Tech news and more ....: August 2015

Friday, August 28, 2015

Tesla's new Model S sedan gets 103 out of 100 points, breaking Consumer Reports record. #Tesla

Google confirms it will kill Flash advertising in Chrome on 1 September! #google, #flash, #html5

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

VMware Fusion is ready to put Windows 10 on your Mac. #VMware #Windows10

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Destinia: Bitcoin-Paying Customers Spend More on Travel. #bitcoin

Its Confirmed! Apple is in the Self-Driving Car Business! #Apple

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Can George P. make Jeb the 3rd Bush to win the White House? #jebbush #whitehouse

LEXINGTON, S.C. (AP) — George P. Bush is talking up his dad — White House hopeful Jeb Bush — but knows some gentle ribbing awaits about his grandfather and uncle, two former Republican presidents also named George.

"We are lucky to have George Bush here. That's George P. Bush," says state Sen. Katrina Shealy, introducing the Texas land commissioner to the crowd at the Lizard's Thicket restaurant.

The out-of-town guest grins, but keeps silent. "Yeah," he later tells a reporter, "I've heard just about every George Bush joke that there possibly is."

The next-generation bearer of the powerful political name has been helping relatives run since age 3, when he clutched a balloon and sported a campaign T-shirt as grandfather George H.W. Bush launched his first presidential bid from a Houston park in 1979.

But never has George P.'s role as a political surrogate been as important as it is in the 2016 campaign. The 39-year-old is traveling the country — and flexing his muscle as a rising political star in Texas — and trying to help his father become the third Bush to sit in the White House.

"It's definitely more emotional," George P. Bush said of campaigning for his dad, rather than his grandfather or uncle, former President George W. Bush. "It's just a little closer to home."

George P. Bush suggested that doing so may be even more draining than running for the little-known but powerful job of Texas land commissioner, which he won in a landslide last fall.

"When you're a candidate, you know the criticism is going to come," he said in an interview. "But when it's a relative, and it's a man who you admire who's your father, it changes things."

Father and son have not campaigned together yet, though they talk frequently by telephone. Bush spoke at his father's campaign kickoff in June, but Jeb was in Florida while his son made a recent, one-day swing through South Carolina, home to the South's first presidential primary.

The younger Bush was in Columbia, the capital, to file paperwork putting his father's name on the state ballot, then traveled to Lexington for the event with Shealy.

"George P. Bush knows Jeb Bush better than anyone in the country. That's a strong surrogate," said Matt Moore, the state party chairman.

The younger Bush says he is focused on his "day job" in Texas, which he took over in January, when Republican Greg Abbott took office as governor. Bush he manages 13 million acres of state public land and mineral rights for activities such as oil and natural gas drilling.

Campaigning comes naturally to him.

He was 12 when he led the 1988 Republican National Convention in the Pledge of Allegiance. His mother, Columba, is from Mexico and George P., like his dad, speaks fluent Spanish. In 1992, he concluded a brief floor address at the party convention by screaming "Viva Bush!"

He sprinkled Spanish into his speeches during the 2000 and 2004 Republican national conventions, and campaigned for his uncle, reaching out to Hispanic voters.

George P. Bush also campaigned for his dad in Florida, where Jeb Bush served two terms as governor.

"I almost think it's more difficult now given the position he's in, since I think he's more conservative than his dad," said Eric Opiela a former executive director of the Texas Republican Party and a University of Texas law school classmate who remembers Bush being gone a lot during the 2000 presidential campaign.

"He has a very difficult line to toe now," Opiela said, "given that he's a statewide elected official in a state as conservative as Texas."

The younger Bush describes himself as a "movement conservative" and was an early endorser of long shot Senate candidate Ted Cruz, now a senator and one of his father's primary race rivals.

But George P. also has struck a more moderate tone on immigration and environmental issues, and says his dad can unite the often feuding factions of the Republican Party by using his conservative credentials to stand up to tea party activists.

