Does your love of tech extend to the pets in your life? When you look into the pettech world, there's a bewildering plethora of mobile apps to aid our furry friends from adopting a dog, deciding on a pet name, administering first aid and choosing a pet-friendly holiday location - and we haven't even gotten into the entire range of interactive gadgets and accessories. 

Pets are big business—the American Pet Products Association estimates that consumers spent nearly $61 billion on their pets in 2015.  According to IDTechEx,  ten years from now the wearable tech market for pets is expected to reach $2.6 billion. 

If you have the cash, here's a critical look at some of the more innovative tools to entertain and support your four-legged family members.

CleverPet 

With inspiration straight from the work of Ivan Pavlov, the CleverPet uses cutting-edge algorithms based on behavioural science to reward your dog when she learns something new. A busy dog is a happy dog. Your dog is less likely to be distraught or destructive while you’re out if they have something productive to do, and playing games is a great way to keep them occupied.

The device has three sensitive touch pads designed for dog noses and paws, which light up interactively. Your pet will win food for touching the pads on the device with the difficulty escalating over time. You can also see how they are doing in real time via the corresponding app. You can even pre-record verbal commands for training work.

CleverPet is connectable to other smart device and Arduino-compatible. A tech savvy owner can also write their own custom code via the available RESTful API.

PetBot

The PetBot also takes a page from Pavlov's book, a focused towards the welfare of the owner than the pet, although it may be more focused on the owner's well-being. Think of it as a reward-dispensing baby monitor. It allows the owner to see, speak and listen to their pet through their smartphone. When the pet cuddles up to the camera, PetBot automatically starts recording a ten-second video or selfie image and dispenses a treat or plays a pre-recorded sound as a reward. The danger here? Finding out your pet thinks you're more boring than you realize.

Whistle, FitBark and Wonderwoof wearables 

 Of all wearables for dogs, three similar devices are getting the bulk of the attention: Whistle, FitBark and Wonderwoof. They all feature a small device that clips onto your dog's collar and monitors your dog's resting and activity levels. These are then compared to a pre-calculated range based on their breed, age and weight. Where these devices differ is in their corresponding apps. Whistle, for example, enables owners to keep track of medications as well as a food log. The app can also be shared by multiple family members. Whistle also retails a GPS tracker, although it would be nice to see this integrated into the wearable rather than as separate product in the future. Whistle is also the first consumer device to tap into Sigfox’s low-power IoT network. By comparison, FitBark can be linked to an owner's Fitbit and has the option of a separate wifi base accessory - at a cost of $80 - for monitoring multiple dogs. The Wonderwoof app also enables the owner to track the location of "doggy friends" while you're out walking. Don't worry, cats - a Wondermeow is in the works this year. 

Voyce

Voyce is a health-focused wearable collar for dogs that does everything some of th above activity wearables do, but also measures sunlight exposure as well as heart and respiratory rates. Designed by a team of veterinarians, Voyce's strength is that the health information can be made available to your dog's veterinarian. Voyce is more than double the cost of other health monitoring devices and a membership plan - around $100 per year - is required to have access to the corresponding online portal. 

An owner can activate the "caregiver" option, giving their pet’s vet access to all of the Voyce monitor’s data. A separate Voyce Pro program enables veterinarians to actively monitor their patients.

The collar comes in different sizes, but it may prove too uncomfortable for many dogs. Some reviews complained that the collar's bulky looks got them some evil looks - owners were accused of having their pet wear a shock collar. But this kind of detailed monitoring wearable will likely become a precedent for future developers, albeit hopefully in a more ergonomic collar. 

Ipad Games ....for Cats? (And Lonely Penguins....)

Have you ever found your cat watching television? Their entertainment needn't be usurped by your own, thanks to Ipad Games for Cats. I had a chat with game designer TJ Fuller, part of the duo that created Game for Cats app. The idea came from seeing videos of cats playing with iPads on YouTube, but the impetus was a lengthy failed attempt at making children's games. They decided to see what they could make in two weeks and the resulting game - where cats can play with mice, lasers and butterflies - was a hit. Since then, two other games have featured in the kitty reportoire, Paint for Cats and Catzilla.

The experiences in creating games for cats highlight some of the challenges for developers in working with animals. With the first beta version, the developers knew they were at a loss for market research - neither had a cat or even an Ipad. Buying an iPad was easy, and they took it to the local pet shelter to test the game.

"The women at the shelter didn’t know what the iPad was but the cats loved it immediately," says Fuller. "It became really popular right away."  

The game also proved popular at the aquarium in Long Beach, California - particularly with the penguins that experienced increased sex drives after playing the game. 

There was also some unintended consequences in the first game, which began with free levels and extended to paid levels. Users complained that money was being taken from their accounts without their consent. It turned out that the cats were pressing their paw on the "buy now" button. After that, they introduced a failsafe where a buyer needed a credit card and a human hand to make a payment.

Fuller says the biggest challenge in making games for cats is that their capacity for engagement differs significantly to humans. Cat owners wanted a more advanced game for their cats. But after going all-out with their third game, Catzilla, they found that the game appealed to owners more than cats. As one reviewer wrote:

"Whereas our kitties will sit, purring loudly in anticipation, staring at a blank iPad WAITING for me to turn on the Painting game, they completely ignored this game visually and got very scared of the siren sounds".

This led to lower-than-expected sales despite the first two apps selling consistently for several years. Fuller notes that testing is the key in creating product for pets. He explained a recent frustrating situation where they were working on another game for months, only to find out during beta testing that cats just would not play it. 

Sure, it's easy for the petless out there to smirk at both the tech sector's and pet owners' desires for pettech. But most owners consider their pets a member of the family and valu their well-being. However, there are concerns that the market could easily become overly saturated with products which are targeted at behavioural modification through "static correction" and other forms of control, which can seem cruel and archaic - and at odds with the benefits of the majority of pet wearables and apps. But hopefully, tails will keep wagging.

 Slack was being cheeky when yesterday it said voice chat would start testing “very, very soon”. Today the new “Calls” feature starting rolling out on Slack for desktop and on the Chrome browser. It lets you start a private Slack Call or launch a conference call in a channel that anyone can join with a click. And in keeping with Slack’s lighthearted style, once… Read More

The network's capacity to process transactions has maxed out.

VMware announced on Tuesday that its President and COO Carl Eschenbach is leaving the company.

The news came as a bit of a surprise given Eschenbach was effectively the #2 guy behind CEO Pat Gelsinger.

But a closer look at VMware shows the top-level exodus has been quietly going on for a while, and Eschenbach is just the latest in a series of recent executive departures at the company.

