PC Advisor News

Google Glass Explorer edition pops up on San Francisco Craigslist for $6500

pcadvisor@idg.co.uk (Evan Dashevsky) — Sat, 18 May 2013 15:07:00 GMT

A lot of people were confused at the seeming randomness of who Google picked for the privilege of paying $1500 to get their heads into the Google Glass Explorer edition. But for those who can't wait until Google decides to release Glass to the masses early next year, the Internet has come to the rescue.

Bitcoin finding its feet at first Silicon Valley conference

pcadvisor@idg.co.uk (James Niccolai) — Sat, 18 May 2013 08:13:00 GMT

Bitcoin is growing up. The virtual currency that caught the public's attention last month when its value zoomed briefly past US$200 kicked off its first Silicon Valley conference Friday evening and shows no sign of losing momentum.

iPhone 6 rumor rollup for the week ending May 17

pcadvisor@idg.co.uk (John Cox) — Fri, 17 May 2013 23:16:00 GMT

There's nothing like exclusive, high resolution, leaked photographs of arcane internal iPhone components to trigger the gaga reflex in the iOSphere. It takes skill, honed by long experience with rumoring, to read into them far, far more than is actually there.

No big-bang Apps news at I/O, but some announcements merit attention

pcadvisor@idg.co.uk (Juan Carlos Perez) — Fri, 17 May 2013 22:58:00 GMT

Apps, Google's flagship product for enterprise IT, had a minor presence at this week's I/O developer conference, but some announcements at the show and in prior weeks deserve attention from customers of the cloud email and collaboration suite.

Will the Feds ever relax the rules on using phones in flight?

pcadvisor@idg.co.uk (Christopher Null) — Fri, 17 May 2013 22:48:00 GMT

Hop on an Emirates flight in Dubai and get up to cruising altitude. You realize you forgot to tell your assistant to make some crucial plans when you arrive at your destination. No problem: Just take out your cell phone and make a quick phone call.

Transaction transformation

pcadvisor@idg.co.uk (Hamish Barwick) — Fri, 17 May 2013 22:46:00 GMT

Like many banks in Australia, ME Bank is undertaking a technology transformation designed to lower costs and improve customer services. In this case however it doesn't have bricks and mortar branches to worry about.

Could a Tumblr deal fix Yahoo's square reputation?

pcadvisor@idg.co.uk (Caitlin McGarry) — Fri, 17 May 2013 22:44:00 GMT

Yahoo needs to prove its street cred to get in with the under-30 crowd, so the company is reportedly mulling a $1 billion bid for Tumblr, the social network where animated GIFs and all sub-genres of cats run amok.

Hackers get busy with Glass at Google's invitation

pcadvisor@idg.co.uk (John P. Mello Jr.) — Fri, 17 May 2013 22:43:00 GMT

Google got a leg up on those who would tinker with its digital peepers by demonstrating its own hacks of its gadget at the I/O show for developers this week.

Petcube lets you entertain your cat with a laser pointer over the Web while you're at work

pcadvisor@idg.co.uk (Evan Dashevsky) — Fri, 17 May 2013 22:40:00 GMT

Cats are idiots. Like epically stupid. If you point at something, instead of looking at what you're pointing to, a cat will just sniff at your finger. That's major league dumb. You can absolutely blow a kitten's puny useless brain with little more than a laser pointer. To them, a moving red dot is a Super-Bowl-a-second of excitement. Simpletons.

At Google I/O, developer services hogged the spotlight

pcadvisor@idg.co.uk (Zach Miners) — Fri, 17 May 2013 22:37:00 GMT

Forget Glass, self-driving cars or a smartwatch. Developers, not physical consumer products, were Google's darlings at the company's annual I/O conference this week.

Android retains lead over Apple

pcadvisor@idg.co.uk (Stephanie McDonald) — Fri, 17 May 2013 22:30:00 GMT

Android has remained at the top of the leader board when it comes to smartphones, according to the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker report.

Digital Reading Room: Light my fire

pcadvisor@idg.co.uk (Jeff Merron) — Fri, 17 May 2013 22:10:00 GMT

[As tablets get more powerful, with more memory and sharper-looking screens, their apps are getting a makeover. Increasingly, mobile apps employ multimedia--combining words, pictures, audio, and video--in new and interesting ways. In our Digital Reading Room series, we'll look at some eye-catching multimedia apps and tell you which ones deserve a place on your mobile device.]

