Opinion: The HTC One M8 camera isn't that bad
Cameras are one of the first things we look at when judging a new smartphone, and the HTC One (M8) wasn't spared our criticism. While we applaud HTC's brave move toward bigger-but-fewer pixel strategy, some find that the lack of resolution leaves the images wanting more.
However, the bashing of the camera that we've read in other reviews and over social media is surprising. The camera on the HTC One (M8) isn't that bad. I'd even say it isn't bad at all.
It's easy to get tired of people saying, "Wow, that's an awesome photo! What camera did you use?" Or, "My camera sucks. It takes bad pictures."
No. You take bad pictures.
What I'd consider a bad camera are the ones that were found on flip phones 10 years ago - the ones with 640 x 480 VGA resolution. Even then, if you did it just right, the photos looked good enough on a computer screen.
If you're not looking for good light, composition that makes sense, and an interesting moment, then you're not really looking to take a good photo. You're probably just taking a snapshot, and while there's nothing wrong with that, you can't blame the camera if the photo isn't pretty.
Another complaint I hear about the HTC One M8 is that its photos tend to look flat, or that they aren't as rich in color and contrast as the iPhone 5S or Nokia Lumia 1520. Again, it's not that the camera sensor or module is bad, but perhaps the way the phone processes JPEG images isn't pushed as hard as the other phones. It's not exactly the camera itself.
Also, if color, contrast, and warmth were real issues, apps like Snapseed and VSCO Cam are totally free and will solve 99% of your mobile photo problems.
Perhaps the biggest gripe about the HTC One (M8) camera is its lack of serious resolution. When you have 8MP, 13MP, 16MP, 20MP and even 42MP smartphone cameras out there, sticking with a 4MP sensor is a head-scratcher.
Is the minor bump in low-light performance really worth the sacrifice in resolution?
Stop Pixel Peeping
Perhaps it's worth it, but the thing to consider is what you're going to be doing with all those megapixels, anyway. Are you going to make prints? If so, consider a better camera altogether. Even then, you can make 4 x 6 prints at 300dpi with just a 2MP camera. When was the last time you printed a 16 x 20 photo from your smartphone?
When you're looking at a photo that's 960 pixels wide on your 5-inch smartphone, I guarantee you wouldn't be able to tell if it were taken with a 4MP camera or a 20MP camera.
So when you're reading reviews and remarks online that say things like, "We're losing fine detail in these areas of the photo with the HTC One (M8)," it's likely as a result of pixel peeping, or looking at the photos at 100% crop. Who does that?
The bottom line is if you want to take better photos with your smartphone, you actually need to learn how to take better photos. Learn how to see light and how it shapes objects and the way it affects color (e.g. colors on a cloudy day will look flat compared to low, directional sunlight).
Learn to find interesting angles, compositions and get creative with your photo ideas. Whether you're shooting with a big DSLR, smartphone camera or a plastic toy camera, it shouldn't matter as much as your eye for light and composition.
Have fun shooting photos, take pictures that mean something to you and your friends and don't worry so much if your camera isn't resolving detail in some leaves that are a hundred yards away.
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Firefox OS 2.0 screenshots surface, looks decent but familiar
Firefox handsets aren't as widely popular as its iOS and Android counterparts but perhaps a redesign is what Mozilla needs to really make a splash.
Ahmed Nefzaoui and Sören Hentzschel, Mozilla representatives have leaked screenshots of Firefox 2.0 on their Twitter accounts.
From the looks of it, 2.0 is much flatter yet more vibrant.
The translucency, two-tone app colors and lock screen notifications are also immediately comparable to iOS 7 showing that Mozilla is probably looking to woo Apple lovers, but Mozilla may have other features up its sleeves.
Show us more?
Though there's a definite copycat vibe, Firefox phones still aren't like your normal smartphone.With Firefox OS, you get an open ecosystem, one where all apps can run on other operating systems and on almost any hardware. Instead of apps made specifically for a certain OS, Firefox apps can be made with HTML5 and JavaScript like a web page - so essentially, they can be opened on Android devices and PCs.
It sounds nice but so far, all has been quiet on the Firefox front with people snapping up the more popular iOS, Android and even Windows phones.
Though numerous companies, like Sony, are still interested in Firefox phones and with the updated 2.0 version coming out in a couple of months, we'll see then just how well its redesigned interfaces does.
Via MyDrivers
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Surprise! Samsung may be planning to launch the Galaxy Note 4 at IFA 2014
Samsung is set to continue the tradition of launching a new Galaxy Note phablet at the annual tech fest in IFA this September, a company official reportedly hinted on Wednesday.
The Korea Times was informed the company is mulling the launch date as well as confirming the final specs for the Galaxy Note 4.
In a telephone interview, the official reportedly said: "Samsung is considering holding a launch event of the Note 4 at the IFA trade fair. It is in the middle of finalising specification details for the upcoming phablet."
The report brings no word of those specifications, but it appears to be a decent bet that the company will honour the ritual of adding another couple of tenths-of-an-inch to the already massive display size.
Nudging 6-inches?
Given that the first three iterations of the device have progressed from 5.3-inches, to 5.5-inches and finally to 5.7-inches on the Note 3, logic would suggest that Note 4 would arrive with a 5.9-inch display.It is also rumoured the Note 4 will be built on 64-bit mobile architecture, which many thought would appear on the Galaxy S5, but has so far failed to materialise. A RAM bump to 4GB could also be in the cards.
Recent reports have also suggested the company may be plotting a 20-megapixel sensor for future mobile devices. Could that new camera module make its debut on the Note 4? Would a 5.9-inch display be pushing things a little too far? Share you opinions below.
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Dropbox dons business attire, powers Microsoft Office harmony
Dropbox's Mailbox app arriving on Android and desktop wasn't the only big update from the company's event today, as it also announced Dropbox for Business (for everyone) and something called Project Harmony.
Dropbox for Business provides users with two different online storage compartments: one for personal use, and one for professional.
For the first time, Dropbox for business is available to all users beginning today.
"We did this to give admins more visibility and control over their company's data," Dropbox Head of Product, Business and Mobile Ilya Fushman wrote in an official blog post.
Living in harmony
A number of Dropbox features enhance the Dropbox for Business experience, Fushman wrote: "Remote wipe helps protect confidential information, account transfer helps you maintain business continuity, and sharing audit logs let you track how your Dropbox for Business information is being accessed."But it's not all about corporate security and "business continuity" at Dropbox today, as the company also announced Project Harmony.
It may sound like an ill-fated hippie commune or a dating website, but it's actually a set of collaboration tools that will let users interact with one another in Microsoft Word, Powerpoint and Excel as if they're using Google Docs.
Thanks to Project Harmony documents will sync to the Dropbox cloud, where those with access can edit, chat and collaborate.
Basically it brings Microsoft Office to the cloud, though Dropbox has plans to add other applications later, CNET reports.
There's no word on availability for Project Harmony unfortunately.
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Facebook apps to kill chat, throw users into standalone Messenger's arms
Facebook has begun alerting some users that it will soon force them to use the company's standalone Messenger app if they want to chat on mobile.
"Today we are starting to notify people that messages are moving out of the Facebook app and over to the Messenger app," a Facebook spokesperson wrote in an email to TechRadar. "To continue sending messages on mobile, people will need to install the Messenger app."
Referred to as an "update," the change will affect those with an iOS or Android device. Currently, users in a handful of European countries are being notified of the switch, and Facebook declined to offer details on a further roll out.
However, according to TechCrunch, all Facebook mobile users will eventually be forced to take up Messenger. European users receiving notifications reportedly have about two weeks before they can no longer message from within the mobile Facebook apps.
One is better than two
Facebook's mobile offerings have, for as long as we can remember, included a integrated tab to chit-chat with friends.However, Facebook recently made it so those who had the Messenger app installed were shuttled there when they hit the inner-app messaging tab. Even so, users didn't have to download Messenger if they wanted to.
That choice is now being taken out of their hands, though with Facebook's vagueness we don't know when it will reach all users (if at all).
Although the move is sure to anger some users, it shouldn't come as a surprise. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in November 2013 Facebook was planning to take messaging out of the main Facebook app.