Regardless of whether he helps his father win the presidency, Bush's political prospects look bright to many observers, including Moore, the South Carolina GOP chairman.

"I was thinking, Gov. Abbott in Texas now, so maybe the 2022 campaign for you?" Moore joked with Bush.

Like the George Bush jokes, that's something he's heard before, too.

News.yahoo.com

#China Seeks to Calm Markets as It Devalues Its Currency for a 3rd Consecutive Day

HONG KONG — China on Thursday sought to ease the turbulence its depreciating currency, the renminbi, has set off in global markets, even as it pushed the renminbi lower for the third day in a row.

China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, set the renminbi’s official exchange rate to the dollar lower by 1.1 percent on Thursday, bringing the total devaluation since Tuesday to 4.4 percent, the biggest drop in decades.

At an unusual ad hoc press conference, however, officials from the central bank were at pains to explain that the currency had not entered a free fall.

“The central bank has withdrawn from the normal mode of intervention,” Yi Gang, the deputy governor of the bank and the head of the unit that runs China’s foreign exchange system, told reporters in Beijing. “But if you say the market has commonly recognized rules of the game, then those are still the rules that we lay out.”

Mr. Yi was referring to changes to China’s currency system that were announced on Tuesday, as the bank devalued the renminbi by nearly 2 percent. It was the biggest daily drop since 1994, when China’s modern currency system began.

Previously, the central bank would assign a value to the currency each morning, and would allow it to trade up or down by a maximum of 2 percent against the dollar. In practice, it barely budged more than a fraction of percentage point each day.

Now, policy makers have said they are giving the market a bigger say by basing the official exchange rate setting on the currency’s trading performance, not just on a government decree.

Still, central bank officials made clear on Thursday that while they intended to ease their grip somewhat, they would not end it.

On Wednesday, when the renminbi showed signs of weakening by the maximum 2 percent limit, the central bank was widely reported to have jumped into the currency market, selling dollars to push up the value of the renminbi — which rapidly recovered to close only 1 percent lower.

Mr. Yi did not directly comment on any intervention when asked about it on Thursday, but hinted it was a tool still at the central bank’s disposal. “When there’s excessive volatility in the market, it can still be effectively managed,” he said.

Nytimes.com

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

For the first time, International Space Station astronauts to eat lettuce grown in space #ISS

Astronauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) will for the first time eat food that was grown on the orbiting laboratory after harvesting a crop of 'Outredgeous' red romaine lettuce.

Astronauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) will for the first time eat food that was grown on the orbiting laboratory after harvesting a crop of ‘Outredgeous’ red romaine lettuce.

“Expedition 44 crew members, including NASA’s one-year astronaut Scott Kelly, are ready to sample the fruits of their labour after harvesting a crop of ‘Outredgeous’ red romaine lettuce Monday, August 10, from the Veggie plant growth system on the nation’s orbiting laboratory,” the US space agency said.

The astronauts will clean the leafy vegetables with citric acid-based, food safe sanitising wipes before consuming them.

They will eat half of the space bounty today, setting aside the other half to be packaged and frozen on the station until it can be returned to Earth for scientific analysis.

NASA’s plant experiment, called Veg-01, is being used to study the in-orbit function and performance of the plant growth facility and its rooting “pillows,” which contain the seeds.

NASA is maturing Veggie technology aboard the space station to provide future pioneers with a sustainable food supplement u2013 a critical part of NASA’s Journey to Mars.

As NASA moves toward long-duration exploration missions farther into the solar system, Veggie will be a resource for crew food growth and consumption. It also could be used by astronauts for recreational gardening activities during deep space missions.

The first pillows were activated, watered and cared for by Expedition 39 flight engineer Steve Swanson in May 2014.

After 33 days of growth, the plants were harvested and returned to Earth in October 2014. At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the plants underwent food safety analysis.