Here's a quick run-down of its recent executive departures, based on LinkedIn profiles:

Jonathan Chadwick, CFO: Announced resignation last month

Ben Fathi, CTO: Left in September 2015 to join CloudFlare as Head of Engineering

Charles Fan, SVP and GM VSAN: Left in February 2016 to join Cheetah Mobile as CTO

Riccardo di Blasio, SVP vCloud Air Sales: Left in October 2015 to join Sequoia-backed Cohesity as COO

Simone Brunozzi, VP and Chief Technologist: Left in January 2016 to join stealth startup

Mathew Lodge, VP of vCloud Air Marketing: Left in August 2015 to join Accel-backed startup Weaveworks as COO

Diane Gonzalez, VP of vCloud Air Platform: Left in August 2015 to join Amazon as VP of Commerce Platform

Scott Collison, VP and GM vCloud Air: Left in September 2015 to join Bessemer-backed startup Nitrous as CEO

Ramin Sayer, SVP of Management: Left in December 2014 to join Sumo Logic as CEO

Martin Casado, GM and SVP of Networking: Left in February 2016 to join Andreessen Horowitz as general partner

That means in the past year alone, VMware has lost at least 11 of its top executives. On top of that, VMware announced last month that it would be laying off 800 employees, after giving lowered revenue guidance for the upcoming year.

So what's causing all this change? One former executive we spoke to blamed the current management structure, in which its parent company EMC holds about 80% control of the company. That allows EMC CEO Joe Tucci to have outsized influence over the company's direction, and his hands-on approach only intensified after activist investor Eliot Management took a larger stake in the company.

On top of that, the proposed merger between EMC and Dell is worrying a lot of people internally that the company would end up turning into a slowing company with no fresh innovation. VMware has lost almost 40% of its share value since the proposed merger was first announced in October 2015.

"They’re gonna turn into your dad’s software company," this person said.

Of course, this is one person's opinion, so it should be taken with a grain of salt. But Wall Street seems to be taking note of this trend, too, as FBR & Co. analyst Daniel Ives wrote in a recent note:

"We do have major worries about an exodus of employees of VMware wanting to run away from this situation and believe some execution issues can result from this deal, a dynamic VMware hinted at with its conservative 2016 outlook. This will remain a hot-button issue around the VMware story until the company proves otherwise, in our opinion."

When we asked VMware about it, its spokesperson told us this is just part of the company's natural transformation cycle, and pointed us towards its deep executive bench.

"Leadership change is a natural part of every company’s evolution and there is no connection between any of the departures. We continue to attract outstanding talent to the company and we have an extremely strong leadership bench," VMware's spokesperson said.

In fact, some of the executives on its bench, including sales leader Maurizio Carli, CTO Ray O'Farrell, and executive VP Sanjay Poonen were all promoted today to take on bigger roles within the company.

Regardless, with all the management change going on, the situation at VMware will continue to raise question marks for the rest of the year.

"Customers will lose confidence in the company," the former exec we spoke to said. "Where exactly is the company going?"

SEE ALSO: VMware’s top execs are heading for the door ahead of the $67 billion EMC-Dell merger

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NOW WATCH: Here's what fruits and vegetables looked like before we domesticated them

It's hard to think of anything more extreme than riding a rocket into space, but NASA astronaut Scott Kelly has set a new extreme space record, and made history in the process.

After reaching the International Space Station last year on March 27, Kelly embarked on a mission that has pushed the boundaries of American spaceflight.

And on Tuesday evening at approximately 11:26 p.m. ET, part of that mission came to an end.

After spending a record-breaking 340 days in space — longer than any American before him — Kelly arrived safely back on Earth, packed inside a snug Soyuz capsule with cosmonauts Sergey Aleksandrovich Volkov and Mikhail Korniyenko, who also just completed 340 days in space.

Kelly's trip back to solid ground marks an end to his epic life in space.

Now, the real work begins.

Sending an astronaut into space to live for nearly a year on the ISS is one of the most ambitious missions NASA has ever launched in its efforts to eventually send humans to Mars.

But there are many questions that need answers before NASA is ready for the red planet.

Now that Kelly is back on Earth, scientists can begin to answer some of those questions. They'll start by analyzing, in detail, how Kelly's 340-day stay in space has affected his body.

Life in space

Unfortunately, one of the most entertaining aspects about space is also the most harmful to the human body: microgravity.

Somersaulting in mid-air looks like great fun, but over time microgravity has a bizarre and potentially dangerous impact on physical performance.

For example, astronauts in the past have experienced impaired vision, changes in their sense of taste, and an increased flow of fluid to the brain.

Increased fluid flow to the brain is particularly concerning because when astronauts return to Earth, their blood pressure must readjust to Earth's gravity. But this takes time, and as a result some astronauts who have just returned can't stand up for more than 10 minutes without fainting.

Other concerns about long-duration spaceflight include a loss of bone and muscle mass, weakened immune system, and fatigue.

Kelly conducted a number of experiments during his time in space to help address these concerns, but now that he's back scientists can get a closer look at him.

They'll also observe how quickly he recovers. Recovery rate is important in predicting how much future astronauts — who land on Mars for brief periods — will be capable of doing, both physically and mentally, after spending 8.5 months in space, about the time it takes to get to Mars.

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NOW WATCH: Watch Scott Kelly's awesome reaction to landing safely on Earth after his record-breaking time in space

AT&T will launch three separate internet streaming TV services later this year under its DirecTV brand, none of which require cable or satellite subscriptions.

The services are aimed at people who are living in a post-cable world, one filled with streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. They will work with any carrier (Verizon too), and on basically any device you want — phone, tablet, streaming box, smart TV, and so on.

Here is a quick rundown of the three services:

• DirecTV Now will function as your cable package replacement. AT&T says it will include "much" of what DirecTV offers today: on-demand, live programming, and premium add-ons. But you won't have a satellite.
• DirecTV Mobile will be aimed at smartphones and is characterized by AT&T as "affordable." You can think of it as being more in the Hulu camp. There will be a lot of TV shows, but not necessarily everything will be available as soon as it goes live. While this service is "mobile-first," AT&T confirms you'll be able to access it from any streaming device.
• DirecTV Preview will be a free service that is completely ad-supported. At first blush, it seems the content offerings won't be nearly as good. The company is touting content from AT&T's "Audience Network" and millennial-focused "Otter Media." You can look at this service a bit like Verizon's ad-supported Go90 app.

AT&T declined to elaborate on pricing, but said it will be "competitive" with other services offering the same content. This might mean that people who have ditched the cable ecosystem could get sticker shock at the highest tier. It certainly won't be the $10 bucks you pay for many "over-the-top" services like Netflix.

Even so, these releases do mark a major move into internet TV by two big players.

