BlackBerry Passport, Classic will arrive in US this month
BlackBerry addicts in the US will be happy to know that on February 20, AT&T will begin selling the $649.99 BlackBerry Passport and the $419.99 BlackBerry Classic online and at the carrier's retail stores. Both phones run on the security-centric BlackBerry 10 OS 10.3.1.
While both the BlackBerry Passport and the BlackBerry Classic have been available unlocked internationally, this is the first time that either device will be available for purchase through a US carrier. The Passport is an AT&T exclusive while the BlackBerry Classic will be headed to more carriers.
The Classic and Passport are BlackBerry's latest efforts at competing in the enterprise space against Apple's iPhone and Google's Android OS. A Piper Jaffray report released early this year shows that BlackBerry is trailing its rivals in enterprise adoption, commanding 24%of CIO support versus 98% for iOS and 79% for Google. For those who demand a physical hardware keyboard on their phones, BlackBerry still leads in this space.
BlackBerry Passport
The Passport is BlackBerry's current flagship smartphone offering and features a 4.5-inch Full HD square touchscreen with a 1440 X 1440 resolution. While internally the Passport on AT&T and the international unlocked models are similar, AT&T's model comes with more rounded corners.Weighing 6.91 ounces and measuring 5.04 X 3.56 X 0.36 inches, the Passport is a large and wide phone with similar dimensions to the LG Optimus Vu on Verizon. That device has a 4:3 aspect ratio display, making it awkward to hold as a phone. With a 5-inch display, the LG rival measures 5.5 X 3.56 X 0.33 inches.
The Passport has a three-row keyboard positioned just below the display. There isn't a dedicated row for the spacebar key, so it's crammed into the third row. Though the Passport does not have the Classic's optical touchpad for navigating the BlackBerry UI, the keyboard itself is a trackpad allowing you to swipe your fingers over the keys.
BlackBerry is positioning the Passport as a productivity heavyweight. The device is rated for 30 hours of battery life and comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, 32GB storage, 3GB RAM, and 13-megapixel camera with optical image stabilization to help with low light photography.
BlacKBerry Classic
For those who refuse to give up the BlackBerry navigation keys or the optical trackpad found on older BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Curve smartphones, the Canadian smartphone-maker designed the Classic as an homage to the past but with a look towards the future.Running the latest version of the BlackBerry 10 operating system, the BlackBerry Classic packs in a 3.5-inch 720 X 720-pixel resolution touchscreen and 16GB of storage in a design that instantly feels familiar to BlackBerry Bold users. With a steel frame, the Classic has a familiar 4-row keyboard, and the optical trackpad allows users to navigate the OS and select text without having to reach for the touchscreen.
The device also has an 8-megapixel rear camera. BlackBerry claims the Classic has a battery life of 22 mixed hours.
Enterprise appeal
Those choosing a BlackBerry smartphone in 2015 aren't doing so because of BlackBerry's library of apps. Though the BlackBerry App World store is much smaller in comparison to the App Store for iOS or Google's Play Store, BlackBerry included a Java runtime that allows BlackBerry devices to run Android apps with mixed results.BlackBerry's strength lies in its security features, which will draw appeal from businesses and IT administrators. BlackBerry Protect allows a user to wipe a BlackBerry phone if it's lost or stolen while BlackBerry Safeguard allows users to secure all information on any app.
Popular with the BYOD crowd, BlackBerry Balance in BlackBerry 10 allows users to essentially partition their phone into two profiles, one for work and a second for personal. To protect sensitive work information, data cannot be shared between the profiles.
There is also built-in malware detection and encryption.
Pricing
Retail prices for both models will vary based on the different plans or contract terms that is selected at purchase. Both the Passport and Classic will be available through AT&T's no-commitment Next plans for $0 down. The Passport will cost $21.67 per month on the Next 24 plan, $27.09 with Next 18, or $32.50 with Next 12. With a two-year contract, the Passport could be purchased for $199.99, and the phone retails for $649.99 for those not willing to sign a contract.The BlackBerry Classic costs $14 with Next 24, $17.50 with Next 18, or $21 per month with Next 12. Like the Passport, there is $0 down on AT&T for the BlackBerry Classic with any of the Next plans. With a two-year contract, the Classic costs $49.99, and those not wanting to sign a service agreement can pick up the Classic at the $419.99 full retail price.
- Check out the ten best smartphones in the US.
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Apple iPhone VR headset discovered in recent patent
Virtual reality products continue to make headlines, but it's anyone's guess who will eventually dominate the market - but armed with a stack of new patents, Apple is showing a renewed interest in this space.
Patently Apple reported Tuesday that Apple has been granted another 41 patents published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and one of them in particular appears targeted directly at virtual reality (VR) rivals Google and Samsung.
First filed in 2008 and credited to inventor Quin Hoellwarth, patent number 8,957,835 describes a "video headset frame" which works in tandem with an iPhone or iPod to supply video and audio content.
It's probably not much of a coincidence this headset sounds a lot like the Samsung Gear VR, which uses a compatible Galaxy smartphone attached to the front and beams virtual reality entertainment to the wearer.
Line of sight
In addition to just broadcasting iOS-based picture and sound to the headset, Apple's patent also describes a picture-in-picture (PIP) feature, which can be used to keep an eye on the real world around you while wearing the device.Judging from the patent details, Apple plans to incorporate some amount of tactile physical controls on the headset itself, but is also leaving the door open for other options, such as Siri voice control.
The headset patent also elaborates on "advanced haptics" located within the earplugs, which can be used to enhance sound effects and music from the movie content being viewed.
Apple's video headset ambitions date back to at least 2008, but the iPhone maker has been relatively quite of late on VR-related patents, with the last batch having turned up nearly four years ago - and recent job postings related to the technology having been mysteriously scrubbed from existence.
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HTC One M9 confirmed for March 1 launch
HTC has once again confirmed the launch of its new flagship phone through its sponsorship deal with the UEFA Champions League.
In a move similar to the one from two years ago, where HTC advertised the 'HTC One' ahead of its unveiling in London days later, the brand has this time been a lot more specific.
The hoardings read: 'The new HTC One, coming March 1' - a clear nod to the event in Barcelona. While it doesn't give the name away, given the recent website leaks of the One M9 moniker it doesn't seem there's much left in terms of mystery for the new flagship.
The new follows a tweet from the HTC UK Twitter account, which focused on the tagline 'let them stare', showing another clear design push from the brand.
However, the mass publicity of the Champions League game shows the brand isn't shy about the topic for its big press launch.
Back of the net
The previous instance of One branding at the Champions League led to the company denying it was anything to do with a new device, instead insisting it was a celebration of the One 'family' that comprised of the One X, One S and One V.
But there can be no doubt this time - after all, it couldn't be clearer that the new HTC One is the flagship phone.
The only question really remains: when will the phone go on sale? HTC has in the past put it on sale instantly, and given the 'coming March 1' portion of the advert it could be possible the same has happened here... especially given the volume of leaks appearing these days.
