Asus's next watch could last 10 times longer than Apple Watch

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><div xmlns='http://bit.ly/16Db7GR'><img alt="Asus's next watch could last 10 times longer than Apple Watch" src="http://bit.ly/1IXQOAF"/><br/><br /><p>There's been plenty of talk about the <a href="http://bit.ly/17hI4Z7">Apple Watch</a>'s battery, which lasts about a day on a full charge. Some consider that a weakness, and it's one that Asus may intend to exploit.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>The <a href="http://bit.ly/1w1ycP7">Asus ZenWatch</a> is not the most advanced or glamorous smartwatch, and it's certainly no true Apple Watch rival, but the next Asus smartwatch could be a different story.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>Apparently called the Asus VivoWatch, it will pack a 10-day battery life, reports <a href="http://engt.co/1IXQMc2">Engadget</a>.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>The Asus VivoWatch will be fitness-focused, the site says, and it could have other bells and whistles like sleep and heart rate tracking and GPS.</p><br /><br/><br /><h3>How does it do it?</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>But its true selling point will be that extra long life, a direct counter to the Apple Watch's perceived weakness.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>It might achieve that significant battery life with an efficient black and white display/colored LED light combo, which you can see in the picture above. It also might not use <a href="http://bit.ly/1PDOa8E">Android Wear</a>.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>We're expecting to learn more - possibly including the Asus VivoWatch's price - this week, so stay tuned.</p><br /><br/><br /><ul><br /><li style='list-style: none'><br/> </li><br /><li><a href="http://bit.ly/1EIF435">Apple Watch pre-orders</a> are open now</li><br /><li style='list-style: none'><br/> </li><br /></ul><br /><br/><br /><img border="0" height="1" src="http://bit.ly/1IXQOAH" width="1"/><br clear='all'/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><a href="http://bit.ly/1PDOa8F" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" src="http://bit.ly/1IXQMc3"/> </a><br/><br /><br/><br /><a href="http://bit.ly/1PDOaoV" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" src="http://bit.ly/1IXQMc5"/> </a><br/><br /><br/><br /><a href="http://bit.ly/1PDOaoX" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" src="http://bit.ly/1IXQMc7"/> </a><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><a href="http://bit.ly/1PDOcx9"><img border="0" src="http://bit.ly/1IXQOAJ"/> </a> <img border="0" height="1" src="http://bit.ly/1PDOcxb" width="1"/><img alt="" height="1" src="http://bit.ly/1IXQMc9" width="1"/><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br />From <a href="http://bit.ly/1DWqmcX">techradar</a> </div><br /><br/><br /><br/><br />from http://bit.ly/1PDOap2<br/></div>

Asus's next watch could last 10 times longer than Apple Watch

There's been plenty of talk about the Apple Watch 's battery, which lasts about a day on a full charge. Some consider that a weaknes...

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Linux 4.0: little fanfare for a tiny new release