Zuckerberg went on to lay out the central reason given today by Facebook's spokespeople; the company can now focus on making Messenger as good a service as possible without having to deal with two separate messaging experiences.
Users will receive multiple notices before the changes go into effect, Facebook informed us.
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Apple plotting 'radical overhaul' to rescue iTunes from onrushing stream train?
Apple is considering its largest overhaul of its iTunes Music Store in over a decade as it seeks to revive the sale of MP3 downloads.
According to a new Billboard report, the company is disappointed that free iTunes Radio streams have failed to translate into song purchases and is now considering a radical shake up.
The report claims only 1-2 per cent of iTunes Radio users are opting to buy tracks, preferring instead to dine for free on random playlists served up by artist and song playlists.
Apple had been banking on its hybrid streaming service to halt a reported 15 per cent decline in downloads, the report says, but the failure to do so has prompted intense internal discussions on how to revamp iTunes.
Committed to change
A major label executive told Billboard: "iTunes Radio hasn't solved the problem of refreshing the iTunes store. While listeners are clicking the buy buttons, the traffic it is driving is in the low single digits of listeners."Meanwhile another unnamed executive said the iTunes Radio flop "is driving the types of conversations they are having. They know iTunes has to change radically, but they still don't know which way it will go. But it will be completely different in three to five years. They are committed to making that happen."
Just last month Billboard brought word that Apple may launch a fully-fledged Spotify rival to make up ground on other streaming services and even an Android version of the iTunes Store.
Could Apple do the unthinkable and launch on the Google platform as it did on Windows all those years ago? Let us know your thoughts below.
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Google slaps Heartbleed tourniquet on most key services
It's likely to be a long week for IT professionals dealing with the aftermath of Heartbleed, the OpenSSL security flaw discovered earlier this week - but Team Google appears to have a good handle on it for now.
The Google Online Security Blog today announced patches to many key Google services affected by Heartbleed, the security bug discovered Monday that potentially allows for theft of data typically protected by SSL/TLS encryption.
"We've assessed this vulnerability and applied patches to key Google services such as Search, Gmail, YouTube, Wallet, Play, Apps, and App Engine. Google Chrome and Chrome OS are not affected," explained Google Product Manager Matthew O'Connor in a blog post Wednesday.
The company's security experts are still working to patch "some other Google services" affected by CVE-2014-0160, the official name for the OpenSSL flaw which has been dubbed "Heartbleed."
Android immunity
Google's security team also made it clear today that the Android operating system is largely immune to Heartbleed, with the exception of Android 4.1.1, although the company is already distributing a patch to partners for that version.Google Cloud Platform and Google Search Appliance customers are also having Heartbleed purged from their services, with an update on the latter expected to arrive within 24 hours for enterprise customers.
Security engineers are also currently busy patching Cloud SQL, with fixes expected to roll out Wednesday and Thursday; in the meantime, Google has posted instructions on how to whitelist IP addresses to prevent unknown hosts from accessing them.
Although many companies are encouraging users to reset their passwords, security experts recommend waiting until fixes are in place to eradicate the Heartbleed flaw; the status of any domain name can be checked absolutely free from the Qualys SSL Labs website.
- View a glimpse of the future with our Google Glass review!
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Facebook's right-side ads are getting bigger, but there will be fewer of them
Like most Facebook users you've probably learned to ignore whatever is in the site's right-hand column. You know, the space with usually creepy ads targeted at random snippets from your profile or Google searches.
But Facebook is hoping users will start paying attention again when it revamps those ads to be bigger.
Facebook says the new ads will be more in line with the ads that now appear in users' news feeds, with larger images.
At least there will be fewer of them now, the site said.
Advertisers are people too
"For advertisers, this offers a simpler way to create ads and an enhanced creative canvas on the right-hand column of Facebook," the social network wrote in a blog post.It continues, "Because the updated ads mirror the overall shape of desktop News Feed ads, marketers will no longer have to choose separate images for News Feed and right-hand column placements."
Facebook also says the new ads will provide "a better experience for people."
Apparently early tests have shown up to three times as much engagement with the larger ads, though whether that's really better for people - or just for advertisers - is a subjective matter.
The new Facebook ads will roll out to users "in the coming months." Some advertisers will get the option in April, while others will need to wait until later in 2014.
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Dropbox reveals extra-swipey Mailbox for Android and desktop
Dropbox has announced two new versions of Mailbox: one for Android, available now, and one for desktop that's currently in beta.
It's been over a year since Dropbox purchased Mailbox, a previously iOS-exclusive app that is meant to make sorting through emails intuitive and simple.
At the time Dropbox said it would leave Mailbox alone, opting to let it stand on its own and help it grow rather than folding it into Dropbox.
With Mailbox's launch on Android and its impending release on desktop, Dropbox is looking to keep that promise.
Auto-swipe your spam away
In addition to throwing away, saving and organizing your email into lists, the app includes a new feature called auto-swipe that lets it automatically archive certain types of emails, like spam or marketing messages.The app's official site says it "learns from your swipes and snoozes to automate common actions," essentially figuring out what kind of mail you read and what you save and trash over time.
The need to expand to Android and desktop seems a logical step for an app that Dropbox claimed has 275 million users.
For its time-saving prowess, the app isn't fully featured yet. According to its Google Play description, Mailbox for Android currently only works for Gmail and iCloud accounts.
Dropbox made the announcements at a presser in San Francisco, where it also revealed a new cloud collaboration service called Project Harmony that will make Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint more like Google Docs as well as the Carousel photo and video app.
Mailbox uses intuitive gestures on iOS and now Android to help users deal with emails quickly. On desktop it employs similar gestures for users with a trackpad.
You can sign up for the Mailbox desktop beta on the app's official site or download the Android app now.
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Dropbox launches Carousel app organizing, sharing your photos and videos
Dropbox is unloading a number of additional services today, and one on its docket follows the photos-focused trend sweeping the tech world.
Carousel is a new app anchored on storing, organizing and sharing photos and videos. It's available in the Apple App Store and Google Play right now.
"The gallery for Dropbox" automatically stores and organizes pictures and vids from your phone's camera. Images are arranged by day, month and year, so photos from the hike you went on Dec. 17, 2013 are kept separate from a video of you blowing out your birthday candles on March 1, 2014. A wheel on the bottom lets you swipe through the illustrated timeline of your life.
Once photos and videos are captured, they are automatically backed up on Dropbox.
TechRadar's own test found users will need a Dropbox account to access the app, which is none too surprising. Somewhat annoyingly, those you share your images with will need the app to view them fully or do anything with them as well.
Swipe to share
Users can share photos privately with friends by swiping up on a single image. Armed with a name, email or phone number, users can send one or more photos their friends' ways.There's also an option to share an entire event by tapping on the share icon in the top right-hand corner of a collection of snapshots.
For items that are sent to you, there's an option to keep them in your own Carousel.
While the app is sleek and could pose a formidable rivals like Instagram Direct, how receptive consumers are to yet another way to organize and share their precious memories remains to be seen.
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UPDATED: Google Android Wear: what you need to know
What is Android Wear?
While we wait for Apple to confirm that it's been making an iWatch, Google is busy designing a wearable version of its Android operating system.Android Wear is a new platform that extends the company's leading software to the body starting with the wrist in the form of smartwatches.
As Android head Sundar Pichai penned in the announcement, these app-driven time pieces understand the context of the world around you and deliver messages and reminders beamed directly to your wrist.
Convenient Google Now notifications are literally on hand thanks to Android Wear, and the ability to seek out additional information with voice controls outfits everyone with the all-encompassing power of the search engine.
It's shaping up to be as fashionable as it is functional thanks to support for both round and square watch faces, as seen on the circular Moto 360 and boxy LG G Watch.
What Android Wear does
Android Wear is intended to provide "information that moves with you" and puts the entire world inches from your suddenly-free fingertips.It doesn't just tell the time. The wearable operating system makes suggestions based on time and it factors location into its context-sensitive data.
The best everyday habit example involves riding on a bus and seeing a Google Maps-powered notification countdown to an unfamiliar destination. "4 stops to: Jackson St." intelligently reads the watch. The guessing game is taken out of a public transit commute.
