Category: News

The glory days of Torch, a Chrome-based web browser known for its built-in Torrent capabilities, may be short-lived because similar functionality is headed your way right in the web browser you are probably using right now. Surf, the plugin announced back in January, rolls into full beta release today.

The company announces that “BitTorrent Surf started out as a little Chrome experiment: a way to make BitTorrent simpler. Basically, Surf transforms your browser into a BitTorrent client; with discovery and downloading built in”. The experiment apparently went well because the browser plugin hits beta mode for not only Chrome, but also Firefox as well.

Of course, like all official BitTorrent products, Surf is designed with legal purposes in mind. The company envisions users being able to find content from the many artists who use the file-sharing network to distribute their work. The new plugin has a built-in recommendation engine so that customers searching for one artist will also discover work from other, similar musicians. “Recommendation and prioritization can help drive visibility for BitTorrent partner artists – solving for the exposure barrier that every creator is confronted with” the announcement tells us.

Like all things BitTorrent, this will likely strike fear into organizations such as the MPAA and RIAA and those users who choose so, will find ‘other uses’ for the new plugin. However, for the many users and artist who use BitTorrent for genuine reasons, this could prove a boon.

Netflix made Samsung Chromebook owners happy last month when it brought instant streaming to Chrome OS through the power of HTML5. It was finally able to do so thanks to a few recent developments made to the Web standard. Now it’s ready to start moving all browsers to HTML5.

In a post on its tech blog, Netflix says that its starting the move to HTML5 because Microsoft is putting Silverlight out to pasture in 2021. That’s not the only problem though. Some browsers, especially on mobile devices, don’t support plugins. This makes it hard for Netflix to deliver streaming video content to every browser on every platform. The move to HTML5 should readily fix that.

Of course, moving to HTML5 does present its own unique obstacles. For one, HTML5 is an open platform, and Neflix, as per its agreements with studios, must implement DRM on its streaming content to prevent people from pilfering the content from its site. Silverlight makes streaming DRM easy, but it’s a bit more complicated with HTML5.

Still, Netflix is moving forward with what it calls “HTML5 Premium Video Extensions.” In short, it’s DRM for HTML5 that comes in three extensions – Media Source Extensions, Encrypted Media Extensions and Web Cryptography API. The first two are already in effect, but the third is still being developed. In the meantime, Netflix is using its own Pepper Plugin API to take the place of the Web Cryptography API until it’s implemented in Chrome.

So, when will we start seeing HTML5 in broad use on Netflix? The company says that it will start testing HTML5 in Chrome once the Web Cryptography API is complete. Unfortunately, the test will only be available for Windows and Mac OSX computers. Those on Linux are left out, and those users are already voicing their displeasure in the blog comments.

Someone’s loss is someone’s gain and as Russian and South African markets reel from the recent oil and gold price rout, investors are getting ready to move more cash into commodity importer India.

Stubbornly high inflation and a big current account deficit are India’s twin headaches. Lower oil and gold prices will help with both. India’s headline inflation index is likely to head lower, potentially opening room for more interest rate cuts.  That in turn could reduce gold demand from Indians who have stepped up purchases of the yellow metal in recent years as a hedge against inflation.

If prices stay at current levels, India’s current account gap could narrow by almost one percent of GDP in this fiscal year, analysts at Barclays reckon.  They calculate that $100 oil and gold at $1,400 per ounce would cut India’s net import bill by around $20 billion, bringing the deficit to around 3.2 percent of GDP.

Markets are celebrating these developments, with Mumbai’s stock markets jumping 2 percent today, the biggest one-day rise in seven months. Indian oil companies, which must supply subsidised fuel to the population, gained 3-4 percent on the day. On bond markets, 10-year government bond yields fell to six-week lows. Analysts at JP Morgan are advising clients to stay long Indian debt, predicting two interest rate cuts and a 50 bps fall in the  5-year yield. They also suggest buying 5-year overnight index swaps or OIS  (A swap that exchanges a floating overnight rate for a fixed interest rate). Currently at 7.17 percent, this should fall below 7 percent in coming months, they say.

Steve Ellis, an emerging debt fund manager at Fidelity Worldwide Investment says:

We have been increasing exposure to India. We are more optimistic than the market on the reform process and India will benefit from the lower oil and gold prices.