It's not long to wait until the new phone appears then - can HTC be the first brand to take a hat trick of perfect reviews on TechRadar? If the leaks are anything to go by, it's certainly possible.
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Buying Guide: Best Chromebooks: top Chromebooks reviewed
Best Chromebooks
Updated: We're expanding our list of the Best Chromebooks and the latest entry to join the ranks is the Lenovo N20p. This machine is shakes up the typical cloud-based laptop formula with a back flipping screen and touchscreen controls.Chromebooks are budget laptops that are both odd and brilliant, low-impact and potent. They focus on what computing has been all about since the late '90s, the web browser, through Google's Chrome operating system. The search giant's OS and mobile computer spec are just a few years old, and already companies like HP, Samsung and Acer have released several models.
What should you look out for in a Chromebook? The majority of these Google laptops use either the same or similar low-power components. This is largely what is behind the unquestionable affordability of these mobile rigs - most of which start under $300 (about £178, AU$319).
With low-impact processors and barely HD screens starting at 1366 x 768 resolution, most of these machines are also designed to last. Almost every Chromebook claims between 7 and 9 hours of battery life and comes within a few hours of that range, based on our testing.
Google-powered laptops rely on tiny amounts of onboard solid-state storage to keep costs down, starting with 16GB SSDs. To offset the loss, every version of the browser-bound notebook comes with at least 100GB of Google Drive space for two years.
As the market matures, look for displays to improve (see the Toshiba below), battery life to be extended, and already-light weights to decrease. Newer Chromebooks will feature touchscreen functionality, like the Lenovo N20p Chromebook, and Google will constantly update Chrome to provide the most up-to-date browsing features. Prices will start to climb above the budget range, but there should always be something within your spending limit. There are even ruggedized versions of Chromebooks designed to withstand the abuse of children.
At that point, it all comes down to size (and price), with Chromebooks available as small as 11.6 inches and as large as 14 inches. Always updated, here are our top-ranking Chromebook reviews:
Dell Chromebook 11
The Dell Chromebook 11 (starting at $299, £179, about AU$317) is an affordable machine that does not feel or look like it was made on a budget. Compared to its competitors, this Dell falls in line with the specs already set by other Chrome laptops on the market.
At the same time, it also has two USB 3.0 ports. What sets it apart, though, is its impressive longevity, which makes it perfect for anyone who wants to get away from the outlet with a mobile hotspot in tow.
We even recommend checking out what Dell has on offer before the Acer or HP offerings. For school and/or leisure, the Dell Chromebook 11 is a no brainer. For now, Dell leads the Chromebook class with the best-looking and longest-lasting Chrome laptop yet.
- Read our Dell Chromebook 11 review
Lenovo N20p Chromebook
This is one of the "sexier" Chromebooks available, showcasing Lenovo's eye for style. However, the best feature is the N20p's 300-degree hinge, which lets you flip the N20p's display backward all the way into stand mode (or 'tent' mode, whatever you prefer), which lends itself nicely to viewing movies or showing presentations.
The touchscreen controls also work in a pinch for recreational activities such as watching shows on HBOGo viewing or Pinteresting. Still there's some difficulty when using it as a tablet, as Chrome isn't entirely tailored to touch as a largely browser-based operating system.
It's not very tuned for business use, but the Lenovo N20p offers great versatility for a leisure device. Plus with two USB ports (one 3.0), and HDMI port and an SD card reader, this Chromebook delivers a great bang for its buck.
- Read our Lenovo N20p Chromebook review
Toshiba Chromebook 2
For $329 (about £205, AU$382), the Toshiba Chromebook 2 is a gorgeous and affordable laptop that doesn't have many weaknesses. It comes with more RAM and a full HD 1080p screen, making it a step up from other models in this class, like the Samsung Chromebook 2 and Acer C720.
But potential buyers should note that the Toshiba Chromebook 2 moves the Chromebook category closer towards the territory of an affordable Windows 8.1 laptop. So you might be overpaying if you're not purchasing this laptop specifically for the Google ecosystem.
That being said, the 1080p screen is a huge bonus and the laptop speakers made by Skullcandy are booming. Add it all up and the Toshiba Chromebook 2 might be an ideal streaming system for everything from YouTube and Google Play to Hulu Plus and Netflix.
- Read our Toshiba Chromebook 2 review
Best Chromebooks continued
Acer Chromebook 13
Powered by Nvidia's ARM Cortex A15-based Tegra K1, this Chromebook packs a lot of punch in a tiny frame. Users will love its 13.3-inch 1080p resolution screen, as well as its portability. At 3.31 pounds, the Acer Chromebook 13 is a relatively light laptop.
This Chromebook does have some minor issues: it doesn't multitask very well and the laptop itself only comes in one color. But for the price ($279 about £165, AU$300), you're likely to enjoy the simplicity and productivity, as you learn to overcome the design limitations.
- Read our Acer Chrome 13 review
HP Chromebook 11
The HP Chromebook 11 (starting at $279, £179, AU$399) is smooth and usable. While Chrome OS is limited by definition, between us growing more comfortable in web apps and those apps growing in power – and Chrome OS maturing – we're bumping into those limitations far less often.
This laptop is punchy enough to make the experience slick, cheap enough for anyone on a budget (or an impulse buy for the well-off), but something that still feels solid. It is a delight to own and use.
Apple and the other premium manufacturers should look at this little gem of a computer and applaud what has been achieved. The Chromebook 11 shows that it's possible to create a product with a little bit of the magic and joy you get from an Apple laptop without charging four figures for it.
- Read our HP Chromebook 11 review
Acer C720 Chromebook
In terms of power and endurance, you can't argue with the Acer C720 Chromebook (starting at $199, £199, AU$399). When you just want to get on the web quickly to answer emails or look something up, the C720 is ideal. For parents, it's also a perfect "homework machine," as long as you can get a printer hooked up.
This is a true web appliance, a fine system for families. The Google account log-in gives each user a personalized interface, and just a few keystrokes completely wipe the system. That limits the risk substantially in sharing the system with others.
One key criterion we use in evaluating a device is whether we'd actually want to use it every day. Even taking this laptop's flaws into account, it's something we definitely would want to use, for the price.
- Read our Acer C720 Chromebook review
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Apple could give your next MacBook the finger(print)
With all the feature sharing going on between Mac and iOS, it's not hard to imagine Apple might one day allow Touch ID to unlock notebooks or even desktop systems, but could it be coming sooner than we think?
An Apple-centric blog out of Taiwan called AppleCorner (via AppleInsider) seems to think so, and today cited sources straight out of Cupertino's Asian supply chain as potential evidence.
Already widely considered a modern convenience by iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2 owners, Touch ID is the biometric security option that allows access to late-model devices simply by placing the proper finger over a home button equipped with the proper sensor.
