5.6bn; £3.9bn).The well-received Galaxy S7 is suspected as the engine of the company's growth, with the new handset helping sales to go 2 trillion won past Q1 2015's effort and boosting profits by ten per cent. Sales are down a little compared to Q4 2015's 53.3 trillion won, but a little thing called “Christmas” tends to help in Q4. Even with the season for giving helping Q4 sales along, profit was 6.1 trillion won for Q4 so there should be smiles all round with this new result.One in five doctors’ mobile devices might be at risk of leaking sensitive data due to either malware or poor password security practices, according to a new study.Mobile threat device firm Skycure reports that 14 per cent of smartmobes and tablets containing patient data likely have no passcode to protect them. And 11 per cent of those running outdated operating systems with high-severity vulnerabilities may have stored patient data on them.



More than four per cent of all Android devices were found to be infected with malicious apps. Skycure estimates that 27.79 million devices with medical apps installed might also be infected with high-risk malware.According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, more than 260 major healthcare breaches occurred in 2015. Of those breaches, a small but significant minority – nine per cent – involved a mobile device other than a laptop.Skycure’s second Mobile Threat Intelligence report is based on worldwide mobile data from Skycure and third-party sources. The firm's mobile threat defence platform conducted 51 million network tests in 2015, and detected the installation of nearly 13,000 malicious apps. The report is based in part on millions of monthly security tests from October through December 2015 and includes both consumer devices and devices under management by Skycure in enterprise organisations. Data crunched as part of the study also includes Skycure’s proprietary Mobile Threat Risk Score, which acts as a credit score to measure the risk of threat exposure for mobile devices.


Looking outside healthcare industry specifically, the study also found that the percentage of devices with passcodes enabled rose slightly to 52 per cent in the last quarter of 2015 from 48 per cent in Q3 2015. The slight increase, which still leaves nearly half of devices completely unprotected, may be due to new devices activated over the December holidays featuring biometric passcodes, according to Skycure.The report also found that users of iPhones and iPads are more protected because they are much more likely to have the most current version of their device’s operating system than their Android counterparts.At the end of 2015, 88 per cent of iOS users had upgraded iOS 9, the most recent major version of the Apple mobile operating system. By contrast, only three per cent of Android users were using Android 6.0 or “Marshmallow” by the end of 2015, a shortcoming that leaves the vast majority of Android devices vulnerable to exploits targeting older versions of the OS.Android upgrade adoption is complicated by carrier and device manufacturer release times, so users in healthcare and elsewhere can't wholly be blamed for this. IT is perceived in mixed ways by users. Some look on the amazing stuff it does and think there must be witchcraft going on in there somewhere. Others think that because they configured their Wi-Fi printer and Sky box at home, they're a genius of computing.



If you're to preserve order, security and governance in the use of your technology, then you need to instil in all your users a handful of simple concepts that everyone from beginner to alleged genius can comprehend.You may think these are all really basic and obvious, and that I'm getting paid money for old rope to list them here … but I'll bet well under half of you reading this will find your organisation conforms properly to more than half a dozen.If you let someone know and use your credentials, they can break or steal something and leave your fingerprints all over the crime scene. Drill into users that they should never disclose their password – not even to the Service Desk when they're trying to diagnose something. As the IT person it's your job to give the Service Desk the right facilities to do their job without needing such access.If you use someone else's login, the chances are they may have access to something you don't. You really don't want to become party to information that you shouldn't know – it will inevitably bite you later. As with the previous note on password disclosure, you should put this point over firmly, but with a clear note that they're doing themselves a favour and covering their backsides by complying.If you issue company-owned portable kit – which usually means laptops and phones – make them sign for it and ensure that what they've signed makes clear that they have personal responsibility to take reasonable care of it. Of course, if any loss or damage incurred is reasonable (getting mugged, for instance, or something being nicked from a hotel room safe) then the company should cover the loss. And, in my opinion, if it's humorous enough (a user once reported the loss of his expensive pager to my team as “We think my three-year-old put it either in the bin or down the bog”) then that's fair game.

