Category: News

Canadian networking software and systems company BTI Systems announced Intelligent Cloud Connect, an open software-rich platform that combines network intelligence and application awareness with significantly expanded capacity and scale. It is an inter-data center networking solution developed specifically to meet the stringent performance, scale, economics and agility demands of the cloud.

Intelligent Cloud Connect combines the intelligence and flexibility of routing with the capacity and scale of optical bolstered by the efficiencies and extensibility of applications integration. It is a SDN-enabled integrated platform that allows content and service providers to rapidly scale new services, while reducing operational complexities and cost. It will replace the need to continue to purchase separate optical transport devices, switches, router ports, and network application appliances to handle and manage inter-data center traffic growth, with more control and flexibility to optimize services.

“Legacy WAN solutions are not designed to optimize the dramatic gains achieved in today’s highly virtualized data centers,” said BTI Systems President and CEO Steve Waszak. “Intelligent Cloud Connect enables providers to create highly programmable network fabrics for improved applications performance, operational efficiencies as well as service innovation demands. Customers can literally ‘cap and grow,’ retaining existing equipment investments, while decreasing additional cost outlays and efficiently supporting bandwidth and capacity demands. Large content providers are validating that we have effectively addressed their requirements while reducing significant operational headaches and costs.”

The new solution features a software-rich platform with open APIs, and that integrates a converged fabric with integrated high-performance applications modules and 10G/100G forwarding modules. Open APIs enable content and service providers to integrate rich, high-performance network optimization applications developed by BTI and by third parties. Intelligent Cloud Connect benefits include large scale capacity with low-latency, SDN-enabled management and control, and increased differentiation, control and applications performance.

“Data centers are becoming major confluence points for high rates of traffic growth: interconnecting data centers, and connecting data centers to access networks or peering points,” said Ovum Vice President and Practice Leader Dana Cooperson. “As data centers are becoming much more critical in support of public and private cloud services, they are becoming both larger and more widely distributed, adding pressure on the connecting networks to scale, deliver higher-performance and differentiated services, and improve economics. BTI’s Intelligent Cloud Connect, with its focus on high-availability, high-capacity, open, application-aware, and even applications-based networking, supports these goals.”

$10 Million Funding

Building on unparalleled global demand from content and service providers BTI Systems announced $10 million in new growth capital. The Series C funding was led by Bain Capital Ventures and adds to the more than $33 million total that BTI Systems has raised since 2011. The funding will be used to scale BTI’s operations and accelerate the delivery of Intelligent Cloud Connect.

“BTI Systems continues to enjoy tremendous growth based on our ability to understand our customers’ networking challenges and opportunities – paired with our ability to consistently deliver solutions that greatly improve the way they run their networks and business models,” said BTI Systems President and CEO Steve Waszak. “We’re excited to be expanding our relationship with our investors and we’re using those funds to bring new and even more powerful innovations to content and service providers worldwide.”

As we assembled TED2013′s lineup of speakers from around the world, talked with the TED brain trust, and listened to online conversations, one theme emerged: What is the future of work? Technology and new business practices are, in many ways, putting an end to the classic “good job,” the kind that millions of people once moved to Detroit and cities around the world to get. In this session, we’ll hear from a roboticist, a politician … and two economists who do not agree on where we’re headed. This session, starting at 11am EST, will prove a fascinating look at where we go from here.

In this session:

A former two-term governor of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm makes the case for empowering states to create jobs through a Clean Energy Jobs Race to the Top.

Robert J. Gordon is among the most influential macroeconomists in the world. And the big picture he sees is not altogether rosy.

Erik Brynjolfsson examines the effects of information technologies on business strategy, productivity and employment.

Born in Havana, Cuba, Pedrito Martinez spent his youth steeped in rumba and the music of the Santería religion. His music had become an intoxicating blend of Cuban tradition and African-American styles.

Rodney Brooks builds robots based on biological principles of movement and reasoning. The goal: a robot who can figure things out. Get ready to meet Baxter.

The founder and CEO of Romotive, Keller Rinaudo creates robots that use smart phones and are designed for interaction.

Nilofer Merchant thinks deeply about the frameworks, strategies and cultural values of great businesses new and old, large and small.

