2013年8月29日星期四

Parallels Desktop is presently offered like a $50 upgrade

  Enjoyment of managing Home windows or Linux apps on your own Mac? Which is correct in Parallels Desktop’s wheelhouse, and model nine, which debuted on Thursday, adds far more functions on the virtualization program. But although this system is now accessible being an enhance for current users of Parallels Desktop seven or 8, the complete version will not go on sale until finally following 7 days.
  Among the the most important new options of Parallels Desktop nine is optimized guidance for cloud storage companies like iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive windows 7 professional retail version, Microsoft’s SkyDrive, and much more. You can sync files involving your Mac and your Home windows digital machine without having obtaining the documents duplicated, as a result conserving you precious disk place. And talking of sharing attributes among your Mac and Home windows VM, there is now only one Security Middle for making use of a complimentary security program subscription for both your Mac and Windows VM.
  Mac aficionados can now benefit from a quantity of Apple-like attributes of their Home windows digital equipment, also. For example, there is guidance for Mountain Lion’s Ability Nap feature on Retina MacBook Professionals and MacBook Airs, permitting you retain your Home windows virtual machine’s applications up-to-date regardless if your pc is sleeping. In addition, you may now utilize the three-finger-tap in Home windows apps to seem up words in OS X’s Dictionary, link storage volumes to your Home windows VM by way of Thunderbolt and FireWire, and print to a PDF in your Mac desktop suitable from any Windows software.
  Also existing is improved aid for Windows 8 and 8.1, which includes the return in the genuine Start out menu, and the ability to operate present day UI apps in a very window, somewhat than just fullscreen. Enhancements on the Digital Equipment wizards simplify putting together a whole new VM, even when you don’t have a DVD drive on your Mac; there is also better aid for connecting to an exterior keep track of though jogging Parallels Desktop in fullscreen method, and editable keyboard shortcuts help it become simpler for people to tweak their Home windows setup.
  Parallels Desktop is presently offered like a $50 upgrade for existing people of Parallels Desktop seven or 8; individuals who purchased Parallels Desktop eight on or following August fifteen can enhance without cost.
  New consumers, even so, will likely have to attend until September 5, if they can decide the app up for $80. A university student version will run $40, whilst the Swap to Mac Edition, which include excess resources emigrate from a Pc to the new Mac, prices $100. Also provided with Parallels Desktop 9, for the constrained time only, is usually a no cost six-month demo subscription for the company’s just lately released Parallels Access, which helps you to access your Mac apps from the iPad.

2013年8月18日星期日

Can Next Gen Phones Deliver Next Gen Security?

