Terrorism: UK demands access to WhatsApp for Intel use

Facebook Inc. is facing calls from lawmakers in the U.K. to make its WhatsApp more accessible in the wake of last week’s terrorist attack in London.

In an interview, U.K. Home Secretary Amber Rudd called on Facebook and other app makers to make their encrypted messaging services accessible to intelligence agencies to prevent future terrorist attacks. The home secretary called it “completely unacceptable” that the U.K. government can’t read messages sent within the apps. Rudd is holding a meeting with technology companies later this week to discuss options.

Rudd also wouldn’t rule out passing legislation to give intelligence agencies access to the encrypted messaging apps. The calls from Rudd came after it was revealed that Khalid Masood, the British extremist who murdered four people near Parliament on Wednesday, communicated via WhatsApp shortly before the attack. Police believe Masood acted alone in the attack that shook the nation.

While a large percentage of the population would agree that law enforcement should have access to encrypted messaging apps, privacy advocates and consumer watchdogs argue that giving the government such power is overreach, arguing that creating new “draconian” laws only serves to play into the terrorists' hands.

The calls on the part of U.K. lawmakers comes on the heels of a long-running fight between Apple Inc. and the FBI over getting access to locked devices in the U.S. Apple had refused to help unlock the iPhone belonging to San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook, which forced the FBI to use costly software to unlock it.

Apple said it would violate the rights of its customers if the government was able to decrypt data on locked iPhones. In February, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook penned a letter to Apple customers arguing that the government’s demands are “chilling.” He went on to say that the FBI wanted Apple to create a new version of the iPhone operating system to get around security features and install it on the iPhone recovered in the shooting.

“In the wrong hands, this software—which does not exist today—would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone’s physical possession. The FBI may use different words to describe this tool, but make no mistake: Building a version of iOS that bypasses security in this way would undeniably create a backdoor. And while the government may argue that its use would be limited to this case, there is no way to guarantee such control,” Cook wrote.

Via: Investopedia

Asus launch ZenBook UX330 with 7th gen Intel processors

Asus has launched the ZenBook UX330 laptop in select markets like India. The new ZenBook laptop, which has been claimed to be one of the slimmest and lightest 13.3-inch clamshell notebooks in the world, has already been made available across all online retailers and channel partners from March 21 and comes in Rose Gold and Quartz Grey colours.

The ZenBook UX330 laptop comes with a full body aluminium design, weighs 1.2kg, and is just 13.5mm thick. The laptop sports a high-resolution 13.3-inch QHD+ (3200x1800 pixels) display with company's proprietary 'Splendid Display Technology'. It is powered by seventh-generation Intel Core (i7-7500/ i5-7200) processors with up to 8GB of high speed 1866MHz RAM. The laptop comes with a backlit keyboard and as per company's claims, offers 12 hours of battery life.

The new ZenBook laptop comes with a 512GB SSD storage. In terms of connectivity options, the laptop offers USB 3.1 Type-C, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, and Bluetooth 4.1.

In the sound department, the ZenBook UX330 laptop comes with Asus SonicMaster Audio System developed for notebooks. "The audio system of the ZenBook UX330 was tuned by experts from ASUS' own 'Golden Ears' audio team as well as renowned audiophile company, Harman/Kardon to ensure the very best experience for the playback of a wide variety of content, be it music, movie, recording, gaming and speech mode," Asus said in its release.

The laptop has been made available in five variants namely - FC082T, FB132T, FB157T, FB089T, and FB088T.  Other features that stand out for the ultrabook include the in-house Splendid Display Technology supplied by the company, a backlit keyboard and USB 3.1 with Type-C connector.

The company claims that the ultrabook can last 12 hours on a single charge and it comes with a 2-year global warranty. Asus has also added Asus SonicMaster Audio system for good quality audio which has been fine-tuned by Asus’s experts from the ‘Golden Ears’ audio team. ZenBook UX330 will come in 5 different models with different price tags.

AMD continue to tease on imminent Radeon RX Vega 4GB cards release...likens it to Nvidia 's 11GB GTX 1080 Ti

AMD has teased more information about its forthcoming Vega-based graphics cards, revealing that they will come with either 4GB or 8GB memory and hinting that a launch is imminent.

Both versions will use the second-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM2), which in addition to offering improved memory bandwidth will also provide greater power efficiency - something AMD cards have been lacking as of late.

Scott Herkelman, vice president and general manager of Radeon gaming at AMD, suggested that 4GB of HBM2 Vega graphics card memory could potentially have similar memory bandwidth to Nvidia's 11GB GTX 1080 Ti, although we'll believe that when we see the independent benchmarks.

More plausibly, he added that Radeon RX Vega graphics cards ought to be smaller than some of the AMD graphics cards that have been shipped of late, particularly the £200 stop-gap Polaris 10-based RX 480s, which appeared in the middle of last year.

This was produced on GlobalFoundries' 14nm FinFET process and was very much a 'warm up' in advance of the slew of Vega-based GPUs that AMD had promised for the second quarter of 2017. With the second quarter just weeks away, and AMD in the habit of launching stuff at the beginning of quarters, the first of AMD's long-awaited new Vegas ought to be seeing the light of day very shortly.

The news was revealed at AMD's Tech Summit in China over the weekend.