The new technology can also tip off wearers to dangers that lurk, as demonstrated in Google's first Android Wear video. A "Jellyfish warning" prompt can be seen with a surfer's flick of the wrist.
A relevant list of nearby beaches saves the video's early adopters who can surf without worrying about the sting of the boneless and brainless ocean creature.
All of a sudden, digging a rectangular smartphone out of your pocket and pulling up a much more involved map or notification app seems so pedestrian.
Making time for families
Google seeds the idea that Android Wear can alleviate our addiction to smartphones in an effort to make more time and eye-contact with our families.
A parent is able to attend breakfast with his family while keeping a close eye on the estimated commute time to work thanks to an on-wrist Google Now notification.
"No surprises" is the unofficial goal of Android Wear. Leaving too early and breezing through traffic would have filled this parent with breakfast-skipping regret. Leaving too late would've started his day with traffic-influenced anxiety.
'Okay Google' on the wrist
Even more touching is the dad who receives a Google Hangouts message right on his Android Wear smartwatch while bathing his son. "Dude, this game is insane!" writes the token friend who doesn't have such responsibilities.The dad doesn't run to a TV or have to awkwardly palm his smartphone with soapy hands for an update. "Okay Google, what's the Syracuse score?" he asks his watch without pressing a button.
A scorecard of 28-27, naturally in favor of his college basketball team, pops up. He cheesily shouts "Yay" while raising his hands. His young, halfway washed son does the same without us knowing if he really knows why. He could easily be cheering for having more time with his dad.
The increasingly familiar "Okay Google" voice prompt opens up a world of possibilities beyond sports score updates. Android Wear smartwatches can handle questions like, "How many calories are in an avocado?" to more personal queries like, "What time does my flight leave?"
"Okay Google" can also accomplish tasks outsourced from a smartphone. Calling a taxi, making restaurant reservations, setting alarms and sending - not just receiving - texts is all possible to do hands-free with the Android Wear operating system.
Fitness and third-party apps
Google Wear fitness apps
Google's Android Wear smartwatches can solve everyone's pesky pedometer gripes, whether it's always losing the easy-to-misplace device or not having it on you at all times.This should remedy the problem we have with Samsung's S-Health app in Galaxy S4 and the forthcoming Galaxy S5. These phones aren't on us all the time and therefore robbing us of our workout goal.
Latching a smartwatch to our wrist can count every step and chart whether or not we're meeting our exercise goals. Google promises that it'll connect to our favorite fitness apps for real-time speed, distance and time data while walking, running and cycling.
This puts the Android Wear platform in direct competition with the Fitbit Force, Nike FuelBand SE and the activity tracking newcomer the Samsung Gear Fit.
But the Fitbit and FuelBand lack smartwatch capabilities and, as stylish as the Gear Fit may be, it's only accessible by Samsung smartphones, not all Android devices. That leaves the door wide open for Google.
QR codes, music and Chromecast
The company multitasks in demonstrating Android Wear fitness capabilities with a woman who runs to the boarding line for a departing flight. She's able to keep count of calories burned while flashing a QR code in front of the airline employee in order to board the flight.Google's Android Wear introduction video also illustrates how music on another device can be activated through an Android Wear watch.
Calling it "key to a multiscreen world," the watch promises to cast movies to a TV, presumably with its inexpensive Chromecast streaming device, and the video hints at the ability to open garage doors with smart home connectivity.
"There's a lot of possibilities here so we're eager to see what developers build," wrote Pichai toward the end of his announcement post.
Third-party apps in development
Android Wear is made even more convincing as a smartwatch because developers will be able to easily translate their apps from Google's mobile ecosystem.One of the first third-party apps diving right into Android Wear is Pocket. Formerly known as "Read It Later," this deferred reading app saves longer-form articles for later consumption on a big screen.
It shouldn't take long for your favorite apps to appear on the Moto X or LG G Watch, whereas developers may struggle to navigate Samsung's Tizen platform that's limited to its Galaxy devices.
Android Wear watches
Android Wear smartwatches so far
The Android Wear smartwatch selection is limited at the moment with LG and Motorola showing off their respective designs. Samsung, HTC, Asus and Fossil are confirmed to have something up their sleeves.The Moto 360 was front-and-center in the smartwatch announcement, even though Google has offloaded Motorola to Lenovo. There's good reason for highlighting this time piece: it's ambitious.
As the name suggests, Moto 360 has a beautiful circular face that contrasts with other watches we've seen like the square Pebble Steel and wrist-conforming Samsung Gear Fit.
Moto 360 has been confirmed to be orientation-free so that left and right-handed wearers won't see a single difference. The digital screen can be flipped and the classic-looking single knob is symmetrical. Just flip the entire thing around to get the knob on the right side.
Even better is that this beautiful watch face is rumored to comprise of an OLED screen to increase battery life that sits behind sapphire glass. That's the same protective glass that's expected to be in the Apple iWatch.
Sticking with that authentic watch styling, there are no charging contacts or USB ports to be found here, Motorola confirmed. Its so-far-secret charging method is a "special sauce," which alludes to Qi wireless charging for Moto 360 or possibly Kinetic charging.
It doesn't feature a privacy-invasive camera like the Galaxy Gear and Gear 2. This just didn't fit into the classic design, according to Motorola. Also, unlike Samsung's watches, it supports more phones than its own Moto X.
Moto 360 is compatible with Android 4.3 phones and tablets that use low-powered Bluetooth 4.0 for battery life conservation. That means even if you own a brand new iPhone 5S, it won't work with this Android-only device.
It blends familiar Android menus like Google Now and Hangouts messages with a sophisticated-looking digital watchface, and Motorola is promising just-as-premium strap materials that remain comfortable.
The company promises a variety of styles when it ships globally later this summer, starting in the US. To that point, we gleaned both a metal and flexible rubber wristband from the Moto 360 prototype render.
LG is only beginning to talk about its Android Wear watch, dubbed the LG G Watch as if it's a typo with too many Gs. Just as awkward is the fact that the Moto 360 dissed square-faced smartwatches in its unveil.
That happens to be the exact design of the LG G Watch. It doesn't seem to be offended. The company is determined to prove that it's hip to be square by a July release date.
It's square face, only seen in full in one official photo so far, is completely buttonless and roughly the same size as the Samsung Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo.
Like the Pebble Steel, this smartwatch will follow the trend of supporting swappable bands for a more personalized look and feel.
The LG G Watch price is confirmed to be £180 in the UK. That translates to about $301 and AU$322, but it could be cheaper in the US and Australia as UK prices haven't been fairly converted recently.
Where Android Wear stands
Android Wear shows more promise on day one than Google Glass has in its year of availability because it's not a stretch to imagine donning Moto 360 or the LG G Watch.There are still plenty of questions left to be answered like what are the Android Wear smartwatch specs, how long is the battery life and cost. Google can own the wrist, like it's starting to control the TV apps ecosystem with its inexpensive Chromecast, if the price is right.
Then there's the question of iOS compatibility. Would this Android-powered watch ever be able to connect to an iOS device? Google has made plenty of its gadgets, app and services work with Apple's iPhone and iPad hardware.
We're looking forward to seeing how natural the "Okay Google" voice commands turn out, whether or not some of the watches will be waterproof and if Nest creates an Android Wear project of its own.
Expect to hear more about Android Wear and see the unveiling of the first Wear apps at the company's Google IO 2014 conference in June. More details will literally be on hand then.
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Video: Can Amazon Fire TV incinerate the competition?
Amazon's set-top box might be a little late to the game, but don't write it off just yet.
In fact, there are more than a couple of reasons why Fire TV may not only be able to hold its own against the likes of Apple TV, Chromecast and Roku, but could actually make it a stronger offering than the competition.
There's a lot going on inside Amazon's mysterious little black box. Alongside a quad-core Qualcomm Krait 300 setup and dedicated Adreno 320 graphics, the company's also been working hard to address the irks we've come to hate so much in the video on demand era. It's even chucked in a dedicated controller to one-up the gaming capabilities of its rivals.