  We're deeply connected to our phones, and keeping them safe and secure is critical, which is why I'm glad to see companies starting to add advanced security options to new phones. From Motorola to Apple, built-in security features might be more common in future devices.
  Biometrics In Your Hand
  In the past, we've looked at some rather exotic efforts to bring multi-factor authentication and biometrics into the smartphone experience. The trick is that many of them often require secondary devices, or unusual user interaction.
  Apple might change all that with an expected forthcoming refresh to the iPhone line. If you believe the rumors, then the next iteration of the iPhone might feature a fingerprint reader embedded into a sapphire-coated Home button.
  If true, this could go a long way toward securing iPhone users. For one thing, using the Home button is an established iPhone user operation; people won't have to learn a new trick to make it work. For another, the most common way to secure an iPhone is with a four-digit PIN. You can opt to use a far more complex passphrase lock, but hardly anyone does. Fingerprint scanning could be a dead-simple way to stay secure.
  Perhaps more importantly, an embedded fingerprint scanner could allow app developers to incorporate tighter security into their apps. Imagine, if you will, logging into your bank with a finger print (and then also a two-factor security code, just to be safe). With Apple putting passwords on the cloud with iOS 7, more security sounds good to me.
  Skip a PIN
  On the Android side of the house, Motorola announced a new accessoryfor their Moto X phone called the Skip. I've already got some issues with the Moto X, and the Skip seems like an interesting—if problematic—tool. It's basically an NFC clip that you wear on your clothes that takes the place of a PIN code. When you need to unlock your Moto X, just tap it against the Skip and voila! Your phone "skips" the PIN code and is unlocked.
  In addition to the Skip clip, Motorola is providing Skip dots—or stickers that provide the same unlocking function of the Skip. The idea is that these create "zones" where you can interact with the phone, specifically the voice-activated Google Now features (which I still find kind of creepy).
  It's unclear to me if the Skip is actually more secure than using only a PIN code. Setting aside any kind of bizarre near-field attacks, you can still unlock the phone with a PIN code as a backup so it's not a radically more complex method of securing the phone.
  What it might do is encourage more users to use a PIN code in the first place, and keep their phones locked. In my discussions with security experts, I'm frequently told that the number of Android users that simply leave their phones unsecured is disconcertingly large. With Skip and Skip dots, PINs might be less of a hurdle for users.
  Looking Ahead
  We spend a lot of time on SecurityWatch considering how to handle worst-case scenarios, rather than preventing them. Personally, I've been pleased to see phone manufacturers start taking a more proactive security stance, particularly for the physical security of devices. Google launching the Android Device Manager last week, and rumored updates to the iPhone warm the cockles of my heart.
  But it's still just a start. Biometrics haven't made significant inroads on any device, and forthcoming technologies like Google Glass still seem a long way from being secure. Hopefully, the brains behind the electronic toys will continue baking in device security.

The incredibly first month that Microsoft releases safety updates

  Microsoft has reminded, cajoled, and pleaded with customers to move off of Windows XP prior to help for its old OS expires subsequent year. Now Microsoft warns users that they might be topic to “zero-day” threats for the rest of their lives if they don’t migrate.
  “The incredibly first month that Microsoft releases safety updates for from windows7prokeys.com supported versions of Windows, attackers will reverse engineer these updates, obtain the vulnerabilities, and test Windows XP to determine if it shares those vulnerabilities,” he wrote. “If it does, attackers will try to create exploit code that can make the most of these vulnerabilities on Windows XP. Because a security update will never turn into available for Windows XP to address these vulnerabilities, Windows XP will primarily have a ‘zero-day’ vulnerability forever.”
  Zero-day vulnerabilities refer for the way in which hackers can attack an operating system or other code prior to a patch is released, fixing the vulnerability. Due to the fact Microsoft will never ever patch Windows XP once more following April 2014, ultimately some vulneability that impacts XP is going to be found.
  Among July 2012 and July 2013, Windows XP was an affected product in 45 Microsoft security bulletins. Thirty of these also affected Windows 7 and Windows eight, Rains wrote.
  Rains acknowledges that some protections in XP will help mitigate attacks, and third-party antimalware computer software could give some protection.
  “The challenge right here is the fact that you will under no circumstances know, with any confidence, if the trusted computing base in the system can actually be trusted mainly because attackers might be armed with public knowledge of zero day exploits in Windows XP that could allow them to compromise the technique and possibly run the code of their option,” Rains wrote.
  That is precisely the same argument that some have not too long ago employed, claiming that hackers will “bank” their zero-day XP attacks until soon after subsequent April, then unleash them on the unprotected herds of XP machines. As Rains notes, the sophistication of malware has only enhanced, which means that your XP machine is even more vulnerable, not much less. PCWorld’s Answer Line columnist, Lincoln Spector, agrees.
  The issue that some XP users have is the fact that they’re so in enjoy with the way that Windows XP does factors that they’re reluctant to migrate, specifically to Windows eight. Well, Windows 7 machines do exist, that provide functionality similar to XP: here’s how to find them.
  The bottom line is this: even though Microsoft stands to obtain from arguing that consumers have to upgrade, the truth is: they do. So when you are nevertheless on Windows XP, begin contemplating a migration method.