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If you think getting knocked around in your backpack on the subway is tough on a computer, try going into space, where radiation and cosmic rays can cause sensitive computer equipment to degrade and fail.


Aerospace company BAE Systems has just announced a new computer it calls "radiation-hardened." According to the company, the new RAD5545 "provides next-generation spacecraft with the high-performance onboard processing capacity needed to support future space missions," and is faster and more power-efficient than its predecessor.


Because it's a single-card computer with all the components on one circuit board, it's smaller, with fewer parts to potentially fail, and it uses specially insulated components to protect against radiation. Long-term trips, such as to Mars, would especially require computer hardware that could stand up to the long-term rigors of space travel.


Hewlett Packard Enterprise meanwhile is trying a different approach to dealing with radiation. It's space-testing relatively ordinary computers with software to detect and correct radiation-induced computing errors.


The FBI lied to the American Center for Law and Justice, says ACLJ's Jordan Sekulow, about having documents and relevant material regarding a meeting last June between former President Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch.


The meeting took place on the tarmac at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport within days of a scheduled FBI interview with Hillary Clinton regarding classified government emails shared on her private computer server.


The ACLJ is trying to uncover the truth about the 30-minute meeting in which Lynch claims she and the former president only discussed his golf game and grandchildren.


When the meeting was first reported, the ACLJ filed a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Department of Justice and FBI requesting relevant documents and information. The FBI responded quickly saying it had no documents. The Department of Justice didn't respond.



An initial document dump of 420 pages received by the ACLJ shows both the FBI and DOJ tried urgently to manage talking points and media spin about the Clinton-Lynch meeting.


Appearing on The Global Lane this week, the ACLJ's Jordan Sekulow discussed efforts to uncover the truth and said the documents show the FBI's security detail may have worked together with former President Clinton's detail, but much of the information has been redacted by the FBI.


Sekulow wants to know what was discussed between the two security details, who requested the tramac meeting, and why.


Sekulow also talked about the recent arrest and indictment of Pakistani computer whiz, Imran Awad. He worked for Democrats on the House Intelligence and Foreign Relations Committees and was accused of stealing computer hardware and sensitive—perhaps even classified information from ranking members including his employer, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D) Florida.


Zweig DiMenna Associates LLC bought a new position in NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 78,544 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock, valued at approximately $11,354,000.


Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in NVIDIA Corporation by 7.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,580,211 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $4,093,612,000 after buying an additional 2,597,209 shares during the last quarter. Edgewood Management LLC increased its stake in NVIDIA Corporation by 21.9% in the first quarter. Edgewood Management LLC now owns 5,987,970 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $652,270,000 after buying an additional 1,074,303 shares during the last quarter. Janus Capital Management LLC increased its stake in NVIDIA Corporation by 20.0% in the first quarter. Janus Capital Management LLC now owns 5,368,881 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $584,832,000 after buying an additional 895,591 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in NVIDIA Corporation by 46.6% in the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 5,257,325 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $572,695,000 after buying an additional 1,672,231 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in NVIDIA Corporation by 499.0% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,104,980 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $447,156,000 after buying an additional 3,419,701 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.55% of the company’s stock.


NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 10th. The computer hardware maker reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.32. NVIDIA Corporation had a net margin of 27.41% and a return on equity of 39.59%. The company had revenue of $2.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.96 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.53 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 56.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that NVIDIA Corporation will post $3.60 EPS for the current year.


The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 24th will be issued a dividend of $0.14 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 22nd. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.34%. NVIDIA Corporation’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.86%.



A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $85.00 price target on shares of NVIDIA Corporation in a report on Wednesday, May 10th. Mizuho reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 price target (up from $170.00) on shares of NVIDIA Corporation in a report on Friday, August 11th. Susquehanna Bancshares Inc reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $140.00 price target on shares of NVIDIA Corporation in a report on Wednesday, August 16th. Bank of America Corporation reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $185.00 price target on shares of NVIDIA Corporation in a report on Wednesday, June 21st. Finally, Roth Capital reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of NVIDIA Corporation in a report on Wednesday, May 10th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, twenty have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. The stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $144.95.


