Consumer Reports, a major source for gadget and appliance reviews in the U.S., plans to start rating products on data security and privacy. On Monday, the non-profit publication unveiled a set of new testing standards it hopes will push the tech industry to create safer products. “The goal is to help consumers understand which digital…
We loved the latest HP Spectre x360 13 when we reviewed it in December. Compared to the first iteration, it’s lighter, a little bit narrower (in a good way), and thinner. And right now at Best Buy, it’s also a little bit cheaper. The newest HP Spectre x360 is currently on sale for $1,049. That’s…
Kaspersky Labs announced new research this morning that shows some links between the massive Shamoon attack that took down 35,000 computers in Saudi Arabia to a new attack against a target in Europe. The Shamoon attack, which occurred in 2012, was followed by a series of related against against Gulf States earlier this year. The…
At the Big Data Paris event in Paris, France, today, MapR Technologies and French enterprise-class cloud provider Outscale announced that they have joined forces to provide a big data platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering built on the MapR Converged Data Platform. Outscale will provide the new premium cloud service in Europe, North America and Asia and says…
Amazon’s Alexa added a new productivity skill to its tool set after we inadvertently discovered in mid-February. The smart assistant—embedded in the Echo line of smart speakers, as well as many other devices—now works with Office 365 business accounts, officially. That means anyone using Office 365 for work can now get their calendar updates from their smart…
In the roughly two years since Aruba Networks was acquired by HPE, it’s become the larger company’s de facto wireless arm, more or less taking over HPE’s existing networking division and changing almost not at all after the merger. Network World sat down with Senior Vice President and General Manager Keerti Melkote and CTO Partha…
Microsoft last week repeated its assertion that future Windows 10 feature upgrades will shrink in size later this year, and supported the claim with a smattering of data. Those running Windows 10’s preview, labeled “Insider,” will see the largest reductions in download size, the data showed. Microsoft Windows 10’s new update delivery system reduces the…
The U.S. Department of Justice is asking a federal court to dismiss its indictment in a case that involves a child porn site known as Playpen after a judge asked the government to disclose the hacking technique it used to gather evidence. “The government must now choose between disclosure of classified information and dismissal of…
Okta has acquired Stormpath, a company that provides authentication services for developers. The deal should help the identity provider improve its developer-facing capabilities. Stormpath offered developers a set of tools for managing user logins for their apps. Rather than building a login system from scratch, developers could call the Stormpath API and have the company…
Fitbit doesn’t quit. The reigning maker of fitness-tracking bands has a new band, the ultra-slim heart rate-monitoring Alta HR, and I got a chance to put it to the test during a spin class at a Midtown Manhattan fitness studio last week. I’ve largely avoided the spin craze until now, but on this particular day…