Smart glasses doomed to stay a niche product, while smart wristwear takes off

A year ago, Google Glass was one of the hottest new tech products on the horizon. Since then, it has suffered a considerable public backlash, had a quiet public beta release, and the expected competition simply hasn’t arrived. According to the latest information from Juniper Research, the smart eyewear market is suffering because of it. “A lack of a key consumer case,” the firm says, “has resulted in low levels of shipments and adoption in the smart glasses space.”

The report paints a bleak picture for the future, stating shipments are unlikely to total more than 10 million per year until 2018. Juniper compares smart eyewear to how smartphones were 15 years ago, when they were being used by businesses, rather than consumers. This is where it expects smart glasses to make an impression, when used in environments in which hands-free devices make most sense – healthcare and construction, for example.

Conversely, the outlook for smart bands and smart watches is far more positive. A report by CCS Insight predicts smart wrist wear shipments will reach 135 million by 2018, and be fairly evenly split between smart watches and fitness trackers without a screen. Its research expects smart eyewear to be even less popular than Juniper does, indicating the face-worn devices will make up just 2 percent (that’s less than 3 million) of that total.

Despite the gloomy outlook, Juniper still expects a few Glass rivals to arrive in the near future, listing Recon Instruments’ Jet specs, Osterhout Design’s eyewear, and most interestingly, Samsung’s Gear Blink as products we’ll see between now and 2016. Samsung was rumored to reveal the Gear Blink (also known as the Gear Glass) at the IFA show back in September, but it took to the stage with the Oculus Rift-challenging Gear VR instead. Juniper expects Samsung to use its own Tizen operating system on the Gear Blink.

If companies want to make smart glasses more popular, “privacy and safety concerns from consumers and government bodies,” need to be addressed and ideally, solved, according to the report’s authors.

WireLurker Malware Infects Apple Devices

Desktop malware is infecting devices like iPads and iPhones when they are connected via a USB cable, a security firm warns.

Apple devices are coming under attack from malware known as WireLurker - which collects call logs, phone book contacts and other sensitive information.

Researchers at Palo Alto Network say more than 450 Mac OS X applications offered on a Chinese third-party application store called Maiyadi have been seeded with WireLurker.

The apps affected include Pro Evolution Soccer 2014, The Sims 3 and International Snooker 2012.

The affected apps have been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times over the last six months, the firm said, and hundreds of thousands of users may have been affected.

The network's intelligence director Ryan Olson said the malware appears to be an "information gathering operation".

Once an iOS device was connected to an infected Mac using a USB cable, the WireLurker malware would check for security vulnerabilities and attempt to install itself on the phone or iPad.

Palo Alto has contacted Apple to make it aware of the vulnerability.

Apple said in a statement: "We are aware of malicious software available from a download site aimed at users in China, and we've blocked the identified apps to prevent them from launching. As always, we recommend that users download and install software from trusted sources."

Last month Apple's iCloud storage service in China was attacked by hackers who tried to steal user information.

The Chinese government denied claims it was behind the attack.

Which Messaging Technologies Are Truly Safe and Secure?

In the face of widespread Internet data collection and surveillance, we need a secure and practical means of talking to each other from our phones and computers. Many companies offer "secure messaging" products - but how can users know if these systems actually secure?

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) released its Secure Messaging Scorecard, evaluating dozens of messaging technologies on a range of security best practices.

"The revelations from Edward Snowden confirm that governments are spying on our digital lives, devouring all communications that aren't protected by encryption," said EFF Technology Projects Director Peter Eckersley. "Many new tools claim to protect you, but don't include critical features like end-to-end encryption or secure deletion. This scorecard gives you the facts you need to choose the right technology to send your message."