In other NVIDIA Corporation news, Director Mark L. Perry sold 16,281 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.24, for a total value of $2,641,429.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 48,069 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,798,714.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Tench Coxe sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.53, for a total transaction of $8,226,500.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 475,518 shares of company stock valued at $73,752,579 over the last quarter. 5.17% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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I lead the engineer into the living room to inspect the offending IoT device which is sitting lifeless on the floor. She rests the toolbox next to it and, after passing me a torx screwdriver for a few moments, calls up a maintenance manual on the laptop. Her actions leave me no opportunity to make any further cheap sexual innuendo. None whatsoever.Inconceivable though it may seem to Generation Z, when I was little, we used to be visited every now and again by a what we used to call a “television repair man”. He would drive up in a van clearly marked “TV Repairs” and enter the house dressed in a boiler suit. He would throw down rubber mats, tether the TV to a cable leading directly to the Earth’s core and insist that everyone stays well back or, preferably, leave the house altogether and stay in a hotel while he completes the life-threatening process of “re-aligning the electron guns”.This sounded so exciting, like he was in Star Trek or something. In my childish imagination, I remember wondering whether, if two TV engineers should ever turn up at the same address by mistake, they would spring into a fight to the death like Kirk and Spock. Lord knows what I would have thought if any of them had ever turned up at the house wearing a red boiler suit: a gonner for sure.
Over the years, the TV repair man has vanished. Modern TVs are more reliable and relatively cheap to replace, and the options for fiddling around the back of an LCD, LED or plasma unit are not as varied as they were for gigantic CRT sets. TV repair men retrained as satellite dish installers, then got sick of technology repeatedly ruining their careers and ended up retraining as licensed taxi drivers.


However, the commonplace sight of the suburban electrical maintenance engineer similar to the old TV repair man could be about to make a comeback thanks to the groundswell of interest in IoT devices in the home. As with connected and autonomous vehicles, before we know it, IoT will rapidly switch from magazine-article silliness to real-world implementation in everyday domestic items.As those of you who already work in the hardware site maintenance sector, the IoT equivalent of TV repair men will be called “field service technicians”. Instead of labelling their vans “IoT repairs”, they will adhere to the modern tech conceit of idiot hipster startup branding that combines an inability to spell with an inexplicably compulsive fetish for dropping vowels – such as TekRpr, GajFix or BggrAyshn.And they will be in competition with each other in more ways than one. At least the old TV repair man only had to contend with standards such as UHF and domestic current, common to all TV sets. With the IoT, as I’ve mentioned before, there are no standards that manufacturers are prepared to adhere to. Every bloody unit will be using proprietary software components jealously guarded by patents and spewing out radio noise that will conflict with all the other devices in your house. To solve such conflicts, field service technicians can just increase the signal of the devices they have been called upon to fix so that it drowns out everything else.



I can see this ending up with fisticuffs between field service technicians. So perhaps my childish Star Trek-heightened imagination wasn’t far wrong. My advice? Wear a blue or yellow boiler suit and you’ll probably survive.The engineer in my living room has finished rebooting my IoT device. It was simply due a replacement for a slightly worn hardware component, she tells me. But not to worry, she has updated the firmware and next time this kind of issue arises, the device will contact the maintenance centre to put a replacement on order while messaging me a reminder that a maintenance visit might be due shortly.This works by the manufacturers keeping a virtual 3D working model of my unit back at the field service centre, the virtual device mirroring the real-world one.Same as for my self-driving car when the tyre tread is running thin, I think to myself. That’s a good thing. On the other hand, I’ve always hated the way printers force me to replace toner and ink cartridges that aren’t quite depleted. I hope I can choose when and how to replace these things, rather than virtualisation being used as another excuse to extort more cash out of me.