Indian equities have suffered in recent weeks, however, on fears of a rollback in reform momentum and weakening growth. A monthly survey by Bank of America/Merrill Lynch on Tuesday showed investors swinging into a net 27 percent underweight position on India this month, from a 44 percent overweight last month.

Analysts at HSBC for instance are underweight India — they cite the  current account deficit and inflation as reasons. But the commodity price collapse, if sustained, could prove a game changer on both these fronts.

A purported case designed to fit Apple’s fifth-generation iPad has been pictured, suggesting once again that a major redesign will be introduced when Apple takes the wraps off its new full-size iPad in the coming months. Following a leak this past January in which the rear shell from Apple’s upcoming full-size iPad was pictured, a number of subsequent reports have supported claims that Apple’s next iPad will take design cues from the iPad mini and scale them up to fit a 9.7-inch Retina display. Now, images of protective cases for Apple’s fifth-generation iPad obtained by Engadget, again suggest an all new design will debut on the “iPad 5.” Additional photos of the case follow below.

Continue reading…

HTC added a built-in Flipboard-style news reader to Sense 5, which debuted on the HTC One. It might not be my first choice to use for news, but it’s worth a try since you can’t remove it. BlinkFeed will show you all the news that interests you the most as well as your Facebook and Twitter timelines. It will even show you your calendar events if you so wish. It’s just a matter of going into the settings and choosing the exact sites and/or the type of feeds you want. Whenever you turn on your phone, you will get the latest stories from around the world. You can choose to ignore it, but they will always be there when you have time to check them out. If your interests change, you can always tweak your content at anytime. Hit the break for a hands on video explaining it all.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Note: I failed to mention in the video that there is an Auto Refresh option in the settings. The default is set to “Using Wi-Fi only”. If you want BlinkFeed to refresh when you’re away from a Wi-Fi, you need to select “Using mobile data or Wi-Fi”

Come comment on this article: How to set up and use BlinkFeed on Sense 5 with the HTC One

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has agreed to limit his investment in Dell Inc and in return can team up with other shareholders on a potential bid for the personal computer maker, Dell said on Tuesday.

(Reuters) – Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has agreed to limit his investment in Dell Inc and in return can team up with other shareholders on a potential bid for the personal computer maker, Dell said on Tuesday.

An agreement with activist investor Icahn prevents him from buying shares that would bring his Dell ownership to more than 10 percent or signing deals with other shareholders that would bring their collective ownership to more than 15 percent, Dell said.

Icahn, who owns a $1 billion stake in Dell, is part of a group of shareholders opposed to a proposal by founder Michael Dell and private equity firm Silver Lake to take the company private.

Icahn and private equity company Blackstone have each offered alternative that would keep part of the company public. They have had preliminary talks about working together.

Southeastern Asset Management, the activist investor that owns 8.4 percent of Dell, said earlier this month the computer maker’s evaluation of a $24.4 billion leveraged buyout deal with its founder and buyout firm Silver Lake was flawed.

Southeastern published a letter it sent to Dell’s board of directors asserting the company’s March 29 proxy statement failed to make a compelling case for shareholders to accept the $13.65 per share offer from Michael Dell and Silver Lake. The letter says Dell’s special committee did not properly explore all options.

Dell was regarded as a model of innovation as recently as the early 2000s but has struggled to make up for declining market share of the global PC market.

The post Reuters: Icahn Agrees to Limit Dell Stake, Can Team Up on Bid appeared first on peHUB.

Now that Dennis Rodman has been fired from Celebrity Apprentice, it seems he will have more time to spend with his new pal, Kim Jong-un.

Rodman this week revealed to Gossip Extra that he will be returning to North Korea on August 1st. He stated that he and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will “just hang and have some fun.”

The report states that Rodman was interviewed at a fundraising gala in Miami, where the former basketball star was introduced as the “U.S. ambassador to North Korea.”

Rodman first went to North Korea in February. When he returned to the U.S., he called Kim Jong-un an “awesome guy” and confirmed that the leader is now the father of a young girl.