The second Veg-01 plant pillows were activated by Kelly on July 8 and grew again for 33 days before being harvested. The seeds had been on the station for 15 months before being activated.

The Veggie system was developed by Orbital Technologies Corp (ORBITEC) in Madison, Wisconsin, and tested at Kennedy before flight.

Veggie, along with two sets of pillows containing the romaine seeds and one set of zinnias, was delivered to the station on the third cargo resupply mission by SpaceX in April 2014.

The collapsible and expandable Veggie unit features a flat panel light bank that includes red, blue and green LEDs for plant growth and crew observation.

After the first crop of lettuce was returned from the space station, Dr Gioia Massa, the NASA payload scientist for Veggie at Kennedy, began working with a team of flight doctors and NASA safety representatives to get approval for the crew to eat the produce.

“Microbiological food safety analysis looks very good on the first Veg-01 crop of romaine lettuce,” Massa said.

Financialexpress.com

Internet of Things device security degrades over time #IoT

Connected home devices may be secure enough off the shelf but this doesn't mean this will always be the case, tech firms have warned.

The security of smart home devices must become sustainable to keep consumers safe, the Open Trust Alliance has warned.

The Internet of Things (IoT) and the concept of the connected home is an emerging industry. IoT devices can make our daily lives more efficient, but manufacturers are yet to get up to speed when it comes to security -- and a constant stream of research concerning smart systems has revealed just how easy it can be to exploit vulnerabilities and manipulate these kinds of devices.

Formed in January this year, the 100 member-strong Open Trust Alliance (OTA) -- counting members including AVG, Microsoft, Symantec and Target -- believes that an industry-based set of guidelines may push designers and manufacturers in the right direction, and begin to view security as a critical part of the production process.

Security, privacy and the often-overlooked area of sustainability are of particular interest to the OTA. According to the group, sustainability and how devices are kept secure after circumstances change and warranty expires.

This, in turn, could lead to attackers being able to "remotely disabling house alarms, opening garage doors, infiltrating fitness wearables to spy on health vitals, or creating mayhem by sabotaging connected appliances," according to the non-profit.OTA says that unless sustainability becomes part of the IoT security question, devices which may have been secure at the time of purchase will eventually become flawed over time -- and could become more susceptible to outside influence.

As a result, the OTA has developed and released the Internet of Things Trust Framework, a set of guidelines designed to "address IoT risks comprehensively." The guidelines are focused on IoT manufacturers and retailers designing and marketing connected devices in the home automaton and consumer health markets, including smart home systems and wearable technologies.

The OTA includes a number of proposed best practices for IoT security and sustainability within the framework. Among the guidelines, the OTA suggests that privacy policies should be made readily available for review available for purchase, all personally identifiable information should be encrypted or hashed, and companies should be ready to disclose data collection practices prior to the purchase of connected device products.

In addition, OTA says IoT manufacturers should disclose whether or not users have the ability to delete or make anonymous such data once a device reaches its end-of-life or is discontinued -- an important facet when you consider how home circumstances can change.

"The rapid growth of the Internet of Things now includes thousands of connected products, yet it's shocking how little planning there has been for these devices becoming part of everyday life," said Craig Spiezle, Executive Director and President of OTA.

"For example, what if someone sells a house with a smart thermostat or garage door? How do you ensure the old owner doesn't access the devices once the new owner moves in? Or what if a hacker find a vulnerability to activate your smart TV's camera or microphone? We also need to look at the collective impact when hundreds of thousands of these devices are compromised at once, impacting critical infrastructure and the smart grid, and diverting first responders."

The OTA is also in the midst of creating a voluntary code of conduct for IoT manufacturers to join.

Last week, critical flaws were discovered in the ZigBee standard, a popular backbone system used by IoT device manufacturers ranging from Samsung to Philips. The vulnerabilities potentially allow cyberattackers to take over any device connected to a ZigBee-based controller hub.