Another professional job done, the engineer sends me my invoice from her laptop and begins collecting her implements. In a plain and thoroughly innuendo-free manner, she asks me for me to hand back the screwdriver.ON-CALL Welcome again to On-Call, our Friday frolic through readers' experiences of being asked to sort things out in the office, or outside it and outside office hours.This week, a pair of responses to recent On-Call stories in which readers confronted secret directories full of decidedly Not Safe For Work images.Reader “Dave” told us about the time he worked at a financial services company and was asked to rebuild a PC.Mere minutes into the job and Dave says “a picture of a lady in a compromising position” appeared.Dave was “called over by the excited teenage build guy who couldn't believe what he had seen.” As a wise older hand, Dave told his underling to just delete the image and arranged for a quiet word to be said to the user when the PC was returned.Said user was having none of it and declared “It must have been the IT guy who downloaded the image.”


“By the time the guy had got back to his desk, his login wouldn't work,” Dave says. “He had to return his PC (which he wasn't happy about) as 'we must have missed a step.' As soon as it was returned, I then started work and the user's manager was subsequently presented with a list of the user's dodgy Netscape history and the names of some images in his cache.”Dave didn't tell us what happened next, but it doesn't sound pleasant because he told us the consequences “Served the guy right for not accepting the slap on the wrist.”Reader “Shawn” has a similar story. Shawn works “at a large multi-national corporation, in IT” and that was recently privileged to make the acquaintance of “a new manager, young and just out of college.”Said manager had a problem with his laptop, so Shawn and his crew backed it up before trying to fix it.That process took rather longer than expected, given that the chap hadn't been on the job for long so shouldn't have had much data to back up.



The cause? Shawn says “those types of files names started scrolling by.”“Long story short, we felt obligated to report it. He had over 8GB of smut on his laptop, and even had them in the same My Pictures folder along side his wedding photos.”“Needless to say, he was terminated that day and walked out by our security folks.”“Just goes to show, some folks can earn a degree, but still be as dumb as a rock. LOL.”You'll get no complaints with that one, Shawn. I've got a degree and look how low I've fallen – Reg hack. So help me out by clicking here to send your tale of odd jobs you've been asked to do at odd times. Good 'uns will end up in future editions of On-Call, all appropriately anonymised of course. The architect of China's Great Firewall was forced to use a VPN to bypass his own creation in a lecture this week on internet safety.Fang Binxing was speaking at his old university, the Harbin Institute of Technology in Heilongjiang, China, when he attempted to access webpages hosted in South Korea as a way to illustrate a point about internet sovereignty.

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Battery for Fujitsu FPCBP331AP

On newer phones, the researchers say, the most dangerous vulnerability – that the attacker can get access to the Android userspace – has been plugged. An attacker can still, however, place calls and send text messages.On older devices (their example is an S4 mini), commands can be used to abuse some Android settings. For example, the AT+USBDEBUG command enables USB debugging, and AT+WIFIVALUE enables the device's Wi-Fi.ACSC 2016 Australians are having their retirement savings accounts drained as hackers move to breach broker platforms rather than the tougher target that is banking infrastructure.The Australian Federal Police AFP are investigating a spike in breaches against devices used by brokers who administer boutique, self-managed superannuation funds. Some brokers manage hundreds of such funds, a service that helps investors who think they can do better by picking their own retirement savings-boosters instead of relying on a larger fund.Self-managing a fund may be financially prudent. But the AFP warns that service providers are not as security-savvy as large superannuation funds.


“Some of these brokers are running Bittorrent, Counterstrike, and then logging into broker software and managing hundreds of accounts,” Australian Federal Police cybercrime team leader Scott Mellis told The Register.The easy target that is a poorly-managed PC means criminals have “tried their trojans and are now moving away from targeting banks,” Mellis added.Mellis says breached brokers have fixed their poor security postures after being notified by the Federal Police.Australians can withdraw superannuation funds before the age of 55 only under limited circumstances.The Australian Securities and Investments Commission says scammers exploit this allowance by using stolen identity credentials to set up self-managed super funds where balances and be transferred and then withdrawn.The free HTTPS certificate service says that not much will change, other than shedding the beta label.Since our beta began in September 2015 we've issued more than 1.7 million certificates for more than 3.8 million websites, the team said on Tuesday.