The company also revealed plans to push into gaming laptops, given the more compact nature of the GPUs that the company is planning, although heat dissipation will (of course) also be a factor there.

What wasn't revealed were core configurations and clock speeds, and whether the company will offer essentially the same device at different levels of performance and form-factors (and prices, natch). The Vega is AMD's response to Nvidia's 10-series, a new GPU architecture designed to take advantage of the latest 14nm and 16nm chip manufacturing processes. It's very much the 'second foot to fall' in AMD's 2017 comeback tour, which appears to be going splendidly so far.

Moov Nigeria introduce Online platform to ease cargo, freight services

Innovative logistics and cargo management firm Moov Nigeria, has revolutionized  the sector with a technology disruptor and pioneer online delivery service platform, to improve logistics and cargo management for individuals and corporate transportation organizations in the country and Africa as a whole.

The online platform, Moov.Com.Ng, is poised to simplify the tedious freight brokerage activities, bringing in the dynamic aspect of ‘freight bidding software’, sometimes referred to as ‘online truck load boards’ or ‘freight load boards and help customers or cargo owners to select choice delivery company from a pool of professionals the platform will provide.

Aside instituting sanity in the industry, when launched, the solution will also assist users, especially operators solve ‘Origin and Destination (O&D) complexities, as cargo shipments are usually one-way, with operators losing revenue along the line.

Before now, O&D results in doubling the workload for cargo revenue management, since there is no return trip to count on, however, Moov.com.ng will ensure the synchronization of multiple touch points, including flights, trucks, regulatory/security checks, varying loading and handling requirements, and special services which must all be factored into cargo management to make correct decisions, meet customer agreements, and generate profits.

“We are excited to announce the launch of Moov Nigeria, a purely Internet logistics service organization to the general public,” said the Founder and Country Manager, Moov Nigeria, Mr. Larry Chinekezi, “The domain www.moov.com.ng connects shipping users to carefully verified vehicle owner-drivers or delivery companies who have the expertise and capability to pick up and deliver securely any parcel or cargo from the home or office to desired destinations throughout the 36 states of Nigeria.

Mr. Chinekezi said that the innovative platform tends to entrench the era of reliable delivery service, adding that lack of trust has been the bane of courier/logistics industry in the country.

“Today, most customers seem to have lost confidence in the delivery service, because whether you choose to use the transporters, courier company or person-to-person delivery, they all have issues and limitations, particularly with pilfering, dumping of mails or damages.

They come back telling the customers stories; therefore, the customer is the loser. In some occasions, people have missed annual general meetings, weddings and other functions just because the parcel conveying message to them was delivered late. Even during trade shows you see material arriving on the day the event is closing; such disappointment can be devastating. We tend to address this challenge with Moov.com.ng.

“Secondly, the service providers are going to benefit from this platform. Apart from the registered courier companies that have offices, it is usually difficult to accommodate those young people who have trucks/cars and can deliver goods for people and make a living for themselves. There are also cases of driving using company trucks to do personal delivery. Every day, they take off from their houses, come back in the evening to tell stories of how VIO or LASTMA held them throughout the day. Moov.com.ng with its tracking device will help the companies track movement of their trucks real time, while the customers can also track the state of their goods with ease”.

Mr. Chinekezi added that through the innovative system over 500 Moov Agents will be setup across the country; “with very little setup cost to get started, each agent will operate as a business under Moov Nigeria and can develop their own branches also within and earn regular income through our activities”.

He clarified that Moov Nigeria is a member of Moov Africa starting in five countries, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Egypt and South Africa. “Through these countries we aim to connect Africa’s fledgling e-commerce and trading activities by providing effective and seamless logistics services through registered service providers”, he said.

The promoters have over 40 years cognate logistics experience up to the highest corporate level and have rolled out the solution in Nigeria.

Webber Elevator brand makes Nigeria debut with Eliel Group

In order to encourage competition and promote quality standards in the Nigerian real estate sector, Eliel Jerahmeal Nigeria Limited and Weibo Elevator company have partnered to provide the best of Webber elevator brands to strengthen industry operation in African region. In a media chart with newsmen in Lagos, the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Eliel Group of Companies, Mrs Damilola Adefemi said that building construction in Nigeria requires first class equipment to meet world class standard and also to build trust and confidence among your clients.

According to her, “the only way real estate sector in Nigeria can make meaningful impact in nation building is by approaching building construction in the country with world class building equipment and this is the reason behind our franchise to market and sale Webber elevators, a modern technology equipment that promotes real estate operation”.

Mrs Adefemi said that our company, Eliel Jerahmeal Nigeria limited has the exclusive franchise for marketing and sales of Webber elevators in Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon and Ivory coast. “These elevators she said, are used in offices, homes, hotels, factories, hospitals, showrooms, malls, conference centres and so many other facilities”. Its operation is needed in all places and by all people to move people and goods including cars and machines up and down within a building”.

Continuing, Mrs Adefemi told media men that because of its technology build-up, Webber is a unique brand of elevators, escalators and travelators which makes its operate more efficiently and it guarantees smooth operation, quieter, fast and it has a very special traction system which makes it totally different and with absolutely minimal maintenance unlike others.

She said further that Webber elevators are also the only High Tech elevators that operate with the VVVF technology which allows the doors to align perfectly without any complication whatsoever. “Despite its high quality operation and one of the best in the industry, it is the most affordable in the Nigerian market today by virtue of its superb technology. Following the fast growing real estate business in Nigeria, the environment is highly conducive for marketing Webber elevators as Nigeria is still developing in terms of infrastructure.