The offerings until now have been fairly barren. Sling TV offers a "skinny bundle" of channels like ESPN, AMC, and CNN for $20 a month. But AT&T has indicated that DirecTV Now will be more robust in content offerings than a "skinny bundle."

That is promising for cord-cutters, but the big piece that needs to fall into place is the price. If AT&T can't make the highest tier more attractive financially than just buying a cable subscription and logging into Comcast's Xfinity instead of watching it on TV, it won't make much noise.

SEE ALSO: A big theater chain has reversed its ban on Netflix movies — as a 'favor'

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NOW WATCH: Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam explains why he bought AOL

The software's true appeal is understanding questions within questions and sussing out human context.

Elliptic Labs has been passionate about gesture-controlled technology since its founding in 2006. While much of their energy has been focused on a touch-free mobile phone experience - enabling hands-free video recording and selfies - they unveiled EASY IoT software at Mobile World Congress, allowing controlling IoT appliances to take place with simple hand gestures. The technology can be applicable to devices like smart thermostats, kitchen appliances, lighting controls, and security systems, to name a few.

The company will be offering EASY IoT technology to mobile manufacturers for inclusion in their products. “By working closely with mobile manufacturers and their IoT innovation departments, we enable consumers to easily connect, control, and interact with IoT devices,” explained Laila Danielsen, CEO of Elliptic Labs. “Ultrasound is such a versatile yet robust technology that creating solutions for home use, as we are demoing today, is just the beginning."

EASY IoT works by using ultrasonic presence-detection to wake up devices and enable touchless gesture capabilities. When a device detects the presence of a hand or body, it turns itself to waiting or active mode, ready to be used. The technology can be embedded in any device and OEMs can assign any meaning to a gesture depending on the application and the location where the gesture is performed.

Available exclusively from Elliptic Labs, ultrasonic touchless gesture technology has already proven itself superior to other approaches, such as optical or infrared sensors. Ultrasonic technology is the only such solution that can deliver full 3D interaction all around a device at 180 degrees. The exceptionally wide interaction zone, together with low power consumption and functionality in any lighting conditions, make ultrasound a winning technology for tomorrow’s connected home.

The revolutionary ultrasound technology from Elliptic Labs works much like radar, sending out sound waves that bounce off objects and deliver back information via microphones built into existing devices. Elliptic Labs’ software converts this information into a command for the mobile device or IoT appliance. Does the gesture controlling look strange? Perhaps, at first, but once you've demoed switching a lamp on and off with a gesture and learn that the small sensors use very little battery power, you start to believe that this could change the lives of not only devices but also their users.

Today, Microsoft released a flood of new details on the first, developer-focused version of its HoloLens holographic goggles — including a release date and information on the HoloLens' apps and hardware.

The HoloLens, first announced just over a year ago, is a standalone device from Microsoft that actually overlays three-dimensional holograms into your field of vision.

The technical term for what HoloLens does is "augmented reality." It's very cool, even if consumers like you and me still have to wait a long while for the official release.

The first piece of news today: The Microsoft HoloLens Developer Edition goggles will start to ship to qualified developers on March 30th, according to a blog entry.

This first version of the HoloLens, intended as a first peek for those developers who will be building the holographic apps of the future, will cost $3,000. You have to apply to Microsoft directly, starting today, before you'll be allowed to buy one. 

Second, Microsoft announced, in a separate blog entry, the apps that will come with the HoloLens Developer Edition: 

• HoloStudio, described by Microsoft as "the first program of its kind, allowing people to easily create 3D in 3D – at real-world scale." In other words, it lets you build holographic models.
• Skype, A hologram-enhanced version of the megapopular voice chat app. It lets HoloLens wearers talk with people using Skype on their phones or PCs. But if the person on the other end of the line also has a HoloLens, they can see each others' holograms, meaning they can work together.
• HoloTour, which places you in a holographic recreation of global landmarks like Rome and Macchu Pichu. 
• Fragments, a game described as "a mixed reality crime drama that unfolds in your own environment." Microsoft says that "it blends the line between the digital world and the real world more than any other experience we built."
• Young Conker, a Mario-style platforming video game that uses your own space to generate the levels in which the titular Conker has to hop around.
• RoboRaid, previously known as Project X-Ray — a robot shooting gallery that Microsoft has previously shown off. 

None of this software is quite ready for a commercial release, Microsoft says. The goal is really to show developers the potential of HoloLens, and what it's capable of by giving them an array of ideas for different ways it could be used. 

When it comes to actually building apps, the HoloLens actually runs on a custom holographic version of Windows 10. Microsoft is trying to make it as easy as possible for developers already familiar with Windows to bring their apps to holographic life with HoloLens.  

On a side note, Microsoft also announced that this summer, HoloLens Developer Edition will get Actiongram, a software tool for making "mixed-reality videos" that integrate real-life with holographic special effects.

Finally, Microsoft disclosed the hardware specs of the HoloLens, including its 2-3 hours of battery life with "active use" and its 2-week standby time. The specs also reveal that the HoloLens uses a "custom-built Microsoft Holographic Processing Unit (HPU 1.0)" and has 64GB of memory. 

It also comes with a "Clicker" controller for interacting with holograms, and a nifty carrying case.

The HoloLens still has some issues to be ironed out before it's truly ready for mass adoption, namely its high cost and its still-very-slim hologram viewable area. And Microsoft is being very careful not to repeat its past mistakes with the Kinect, released before it was truly ready.

But HoloLens is inching closer to a real thing — and maybe, just maybe, it'll be enough to kickstart a holographic revolution.

SEE ALSO: Microsoft is being super careful not to repeat the Kinect disaster with its futuristic HoloLens goggles

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NOW WATCH: Here's Microsoft's amazing vision for what the HoloLens can do

Microsoft has officially closed down "Project Astoria" — a software tool first announced in 2015 to help developers bring their Android apps to Windows 10 phones, tablets, and PCs. 

It's an abrupt setback to Microsoft's effort to juice up its struggling mobile platform by building various "Windows Bridges."

The idea was to make it easy for developers to bring their wares into the Microsoft Windows Store app market, helping alleviate its poor selection compared to the Android and iPhone app stores.

The other two Windows Bridges, Project Centennial (for old-school Windows software) and Project Islandwood (for bringing over iPhone apps), will proceed as planned, the company said in a blog post on Thursday .

Reading between the lines, it sounds like the lion's share of developers interested in the Windows Bridges are at least partially working on iPhone apps already.

For those few Android-only developers, Microsoft recommends looking into Xamarin — the startup Microsoft bought yesterday for a reported $500 million, which lets developers write a bit of code once and run it anywhere.

News of Project Astoria's shutdown doesn't come as much of a surprise: In November, reports emerged that Project Astoria was on indefinite hiatus, as its work-in-progress website was unexpectedly taken down. 