The feature, first introduced with the iPhone 5S back in 2013, is a crucial component of Apple Pay, the contactless payment method that shipped with an update to iOS 8.1 last fall - and one many Mac owners are hoping will eventually make its way to the desktop as well.
Touch of a finger
According to Tuesday's report from Taiwan, Touch ID could first make a splash on Apple's long-rumored 12-inch MacBook Air, a notebook pundits expect to ditch most of the traditional hardware ports, while adding Retina Display to the mix.The svelte laptop is also said to include a Touch ID sensor placed conveniently above the trackpad, not unlike the SecurePad biometric functionality Synaptics plans to implement into PC notebooks with the backing of an alliance that includes Visa, MasterCard and PayPal.
Not in the market for a new MacBook Air? The same report also claims Apple is planning to equip its popular Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad peripherals with Touch ID as well, bringing the functionality to desktop systems like iMac, Mac mini and Mac Pro.
Until we see further evidence that suggests Touch ID on the Mac will become a reality, we'll keep this report squarely in the "grain of salt" rumor category, although it's worth noting AppleCorner accurately leaked parts for the iPad Air 2 ahead of Apple's official unveiling last year.
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Updated: BlackBerry goes after Ryan Seacrest's Typo iPhone case ... again
Update February 17, 2015: Second time wasn't the charm for Ryan Seacrest's Typo case for iPhones. BlackBerry has called out the latest generation of the QWERTY case, Typo2, for again allegedly ripping off its designs.
"Just as they did with the Typo Keyboard, Defendants have again copied numerous proprietary BlackBerry designs and patents in the Typo2 Keyboard," said BlackBerry in its complaint, picked up by The Hollywood Reporter.
Though it looks less BlackBerry-ish than the first Typo, the Waterloo firm says Typo2 "still blatantly copies BlackBerry's iconic keyboard trade dress designs ... [and] infringes numerous BlackBerry utility patents."
BlackBerry wants an injunction on sales of the iPhone case, and hopes its latest lawsuit puts the kebosh on the "Defendants' pattern and practice of unlawful conduct."
Original story from 2014 below...
BlackBerry has won a court order banning the sale of an iPhone keyboard case that mimicked its patented qwerty design.
The $99 (£60, AU$109) Typo keyboard case added a couple of extra inches to an iPhone, but provided a physical keyboard experience that's a little too close to the one BlackBerry pioneered, according to a judge.http://cms.techradar.com/article/edit-news-body.action
U.S. District Judge William Orrick said similarities between the case and BlackBerry's IP were "unmistakeable" and that Typo was deliberately targeting smartphone users who prefer qwerty action.
"BlackBerry has convincingly shown that BlackBerry's keyboard designs are a key driver of demand and goodwill for BlackBerry phones," the judge wrote in ordering a temporary sales ban.
Bold statement
Typo, which is made by American Idol host Ryan Seacrest's company Typo Products LLC, had failed to make a convincing case that its designs were not infringing on BlackBerry patents, the judge said.The company plans to appeal the order and told Bloomberg Businessweek it would "continue to make and sell innovative products that busy people can't live without."
The court victory will come as a small ray of sunshine by the Canadian smartphone company, following its grim first quarter earnings report, released on Friday.
The beleaguered firm also announced plans to bring back the classic BlackBerry Bold, which bares that "unmistakably" similar physical qwerty keyboard.
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Industry voice: Ignore DevOps and kiss goodbye to huge productivity and profit boosts
It wasn't too long ago that the IT department was simply 'there' – a necessary evil tolerated to ensure the day-to-day computing necessities were up and unobtrusively running while the real-world rain-makers did their thing.
Software developers, if they were in-situ at all, were even more niche and their work was often limited to reactive fire-fighting rather than constructively pitching in with any genuine business purpose.
Try running a business strategy along such siloed lines today and see how far it gets you.
The era of applications and online services as bolted on nice-to-haves is long gone. Nowadays – in an overwhelming and growing way – they are the business.
A modern consumer's vote of confidence comes from a click of a mouse or a swipe of a smart device, and if your apps aren't firing on all cylinders they'll waste no time in logging on to your rivals' offering.
There's little or no breathing space for error any more – and rightly so. If you're going to thrive as a business, data-driven intelligence, speed, agility and quality of service are indispensable.
App overload
Whether they are customer-facing or behind the scenes, the number of apps in use by businesses is skyrocketing and becoming more and more integrated and interdependent. And the numbers and intricacies are only going to grow as the much-trumpeted Internet of Things (IoT) juggernaut picks up momentum.With limited budgets to throw bodies at this convoluted and unprecedented problem, IT departments have been forced to adapt.
This is the very reason the notion of DevOps is steadily gaining influence. Essentially, this is a nascent method of software development whereby developers are uniquely attuned to IT infrastructure functions and business strategies – a fluid and empathetic platform to bring better and more relevant apps and services to life for the benefit of both the bottom line and consumer.
The DevOps factor is starting to become difficult to ignore, according to Puppet Labs' third annual State of DevOps Report last year. The 2014 report showed that of the surveyed IT organisations, the high-performers deployed code 30 times more frequently and with 50% fewer failures.
The report went on to explain that firms with switched-on IT teams were twice as likely to exceed their profitability, market share and productivity goals, and that IT performance strongly correlates with such well-known DevOps staples as use of version control and continuous delivery.
What's more, it also explained that the longer an organisation has implemented and continues to improve upon DevOps practices, the better it performs. DevOps inspired culture was also highlighted, including common practices such as good information flow, cross-functional collaboration, shared responsibilities, and learning from failure, were all seen as highly beneficial.
Powerful APIs
But as a mind-set and methodology, the sustainable success of DevOps is reliant on a robust infrastructure on which it can thrive and deliver tangible results through innovative automation, orchestration and process reengineering.In order for this to happen, there is a pressing need for powerful application programming interfaces (APIs) that enable infrastructures to be dynamically configured, extensible and flexible.
It is through these APIs and the ability to deliver programmatic extensibility that new and better routes to operational innovation are unlocked and amplified across the ever-expanding numbers we simply cannot do business without.
Clearly, DevOps can and will shine, paving the way for the economies of operational scale required to efficiently meet challenges associated with rapid, explosive growth in both user communities and app deployments.
The trick now is to make sure they are given the chance to do so.
Gary Newe is Technical Director of F5 Networks
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Hundreds of banks hit by $1 billion hack
A sophisticated hacking group has been attacking banks all over the world for two years with $1 billion (around £655 million, or AU$1.28 billion) missing from accounts.
Eastern European cyber criminals managed to steal from financial institutions across the planet in a sustained hacking campaign against sensitive government and industrial targets.
Researchers from Kaspersky Lab reported that the attacks by the Carbanak hacking gang have been going on for two years, targeting banks, epayment services and other organisations in almost 30 countries worldwide including the US, UK and Australia.
What makes the attack unique is that it didn't target the individual end user like many past operations and instead went straight to the banks themselves.