Bottom line: we think Amazon's on to a winner here. Here are 5 ways we think Fire TV could leave its adversaries in ashes.
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Feature: Google's controversial little secrets: Hubspot & Retailmenot
Unbeknown to many Google has an investment arm called Google Ventures which provides funding to a number of startup companies. Latest figures indicates that it has total assets of around $1.5 billion (around £900 million) and nearly 60 startups have been funded to date.
Some of them, like Nest, which has been acquired by Google itself, are in the public eye, but most remain in the shadows until they launch an IPO or get acquired.
Two of them however caught our attention because they operate very close to Google's core and one of them has started to attract the attention of the SEO community given its proximity to the search business of Google.
RetailMeNot
RetailMeNot owns two of the largest coupon websites in the US and in the UK (Retailmenot and Vouchercodes) with a number of other similar websites in Germany, France and the Netherlands.A just-published analysis by SEO house Priceonomics found that RetailMeNot came on top of search engine result pages 70% of the time for nearly 300 "promo codes" and coupon related terms; hotly contested terms given that they are used by visitors to complete the buying cycle.
The company, which has raised $300 million in funding and filed an IPO for $230 million back in 2013, has put all its eggs in the same basket and many question its luck - especially in a market that is so highly dependent on Google.
There has also been some controversy over the fact that RetailMeNot, being the last port of call for potential buyers, derives the bulk of its revenue (nearly $145 million or around £80 million in 2012) from the cookie-based affiliate model which pays the last visited website (which happens to be a coupon website most of the time).
Hubspot
Hubspot is another online business backed by Google Ventures. It operates in the field of content marketing and is essentially a more elaborate and personalised version of a webhosting company, complete with bells and whistles like dedicated marketing services and support.It's geared towards small and medium businesses who focus on "inbound marketing" - bringing in potential leads and customers - and do not have the necessary inhouse skills or resources to achieve it. Given that there are about 10 million of them in Europe alone, this is a market that cannot be ignored.
Where Hubspot has been attracting some controversy is that it provides SEM and SEO tools and services (some for free) which, while perfectly legal, make of Hubspot an increasingly uncomfortable bedfellow for Google.
That's because Google has been cracking down on a number of features - like guest blogging or link building using directories - that have often been promoted on and by Hubspot.
Google Ventures, together with Sequoia Capital and Salesforce.com, invested $32 million (around £20 million) three years ago in Hubspot, which currently has more than 10,000 customers in 65 countries.
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WhatsApp voice calling just around the corner?
WhatsApp's voice call feature might be even closer than you think, with some new hints suggesting that we'll be able to make in-app calls very soon.
WPCentral was tipped off by volunteers who translate Hindi languages, confirming that they'd received new translation requests that hint at the new feature.
Three new strings - Hang up, Incoming call and Outgoing call – are, we'd say, pretty obvious clues that WhatsApp is finalising voice calling.
Talking heads
At MWC WhatsApp announced that a voice calling feature would be added to the app before the second quarter of 2014 was out.It'll put the service up against Skype, which already offers voice calling. However for WhatsApp it'll only be coming to iOS and Android users to begin with.
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'Heartbleed Bug' crawls past OpenSSL to impact servers
A serious flaw has been uncovered in security software that is being used by millions of servers worldwide.
The flaw, dubbed the "Heartbleed Bug", affects OpenSSL and, if exploited, could expose the information of anyone visiting an affected website.
OpenSSL is a cryptographic software library that provides Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) protection for communication applications over the Internet, such as the Web, email, instant messaging and some virtual private networks.
The issue was uncovered by researchers from Google and Codenomicon.
Attack on memory
Heartbleed leaves the memory of the systems protected by vulnerable versions of OpenSSL software open to viewing by attackers.According to Codenomicon, attackers who access this memory are able to uncover, "the secret keys used to identify the service providers and to encrypt the traffic, the names and passwords of the users and the actual content."
Anyone exploiting the Heartbleed Bug would be potentially be able to access security keys, usernames and passwords, instant messages, emails and business critical documents and communication.
Exploiting the flaw leaves no trace and so it is not clear whether attacks have taken place or how many may have taken place. The issue is particularly problematic as the flaw is present across a number of version of OpenSSL, not just one.
"Biggest threat"
The BBC reported Ken Munro, a security expert at Pen Test Partners, as saying, "It's the biggest thing I've seen in security since the discovery of SQL injection."A fixed version of OpenSSL has been release and must be deployed in order to secure the software. Codenomicon advises that end-users of services that may have been affected should be notified.
Codenomicon has created a website that provides more information about the Heartbleed Bug.
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Microsoft temporarily suspends Windows 8.1 Update 1 for businesses
Microsoft has temporarily suspended the rollout of Windows 8.1 Update 1 for business computers after discovering a Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) problem that prevents scanning for future updates.
The problem only shows up if a client PC has Windows 8.1 Update KB 2919355 installed and then attempts to scan against WSUS 3.2 while running on Windows Server 2003 SP2, 2003 R2 SP2, 2008 SP2, or 2008 R2 SP1.
It also only affects systems where HTTPS and SSL are enabled, while TLS 1.2 is not enabled on the server.
Some workarounds for those who have already deployed the update include disabling HTTPS on WSUS or enabling TLS 1.2. These can be changed back when Microsoft releases a fix.
Update blues
The update is still available from the Windows Update Catalog or Microsoft Developer Network. However, Microsoft recommends that businesses delay the deployment of this update until it has fixed the issue.The blunder, discovered on the update's launch day, won't help with business adoption of Windows 8, which has already seen some resistance thanks to the removal of popular mouse and keyboard features. Update 1 fixes some of these issues, while other features are set to return in the future.
Meanwhile, for home users who want to manually install Windows 8.1 Update 1, check out our instructions here.
Via Computer World
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In Depth: Seven things you need to know about the Heartbleed Bug
You might have thought that little padlock in your browser address bar meant you were safe. That your web connection was encrypted, and you could securely provide user names, passwords, credit card numbers, and more.
But it's time to think again.
The recently-discovered Heartbleed bug could allow attackers to read the memory of an apparently protected web server, potentially giving them access to user names, passwords, credit card details, and anything else you might have been doing at that site.
And if you think that's bad, Heartbleed has been leaving your confidential data open to attack for more than two years. What does this mean? Here's everything you need to know.
1. What is Heartbleed?
It's a serious vulnerability in OpenSSL, a popular library used to encrypt and secure various web, email and other connections.Essentially, by passing an incorrect value to an OpenSSL extension, an attacker can read up to 64KB of the host's memory. The process can be repeated to read more RAM, exposing names, passwords, content and any other data: you have no protection at all.
2. How widespread is it?
The good news: this is not a fundamental problem with the core SSL/TLS technology. It's down to a specific bug in one implementation, OpenSSL release 1.0.1, released March 14, 2012, which was fixed in OpenSSL 1.0.1g on April 7 2014.The bad news: OpenSSL is the standard encryption library used by Apache and nginx, the two most commonly-used web servers around, responsible for protecting more than 70% of the web's busiest sites.
This isn't just a matter where you can assume you're safe on a big-name site, then: most companies will have been vulnerable.
3. Has anyone used Heartbleed in an attack?
The exploit was discovered independently by researchers at Google and the Finnish security firm Codenomicon, not by monitoring hacker activity, so there's no evidence that it's been utilised in real life.The problem is that the attack leaves no footprint, though, no trace in the logs, so there's no way to be sure. You should assume that anything you think you've communicated securely, in the last two years, might have been compromised.
4. Are websites safe now?
Maybe. The bug was fixed in OpenSSL 1.0.1g, released on April 7. But that doesn't mean too much, because websites must install the update first, and reboot (or restart several services), which means it's probably not going to happen automatically.Big sites, or any which are actively managed, should be fixed by now. But others may remain vulnerable for much, much longer.
5. Can I check a site for the Heartbleed bug?
Yes. There's a specific Heartbleed test page, and Qualys has added Heartbleed checking to its SSL Server Test. In both cases, just enter the host name of any server you're worried about, click the "Go"/ "Submit" button and wait for a verdict.Beware, though, with the current fuss both pages are getting a lot of traffic, and we found they occasionally refused us access. If you have problems, try again later.