Other bridges to cross

Basically, Microsoft says in that blog entry, the developers for whom Project Astoria was intended found it to be an unnecessary addition to the Project Islandwood tool for iPhone apps. 

"We have carefully considered this feedback and decided that we would focus our efforts on the Windows Bridge for iOS and make it the single Bridge option for bringing mobile code to all Windows 10 devices, including Xbox and PCs," Microsoft writes in that blog entry.

Right now, Microsoft writes, Islandwood is best-suited for bringing iPhone games to Windows 10, with stuff like robust graphics support. The new focus, with the demise of Project Astoria, is to expand it and make it better for bringing all kinds of iPhone apps over. 

Ultimately, the real story here is that while Microsoft may have given up on Project Astoria, it's still working really hard to bring as many games, apps, and tools to the Windows Store as it possibly can, as it works to bolster Windows 10 and get more people to adopt the new operating system.

SEE ALSO: Microsoft just made a brilliant buy by grabbing a hot startup called Xamarin

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NOW WATCH: A Microsoft cofounder’s $165 million yacht allegedly destroyed a protected coral reef

France is getting ready to hit Google with a massive tax bill, according to reports.

Both AFP and Reuters state that France is chasing €1.6 billion (£1.27 billion) in back taxes from the US search giant.

It's 10 times more than the recent tax deal Google made with Britain for £130 million in back taxes — and is likely to further inflame criticisms of the UK's settlement and the company's tax practices in Europe.

Britain is Google's second-biggest market after the US. 

An official at the French finance ministry told Reuters that "as far as our country is concerned, back taxes concerning this company amount to 1.6 billion euros."

And a source told AFP that "in regards to France, a 1.6 billion euro adjustment has been imposed on the company." But they added: "This does not mean that Google will ultimately pay 1.6 billion ... There will be appeals, and perhaps a negotiation in the end, in particular on penalties."

On Wednesday, Britain's Public Accounts Committee slammed Google's £130 million British settlement, calling it "disproportionately small." In January Google agreed to pay the amount for a decade's-worth of back taxes in Britain — prompting criticism from politicians and campaigners who claim this amounts to a 3% tax rate.

The Public Accounts Committee's report criticises the lack of "transparency" over the settlement. "In the absence of full transparency over the details of this settlement and how it was reached we cannot judge whether it is fair to taxpayers," it says. "The sum paid by Google seems disproportionately small when compared with the size of Google’s business in the UK, reinforcing our concerns that the rules governing where corporation tax is paid by multinational companies do not produce a fair outcome."

Google's European boss Matt Brittin was grilled by the Public Accounts Committee earlier in February. He was criticised early on when he failed to name his salary, and called repeatedly for a simplification of global tax rules.

The Committee's report takes issue with this call: "Google’s stated desire for greater tax simplicity and transparency is at odds with the complex operational structure it has created which appears to be directed at minimising its tax liabilities. Google admits that this structure will not change as a result of this settlement."

A Google spokesperson declined to comment on the figure.

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NOW WATCH: Apple has confirmed that setting your iPhone to this date will kill your device

The Internet of Things (IoT) has been called the next Industrial Revolution — it will change the way all businesses, governments, and consumers interact with the physical world.

For more than two years, BI Intelligence has closely tracked the growth of the IoT. Specifically, we've analyzed how the IoT ecosystem enables entities (i.e. consumers, businesses, and governments) to connect to, and control, their IoT devices in 16 environments, including manufacturing, the connected home, transportation, and agriculture. 

In a new report from BI Intelligence, we discuss all of the components of the IoT ecosystem, including its devices, analytics, networks, and security. We also provide estimates and forecasts on the burgeoning IoT market, including device growth, amount invested, and potential return on investment. 

Here are some key points from the report: 

• In total, we project there will be 34 billion devices connected to the internet by 2020, up from 10 billion in 2015. IoT devices will account for 24 billion, while traditional computing devices (e.g. smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, etc.) will comprise 10 billion.
• Nearly $6 trillion will be spent on IoT solutions over the next five years.
• Businesses will be the top adopter of IoT solutions. They see three ways the IoT can improve their bottom line by 1) lowering operating costs; 2) increasing productivity; and 3) expanding to new markets or developing new product offerings.
• Governments are focused on increasing productivity, decreasing costs, and improving their citizens’ quality of life. We believe they will be the second-largest adopters of IoT ecosystems.
• Consumers will lag behind businesses and governments in IoT adoption. Still, they will purchase a massive number of devices and invest a significant amount of money in IoT ecosystems.

In full, the report:

• Distills the technological complexities of the Internet of Things into a single ecosystem
• Explains the benefits and shortcomings of many networks, including mesh (e.g. ZigBee, Z-Wave, etc.), cellular (e.g. 3G/4G, Sigfox, etc.), and internet networks (e.g. Wi-Fi, Ethernet, etc.)
• Discusses analytics systems, including edge analytics, cloud analytics, and more
• Examines IoT security best practices
• Details the four IoT market drivers and four IoT market barriers
• Forecasts IoT investment by six layers: connectivity, security, data storage, system integration, device hardware, and application development
• Analyzes how the IoT ecosystem is being using in a number of industries
• Defines Internet of Things terminology within a glossary

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

1. Purchase & download the full report from our research store.» Purchase & Download Now
2. Subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and over 100 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally.» Learn More Now
   

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NOW WATCH: John McAfee explains why an iPhone backdoor is a terrible idea

Cloud computing might be a threat to some of the biggest IT vendors around, but it's turning other companies into the next Goliaths.

Take ScienceLogic, for example, a company founded 12 years ago by CEO David Link.

ScienceLogic's revenue under contract — aka "bookings" — tripled from about $30 million in 2014 to $100 million in 2015, Link told Business Insider.

And he expects big growth again in 2016, although he wouldn't share the target number.

This is all because of enterprises running full-speed ahead toward cloud-computing services, particularly Amazon Web Services — the giant of the industry.

ScienceLogic offers what's known as systems and network monitoring tools. It competes with products from companies like Zenoss, Solarwinds, IBM, HP, and CA.

The 'hybrid' market

About three years ago, Link saw the cloud-computing trend and revamped his product to work especially well with Amazon's cloud. Today, it also works with Microsoft Azure and clouds built using VMware's software, too.

His goal was to tackle what's known today as "hybrid" computing. That's when companies put part of their IT into the cloud while keeping part in their own data centers.

Many businesses plan to operate in a hybrid forever. Others find that once they try cloud computing, they like it and want to eventually unplug all of their data centers. But they will still be hybrid for a few years, the time it takes them to move.

As you might imagine, it can be complicated to manage a hybrid setup, with apps, data, and systems spread out all over. And this is especially true if a company uses more than one cloud, which many do.