Hackers first gained access to the affected systems through a spearphishing email that contained a .CPL attachment and in some cases a Microsoft Word document was used. From here they lay silently in the bank networks to gain a network foothold and made video recordings to find out how banking systems worked.
Money Mules
Kaspersky reported that, although the video quality was poor, cyber criminals were able to gain enough know-how to pilfer money in a number of ways including taking remote control of ATMs and using "money mules" to collect it and dispense it into their accounts using SWIFT.The operation is still ongoing and it's estimated that each robbery takes between two and four months between the time of infection to the eventual theft.
Via: Threat Post
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Can Apple's gold Watch single-handedly beat Android Wear?
It says a lot about the uncertainty surrounding the Apple Watch that early sales predictions vary so vastly - analyst guesses start at about 10 million and go up beyond 40.
Apple, obviously, has big expectations for its wearable, and The Wall Street Journal reports that Cupertino has ordered production of five to six million Watches ahead of the device's April launch.
Half of the Q1 orders will be for the cheaper Sport model, with the more stylish mid-range Apple Watch making up a third.
That leaves the premium Apple Watch Edition to account for a small chunk of the overall order, but the report claims that Apple plans to produce over one million units per month starting in the second quarter.
Wearing it on its sleeve
To put all of this in context, around 4.6 million wearables were sold in 2014 in total, with Android Wear devices accounting for just 720,000 of that, according to analysts at Canalys. Pebble shifted one million units.Put simply, Apple (supposedly) believes it's going to outsell Android Wear - an entire wearables platform - by a lot. An awful lot. The gold watch alone would outpace last year's total sales for wrist wearables running Google's OS.
Earlier today, CCS Insight contacted us with its own report predicting that wearable shipments will jump to 75 million in 2015, with the Apple Watch making up a quarter of that. That would, more or less, align with what Apple has ordered, assuming the report is true.
However Ben Wood, Chief of Research at CCS, told TechRadar that he was slightly skeptical about the Android Wear numbers, but does believe that Apple has the momentum to push well past its biggest rival.
"I'd love to know where that number came from, but let's say it was a million on a good day, that's very small. Android Wear just doesn't have the luster of the Apple brand... even if it just told the time it would probably sell three million."
Wood added that by pushing its wearable as global as possible, Apple could have a "30 million [unit] opportunity".
He also said that the firm's 'worst case scenario' prediction for Apple Watch sales was 10 million, but even that, said Wood, shouldn't be seen as a failure. "To sell 10 times more than the most smartwatch [Pebble] would be a spectacular success".
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Review: Synology DS1815+ Review
Introduction
Aimed at both business and home users in need of gigantic amounts of storage, the DS1815+ is an eight-bay NAS from Synology, powered by a quad-core CPU and up to 6GB of memory. This places it at the very opposite end of the performance scale from the single-bay DS115J that came out late last year.With a retail cost of around £850 (US$1030, AU$132) it's at the upper end of NAS pricing, although one step below the level occupied by rack-mount NAS units, such as the Thecus NN810U-G or Synology's 12-bay RackStation RS3614xs+.
There's space for eight hot-swappable 3.5-inch or 2.5-inch disks, which offers up to 48TB of internal storage (when using 6TB hard disks) and this can be extended further by purchasing a pair of external five-bay DX513 modules, which connect to the unit's two eSATA ports at the back. Therefore, if you need it, the DS1815+ offers up to 108TB of storage space. The DS1815+ also support hardware-based encryption of your entire file system.
It has four gigabit ethernet ports, which can be configured for redundancy in case of failure, or together via link aggregation to offer up to 4Gbit/sec of bandwidth. And as with any Synology NAS, it comes with DiskStation Manager, the company's excellent Linux-based NAS operating system, which currently sits at version 5.1.
Appearance and design
If you're familiar with Synology's NAS range, the DS1815+ will be instantly recognisable, as it looks just about identical to the DS1813+. The unit measures 340mm across, and comes in a very strong plastic case, which doesn't take up too much space under a desk or on a shelf. The eight removable bays are accessible at the front. At the bottom of each disk bay is a green status LED, with additional indicators for the LAN ports, an alert notifier and power at the top.
There are four USB 3 ports at the back along with the two eSATA ports, a pair of large fans and an internal power supply, so a standard "kettle" lead is all you need to get it up and running.
The DS1815+ is powered by a quad-core Intel Atom C2358 processor, which runs at 2.4GHz, a chip which should be enough to cope with many users simultaneously. There are two memory slots, one occupied by a 2GB DDR3 SODIMM as standard.
Disk installation is completely free of tools and screws. You secure the disk into the bay by pushing two black plastic strips into the mounting holes, pushing the disk into the units, then closing the plastic cover. To remove them, a quick press of the front pops the cover up and you can easily slide the disk out.
Since plastic can break, I thought it a good idea to look at how to replace a broken mounting bracket, if the need arose. Synology lists lots of spare parts on its website, but you can't order them directly. Instead the company says to locate a reseller, who should be able to help.
The trump card of all Synology's NAS products is DiskStation Manager, the excellent Linux-based operating system that powers them. It offers a familiar Windows-like environment, accessible via a browser, with groups of icons and menus to navigate around the system and widgets to provide at-a-glance information, such as internal temperature, CPU utilisation, and so on.
The software functions just about identically on the high-end model like the DS1815+ as it does the lower end units, but there are some subtle differences in what it can do.
If you set up a download manager for torrent files and so on, the number of concurrent downloads is limited with a NAS such as the DS115J, but the DS1815+ lets you run up to 80 at the same time.
Similarly, DiskStation Manager lets you run a web server from your NAS, with support for SQL databases, WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and so on. With a low-end unit, the limited CPU and memory resources restricts what you can do. It might be useful as a development server, or for use on an intranet with a small number of clients, but with the beefed-up network and processing performance offered by the DS1815+, you can host a site with a larger number of users.
This is really just scratching the surface of DiskStation Manager. As well as full domain and Active Directory support, there's a built-in firewall, Telnet, SSH, FTP, iSCSI, all sorts of traditional RAID modes in addition to Synology Hybrid RAID, although not RAID 50 or 60, as with the Thecus N8810U-G.
And there are numerous plugins and software packages to extend the functionality of the DS1815+, accessible via a browser within DiskStation Manager.
Testing and setup
I filled the DS1815+ with eight WD Red 6TB hard disks, set up to use Synology Hybrid RAID. The build process finished in around 30 minutes, and after the software was updated I was ready to see what speeds I could get from it.Early on I ran into what I consider to be a major performance issue, which applies to many NAS devices with multiple gigabit ethernet ports. Although the DS1815+ allows its four gigabit ethernet ports to be bonded together and used as a single connection, in order to get four times the usual gigabit speed when performing a single file transfer, your network switch must support both 802.3ad link aggregation and LACP, or dynamic link aggregation. Most modern managed switches support 802.3ad, but not all support LACP, as I discovered.