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><div xmlns='http://bit.ly/16Db7GR'><img alt="Linux 4.0: little fanfare for a tiny new release" src="http://bit.ly/1IXQOkh"/><br/><br /><p><a href="http://bit.ly/1PDOcgG">Linux</a> 4.0 is here. Linux head honcho Linus Torvalds sent out an update to the <a href="http://bit.ly/1IXQLVH">Linux Kernel Mailing List</a> on Sunday that explained the "pretty small" release fits in with an earlier agreed schedule as opposed to there being any big changes to the Linux Kernel.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>"Feature-wise, 4.0 doesn't have all that much special. Much has been made of the new kernel patching infrastructure, but realistically that wasn't the only reason for the version number change. We've had much bigger changes in other versions. So this is very much a 'solid code progress' release," explained Linus Torvalds in the update.</p><br /><br/><br /><h3>What's been improved?</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>Even so, there are still upwards of 10,000 non-merge commits included, yet this number pales compared to past "bigger releases," according to Torvalds and linux-next v4.1 is expected to be the next whopper to come out of the Linux camp.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>Among the improvements in <a href="http://bit.ly/1PDOcgH">Linux</a> 4.0 is the addition of support for Intel's Quark SoCs, increased support for the Z13 that powers IBM mainframes, non-disruptive patching, various ARM chips are now supported and the usual tweaks to graphics and sounds are along for the ride.</p><br /><br/><br /><ul><br /><li style='list-style: none'><br/> </li><br /><li>Check it out: <a href="http://bit.ly/1PDOcgG">Which Linux distro is right for you?</a> </li><br /><li style='list-style: none'><br/> </li><br /></ul><br /><br/><br /><img border="0" height="1" src="http://bit.ly/1IXQOki" width="1"/><br clear='all'/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><a href="http://bit.ly/1PDO9S8" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" src="http://bit.ly/1IXQOkk"/> </a><br/><br /><br/><br /><a href="http://bit.ly/1PDOcgI" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" src="http://bit.ly/1IXQLVI"/> </a><br/><br /><br/><br /><a href="http://bit.ly/1PDOa8o" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" src="http://bit.ly/1IXQLVK"/> </a><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><a href="http://bit.ly/1PDOa8s"><img border="0" src="http://bit.ly/1IXQOkm"/> </a> <img border="0" height="1" src="http://bit.ly/1PDOa8u" width="1"/><img alt="" height="1" src="http://bit.ly/1IXQLVM" width="1"/><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br />From <a href="http://bit.ly/1DWqmcX">techradar</a> </div><br /><br/><br /><br/><br />from http://bit.ly/1PDOcgO<br/></div>

Linux 4.0: little fanfare for a tiny new release

Linux 4.0 is here. Linux head honcho Linus Torvalds sent out an update to the Linux Kernel Mailing List on Sunday that explained the ...

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Review: Updated: OS X 10.10 Yosemite