6. How can I protect my own site?
If you have a website of your own, and testing shows its vulnerable, then you need to get it fixed. Now.If you have a server which you manage yourself then you should upgrade to OpenSSL version 1.0.1g.
This may not be too difficult. For example, with WHM/ cPanel you might use the "Upgrade to Latest Version option, then choose "Restart Services" > "HTTP Server (Apache)", clicking "Force a reinstall even if the system is up to date". Whatever you've done, run the Heartbleed test on your site afterwards to confirm there's a change.
If your web host looks after that kind of thing, though, you'll need to contact them for advice. Some hosts are updating servers as we write (April 9), others aren't starting until tomorrow, some may leave it entirely up to the customer. Talk to them and find out.
7. What should I do as an internet user?
Change all your passwords.Yes, we know it's a hassle. But Heartbleed means that all your login credentials may have been exposed to the outside world. Sure, you "might" be safe, but why take the risk? Change them now.
In addition, think twice before using any apparently secure connection for the next few days, unless testing shows the company is no longer vulnerable. We're currently in a very dangerous time, as Heartbleed has now been exposed to those who want to exploit it before all the fixes are in place: it's best to be very careful.
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Hands-on review: Updated: Samsung Gear 2
Review: first impressions
The Samsung Gear 2 is in for a full TechRadar review - here are some early thoughts ahead of the more in-depth rundown.The Gear 2 is something of an oddity for Samsung, as it's not only been launched so soon after the first model, but is also backed up by an arguably better device in the shape of the Gear Neo.
That's not to say that this is a bad device, more than the Neo offers a lower cost and eschews the camera that very few people seem to actually be bothered about.
But that aside, the Gear 2 is a very capable-looking smartwatch, and while it does have a higher price tag (set to launch at around the same cost as the first model, of around £250 / $420 / AU$450 it's got a lot more packed in.
For instance, and for me this is a huge thing, you can change the strap. I'm not inclined to do so, as I think the clasp and colour matches well, but for the general user this is a critical thing to have.
On top of that the watch, like the Galaxy S5, is IP67 rated meaning you can dunk it in water for a little while and roll it around in the mud without worrying that you've ruined an expensive piece of technology.
The button on the bottom is an excellent choice, as it gives you somewhere else to hit to get back to the home screen, double tap to get to other functions or long press to turn the Gear 2 off. While this option was here on the side before, it was much harder to hit and could get caught in arm hair.
That eventually starts to hurt if you do it a few times a day, trust me.
The camera module being part of the device, as well as being joined by the infra-red sensor for controlling the TV, makes perfect sense to me too - showing that Samsung gave up early on the first Gear for a good reason.
Most people probably wouldn't notice, but Tizen (Samsung's own platform, in association with the likes of Intel) is the underlying OS, rather than Android, on this new device from Samsung, with the Gear 2 seemingly more capable as a result.
Some have speculated that this is Samsung trying to 'Trojan Horse' its way into Google's Android marketshare, but in reality it seems to be more of a hardware decision. The battery life is improved as a result, and the general use seems a lot snappier.
I'm enjoying the heart rate monitor as part of the package, which is something that needs to be more of an option for devices these days. Health is a hugely important part of life, and the ability of gadgets to bring exercise and data on your daily output is crucial to getting people up and moving.
Early tests show that accuracy is good, but it's no match for the similarly (or much lesser) priced running watches that are starting to pervade. It's not got a structure to follow, and as such is seems a little redundant at this point - but that doesn't mean others can't get on board later on.
But the rest of the smartwatch abilities are here on the Gear 2, and very much as you'd want. The notifications system is refined and powerful, and while the phone-based Gear Manager is still a little bit of a work in progress, the actual use on the Gear 2 is excellent.
The finger swipes appear more speedy, and the action of tilting up the watch to see the time etc. seems to be more accurate as well.
I'm looking to getting through more of the testing with this little wrist-based device - it looks strong, if a little expensive, and the fitness abilities could be a real boon.
Stay tuned for the full rundown!
Hands on from MWC
The new Samsung Gear 2 is the watch that we were all expecting to happen at MWC, but it came with a few surprises along the way.The biggest one is the fact it's running Tizen; or, as Samsung tells us, a Tizen-based OS for smartwatches. The distinction is largely irrelevant, as the upshot is a faster, more efficient and longer-lasting watch.
The new Gear 2, shorn as it is of the Galaxy name thanks to not coming with Android, is a much better device compared to the original thanks to some key upgrades.
The big one is the fact it's so much lighter compared to the first Gear, which tipped the scales over 70g where the Gear 2 is a lovely 68g. It might not sound like much, but in reality it makes a big difference.
Design
The overall construction of the Gear 2 has been engineered with the consumer in mind, that's for sure. Nearly every grievance we had with the first model has been answered in some form or another, and that starts with the construction.The Gear 2 feels much slimmer, offered up in a 10mm form that makes it just feel much nicer on the wrist. While the camera remains for some reason, at least the module is no longer massive, and is instead embedded in the head of the smart timepiece itself.
This doesn't just improve the way it looks; it also means there's no need for a proprietary strap any more and users can customise the Gear 2 to their heart's content. Samsung is predictably selling the watch with some designer bands, but if you want to you can just shed the lurid plastic / rubber altogether.
The charging situation has been nullified somewhat as well - while there's no socket on the Gear 2 itself (boo) the charging cradle has been significantly reduced to make it look at least a bit better when being plugged in (woohoo).
Interface
There's very little new on show here with the Gear 2's interface, making it very much like the original Gear in most of the modes you'll use it in.
However, there's a lot more customisation on show than before, thanks to an increased synchronisation with the main Gear manager on your smartphone. For instance, you can take a picture of your shirt and have it as the background of your Gear 2, to really give that 'all in' flavour to the way you dress.
The wider range of clock faces definitely helps make this watch more appealing – while we don't have a price (it could still be extortionate) Samsung is looking to make something that users can actually get to grips with.
On my test unit, the swipe downwards motion no longer opens the camera, which will appeal to some people if it remains on the final retail version. This is now a redundant gesture on the homescreen, but still works in other apps and is a better way of moving through the menu system should you find yourself lost.
There's also a home button at the bottom, which you can double press and set to perform a multitude of functions, like take you to missed notifications or emails, or start your sports program.
The rest of the interface is business as usual, with the icons and the general operation barely touched at all. The same black and white Super AMOLED technology that was a strong feature of the original Gear pervades here, and simply tapping around will get you in and out of the watch. Or you can use the home button - your call, really.
Fitness
Being healthy is a big part of what Samsung's about at the moment, and as such the Gear 2 is there to pick up the pieces.
By being a fitness device, and allowing you to change the mode of exercising you're doing (running, walking, cycling and hiking are all included in the mix, meaning that the watch is able to keep a better eye on your calorie burn, which it does by calculating speed through the pedometer) you've got a much more comprehensive wearable for fitness.
There's a growing number of third party apps for fitness arriving for the Gear 2 as well, meaning in a few months your main fitness brand might have caught up with the trend. There will be over 100 apps at launch, but we're really excited to try the main fitness options to see how this works in our full Samsung Galaxy Gear review.
There's also an optical heart rate monitor that can fairly accurately check your heart rate when exercising or just wandering around. Given this is one of the best ways to train (monitoring your heart's output to make sure your body doesn't get over tired) this is a really nice feature to add in to bring health to the forefront.
It seems pretty accurate and quick to pick up your pulse, using a beam of light to check how fast you blood is pumping. It's more useful when running than generally sitting around, but a fun feature nonetheless.
Other features
The Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 features a number of nifty ideas that make the idea of owning a smartwatch that little bit more palatable. For instance, next to the camera there's an IR blaster, which means you control your TV without needing to hunt for the remote.It's got the WatchON app embedded within the device so you can easily control what you need or type in number codes should they be required.
It will also be launching with an open SDK, so there should be a number of new apps in the mix as well.
Sadly this isn't a true Dick Tracy phone, despite what Samsung claimed with the earlier version, as the angle of the camera precludes a video chat.