Bono, the lead singer of U2, uses his celebrity to fight for social justice worldwide: to end hunger, poverty and disease, especially in Africa. His nonprofit ONE raises awareness via media, policy and calls to action.

At the RSA conference this week in San Francisco, EMC announced Pivotal HD, a new distribution of Apache Hadoop. Pivotal HD features native integration of EMC’s Greenplum massively parallel processing (MPP) database with Apache Hadoop.

The new EMC Greenplum-developed HAWQ technology brings ten years of large scale data management research and development to Hadoop and delivers more than 100X performance improvements when compared to existing SQL-like services on top of Hadoop. What makes Pivotal HD different is its ability to offer the full spectrum of the SQL interface and run reports without moving data between systems or using connectors that require users to store the data twice. It removes the complexity of using Hadoop, thus expanding the platform’s potential and productivity, and allowing customers to enjoy the benefits of the most cost-effective and flexible data processing platform ever developed.

Sam Grocott, vice president of marketing and product management, EMC Isilon, noted, “The introduction of Pivotal HD, combined with EMC Isilon’s native integration of the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) protocol, continues the evolution of the industry’s first and only enterprise-proven Hadoop solution on a scale-out NAS architecture. This powerful combination succeeds in reducing the complexities traditionally associated with Hadoop deployments and allows enterprises to easily extract business value from unstructured data.”

Using the Greenplum MPP analytical database, Pivotal HD is a true SQL parallel database on top of the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS).  HAWQ adds the capabilities of note include Dynamic Pipelining, a world-class query optimizer, horizontal scaling, SQL compliant, interactive query, deep analytics, and support for common Hadoop formats. HAWQ unlocks the potential of Hadoop’s fault-tolerant storage capabilities by bringing to bear the vast pool of “data worker” tools and languages into the Hadoop ecosystems.

“With Pivotal HD, we can check off many of the items on our Hadoop wish-list—things like plug-in support for the ecosystem of tools, improved data management and greater elasticity in terms of the storage and compute layer,” Steven Hirsch, chief data officer, SVP Global Data Services, NYSE Euronext. ”But above all, it provides true SQL query interfaces for data workers and tools—not a superficial implementation of the kind that’s so common today, but a native implementation that delivers the capability of real and true SQL processing and optimization. Having a single Hadoop infrastructure for Big Data investigation and analysis changes everything. Now add to all of this functionality the fact that the SQL performance is up to 100x faster than other offerings and you have an environment that we at NYSE Euronext are extremely excited about.”

The only thing better than Ben Affleck’s (no-longer-existent) beard is this incredible mashup of Academy Award winner Argo and perennial classic Home Alone. Trust us.

[dogfoodfilms]

Bad Piggies, Rovio’s fantastic Angry Birds spinoff, hasn’t been getting as much love as its Star Wars inspired cousin recently. That’s all going to change tomorrow, however, as Rovio has a beefy updated planned for the game.

Rovio announced today that Bad Piggies will be getting an update called Road Hogs tomorrow. The update adds 30 new levels and new time attack modes to the game. Beyond that, it’s still the same wonderful game from last year that proved Rovio is more than just a one-trick pony.

By the time you complete all the new levels in Road Hogs, the new Angry Birds animated series might be airing. I’m not entirely sure what the cartoon could possibly do with such bizarre characters, but at least there’s a precedent for bizarre video game cartoons.

Something extraordinary happened to the American economy in the 1780s and ’90s. There were no big technological changes — factories, steamships, and railroads were still largely in the future. Yet a burst of entrepreneurial activity led to a jump in productivity.

What brought on the improvement? A single great event: the overthrow of colonial rule. But not the economic policies of the empire, since British control in that area had not been so onerous.

The key change lay elsewhere. After all, the overthrow wasn’t just a war for independence. It was also a revolution — a major change in social as well as political relations. Most colonists had seen themselves within a great hierarchical order where everyone knew their rank in society. The vast majority of people were “the vulgar” expected to show deference to their betters. Largely stuck in their positions, they sought protection in personal ties, and only noblesse oblige kept many from falling into utter poverty. The wealthy classes also sought stability over market-oriented efficiency and growth, not unlike Lord Grantham in the television show “Downton Abbey.”