Webber Elevator brand is from the Weibo Elevator company based in China.

Via: Vanguard

Ecobank Ghana launches Masterpass QR to boost digital payment

Ecobank Ghana has introduced Masterpass QR to boost safe and secure digital payment via the mobile phone for booth the banked and the unbanked.

Ecobank's Masterpass QR was designed by global card and digital payment giant, MasterCard to integrate various payment platforms in a safe and secure way for consumers, merchants and service providers. Ecobank is the first to launch the QR code in Ghana and the code is dubbed Ecobank QR.

Coming a few months after announcing its successful Kenya activation (read here), it currently allows Ecobank account holders who have the Ecobank Mobile Banking App on their smartphones to make payments at various sales points by just scanning the Ecobank QR at a merchant's place. Those with feature phones can access the service as well.

In that sense, therefore, the service enables merchants like shops, restaurants, bars, food sellers, taxi/trotro drivers among others to accept payment from mobile phones, cards etc without having to use a point of sale (POS) device.

Ecobank Ghana Managing Director, Dan Sackey, said the systems saves merchants the cost of buying POS devices and the risk of handling loads of cash from sales, while the consumer has the luxury of access to money in their account even when they do not have cash. "The payment is instant and the merchant can also have instant access to their money. This eliminates the cost of physical POS terminals and reliance on network or the internet connectivity," he said.

Dan Sackey said the Ecobank Masterpass QR also keeps records of transaction volumes and sales and therefore makes it easy for the bank to offer financial support to the merchant upon request.

West African Regional Manager for Consumer Distribution for Ecobank, Owuraku Asare told Adom News very soon mobile money wallet holders would also be able to use the Ecobank Masterpass QR to make payments from their mobile wallets. "Other banks will soon launch it and it will help to boost financial inclusion in the country - help to boost the drive towards a cashless society and ultimately reduce the cost of printing and using cash," he said.

He noted that Masterpass QR is the safest digital payment platform yet because it requires the use of a personal identification number (PIN), which means no one can access another person's funds. Owuraku Asare said Ecobank QR allows customers to make payments of up to GHC5,000 in one transaction and up to GHC20,000 in a day.

Meanwhile, earlier, Lead of MasterCard for the Middle East and Africa, Guarang Shah had told Adom News at the just-ended Mobile World Congress that Masterpass QR will eventually allow all payment platforms including even cards like Visa and others, other than MasterCard, to be used for payment via Masterpass.

Guarang said the QR is designed to bridge the gap in digital payment and globalize it such that any and everyone, whether banked or unbanked can access any form of financial account they have to make payments anywhere in the world. He said the integration if various payment platform was in recognition of the fact that not everyone has a bank account but everyone deserves the opportunity of convenience and safety when making payment.

"This innovation ensures financial inclusion because it brings mobile money wallet holders onboard one global payment platform - it also bridges the interoperability gap because the system is designed to allow payment via other cards outside of MasterCard going forward," he said.

Masterpass has already been launched in Pakistan, and in Ecobank in Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana and in also in seven countries in just seven months. "Ecobank has currently signed a contract to extend the service to all of its 33 markets in Africa and UBA (United Bank of Africa) has also expressed interest in extending it to thousands of merchants across Africa," he said.

Its main uses currently include uses at cinemas, online shopping for bills payments, airtime top-up, for fuel purchase, payment of taxi fare and restaurants among others.

Guarang believes Masterpass is a Pan-African innovation that will facilitate financial inclusion is a very big way because it does not matter what kind of account one holds, the services allows payment with that account.

BlackBerry Introduces Privacy Shade and Other Updates...admits BB10 is dying

As BlackBerry fully adopts Android as its operating system, the company is bringing the security features it is renowned for to an OS with a dubious track record when it comes to security. This includes regular updates as well as introducing new apps, which address security and privacy issues. The roll-out of the March security updates come after the introduction of the new KEYone phone at MWC 2017 in Barcelona. This month there is a new app called Privacy Shade, along with additional updates to the existing line of applications.

On the company blog, Michael Clewley, Director of Software Product Management, says:

“Privacy Shade will let you read emails, messages and personal content at any time without worrying about snoopers, even if someone is looking over your shoulder. The app allows you to view private information in public places — like on the train or in a restaurant — by obscuring the parts of the screen that you’re not actively viewing or using, while still allowing you to interact with the obscured parts.”

While worrying about people looking over your shoulder might seem a bit paranoid, visual hacking is a serious problem. It’s one that has led PC, monitor and screen protector manufacturers to come up with solutions to address this issue. With Privacy Shade, BlackBerry has created an app that prevents anyone around you from easily seeing what is on your screen. The concept is actually quite ingenious. Privacy Shade lets you control the area of the screen you are viewing and block out everything else, while still allowing you to interact with the entire screen.

When you turn the BlackBerry Privacy Shade app on, you adjust the transparency of the shade depending on the lighting condition of where you happen to be. Once you make the adjustment, the app exposes the area you are reading or typing in, leaving everything else dark.

