Roumen.ganeff

According to report in The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft will make an investment in Cyanogen Inc. The Redmond giant is expected to become a minority investor in a $70 million round of equity financing. The latest round of funding is said to value Cyanogen Inc. "in the high hundreds of millions." Spokespeople from both Microsoft and Cyanogen Inc. declined to comment on the matter. Cyanogen made quite a splash a few days ago when the company's CEO Kirt McMaster told an audience in San Francisco that the company wants "to take Android away from Google." The ambitious startup plans to create a version of Android, which isn't dependent on Google Play apps and services. The round of financing for Cyanogen could grow further. As it turns out, more strategic investors have expressed interest in the company now that its plans to loosen Google's hold on Android became clear. Considering the roughly 3% market share Windows Phone holds, it is hardly a surprise that Microsoft want a piece from the action in the Android realm. The tech giant surely wouldn't mind further exposure for its Bing search engine. Source...

(via tastefullyoffensive:video)

While Intel formally announced availability of Broadwell-U processors at CES this year, vendors did not actually have any devices available for purchase containing Intel vPro technology. Today that changes, as Intel states the HP Elite x2 1011 and several devices from Fujitsu sporting 5^th Generation Intel vPro processors are now available with more to arrive shortly. Businesses that rely on vPro’s management features are now able to purchase new laptops containing Intel’s Broadwell-U processors with vPro features. The main announcement today is of availability, and as such Intel’s press release recaps many of the existing features of Broadwell; rather than cover them one more time, those interested should visit the Broadwell tag for further reading.

HP Elite x2 1101

If you’re not familiar with vPro, this is primarily an out-of-band management technology that Intel builds into several of their products such as SSDs, NICs, WiFi cards, chipsets, and CPUs. Intel brands their out-of-band management as Intel Active Management Technology (AMT). While many business professionals experience IT management such as software updates and group policy enforcement, these are all at the OS level. Intel AMT provides IT tools at the hardware level, which means remote PCs can be accessed even when the OS is down or the power is off.

For example, if a device is lost containing sensitive data, AMT could be used to access location services of the device, restrict access, or even erase data. Another neat feature of AMT is using an integrated VNC server, allowing remote monitoring of the Intel integrated graphics feed and even keyboard/mouse control. Going even further, Intel AMT can even redirect the boot process of a PC to an IT provided remote image.

New features in Intel Setup and Configuration Software and AMT 10.0 (exclusive to Broadwell) include management of Intel SSD Pro 2500 Series, a location based services editor, Windows InstantGo support, blanking the screen during remote control sessions, and some other low level changes such as patching the OpenSSL heartbeat bug.

Over time, vPro has broadened to include more than just Intel AMT. Importantly, vPro also includes Intel Trusted Execution Technology (TXT), which works with a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) to secure a device against low level attacks and provide unique secure device identifiers to management systems. With Broadwell vPro processors, Intel is again expanding vPro to encompass more technology with Intel Wireless Docking and Intel Pro Wireless Display. It is important to note that these features are available to manufactures using a vPro package from Intel, but each device may not implement them.

Intel Wireless Docking could be the most exciting new feature. Using four channels of 802.11ad at 60 GHz radio frequency, Intel claims a total bandwidth of 7 Gbps. All data passed between the dock and device is protected with 128-bit AES hardware encryption, and two monitors plus USB 3.0 are supported. Intel has not yet provided information yet about supported resolutions, however they do provide an impressive video demonstrating a video file streaming from a USB stick to a laptop from the wireless dock, then back to the wireless dock for display.

This docking implementation is particularly interesting as it is implemented at the chipset level instead of the OS level. Intel’s low level control of peripherals allows them to enable no-brainer functionality such as closing the laptop lid and not entering sleep mode after establishing the dock connection. This saves battery as the laptop display is off, but to date this same functionality has required temporarily changing Windows settings. Additionally, Intel Wireless Docking will connect and disconnect from the wireless dock even if the device is open, closed, or in sleep mode. Anyone who has played the order-of-operations dance with a dock before will surely appreciate this.

One important note about Intel Wireless Docking is that while it uses 802.11ad 60 GHz networking (WiGig), the actual protocol layer Intel runs is different than devices such as the Dell D5000 that also uses 802.11ad; the two are not compatible. Intel stated devices such as the Dell D5000 are typically using 802.11ad as a simple USB bridge using the WiGig Bus Extension (WBE) layer, whereas Intel Wireless Docking is a tight integration with the Broadwell SoC providing new experiences such as those listed above, on-screen-display, and remote firmware management. Intel uses the WiGig Display Extension (WDE) and WiGig Serial Extension (WSE) layers. Intel states they are working with the other Wi-Fi Alliance members through various plug fest and other activities to promote interoperability.

