Chrome OS Is Dead, Long Live Chrome OS?

Google reportedly is two years into a plan to consolidate the Chrome operating system and Android and plans to roll out a combined OS in 2017. Chromebooks running the Chrome OS have gained adoption as entry-level computers for students and as a low-cost option for a growing number of corporate customers. "Chrome OS isn't being killed," said a source familiar with the company's strategy. It has awesome momentum and we're still pursuing Chromebook partnerships, for example, and doing better than ever in U.S. schools."

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BackBox Takes Its Security Tools Seriously

BackBox Linux 4.4 is a great Linux distro for IT and other techies who want to do their own penetration tests and security assessments. The latest version, released this month, is an Ubuntu 14.04.3-based distribution that is speedy and simple to use. It is a fully functional Linux distro that comes well stocked with standard software. It runs a desktop environment based on the Xfce window manager, which makes it standard and uncomplicated to use.

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T-Mobile Rumored to Roll Out Unlimited Video

Rumors that T-Mobile plans to introduce an unlimited data plan for streaming video services circulated Thursday following a Twitter post from journalist Evan Blass, who tweets under the handle @evleaks. The company would allow unlimited high-speed data to be used to watch select streaming from services such as Netflix and HBO under its "Uncarrier 10" campaign, he suggested. The Uncarrier 10 press event will be held Nov.10 in Los Angeles.

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Google Migrates Project Loon to Indonesia

Project Loon, part of Google's parent company, Alphabet, on Wednesday announced that it has signed agreements with three mobile network operators in Indonesia -- Indosat, Telkomse, and XL Axiata -- to begin tests of its balloon-powered Internet service in 2016. Only about one in three of Indonesia's 250 million residents is connected to the Internet. Project Loon will transmit signals from areas connected to an Internet ground station across several balloons in the stratosphere and back down to areas without access.

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Apple TV Reviews: Kinda Buggy, Kinda Great

The latest version of Apple's streaming media set-top box, expected to hit U.S. retail stores on Friday, has gathered a bundle of mixed early reviews. Some reviewers saw great potential in the $149 diminutive black box designed to pump movies, TV shows, games and apps from the Internet to a television set. Others found plenty to criticize. "Functionally, it's the biggest change we've seen to Apple TV since its introduction," Ross Rubin, principal analyst with Reticle Research.

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Element 14 to Bake Custom Raspberry Pi's

Element14 on Tuesday revealed an exclusive agreement to offer OEM customers bespoke designs based on the Raspberry Pi platform. Raspberry Pi -- which has seen success in the educational and maker fields -- is targeting commercial manufacturers and the Internet of Things, signing up Premier Farnell through the latter's element14 brand to customize its boards. Customizations will include reconfiguring the Raspberry Pi board layout, adding functionality, redesigning the interfaces, and changing board and memory configurations.

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Sony Talks VR and 2016 Games in Paris

While Microsoft has been driving home the potential hits it has for the holidays, Sony has sat silent. That changed this week at Paris Games Week, when Sony set the tone for the next year or so by touting 21 games, mostly exclusives, poised to redefine the PlayStation 4 experience. It's what PlayStation fans have been waiting for -- a listing of completely new games. At its first-ever appearance at Paris Games Week, the company put on a console-selling show that evidenced the potential of the latest PlayStation and the upcoming PlayStation VR headset.

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SXSW May Put Online Harassment in the Spotlight

SXSW Interactive reportedly might include a daylong event on combating online harassment. The news followed SXSW's cancellation of two planned panels that were expected to focus on opposite ends of the Gamergate debate. Threats of on-site violence spurred the decision to cancel both panels, according to SXSW officials. In the week following the announcement of the two sessions, "SXSW has received numerous threats of on-site violence related to this programming," said Hugh Forrest, the director of SXSW Interactive.