The other updates to Blackberry’s Android operating system include a new version of BlackBerry Hub that adds dual-SIM support for BlackBerry smartphones, as well as new features for Kik and Telegram, Android Wear Notifications, Contacts, and DTEK. Kik and Telegram are popular messaging services for mobile devices, and with the update, users can enable auto cc: or bcc: when sending a message. And according to Clewley, the settings can be applied to individual accounts.

Android Wear Notifications, which is in beta, will let you read and delete Hub items via Android Wear devices with Hub+ notifications.

Another feature has been added finding and linking duplicate contacts to get rid of the clutter. As for DTEK, BlackBerry’s security monitoring app, users will receive a notification if an OS Integrity issue has been detected.

But in a rather unfortunate twist, BlackBerry has finally acknowledged problems with the much-delayed 10.3.3 update to BlackBerry 10 that users began to receive late last year.

In September 2015, as it announced the company’s first Android device, BlackBerry CEO John Chen promised that its home grown BB10 platform wasn’t dead. It had last received an update with new features in February 2015. Chen explained that BB10 users would receive two further "platform updates focused on security and privacy enhancements", the first coming in March 2016.

That was a way of saying that the BB10 platform was going into maintenance mode, and users shouldn’t expect any new features. As we explained, the Qt-based Cascades development environment needed significant investment to bring it up to date, and BB10 devices sales didn’t justify it. Since then BlackBerry Mobile has been created as a software and licensing unit, with partners, principally TCL, handling the design, marketing and logistics of selling BlackBerry-branded phones.

The promised update, which qualified for US National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP) certification, only rolled out in December, and only initially for US users. (UK devices began to receive 10.3.3 last month.)

But even though 10.3.3 didn’t contain any new features, it has caused users problems, BlackBerry acknowledges in a release note. These include:

• Slow/poor performance
• Menu items missing or slow to respond
• Device temperature warmer than usual
• Applications not opening
• [The device being] unable to connect to wireless networks

The advice? Walk away from your BlackBerry for 24 hours!

Users aren’t impressed, partly because it was typical for users to expect a “settling in” period after a fresh install, and partly because it doesn’t acknowledge that 10.3.3 has brought new problems.

Alas, the problems are compounded by other evidence of decay in the BB10 world. For users to backup their mission critical phone logs, or migrate them to another device, BlackBerry’s desktop software Link needs to be used. But the combination of BlackBerry Link and 10.3.3 works only erratically, or not at all, with Windows 10 and Mac OS Sierra, and there’s no indication it will ever receive an update. To keep backing up that vital data, users need to keep their phone on 10.3.2 and an older version of Mac or Windows: preferably both.

Two years ago BlackBerry’s enterprise chief told us the company had “left people behind” in its migration to BB10 in 2013. Internal network data showed that millions were clinging to their older BlackBerry devices. Now it’s BB10 user’s turn to be left behind, too.

Via: Express.Co.Uk

Sony now has to compete against VAIO's new Android phone

Sony sold off its PC-focused VAIO division back in 2014, but the brand lived on under new management. Now, it’s come back to haunt the tech giant in the mobile market, with a new Android-powered VAIO handset announced today — the VAIO Phone A.

This isn’t the first VAIO mobile ever seen. That would be the VAIO Phone Biz, announced in February last year. The Phone Biz and Phone A have pretty much identical looks and specs (including a 5.5-inch HD screen, 3GB of RAM, and a mid-range Snapdragon 617 processor), but while the Phone Biz was powered by Windows 10, the Phone A runs what looks to be stock Android.

That means it competes much more directly with Sony’s own phone business, which accounts for 12 percent of the mobile market in Japan, second place behind Apple (and its 47 percent market share).

Not that the Phone A looks like much of a threat, even to Sony’s stagnant Xperia line. The only change compared to the Phone Biz is that the Phone A supports dual SIM cards. In marketing shots used on the Phone A’s homepage, VAIO hasn’t even bothered to change the UI from Windows 10. If you want to see some pictures of the Phone A in the flesh, head over to Engadget Japan for a closer look, but don’t expect this phone to go on sale outside of Japan.

Windows 10 will soon block non-Store apps like OS X does

In its latest beta build of the Windows 10 Creators Update, Microsoft has slipped in a new feature that could make your PC either safer or more irritating, depending on your point of view. If you try to install a Win32 (desktop) app, it'll either pop up a warning that "the app you're installing isn't from the Windows Store" or completely block it, depending on the level of security you select. When enabled, you can still install Windows Store and Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps with no warning.

Microsoft already blocks unknown Windows 10 software from being installed with a message that "the publisher could not be verified." However, it's relatively easy for bad actors to get around that and users can just bypass the error message.

With the new security settings, Windows 10 blocks any app that isn't in the Windows Store, whether it's a UWP or desktop app (Microsoft only recently allowed third-party desktop apps in the Windows Store). That means its policy will be very similar to Mac's OS X, which makes you jump through hoops to install non-App Store software.

Microsoft is reportedly testing a "Windows Cloud" service that's basically a Chrome OS-like version of Windows 10. The software giant may eventually offer it for free or at a discount to try to claw back hordes of educators and other uses that have switched to Google's OS. If the rumors are right, that new OS doesn't allow you to install regular Windows apps either, but it's apparently not the same thing as with the new Windows 10 Creators Update feature.