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><div xmlns='http://bit.ly/16Db7GR'><img alt="Review: Updated: OS X 10.10 Yosemite" src="http://ift.tt/1F5IFdn"/><br/><br /><h3>Introduction and user interface</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>Yosemite is the second version of OS X since its reboot last year, when Apple switched from naming its annual OS X updates after big cats to places in California. It also neatly side-stepped the problem of where to go after 10.9 by avoiding the use of numbers altogether (although they do still exist in the geekier parts of the OS like System Information, where Yosemite is referred to as OS X 10.10).</p><br /><br/><br /><p>So, what's new? Quite a lot, actually, and nearly all of it in the name of greater consistency between OS X and iOS. That's not to say that Apple is gradually merging the two operating systems – there's no evidence at all that's on the agenda. Nevertheless, several alterations and additions in Yosemite do tie OS X more closely with <a href="http://ift.tt/1tueTKi">iOS 8</a>.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>Even in the early days of its tenure, Yosemite can already be counted as a success in one way. According to metrics company Net Applications, Yosemite accounted for 36.6% of all instances of OS X, setting a new Mac adoption record in the process. Like <a href="http://ift.tt/18ZlfDa">OS X 10.9 Mavericks</a> that came before it, Yosemite was made available as a <a href="http://ift.tt/12FsUuv">free download</a>, racing out of the traps on October 16. In comparison, Mavericks, which hit the App Store on October 22, 2013, gained a Mac-only user share of 32% after its first month of availability.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>The current version of OS X Yosemite is 10.10.2, and Apple begun seeding the sixth OS X 10.10.3 Beta to developers and public Beta testers in March. Developers can download the new beta, build 14D127a, through Software Updated in the Mac App Store. It brings a bunch of new features, including Photos for OS X, an app designed to integrated with iCloud Photo Library that will replace both iPhoto and Aperture. Reports from users have pitched it as a more advanced version of iPhoto.</p><br /><br/><br /><p><strong>Update:</strong> Apple has released an update to Yosemite, bringing the operating system to version <a href="http://ift.tt/1y5gjQ8">OS X 10.10.3</a>. The new update brings a number of performance improvements, enterprise features, support for the new Force Touch touchpad, more racial diversity with emoji, and the new Photo app.</p><br /><br/><br /><h3>Interface</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>The most obvious change, visually at least, is the new interface. Yosemite does to the Mac what iOS 7 did to the iPhone and iPad. Its user interface is flatter – though not flat, there are still drop shadows and other nods to the third dimension, it's just that now they exist for a purpose rather than being merely eye candy. No more glassy textures.</p><br /><br/><br /><p><img alt="Yosemite Safari 3" src="http://ift.tt/1qDG8O5" title="The interface has seen some of the biggest changes" width="420"/> </p><br /><br/><br /><p>There's more translucency in Yosemite than its predecessor, <a href="http://ift.tt/18ZlfDa">Mavericks</a>. Where once it was limited to the Finder's menu bar, it now pops up in lots of places, including Finder menus and the sidebar of Finder windows. It's been tweaked so that the underlying image is blurred and less distracting than in Mavericks, but we suspect it will still be a love it or hate it feature. If you do hate it, you can 'reduce' it in the Accessibility pane of System Preferences.</p><br /><br/><br /><ul><br /><li style='list-style: none'><br/> </li><br /><li>Want to get more out of OS X? Check out these <a href="http://ift.tt/ZFhiGF">OS X Yosemite Tips & Tricks</a> from Mac|Life!</li><br /><li style='list-style: none'><br/> </li><br /></ul><br /><br/><br /><p>Perhaps the most controversial change in Yosemite's user interface, however, is the switch in font from Lucida Grande to Helvetica Neue – another alignment with iOS. It takes a bit of getting used to, and for some it will never be right, but we found ourselves warming to it over time.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>Some of OS X's application icons have changed to resemble their iOS counterparts. iTunes, for example, now has a red icon instead of a blue one.</p><br /><br/><br /><h3>Finder</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>Not a huge amount has changed here, but there is one key addition: iCloud Drive. Your iCloud storage drive now shows up in the Finder and you can drag and drop files and folders to it just like any other location. It also displays the files you've opted to store there from apps like Pages, Numbers, and Text Edit.</p><br /><br/><br /><p><img alt="Yosemite Finder 2" src="http://ift.tt/1qDGbJF" title="Nothing has been done about those confusing tags" width="420"/> </p><br /><br/><br /><p>Folders are now a brighter blue, but Apple hasn't taken the opportunity to rethink its confusing implementation of tags, which is a great disappointment. For those of us who used to mark Finder files and folders with a specific colour to indicate action that needed to be taken, for example, the tagging system is an irritation more than an aid.