SQL Server on Linux Shows Microsoft's More Flexible Side

Microsoft on Tuesday announced plans to release a version of its enterprise database product SQL Server 2016 for Linux. "Bringing SQL Server to Linux is another way we are making our products and new innovations more accessible to a broader set of users and meeting them where they are," said Microsoft's Scott Guthrie. With a Linux version, SQL Server will be able to deliver a consistent data platform across Windows Server and Linux, in the cloud and on-premises, he noted.

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Toyota's Project Blaid Gives Visually Impaired More Freedom

Toyota on Monday introduced a concept for a piece of wearable tech that could help the visually impaired better navigate the world around them. Dubbed "Project Blaid," the mobility device would sit atop a wearer's shoulders and use cameras to sense the layout of indoor spaces. Wearers would be able to ask the device about objects and areas in a room, the company said. The wearable tech would guide them using speakers or vibrations for prompts. Down the line, Toyota hopes to upgrade Project Blaid with mapping and facial-recognition technologies.

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Samsung Galaxy S7 Review Buzz: It's the Bee's Knees

Reviews of the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge came out Tuesday, and they were overwhelmingly positive. "What the S7 line does, and does smartly, is it comes back to the basics and does the basics well," remarked Ramon Llamas, a research manager at IDC. Samsung is "hitting the right notes with improved battery life, external storage capacity and the quality of the camera. At the end of the day, you want the phone to work -- and all the bells and whistles don't matter otherwise."

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Gadget Ogling: Lingering Echoes, DIY Scanner Projects, and Empowered Pitchers

Amazon is doubling down on its Alexa personal assistant with two new models of the Echo speaker: Echo Dot and Amazon Tap. The Dot is a much more compact version of Echo. While it does have its own speaker, it apparently has nowhere near the quality of the Echo proper. As a standalone device, it looks more suited to standing in as an alarm clock and delivering the day's headlines than playing music. However, the idea here is to turn any speaker into an Alexa-connected machine.

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Quantum Computer Leap Could Make Today's Encryption Passe

Researchers at MIT and the University of Innsbruck last week announced that they had designed and constructed the world's first scalable quantum computer, a development that could make existing encryption technology obsolete. They built the computer using five atoms in an ion trap, according to a report published in the journal Science. The researchers used laser pulses to carry out an algorithm -- conceived in 1994 by MIT Professor Peter Shor -- on each atom to correctly factor the number 15.

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Epic Games Founder Rails Against Microsoft's Walled Garden

Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney last week called on Microsoft to remove the walls it's building around the Windows Store with its Universal Windows Platform initiative. The problem is that it is impossible to install and update UWP apps from third-party publishers outside of the Windows Store, he wrote in an op-ed. It is possible to turn on support for sideloading of third-party apps, Sweeney acknowledged, but Microsoft could remove the option to support apps that haven't been approved and accepted into the Windows Store.

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FBI Would Hurtle Us Back to Encryption Jurassic, Apple Warns

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation's efforts to compel Apple to unlock an iPhone used by one of the slain San Bernardino terrorists could threaten national security, charged Craig Federighi, Apple's SVP of engineering, in an op-ed piece published Monday. Terrorists and criminals could launch attacks on vital infrastructure through access "to just one person's smartphone" and cryptographic protections on smartphones are "a critical line of defense," he maintained.

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