After overthrowing that order, Americans realized more than ever before that they could change their station in life. Many farmers took up home manufacturing on the side, hoping to afford the luxuries once deemed appropriate only for gentlemen. Marginal lands fell under the plow, and what had been a trickle of migrants going west became a flood. Literacy shot up as the masses started taking education seriously for their children. The new commercial mindset helped unite the previously fractured colonies into a national economy, with open state borders and a growing network of banks.

That new mindset in turn did much to spur the speedy adoption of technologies in later decades. As historians have increasingly appreciated, technology is usually a secondary cause in economic development. It requires a good many people willing to do the hard and risky work of developing early advances into something that truly works in the marketplace. Just look at how long it has taken elite-dominated countries to industrialize even with mature technology and ready funding.

Britain itself shows the damage that class divisions can wreak on an economy. It may have led the world in the industrial revolution based on steam power, but it fell behind in the second revolution based on electricity and chemistry. A major reason was its failure to develop a deep-seated culture of entrepreneurship and technology. While the United States was building agricultural and technical colleges for the masses in the 1800s, Britain’s industrial leaders encouraged their sons to go to Oxbridge and gain the trappings of gentlemen. Indeed, even as late as the 1920s, the fictional Lord Grantham’s ignorance about business and investing is all too believable — it was no part of the training for his generation and class.

The Revolution of 1776 turned America into a land of opportunity. Now, however, there are growing signs of movement in the opposite direction. Rates of social mobility have fallen and now lag many of the former monarchies of Western Europe. Income and wealth inequality has risen to heights not seen in a century — a time when most of the poor were immigrants on the way up. With governments struggling with debt, college education increasingly costly, and jobs still scarce, ordinary people are finding it harder to imagine a future of improvement. Many have given up and sought protection outside the marketplace, fueling a surge in disability claims.

Within companies, rising executive pay and prestige has distanced senior leaders from the rest of the organization. Despite talk of “the age of the knowledge worker,” there are growing references to “HiPPO” — the highest paid person’s opinion, to which everyone else is to show deference.

The United States is a long, long way from “HiPPO” to “your lordship.” But it needs entrepreneurial energies more than ever now. The economy is entering dangerous times. Information technologies are replacing human workers at an unprecedented rate, and that’s likely to keep unemployment high for a decade or more. We need energetic innovators to turn the magic of artificial intelligence into benefits for a great many people.

That’s going to be difficult, as innovators will look at strapped governments and consumers and see an uncertain payoff. They’ll be tempted to go after the money, which means serving the wealthy with ever-expanding conveniences and delights. The grandeur of wealth — whether it’s a landed estate or an exclusive hedge fund — has always been seductive. Already we’re seeing the spread of butlers, “Lexus lanes,” special lines at amusement parks and other encroaching marks of economic status.

Those innovations are fueling a reversal of the progress America saw in the 1790s and Britain saw in the 1920s, where class distinctions are hardening rather than softening. The more it continues, the harder it will be to generate broad-based entrepreneurship — and perhaps prosperity as a whole.

Maybe now we’ll find out exactly how many people are really  using Google+.

On Tuesday, the company plans to announce the launch of the Google+ sign-in for apps and websites, letting developers use Google’s credentials to allow users to log in to their services, just as Facebook Connect and Twitter login have been doing for years. The move is a critical one for Google if it wants to remain competitive with its social peers, as it could allow Google+ to become one of the currencies for user data and apps.

Google is rolling out the program at first with a few partners, including The Fancy, Flixster, OpenTable, USA Today, and a few others. But it will be available for any developer who wants to build it into an app, whether that app is on Android, iOS, or desktop. The Google+ sign-in looks very much like Facebook Connect — users can choose which info to share publicly private versus public), and will see which of their Google data will be shared with the app. And obviously Google will encourage users to post their information to Google+, clearly a move to increase engagement on the company’s best attempt yet at cracking the social code

Google+ most recently announced that it had 135 million active users on the platform, although how they calculate that number is still in question, and it comes in behind Twitter’s 200 million monthly active users and Facebook’s more than one billion.