When the DS1815+ is first powered on, each port is assigned a separate IP address. When they're bonded together in the DiskStation Manager software, the unit only needs a single address, but you'll only get standard gigabit speeds via any single transfer. There's still a performance advantage though, because with up to four clients transferring files at the same time, the DS1815+ can provide a full 1Gbit/sec to each client.
For the full 4Gbit/sec speed from a single transfer, you'll need to adjust the configuration of your switch to bond those ports together into a LAG group. Unmanaged cheap desktop switches don't even have any configuration software, so you'll need to look at a managed switch. While common in small business environments, they're hardly an essential home networking purchase, and this feature isn't exactly common on routers either.
The first two switches I tried supported 802.3ad, but not LACP. When the ports were bonded together in the switch software, the DS1815+ reported in red text that it "could not enable 802.3ad link aggregation". It then dropped off the network and was inaccessible. It was only when I borrowed a more high-end HP ProCurve switch that I could get the DS1815+ working at full speed.
And obviously, with four ethernet ports, you'll need four cables, along with four network cards in your client PC, with another four cables connecting the PC to the switch, for a total of eight. Savvy network admins use colour-coded cabling for troubleshooting, perhaps using one colour for cabling from the NAS and another for cabling to the NAS.
Another aspect of full-speed use to consider is software. Bonding connections together in Windows isn't straightforward. The only modern operating system that allows you to do so natively is Windows Server 2012, which might be overkill for a home setup. Otherwise, you'll need to use cards that support link aggregation in the drivers.
This limitation isn't a total show-stopping issue. When used in a business environment with many clients, providing a good speed to multiple users is more useful than a single user gobbling up all the bandwidth, but these extra hardware requirements are worth bearing in mind.
I tested the capabilities of the DS1815+ using Intel's NAS performance toolkit and a standard Windows file transfer of 5GB folders of both large and small files. I could only test the full speed using a file transfer though, since my time with the HP ProCurve switch was limited.
At standard gigabit speeds, the DS1815+ is a leap ahead of its predecessor, and shows excellent performance in small file transfers, particularly in tests that put strain on the CPU.
Synology DS1815+ Results (single port)
Intel NAS Performance Toolkit:- HD Video Playback91.4 MB/s
- 2x HD Playback98.7 MB/s
- 4x HD Playback99.6 MB/s
- HD Video Record108.3 MB/s
- HD Playback and Record101 MB/s
- Content Creation11.7 MB/s
- Office Productivity66.3 MB/s
- File copy to NAS116.1 MB/s
- File copy from NAS85.7 MB/s
- Dir copy to NAS23.6 MB/s
- Dir copy from NAS28.3 MB/s
- Photo Album12.1 MB/s
- Small File Read148 MB/s
- Small File Write98 MB/s
- Large File Read398 MB/s
- Large File Write423 MB/s
We Liked
The build quality and physical design of the DS1815+ are simply fantastic. With the notable exception of the bonded ethernet connections, it's really easy to set up and use. It's sturdy, quiet and arguably quite attractive too.DiskStation Manager is still light years ahead of any competitor's software, in terms of both ease of use and the staggering amount of functions it offers. No rival can touch the interface design, although admittedly, plenty of competing NAS units offer a good array of software features as well.
The expandability is great to see too. Adding an additional 60TB of capacity without having to buy another NAS is something I can see many owners taking advantage of, since the entire volume will be accessible and managed from a single point, with a single set of security controls and so on.
We Disliked
The gaping hole in the feature list of the DS1815+ is 10GbE. Faffing around with LACP in your switch software and bonded connections and took a lot of time to get working. If you don't have a switch that supports this feature, you'll be stuck running it at standard gigabit ethernet speeds.This is obviously a cost issue. The DS1815+ has been designed to be (relatively) affordable, and adding 10GbE hardware would have pushed the pricing close to the levels of larger NAS units. If you're considering the DS1815+ for home use, a switch that supports LACP is an additional expense you might need to consider.
When Synology designs a follow-up to the DS1815+, perhaps 10GbE prices will have dropped enough to warrant its inclusion. But right now, if you want 10GbE, you need to be looking at the next tier of NAS units.
While performance is mostly excellent, some results from the Intel NAS Performance Toolkit could have been slightly better. I had expected the quad-core CPU to chew through the Photo Album test, but it wasn't amazing, and was outclassed by the Thecus NN810U-G. This is possibly because while still a quad-core chip, the C2358 is only an Atom processor. However, the DS1815+ edges ahead of the NN810U-G in some of the other tests.
Verdict
The DS1815+ is an excellent NAS that can be used in many different ways. It offers enough performance to be used as a network server, running databases, web sites and so on. Equally, with up to 108TB of storage, the DS1815+ can be configured as a gargantuan file server, which may be of particular interest to media organisations, who might be shunting terabytes of 4K video around a network.It fits perfectly between the NAS units aimed at home users, with two or four bays, and the really powerful enterprise models.
That said, it has its limits. The CPU is a step behind the Xeon processors you get with higher-end NAS units, and therefore under really heavy load the DS1815+ is no substitute for a real server. And in large enterprises, ECC memory might be required, which is not supported by Atom processors.
Running the four ethernet ports together as a single bonded connection is straightforward, as long as you have the required hardware. But without an LACP-capable switch, you're stuck on lower speeds. That might be a small additional expense to consider, but even with that added on top, the overall cost of the DS1815+ is far lower than a 10GbE-capable NAS.
Even with this in mind, the DS1815+ is a great upgrade from its predecessor and a strong performer. Unless your business has particularly demanding applications, it will serve you well.
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Industry voice: Don't let virtualisation be a weight around IT's neck: data protection is vital
Virtualisation is no longer a trend – it has become a reality for organisations. Although many are embracing virtualisation platforms, quite often the approach to backing up the data on their virtual servers is not well thought out.
Impact on IT
Virtualisation is amongst the most important technologies to have impacted mid-sized and large IT organisations in recent years. It offers substantial flexibility and cost benefits, enabling IT managers and systems administrators to consolidate servers, allow additional capacity for applications on demand, correctly configure servers for testing and address disaster recovery – and business continuity – concerns more effectively.Each business has a different set of challenges. Businesses moving to a virtualised environment often find themselves searching for efficient ways to plan and manage new environments, which also impact the IT department in terms of training and outsourcing. Ensuring a backup solution is in place from the offset can often provide a business with valuable peace of mind.
Virtualisation and backup
Virtualisation can make backup more complex, so organisations often find they need backup technologies specifically designed for virtualised environments. These solutions should have the ability to quickly restore data, settings and applications – without the manual reinstallation of the operating system.In physical systems, the data is maintained on each machine and backed up by an agent or client (in a client-server architecture). When transferring this pattern to the virtual world, it is easier to install an agent in each virtual machine. This is recommended especially for small companies that only have small virtual environments or database systems, and is often the simplest first step for these companies.