</p><br /><br/><br /><h3>Dock</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>The shelf has gone, which will be a great relief to many, and the Dock has now reverted back to its original format, a rectangle. Not so good is the loss of the Dock preferences from the Apple menu – to change things like magnification or show/hide, you must now pay a visit to System Preferences. However, on the plus side, the dock is fairly customisable using a free app called <a href="http://ift.tt/1D0CnLB">cDock</a>, which allows you to change the dock's theme, add spacers, show only active apps and more.</p><br /><br/><br /><h3>Windows and buttons</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>The traffic light buttons at the top left of windows have, like everything else in Yosemite, lost their glassy texture and are now flat matte red, amber, and green. But there's a more significant change – the green button now acts, by default, as the full-screen switch in apps that support full-screen use. The arrows at the top right corner of windows are gone. In apps that don't support full-screen operation, the green button reverts to its regular duty of maximising windows. Holding down the Option (Alt) key also switches the green button from full-screen to maximise.</p><br /><br/><br /><h3>Dark Mode</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>Brand new in Yosemite is Dark Mode, which turns some aspects of the OS a much darker shade of grey, to make it more comfortable to use your Mac in dim lighting. These include the Finder menu bar, Dock, and application switcher. During the beta period some elements of Dark Mode, such as Finder menus, were poorly implemented, and it remains to be seen whether they have been fixed in time for the full release.</p><br /><br/><br /><h3>Spotlight, Safari and iTunes</h3><br /><br/><br /><h3>Notification Centre</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>Hands up if you used Notification Centre in Mavericks? No, us neither. But Yosemite makes it much more interesting by adding a Today panel that works in a similar way to iOS 8's Notification Centre. It displays your Calendar appointments, the weather, world clock, and other elements you choose. And it supports third party widgets too. Oh, and it's another OS X element to be given the translucent treatment.</p><br /><br/><br /><p><img alt="Yosemite Notification Centre" src="http://ift.tt/1F5IHSA" title="The new Notification Centre adds a handy Today panel" width="420"/> </p><br /><br/><br /><h3>Spotlight</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>Spotlight in Yosemite is unrecognisable from its predecessors. Where once it slid almost apologetically into view underneath the magnifying glass on the menu bar, it now leaps into action in the centre of the screen. It looks, and operates, much more like a launcher such as Launch Bar, Quicksilver, or Alfred, than Spotlight of yore.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>There's a good reason for the change, however; Spotlight is now much more useful than it used to be. It hooks into online data sources to pull out information and display it on-screen. Type in the name of a movie, for example, and you'll get a thumbnail image and a plot summary with credits courtesy of Wikipedia. Type in the name of a restaurant or hotel, and Spotlight will display a snippet of a map, along with details of the establishment and reviews from Yelp.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>For local files, it displays inline previews of documents and, as before, can be used in lieu of a calculator when you're in a hurry. It might just be enough to tempt you away from your favourite launcher.</p><br /><br/><br /><p><img alt="Yosemite Safari 1" src="http://ift.tt/1qDG94w" title="Safari has seen some considerable tweaking" width="420"/> </p><br /><br/><br /><h3>Safari</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>The first impression Safari makes when launched is that it's smaller and lighter than it used to be. Apple has reduced the height of the menu bar and the result is the loss of toolbar favourites. They no longer display by default, though you can switch them back on again from the Bookmarks menu.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>New tabs now open with a display of tabs from the Favourites folder, rather than Top Sites. And those Favourites tabs appear again when you start to type in the address bar. A new tab switcher, accessed by pressing a button on the menu bar which is identical to the tab switcher in iOS, displays open tabs from all the devices connected to your iCloud account in the main window. You can navigate to any open tab, or close tabs on other devices.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>The only other items on the sparse toolbar are a share icon, again identical to the iOS 8 share button, navigation arrows, and a button to show or hide the left-hand pane which displays Bookmarks, Reading List, and Shared Links. There's no Home button.</p><br /><br/><br /><p><img alt="Yosemite Safari 2" src="http://ift.tt/1F5IFtW" title="You can view your links across devices" width="420"/> </p><br /><br/><br /><p>The address bar is now even smarter, though, and works similarly to Spotlight. Movie titles display snippets from Wikipedia under the address bar, and hotels and restaurants show the same details as Spotlight. Click once and you're given a more detailed preview, click again and you're taken to the relevant website.</p><br /><br/><br /><h3>iTunes</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>Besides the new icon, iTunes has had its interface overhauled. The Albums view looks even smarter than it did before, with better use of album covers' predominant colours for backgrounds. And the Artists view now gets a similar treatment to Albums.