The provocative trip and comments earned Rodman a visit from the FBI, which was very interested in who the young North Korean leader was surrounding himself with. The Miami Herald is reporting that Rodman told the newspaper that he might be able to help calm the tensions that have recently been rising on the Korean Peninsula. From the Herald:

“I’m not a total idiot. I know what Kim Jong-un is threatening to do regarding his military muscle. I hope it doesn’t happen because America will take whatever actions to protect America and our allies.”

Is Facebook working with Apple and Microsoft to bring Facebook Home to additional platforms?

Maybe, maybe not, according to conflicting reports.

Bloomberg recently spoke with product director Adam Mosseri, who stated that Facebook was in talks with both Apple and Microsoft.

“We’ve shown them what we’ve built and we’re just in an ongoing conversation,” Mosseri said.

He went on to say that nothing was finalized, but that they were conducting talks.

But The Next Web calls that report into question. According to a source familiar with the talks, Facebook is not really in talk with either Apple or Microsoft. “No discussion have taken place to bring Home to those platforms,” they say.

It’s not as though Facebook and Apple have a bad relationship or anything – you may recall that your iOS 6 has deep Facebook integration. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that the two have a good relationship. On the topic of Home, he previously said that…

“We’d love to offer this on iPhone, and we just can’t today, and we will work with Apple to do the best experience that we can within what they want.”

Even if Facebook were to offer Home on iOS, it may not even look like the Home that they just launched on Android. In fact, there’s no guarantee that it would even be called “Facebook Home.”

“It may or may not be Home,” Mosseri told Bloomberg. “We could also just bring some of the design values to the iOS app. That might be how it ends up. Or we could build just the lock screen. Maybe then it’s not called Home, it’s called something else.”

Facebook launched Home on Android last Friday, and it has received mixed reviews on the Google Play Store. Since launch, nearly half the 4,000+ user reviews for Facebook Home award the app 1 star.

Logitech just announced two new universal remote controls: the Harmony Ultimate (pictured above) and the Harmony Smart Control (pictured below). Logitech has been a leader of universal remote controls for years and Android fans are going to want to pay attention to these because they both come with the Harmony Hub. The Harmony Hub allows either remote control to send signals to it via RF so you don’t have to worry about line of sight for components that are hidden in a cabinet or in another room. This is nothing new, but Logitech will have apps available for both iOS and Android devices so that you can turn your Android phone into a full blown remote control. Right now you can already do this with the Samsung Galaxy S 4 and the HTC One, but they have built-in IR ports. With the Harmony Hub, your phone will send signals via WiFi so you can still operate devices that are hidden, not to mention it will work on just about any device.

Depending on which package you buy, you will get a main remote to use for your living room. The Harmony Smart Control is a lot more simpler than previous Logitech remotes in that there isn’t a display on it. It’s just buttons. The Harmony Ultimate is a lot like last year’s Harmony Touch, and it features buttons as well as a display.

These sound like really cool devices, but the unfortunate thing is that Logitech didn’t make an Android based controller with some hard buttons on it. Using your phone or tablet as a full remote is cool, but complete touch (no hard buttons) isn’t always practical. The Harmony Smart Control will run $129 and the Harmony Ultimate will run $349. Both should be available in the U.S. and Europe this month.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

 

Logitech Reimagines Home Control with Two New Advanced Harmony Universal Remotes

Logitech Harmony Hub Adds Closed-Cabinet, Game Console and Lighting Control to Your Universal Remote and Smartphone

NEWARK, Calif. – April 16, 2013 – Today Logitech (SIX: LOGN) (NASDAQ: LOGI) announced the expansion of its award-winning universal remote control lineup with the Logitech Harmony® Ultimate and the Logitech Harmony® Smart Control. Both products feature Logitech’s Harmony Hub and Harmony Smartphone App to enable closed-cabinet control and one-touch entertainment access to game consoles from your universal remote or smartphone. The Harmony Hub takes personalizing your activities a step farther into home control with the ability to program your Philips Hue lights to the desired brightness and color with a tap of the Logitech Harmony Ultimate.

“We’ve elevated the universal remote to the next level, taking a personalized approach to home entertainment,” said Joerg Tewes vice president of Logitech’s digital home business group at Logitech. “Furthermore, our Harmony product line is no longer just about entertainment access – we’ve designed the Logitech Harmony Ultimate so you can also control your home’s lighting. Now you can tune the TV, start a movie and adjust your lights to set the mood, with the touch of your finger.”