We've gained tremendous operational experience and confidence in our systems. The beta label is simply not necessary any more.Along with dropping its beta label, Let's Encrypt announced Tuesday that it had signed a fresh round of sponsorship deals, including one with Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which will be joining as a silver sponsor. Meanwhile, Cisco and Akamai renewed their platinum sponsor agreements and Gemalto said it would be backing Let's Encrypt as a gold sponsor. The snafu stemmed from a database crash. Problems first surfaced at 1000 UTC (1100 BST) on Monday and dragged on until lunchtime on Tuesday, as detailed in a series of updates to Symantec.cloud’s client portal (extract below) from Tuesday breakfasttime.Our engineers have advised that the database restoration process is nearing completion with error checking and analysis to follow. Our infrastructure team continue to investigate all possible options to bring the service to production as quickly as possible. Please accept our profuse apologies for any inconvenience caused.
The glitch affected access to the portal and therefore affected customers’ ability to manage their accounts. El Reg understands that the message filtering service offered by Symantec.cloud (formerly MessageLabs) nonetheless operated as normal.


Without this you cannot register/remove email addresses or perform any changes, Jon, one of two Reg readers who notified us about issues, commented. Apparently the $6bn company only has one copy of their Portal database.UK spy agency GCHQ tried to prevent a Harry Potter book from being leaked online, according to its publisher.Reminding people that the listening post doesn't use its extraordinary broad powers solely in the pursuit of terrorism, publisher Nigel Newton of Bloomsbury recalled how he was approached in 2005 by GCHQ after the snoops thought they discovered an early copy of The Half Blood-Prince online.Someone from GCHQ then read out a page from the book to an editor, who said it was actually fake, Newton told Australia's ABC radio. The Sunday Times asked GCHQ for a comment and it responded: We don't comment on our defense against the dark arts.Which is pretty funny if you choose to forget that the agency claims it scours the internet and stores vast databases of information on everyone solely in the pursuit of, er, serious crime and terrorism. IBM Watson Health has closed its $2.6bn acquisition of Truven Health Analytics. The deal is set to bring medical data into Big Blue's health-data business arm, specifically covering cost, claims, quality and outcomes information. El Reg has provided more information on the acquisition here.



Here we go, you’re thinking: yet another puerile SftWS column opening with cheap sexual innuendo. Well, not this time, young Bucky. It’s been four years almost to the day since I first began writing these weekly rantings, so it’s about time I put an end to such smut.Allow me to put things into their proper context. The woman ringing the doorbell is an engineer. She is carrying a metal toolcase in one hand and a ruggedised laptop in the other. See? Perfectly straightforward. No more innuendo from me.Not wanting to waste time, she demands that I show her my Things.OK, sorry, I couldn’t resist – old habits die hard and all that. Let me continue. The engineer has come over to investigate a problem with one of my Internet of Things devices. Things you see? I’m so funny, I could crap myself.My house is full of IoT devices, from stationary items such as my fridge-freezer to those that trundle around the house by themselves all day, such as my vacuum cleaner. One of them has broken down and refuses to self-reboot. The last thing it did before going offline was to send out a distress message to the manufacturer’s service agent, hence the engineer visit.