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Qualcomm Unveils Muscle Camera for Surveillance Systems

Qualcomm on Tuesday announced a muscle video camera for surveillance systems. It's part of the company's Snapdragon 618 IP camera platform. The unit combines a six-core, 64-bit processor; next-generation graphics crunching; and embedded digital signal processing. It can perform advanced video analytics. Moving analytics to the camera can save a company money by reducing cloud processing and storage costs, and can provide it with more reliable analytics, the company said.

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CISA Passes Senate Despite Privacy Advocates' Fear and Loathing

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday voted 74-21 to pass the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, or CISA, in the face of strong opposition from legal and cybersecurity experts, the high-tech industry, privacy and civil liberties organizations, and members of the public. The Act calls for the United States Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Justice to share cyberthreat indicators between the public and private sectors.

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Russian Sub Activity Near Internet Cables Worries US

Russian spy ships and subs reportedly are hovering close to the routes of undersea communications cables. Military and intelligence officials apparently have observed increased Russian sub activity near cables located from the North Sea to Northeast Asia, as well as in waters close to American shores. There are concerns that the movements indicate Russia might attack those cables in times of tension or conflict, although American military officials have not commented publicly on the issue.

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Apple Fans to Get Their Hands on New Apple TV This Week

Apple on Monday opened up advanced orders for the next generation of Apple TV. The set-top boxes are expected to hit homes between Oct. 30 and Nov. 3. Apple is offering two versions: A 32-GB version is priced at $149 and a 64-GB model is $50 more. With Apple TV losing ground to newcomers to the streaming hardware market, namely Google and Amazon, the company has revisited its set-top box and given it a booster shot: a syringe containing Siri. It appears in the form of the Apple TV's companion remote.

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Google Pushes Transparency for SSL Certificates

The padlock on a browser's address bar is supposed to give Net travelers some security in insecure virtual space, but that's not always the case. Some dangerous flaws lurk behind the padlock. They can weaken the effectiveness of encrypted Internet connections and compromise TLS/SSL processes, including domain validation, end-to-end encryption, and the chains of trust certificate authorities have put in place, Google points out at its SSL certificate transparency website.

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Plasma 5 Powers KaOS Productivity

The KaOS Linux distro is a very efficient Linux distribution built around a refined KDE desktop environment that just keeps getting better. The KDE integration is more controlled than you'll find in other Linux choices. I reviewed this distro last year, and I was impressed then with the solid performance of KaOS. I also liked how the community gave the KDE a tamer personality. The latest version takes it one big step further, adding a calming, cleaner look and feel to the user interface with KDE Plasma 5 as the default desktop.

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Google Views Itself Through Machine Learning Lens

Google CEO Sundar Pichai last week lit up his first earnings call with accounts of a solid third quarter and machine learning dreams that could permeate all the company's products. The Q3 2015 report was the first in which Google reported earnings through its recently formed parent company, Alphabet. As the call drew to a close, investors asked Pichai and Ruth Porat, CFO of Google and Alphabet, about the company's vision machine learning. Google's investments in artificial intelligence and machine learning are a priority, Pichai said.

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Why Dell-EMC Won't Follow in HP-Compaq's Footsteps

Why do some big mergers succeed while others fail? This seems to be a common question, and some of the research I've read about the Dell-EMC merger tries to connect it to the HP-Compaq merger, which apparently cost Carly Fiorina her job. I covered the HP-Compaq merger at length, and I was not a fan. I actually spoke to Compaq's CEO and argued he should pull out to save his firm. There are some interesting backstories here that I think will provide color for the Dell-EMC merger.

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Gadget Ogling: A Deluxe Dock, a Crafty Computer, and a T-rific Tablet Stand

Beddi is an alarm clock smartphone dock that has a few tricks to elevate it above others of its ilk. The system, from Witti, works with both iOS and Android devices, which you place on top and recharge with your own cable. Two things are really interesting: the price and the programmable buttons. In the case of the latter, that means using Bluetooth to pair your smartphone with Beddi's companion app, and setting up the buttons, which include controls for some popular services, as you see fit.