A far more efficient approach is agentless backup at a hypervisor level, as it provides a variety of advantages. For optimum adaptation to the virtual world, own interfaces are used to secure the data of the virtual machine as VMware. This conserves resources, only requires an agent/client, and is much easier to manage.
If a company only wants one solution for backing up its virtual environment they should research and identify a hybrid solution: this intelligent approach understands all IT environments and the specifics of the virtual world, but nevertheless can act across different environments. It is vital for companies to clearly identify whether they need a dedicated or a comprehensive solution.
Transition to virtual
There are a myriad of solutions in the market but businesses should carefully select an option that's suited to their environment. For example, a solution that can support and protect all business-critical systems – whether they are physical, virtual or in the cloud – will allow the greatest flexibility.Centralised management of one solution diminishes the number of backup operations the internal IT staff need to manage, freeing up time to concentrate on their expertise of innovating and optimising performance.
Once a company has made the decision to go virtual, the transitional period must be carefully planned. Data needs to be protected before, during and after migration in order to maintain business continuity should anything go wrong.
With virtualisation technology moving from a trend to a reality, Acronis believes that this year, the growing trend to use more than one virtualisation platform in a company will continue, and that companies should make sure they protect all data across any platforms and environments.
- Daniel Model is sales engineering manager at Acronis
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Office for iOS finally supports iCloud integration
Office for iOS users can now benefit from Apple iCloud integration after a new update added the ability to use another storage option with the popular productivity apps.
The decision is a big one for Apple users as it eliminates the need for an Office 365 subscription to access the most basic features with the more advanced features still only accessible for users that have a subscription including OneDrive storage.
Before it was only possible to use either OneDrive or DropBox, although as you might expect it's nowhere near as easy to actually find the option to save to iCloud as it is hidden within the More tab that appears once you click to open or save a file.
Office and iWork go head-to-head
Microsoft's decision to add iCloud to its iOS productivity suite comes a matter of days after Apple took its cross-platform aspirations to the next level by opening up iWork, which includes Pages, Numbers and Keynote, to everyone.Right now Office for iOS users can both create and edit documents for free by creating a new account with transactions within the app itself allowing you to upgrade to an Office 365 subscription that starts at £5.99 ($6.99, or AU$9.00) per month for one PC of Mac, one tablet and one smartphone plus 1TB of OneDrive storage.
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Will the camera be the Samsung Galaxy S6's headline feature?
Samsung has released another cryptic hint to drum up hype about the Galaxy S6's camera, this time tweeting an image that says "Find clarity in darkness".
Along with the image the tweet from the @SamsungMobile account says "Great vision inspires me. I am #TheNextGalaxy".
It looks like Samsung is pretty confident with the camera of the upcoming Galaxy S6, as a number of previous teasers have been recently released.
The promise of finding clarity in darkness suggests that the Galaxy S6's snapper will excel at taking photographs in low light conditions.
The cameras on many smartphones don't cope well with taking photographs in low light, though the iPhone 6 Plus and HTC One M8 do a very good jobs. It looks like both might have a fight on their hands with the Samsung Galaxy S6.
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Industry voice: How the cloud is giving mid-sized hotels the reach of five-star resorts
Technology and innovation have stopped taking us by surprise. Every year numerous new solutions and technological concepts enter the market addressing issues, solving problems, easing operations and keeping the hospitality industry vibrant and ever changing.
We have seen the advent of Online Travel Agents (OTA), Global Distribution Systems (GDS) and Meta Search Engines from OTAs. In hotels, we have seen key card systems, entertainment systems, call accounting systems and more. But, out of all the new trends in the hospitality domain in the last two years, the cloud has been one of the most talked about, discussed, debated and adopted.
From small and mid-sized hoteliers, chains to five-star hotels, from upcoming cloud-based systems to well-established players like Opera and Amadeus, everyone's had to give attention to the cloud to avoid being swept away by the rise of this giant wave.
The impact of cloud technology was clearly evident at HITEC 2014 (Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition & Conference) where throughout the conference, the recurring theme was Cloud and SaaS. In the past year itself, the industry has seen some major mergers and acquisitions in this space: Priceline acquired Buuteeq and OpenTable, Amadeus increased in cloud spending and Oracle bought Micros for $5.3 billion (around £3.4 billion, AU$6.8 billion).
As per the 2014 Lodging Technology Study, out of 16 technology areas where hotels are planning upgrades and migrations, property management system (PMS) accounted for the largest spending, with 41% of hotels planning to upgrade their PMS in 18 months or more.
Cloud advantages
With innumerable systems and departments, managing a hotel today is a lot more challenging and complex. There is a lot more expected from the property management system than just handling reservations and billing. The existing legacy property management systems that some hotels are using hold them back from reaching out to the customers in time, and also add to the costs of operations with server, upgrading and maintenance expenses.In contrast, cloud systems offers hoteliers many inherent advantages:
Capability to connect to online channels. With the majority of hotel reservations going online, cloud systems provide an advantage to hotels in connecting to online travel agents, global distribution systems and even integrating bookings via their Facebook page.
Easy adaptation to newer guest expectations. The rise in the usage of multiple smart devices to search for holidays means that travellers want quick and user-friendly means of accessing hotel information and making bookings. Cloud PMSs are more geared towards integrating and adapting to this trend.
Integration with other cloud providers. Companies offering channel management services, property management and revenue management systems are going cloud-based. Legacy systems cannot integrate with cloud-based systems as well as cloud can. This is clearly seen with the rapid growth of integrations between channel managers like SiteMinder and Vertical Booking with cloud Property Management Systems.
Quicker Return on Investment. By opting for a cloud-based property management system, a hotel business can enjoy ROI within weeks as it cuts down on IT, maintenance, additional infrastructure and manpower costs.
Automatic data backup. The biggest concern that hoteliers have with cloud adoption is regarding their data. However, quality cloud system providers give importance to data security and use reliable data centres and IAAS providers. These data centres offer multiple failovers unlike legacy systems where the data storage is on-premise and prone to theft or loss due to natural calamities.
The cloud is green. With an increasing number of hoteliers as well as travellers giving preference to eco-conscious practices, cloud-based systems become the natural choice as they further the cause of encouraging green technology.
Cloud systems are slowly rolling in and replacing legacy systems. As the industry grows, the legacy systems of yesterday shrink into the distance. Hotels drive forward, leaving the old, bulky systems in the dust. While the future of this rapidly changing industry is difficult to predict, the shift to more cloud-based, tech-driven management is here to stay.
The ease and sophistication of cloud systems give management the necessary time to focus on creating the perfect stay for their guests. In 2015, it will become important for the hospitality industry, especially the small and medium-sized hoteliers, to rely on cloud technology that is agile and business enhancing.