Via: Engadget

Colt DCS targets cheaper cloud-based private data centre with Azure and Amazon

Carrier-neutral Colt Data Centre Services (DCS) has added private connectivity for two major public cloud providers, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Azure to its three German data centres in Frankfurt, Berlin, and Hamburg.

In addition, German internet exchanges DE-CIX and BCIX will now be available at the global data centre operator’s Frankfurt and Berlin facilities respectively.

“The connectivity services available in our German data centres have been significantly enhanced in response to the demands of our growing customer base. The cloud connectivity service can reduce the costs of provisioning bandwidth, improve consistency in network performance and offer the flexibility to scale usage up and down in line with capacity requirements in real-time,” said Matt Cantwell, director of product and propositions at Colt DCS.

“We are also delighted that DE-CIX and BCIX are also joining our German data centres. Direct connectivity to internet exchanges can be important to many cloud and media service providers so we’re happy to have them in our data centres.”

Colt DCS’ Dedicated Cloud Access service allows customers to consume connectivity services on-demand and in real-time via an intelligent and intuitive online customer portal. The service also enables customers to control flex bandwidth requirements up and down instantaneously.

On-demand allows organisations building hybrid platforms to avoid the high cost of fixed private network connectivity to major cloud providers, or the premium paid to collocate next to cloud gateways. The new service can deliver between 10Mbps and 1Gbps of private connectivity simply with the provision of a cross connect from customers’ racks to the Colt DCS platform. Once the cross-connect and access port is in place, the required bandwidth can be delivered within minutes.

Customers can contract 1Gbps for three years, or use the service at hourly rates as required, with per-hour billing for bandwidth. Furthermore, Colt DCS can provide the same flexible, high-capacity private connectivity to multiple cloud locations around Europe, connected via the same port in any of its London datacenters, without a requirement for additional network purchase.

Cantwell added: “Customers will no longer need to pay a premium for buying colocation services within the same sites as the major cloud services providers. It will also negate the upfront capital costs of provisioning fixed connectivity to cloud platforms. We’re confident that it’s the best possible model on the market, developed to keep costs for our customers to a minimum, without sacrificing performance and delivery.”

The news comes as carriers Versatel and Willy.tel will allow customers to make direct connections to Colt DCS’ Hamburg data centre. In October, Colt DCS announced it was set to build a new 8,000 sq m data centre in Germany after acquiring a Greenfield site close to Frankfurt city centre.

Wal-Mart to launch investment arm in e-commerce push

Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world's largest retailer, will launch its first investment arm to expand its e-commerce business in partnership with retail start-ups, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, the company has disclosed.

The plan is being spearheaded by Marc Lore, Wal-Mart's e-commerce chief, who joined the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company from retail upstart Jet.com, which it acquired for more than $3 billion in August. Since then, Wal-Mart has acquired three small web retailers to add urban and millennial shoppers.

The venture, called Store No. 8, will work with startups that specialize in areas that include robotics, virtual and augmented reality, machine learning and artificial intelligence, Lore said at Shoptalk, a retail conference in New York. It will be based in California's Silicon Valley, he added.

Wal-Mart will keep the startups separate from the broader organization so that they will not affect the retailer's bottom line in the near term, Seth Beal, senior vice-president, incubation and strategic partnerships, said in an interview. He didn’t give a timeframe for the launch.

“We’re being pretty active, yeah, we’re behind,” he added. “We need to catch up,” he told journalists at the Code Commerce conference in Las Vegas.

That’s remarkable given the string of companies he’s already snapped up. Lore was put in charge of Walmart’s online business after Walmart bought his company, Jet.com. He proceeded to acquire Moosejaw, an outdoor retailer; Shoebuy, a competitor to Zappos; and most recently online fashion retailer ModCloth. He had already acquired furniture site Hayneedle under Jet.com.

All told, he has spent more than $200 million buying e-commerce startups. “We’re seeing what these acquisitions have done for the business,” he said. “It’s definitely a nice surge, so we will continue to do it.”

Separately, Lore announced a new product as part of Walmart: An app that allows customers to see an easy list of products it buys regularly.

“If you now go into a Walmart store and buy diapers, dog food, shaving cream ... you’ll see all those purchases” on a list that can be used when the customer makes future purchases. “The average person will buy 100 different consumable products,” Lore explained. “Go online and try to find those precise 100 things that you’re looking for and build a list — it takes a really long time.”

Walmart will organize that list after you’ve bought them, he went on. “When you get home, it’s neatly organized right on the homepage — easy reorder.”

Inneos and Zephyr Photonics Merge

Zephyr Photonics, LLC an optical solutions provider for defense and aerospace markets, and Inneos LLC, a manufacturer of CWDM optical solutions, has announced they have merged operations. The combined entity will be vertically integrated, entirely US-based and operate under the Inneos name.  Inneos will demonstrate a 100G SWDM optical link running 100 meters at OFC 2017.

"Inneos has nearly 20 years of experience developing optical modules using 3rd party lasers." said Brian Peters, Inneos CEO. He continues, "As a developer of highly robust VCSELs, Zephyr Photonics' business was highly complementary to our own. The new Inneos will be vertically integrated with highly automated manufacturing, allowing us expand our product line in the rapidly growing 4K Videocom market as well as enter the highly cost-competitive 40G and 100G Datacom markets."