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Digital Assistants Sap Drivers' Attention

Up to 27 seconds of residual distraction trails use of digital assistant software and infotainment systems in automobiles, the University of Utah reported Thursday. The report, done for the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, follows a similar set of studies conducted last year that concluded that infotainment systems distract drivers when they're using them on the road. This time, researchers looked at the aftereffects of driving while using infotainment systems, the ones native to automobile, and digital assistant apps on mobile devices.

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TalkTalk Attacked, Hit With Ransom Demand

TalkTalk on Thursday announced that it received a ransom demand following a cyberattack that may have compromised the credit card and bank details of millions of its customers. The cyberbreach may have compromised customer data including names, addresses, birth dates, email addresses and account information. "TalkTalk constantly updates its systems to make sure they are as secure as possible against the rapidly evolving threat of cybercrime, impacting an increasing number of individuals and organizations," CEO Dido Harding said.

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MuseScore Can Turn Songwriters Into Maestros

MuseScore is a complete tool to help musicians and songwriters write musical scores, play them back and print the sheet music. It is available in a variety of Linux distro packages and comes in versions for Windows and OS X 10.7 or higher. It is fully open source software licensed under GNU GPL. The user interface is similar to a word processor or text editor for entering notes on a blank score sheet. All the playback controls and tools are located in drop-down menus across the top of the screen.

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Researcher's Demo Sheds Doubt on Fitbit Security

Hackers hypothetically could turn Fitbit health bands into PC-infecting malware carriers, Fortinet security researcher Axelle Apvrille demonstrated Wednesday at the Hack.lu conference in Luxembourg. Apvrille showed how it was possible to access a Fitbit's Bluetooth connection and, in a mere 10 seconds, infect it with a malicious packet that later could be used to infect a PC, a feat she demoed earlier this month at a hacker conference in Budapest. Because of Bluetooth's short range, an attacker would need to be in close range of the Fitbit band.

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Magic Leap: Now You See It

There are no special effects in the augmented reality demo it shared on Tuesday, Magic Leap said. The video, which shows imaginary objects blended into a real-world setting, was shot using Magic Leap's augmented reality technology, the company proclaimed. Details about Magic Leap's AR headset have been sparse thus far, but CEO Rony Abovitz dropped a bit more information about it during this week's WSJDLive conference in California. The software behind the Magic Leap headset senses and understands elements of the environment, he said.

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System 76 Unleashes Wild Dog Pro

System 76 has announced its latest desktop release, Wild Dog Pro, with a range of high-end customizable configurations to enhance video editing and media creation, software engineering, CAD, and high-end performance for demanding games. It comes preinstalled with Ubuntu 15.10, and the default desktop environment is Unity. However, users can install other Linux distros and desktop environments. "The Wild Dog Pro proves that Linux users can have the absolute latest and greatest in hardware innovation," said Carl Richell, president of System76.

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Surface Book Evokes Oohs, Ahhs and Sticker Shock

Many reviewers have responded to the preproduction version of Microsoft's Surface Book the way an average Joe would view a top-of-the-line luxury car: The features are great, but the price is daunting. "Overall, we recommend it, especially to people who value performance, design and battery life above all else, and are willing to pay dearly for it," remarked reviewer Dana Wollman. The Surface Book is "astonishingly expensive," said Peter Bright in his review.

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Global Attacks on Mobile Networks Jeopardize Privacy, Profits

Bad actors are exploiting an obscure technology found in telecommunications networks around the world to track mobile users and engage in fraud, and they could be costing carriers millions of dollars in lost revenues. The technology, called "SS7," is a signal protocol developed in the 1970s for setting up phone calls. Compromise of the SS7 network can cause significant damage to the reputation and finances of carriers around the world, AdaptiveMobile noted in a statement released last week.