- Aditya Sanghi is Co-Founder and CEO of Hotelogix.com
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Hands-on review: Toshiba Satellite Click Mini
The Satellite Click Mini could've turned out very differently. Toshiba lifted the lid on its titular convertible tablet at CES 2015, but instead of emerging as a miniature version of the - quite frankly, ugly - Click 2 it's a surprisingly attractive and portable budget package.
Toshiba's £250 (around US$384, or AUS$492) device arrives in the form of a Windows 8.1 tablet that turns into a laptop when docked into the keyboard. At a fairly uncommon 8.9 inches it straddles the empty space between 8-inch tablets such as the Toshiba Encore 2 and larger 10-inch convertibles with keyboards like the Asus Transformer Book T100.
The Click Mini is a great size for a companion device to use when away from a larger laptop or PC, providing more than enough screen real-estate to get most tasks done while keeping the device plenty portable. It weighs just 999 grams with the keyboard dock attached, and a featherlight 470 grams without.
IPS display
The Click Mini is one of the few small-to-medium-sized Windows tablets on the market with a 1900 x 1200 pixel-resolution display (toting a healthy 254ppi), which for a long time was exclusive the impressive but costly Lenovo ThinkPad 8.
The display is housed behind a vibrant IPS panel with superb viewing angles and colours that reminded me of the first time I laid eyes on the HP Chromebook 11's punchy pixels. It's just a shame that the thick, almost off-putting black bezel surrounding it is so chunky.
Connectivity-wise, the Satellite Click Mini packs a passable selection of ports into the keyboard, including microSD, full-size SD, micro-HDMI and micro-USB (for charging). Unfortunately Toshiba only managed to cram one full-size USB 2.0 port into the chassis, something you may have to get used to in the impeding one-port future that awaits.
Communication is provided via onboard 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0, and the device is WiDi ready. On its front is a 2-megapixel camera which is complimented by a 5-megapixel snapper around the back.
Powering the Click Mini is an Intel AtomTM Z3735F CPU backed up by 2GB of DDR3 RAM. Storage is provided in the form of 32GB eMMC flash memory, which can be expanded by a further 256GB if each of the SD card slots are used to their full 128GB capacity.
The tablet felt nippy enough during our brief time with the device, opening Windows 8.1 apps and menus without experiencing slowdown.
Steam engine
The most noteworthy spec on the Click Mini's sheet is its touted 16-hour battery life supposedly achievable with the battery-equipped keyboard dock connected (or eight without), something we'll be testing in our full review.The keyboard clearly isn't going to be as comfortable to type on as tablets for devices 10-inches and above, but it's serviceable enough to carry out light productivity work. It suffers from noticeable flex in the middle region of the keyboard which only adds to its unsuitability for heavier tasks.
Plumping the components into the tablet part of the Click Mini has made it top heavy as you would expect, but it's by no means a problem and doesn't come close to tipping over when you're typing. It's suitable for holding in tablet mode for reading sessions thanks to its lightweight nature and the display's wide viewing angles.
It clicks into the keyboard using a row of mechanical teeth, which proved a little awkward to insert and ironically didn't produce much of a click to signal when attached. Our sample was an engineering work-in-progress according to the Toshiba representative demoing it, so that could have been to blame.
Early verdict
If you're in the game for a keyboard-equipped Windows 8.1 tablet that doubles up a laptop, the Toshiba Click Mini could prove fantastic value for money.It bears the hallmarks of a great companion device thanks to its portable nature, clear IPS display and potentially excellent battery life. It's less suitable as a main machine due to to its low internal storage and middling keyboard, and those seeking a more durable multimedia system probably won't find what they're looking for here.
The Click Mini undoubtedly resides at a level of quality above the dearth of low-cost tablets flooding the market, and the question will be how it goes up against competing tablets in its price bracket - including the Asus Transformer Book T200 and the Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2.
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Neptune Duo gives the smartwatch all the power and makes your mobile dumb
The Neptune Duo is an intriguing new product from the start up firm which brought us the phone-in-a-watch Neptune Pine last year.
Where as the Pine got rid of your smartphone completely, the Neptune Duo wants you to keep hold of a larger screen, but it gives all the power to the smartwatch - aka the Neptune Hub.
The quad-core processor and other components are housed in the bracelet style band which includes a speaker and microphone plus 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and NFC connectivity.
You'll have access to all your core smartphone functions on the Hub's curved 2.4-inch display, but if you need more space you can whip out the Pocket Screen (or the Neptune Pocket, to give it its official title) for a full Android Lollipop experience.
The Pocket Screen is thinner, lighter and cheaper than a traditional smartphone, sporting a 5-inch 720p display, front and rear (8MP) cameras and a 2800mAh battery.
Show me the money
The Neptune Duo won't ship until towards the end of the year, but you'll can reserve yours from February 17, with a variety of payment options available to you.
If you don't fancy putting any money down up front the Neptune Duo will set you back $798 at time of shipping. Put down $49 and the price at shipping drops to $649, saving you $100.
You can save $200 by paying $199 upfront and then $399 when it's ready to ship, or if you're feeling flush (and confident in Neptune's claims) put down $498 now and pay nothing more - a saving of $300.
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Industry voice: Don't Backoff: nail down your remote access policy or face the music
Remote access and security worries go hand in hand, and last year, we saw the likes of the Backoff malware targeting point-of-sale terminals, and updated Citadel malware, both leveraging unsecured remote access systems to gain access to networks.
For security professionals, the temptation to switch off remote access must be high. However, remote access technology is an essential tool for IT departments and third-party service providers to manage, update and troubleshoot remote systems. The issue isn't remote access technology itself, it's that these technologies are often not managed closely, if at all.
When implemented and managed properly, remote access can be secure. However, as IT professionals, it's important to look at how to govern it. Are the right policies in place when it comes to remote access by IT or third-party providers?
The right rules for everyone
To start with, let's review some best practices. These apply whether the person accessing your network is an internal employee, an outsourced service provider, or third-party vendor.First, consolidate remote access tools so you can centrally manage and monitor all insider and external remote access. Once you have everyone using a single, sanctioned remote access solution you can categorically block all unsanctioned tools so they can't be used on your network.
Multi-factor authentication is a must. But in order to implement MFA, each individual must be using unique login credentials. Often IT teams or vendors share generic logins to save money on licenses, making it easy for attackers to use brute force methods to successfully guess the password. Not only does sharing passwords undermine access security, it makes it impossible to audit who is doing what on your systems.
Speaking of weak passwords – complexity of passwords, password length and enforcing regular changes in credentials can all help to decrease the potential of an attack.
Finally, limit access to only the specific systems and timeframes required while capturing full audit trails of all remote access activity. This way you can review what occurs during each remote session, and what actions were taken by the technician. This allows you to know exactly who accessed what systems and what they did.