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Battery for Fujitsu LifeBook E782

What would you do in this situation? We've cooked up a poll that includes Flash's response, plus some sensible alternatives. After you vote, go to page two to learn what really happened.The documents were left unprotected in the folders of the Windows desktops and contained information sufficiently sensitive to cause massive damage to at least three firms.That mess was one of several illustrations Ronaldson offered delegates of the Federal Government's Australian Cyber Security Conference in Canberra yesterday.The co-founder of Adelaide-based consultancy Risk Offensive says corporate sensitive data is being stolen by local and international hackers, taxi drivers and clerks – or simply being lost due to execs' own epic security blunders.“The business centre was jammed with tenders and financial information,” Ronaldson says.“Some taxi drivers get paid a lot of money to hand off information about the people who get in their cabs, to supply their audio and video footage.Ronaldson illustrated other ways executives can be hosed while travelling. One executive for an unnamed Australian firm lost every tender it submitted after a staffer's laptop was compromised at an overseas industry conference.


Those tenders were hoovered up by a rival which used the information to get a cheap head-start on the company.Another individual had blueprints for a new communications system stolen when he was invited to speak on the subject at a foreign industry conference.Ronaldson advised enterprises to enforce a privacy lockdown on executives' social media accounts such as Facebook if the high fliers insist on sharing travel information such as their check-in to airlines' frequent flyer lounges.He says all devices taken on overseas trips must be quarantined before they are connected to corporate networks to mitigate the very real risk of compromise.For best practice, top executives should leave their personal and corporate devices at home and travel with burner phones and laptops.Before you go on your business trip, know the adversary has already watched you, already knows your flight, knows that you love going to the lounge and watching the footy, and that you put your bag down and go for a drink. The specification means makers of USB devices will be able to encode them with information about their source and function. When connecting to those devices, machines like computers or phones will be able to read that descriptor and choose to connect, or not, depending on policies.



The USB 3.0 Promoter group says “For a traveler concerned about charging their phone at a public terminal, their phone can implement a policy only allowing charge from certified USB chargers.” Or perhaps you're worried that your organisation's laptop fleet could be compromised by rogue USB devices, in which case you “can set a policy in its PCs granting access only to verified USB storage devices.” It's not clear if that will allow organisations to specify individual devices, or just devices whose manufacturers have implemented the spec.USB-C needs this spec for two reasons. One is that, not to put to fine a point on it, users are idiots. How else to explain the fact that almost half the people who pick up a USB stick they happen across in a parking lot plug said drives into their PCs. Once USB-C becomes ubiquitous and makes a single wire responsible for carrying power and data, even the dimmest hackers will likely cotton on to the opportunities to craft crooked chargers or other evil devices.The second is that there are lots of scumbags churning out second-rate electronics to make a quick buck. We already know that poorly-wired cables capable of frying kit are enough of a menace that Amazon.com recently banned the sale of non-compliant cables on its digital tat bazaar. If devices flag such kit as sub-standard, or refuse to connect to them, it's therefore a win for all but the junk-slingers.


Details of the spec can be found in the revised USB 3.1 spec (54MB .ZIP file. Feel free to trawl through it for the finer points of the authentication. The TL:DR version is that it “references existing internationally-accepted cryptographic methods for certificate format, digital signing, hash and random number generation,” so it sounds like a conventional issue-certificates-and-check-them caper.Doubtless the revised spec explains the efforts folks behind it tried to make the authentication bullet-proof. And as sure as night follows day, efforts to find loopholes in the spec that make it possible to crank out fake kit that presents itself as authentic will surely commence.A bunch of Samsung Galaxy variants leave their modems open to receiving AT commands over the USB cable, even when they're locked.Before you dismiss the vulnerability as a local privilege escalation (which it is), consider how many people would be happy leaving a locked phone on their desk because you need the code to unlock it.The researchers, Roberto Paleari and Aristide Fattori, write that when connected to a laptop via the USB cable, the phones either automatically expose, or can be forced to expose, a serial interface that communicates with the USB modem.