Facebook launched Facebook Connect back in 2008, which feels like eons in modern internet years, but has shown just how quickly the company has been able to put its services at the heart of a good number of apps across the web. (In fact, when the service went down recently, it showed consumers just how many sites they actually use with a Facebook login.) So it’s easy to see why Google+ wants to chip away at that lead, and why it could be an attractive option for users of Google servies and developers of apps wary about Facebook and Twitter.

Users will be able to share select data and activities from particular apps with certain people. For instance, if you wanted to share the music you were listening to with just your friends who were interested in music, you could make the data available for just a particular circle of people (the Google+ version of groups.)

However, there are always privacy and data concerns when it comes to spreading personal data connected with one company out to several more. In an interview, Seth Sternberg, the product management director for Google+, emphasized the company’s commitment to privacy and trust among users, and explained that they hoped to reflect that in the Google+ sign-in. The company is clearly hoping to draw a contrast to Facebook, which has had issues with privacy in the past.

The company also emphasized that it would never automatically share activity collected through Google+ sign-ins and then publish that data to a feed unless you specifically indicate that it should (in contrast to Facebook’s “frictionless sharing” which has seen criticism.)

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Today Rovio, the creators of the Angry Birds and Bad Piggies games, announced that a new animated cartoon Angry Birds series is coming soon to computers everywhere. From the Rovio announcement:

What makes Bomb Bird so angry? Why is the King Pig the King Pig? And are those mischievous piggies ever going to get hold of the eggs?

It’s time to find out!

The cartoon, which evidently takes place on “Piggy Island” and stars both the pigs and angry birds, will premiere on the Angry Birds Toons website on March 16 and 17. New episodes in the series will be coming weekly.

A trailer for the series was also released by Rovio today. It shows that, thankfully, neither the pigs nor the birds will be speaking in the cartoon. Also, breakdancing piggies.

Smartphones are made for travel, yet when we’re in our cars we are under great restrictions. Many states have hands-free calling laws, meaning you need a headset or other apparatus to talk on the phone. Other states, reasonably, have passed laws forbidding texting while driving. Even in states that have no such law, texting while driving is extremely hazardous and not recommended.

Many newer cars have smartphone-friendly features already built in. Voice controls and built-in Bluetooth are two of the more useful features. Yet not all new cars have these luxuries. Older cars? Even 2010 models, still very new by car standards, lack many useful smartphone functions.

Want to upgrade your in-car smartphone experience without upgrading your ride? Here are some great accessories. Some are universal, but the specific ones are geared towards the Samsung Galaxy S III, the most popular Android handset.

iBolt charging dock

If you use your phone for navigation, a mount is key. How else are you supposed to keep the GPS in front of you at all times. These mounts can also be useful if you play music on your phone. If you’re looking down to change songs, you’re taking your eyes off the road. Worse, you can set yourself up for a texting while driving ticket, if such laws are enforced in your state.

THe iBolt charging dock combines durability with simplicity. It merely clamps around your Galaxy S III, giving you a clear view of the entire screen. From there it attaches directly to your window. That makes it easy to use your smartphone’s many in-car functions while keeping your eyes on the road.

You can get the iBolt charging dock for $40.

Dual USB charger

What’s better than one in-car USB charger? Two in-car USB chargers, of course. While some cars do come with multiple cigarette lighter adapters, especially nowadays when people use them more for charging gadgets than for lighting cigarettes, most still have only one. The solution is to get a charging adapter that has two USB slots. Griffin brings that with its dual charger.

In the car with your significant other? Charge both of your phones. Want to charge up a tablet while you’re also keeping your smartphone topped up? It might take a while to charge both devices, but if you’re in the car for a while you can manage it. My wife and I recently got one of these, and it has made our lives considerably easier.

You can get the Griffing dual USB charger for $6.60.

Jabra FREEWAY Bluetooth speakerphone

I’ll admit, I’m spoiled. When I turn on my car it automatically connects to my phone via Bluetooth. When calls come in, I hear it through the car speakers — meaning the music cuts out. When I’m done everything picks up where it left off. For those who don’t have that feature, there is the Jabra FREEWAY.

The unit doesn’t quite integrate with your car stereo, but it does contain a crisp, clear speaker of its own. You can make all of your calls hands free with ease. It even clips to your sun visor, so it’s not at all intrusive.