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Amazon, NYT Revive Workplace Culture Brouhaha

Amazon and The New York Times this week engaged in a rehash of their dispute over the publication this summer of a story that describes harsh working conditions at the company. NYT reporter Jodi Kantor misled Amazon, alleged spokesperson Jay Carney, as she failed to challenge the credibility of former Amazon employees whose negative comments formed the backbone of the story. Some of the interviewees' accounts lacked context, he said.

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Liquid Lemur Linux Floats Fluid Desktop Design

Liquid Lemur Linux offers a new twist on the usual Linux desktop environment experience. Developer Edward Snyder recently released the second alpha version of Liquid Lemur Linux 2.0. It offers a hybrid desktop experience that combines the Window Maker window manager with elements of the Xfce desktop. Liquid Lemur has been around for a few years, but it has gone through several directional changes. Its start-and-stop development saga included earlier releases based on non-Debian repositories and full use of the Xfce or KDE desktops.

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MIT Machine Does Big Data Analysis the Human Way

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last week announced they had developed an algorithmic system to analyze big data that eventually might replace humans. The system, called the "Data Science Machine," designs the feature set and searches for patterns in big data. The DSM's first prototype was 96 percent as accurate as the winning submission by a human team in one competition to find predictive patterns in unfamiliar data sets, MIT said. In two others, it was 94 percent and 87 percent as accurate as the winning submissions.

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NX Leaks Hint at Nintendo Comeback

Nintendo reportedly has started to distribute software development kits for its next game console. The company hasn't laid out in detail the ecosystem of third-party software that it plans to build around its upcoming console, code-named "NX," but it plans to integrate it with a digital platform for smartphones, tablets, PCs and its own hardware. There's good news for those who like their Nintendo characters dressed in high-pixel-count clothing. The NX will employ "industry-leading chips."

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Google's Nexus 6P and 5X Win Some Love

The reviews are out for Google's Nexus 6P and 5X, unveiled late last month, and they can be summed up in two words: Love them! They're described as "the best Nexus devices ever produced" and "Google's answer to Apple's iPhones," but those tired phrases are rolled out with every new Nexus or flagship Android smartphone, so what else is new? The camera, for one. The phones' cameras apparently are a big improvement over previous Nexus cameras. Speed and the improved security offered by the fingerprint sensor are other plus points.

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Nintendo, Video Game Industry Rescuer, Turns 30

The Nintendo Entertainment System turned 30 years old on Sunday, and though it no longer leads the console pack, the entire video game industry owes a lot to its three decades of development. Its predecessor, introduced in Japan two years earlier as the Famicom, or Family Computer, was massively successful there. However, retailers in North America were leery of introducing a new gaming console following the video game crash that resulted from poor sales and lackluster new titles for the Atari 2600. Nintendo executives decided to introduce the system to America in 1985.

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Boffins Demo Remote Control of Siri, Google Now

Siri and other smartphone digital assistants may do your bidding -- but they may do a hijacker's as well. That's what two researchers discovered when they began to tinker with the effects of radio waves on smartphones. They could use the waves to issue commands to any Android or iOS phone running Google Now or Siri. The researchers first aired their findings at the Hack in Paris conference during the summer. Their presentation didn't receive a lot of publicity at the time, but a report last week set the tech press abuzz.

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Appletizing Microsoft: All You Need Is Love

The question that's been bugging me lately is this: Why hasn't Microsoft managed to break through with mobile consumer devices? While Apple has been breaking into the enterprise through consumer demand, Microsoft's enterprise tradition hasn't been helping with consumers. Case in point? Windows Phones. Meanwhile, why do I care? After all, I'm an Apple product enthusiast. Microsoft could make a Surface Book that also baked little loaves of fresh hot bread, but I still wouldn't buy one.

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Could Musk Be Tim Cook's Proxy for Jobs?

Elon Musk must have been channeling ex-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer last week, when he commented to the German Press that Apple wasn't poaching Tesla's good employees, it was getting folks who couldn't cut it at Tesla. Apple apparently has been paying a lot for ex-Tesla talent. That undoubtedly is true of some of the employees who have moved between both firms, but it's very unlikely that it is true of all of those employees. What's worse is that bad-mouthing ex-employees can be actionable, and experienced CEOs should know better.