</p><br /><br/><br /><p><img alt="Yosemite iTunes 2" src="http://ift.tt/1qDGbJL" title="iTunes also gets a new look" width="420"/> </p><br /><br/><br /><p>Navigation has been made less intrusive. There are only three options at the top of the window now: My Music, Playlists, and iTunes Store. View options are now in a dropdown menu on the right, and Movies and TV Programmes, along with other content, have been moved from a dropdown menu to icons on the toolbar. By default, only music, movies, and TV shows are shown, but an Extras menu item allows you to add more.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>The iTunes Store has had an overhaul too, and is now as clean and crisp as everything else in Yosemite. Here too, navigation has changed, though not necessarily for the better. It took us a bit of poking around to find out how to get to the App Store, for example. It turned out that it's hidden by default and you need to enable it from the same Extras menu that you use in the Library to view additional content there.</p><br /><br/><br /><p><img alt="Yosemite iTunes 1" src="http://ift.tt/1qDGbJN" title="You can't beat a bit of Beck" width="420"/> </p><br /><br/><br /><p>It seems as though Apple has deprecated the App Store in iTunes, at least in terms of making it easy to access, perhaps in recognition that many of us now buy iOS apps directly from the iOS App Store rather than iTunes.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>There's still no sign of iTunes Radio in the UK.</p><br /><br/><br /><h3>Messages, Photo, Calendar and Continuity</h3><br /><br/><br /><h3>Mail</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>At first glance, very little has changed in Mail, aside from the user interface. It handles threaded messages slightly differently, displaying the first name and initial of everyone in the thread in the preview, rather than just that of the most recent sender.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>There are, however, two important new features. The first is Mail Drop, which allows you to send multi-gigabyte attachments (up to 5GB) by first sending them to iCloud and then allowing the recipient to download them at their leisure.</p><br /><br/><br /><p><img alt="Yosemite Mail" src="http://ift.tt/1qDG9kT" title="You can now send up to 5GB email attachments via iCloud" width="420"/> </p><br /><br/><br /><p>The second new feature is a poster child for Yosemite's Extensions, a feature which allows third parties to add functionality to Yosemite apps and features, in a similar way to iOS 8's Extensions. This one's called Markup and allows you to annotate image attachments from within Mail.</p><br /><br/><br /><h3>Photo</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>No - you haven't spotted a typo - <a href="http://ift.tt/16opT3z">Photo</a> is OS X Yosemite's new application for photos that is set to replace iPhoto in Yosemite. iPhoto is currently the default app for photo management, but Photo, which was introduced in the OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 beta in February, is expected to replace it when the update is pushed out to users. Photo showcases a much more streamlined view of your snaps and allows you to push your full-resolution photos to iCloud, making them available on every Apple device. In addition to viewing imags, Photo has Aperture-like editing capabilities that are likely to appeal to starting out photographers.</p><br /><br/><br /><h3>Messages and FaceTime</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>Messages gets the same flat speech bubbles as iOS 8. That, however, is the least significant change. You can now send SMS messages directly from Messages to any phone, as long as you have an iPhone connected to your iCloud account on the same Wi-Fi network.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>Likewise, FaceTime now allows you to make and receive telephone calls on your Mac, using your iPhone as a proxy.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>In Messages, you can now remove yourself from busy threads, switch on Do Not Disturb to mute notifications, and send audio snippets as well as text or images.</p><br /><br/><br /><h3>Calendar</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>Day view in Calendar now uses the right-hand side of the window to display details about any event or appointment you click on, with the left-hand side showing the full day, hour by hour. It looks great and is very useful, but comes at the expense of the multi-day appointment display that used to inhabit the left-hand side of Day view.</p><br /><br/><br /><p><img alt="Yosemite Calendar" src="http://ift.tt/1F5II9c" title="Calendar is one area where small compromises have been made" width="420"/> </p><br /><br/><br /><h3>Continuity</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>The ability to use Messages and FaceTime for SMS messages and phone calls is part of what Apple calls Continuity. The theory is that you should be able to use whichever device – Mac, iPhone, or iPad – you want at any time, and accomplish anything on one you could do on another.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>Handoff is another aspect of Continuity. The idea is that you could, say, start typing an email on your Mac, and then pick it up on your iPhone and carry on, without ever having to close or save it, or think about how to do this.