The scorecard includes more than three dozen tools, including chat clients, text messaging apps, email applications, and technologies for voice and video calls. EFF examined them on seven factors, like whether the message is encrypted both in-transit and at the provider level, and if the code is audited and open to independent review. Six of these tools scored all seven stars, including ChatSecure, CryptoCat, Signal/Redphone, Silent Phone, Silent Text, and TextSecure. Apple's iMessage and FaceTime products stood out as the best of the mass-market options, although neither currently provides complete protection against sophisticated, targeted forms of surveillance. Many options—including Google, Facebook, and Apple's email products, Yahoo's web and mobile chat, Secret, and WhatsApp—lack the end-to-end encryption that is necessary to protect against disclosure by the service provider. Several major messaging platforms, like QQ, Mxit, and the desktop version of Yahoo Messenger, have no encryption at all.

"We're focused on improving the tools that everyday users need to communicate with friends, family members, and colleagues," said EFF Staff Attorney Nate Cardozo. "We hope the Secure Messaging Scorecard will start a race-to-the-top, spurring innovation in stronger and more usable cryptography."

The Secure Messaging Scorecard is part of EFF's new Campaign for Secure and Usable Cryptography, and was produced in collaboration with Julia Angwin at ProPublica and Joseph Bonneau at the Princeton Center for Information Technology Policy.

Intel's Extreme Broadwell-E chips reportedly not coming until early 2016

The high-end "Extreme" Broadwell processors anytime soon—or anytime in 2015 at all, in fact. The VR Zone (a Chinese tech site) reports that Intel’s high-end desktop Broadwell-E CPUs, the successor to Haswell-E which was released back in August, will supposedly come out in the first few months of 2016 rather than fall 2015.

After Broadwell has been delayed several times due to manufacturing issues, it’s not surprising to hear that we’ll have to wait a long while for top-end parts. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich promised to deliver Broadwell CPUs in 2014, but those will be lower-power Core M chips. The more powerful desktop Core i5 and i7 chips ideal for gaming won't be out until sometime in 2015.

The VR Zone report doesn't specify the exact reasons Intel's pushing the Extreme chips back to 2016, but it does give us a glimpse at what Intel’s next high-end chip will entail. VR-Zone confirms some previous reports that Broadwell-E chips reuse the existing LGA2011v3 socket and stick with the X99 chipset.

The big draw of Broadwell chips is that they will be made with a new, smaller 14-nanometer silicon fabrication process, which should reduce power consumption and in turn cooler running CPUs. Compared to the 22nm process used to create Haswell chips, Intel will be able to produce boards that are 25-percent smaller.

Broadwell should be an very heat and power efficient line of processors, but similar to the way Ivy Bridge was a shrunken down version of Sandy Bridge, Broadwell is only an incremental update from the Haswell. Skylake, meanwhile, will represent an all new architecture with a new chip design and possibly introduce wireless charging and data streaming.

US claims THz transistor speed record

Northrop Grumman is claiming a speed record with “the fastest solid-state amplifier integrated circuit ever measured”.

Developed for US military lab DARPA, the ten-stage common-source amplifier showed 10dB gain at 1.0THz and 9dB at 1.03THz. The transistors are 25nm gate length indium phosphide (InP) HEMTs.

“Gains of six dB or more start to move this research from the laboratory bench to practical applications—nine decibels of gain is unheard of at terahertz frequencies” said DARPA programme manager Dev Palmer, “This opens up new possibilities for building terahertz radio circuits.”

Palmer envisages high-resolution security imaging systems, collision-avoidance radar, comms networks and chemical spectrometers using the technology.

DARPA has several THz programmes including ‘High frequency integrated vacuum electronics’ (HiFIVE), ‘Sub-millimeter wave imaging focal plane technology’ (SWIFT) and ‘Technology for frequency-agile digitally synthesised transmitters’ (TFAST), each building on the previous one.

Under DARPA programmes, Northrop demonstrated an 850GHz receiver in 2012, and 670GHz in 2010.

Northrop also showed THz operation in vacuum devices, when it revealed a micromachined 850GHz travelling wave tube last year. “DARPA-sponsored research has taken tools developed by the semiconductor and MEMS revolution and applied them to vacuum tube technologies,” said Palmer at the time.