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Gadget Ogling: Smarter Smartphone Gaming, Modular Watches, and Vampiric Charging Cables

I don't enjoy playing complex games on a smartphone. Using the screen as both input and output device makes matters complicated, so I tend to steer clear of any game that requires more than single taps or simple swipes. There are a number of game controllers around for smartphones, however, and the Satechi Wireless Gamepad is one of the latest. The Bluetooth device is compatible with iOS, Android and Windows phones, and it keeps the device steady while you play in a spring holder.

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Yahoo's New Email App Dumps Passwords

Yahoo has announced a password-free email app that can manage accounts from Outlook.com, Hotmail and AOL Mail. There was no mention of syncing with Gmail or Apple's iCloud Mail. Yahoo has been working to improve email security in the wake of repeated hacks of the service over the years, the most prominent occurring early last year when it had to reset users' passwords after hackers stole an undisclosed number of them. The password-free feature may be an extension of the secure disposable passwords capability Yahoo introduced in March.

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EU Court Decision Threatens US Cloud Dominance

Edward Snowden's legacy gained another chapter last week when the European Court of Justice rejected an agreement that created a Safe Harbor for U.S. companies handling personal data of overseas citizens. In essence, the agreement provided that a U.S. company's word that it had adequate safeguards in place to protect the data of Europeans was all that was needed to permit overseas data transfers to American service providers. The agreement was a convenient way to accommodate privacy discrepancies between the U.S. and EU.

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ONOS Project Gets Linux Foundation Bump

The Linux Foundation has announced a strategic partnership with ON.Lab and its ONOS project community to develop open source network services. They will build infrastructure for software-defined networking and network function virtualization technology. The foundation will provide its global reach, experience and infrastructure to seed ONOS' growing community. This project will help ONOS better monetize its open source networking platforms, and it will help vendors and service providers invent new business models.

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Tesla's Autopilot Drifts Toward Driverless Cars

Tesla Motors on Wednesday introduced an autopilot system featuring Tesla version 7.0 software that could aid drivers in finding parking spots, making lane changes, and watching for blind spots on the road. The system is not designed to do the driving just yet, but it could help relieve drivers in the most tedious and thus potentially dangerous aspects of road travel. The autopilot system is available in Tesla Model S vehicles. The hardware included in those models since last year allows for the gradual introduction of self-driving technology.

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HP, 3M to Shield Laptop Screens From Visual Hacking

HP and 3M have entered a collaboration to build 3M privacy screens into HP notebook PCs. The technology's aim is to keep cyberspies from gathering information by doing nothing more sophisticated than looking over a user's shoulder -- what the companies call "visual hacking." "3M is developing an innovative light-enhancement film that can be incorporated into a system that enables light to be directed to other viewers when you want information sharing, and away from onlookers when you need private viewing," 3M spokesperson Jessica Walton said.

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Facebook Sets New Lures for Video Viewers

Facebook on Tuesday revealed it's experimenting with making video clips easier for users to find in its mobile and desktop applications. In coming days, a limited number of users will see the additions, which include a video button at the bottom of its iPhone app and in the Favorites menu of its website. "We'll be testing this with a small number of people now, so this isn't something most people will see on Facebook right away," said Will Cathcart, vice president of product management at Facebook.

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Mate Makes Robolinux Raptor Soar

Robolinux Mate Raptor v8.1 is a stunningly gorgeous and well-tuned operating system that soars with unmatched functionality. This release of the Robolinux distro line runs the newest iteration of the Gnome 2 fork desktop Mate. It is fast and slick. The integration of Mate as a modern desktop environment is growing on me. This assessment becomes even more true with how Mate is paired with the really cool features in Robolinux. Raptor is a long-term support release that will keep you flying fine until 2020.