“This communication channel is active even when both USB tethering and USB debugging (i.e., ADB) are disabled,” they write, “and can be accessed even when the device is locked. An attacker who gains physical access to a (possibly locked) device can thus use this interface to send arbitrary AT commands to the modem. This permits to perform several actions that should be forbidden by the lock mechanism, including placing phone calls or sending SMS messages.”Older devices expose the USB serial modem by default – for example, it turns up on a Linux laptop in /dev as a TTY device. For newer units, the attacker would have to switch the device to USB configuration number 2 – but the phone doesn't have to be unlocked for that to happen, as the researchers explain:“For our PoC we developed a very rough C tool, usbswitcher, that switches any attached Samsung device to USB configuration #2 (this is fine for the devices we tested, but your mileage might vary). The tool uses libusb to do the job, but the same task can probably be accomplished using the /sys/bus/usb pseudo-filesystem.
The trick we used to force the phone to switch the configuration is to first reset the USB device (via usb_reset()), and then switching the configuration (via usb_set_configuration()). Sometimes it doesn't work at the first try, so just run usbswitcher twice to ensure the configuration is switched properly :-)”

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Batterie pour ASUS UX31E Ultrabook

Ce mardi, le fabricant de drones chinois DJI a dévoilé deux nouveaux drones qui promettent d’apporter une nouvelle norme dans l’imagerie aérienne. Découvrez le Inspire 2, qualifié comme la « plateforme prête à voler pour le cinéma professionnel et les créateurs de contenu vidéo », et le Phantom 4 Pro, qui promet d’être « la caméra volante la plus créative et la plus intelligente dans ce format ». Donc, peu importe où vos aventures vous emmènent, ces drones sont prêts à vous aider à mémoriser vos meilleurs souvenirs.« Les cinématographes et photographes professionnels cherchent toujours à aller plus loin et à créer des images jamais vues auparavant. Chez DJI, nous cherchons toujours à leur donner les outils pour qu’ils réalisent leur vision », a déclaré Frank Wang, PDG et fondateur de DJI. « Nos nouvelles plateformes de vol et caméras aériennes stabilisées sont plus intelligentes, plus rapides et plus puissantes que jamais », poursuit-il.Prenez, par exemple, le Inspire 2. Ce dernier bénéficie d’une impressionnante vitesse maximale de 108 km/h, et est capable de passer de 0 à 80 km/h en seulement 4 secs. Le drone dispose d’une caméra orientée vers l’avant, qui donne une vision adéquate au pilote. Le cadreur reçoit le flux vidéo de la caméra professionnelle Zenmuse fixée sur la nacelle. Il est compatible avec les nouvelles caméras Zenmuse X4S et X5S et avec d’autres caméras prochainement. Et, grâce au nouveau système de traitement d’image nommé CineCore 2.0, de gros fichiers d’image peuvent être traités plus rapidement que jamais.


Le Inspire 2 peut capturer des vidéos en 5,2 K à 4,2 Gb/s pour le format Adobe Cinema DNG RAW, et même si vous capturez de la vidéo tard dans la nuit, soyez rassurez, son temps de vol est décent. Après tout, son système à double batterie assure un temps de vol est de 27 min, et assure un retour au point de départ sûr. En cas de panne d’une des batteries, l’autre fournira suffisamment de puissance pour faire demi-tour.Une série d’accessoires DJI puissants sont là, et répondront aux besoins des opérateurs dans des conditions de tournage variées.Quant au Phantom 4 Pro, ce drone promet un système d’imagerie puissant pour les créateurs de contenu vidéo ou photo, mais aussi pour les non-professionnels. Avec un capteur de 20 mégapixels et la plage dynamique de presque 12 diaphragmes, la caméra sur le Phantom 4 peut vous aider à capturer des niveaux de détail et des performances de faible luminosité sans précédent dans un appareil volant de cette taille. Grâce à la fonctionnalité FlightAutonomy, le Phantom 4 Pro peut éviter des obstacles, même dans des environnements 3D complexes, et éviter un atterrissage sur des surfaces accidentées ou sur de l’eau.