The Logitech Harmony Ultimate and Logitech Harmony Smart Control are compatible with more than 225,000 home-entertainment devices and more than 5,000 brands. Both include the Harmony Hub, which uses Bluetooth® wireless technology to power on game consoles such as the Sony PS3®, Nintendo Wii® and Wii U. The Harmony Hub also, controls infrared devices inside closed entertainment cabinets and without the need to point at them. Each also comes with the Harmony Smartphone App, which anyone in the house can download to turn his or her smartphone into a personal universal remote.

Able to control up to 15 devices, the Logitech Harmony Ultimate is a fully featured remote with a 2.4-inch color touch-screen that enables no-look control over television programs, movies and music by using simple swipes and taps. It also introduces the ability to program Philips Hue lighting systems with entertainment activities allowing you to adjust the room’s lighting as easily as changing the volume of your television. Other exclusive features include vibration feedback so you know it received your touch-screen commands, tilt sensors and buttons programmable for both short and long presses, doubling the available functions.

The Logitech Harmony Smart Control and Harmony Smartphone App turn your iOS or Android phone into a universal remote, giving you personalized control of up to eight devices from anywhere in the house using the smartphone you already own. Plus, it includes a simple remote control for when your smartphone isn’t handy.

Pricing and Availability

These new products join the Logitech Harmony Touch to complete the Logitech Harmony remote lineup. The Logitech Harmony Ultimate is expected to be available in the U.S. and Europe in April 2013, for a suggested retail price of $349.99. The Logitech Harmony Smart Control is expected to be available in the U.S. and Europe in May 2013, for a suggested retail price of $129.99. The Logitech Harmony Smartphone App will be available for download from the Apple App Store and Google Play. For more information, please visit www.logitech.com or our blog.

Come comment on this article: Logitech Harmony Hub will turn your Android smartphone into a WiFi universal remote control

As a recognized discipline, change management has been in existence for over half a century. Yet despite the huge investment that companies have made in tools, training, and thousands of books (over 83,000 on Amazon), most studies still show a 60-70% failure rate for organizational change projects — a statistic that has stayed constant from the 1970’s to the present.

Given this evidence, is it possible that everything we know about change management is wrong and that we need to go back to the drawing board? Should we abandon Kotter’s eight success factors, Blanchard’s moving cheese, and everything else we know about engagement, communication, small wins, building the business case, and all of the other elements of the change management framework?

While it might be plausible to conclude that we should rethink the basics, let me suggest an alternative explanation: The content of change management is reasonably correct, but the managerial capacity to implement it has been woefully underdeveloped. In fact, instead of strengthening managers’ ability to manage change, we’ve instead allowed managers to outsource change management to HR specialists and consultants instead of taking accountability themselves — an approach that often doesn’t work.

Here’s an example of this pattern: Over the course of several years, a major healthcare company introduced thousands of managers to a particular change management approach, while providing more intensive training in specific tools and techniques to six sigma and HR experts. As a result, managers became familiar with the concepts, but depended on the “experts” to actually put together the plans. Eventually, change management just became one more work-stream for every project, instead of a new way of thinking about how to get something accomplished.

Obviously, not every company lets its managers off the hook in this way. But if your organization (or your piece of it) struggles with effectively implementing change, you might want to ask yourself the following three questions:

1. Do you have a common framework, language, and set of tools for managing significant change? There are plenty to choose from, and many of them have the same set of ingredients, just explained and parsed differently. The key is to have a common set of definitions, approaches, and simple checklists that everyone is familiar with.
2. To what extent are your plans for change integrated into your overall project plans, and not put together separately or in parallel? The challenge is to make change management part and parcel of the business plan, and not an add-on that is managed independently.
3. Finally, who is accountable for effective change management in your organization: Managers or “experts” (whether from staff groups or outside the company)? Unless your managers are accountable for making sure that change happens systematically and rigorously — and certain behaviors are rewarded or punished accordingly — they won’t develop their skills.

Everyone agrees that change management is important. Making it happen effectively, however, needs to be a core competence of managers and not something that they can pass off to others.