However, the speaker and microphone have been moved off the strap and into the main body of the Gear itself to make it easier to hold a conversation, should you wish to look a bit crazy when chatting to the end of your arm.
Early verdict
The Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 is a good device - but not a great one. The improved 3 day battery life (6 if you really want to push it) is a good enough number for now , as charging is becoming expected - although the real winner is going to be able to make a battery that lasts for a month.The Gear 2 is a strong, slick and really rather impressive little package - but the worry is why Samsung is being so cagey on the price.
This is worrying for a number of reasons, but the main one is it's likely that the cost is still high, that Samsung hasn't managed to get the cost down below that which it shipped the original Gear, and knows it will upset prospective customers.
But the Gear 2 is a strong smartwatch that moves in the right direction with fitness tracking too - and that's the kind of thing we can all get on board with, especially if the price is right (and should be on the Samsung Gear 2 Neo, which is a stripped down version of this watch and will likely be a little more popular as consumers vote with their wallets.
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Intel, 3M, and SGI reduce data centre cooling costs by 95 per cent
Intel has teamed up with 3M and SGI to deliver an advanced cooling technology that can reduce data centre cooling costs by as much as 95 per cent.
As a proof-of-concept, the trio developed a supercomputer that uses a new two-phase immersion cooling technology spearheaded by 3M.
The project combines SGI's ICE X distributed memory supercomputer with Intel Xeon E5-2600 processors placed directly in 3M's Novec Engineered Fluid.
This fluid acts as an efficient dielectric, cooling hardware without the need for municipal water that is typically used in evaporative cooling.
Environmentally-friendly
The result is a staggering 95 per cent reduction in cooling energy costs, a significant reduction in water consumption, and a 10 times reduction in required space compared to conventional air cooling.If that was not enough, heat generated from the system can even be harvested and reused to heat other technologies like desalination of sea water.
"As the backbone of the data economy, modern data centers must increase the raw performance they deliver, but also do so efficiently by containing power consumption and operating costs," said Charles Wuishpard, VP of the Data Center Group and GM of Workstation and High Performance Computing at Intel.
"Intel is continually innovating and improving microprocessor technologies to meet today's datacenter demands and is working with companies like 3M and SGI to explore advanced cooling technologies that improve energy efficiency in datacenters while also containing operating costs."
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iWatch may arrive hand-in-hand with iPhone 6 this September
That third quarter iWatch release date is sounding a tad more credible today, with word that Apple is now taking delivery of circuit board samples of the wearable device.
According to this new report from Digitimes (which has a bit of a hit-and-miss track record with Apple rumours, remember) three companies have delivered the samples.
The same sources also said that Apple is "expected" to unveil the iWatch this September.
A September unveiling could mean we'll see the watch at the iPhone 6 event which would suggest that it'll be very much a companion device to the smartphone. With rumours of a fitness-focused Healthbook app debuting on iOS 8, we'd already guessed as much.
Late to its own party
Since first word of an iWatch hit the waves, we've seen smartwatches from Samsung, Motorola, LG, Sony and plenty others, yet Apple is still nowhere to be seen.Interestingly, Jony Ive didn't outright deny the existence of an iWatch in his recent interview with The Times.
His response to the question was: "Obviously, there are rumours about us working on... and, obviously, I'm not going to talk about that. It's a game of chess, isn't it?"
Yeah, more like postal correspondence chess played out over a millenium.
- Will the iWatch be all about fitness?
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Review: Microsoft SQL Server 2014
Overview and specifications
The latest version of SQL Server is a major new release, but not a disruptive one. You get security and backup improvements that you can start using straight away and you can keep working the way you always have while making the changes needed to take advantage of performance increases.And instead of making licencing more complicated, Microsoft actually gives you more with the Standard edition of SQL Server 2014. Especially for smaller businesses that don't have a full-time database admin, the new managed backup feature will make things much simpler.
It's simple to turn this on for a database in the interface or using a script. When you do, as soon as you've made enough changes to a database it automatically gets backed up for Azure and stored for up to 30 days; if you change more than 5Mb of data that triggers a log backup, and if you change more than 1GB of data that creates a full backup (and you get a full backup every day to store smaller changes).
You can also turn on encryption and compression for these backups, which saves you money on the third-party tools you'd have needed before. That means no more worrying about changing tapes or getting backups offsite; you just pay for Azure storage and you'll always have multiple backups.
As automatic backup wasn't in earlier versions of SQL Server, Microsoft has produced a free tool that will monitor your network and automatically copy backup files to Azure for you, so you can have a single cloud backup for all your databases even if you don't upgrade them.
You can move tables you use infrequently to Azure as well as an archive, or keep database replicas there for disaster recovery and that's all integrated into SQL Server 2014; for always-on replicas there's a wizard that sets up all the steps for you.
That gives you options for getting all your data into the cloud (and Microsoft remains committed to matching and sometimes undercutting Amazon prices, so this is a cheap way of getting secure backup).
You'll still want a beefy server setup to run SQL Server, especially if you're adding SSD and more memory to get performance improvements and it's unlikely that your network connection will be fast enough to let you work live against data on Azure though.
Some new server-level permissions give you more security options. Not only can you let a specific login connect to any database you already have and any new databases you create, you can choose whether you allow one login to impersonate another. Because this applies to the server, you can create the security policy you want and have it automatically apply to all new databases.
It's also good to see support for the ReFS file system introduced in Windows Server 2012; now you can take advantage of the improvements over NTFS for resiliency on your database server as well.
Performance
But the heart of what's new in SQL Server 2014 are the ways it offers dramatically faster database performance.SQL Server 2012 already lets you speed up data warehouse applications by converting key sections to columnstore indexes that put each column in its own set of disk pages, so when you only need to retrieve information from a few columns you don't have to load the whole table to get them; it uses less CPU and is anything up to a hundred times faster, but before you had to remove and recreate the indexed columnstore whenever the data changed.
In SQL Server 2014 they can now be updated instead of needing to be recreated every time something changes, which means you get all the speed without the inconvenience.
It also has a second, brand new database engine for in-memory data processing that can speed up transactions. This engine, which Microsoft refers to as Hekaton, is just part of SQL Server so you don't pay extra for it or install it separately and you don't even need to code databases differently.
Take a database app you already have and tell SQL Server to analyse it for in-memory use and the Memory Optimisation Analyser will find the tables and stored procedures that will run faster with the new engine, then do the table conversion for you in a matter of minutes (you have to migrate stored procedures yourself in this version).
Unlike just about every other in-memory database system, you don't have to put all the tables in memory, so you can improve performance without needing to have enough physical memory for an entire database.
There are some things that you can't put in memory including cursors, sub-queries, common table expressions, triggers, constraints, foreign keys and sparse columns. It's worth trying to recode your database app to avoid those for the performance gains. On our test databases we saw anything from 10 to 30 times better performance.
The difference is because memory is so much faster than hard disk (and even than SSD), and because the data structure of in-memory tables can be more efficient because it never has to wait to load data halfway through; there are no locks or latches to slow things down.
The difference in performance for applications that can take advantage of Hekaton is enough to take something you used to run once a week and let you run it on demand, giving you real-time access to something you used to have to batch up and run when the database wasn't busy.
Put that behind an ecommerce store and not only can you process purchases more quickly, but you could also calculate recommendation lists like top ten purchases or accessories other customers bought with a product in real time rather than loading a canned list – which means you can take advantage of trends as soon as they start.
And because this isn't an esoteric solution with a different way of building database apps, it's something you can take advantage of quickly. SQL Server 2014 has the potential to make in-memory processing mainstream rather than only for specialist developers.
Even if you don't use the in-memory options your databases can speed up in SQL Server 2014. New support for using SSDs to extend your buffer pool (up to 500Gb) gives you another way to speed up databases reasonably cheaply.
If you have 64GB of RAM and you drop in a 256GB SSD, you could see your database app run two or three times as fast as before. This is a different system from Storage Spaces, which get SSD support in Windows Server 2012 R2, so you do need to manage the resources separately.