Building the case for secure remote access
Last year, we all saw the impact that unsecured remote access implementations can have on businesses. One of the reasons that attacks are successful is that there are rules in place for employees using remote access technologies, yet these same rules may not be applied to external parties providing IT services.For many companies, outsourcing and third party access to their network is a given. 88% of companies have at least one third party with access to their IT networks, according to research by Ovum. One of the respondents had more than 100 service providers using remote access to enter the corporate IT network.
Whether you have one outside supplier or 100, how do you monitor and manage their access? If they are using old or legacy remote support tools, they may be leaving unnecessary vulnerabilities or backdoors on your network that are easy for attackers to compromise. Alongside centralising and prescribing remote access tools, shutting these backdoors should be a given.
Managing policies
Over and above the physical remote access connection, it's also important to consider the rules and policies that people have to follow. This may include setting up a separate set of rules for outside providers that they have to follow as part of working with the organisation. For example, an IT outsourcer should be allowed to access your systems from his computer on his company network, but not from his iPad at home or outside standard business hours.Security has many layers, and no one solution is going to fully protect you from a data breach. But if you can lock down the initial entry pathway just a bit more, you can significantly up your chances of keeping hackers out and your sensitive data in. With the right mix of tools and processes, threats and malware targeting your company network can be kept at bay.
- Boatner Blankenstein is Senior Director of Solutions Engineering for Bomgar
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Industry voice: How to price up an agile project without dooming it to failure
We're all used to quoting and procuring waterfall development contracts, where a defined set of requirements is delivered for a defined price. Because the outcome is clearly set out at the start, it is relatively straightforward to estimate and validate the effort and cost. But how do you price when you don't know exactly what it is that you'll be delivering? This has become one of the biggest challenges around agile projects, and one that doesn't have a simple answer.
The flexible and changeable nature of agile means it doesn't lend itself well to fixed price, yet many procuring organisations still want the certainty of knowing what they'll get and how much they'll pay. This is closely linked to the fact that many organisations want the benefits of agile, without fully understanding what's needed to achieve them.
A prime example of where this went wrong last year is the UK government's Universal Credit programme, which attempted to use agile, but wasn't supported by the right structures, processes and contracts that would have helped make it a success.
The reality is that while agile has matured over the last decade, these processes, structures and contract types have lagged behind. Organisations that understand the requirements for successful agile projects will also understand that agile and fixed price contracts don't go well together, but until this sentiment is shared across an entire organisation, businesses bidding for agile contracts must be flexible in their pricing method. At the same time, all involved – in procurement and delivery – must understand the implications of each approach.
Time and materials
Time and materials (T&M) is ideally suited to agile projects, because it acknowledges the complexities of software development, in that you can't always easily foresee how much time something will take.The drawback, from a procuring organisation's point of view, is that they, rather than the supplier, shoulder the overall risk in terms of budget, time, effort and scope. However, because agile projects deliver working software that provides real business value at the end of every iteration, the procuring organisation can halt a project at any time and still enjoy tangible benefits. And, of course, the procuring organisation has full control over which benefits these are, because it is their Product Owner who selects what is delivered in each iteration.
In this respect, agile is less risky than waterfall, where an aborted project (of which there have been numerous high-profile examples) may deliver no obvious benefit.
Having said this, the key challenge with T&M contracts remains that the procurer doesn't have a clear view of the costs being incurred by development. To overcome this, there are some alternatives to pure T&M that can be used in agile projects.
Time-boxed time and materials
Time-boxed time and materials, sometimes called 'fixed price, fixed effort', is compatible with agile insofar as it enables a project to evolve, while giving the procurer the peace of mind they require over cost control. What it doesn't necessarily provide, however, is a clear idea of the outcome that will be delivered in that fixed time period.Fixed price
Agile projects can be delivered for a fixed price, thereby shifting the risk from the procurer onto the supplier. However, this approach, while it may appear attractive to procurement departments, will limit the benefits agile can deliver. For example, a fixed price contract is likely to specify requirements up front, which limits the scope for changes during development – one of the key factors that helps make agile a success.Having said that, there are examples of successful compromise projects, where requirements have been specified up front, and the customer has paid a fixed price for a fixed set of requirements, alongside a pool of funds for additional features, which could be added or removed as the project evolved and business needs changed. The entire project is then delivered in a series of agile iterations.
Agile within a fixed price waterfall project
It's not unheard of to run parts of a nominally fixed price waterfall contract in an iterative, agile-esque way. This may bring certain benefits of agile development, such as test-driven development and continuous integration.However, a fixed price/waterfall project is unlikely to offer very much scope for ongoing feedback, nor for iterative changes to the requirements along the way – the two things that are central to an agile project. Indeed, some would argue that this is not agile at all, but is merely borrowing some techniques that are used in agile.
Making a choice
Every pricing model has advantages and drawbacks, but the most important thing to consider is the outcome: which model will give the best chance of the project delivering the desired result? If organisations really want the benefits that agile can provide – notably that they ultimately get the system that genuinely addresses the underlying need, rather than the system they think they need at the start – then the best pricing model is time and materials.If, for whatever reason, an organisation is required to deliver an agile project as part of a fixed price arrangement, this needn't be a deal-breaker, but it's important that both the provider and the procuring organisation understand and accept the limitations that a fixed price contract can place on agile.
- Sue Purdin is Sales Director at IPL
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Sony's SmartEyeGlass specs up for pre-order, despite Google Glass woes
Just a few weeks after Google Glass shut its doors, Sony has pulled the covers off the SmartEyeglass Developer Edition SED-E1. It's available for preorder today and will be available in 10 countries when it launches officially on March 10, for £520 (without tax) in the UK and $840 in the US.
Like Glass, SmartEyeGlass uses augmented reality to super-impose an image over your field of view, but rather than supporting colour optics, Sony's smart glasses will display everything in bright green, at a resolution of 419 x 138 pixels.
There is a significant difference between Google and Sony's efforts. Whereas Glass used a projection unit, SmartEyeGlass projects overlays onto the full-frame transparent lenses, filling your field of vision.
The 3mm lenses themselves still have 85% transparency so you can easily read the projected information, but still see the world around you clearly.
Sony claims that the monochrome display allows for extended battery life, but only quotes numbers of around 150 minutes without using the camera, and 80 minutes of full camera use.
Again, perhaps this is a product of this being a development kit, and the final version will include a larger battery.
I can see clearly now
As you might expect, the glasses themselves come loaded with sensors including accelerometer, gyroscope, brightness sensor and an electronic compass to track your orientation. That's not forgetting the 3MP CMOS image sensor, capable of 3MP stills and QVGA video at 15 frames per second.It also comes with a wired controller that packs battery, speaker, microphone, NFC chip and touch-sensitive controls.
You'll need Android 4.4 as a minimum if you're interested in picking up a pair, with a number of apps to access Twitter, Facebook, Gmail and others slated to hit Google Play on March 10th.
While better looking than Glass, Sony's eyewear still isn't what we'd call subtle, but bear in mind this is still just a development version - the final version will likely be very different aesthetically. Let's hope so anyway.
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