ScienceLogic helps them watch, and even find, all of their IT assets. Its claim to fame is that it's incredibly detailed, Link tells us.

A dot-com survivor

ScienceLogic is also a dream come true for Link.

Before he founded ScienceLogic, Link had been working for a web-hosting company that didn't survive the dot-com bubble. It was his job to buy all of the data-center equipment and systems-monitoring tools. He and his two ScienceLogic cofounders — who still run the company with him — spent their first year programming the initial product in his basement.

"I was a buyer of these products, and I didn't like the way the marketplace was treating me," he told Business Insider. "We didn't build this company to build it and flip it. We wanted to solve a problem near and dear to our hearts."

The company was bootstrapped for its first seven years before landing its first $15 million in venture funding from NEA in 2010. It then landed Intel and Goldman Sachs as investors and, all told, raised $84 million, with a $45 million round from Goldman Sachs about a year ago, before the funding bubble burst.

"We'll be cash-flow positive second half of this year," he says. "I'm so happy to be sitting here now, feeling smarter than I should because we took more funding than we needed."

An initial public offering is the eventual goal, he concedes, but that will have to wait until the public market regains its tech-IPO appetite again.

In the meantime, thanks in large part to Amazon, business is good.

In addition to tripling bookings last year, ScienceLogic will grow its employee base from 270 to about 350 people in 2016, with offices in Europe, Hong Kong, and Singapore. It has 25,000 customers worldwide.

SEE ALSO: 26 of the most powerful female engineers in 2016

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NOW WATCH: Amazon will open over 300 brick-and-mortar bookstores — we visited the first one

Google AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages), the company's ambitious project to speed up loading times on the mobile web, officially launches today.

AMP is an open source code framework, a bit like a new HTML, that Google asked publishers and developers to adopt into their websites and apps back in October. Companies on board include Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, the BBC, and The Washington Post. 

AMP essentially helps those partners create lighter-weight web pages that have a reduced relaince on clunky technology such as JavaScript. 

In a blog post, Google says AMP web pages load on average four times faster than normal web pages, and sometimes up to 10 times faster.

From today, mobile users searching for certain topics in the news on Google will also be presented with a "Top stories" carousel of articles that they can swipe through to get a snapshot of the big stories of the day.

Google's VP of search engineering said in the blog post: "While helping people find fast AMP content through Google Search is a significant step, there’s still a lot of work ahead for the open source AMP Project. Still, it’s been thrilling to see how the industry has come together to work on this common goal of making the mobile web great for everyone. And given the potential AMP holds for other types of content, we’re excited about what the future holds."

Google AMP has been compared to Facebook Instant Articles and Apple News, but the project differs from those two projects in that it is inviting anyone to join the open source project — including Apple and Google — rather than creating a closed ecosystem in which to distribute publishers' content.

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NOW WATCH: Meet the 13-year-old dance prodigy at the center of a big new ad campaign

As we noted last week, online shopping is crushing traditional brick-and-mortar retailers like Nordstrom and Macy's.

But on Tuesday we found that Home Depot's business is flying high.

And while it may seem that both types of retailers are susceptible to an increase in online shopping habits, why is Home Depot doing so much better?

A chart from Stifel highlights the difference on the most basic level, more people buy clothes online than home improvement supplies.

And whether its the lower homeownership rate of millennials — who have a higher propensity to shop online — or that Home Depot simply carries a product mix that may not be conducive to online purchases, it's business has clearly stood up to a change in the marketplace that has hammered its competition. 

SEE ALSO: Nordstrom's CFO makes crystal clear why online shopping is killing traditional retailers

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NOW WATCH: A new theory suggests this is the real reason Cam Newton stormed out of his press conference

Ever wonder how much you've spent on Amazon over the years?

If you're feeling brave and want to see the total amount, you're in luck, there's a way to check that's easier than you think.

Using a tool that Amazon provides — but doesn't advertise — you're just a few clicks away from seeing how much all those late night orders have really cost you.  

First, head on over to Amazon.com and log in and view your orders

Once you've logged in, click "Your orders" in the top-right corner to be taken to your account page with a ton of order-related options. 

Hidden in plain sight is the "Download Order Reports" link. Click on that to be taken to the next step.

Select how far back in your Amazon purchase history you want to go

If you want a report of your entire Amazon history, pick January 1st and the year you opened your account; the dropdown under "year" only goes back that far. Then click "use today" for the second date. Once you're done, click on "request report" and in a minute or so a .csv file will automatically be downloaded.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Welcome to the future.

On Sunday, Facebook CEO and virtual reality enthusiast Mark Zuckerberg shared the image above on his Facebook profile.

It's a real photo, and was taken at Mobile World Congress this weekend — a big tech conference in Spain.

The internet is freaking out.

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NOW WATCH: A teen built a KFC chicken vending machine made entirely of Lego blocks — here's how it works

Thanks, Amazon Prime.

Cyanogen CEO Kirt McMaster is fired up about his company's new range of "mods" — expanded apps that integrate directly into Cyanogen's modified version of Android that lets you do more than just open up an app and just use it.

"This is a big deal," McMaster says about mods.

The company is launching a set of new integrations, including Skype, Cortana, and Hyperlapse. There's a theme there: all of those services are made by Microsoft.

Microsoft was rumoured to have invested in Cyanogen, but instead it's working with the company to ship Cyanogen's version of Android complete with Microsoft services.

Cyanogen is now letting developers get more control over how a smartphone works using what it calls mods. They're more than an app — a mod makes functionality seem as if it's built into a smartphone's operating system.

You can view Instagram right on your lock screen, for example, or use Skype straight from the dialler app. Or you could ask Microsoft's virtual assistant Cortana to take a selfie of you and make it look pretty.

McMaster says this kind of enhanced integration is the future of computing, not things like virtual reality. "Everybody’s so excited about VR. The phones put people to sleep now. The next step in computing is not VR, we think it’s integrating these experiences into the mobile operating system because this gives rise to new kinds of experiences, new kinds of intelligences."

"You’ll sell hundreds of millions of Android phones this year, and you’ll sell, what, half a dozen Oculus devices?" he says. "By 2020 Android will be at around 4.6 billion users. iOS, plus Facebook daily active users on mobile, plus Windows PC will be about 4.4 to 4.5 billion users by 2020. In other words, Android will be bigger than all three of them combined. Android is a super platform and its potential is yet to even be realised."

McMaster's vision of the smartphone world is one where Android rules dominant, and app developers have much more control over what they can do. That's the polar opposite to Apple's walled garden approach.