Zdnet.com

#Google creates company Alphabet, names new CEO

AN FRANCISCO — In a sweeping overhaul of how one of the world's most powerful technology companies operates, Google is creating a new publicly traded parent company called Alphabet Inc. to house all of its disparate businesses.

Alphabet will be run by Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and Google will become a subsidiary of Alphabet with a new CEO: top Google executive Sundar Pichai.

"Our company is operating well today, but we think we can make it cleaner and more accountable," Page wrote in a letter included in a regulatory filing on Monday afternoon.

The news announced after the close of trading on Monday took Wall Street by surprise. Google GOOG shares rose 6% in after-hours trading.

Alphabet will be a conglomerate, or "collection" of companies, the largest of which is Google. But Google itself will be "slimmed down," excluding companies that are not part of its core Internet business.

Google will encompass the businesses that people typically associate with the brand, such as the Android and Chrome operating systems, YouTube and search.

What will fall outside the slimmer Google: newer, more experimental businesses such as the Internet of Things gadget maker Nest, the high-speed fiber-optic Internet project Fiber and Google's effort to extend human life with Calico.

There will also be two financial businesses: Google Ventures, the venture capital arm, and Capital, which invests in private equity deals. Google X, which is the company's experimental laboratory, will be run separately by Brin.

BERKSHIRE SIMILARITY

The structure is similar to Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett's massive empire that has a portfolio of disparate businesses that specialize in everything from real estate to underwear. It also gives Page the opportunity to step back from the day-to-day drudgery and focus on the bigger picture. Page told the Financial Times last year that he aspired to be like Buffett, overseeing a group of semi-independent leaders building new businesses under the Google umbrella.

"Fundamentally, we believe this allows us more management scale, as we can run things independently that aren't very related," Page said.

Page has long sought to reinvigorate the entrepreneurial culture inside Google. He also has taken steps with the hiring of new Google Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat to be more transparent with investors. And, bottom line: Page appears ready to turn his attention to the next wave of technologies that Google is exploring while leaving the online advertising business in the capable hands of Pichai.

Google spokeswoman Gina Scigliano declined to comment.

"I think this sets up Google to be a much more diversified company," said longtime Google observer Danny Sullivan, founding editor of MarketingLand.com. "It certainly allows Google to expand its mission. ... It's an excellent way to have multiple companies underneath that run as independent entities."

What's more, Google may be delivering on its promise of an era of greater transparency which was ushered in by Porat's appointment.

Investors have been increasingly rattled by Google's spending on its "moonshots," those experimental projects such as driverless cars and delivering Internet access from high-altitude balloons. Now Google will keep those speculative businesses separate from the core Internet advertising business.

"We will see Alphabet and we will see Google as a business line. We can do the math. That's good, more disclosure," said BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis. "That will put to rest some of the concerns that Google is overspending in non-productive areas."

Google is also building a framework to give investors greater insight into its other businesses such as YouTube down the road, Gillis said.

But Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Wieser cautioned that he's not sure investors will get much more transparency from the new structure.

"On balance, incremental transparency into Google’s business is positive, although we remain uncertain as to exactly how much transparency will be provided, and therefore remain cautious on the degree to which this news should be viewed favorably," Wieser wrote in a research note late Monday.

On the positive side of the ledger, Page is making room for talented executives to move up within Google, rather than leave, Sullivan said.

"It's a smart way to ensure that you can keep talented executives," he said.

NEW STRUCTURE

Page will be CEO of Alphabet, Brin will be president and Eric Schmidt will be executive chairman. Porat will become CFO of Alphabet and Google's current directors will become directors of Alphabet.

A "strong" CEO will run each of the Alphabet businesses with assistance from Page and Brin, Page said. That includes Google, which will be run by Pichai, Page's top lieutenant.

"We will rigorously handle capital allocation and work to make sure each business is executing well," Page said.