You can get the Jabra FREEWAY Bluetooth speakerphone for $113.95.

Bluetooth FM Transmitter

Want to take your in-car Bluetooth experience to another level? Then check out the GOgroove FlexSMART in-car Bluetooth FM transmitter. It works in a similar manner to other FM transmitters. That is, it takes the signal from your phone and transmits it over a special FM frequency. Your car is then hooked up to your phone, in a similar way to native Bluetooth systems.

With this unit you can play your music and make calls right through your car speakers. Like native Bluetooth systems, the sound cuts out when a call is incoming or outgoing. The only downside is the general lack of sound quality from FM transmitters. The Jabra unit has much, much better sound quality, even though it goes through its own speakers. Still, if you’re not an audiophile, this is a great way to play music from your smartphone in your car.

It’s cheap, too. You can get the FlexSMART in-car Bluetooth FM transmitter for $45.

Non-stick mat

Perhaps you’re not using your phone as a GPS. Maybe you’re just playing music on it. In that case, where do you put it? In your pocket? If you’re running a wire, that’s unreasonable. Perhaps the best place for your phone is right on your dash. But won’t it slip around? Not with a non-stick mat.

These are simple pieces of rubber that grip both your dash and the phone. Make a sharp turn? Stop short? The mat will hold your phone in place so it doesn’t fly every which way. For simple, everyday use, nothing tops a grip mat.

You can get two car dash grip mats for $5.

The post 5 Galaxy S III Accessories You Need for Your Car appeared first on MobileMoo.

Haven’t we all suffered enough abuse at the hands of Big Smart Watch? No? Well now there’s Buddy, a Bluetooth smartwatch that aims to solve the problems associated with all those other watches. Buddy is focused on social networking and notifications so it will ping you when your Facebook or Twitter feed is updated as well as send the standard call/text/calendar notifications you expect from a smart watch.

The ambitious watch is the product of Vea Digital, a smartwatch company best known for their Sportive work-out watch. The company’s new project, however, is wildly ambitious. It has a capacitive color touchscreen, works with iOS and Android, and contains 8GB of memory in a package 8mm thick. It’s a huge watch, to be sure, and the renders/prototype models show a unique and colorful icon-based UI that might work better than the cramped black and white design of other devices.

What can it do?

The makers claim a battery life of “10 days or 2 weeks standby” which sounds like crazy talk. They’re asking for $320,000 to build the first run and have raised $42,000 so far. A black watch can be had for a pledge of $150 and they will be delivered in August 2013.

I’ll believe it when I see it, but if you’re looking to get in on the ground floor of an acceptably cool-looking smart watch, Buddy might be the way to go.

Mobile World Congress kicked off Monday in Barcelona with a number of announcements from the red-hot mobile market. Here is conference news from Intel, IBM and Nokia, and Mellanox and 6WIND. The Twitter conversation for the event can be followed on hashtag #MWC13.

Intel launches mobile solutions.

Intel (INTC) announced several new products for the mobile market segments: a new dual-core Atom SoC platform for smartphones and Android tablets. “Today’s announcements build on Intel’s growing device portfolio across a range of mobile market segments,” said Hermann Eul, Intel vice president and co-general manager of the Mobile and Communications Group. “In less than a year’s time, we have worked closely with our customers to bring Intel-based smartphones to market in more than 20 countries around the world, and have also delivered an industry-leading low-power Atom SoC tablet solution running Windows 8, and shipping with leading OEM customers today.”

Intel announced a new Atom processor platform with 32nm dual core Z2580, Z2560 and Z2520 products, available in speeds up to 2.0GHz, 1.6GHz and 1.2GHz respectively. The platform also features support for Intel Hyper-Threading, and an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator engine. It includes advanced imaging capabilities, including support for two cameras, with a primary camera sensor up to 16 megapixels. The platform is also equipped with Intel Identity Protection Technology (Intel IPT), helping to enable strong, two-factor authentication for protecting cloud services such as remote banking, e-commerce, online gaming and social networking from unauthorized access.