The Resource Governor can finally control physical IO to avoid bottlenecks; you can set the amount of IO that a query is allowed to consume and if it goes over that (which usually means it's a badly formed query that isn't going to give you useful results) it will get stopped instead of running until it uses up so many resources the system hangs or crashes.
Delayed Durability doesn't actually make a database faster, but it makes it more responsive. Usually, when you update a record you have to wait until the change you made is saved into the log (in memory) and then the log itself is saved to disk.
Delayed Durability lets you carry on working with the database before the log record gets saved; in the worst case, a crash at the wrong moment would lose the data that was still in memory so you can choose whether this applies to the whole database or less critical operations, but if logging makes your database appreciably slower you can make it feel much faster without investing in extra hardware.
The performance improvements are where you'll care most about licencing. You need the Enterprise edition to get the in-memory online transaction processing of Hekaton (as well as the improvements to high availability), but the Standard edition gets the SSD support and can use 128GB rather than 64GB of physical memory.
That removes a limit that has made SQL Server Standard less and less appealing and means that you can run more demanding database loads without needing the Enterprise edition.
Conclusion
Although it includes improvements in areas from security to Always On clustering, the reasons to upgrade to SQL Server 2014 are cloud integration (specifically Azure) and performance improvements.The biggest single change is the new in-memory database engine, Hekaton, which lets you put the tables and stored procedures you need fastest access to in memory without having to rebuild your entire database application, but there other new performance features like updateable column store indexes and SSD support.
Put it all together and your database could be ten, twenty or thirty times faster without you having to change the way you work.
We liked
The more you care about database performance, the more you'll be impressed with SQL Server 2014. Not only does in-memory online transaction processing get significantly faster, but you can take advantage of it without loading add-ons, enabling extra features or splitting your database into different layers the way you have to with other solutions.Integrated, encrypted backup to Azure (with slightly less integrated support for backing up from older versions of SLQ Server) looks like a minor feature but the automatic managed backups and ability to attach Azure data files directly to SQL Server give you the option of using Azure as anything from an off-site backup and disaster recovery solution to a high-availability hybrid system.
We disliked
SQL Server is still a big, demanding system that requires expertise to get the most from. Although a wizard will pick which tables and stored procedures benefit from being converted to run in memory, there isn't a similar tool to help you find columns to convert to indexed column stores or data that's suitable for being stored in Azure without impacting performance.And while it has the advantage of being familiar to database admins, the interface of the SQL Server authoring and management tools hasn't been updated this time around and can look confusing and dated if you're new to it – especially compared to the clean and well organised Azure interface.
Final verdict
SQL Server 2014 is a major upgrade that also has a host of invaluable smaller improvements. You can get performance improvements by adding SSDs to your database server and remove bottlenecks by managing locks, priorities and logging, but the serious speed increases come from Hekaton, the new in-memory database engine Microsoft has added.Crucially, you don't have to install, manage or code for this separately, although you do have to convert tables to use it and there are some limitations there. Admin improvements like automated backups to Azure and improved security options are also welcome.
Put it all together and this could be the most significant new version of SQL Server in several years. But to get the most from it, be prepared to invest time in database design and look carefully at whether you need the standard or enterprise version.
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Review: Devolo dLAN 650 Triple+ Starter Kit
Overview
HomePlug networking products using devices such as those in the Devolo dLAN 650 Triple Plus Starter Kit (£120, about $200, AU$215) is an excellent solution to wireless network problems. If your home – or indeed small office – Wi-Fi doesn't reach every corner of the building, perhaps because of thick walls or blind spots, with a pair of HomePlug adaptors, you can extend an Ethernet connection into even the most difficult-to-reach places.In a nutshell, a HomePlug is a box with an Ethernet port, which plugs into a mains socket. They're simple to use. You simply plug one of the two adaptor units contained in this starter kit into the wall near your router, and connecting it to the router itself using one of the supplied Ethernet cables.
You then plug the other adaptor unit into another wall socket and connect it to the device you wish to network, again using Ethernet. The device – an internet radio, perhaps, or a media streamer, or even your laptop – then connects to your router, and therefore the internet, using your household electrical wiring as an extension of the Ethernet cables. It really is that simple.
After setting up your initial two-plug HomePlug network, you can add adaptors to connect more Ethernet devices. Some units, such as Devolo's own Wi-Fi Anywhere range, also offer wireless access points, so you can connect Wi-Fi devices as well as Ethernet. And as long as they conform to the HomePlug AV standard, you can even mix different brands of adaptors.
There are plenty on offer. The Linksys Powerline HomePlug AV2 Kit PLEK500 is very cheap, but lacks some of the extra features offered by the Devolo dLAN 650 Triple+ Starter Kit. Netgear's Powerline 500 Wi-Fi Access Point are compact and good value, but don't have a pass-through whereby you can plug a second electrical device into the HomePlug adaptor itself, so you don't lose a mains socket to the HomePlug. Devolo's own dLAN 500 Wi-Fi Network Kit doesn't offer pass-through sockets either, but you get three HomePlug adaptors, two of which create wireless access points for Wi-Fi connectivity.
Whichever brand you opt for, make sure they're no slower than 500Mbps. Older units, offering speeds of 200Mbps or slower, are best avoided. The new Devolo dLAN 650+ series, such as the Devolo dLAN 650 Triple+ Starter Kit, offer a maximum transfer speed of up to 600Mbps. You can mix 600Mbps, 500Mbps and even 200Mbps adaptors on the same network, but connections between differing plugs will reach only the slower maximum speed.
Devolo's dLAN 650 Triple+ Starter Kit contains two HomePlugs, both of which feature pass-through sockets. The smaller of the two has a single Ethernet port, while the large one has three ports. Just the thing if you need to network more than one Ethernet device in the same room.
The new plugs are also packed with new technologies that really improve performance. The first thing you notice as you take them from the box are that the air vents offered by the older 500Mbps adaptors are gone. As the new dLAN 650+ range use less energy than the older plugs, they don't get hot enough to require ventilation.
Where previous HomePlug adaptors used the plug's live and neutral pins to pass data to the electrical wiring, these new Devolo dLAN 650 Triple+ models also use the earth pin. A chip inside the adaptors calculates which of the three pins will give the best results, and automatically switches data transfer to that pin. We're told these are the first HomePlugs in the world to use all three pins in this way, a feature Devolo is calling 'Range+ Technology'.
For the record, the 650+ plugs are so called as the '600' reflects the maximum speed of 600Mbps, the '50' represents the fact that it uses third pin and the '+' demonstrates the Range+ Technology. Not the clearest of monikers.
Performance and benchmarks
The first thing you notice about Devolo's dLAN 650 Triple+ Starter Kit HomePlugs is just how easy they are to set up and use. You simply plug them in, enter their security ID code in Devolo's Cockpit management software and they make the connection. It's that simple. When the initial computer-to-one-HomePlug network has been created in this way, further plugs can be added just by plugging them in and adding their ID in Cockpit.It's easier to get at the new Devolo dLAN 650 Triple+ Starter Kit HomePlugs' Ethernet ports too. Unlike the previous generation of Devolo HomePlugs, which located the ports on the foot of the device which hung downwards from the plug socket, the new models position the plug pins at the foot of the HomePlug and the Ethernet ports on top. This is far more convenient and accessible, especially when they're located behind furniture or in otherwise awkward-to-reach places.
That said, these HomePlugs are still very bulky, especially compared to Devolo's own mini HomePlugs. This is, of course, inevitable given that they have pass-through sockets for plugging in another electrical device, but it's still a consideration when it comes to placement. Thankfully, the new upwards-facing form factor means they can no longer be obstructed by large skirting boards, though.
According to Devolo, the new 650+ range of HomePlugs give an average speed increase of around 30%, but in poor conditions – maybe in a house where the wiring is very old, or with the plugs located on power strips – the improvement can be as high as 200 to 300%. We were certainly impressed by the performance boost we got in our tests, in an old, Victorian house with mediocre wiring.
We set up a HomePlug network using four Devolo 500Mbps plugs, recorded the speeds using Devolo's own Cockpit management software, then swapped them for new 650+ HomePlugs and compared the results. Between our computer and our router, in the next room, we got 316Mbps using the old plugs, but an amazing 584Mbps with the new ones, an increase of almost 85%.