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>It works like this: whenever you have a handoff compatible app open on an iOS device nearby (hardware and software compatibility allowing), the app's icon appears to the left of the Dock. Click on it and you open the OS X equivalent app and continue working on the open document. The other way round, the icon appears on iOS 8's Lock screen or at the very left of the app switcher and you tap it to call up the document.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>It's a very clever and very useful feature, but does some nifty behind the scenes work that uses both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. So to use it, and other Continuity features, you'll need a device and a Mac that supports the latest version of Bluetooth. That means an iPhone 5 or later, iPad 4 or later, including the iPad mini, or an iPod touch 5th generation. Apple started introducing Bluetooth 4 in the Mac on the mid-2011 MacBook Air – but you'll need to check if your specific Mac supports it.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>We tested it using the public beta of Yosemite with iOS 8.0.2 on a Retina MacBook Pro and it worked pretty well both ways round. It did take a bit of fiddling to get it to work the first time, and trying to figure out where the icon on iOS had gone after the Lock screen disappeared took a few minutes (it's to the left of the current app in the app switcher, so obscured when you initially invoke the switcher), but nevertheless, it worked.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>The other aspect of Continuity is AirDrop. Where previously you could AirDrop files between Macs or between iOS devices, you can now swap them between Mac and iOS devices.</p><br /><br/><br /><h3>AirPlay</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>Yosemite allows Mac users to 'mirror' the Mac's audio and video output to an Apple TV without either being on a Wi-Fi network. The two devices can create a peer-to-peer network to connect with each other. However, you'll have to have the most recent Apple TV, released in March 2013, as older models don't support the feature. And you still can't mirror an iOS device on a Mac's display in order to, for example, watch video stored on your iPad on your iMac screen.</p><br /><br/><br /><h3>Verdict</h3><br /><br/><br /><h3>We liked</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>Continuity is an excellent addition, and the ability to make and receive phone calls from your Mac in particular is something we've been waiting for since the advent of Bluetooth a decade ago.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>iCloud Drive is also overdue, particularly for those of us who pay for additional storage, and it's good to see that it's as easy to use as Dropbox or OneDrive. The Today view transforms Notification Centre and we can't wait to see what developers do with Extensions.</p><br /><br/><br /><h3>We disliked</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>Apple introduced tags with Mavericks. We didn't like the implementation then, and the way it hijacked colour coding, and we still don't. Handoff, while great, isn't intuitive and it's easy to become frustrated when trying to get it to work.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>There seems to be no reason for the removal of Dock preferences from the Apple menu, and while it's a minor irritation, it's an irritation nonetheless. And the ability to AirPlay to, rather than just from, a Mac looks like it must remain on the wish-list for at least another year.</p><br /><br/><br /><h3>Final verdict</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>Yosemite is as big a deal for the Mac as iOS 7 was for the iPhone and iPad. Visually it takes a bit of getting used to, and there will no doubt be a period of bedding in as Apple smooths out one or two rough edges. If you were a fan of glassy textures and 3D tropes, you'll be disappointed. For the rest of us, however, the user interface is cleaner, crisper and looks particularly stunning on Retina displays.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>User interface aside, the biggest news is the ever-tightening link between Apple's two operating systems. If you're uneasy with being 'locked in' to Apple's universe, prepare to be very uncomfortable.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>Apple's mission is clear: it wants to make swapping between iOS and OS X as seamless as possible, while retaining the strengths of each platform. That involves compromises, however, and one of them is using iCloud and an Apple ID for all your stuff. If you can live with that, Yosemite is very good indeed.</p><br /><br/><br /><img border="0" height="1" src="http://ift.tt/1Oa2fJc" width="1"/><br clear='all'/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><a href="http://ift.tt/1GpGggi" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" src="http://ift.tt/1Oa2fJe"/> </a><br/><br /><br/><br /><a href="http://ift.tt/1GpGfsI" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" src="http://ift.tt/1Oa2hAT"/> </a><br/><br /><br/><br /><a href="http://ift.tt/1GpGfsK" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" src="http://ift.tt/1Oa2hAV"/> </a><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><a href="http://ift.tt/1GpGfsM"><img border="0" src="http://ift.tt/1Oa2hAX"/> </a> <img border="0" height="1" src="http://ift.tt/1GpGfsQ" width="1"/><img alt="" height="1" src="http://ift.tt/1Oa2iEK" width="1"/><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/> </div><br /><br/><br /><br/><br />from http://bit.ly/1E6IW0C<br/></div>