“Our second-generation product delivers double the compute performance and up to three times the graphics capabilities, all while maintaining competitive low power,” Eul said. “As we transition to 22nm Atom SoCs later this year, we will take full advantage of the broad spectrum of capabilities enabled by our design, architecture, 22nm tri-gate transistor technology, and leading-edge manufacturing to further accelerate our position.”

An Intel Atom Z2420 was announced for smartphones in emerging markets, and an Atom Z2760, the first quad-core Atom SoC (“Bay Trail”).  Intel also launched a Long-Term Evolution (4G LTE) strategy, for a low-power, global modem solution that works across multiple bands, modes, regions and devices. The Intel XMM 7160 is a solution that supports smartphones, tablets and Ultrabooks, with support for 15 LTE bands simultaneously.

IBM and Nokia Siemens announce Edge Computing Platform.

Nokia Siemens Networks and IBM announced a collaboration to deliver a mobile edge computing platform that can run applications directly within a mobile base station. This new platform allows mobile operators to create a truly unique mobile experience, relieve the ever increasing strain on network infrastructure and bring completely new solutions to market. Nokia’s Liquid Applications and IBM’s WebSphere Application Service Platform for Networks (ASPN) together provide an environment for operators to manage the many applications that will be deployed to the mobile edge.

“Pushing applications, processing and storage to the edge of the mobile network allows large complex problems to be distributed into many smaller and more manageable pieces and to be physically located at the source of the information it needs to work on,” said Phil Buckellew, vice president, IBM Mobile Enterprise. “This enables a huge amount of rich data to be processed in real time that would be prohibitively complex and costly to deliver on a traditional centralized cloud.”

Mellanox and 6WIND partner to help deployments of virtual and non-virtual networks.

Mellanox (MLNX) and 6WIND, a solution for data plane processing in software defined networks, announced a performance-optimized solution featuring the Mellanox ConnectX-3 Network Interface Controller (NIC) together with the 6WINDGate networking software.  As a solution for Telecom Equipment Manufacturers (TEMs)it is combined with a Mellanox SwitchX 40GbE switch to aid deployments of virtualized and non-virtualized networks and SDN on standard high-volume servers.

“Because it solves critical network performance challenges for mobile infrastructure, 6WIND’s software has been selected by multiple TEMs who provide equipment deployed in commercial LTE networks worldwide,” said Eric Carmès, CEO of 6WIND. “The addition of Mellanox ConnectX-3 support within 6WIND’s enhanced Intel DPDK library as well as the 6WINDGate software, incorporating features such as SR-IOV and RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE), enables improved CAPEX and OPEX in service provider networks through the virtualization of network functions and more efficient SDN management.”

Move over Harlem Shake, there’s a new YouTube fad brewing.

It’s the “Goat Edition” mashup, and it’s taking the internet by storm.

People have been making “Goat Editions” of popular songs and throwing them up on YouTube for a while. For instance, this goat-screaming mashup of Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “Niggas in Paris” first hit YouTube back in December of 2011. And you can go even further back in the archives to find the same goat singing alongside Usher back in 2009. But ever since the Taylor Swift “I Know You Were Trouble” Goat Edition blew up over the weekend, YouTube has started to fill up with various Goat Editions of popular songs.

It seems the internet reignited their love for goats yelling like humans nearly two weeks ago when a two-minute long mashup of various screaming goats went viral.

Thanks to the revived fascination, we have plenty of new Goat Editions to bring you. Here are some of the best:

“Dancing With The Stars” has officially announced the lineup of celebrities who’ll be shaking it on the dance floor this season, and, as predicted, “American Idol” star Kellie Pickler is indeed included.

Among the others are country star Wynonna Judd, Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman, boxer Victor Ortiz, figure skater Dorothy Hamill, comedians D.L. Hughley and Andy Dick, Baltimore Raven Jacoby Jones, “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Lisa Vanderpump, Disney star Zandaya Coleman, and “General Hospital” star Ingo Rademacher. Among the newcomers are some new faces in the pro section, as well, including Gleb Savchenko, Sharna Burgess, and Lindsay Arnold. Veteran pros such as Cheryl Burke and Derek Hough will be returning this year, much to the delight of fans.