He's also skeptical about the endless cycle of smartphone launches:

You’re here at Mobile World Congress, what do you see? A whole bunch of goddamn rectangles. Big fucking deal. Who cares about rectangles? Nobody cares about rectangles anymore. It’s all about applications and services, but you don’t hear much interesting about applications and services.

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NOW WATCH: A teen built a KFC chicken vending machine made entirely of Lego blocks — here's how it works

IBM's partnership with Apple bears even more fruit today as the IBM Cloud becomes the first cloud computing platform to support the smash hit Apple Swift programming language.

Swift has already found a niche with iPhone app developers. Now, with IBM's help, Apple Swift is going to invade the enterprise — giving IBM Cloud a feature that leading competitors like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure can't match.

Swift, first introduced by Apple in 2014, literally has developers cheering. Nowadays, there are over 10 million programmers hacking away with Swift, IBM says.

"The thing about Swift that's very appealing is the speed of the language; the elegance," says Vice President of Cloud Architecture and Technology Dr. Angel Diaz.

In December of 2015, Apple took the huge step of releasing Swift as open source, meaning any developer anywhere can download the language's source code and improve it to their liking.

That move hit the gas pedal on Swift's already considerable growth and popularity, sending it to the top of the popularity charts at GitHub.

Apple Senior VP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi has said that it intends for Swift to be "the language, the major language for the next 20 years of programming in our industry." 

What IBM Cloud now provides enterprise app developers with is a set of tools for writing software in Swift that's intended to run on servers, rather than smartphones. Before, any developer looking to run Swift code on a cloud server would have to switch languages, kind of rendering the whole exercise moot.

"We are making it easy for developers to start developing their Swift apps in the cloud," Diaz says.

This extends the work that IBM has already done to get Swift working with the Linux operating system, which powers most of the world's data centers and big server farms in all industries.

For enterprises, Swift in the cloud means that their app's code can be as sleek and elegant as any Silicon Valley startup's. Plus, with Swift's growing popularity, it means that there's an increasing supply of top talent who know Swift and love it. 

Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that he sees the enterprise as a major part of the company's business going forward. Taking advantage of the IBM partnership to get Swift into more businesses is a big part of that.

IBM already has 100 enterprise Apple apps created through its partnership with Apple, all of them written on Swift. These apps are being used to help sell iPads and iPhones to large enterprises, and sell the apps that run on IBM's cloud.

The existence of those 100 apps means that IBM has already made a huge investment in the Swift language.

It's a win-win for both companies: Apple gets a bigger footprint in the lucrative enterprise market, while IBM gets a very attractive programming language option as it looks to grow its own very important cloud business. 

This is good because IBM investors and executives alike are betting on the cloud to turn Big Blue around amid shrinking top line revenues.

SEE ALSO: One of the world's most influential programmers works from home in his bathroom in complete silence

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NOW WATCH: Tim Cook: Apple won’t hack iPhone used by the San Bernardino shooter

Linus Torvalds, the founder and maintainer of the incredibly popular free Linux operating system, spends his days working from home in a bathrobe in complete silence.

Torvalds revealed his work process on stage at this week's TED conference, the BBC reports.

It's a deceptively unassuming look for Torvalds, the man behind Linux. While not as well-known as Windows or Mac OSX, Linux is an operating system that powers the servers running the Internet. It also underlies just about every banking and market trading system and serves as the core of Google Android. 

Linux is an open source operating system, meaning anyone can use it for free and customize it to their own needs. And more than 12,000 developers from more than 1,200 companies have not only done that, but have seen their work added back to the main Linux project (the "kernel" in geek-speak), according to a recent report from the Linux Foundation.

It's a real badge of honor for a developer to contribute to the Linux kernel.

To do that, however, they've got to go through Torvalds. He has the ultimate say over what code gets added to the Linux kernel and what doesn't. And he manages the whole thing from home.

As his casual bathrobe look might suggest, Torvalds is not one to put on airs — in that same TED talk, Torvalds says "I am not a visionary. I'm an engineer. I'm happy with the people who are wandering around looking at the stars but I am looking at the ground and I want to fix the pothole before I fall in."

But Torvalds is also notoriously demanding (and foul-mouthed) when it comes to contributions to Linux.

In January 2015, he infamously remarked "I'm not a nice person, and I don't care about you. I care about the technology and the kernel — that's what's important to me." In his TED talk, Torvalds confirms "I am not a people person."

That abrasive style of management, and his lack of any sense of decorum, has turned away many would-be contributors to Linux over the years. Yet, Linux remains an incredibly critical piece of software to the entire world.

Even Microsoft, which once hated Linux with the burning passion of a million exploding suns, has gotten in on the Linux love-fest with its Azure cloud platform. Great things come from humble beginnings, it seems. 

SEE ALSO: Microsoft keeps swallowing its pride by supporting once-bitter rivals in the cloud

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NOW WATCH: These are the features that make Android phones superior to iPhones

Microsoft is working on a program to hook up India's national identity system Aadhar with Skype, reports the Indian Express.

In India, just as in the United States, there's only so much you can do when it comes to dealing with government agencies over the phone or e-mail. At a certain point, you have to go to City Hall (or whatever other municipal office) and show some kind of identification in order to get what you want. 

But if you could connect a national ID database to a video service like Skype, it cuts down on pesky travel time and waiting on lines. (It's also a little scary, privacy-wise, but we'll get to that.)

The idea is to associate a person's Aadhar 12-digit identification code, almost like a Social Security Number, with their Skype account.

Then, when the citizen dials in a video call to a government office, the public servant on the other end knows for sure that they're talking to the right person. Permits can be issued and business can be done, without anybody having to wait in line at the local equivalent of the DMV. 

But it also means that Microsoft has even more knowledge of your identity than ever before. It means there are some tricky ethical and legal questions that are still going to have to be answered before this catches on in the mainstream.

On the Skype end, Microsoft President Brad Smith says in that report that this is still very much early days, but that fingerprint or facial scanners could be used to make sure that nobody is stealing your Skype account, and therefore your identity. 

Aadhar is a voluntary program, but as of the end of January, just under a billion Indian citizens had enrolled. With a population of about 1.3 billion, that's most of India on board. 

If this program is a success, and it eventually comes elsewhere, it could solve a lot of headaches for anyone who's ever had to wait in line at the DMV to fill out a form or go to City Hall to pay a bill. And at the very least, it has a lot of upside for people who don't want to take a day off work to go wait in line.

 

SEE ALSO: Microsoft Bing nailed the Oscars last year — now it thinks Leonardo DiCaprio will finally win

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NOW WATCH: A guy Skyped his parents while jumping out of a plane

By Beth Schultz
Atos turns to Jon Pritchard, armed with channel experience, to lead the next phase of Unify's future.

Google Translate is this close to being able to translate everything on the internet.