Researchers uncover new global cyberespionage operation dubbed SafeNet

pcadvisor@idg.co.uk (Lucian Constantin) — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:44:00 GMT

Security researchers from Trend Micro have uncovered an active cyberespionage operation that so far has compromised computers belonging to government ministries, technology companies, media outlets, academic research institutions and nongovernmental organizations from over 100 countries.

Newvem expands to monitor Azure and Amazon clouds

pcadvisor@idg.co.uk (Brandon Butler) — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:29:00 GMT

Newvem, which sells a tool that allows users to track and optimize their use of cloud computing resources, has expanded its software's functionality to monitor not just Amazon Web Services, but now Microsoft Azure now as well.

Hands on: New photo features in Google challenge Facebook and Twitter

pcadvisor@idg.co.uk (Jackie Dove) — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:55:00 GMT

Google put a new spin on its Google social network with a no muss, no fuss set of automatic photo enhancement features. After setting up a few enabling controls, Google will curate, auto enhance, and attach special effects to your images.

Hands-on: Google's All Access music service is still a rough cut

pcadvisor@idg.co.uk (Jonathan Seff) — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:47:00 GMT

On Wednesday, Google joined the likes of Spotify, Mog, Rdio, Rhapsody, and Slacker with the U.S. launch of its Google Play Music All Access subscription music service. For $10 a month (or $8 a month if you sign up before the end of June) you get access to untold millions of tracks on Android phones and tablets, as well as via your Web browser.

Google becomes an attractive network still without a niche

pcadvisor@idg.co.uk (Caitlin McGarry) — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:20:00 GMT

Google owns us, hook, line, and sinker. It manages our e-mail, calendar, and documents. We chat with friends on Gchat or Hangouts, watch videos on YouTube, find our way around with Google Maps, and many of us use Android smartphones and tablets.

Banking privacy prevails over copyright enforcement, Dutch court rules

pcadvisor@idg.co.uk (Loek Essers) — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:00:00 GMT

Privacy laws protecting bank account holders are more important than providing information to aid in copyright enforcement, according to a Dutch court ruling this week.

Orange aims to strengthen West African services with training program

pcadvisor@idg.co.uk (Olusegun Abolaji Ogundeji) — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:56:00 GMT

Orange plans to bolster its services in West Africa with a new facility in Dakar, Senegal, that will offer development programs for managers of the mobile service in the region.

Google I/O After Hours: Robot bartenders, augmented reality and Billy Idol

pcadvisor@idg.co.uk (Jon Gold) — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:32:00 GMT

Despite being generally great people with scintillating social skills and lots of interesting things to say, technology reporters unaccountably don't get invited to a lot of parties. I can't understand why.

Former Amazon cloud engineer spills to Reddit audience

pcadvisor@idg.co.uk (Brandon Butler) — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:32:00 GMT

Usually Amazon Web Services, which many consider to be the leader in the infrastructure as a service (IaaS) cloud computing market, is pretty hush-hush about the internal workings of its massive cloud.

Big Data Investigations: Opportunity and Risk

pcadvisor@idg.co.uk (Taylor Armerding) — Fri, 17 May 2013 12:01:00 GMT

Experts say large-scale security analytics can cut through the noise to find key intelligence. But connecting the dots can lead to legal trouble

Experts ding DHS vulnerability sharing plan as too limited

pcadvisor@idg.co.uk (Antone Gonsalves) — Fri, 17 May 2013 12:00:00 GMT

Without universally availability, plan could miss smaller businesses hackers could use as an entry point to critical infrastructure companies

LulzSec members sent to prison for infamous DDoS attacks

pcadvisor@idg.co.uk (John E Dunn) — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:58:00 GMT

Four members of the infamous and largely British LulzSec hacking group that carried a string of high-profile DDoS attacks in 2011 have been handed relatively lenient prison terms of up to 32 months by the judge at Southwark Crown Court.

BlackBerry 10.1 update now available in Australia

pcadvisor@idg.co.uk (Ross Catanzariti) — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:57:00 GMT

BlackBerry has released the first major update to its BlackBerry 10 operating system for smartphones, less than two months after the company first unveiled it in Australia back in March.