Microsoft has released the first stable version of Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 (32-bit) and Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 (64-bit). The latest version of the browser — which comes pre-installed in Windows 8 — promises improved performance, better privacy and supports the latest web standards, plus adds integrated spell-checking and auto-correct tools.

Internet Explorer 10 in itself isn’t new — it was bundled with Windows 8 on its release on October 26. However, it’s only now that Windows 7 users have been able to install a stable version of the software, although a Release Preview has been available since mid-November. Just as Internet Explorer 9 dropped support for Windows XP, so IE10 drops support for Windows Vista.

There’s one major new feature to speak of: an integrated spell-checker and AutoCorrect tool, which appears in web forms and other input boxes as the user types. Microsoft claims this feature will aid users in typing faster, more accurate, posts. The user interface remains very similar to IE9, although it has been overhauled slightly, one noticeable improvement being that tabs close more quickly in this version.Privacy has also been enhanced, with the Do Not Track (DNT) signal switched on by default in the new release (it can be switched on in IE9 via the Tools > Internet Options dialog). This instructs compliant websites to stop tracking users’ movements on their own as well as third-party websites.

The update, which will be pushed to all Windows 7 machines over the coming weeks, also promises better performance, particularly where JavaScript is concerned, with Microsoft’s own benchmarks suggesting IE10 is up to 25 per cent faster than IE9. Other performance improvements centre around hardware-accelerated support for SVG and HTML4 constructs, as well as improved drawing performance, the latter rendering images up to 30 per cent faster than IE9.

Performance should also be improved by the promise of reduced CPU usage in IE10, a side-effect of which will benefit the battery life of mobile users.

IE10 also promises better support for modern web standards, with up to 30 new standards supported in this release over IE9, primarily in the fields of CSS3 and HTML5.

Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 (32-bit) and Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 (64-bit) are both available now as a free download for PCs running Windows 7 with Service Pack 1 installed.

Photo Credit:  Ljupco Smokovski/Shutterstock

The Pirate Bay was founded in Sweden, and has remained in the country since. That all changed this week, however, as the most infamous site on the Internet has been forced to move.

TorrentFreak reports that The Pirate Bay has decided to move its operations to Norway and Spain after its previous host, the Pirate Party of Sweden, was targeted by anti-piracy group Rights Alliance. Why does The Pirate Bay have to move though? It’s hosted in the cloud, so it’s technically not tied to the Pirate Party or any other group, right?

The Pirate Bay addressed these concerns in its latest Facebook post:

The Pirate Bay16 hours ago

As some of you may know, where 99% cloud based today. We have though, enjoyed the great company of the swedish Pirate party. As they have gotten a severe legal threat (that will cost a lot to defend against) we’ve taken the decision to move on to Norway and Spain.

This is not permanent though. Next week (hopefully), we’ll announce some MAJOR changes to the site. Now don’t worry, everything will look the same to you. The changes are all under the hood.

Let’s just say that it will change a lot of things for a lot of people. When the bomb goes off, remember that we did it with love in our hearts and with hope of humanity. We believe we can change the world by doing this.
We’re kinda aiming for the nex Nobel peace prize…

//Winona, Winston & Winnie.

The Pirate Bay Departs Sweden And Sets Sail For Norway and Spain | TorrentFreak
Following threats of legal action in its traditional home of Sweden, a few hours ago The Pirate Bay set sail for pastures new. Sweden’s Pirate Party had been providing bandwidth to the site for the last three years but came under intense pressure last week when a local anti-piracy group threatened t…

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The Pirate Bay is now hosted by the Pirate Parties of both Norway and Spain. Of course, these aren’t the only parties hosting The Pirate Bay, but these are the official hosts for the time being. The reason being that Norwegian courts have so far refused to block The Pirate Bay, and Spain, despite having some strict anti-piracy laws on the books, does nothing to block file-sharing sites.

To reflect its resilience, The Pirate Bay has momentarily changed its name to The Hydra Bay. I wouldn’t say that losing its host in Sweden is equivalent to having a head cut off, but it’s still appropriate to say that The Pirate Bay has withstood more legal threats and take downs than any other file sharing site on the Internet.