Ce drone dispose également ActiveTrack, qui reconnaît des sujets tels que des personnes et des vélos, puis les suits de tout angle, tout en maintenant une mise au point de la caméra. Vous serez ainsi suivi en permanence, avec une excellente qualité.Le Phantom 4 Pro est équipé d’une technologie de batterie haute performance qui fournit un temps de vol de 30 minutes. Il vole à une vitesse de 50 km/h en mode P, avec le système d’évitement d’obstacles actif, et atteint un maximum de 72 km/h en mode sport.Le prix du Phantom 4 Pro est de 1 699 euros avec une radiocommande standard. Le Phantom 4 Pro+, qui inclut un drone Phantom 4 Pro et une radiocommande avec un écran intégré à forte luminosité, sera disponible pour 1 999 euros. Le drone Inspire 2 est quant à lui vendu au prix de 3 399 euros. Le Combo Inspire 2, qui inclut un drone Inspire 2, une caméra Zenmuse X5S, les clés de licence CinemaDNG et Apple ProRes, est disponible pour 7 098 euros.Depuis l’avènement de l’iPad, Apple a répondu aux questions concernant la possibilité pour les ordinateurs Mac d’un écran tactile. Si Microsoft gère ceci avec l’impressionnante gamme Surface, pourquoi pas Apple ? Selon le vice-président senior du marketing d’Apple, Phil Schiller, il n’est pas si simple de glisser un écran tactile sur ses Mac.


En fait, il est allé jusqu’à qualifier le concept « d’absurde » dans une interview accordée à BackChannel, étant donné les défis que cela poserait à la gamme Mac dans son ensemble.« Nous pensons à l’ensemble de la plate-forme d’ordinateurs de bureau », a déclaré Schiller. « Si nous devions faire du multi-touch sur l’écran d’un ordinateur portable, ce ne serait pas suffisant. Pouvez-vous imaginer un iMac de 27 pouces avec une telle expérience ? Essayez de toucher et de faire des choses sur une telle surface. Cela devient absurde », précise Schiller.C’est clairement une problématique de fragmentation. Tandis que les appareils iOS disposent légitimement d’un écran tactile, et qu’ils partagent une interface semblable (même en tenant compte de l’iPad Pro et son Pencil), Apple ne tient pas à avoir des écarts d’ingénierie entre les expériences macOS à travers les dispositifs.L'idée d'un iMac tactile ne sera qu'un rêveL’idée d’un iMac tactile ne sera qu’un rêve
Cela est particulièrement évident lorsque l’on tient compte de la façon dont nous utilisons abondamment la souris et le touchpad. « Vous ne pouvez pas optimiser l’expérience pour les deux », a ajouté Phil Schiller.Cela ne veut pas dire qu’Apple n’a pas expérimenté l’idée, puisque Phil admet que la société a travaillé sur les Mac à écran tactile « un certain nombre de fois au cours des dernières années ». Mais ceux qui ont l’espoir d’un écran tactile pour un Mac devront soit patienter, soit aller voir la concurrence.Mozilla a commencé à mettre à jour le navigateur des utilisateurs vers Firefox 50. L’attraction principale de la nouvelle version du navigateur est le démarrage plus rapide, en particulier pour les utilisateurs ayant beaucoup d’extensions installées. Mais, il y a beaucoup d’autres améliorations pratiques pour améliorer votre navigation quotidienne.



Mais ce qui devrait jouer le plus en faveur de la Surface, ce n’est pas tant son prix mais bien ses caractéristiques. Tout d’abord, l’appareil tourne sous Windows 8, ce qui lui promet un bel avenir côté applications et fonctionnalités. Ensuite, elle est issue d’un système beaucoup plus ouvert que celui de l’iPad, ce qui ouvre aussi de nouvelles possibilités aux possesseurs de cette tablette… Côté connectivité par exemple, elle pourra compter sur un port USB 2.0, une sortie audio jack et une sortie vidéo HD. Compatible Wifi et Bluetooth elle embarque pratiquement toutes les mêmes fonctionnalités que celles de l’iPad de dernière génération avec un écran un peu plus large mais une moins grande densité de pixels. Ses plus gros atouts? Son côté professionnel, ses caractéristiques hybrides et surtout son clavier détachable.