Arc flash is a serious safety issue for electrical maintenance, and Schneider Electric is taking the initiative on this issue. Schneider says its Virtual Main Arc Flash Mitigation system is a new concept which reduces arc flash energy across the entire low-voltage switchgear, rather than just reducing energy levels for downstream equipment as largely seen in the past. It’s designed to improve worker safety, enhance electrical system reliability, and help organizations comply with new standards.

Extending to the low-voltage switchgear and switchboards has typically been more difficult to address. However users can be subjected to dangerous levels of arc flash incident energy when low-voltage switchgear is fed directly from a power transformer. The system reduces arc flash energy on low-voltage switchgear and switchboards, including the main incoming power distribution switchboard.

Components of the Virtual Main Arc Flash Mitigation System include:

• An engineering study to evaluate the optimum settings for the relays and circuit breakers in the unit substation. Optimizing the circuit breaker settings improves the reliability of service while assuring a reduced arc flash level at the substation. This is done by setting the virtual main relay to operate fast enough to reduce arc flash energy while operating slower than the downstream circuit breakers (circuit breakers closest to the fault).
• A switching device with fault interruption capability on the high-voltage side of the service transformer. If the high-voltage disconnecting device does not have fault interrupting capability, a circuit breaker or other vacuum interrupter can be retrofit in place. When the disconnecting means that is located on the high voltage side of the transformer trips, the entire low voltage equipment including the bussing at the incoming line section of the switchgear, is de-energized. This prevents the possibility of propagation of arcing fault within the switchgear.
• Three relaying class current transformers installed on the secondary side of the service transformer in the transformer compartment. The current transformers are installed in the transformer compartment (not the switchgear enclosure) to minimize the possibility of arc propagation beyond the current transformers.
• A self-contained relay package including a microprocessor-based relay and the necessary terminal blocks, pilot lights, and selector switches. The self-contained package is easy to install and connect. It is factory wired and tested, minimizing the required shutdown in the field.

The dangers of Arc Flash

The solution comes at a time when electrical safety and arc flash protection are increasingly top of mind for a wide range of organizations, including commercial buildings, industrial plants, data centers, and government and healthcare facilities.

When an electrical arc occurs, employees working on electrical equipment without adequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) risk serious injury or death. Even someone standing more than 10 feet from the fault source can be fatally burned. According to the American Society of Safety Engineers, more than 3,600 workers suffer disabling electrical contact injuries annually. Check out 10 Arc Flash Prediction and Prevention Myths for more information.

Schneider’s Virtual Main Arc Flash Mitigation System helps organizations comply with new standards from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). Some of those rules were discussed in an Industry Perspectives column in September 2012.  One of those new standards is NFPA 70E which requires organizations to implement arc flash protection boundaries.

My favorite exercise companion, Zombies, Run!, has just received its promised free upgrade and is available now on both iOS and Android (I’m such a fan I’ve downloaded both).

The immersive app, which basically turns a real-world run into a fear-filled journey through the zombie apocalypse, is ideal for anyone who struggles with motivation and is a bit like a radio play that takes place through your headphones as you run, with the gripping story — and the occasional zombie chase — unfolding in between tracks from your playlist.

The upgraded version comes with seven free new missions to get you started (four main ones and three side-quests), with new missions released weekly starting from 29 April. The new missions, of which there are over 60, pick up from where the original Zombies, Run! missions left off, but I won’t say more than that because I don’t want to spoil the experience for anyone starting from scratch. There will be three missions released every week — two main ones advancing the story, and one side mission.

You can purchase the missions separately or buy a season pass. You have a choice of purchase options. If you’re in the US, a Season Pass (all 40 story missions) will cost you $1.99, a Season Pass Plus (with the 20 sidequests included) is $4.99 and if you just want the sidequests themselves, that’ll set you back $2.99. If you’re in the UK, a Season Pass is £1.49 on iOS and £1.59 on Android, a Season Pass Plus is £2.99 on iOS but £3.99 on Android, and the sidequests are £1.99 on iOS and £2.39 on Android.

The difference in price is because iTunes and Google handle VAT in slightly different ways and the Apple app prices are actually artificially low because they were set back when the pound was much stronger.