Intel Pro Wireless Display (Pro WiDi) might sound familiar, and this is a variation of the Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) technology with the key naming difference being the insertion of Pro. What does that Pro add other than three letters? Several features aimed at business use cases. Wi-Fi direct connections made by WiDi Pro can now use enterprise security, a display confirmation handshake appears on both screens to prevent accidental sharing to the wrong display, managed display hand off to multiple devices in the same meeting room via GUI operations, and remote IT management of security certificates on Pro WiDi devices.

Finally, Intel Identity Protection Technology (IPT) now supports multi-factor authentication. This provides IT with more options to specify which authentication factors can be used for enterprise applications, such as a paired Bluetooth device.

A Short History of the Modern World by Robin Edds/Reddit

Previously: The Adventures of George Washington

File under: Latest News

Photo credit: Mike Jones/Athena Pictures Mike Jones/Athena Pictures Local authorities in Carmarthenshire, south west Wales, have launched an investigation after a traffic warden placed a penalty charge notice on a wheelie bin. continue reading

(via 4gifs)

As promised when the series first debuted, Double Fine has stuck to a steady weekly schedule for its Devs Play series, in which the studio would play through classic games alongside some of its original developers. Today's episode will be of particular interest to anyone that has followed Shacknews since its inception. Double Fine is walking through the original Doom, along with original id Software co-founder John Romero.

Doom is widely considered one of the pioneers of the first-person shooter genre. Released in 1993, Romero (along with John Carmack, now at Oculus) created a full-blown alien world that put players in the role of an unnamed Doom Marine. The series has since become revered for its shooting mechanics, first-person 3D perspective, intimidating monsters, and hard-hitting weaponry. It recently finished #5 on our Shacknews Chatty community's list of Top 100 PC Games of All-Time.

Check out the introduction and listen to John Romero's commentary in the video below. Catch the rest of the Doom playthrough on Double Fine's YouTube channel.

With Microsoft's Windows 10 event over it is time to take a look at what the Silicon Valley giant has in store for the next version of the legendary OS. Announcements definitely did not disappoint both in volume and quality. Most of our questions about Windows 10 as well as some long-standing disputer were finally settled, but Microsoft went a step beyond and touched upon cross-device application usage, unified PC and Xbox gaming, improved DirectX performance and a whole new enterprise collaboration 84-inch touch device. So if you think you might have missed anything here is a quick rundown of what Microsoft offered in Windows 10 and beyond and boy is it exciting! .news-item .n-left { float: left; width: 25%; text-align: center; margin-left: -4px; } .news-item .n-right { float: left; width: 75%; } .news-item a { padding-bottom: 0; padding-left: 0; } .news-item .n-right h2, .reviews-item .n-right h2 { clear: both; padding: 0 0 3px 0px; font: 400 19px Oswald, Arial; margin-top: -4px; } .n-right p { line-height: 155%; } .news-item { padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; border-top: 1px solid #ccc; } .news-item p { margin-left: 0; } .n-right h2 a { text-decoration: none; color: #000; } Windows 10 will run on phones, share apps with the desktop Microsoft is unifying Windows 10 for large devices (8+ inch screens) and small devices (phones and small tablets). It has tailored the experience to the size class so you won't get a large desktop on your small phone, but many shared interfaces will make things feel familiar to users as they switch... Cortana is now part of Windows 10 on PC The cloud-based Cortana assistant is officially going to be part of Windows 10 on the PC. It is now more intelligent and useful than ever. During today's M Windows 10 will be a free upgrade from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 for the first year At its Windows 10-related "briefing" today, Microsoft has just announced some very good news for those of you who are running an older version of its deskt Microsoft announces the much rumored Project Spartan browser for Windows One of the highlights of Microsoft's Windows 10 event today was Project Spartan, the software giant's next generation Web browser. This will be built into Start menu resurrected with Windows 10, but with Live tiles Windows 10 is taking a step back and forward - the Start menu is back, but unlike the classic menu this one has Live tiles in it. For those who enjoyed the Microsoft details Xbox integration on Windows 10 - streaming to PC on board In today's Windows 10 press event, Microsoft spilled the beans on the Xbox app for its latest OS. The application will be available on every tablet and PC Microsoft Surface Hub is an 84″ all-in-one computer for the conference room Remember the Microsoft Surface? No, not the tablet, the large, touch-sensitive table. It never took off, but it's successor is here and it leverages all the new tech in Windows 10. Windows Holographic debuts alongside standalone Microsoft HoloLens headset The last thing Microsoft had to present to the world today has to do with augmented reality. Following a growing trend in the tech world, the company has announced its own entry into the VR headset...

Researchers at the University of Rochester’s Institute of Optics led by professor Chunlei Guo have developed a new type of hydrophobic surface that is so highly water repellant, it causes water droplets to bounce off like magic. Unlike earlier hydrophobic surfaces that rely on temporary (and slowly degrading) chemical coatings such as teflon, this new super-hydrophobic surface is created by etching microscopic structures into metal with the help of lasers. Potential applications include airplane wings that resist icing, a whole new type of rust proofing, or even a toilet that wouldn’t require water. Watch the video above to see the surface in action, and you can read Guo’s research paper here. (via Sploid)