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iMac Refresh Advances Retina Revolution

Apple has announced upgrades to its iMac line, including Retina displays and Intel sixth-gen Skylake processors. The company also reached deeper into its hat to pull out "magical" new peripherals. The entire 27-inch series of iMacs now come with the 5K Retina displays, while the 21.5 inch iMac comes with a 4K Retina display. There are about 5.3 million more pixels in a 5K display than in a 4K, but for those who have not yet experienced it, the 4K pixel density is still breathtaking, according to Joe Silverman, owner of New York Computer Help.

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Apple News Goes Dark in China

Apple recently disabled its Apple News app for users in China, according to multiple reports triggered by software developer Larry Salibra's alerts last week. Although Apple is mum on the subject, users based in China have begun complaining on the Internet about the News app being unavailable there. "Last week during a short holiday in Mainland China, I was surprised to find that the News app refused to work from my hotel in Dongguan even though I was using uncensored roaming internet," Salibra, founder of Pay4Bugs, wrote in a blog post.

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Acer Trots Out New Windows 10 PCs

Acer on Monday announced two new Windows 10 devices -- a convertible notebook and a portable all-in-one PC. The Aspire R 14 convertible has four use modes -- one more than the just-unveiled Microsoft Surface Book -- while the Aspire Z3-700 all-in-one PC has a built-in battery with five hours' life. Both include the Cortana personal assistant. They also have Acer TrueHarmony Plus technology with Dolby Audio, as well as Acer BluelightShield, which is designed to help reduce eyestrain.

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Ex-Maintainer Bemoans Linux Kernel Community's 'Toxic Background Radiation'

Longtime Linux kernel developer Sarah Sharp last week published a blog post detailing her reasons for quitting the Linux kernel community. Sharp maintained the USB 3.0 host controller driver until January, when she decided to leave rather than continue to "contribute to a community where I was technically respected, but I could not ask for personal respect," she wrote. While it has shone a light on a problem that others previously have pointed out, Sharp's resignation may do little to change the status quo.

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Apple's App Yanking Switches On Data Monitoring Red Light

Apple last week revealed that it had removed from its App Store several apps with root certificates that could allow data monitoring. The monitoring could compromise SSL and TLS protocols, the company said. It suggested users delete the apps and their associated configuration profiles. However, it did not name the apps users should delete. Root certificates, or certificate authorities, "enable traffic to be intercepted, unknown to users," said Kevin Bocek, vice president of security strategy and threat intelligence at Venafi.

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Common Bonds: Jobs, Torvalds and Bad Behavior

I can understand Linux in the 1990s. It was backed largely by folks who didn't do well with others. The fights between the Linux and BSD folks were as legendary as they were juvenile, and Linux's existence seemed defined entirely by the revolt against Microsoft. Now, though, the platform is backed by huge brands. It is mainstream, and there's a huge community effort to bring more women into technology. So why did one of the leading women kernel developers, Sarah Sharp, feel she had to leave because it represented a hostile work environment?

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Gadget Ogling: A Fascinating Book, Stunning Speakers, and Empowering Tables

Right after Google unveiled the first tablet it created entirely in-house, Microsoft has gone them one better. Its Surface Book is a high-end laptop that falls in line with the Surface ethos. It's a convertible that works in tablet format, but its keyboard appears vastly superior to the ones available for other Surface devices. With a 13.5-inch display, sixth-generation Intel processor, up to 16 GB of RAM, and a battery that lasts up to 12 hours, according to Microsoft, the Surface Book seems to pack the goods.

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User Info Safe After LoopPay Attack, Says Samsung

Samsung has assured users that their information is safe following a computer intrusion of a key company linked to its mobile payment system. The intrusion of LoopPay by a gang of hackers known as the Codoso or Sunshock Group may have occurred as early as March. Samsung purchased LoopPay for $250 million in February. Its technology -- which the company's newly launched mobile payment system, Samsung Pay, uses -- allows mobile phones to perform payment card transactions with older POS terminals that recognize only cards with magnetic strips.

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