From the computer to a HomePlug in the boiler cupboard at the back of the house, it went from 178Mbps to 270Mbps, an increase of just under 52%. From the computer to the spare bedroom upstairs, where we installed the HomePlugs on a power strip instead of a wall socket (this isn't recommended, but in our experience, you can usually get away with it), the increase was less marked. A speed of 127Mbps went up to 161Mbps, a still-respectable increase of almost 27%.
A kind word for the Cockpit application is also appropriate. It's incredibly easy to use, and makes it really simple to manage your HomePlug network. After downloading from Devolo's website, it monitors the status of your network, showing the transfer speeds between each of your HomePlugs. It also lets you protect your network with a single password, add new HomePlug adaptors and check for firmware upgrades.
You can also switch off individual plugs' data communication (much easier than unplugging, for a temporary disconnection), switch off their LED indicators should they prove intrusive and give each adaptor an individual name. If you have plugs that also provide wireless access points, you can manage this from Cockpit too.
Devolo's new dLAN 650+ HomePlugs, including the two in this dLAN 650 Triple+ Starter Kit, offer a significant performance increase over their 500-series predecessors, but there has been no price hike. Who could say fairer than that?
Verdict
HomePlug networking is an excellent solution to home network problems that cannot be solved with Wi-Fi. Large houses, thick walls and wireless interference can all limit the range of your Wi-Fi reach, but by using the household wiring as de facto Ethernet cables, a HomePlug network can give a stable connection all over the house without trailing wires all over the place.We liked
The new 650+ series of HomePlugs boast an excellent new design. They run cooler than their predecessors, and are upwardly orientated so they don't get blocked by bulky skirting boards. But most importantly of all, they now use all three of the plugs' pins for data transfer, automatically switching between them should a different pin offer a better connection. The result? A significant increase in transfer speeds, especially if you're using them in sub-optimal conditions. There was no increase in cost either – this new pack costs the same as the launch price of the equivalent bundle in the older range.We disliked
There really isn't much to dislike here. The plugs are a little bulky, but this is inevitable as they contain pass-through sockets. Smaller, non-pass-through models in the 650+ range will surely follow. There are cheaper HomePlugs around too, though this Devolo pack is competitively priced considering its quality, and certainly represents good value for money.Final verdict
We've always appreciated the quality and ease of use of Devolo's HomePlugs, and this new 600Mbps series takes them to a new level. An excellent solution to your home networking problems.
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The Last of Us Remastered confirmed for PS4, GTA 5 looks to be next
If you haven't already picked up a next-gen console (can we start calling it now-gen yet?), June might be the month to change that.
The Last of Us Remastered has just been listed for pre-order over on the Sony Entertainment Network site for $59.99 for the US, although currently the link goes to a dead page. That price translates directly to around £35 / AU$65.
There's currently no confirmed release date however Spanish retailer Xtralife recently claimed that the game will be arriving on June 19. We're chasing this up with Sony right now.
Fire up the engines
At the same time, there's been some more talk of GTA 5 also hitting the PS4 and Xbox One. This one's got a little more grounding though as it comes from the manager of German retailer Saturn.de, as spotted by BGR.In a tweet, TECH-NICK said that the game is expected on both consoles and PC in June, though he did add in a later message that this is only a rumour. Still, it's interesting to hear it from a slightly more credible source.
- Xbox One vs PS4: where are we now?
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In depth: Instagramming the movies: The Double's special effects are the antidote Hollywood needs
Seeing Double
In Richard Ayoade's new film, The Double, an over-looked and under-appreciated Simon James is usurped by his exact double, the confident and charismatic James Simon.There's more diplopia to The Double than its doppleganger storyline though. The film is full of reflections and shadows that echo the narrative, as well as hints of the past that make up a vision of an alternative future.
It's a future that might have happened had technology not panned out the way it did - computers are the size of rooms, photocopiers are operated by specialist staff in dedicated offices, mobile phones do not exist.
There's a duality to the way the film was made, too. On paper, it's quite a lo-fi affair: based on Dostoyevsky's 1846 story of the same name, the film was shot on 35mm film rather than digital, is full of obscure film references and overlaid with a smokiness like smudged fingerprints on a screen.
It's not exactly the high-frame-rate photo-realsitic 3D filmmaking that Hollywood is into these days - and to describe it as 'refreshing' is to do a disservice to a film that goes all out to make you feel its characters' anxieties in as claustrophobic a setting as it could muster.
That said, The Double's darkened corridors are a nice change of pace to Hollywood's usual flood-lit effects approach but making the film required some pretty futuristic tech smarts from the company that put the visual effects together.
Gravitas
That company is Framestore, a visual effects and animation house whose most famous work was on last year's visual banger, Gravity. But intergalactic space thriller this ain't.Framestore also has the advantage of having worked with Ayoade for ten years, from the days of Garth Marenghi, through his pop video career and into feature films including his debut Submarine.
None of those are titles exactly scream cutting-edge tech. Submarine was a straighter film than The Double, with life in suburban Wales needing fewer optical feats than a dark, dystopian demi-future, but it still took some ingenuity on the effects' part - like bumping some digital shots out to VHS then back just to capture the right kind of grain to fit Ayoade's vision.
But how do you handle a film shoot when your lead character and main supporting character are played by the same person? The major challenge was that Ayoade "didn't want it to feel like an effect." This meant there was no easy way out.
"Normally, a quick way round it would have been to shoot one actor on green screen and then key them off," Matt Clarke, VFX supervisor, explained. "But Richard isn't a fan of green screen anyway, because he often can see the spill and you find yourself obsessing about edges that are there that shouldn't be."
Instead, the scenes with two Jesses in were shot as though there were two actors on set, using a mixture of motion control cameras that can repeat the same move exactly multiple times, a body double and a technique called rotoscoping.
Rotoscoping is a 100-year-old process that basically now involves cutting out one Jesse Eisenberg and sticking him into a scene with the other Jesse Eisenberg. Every scene had to be shot twice very precisely, with Eisenberg using an earpiece to act 'against' himself.
"There was also talk of a CG head at one point," Clarke adds, casually. "We do have a scan of Jesse's head somewhere, but we never used it."
Framestore has built its own movie-making tech to create 3D scans, originally developed for last year's 3D effects behemoth Gravity. "We developed this thing where using a lot of cameras you basically take a photograph of every angle and it creates a 3D model from that," executive producer Simon Whalley tells us.
"And you've got all the textures because it's a photograph not a scan. So for production, it's much much quicker [than traditional scanning techniques]. The guys went down and set it up on set, so it took them half a day to get it all rigged up and ready but Jesse could just walk up, sit down, click and then he's gone. So it was as quick as that."
Real talk
But an animated head scan wouldn't have cut it because the technology is almost too good. "I think it just has to look real. It has to look authentic," Whalley explained. "I think if it was all digital and it looked authentic that wouldn't be a problem for Richard.""You could do something photo-realistic in CG and it would look completely real but it wouldn't necessarily have the aesthetic imperfections of shooting the real thing, the nuances," added senior visual effects supervisor Paul O'Brien.
For a film full of retro-futuristic technology, it wasn't just the doubling that required lo-fi high-tech effects techniques. O'Brien, for instance, worked for weeks creating a 90s-style sci-fi TV show that appears for about 25 seconds in the finished film.
"All I knew was that I had about three or four minutes worth of this Replicator to create, and I didn't know anything about the film. I've got stacks of DVDs of The Trancer and Space 1999, and I'm going 'I don't understand how this is related - is this Dostoyevsky brought to the 90s?' I just didn't get it.
"So I'm slaving away and then I have a catch up with Matt and he shows me - he's taken maybe two seconds of my four minute piece and stuck it in a screen that Jesse Eisenberg's watching. And that's probably all he's ever going to use in the whole film - and I've been slaving away for a couple of weeks getting plastic shields to glow and all that.
"But most of our work is like that - you'd never even know it's been done. Set extensions and bits of this and that, all just to make it better."
The Double is in cinemas in the UK now and opens in the US on May 9.
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