The translation app now covers 103 languages, it announced on Wednesday — 99% of the total online population.

Its most recent update, which will be released in the "coming days," adds an extra 120 million people, it says, via support for 13 new languages.

The new languages are Amharic, Corsican, Frisian, Kyrgyz, Hawaiian, Kurdish (Kurmanji), Luxembourgish, Samoan, Scots Gaelic, Shona, Sindhi, Pashto and Xhosa.

"For each new language, we make our translations better over time, both by improving our algorithms and systems and by learning from your translations with Translate Community," senior program manager Sveta Kelman wrote on the Google Translate blog.

The complete list of supported languages — including the new additions — is as follows: Afrikaans, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Basque, Belarusian, Bengali, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Cebuano, Chichewa, Chinese, Corsican, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Frisian, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Gujarati, Haitian Creole, Hausa, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Hindi, Hmong, Hungarian, Icelandic, Igbo, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Javanese, Kannada, Kazakh, Khmer, Korean, Kurdish (Kurmanji), Kyrgyz, Lao, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Macedonian, Malagasy, Malay, Malayalam, Maltese, Maori, Marathi, Mongolian, Myanmar (Burmese), Nepali, Norwegian, Pashto, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Samoan, Scots Gaelic, Serbian, Sesotho, Shona, Sindhi, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Spanish, Sundanese, Swahili, Swedish, Tajik, Tamil, Telugu, Thai Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, Vietnamese, Welsh, Xhosa, Yiddish, Yoruba, and Zulu.

Google Translate is available online, as well as a mobile for Android and iOS.

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NOW WATCH: Columbia law professor argues that 'privacy has been privatized'

 IBM announced its intent to buy Truven Health Analytics today for a whopping $2.6 billion. It is the fourth major purchase for Watson Health since the unit was established in 2014. Watson Health was formed when IBM purchased Phytel and Explorys in April, 2014. Both companies had the common denominator of being data-driven health companies. The unit added Merge Healthcare for another… Read More

Slack is a hot San Francisco startup that makes a chat app for the workplace.

Now, it's coming to a dorm-like apartment building in the trendy Williamsburg neighborhood of New York so neighbors and roommates can stay in touch with each other more easily, Gothamist reports.

Slack first took off with developers in Silicon Valley, and is also used by a lot of news publications, including Business Insider, as a way to cut down on emails.

It's most useful for collaborating on a project as it's happening — which is why it's so useful for developers and reporters — and one of the best things about it is the way it integrates with dozens of other work programs. So for example, if you type "/giphy" and then a word, it will automatically insert an animated GIF from Giphy. You can drop documents from Google Doc directly into the chat stream. And so forth.

But it's also a fun place to gossip, schmooze, and show off your wit — kind of like Twitter with a smaller audience, or the old AOL chat rooms (or IRC, which is what it's based on).

The building that will use Slack is run by Common, a startup that's pioneering the concept of "coliving," where people pay a monthly subscription fee for the right to rent a furnished bedroom — not a whole apartment — in one of several buildings. The payments are month-to-month, and the focus is on community, so there are things like potluck dinners and on-site "residence advisors."

It's basically like a college dorm, but for independent adults.

Common is meant to appeal to young startup workers, so the addition of Slack as an amenity makes a certain kind of sense. It also shows that Slack, already valued at $2.8 billion, may have a future beyond the workplace.

SEE ALSO: This co-living startup that turns brownstones into dorms raised $7.3 million in funding

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NOW WATCH: Apple has confirmed that setting your iPhone to this date will kill your device

On Tuesday, a US judge ordered Apple to help the FBI unlock an encrypted iPhone.

The Cupertino company has reacted furiously.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has published an extremely strongly worded letter, calling the demand "chilling," arguing that it "would undermine the very freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect."

So what's the big deal?

This was sparked by the San Bernardino mass shooting

First, some background on the case.

FBI investigators are trying to access data on the phone of one of the two San Bernardino shooters, who killed 14 people and injured 22 more in a mass shooting in California in December. They're looking to work out how the two were influenced by Islamist terrorist groups, according to The Guardian.

The phone's owner, Syed Farook, was killed in a subsequent shootout. The device in question, an iPhone 5c, was encrypted using Apple's default software, meaning no one, including Apple and the FBI, is able to access its data without the correct passcode.

The FBI has therefore taken Apple to court to try to get its help in unlocking the phone. It isn't trying to get Apple to remove the encryption on the device altogether; rather, it is trying to get Apple to create software that bypasses the limit on the number of passcode attempts you can enter before the device auto-wipes. That would let investigators gain access to the device by trying every possible combination.

A US magistrate on Tuesday ordered Apple to assist the FBI in this.

Apple has indicated it intends to appeal — for reasons we'll get to shortly.

There's an ongoing war over privacy and lawful access to data

This court case isn't taking place in a vacuum. We're in the middle of a bitter feud between tech companies and law enforcement about the rise in the use of encryption.

In the years after NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden's revelations about the US government's mass-surveillance programs, there have been a heightened awareness of privacy issues and moves to strengthen protections on consumer products.

Apple has been one of the strongest voices in support of this move, and all new iPhones and Apple devices are now encrypted by default.

This has, predictably, infuriated some in law enforcement, who argue that vital evidence is "going dark." (Note: A recent Harvard study claims that rather than going dark, investigators have more evidence at their fingertips than ever before.)

James Comey, the director of the FBI, supports backdoors into encrypted products to allow law enforcement access when required, and there have also been legislative calls to mandate encryption backdoors.

Technologists and privacy advocates are strongly resisting this. There are numerous arguments against encryption backdoors, including that they would be subject to abuse by malicious hackers, that they would be ineffective because the criminals they intend to catch would simply switch to uncompromised encryption tools, and that it would set a dangerous precedent for authoritarian regimes to demand backdoor access from tech companies so they could crack down on activists and dissidents.

Apple is angrily rejecting 'overreach by the US government'

Let's get back to the San Bernardino case. What the FBI is asking for perhaps isn't a backdoor in the traditional sense — it's not an extra encryption key held in escrow that would let investigators immediately decrypt the iPhone data they're after.

But in an open letter published on Apple's website, CEO Tim Cook argues that it amounts to a backdoor — and that it's extremely "dangerous."

Cook says what the FBI is asking for does not exist, and Apple would have to make it. "The FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation. In the wrong hands, this software — which does not exist today — would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone's physical possession."

He argues that complying will make ordinary people "less safe." In his words (emphasis ours):

The government suggests this tool could only be used once, on one phone. But that's simply not true. Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices. In the physical world, it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks — from restaurants and banks to stores and homes. No reasonable person would find that acceptable.