Inneos started business in 1998 as Blaze Network Products, an early pioneer of Coarse Wave Division Multiplex or CWDM technology.  Originally developing 10G transceivers for Datacom, the company lost a key industry standards effort and refocused on the video-over-fiber video market.  In 2005, Blaze was acquired by Omron, a Japanese industrial conglomerate and was later spun out in a management buy-out, becoming Inneos in 2014.

Since 2003, Inneos has developed and manufactured embedded optical modules with CWDM technology used to transmit high definition video in medical, industrial, and consumer A/V markets.  The rapid adoption of 4K televisions, and 4K video in smart phones and streaming content, has accelerated the need for high speed optical solutions for the Videocom market.  Inneos' Real4K™ solutions overcome the limitations of copper cabling by delivering the full 18G required by HDMI 2.0 up to 1000 meters.  With the advent of 8K video, Inneos' Real8K™ products will deliver a full 48G for uncompromised video quality.

Zephyr Photonics has been quietly developing wide temperature lasers and ultra-robust optical interconnects for defense and aerospace applications for more than 25 years including projects with DARPA and AFRL.  Zephyr Photonics is ITAR compliant as well as AS9100C and ISO 9001:2008 certified.  The company's R&D and manufacturing operations in Zephyr Cove and Minden, Nevada have been integrated with Inneos business operation in Pleasanton, California.

CWG and Partner to support banks on digital banking...appoints directors

Nigeria's Computer Warehouse Group Plc (CWG) and Infosys (owners of Finacle) have pledged to support Nigerian banks in their efforts to provide digital banking in the country. Venkatramana Gosavi, senior vice president and head, growth market, Infosys Finacle, made the pledge at Digital Banking Nigeria 2017 forum held recently in Lagos.

According to him, ‘digital is one of the big themes and there is a lot of interests and we are using this opportunity to interact with our clients and inform them on what our views are on being fully digitalized worldwide and what opportunities are available to them in terms of service to their customers; whether is it improving customer loyalty, process efficiency and other factors which are topics we covered today.’

“For a bank to be fully digital implies the customer is at the centre of the business. With this, you will be able to measure the kind of transactions the client will be interested in. Why is it that some of the clients were able to stick to us and others sometimes shift from bank to another?”

“Digital banking is more of a journey; it is about something that can be brought to the market as fast as possible through a FinTech company. So, in essence it is not just as about modern infrastructure in banks but how we leverage these infrastructures. All the investments banks have made and the framework, we are talking about how to leverage the whole mantra of services,” he said.

James Agada, chief executive officer, CWG, explained: “the fact that you have issues with infrastructure is also a point for innovation. If you remember, Nigeria is the only country in the world to implement payment cards offline. You had cards but you had no network, but now you could still use the card. It was innovation driven. The same way, as you are going digital there are a lot of issues coming up; both skills and infrastructure.”

In a related development, following the resignation of Mr Ravi Sharma from the board of Computer Warehouse Group Plc (CWG), the company has announced the appointment of Dr. Olusegun Oso as a Non-Executive Director. The company also announced that Mr. Emmanuel Ijewere has retired from the board after attaining the retirement age for Directors.

Mr. Oso who replaces Mr. Sharma is representing the Abraaj Group, a leading private equity investor in global growth markets. He was described as a seasoned professional with experience spanning various field including healthcare deliver, investment banking and private equity.

Prior to joining Abraaj in 2010 Mr. Oso was co-head of investment Banking at Afrinvest West Africa where he advised on M&A and Capital raising transactions in financial services, telecommunications and Manufacturing.

SEC to assist operators achieve FIX OMS software upgrade

The Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has unveiled an intervention fund aimed at assisting stock brokering firms and investment banks to upgrade to Financial Information Exchange (FIX) protocol software.

The FIX Protocol is a free, open and non-proprietary messaging standard that was developed in 1992 by Fidelity Investments & Salomon Brothers to facilitate bilateral communications framework for equities trading. FIX has metamorphosed many times in a bid to satisfy investor taste complexities. With growing local supports now expanding, the Nigeria space will leapfrog from local support vendors’ investments in FIX to ensure the proposed FIX platforms succeeds.

Investigations revealed that the palliative measure became necessary in view of inability of some capital market operators to upgrade to the software going by the mandate for them to recapitalize to N300million at almost the same time.

It was gathered that Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) has made the use of FIX Order Management System (OMS) technology mandatory for trading at the floor of the exchange. This has forced operators yet to upgrade to resort to trading under another operator that has upgraded thereby limiting their operation.

Amos Emmanuel, chief executive officer, Programos Software Limited- a major player in the implementation of the software at capital market space, said that the market is already using FIX OMS technology as some stockbroking firms have achieved the certification while others are at different stages on the process of using the recommended infrastructure. He lamented the slow pace of migration which has lasted for more than three years now owing to downturn in the capital market.

“This intervention by the market regulator is a welcome development as it will help stockbroking firm without strong financial footing to achieve the upgrade and continue to be in business. With FIX OMS technology trading at Nigeria Stock Exchange is made very open and shareholders can as well monitor trading from their home or office,” he said.

He added that: “Many organizations have complied by acquiring the required software and communication technologies adequate for the FIX implementation. The good signs include that investor confidence will return to most implementing turbulent markets that may have previously experienced painful recessions, and market transparency will improved tremendously.”