“A decade ago, there was no consensus in the scientific community whether an integrated circuit operating at 1THz was technologically possible,” said Northrop THz programme manager William Deal. “An interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers worked together in scaling all facets of our MMIC technology to enable the 1THz result. Now, as a result of DARPA’s investment in high-speed transistor processes, it will become routine to fabricate wafers containing thousands of THz integrated circuits.”

DARPA has plans to put the travelling wave tube in its ‘video synthetic aperture radar’ (ViSAR) – an attempt to create a TV-like 2d imager that can see through clouds using high frequency radio waves

- See more at: http://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/research/us-claims-thz-transistor-speed-record-2014-10/#sthash.8K2Ialga.dpuf

A phoenix rises Technology

Ground-effect vehicles are a clever idea whose time has never come—so far

SOME technologies look wonderful on paper but don’t quite make it in the big, bad world. Airships. Autogyros. Hovercraft. They all work. They even have niche applications. But they have never lived up to their promise and been widely adopted.

So it is with ground-effect vehicles—aircraft-like machines which skim a few metres above the sea by acquiring part of their lift from aerodynamic interaction with the surface beneath. This means they use less fuel than a true aircraft while travelling faster than a ship.

Many attempts have been made to build them. Boeing tried in the 1990s, with the Pelican Ultra Large Transport Aircraft. The Soviet Union tried with the Ekranoplan, whose prototypes now moulder in the naval base at Kaspiysk. Two German engineers even attempted to construct what was, in essence, a ground-effect aquatic sports car. All failed—or, rather, failed to make something that was better than established alternatives. But hope springs eternal, and the Wing Ship Technology Corporation, a South Korean company, is trying to revive the idea. The country’s armed forces have already agreed to buy some and the firm says it hopes to announce its first commercial sales (to an oil-and-gas firm and a Mediterranean ferry company) shortly.

The prototype (pictured) is powered by a turboprop and can carry 50 passengers. It has a catamaran-style hull and a reverse delta wing. Its cruising speed, 180kph (110mph), makes it faster than a jetfoil, its principal rival. And the production version will have a range of 1,000km.

The crucial breakthrough, the firm believes, is the delta wing. This approach was actually devised in the 1960s by Alexander Lippisch and Hanno Fischer, the makers of the putative “sports car”. Their single-seater Aerofoilboot, as they dubbed it, was not a commercial runner, but Wing Ship Technology believes the idea of a delta wing is sound and, though Lippisch is now dead, Mr Fischer is one of their advisers.

The delta wing’s geometry amplifies the ground effect, allowing the new craft to cruise as high as five metres above the water’s surface. That means it is less likely to be confined to harbour by rough seas, which was one of the problems encountered by previous designs. It also launches itself by directing some of the airflow from the turbo props downwards, to create a temporary hovercraftlike effect until it is travelling forwards at full tilt. The difficulty of getting airborne was another bugbear of previous designs.

It remains to be seen whether Wing Ship Technology’s craft actually will be the breakthrough that enthusiasts of ground-effect vehicles are hoping for. But if it is, it will be an example of the value of persistence. There may yet be hope for the hovercraft, the autogyro and the airship.

Dell Software Reinforces Commitment to SQL Server Market Leadership with Upgraded Monitoring, Management and Backup Offerings

Dell Software today announced a host of enhancements that further demonstrate its ongoing commitment to the SQL Server database market, including the release ofSpotlight on SQL Server Enterprise 11.0. The new solutions, which will be on display next week atPASS Summit, the industry’s leading conference for SQL Server professionals, build on Dell’s 18-year legacy of providing robust, affordable, and easy-to-use database tools to monitor, manage, protect, and improve the performance of SQL Server environments.

News Facts:

Dell Software’s complete set of end-to-end SQL Server solutions enables customers to get the most from their database investments. Along with Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise 11.0, newly upgraded solutions include Foglight for SQL Server 5.7, Toad for SQL Server 6.5, LiteSpeed for SQL Server 8.0, and SharePlex 8.6.

• Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise 11.0, a SQL Server database monitoring tool, continues to break new ground when it comes to providing customers with the ultimate in flexibility to suit their specific usage needs.
  • Building on the success of the Wait Stat analysis workflow, Spotlight 11 introduces a multi-dimensional workload analysis to provide maximum insight into performance issues.
  • The new release also features a mobile capability that allows SQL Server DBAs to remotely diagnose issues directly from their mobile phones. Spotlight mobile is implemented as a native mobile app (IOS, Android and Windows Mobile), delivering the user experience customers have come to expect from mobile apps.
  • In addition, version 11 features a new SCOM management pack, enabling SCOM users to leverage Spotlight on SQL Server for SQL Server monitoring and diagnostic needs.
• The newly released Foglight for SQL Server 5.7, for real-time and historical database performance monitoring of both virtualized and non-virtualized databases, introduces the new SQL Performance Investigator that provides fast, accurate and detailed SQL workload analytics within its flexible deep dive monitoring platform. Foglight for SQL Server can monitor thousands of instances within a single download-and-go installation, while offering deep dive operational and workload data collection and retention. Designed specifically to help ease the workload of the DBA, additional new features include:
  • Multi-Dimensional Data Cube for fast workload analytics, with historical session data that allows for easy navigation through performance metrics and ability to gather more granular metric data
  • Lock analysis to show who is locking a table and causing degradation for other users. Forensic level analysis shows both real-time and historical data to determine who is holding the lock, what object is being locked, and for how long, and provides the ability end the locker’s session
  • Change Tracking to track changes to database configuration, objects, execution plan and system configuration to quickly see the impact changes have on database performance
• Dell Software’s popular line of Toad data and data management solutions has been updated to support the latest versions of SQL Server 2014 Enterprise and Express. Dell’s Toad solutions support SQL Server databases running on Amazon EC, as well as other Microsoft platforms including SQL Server Analysis Services, SQL Azure, Azure data market, Azure table services and SharePoint.
  • Toad for SQL Server 6.5 now also integrates with Spotlight Essentials to deliver system health checks and performance analytics to DBAs and developers.
• LiteSpeed for SQL Server 8.0, the latest release of Dell Software’s leading SQL Server backup and recovery solution, offers a host of new features, including:
  • A new cloud backup option to Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service), allowing customers to bypass local disk and backup and restore directly to the cloud from either on-premises SQL Servers, or those running on Amazon EC2. Data is fully encrypted for transport, and optionally encrypted on S3. LiteSpeed also supports the S3 GovCloud, for use by U.S. government agencies and customers
  • An updated user interface, a new multi-database restore feature, and full support for SQL Server 2014
• Lastly, planned for later this year, the release of version 8.6 of SharePlex, a leading database replication and near real-time integration solution, increases Dell’s expanding footprint of heterogeneous database support. The updated solution enables IT staff to offload reporting, migrate data, and provide immediate data integration services from Oracle databases to Microsoft SQL Server for better business insight.
  • The new release brings the number of certified target platforms for replication support to eight, including: Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, Hadoop, SAP ASE, ODBC, JMS, SQL flat files, and XML files.

Leading the way in solutions for SQL Server

Dell’s collective expertise and the breadth and depth of its SQL Server solutions span the entire IT infrastructure, from hardware to software and services. Dell is one of the largest resellers of Microsoft SQL Server licenses worldwide, and a leading worldwide Microsoft SQL Server deployment partner. Recipient of six 2014 Microsoft Partner of the Year awards, Dell has 17 Microsoft-certified Masters on-staff, more than 20 advanced Microsoft competencies, and more than 38,000 SQL Server databases managed worldwide.

Read more here: http://www.heraldonline.com/2014/10/28/6465015/dell-software-reinforces-commitment.html?sp=/100/773/385/#storylink=cpy