As part of the business reorganization, Alphabet will begin "segment" reporting for its fourth-quarter financial results. Google financials will be broken out from the rest of the Alphabet businesses.

"This new structure will allow us to keep tremendous focus on the extraordinary opportunities we have inside of Google," Page said.

Google will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet. The two share classes will remain GOOGL and GOOG.

PICHAI'S NEW ROLE

S&P Capital IQ analyst Scott Kessler praised the selection of Pichai, who has been a rising star at the Internet giant, leading to speculation in recent years that he would eventually succeed Page as CEO.

"Sundar Pichai as CEO is big for a variety of reasons," Kessler said. "I am sure he has been offered a number of things at other places. To keep him is key."

Page said Pichai was the natural choice to lead Google. Pichai has been running Google's products. Now he will add YouTube to his responsibilities, with YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki reporting to him.

"Sergey and I have been super excited about his progress and dedication to the company," Page said. "I feel very fortunate to have someone as talented as him to run the slightly slimmed down Google and this frees up time for me to continue to scale our aspirations. I have been spending quite a bit of time with Sundar, helping him and the company in any way I can, and I will of course continue to do that."

Other Google executives will be displaced in the restructuring. Google's chief business officer Omid Kordestani will now become an adviser to Alphabet and Google.

As for the Alphabet name?

“It’s very powerful in its simplicity,” said Allen Adamson, North American chairman of Landor Associates, a major branding identity firm. “And it relates to Google’s mission. They’re going to have a collection of companies, just like an alphabet has a collection of letters.”

“Once you hear it, you’ll always remember it. You won’t have to ask how to pronounce it,” said Adamson.

Usatoday.com

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

#Windows10: how much of my personal information can #Microsoft access?

Microsoft is collecting user account information, credit card details and passwords following the installation of Windows 10, according to an updated privacy statement

A Dell laptop running Windows 10 Photo: Reuters

if you're one of the millions to update your PC to Windows 10, Microsoft is already collecting your personal data and behavioural patterns.

Microsoft's privacy statement has recently been updated to explain the nature of the personal information it collects from your computer when running Windows 10, including payment data, data about your interests and contact information.

Windows 10 is now running on more than 14 million devices worldwide since the software began rolling out on July 29, saving users' Bing search information, private email content and the apps they access, along with "your typed and handwritten words".

Spoken commands to Cortana, Microsoft's digital assistant, are also saved to enable a more customised user experience with more relevant suggestions, the company said.

^{Windows 10: accessing your data}

“We will access, disclose and preserve personal data, including your content (such as the content of your emails, other private communications or files in private folders), when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to protect our customers or enforce the terms governing the use of the services,” Microsoft said in its recently update new terms of services agreement.

“Windows does not collect personal information without your consent. To effectively provide Windows as a service, Microsoft gathers some performance, diagnostic and usage information that helps keep Windows and apps running properly. Microsoft uses this information to identify problems and develop fixes.”

The saved data is used to "improve and personalise" each user's experience of using Windows 10, for targeted adverts via a unique customer advertising ID and to inform users of new software, security and account updates. "However, we do not use what you say in email, chat, video calls or voice mail, or your documents, photos or other personal files to target ads to you," Microsoft's privacy statement reads.

It's worth pointing out that Google similarly sweeps its users' emails in order to provide them with more targeted advertising, while Apple's digital assistant Siri and Google's Google Now also collect user data in order to personalise their responses.

Microsoft collects:

Search queries submitted to Bing
A voice command to Cortana
Private communications including email content
Information from a document uploaded to OneDrive
Requests to Microsoft for support
Error reports
Information gathered from cookies
Data collected from third parties

If you're especially concerned about the kind of data you're sharing with Microsoft, you can adjust it by opening up Settings > Privacy and toggling off the various inputs. Turning off location services means Cortana will no longer work. You can opt out of personalised adverts by visiting this Microsoft page.

Telegraph.co.uk

Tech news and more ....