Yele Okeremi, chief executive officer, Precise Financial Systems, said that the mandate to adopt the global standard of FIX protocol is a step in the right direction as it will allow indigenous software providers in the capital market to compete with foreign providers and as well give the local operators more opportunity to play on a global level.

He however, cautioned against some stock broking firm using the mandate to show preference for foreign software against the local ones.

He noted that it is security risk to allow foreigners control the country financial data now that they have taken control of our national data in the National Identity card scheme.

The software expert, urged capital market software providers to be intelligent and scale up their product to meet the adopted FIX protocol in order to consolidate their dominance in the capital market space.

Facebook to invest in satellite user equipment

Facebook wants to help the satellite industry drive down costs on user equipment so it can leverage space technology to bring internet access to the rest of the planet. Wesley Wong, the social media network’s point-man for strategic technology partnerships and sourcing, said March 7 that Facebook continues to view satellite as one of the best ways to bridge the digital divide, and wants to collaborate with more satellite companies to reach that desired outcome.

“If there are opportunities to collaborate with industry to innovate and drive standardization to help reduce that cost, we’d be more than willing to evaluate,” Wong said at the Satellite 2017 conference here.

Facebook procured satellite capacity on four satellites in 2015 — SES’s Astra 2G, 2B and 4A, and Amos-6, the latter being a Spacecom satellite on which Eutelsat had sold the Ka-band payload. The September 2016 loss of Amos-6 in a SpaceX Falcon 9 explosion during a routine fueling test appeared to rattle Facebook’s satellite ambitions. Founder Mark Zuckerberg publicly voiced his disappointment, and went on to highlight other technologies, such as drones. In a recent earnings call, SES said it is still working closely with Facebook to bring satellite connectivity to Africa.

In a rare public appearance before the satellite industry, Facebook affirmed that it hasn’t lost faith in satellite’s potential for connecting the masses.

 “We are still evaluating how to accomplish our mission of connecting the entire world,” Wong said. “We do share in the belief that the space industry can play a very important role in reaching every last individual out there. Whether it’s standardization to achieve scale or some other element, we are here to support in whatever way we can to meet our mission.”

Wong emphasized standardizing satellite user equipment as a way to lower the cost for units and make the technology more accessible. Steve McCabe, CEO of ScotSat, a maritime satellite equipment and service provider, pointed to the fragmented nature of satellite communications as one of the big reasons why there is such a range of unique, sometimes costly, equipment options.

“Historically, I think what’s happened is satellite has grown from lots of different types of industries with lots of different types of requirements, and maybe that’s held back standardization somewhat,” he said. “Maybe looking forward now with the advent of Intelsat and OneWeb and the various other large networks that are coming up, maybe there is an opportunity now to try and push standardization forward.”

Wong said Facebook has actively tried to address technological innovation, but has come realize that technology is only part of the solution. Access to stable electricity, electronic devices, and even proving the worth of internet access to those without it have also proven to be challenges.

Regarding the satellite industry, Wong said achieving scale in the production of user equipment might be more important than standardization — though standardization would certainly help with achieving said scale — because higher production volumes should result in lower costs.

“The biggest denominator in all things cost-related is the more scale that we can get out there,” he said. “And for our mission of trying to connect the remaining three or four billion people out there, that’s a lot of scale, and [the] satellite industry we believe is one of the best ways to aggregate all that demand across rural regions or close to rural regions because we can reach all those places that fiber can’t.”

Kymeta, a flat panel antenna maker with a product based on meta-materials, says that scale is a core tenant of its market strategy. The company announced March 7 that its antenna, known as the mTenna, would be available in mid-2017.

Google tweaks Hangouts to take on Microsoft Slack in the Enterprise space

Google wants to connect the world, and it wants enterprise to lead the way. A day after it made a big pitch for its machine learning offering on its cloud platform, the technology giant announced a slew of updates to its company-focused apps.

On the second day of its ongoing Cloud Next event here, Google announced several upgrades to its existing apps to make them more relevant for enterprises. The most relevant talk point though, was Google's revamp of its Hangout messaging platform.

On Thursday, Google said Hangouts will be available as Hangouts Meet and Hangouts Chat. While Meets will be the video calling option for team meetings, Hangouts Chat will let teams scattered across different areas connect with each other in virtual rooms.

Up to 30 people can join a meeting, without any downloads or browser plugins. Anyone can join from any Android or iOS device, and a dial-in phone number for each meeting helps connect employees who are on the road without WiFi/data.

Hangouts Chat would let teams use and embed content: Google's Docs, Sheets, Slides, Calendar and other files. Google also designed Chat to integrate with a wide set of enterprise tools and is working with companies like Asana, Box and Zendeskto.

The natural competiton for Google and several other tech giants, incuding Microsoft an FACEBOOK, in the enterprise messaging space is Slack, an enterpise collaboration app that is the preferred choice for most companies.

In video collaboration, it is Skype that takes the lead. According to an analysis by Spiceworks in January , the top-used collabrative chat app by large organisations was Skype for Business, followed by Slack and Google Hangouts.

Taking its team collaboration announcements a step further, Google also announced Jamboard -a physical, digital whiteboard that looks like a flat screen TV and lets compa ny teams spread across different locations collaborate on ideas in realtime and create without boundaries.“We're moving the whiteboard to the cloud,“ Google said in a blogpost.