2013年8月2日星期五

Though it is not surprising that customers are eager

  Windows 8 keeps clawing its way up the market place share charts, but not in the expense of Windows 7 or Windows XP.
  According to Netmarketshare, Windows 8’s market place share now stands at five.four %, up 0.three % from a month ago when it ultimately surpassed Windows Vista. After once again, Vista’s market share declined last month, this time by about 0.38 %, to a total of four.24 %.
  Meanwhile, Windows 7 and Windows XP are holding powerful. In truth, Windows 7’s market place share enhanced final month by 0.12 %, and Windows XP saw a 0.02 % bump in industry share regardless of the looming end of XP help by Microsoft. Each Windows 7 and XP remain the most widely-used operating systems by far, with 44.49 % and 37.19 percent of your industry, respectively, in accordance with Netmarketshare.
  In other words, any marketplace share that Windows 8 gained last month seems to be in the expense of Windows Vista.
  Though it is not surprising that customers are eager to upgrade from the widely-panned operating program, finding people today to switch from XP or Windows 7 may possibly be tougher for Microsoft, especially among users who need to stick using a conventional desktop interface.
  Windows 8.1 will make some concessions for all those users, with all the return with the Begin button, a boot-to-desktop choice, quicker access to sophisticated desktop functions, plus a strategy to prevent modern-style menus from popping up during desktop use.
  But ultimately, Microsoft and Pc makers have to convince the masses that they want to upgrade their hardware to touch-enabled laptops, hybrids, or desktops. Less costly touchscreen devices could help on that front, but it’ll most likely be a though before the marketplace share needle moves a lot for Windows XP and Windows 7.

When you see your gamer card we want you to see your

  The Microsoft Xbox One isn't quite ready for primetime. In the weeks since its E3 debut, the console has had some work done, including new features and upgrades.
  Xbox executive Marc Whitten confirmed the changes today in a podcast with Larry Hyrb, director of programming for Xbox. Whitten revealed that Microsoft has built a driver specific to the Xbox One, and boosted the clock speed on the GPU.
  "Since E3 we've dropped in what we internally call our 'mono driver,'" Whitten said. "It's our graphics driver that really is 100 percent optimized for the Xbox One hardware."
  As the development team inches closer to their final product, they are able to better modify the system and see precisely how the hardware works — "the time where you start tweaking the knobs because either your theory was right dead-on or you were a little too conservative or you were a little too aggressive," Whitten said.
  That resulted in an increased clock speed on the GPU from 800 MHz to 852 MHz.
  The discussion also touched on the new Smart Match system, which uses advanced algorithms to pair players based on skill, language, and now reputation.
  "We're really getting into our ability to rethink how we do matching to make sure you get into the matches that you want and that game developers really have the ability to tailor those around both your skill — which has always been something we've spent a lot of time on — but also a lot of other factors," Whitten said in the podcast.
  Whitten explained that Xbox 360 players currently have to put gameplay on hold and wait for players to join a game. But with Xbox One , players can do other things - play another title, find new downloadable content, or surf Reddit - while the system matches them up in the background and sends an alert when the game is ready.
  The new match-by-reputation feature aims to reward positive behavior, making it easier for users to play others with the same level of repute.
  "When you see your gamer card we want you to see your reputation, we want you to be able to see the reputation of the people you're playing with or your friends," Whitten said. "We want it to be front and center. We want it to be something you can track, that you understand where you are. Then we also want it to … be able to fit back into the system so that it's a real part of how the system works, end-to-end."
  Meanwhile, the Microsoft team will continue internal beta testing, integrating feedback ahead of the console's late 2013 launch. Earlier this week, Redmond opened pre-orders for a handful of accessories for the next-gen console, including the updated controller ($59.99) and Chat Headset ($24.99).
  This is not the only change Microsoft has made to the Xbox One. Amidst backlash, itdropped the always-on Internet requirement, then announced support for independent studios to distribute games without a publishing partner.