The Pirate Bay has also taken to its blog to say the current campaign against the site in Sweden, and Europe at large, is equivalent to a big game of Whac-A-Mole. The kicker is that anti-piracy groups are bad at this game:

A typical Whac-A-Mole machine consists of a large, waist-level cabinet with five holes in its top and a large, soft, black mallet. Each hole contains a single plastic mole and the machinery necessary to move it up and down. Once the game starts, the moles will begin to pop up from their holes at random. The object of the game is to force the individual moles back into their holes by hitting them directly on the head with the mallet, thereby adding to the player’s score. The quicker this is done the higher the final score will be.

Current score: 0

As for the Swedish Pirate Party, its leader, Anna Troberg, told TorrentFreak that it’s happy the site is in the hands of its “two sister parties.” She continues the hyrdra rhetoric by saying that “every cut connection to The Pirate Bay will generate two new connections.” The Swedish Pirate Party also revealed that it may issue a police complaint against the Rights Alliance to “determine precisely how forgiving the system is to those who try to abuse the judicial system to silence others.”

Back in January Sony released a teaser trailer for the single-player campaign in God of War: Ascension and announced that a demo for the campaign would be released in February. With only four days left in February, Sony has kept its promise.

The campaign demo for God of War: Ascension will be released via the PlayStation Network “later today,” according to a Sony blog post. The demo will feature a taste of the game’s new combat, new combos, and new systems.

In addition to the demo, Sony has also released a proper single-player trailer for the game. It contains a bit more detail and a few more monsters that haven’t already been seen, so it could be considered a bit spoilery. Really, though, Ascension is a prequel – there probably aren’t going to be any earth-shaking revelations revealed during the game.

Shuja Haque has joined investment firm CoBe Capital as a director of operations for North America. Haque was previously a global manufacturing manager with Federal Mogul as well a value stream manager for Pace Industries, a die casting manufacturer.

PRESS RELEASE
CoBe Capital, a global private investment firm focused on the acquisition and management of non-core business units from large corporations, is pleased to announce the hiring of Shuja Haque as a Director of Operations for North America.

Mr. Haque is a seasoned executive with a strong track record of conceiving and executing successful strategic and operational transformation programs across a broad range of different industries. Prior to joining CoBe, he was a Global Manufacturing Manager with Federal Mogul as well a Value Stream Manager for Pace Industries, a global, high pressure die casting manufacturer. Earlier in his career he held positions of increasing responsibility in operations and engineering with Henry Technologies, Universal Manufacturing S.A. de C.V. and Rock-Ola Manufacturing.

Mr. Haque received his B.S. in Electronic Engineering from Karachi University – Pakistan and is fluent in English, Spanish, Urdu, Hindi and Arabic.

“Shuja Haque joins our firm at a time of unprecedented growth and value creation. We welcome Shuja into our family where he will contribute as a financial and operational executive across our diversified portfolio of businesses – from diligence through integration and long-term operations improvement,” said Neal Cohen, Founder and Managing Director of CoBe Capital.

About CoBe Capital

CoBe Capital, a global private investment firm with a permanent capital base, specializes in the acquisition and operation of non-core and underperforming business units in the Americas and Europe from leading global corporations. CoBe Capital owns and operates a diversified portfolio of companies strives to achieve long-term growth based on lean management and continuous improvement business philosophies. CoBe Capital was founded by Neal Cohen in 1994.

The post CoBe Capital Adds Shuja Haque as Director of Operations appeared first on peHUB.

Ben Affleck decided to shave off his lucky beard after his film, “Argo” took home the Oscar for Best Picture on Sunday night.

The actor/director had been keeping the facial hair around as a charm to get him through the rough days leading up to the awards show, but after the night’s big win he decided to get rid of it.

“He did it to mark the end of a chapter. It had that ceremonial quality to it,” said a source.

“Argo” was up against some heavy hitters this year, including “Life Of Pi”, “Amour”, “Silver Linings Playbook”, “Lincoln”, “Zero Dark Thirty”, “Les Miserables”, “Beasts Of The Southern Wild”, and “Django Unchained”. Most of those films saw the actors take home individual awards, however, including Jennifer Lawrence for Best Actress.

Affleck’s next project is “Runner, Runner”, which also stars Justin Timberlake. The film is due out later this year.