The prices are around 50 percent cheaper at the moment to celebrate the launch of the app, so if you’re thinking of buying a pass now is the time to do it.

In the app itself you can flick between Season 1 (23 main missions) and 2, and also access any race missions. There’s no Radio Mode option at the moment, but that’s coming back soon.

In addition to the new missions, the upgraded app comes with a Base Builder that lets you create your own vision of Able Township (where the game is based), by adding new buildings, upgrading or demolishing existing ones and so on. The more you run, the more supplies you collect (on average you’ll pick up 30 supplies an hour) and the more you can build. You start with the farmhouse, defense tower and an armory, and can add housing, hospitals and recreation areas. Bonus items will be unlocked as you progress in the game.

Zombies, Run! 2 is a free upgrade to the original. If you don’t already have the app installed, you can buy it on the App Store or Google Play for $3.99/£2.79 which, like the season passes, is currently 50 percent cheaper than it would be normally.

A Tokyo District Court has ruled that Google must alter its autocomplete results to make sure they don’t suggest criminal activity when users search for a specific man’s name.

This case began in March of 2012 when a Japanese court demanded that Google delete certain search terms inside their autocomplete function – ones that related to a specific man whose identity is still being witheld. The man claimed that when his name was searched, suggestions popped up linking him to criminal activity of which he was innocent. Clicking through to the links provided led user to websites filled with further defamation.

Not only did the plaintiff allege that Google’s autocomplete results caused him pain and personal anguish, but they also contributed to him losing his job and being unable to procure another.

Now, the court has ruled that Google must alter their results in the case of this anonymous man. They also ordered that Google pay 300,000 yen ($3,100) for the man’s pain and suffering – but not the job loss as he couldn’t prove that the two were definitely linked.

Well, it’s another day, another foreign court making a ruling on Google autocomplete. We’ve seen plenty of this in the past. Back in January of 2012, Google chose to pay a fine issued by a French court over the company’s autocomplete results. A local insurance company complained that Google autocomplete associated their name with the term “esroc,” roughly translating to mean “crook” or “swindler.”

Later in the year, Google made another deal in a French case, this time involving autocomplete results that labeled certain high-profile celebrities and politicians as “Jewish.” The complaint was originally filed by French anti-racism groups.

Google has also been in trouble in Germany and Italy over their autocomplete results.

Of course, Google’s autocomplete results stem from an algorithm that is based on prior searches. Google does not manually select which terms pop up when you type in any query.

“Autocomplete is a feature of Google search that offers predicted searches to help you more quickly find what you’re looking for. These searches are produced by a number of factors including the popularity of search terms. Google does not determine these terms manually–all of the queries shown in Autocomplete have been typed previously by other Google users,” says Google.

But that hasn’t stopped courts from ordering that Google manually intervene in certain circumstances.

Since Google Search isn’t rooted in Japan, Google isn’t required to follow this ruling – just like they weren’t required to follow the previous injunction the court issued in the case (and they didn’t). The ruling, however, can be appealed.

Back in November, news came out that Google acquired BufferBox, a locker service for people receiving packages from online retailers.

A Google spokesperson said at the time, “We want to remove as much friction as possible from the shopping experience, while helping consumers save time and money, and we think the BufferBox team has a lot of great ideas around how to do that”

Well, it looks like they’re getting started. BufferBox co-founder Mike McCauley tweeted on Monday that there’s now a BufferBox pickup in a San Francisco Coffee Bar, which is reportedly the first U.S. location (hat tip: Drew Olanoff):

First @bufferbox pickup in SF! BOOM!! @ Coffee Bar instagram.com/p/YGy4MbE8q_/

— Mike McCauley (@mmccauley) April 15, 2013

According to McCauley, they’re still in the process of testing, but they hope to have it available to the public soon.

The first wave of Google Glass hardware is complete and shipping off to developers soon. Google has also released the API so those developers can start making apps for it right away. The last piece of the puzze then is the hardware specs.

Google released the tech specs for Glass today, and there are few surprises. We knew that Glass was a pretty sophisticated piece of hardware, but the only real surprises are the generous amount of onboard storage (12GB of usable Flash memory) and the battery life. Here’s the full tech spec sheet:

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