The government is asking Apple to hack our own users and undermine decades of security advancements that protect our customers — including tens of millions of American citizens — from sophisticated hackers and cybercriminals. The same engineers who built strong encryption into the iPhone to protect our users would, ironically, be ordered to weaken those protections and make our users less safe.

We can find no precedent for an American company being forced to expose its customers to a greater risk of attack. For years, cryptologists and national security experts have been warning against weakening encryption. Doing so would hurt only the well-meaning and law-abiding citizens who rely on companies like Apple to protect their data. Criminals and bad actors will still encrypt, using tools that are readily available to them.

The Apple CEO then describes the demand as a "dangerous precedent," which would grant the US government "the power to reach into anyone's device to capture their data."

"The government," Cook continued, "could extend this breach of privacy and demand that Apple build surveillance software to intercept your messages, access your health records or financial data, track your location, or even access your phone's microphone or camera without your knowledge."

He concludes: "While we believe the FBI's intentions are good, it would be wrong for the government to force us to build a backdoor into our products. And ultimately, we fear that this demand would undermine the very freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect."

Activists are rallying in support of Apple

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group, is supporting Apple. It says it worries that the FBI's demands set a precedent and that if Apple is forced to create the code, then the code will be used again and again.

"For the first time, the government is requesting Apple write brand new code that eliminates key features of iPhone security — security features that protect us all," EFF deputy executive director Kurt Opsahl wrote in a blog. "Essentially, the government is asking Apple to create a master key so that it can open a single phone. And once that master key is created, we're certain that our government will ask for it again and again, for other phones, and turn this power against any software or device that has the audacity to offer strong security. "

Opsahl added: "The U.S. government wants us to trust that it won't misuse this power. But we can all imagine the myriad ways this new authority could be abused. Even if you trust the U.S. government, once this master key is created, governments around the world will surely demand that Apple undermine the security of their citizens as well."

 

So what happens now?

The court order ordering Apple to assist the FBI finishes like so: "To the extent that Apple believes that compliance with this order would be unreasonably burdensome, it may make an application to this court for relief within five business days of receipt of the order."

Cook has made it clear his company is opposing the order, because "we feel we must speak up in the face of what we see as an overreach by the US government."

Now comes a (most likely lengthy) legal showdown between the FBI and Apple — one that privacy activists and law enforcement will be watching extremely carefully.

Here's the full letter from Apple:

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NOW WATCH: Animated map reveals the 550,000 miles of cable hidden under the ocean that power the internet

Real-estate mogul Donald Trump criticized Apple on Wednesday for denying a government request to hack into the cellphone of one of the San Bernardino shooters.

"To think that Apple won't allow us to get into her cellphone? Who do they think they are? No, we have to open it," Trump said during an interview on "Fox & Friends."

The Republican presidential front-runner argued that it was a matter of "common sense":

I agree 100% with the courts. In that case, we should open it up. I think security overall — we have to open it up. And we have to use our heads. We have to use common sense. Somebody the other day called me a "common-sense conservative." We have to use common sense. Our country has so many problems.

It's been months since two shooters attacked a community center in San Bernardino, California, and law-enforcement officials still can't get into an iPhone belonging to one of the killers.

FBI Director James Comey told a Senate committee earlier this month that officials haven't been able to get past the locking feature on the device.

The phone is also equipped with a security encryption feature that erases the data on the phone after too many unsuccessful unlocking attempts, according to The Associated Press. A US magistrate has ordered Apple to provide software that could wipe out the security encryption on the device.

Apple CEO Tim Cook on Wednesday published a strongly worded letter calling the demand "chilling" and arguing that it "would undermine the very freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect."

"The government suggests this tool could only be used once, on one phone," Cook said in the letter. "But that's simply not true. Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices. In the physical world, it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks — from restaurants and banks to stores and homes. No reasonable person would find that acceptable."

But Trump dismissed Apple's defense during his Fox News interview.

"Apple — this is one case and this a case that certainly we should be able to get into the phone," he said. "And we should find out what happened, why it happened, and maybe there's other people involved. And we have to do that."

Police found two crushed cellphones in a trash can near the site of the San Bernardino attack. The iPhone that law enforcement officials are now trying to access is a county-owned work phone that was used by Syed Rizwan Farook.

He and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, died in a shootout with police after they carried out the December attack at the Inland Regional Center. The attack killed 14 people and left at least 21 others injured.

The shooters pledged allegiance to the terrorist group ISIS (also known as the Islamic State, ISIL, or Daesh) right before the attacks.

Rob Price contributed to this report.

SEE ALSO: TRUMP: One of my 'real dreams' is to convince Apple to move its jobs to the US

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NOW WATCH: Obama on why Trump won’t be president: 'It's not hosting a talk show'

The worst year for tech spending since the financial crisis may be upon us.

Some Mac applications wouldn't open for users this week, and developers who publish software on Apple's Mac App Store were upset about the issue, which they saw as yet another sign that Apple does not prioritize the platform.

Developer Michael Tsai collected some of the complaints: 

Rob Griffiths:

"We’re paying 30% for the privilege of explaining to Apple’s App Store customers why their purchased apps don’t work."

Jeff Johnson:

"On 2 different machines, I had to delete the apps entirely and re-download them from [Mac App Store] in order to get them to work. Quality."

Russell Ivanovic:

"Some of my Mac apps won’t open today. I know why, and I know a re-install fixes it…but…sigh. Mac App Store: It Just Works*"

The uproar caught the attention of Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, and the head of developer relations for Apple's App Stores: 

The issue was related to an expired digital certificate, or code that allows apps to check-in with Apple's servers to confirm the app has been officially paid for and is unaltered before starting up. 

As Schiller points out with the link he provided, Apple has been warning developers for months that its existing certificate was scheduled to expire on Sunday, February 14. Although Apple said that "currently deployed apps... will continue to run as expected," new updates and apps must use Apple's updated certificate. 

However, some users have complained that Apple's suggested fixes – a reboot, or upgrading to the most recent version of OS X  – don't necessarily fix the problem when an app won't boot up due to a certificate issue. 

For users, the best workaround is to reinstall any Mac Store App that won't start. 

Other developers pointed out that while it might be Apple's issue that causes the apps to fail to boot, users will likely blame the app developers, and most developers don't have a way to directly contact their Mac App Store customers. The ability to reply to comments on the App Store is a highly requested feature from app developers, and something that's been available for a while over at the Google Play app store.

The commotion is similar to an event from last fall, where Apple failed to renew a Mac App Store digital certificate, although Apple did not warn developers in advance. In December, Schiller was placed in charge of the Mac App Store.

SEE ALSO: Why the FBI is demanding Apple hack into an iPhone — and why Apple says it's a terrible idea

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NOW WATCH: This brilliant color-changing toilet light solves a lot of nighttime problems