Jamboard will be available initially only in the US from May for $4,999 a year and an annual $600 management and support fee. Google also announced Team Drive, which has over 800 million monthly active users.

It will let teams share and collaborate efficiently over the cloud. Following up on its commitment to the cloud market, where Google lacks rivals Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, it also announced new capabilities for developers.

“In order for Google to deliver on this cloud promise, we must not only meet enterprise companies where they are today in terms of security , compliance, and connectivity standards -but also raise the bar for what's possible with our advanced machine intelligence capabilities,“ said Prabhakar Raghavan, vice president, apps at Google.

Adobe Fixes Six Code Execution Bugs In Flash...open cloud-based digital signatures

Adobe has announced that it has patched seven vulnerabilities in Flash Player, six that could lead to code execution. The company said it isn’t aware of any of the vulnerabilities being exploited in the wild but is still encouraging users to update Flash for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Chrome OS.

The vulnerabilities exist in versions 24.0.0.221 and earlier of Flash, according to a security bulletin issued by the company Tuesday morning.

Adobe is warning the six bugs–a buffer overflow vulnerability, two memory corruption vulnerabilities, and a trio of use-after-free vulnerabilities–could be exploited to trigger code execution. The lone bug that doesn’t lead to code execution stems from a random number generator vulnerability. That vulnerability, dug up by two researchers at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, Wang Chenyu, and Wu Hongjun, could lead to information disclosure if exploited.

Users can apply the update, 25.0.0.127, through the usual distribution channels. Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer 11 users will receive the updates automatically. Devotees of Flash Player Desktop Runtime for Windows, Macintosh and Linux are being urged to update via the program’s update mechanism.

Versions 12.2.7.197 and earlier of the multimedia software plugin contained a vulnerability that if exploited could lead to escalation of privilege, a security bulletin warned. The vulnerability stemmed from Shockwave’s directory search path. The patched version, 12.2.8.198, is available at Adobe’s Shockwave Player Download Center.

In January it pushed out 13 patches, 12 that could have led to remote code execution; in February the company patched 13 vulnerabilities, all which could have led to code execution in the software.

In a related development, Adobe has unveiled what it called to be the first cloud-based digital signatures built on an open standard.  Adobe said in a press statement that the cloud digital signature technology is based on the work of the Cloud Signature Consortium, announced last June.

Adobe said its Document Cloud and Adobe Sign will enable digital signatures, the most advanced and secure type of electronic signatures used for things like healthcare forms or mortgage applications, in any browser or on any mobile device.

The Adobe Sign preview release will be available to customers in the coming weeks, the statement added. “Open standards propel entire industries forward, allowing interoperability between otherwise fragmented solutions, and paving the way for widespread adoption,” said Bryan Lamkin, executive vice president and general manager of Digital Media, Adobe.

“Adobe pioneered digital signatures. And as the creator and champion of standards like PDF, we are proud to have once again rallied the industry to develop a new, open standard for digital signatures in the cloud, ensuring a great customer experience.”

Moreover, Adobe also unveiled new functionality in Adobe Sign that enables users to create end-to-end business workflows that go beyond signing and approvals.  Adobe Sign now streamlines the flow of documents and tasks across entire teams with solutions that are mobile, customizable and easy-to-use, the statement said.

Adobe said the new technology allows anyone to quickly and easily convert paper to digital with a smartphone ‘scan’, route documents for collaboration or certified electronic delivery, and connect into popular systems like Microsoft SharePoint.

The statement said using the Adobe Sign mobile app, users can quickly scan printed pages and send for signature or sign from their smartphone or tablet, wherever they are.  The new technology allows uses to covert the scanned page into a brilliantly clear PDF document that’s automatically cropped, corrected and ready-to-sign with crisp text that anyone can read. The process is powered by advanced image processing in Adobe Sensei, a set of intelligent services that leverage machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning capabilities.

Adobe Sign lets users work with the world’s most trusted digital IDs today, enabling desktop signing with over 200 providers from the European Union Trust List (EUTL) and Adobe Approved Trust List (AATL).

Microsoft discontinuing Skype WiFi app by month-end

One may probably never even heard of the Skype WiFi app (unless you were one of the 20 users still using it) but the major news about this minor app is that it will cease to exist by March 31. Microsoft didn’t really give a clear reason as to why they will be discontinuing the app, apart from the fact that no one seems to be using it and that it’s practically useless. Nevertheless, the announcement needed to be made so you won’t be wondering anymore where the app went off to.

It probably needs no clarification, but just to be sure, this is not the Skype messaging and video conferencing app. Because if that app would announce its closure, then there would be chaos. But Skype WiFi is/was a small app whose sole purpose is to help you find WiFi hotspots in public places. Once you find a WiFi connection, then you could connect not just the actual Skype app but other apps as well. You also get Skype Credit which would go to your hotspot usage.

But on the Skype support page, Microsoft announced that by March 31, you would no longer be able to look for and download the app from the Google Play Store. And if you have installed it on your mobile device, then you will no longer be able to use it, so better just delete it and free up some tiny space in your smartphone.

While no one will be mourning the loss of the app, it’s still curious as to why Microsoft is discontinuing the app. The only reason they gave was that they want to “better focus our efforts on bringing you the best possible experience through our core Skype features” which doesn’t really say anything pertaining to the app. But anyway, goodbye Skype WiFi.

VIA: SlashGear