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Results 61-80 of 173 for Mark Smith.

IBM to Drill Watson in Cybersecurity

IBM on Tuesday announced Watson for Cyber Security, a cloud-based version of its AI technology, trained in cybersecurity as part of a year-long research project. "This technology is about using Watson's learning capability and ability to understand the meaning and context of human language, and appl...

Apple’s MacBook Refresh Draws Tepid Response

Apple on Tuesday announced a refreshed MacBook with some incremental improvements but nothing likely to dazzle even the staunchest Mac fans. The improved battery life and fanless design got the attention of Eric Smith, a senior analyst at Strategy Analytics. "Battery life is always top of mind for c...

Facebook Entices VR Content Creators With Open Source Surround Cam

Facebook on Tuesday unveiled a high-quality 360-degree 3D camera suitable for creating virtual reality content. The Facebook Surround 360 system, which made its debut at the F8 developers conference, includes a production-ready camera -- which costs about $30,000 to build and looks like a flying sau...

SPOTLIGHT ON SECURITY

Firm Wins Patent for Novel Way to Detect Spearphishing

Hackers in recent weeks have stepped up their efforts to steal employee tax information from companies in all kinds of industries. Typically, the information contained on IRS form W-2 is used to file false tax returns or steal someone's identity. The situation has become so bad that the IRS earlier ...

Zuckerberg Defends Downsized Internet for Developing World

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday defended his company's downsized version of the Internet, called "Free Basics," which is offered in developing nations around the world. "In every society, there are certain basic services that are so important for people's wellbeing that we expect everyone to ...

Paris Attacks Deepen Encryption Debate

Encryption once again has come under fire in the wake of last week's terrorist attacks in Paris. Western intelligence agencies reportedly blamed the technology for enabling communications among the attackers, and some officials renewed their calls for technology companies to give them decryption key...

Chrome OS Is Dead, Long Live Chrome OS?

Google reportedly is two years into a plan to consolidate the Chrome operating system and Android and plans to roll out a combined OS in 2017. Chromebooks running the Chrome OS have gained adoption as entry-level computers for students and as a low-cost option for a growing number of corporate cust...

Surface Book Evokes Oohs, Ahhs and Sticker Shock

Many reviewers have responded to the preproduction version of Microsoft's Surface Book the way an average Joe would view a top-of-the-line luxury car: The features are great, but the price is daunting. "Overall, we recommend it, especially to people who value performance, design and battery life abo...

Acer Trots Out New Windows 10 PCs

Acer on Monday announced two new Windows 10 devices -- a convertible notebook and a portable all-in-one PC. The Aspire R 14 convertible has four use modes -- one more than the just-unveiled Microsoft Surface Book -- while the Aspire Z3-700 all-in-one PC has a built-in battery with five hours' life.

Microsoft Throws the Book at Apple

Microsoft on Tuesday held an event in New York City where it unveiled a laptop, a tablet, three Lumia smartphones and a fitness band -- all running Windows 10 -- along with a slew of other products. It also announced new apps for Windows 10, including Box, Facebook, Instagram, Flipagram, Candy Crush...

SPOTLIGHT ON SECURITY

Netflix Move Prompts Premature Antivirus Software Obit

Netflix reportedly is in the process of dumping its antivirus software and placing all its faith in an alternative solution to protect its more than 60 million subscribers from online nastiness, a move that prompted one pundit to pronounce the death of antivirus software yet again. Such dire pronoun...

Wii U to Become Pokken Tournament Playing Field

Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have announced that Pokken Tournament -- the Pokemon fighting game developed by Namco Bandai -- will expand from arcades in Japan to a worldwide launch on the Wii U in the spring of 2016. Instead of just issuing commands to use special attacks, players of the fightin...

Guitar Hero Strikes Back

Activision on Tuesday took the wraps off Guitar Hero Live, setting the video gaming stage for a battle of the bands. Though Guitar Hero's original developer left the group years ago to work on Rock Band, the series is in capable hands. DJ Hero developer FreeStyle Games has been prepping Guitar Hero...

Valve To Put Steam Behind VR Efforts With New Headset

Valve on Monday announced that it's getting into the virtual reality hardware business. In a terse tease posted to the Web, the company trumpeted its intentions to reveal its SteamVR hardware system next week at the 2015 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Valve also announced that it is lo...

Video Game Preservation: An Impossible Dream?

Fuel Industries last year sought to find the long-rumored cache of buried E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial video games, made for the Atari 2600 in the early 1980s. Surplus copies of E.T. -- a notoriously bad gaming experience -- were dumped in a landfill after failing to sell. By burying its shame, Atari ...

Apple Awarded Patent for Hybrid VR Headset

Apple has been awarded a patent for a virtual reality headset that can use an iPhone or iPod as a display. The abstract describes a device similar to the Gear VR, which weds a Samsung Note smartphone to a headpiece designed by Oculus. In its description of the patent, Apple explains that the head-mo...

Revived View-Master Is a Virtual Reality

Google and Mattel now are teaming up to revive and modernize the View-Master. Mattel on Friday announced a new version that works with Google Cardboard and Android smartphones. Mattel will offer the new View-Master and a sample experience reel this fall, for US$30. Additional experience reel packs, ...

GADGET DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES

Gadget Ogling: Budget Fitness Tracking, Focused Writing and Red-Hot Wearables

Gather around, friends, for another edition of the column that holds up just-announced gadgets to scrutiny, Gadget Dreams and Nightmares. In the stocking for our pre-holidays edition are a smartphone-controlled lock, an inexpensive fitness tracker, a red-hot wearable and much more. While I've looked...

Google’s Cardboard VR Kit Is Really No Joke

Google last week announced an updated app for its minimalist Cardboard virtual-reality viewer, as well as software development kits for both Android and the Unity game engine. It also published new building specifications for those interested in making their own Cardboard viewers and announced that ...

Samsung Offers Cool Gear VR Headset but Content Is MIA

Samsung on Monday began offering what may best be described as the "alpha version" of its Gear VR headset, developed by Oculus, in the U.S. This Gear VR Innovator Edition works with the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and is priced at $200. The headset comes with sample gaming and experiential content such as...

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