Review: Updated: OS X 10.10 Yosemite

Introduction and user interface Yosemite is the second version of OS X since its reboot last year, when Apple switched from naming its annua...

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Lenovo unveils glut of enterprise data center solutions

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><div xmlns='http://bit.ly/16Db7GR'><img alt="Lenovo unveils glut of enterprise data center solutions" src="http://ift.tt/1FhXEDk"/><br/><br /><p><a href="http://ift.tt/1qNCfVB">Lenovo</a> has unveiled a trio of networking solutions and a systems management software suite that aims to make it easier than ever to manage cloud and on-premise server deployments.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>The two new top-of-the-rack networking switches are targeted at the traditional IT data center, whereas the accompanying system management suite is designed with small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs), government organizations and service providers in mind.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>RackSwitch G8296 (x86) and G8272 (x48) are a duo of switches with the cloud in mind that can support Lenovo's storage and server solutions in the data centre delivering low-latency performance for both 10/40GbE connectivity.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>Lenovo confirmed that the G8272 will be out by the end of April with a list price of $19,999 (around £13,415, or AU$25,975) whereas its larger sibling, the G8296, comes out in August and has a list price of $29,999 (around £20,130, or AU$38,900)</p><br /><br/><br /><h3>What else?</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>Alongside those two products is the Flex System SI4091 interconnect module that supports 10GbE or FCoE and will simplify network and interoperability challenges that can sometimes plague IT system administrators. Each one comes with pre-configured settings that save time and money. The price point of just $7,999 (around £5,400, or AU$10,400) combined with less network cabling and a 30% drop in power consumption allows it to offer an 18% lower total cost of ownership compared to its competitors.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>Lenovo XClarity, meanwhile, is a solution that aims to help SMEs, service providers and government organisations to streamline hardware resource management, increase visibility and control of physical resources, and speed up cloud and traditional infrastructure deployments.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>It comes in two different incarnations. XClarity Administrator takes the form of a tablet-friendly interface that makes it incredibly simple for any user to find the correct information and act on it in seconds. Core infrastructure tasks such as firmware updates, configuration management and OS deployments can be automated in order to free up IT resources. It can also be integrated with external cloud orchestrations or IT service management software tools like VMware vRealize by using Open REST APIs.</p><br /><br/><br /><h3>Slashing downtime</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>As for XClarity Pro, it gives customers even more scope to centralise server management from within the virtualisation management environment. Straight out of the box it comes with the XClarity Integrator for both VMware vCenter and Microsoft System Center as well as the XClarity Administrator.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>Reducing downtime is where XClarity Pro really shines and it does so by streamlining server management into clusters by moving workloads to and from affected hosts through rolling reboots and firmware updates. It even foresees hardware failures in advance and dynamically moves workloads in preparation. Both the <a href="http://ift.tt/1KCHx6r">Lenovo</a> XClarity Administrator and Pro will be out in Q2 2015 with respective list prices of $200 (around £134, or AU$259) and $350 (around £201, or AU$389) per managed server.</p><br /><br/><br /><ul><br /><li style='list-style: none'><br/> </li><br /><li><a href="http://ift.tt/1mHARlO">Lenovo aims 'budget-friendly' ThinkServer at SMBs</a> </li><br /><li style='list-style: none'><br/> </li><br /></ul><br /><br/><br /><img border="0" height="1" src="http://ift.tt/1CVFK5H" width="1"/><br clear='all'/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><a href="http://ift.tt/1NakT6M" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" src="http://ift.tt/1CVFLqm"/> </a><br/><br /><br/><br /><a href="http://ift.tt/1NakT6O" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" src="http://ift.tt/1CVFK5J"/> </a><br/><br /><br/><br /><a href="http://ift.tt/1NakTn2" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" src="http://ift.tt/1CVFLqp"/> </a><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><a href="http://ift.tt/1NakTn6"><img border="0" src="http://ift.tt/1CVFLqr"/> </a> <img border="0" height="1" src="http://ift.tt/1NakVvd" width="1"/><img alt="" height="1" src="http://ift.tt/1CVFLqt" width="1"/><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/> </div><br /><br/><br /><br/><br />from http://bit.ly/1HRzqgI<br/></div>

Lenovo unveils glut of enterprise data center solutions

Lenovo has unveiled a trio of networking solutions and a systems management software suite that aims to make it easier than ever to manage ...

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Xbox One can now act like a classic bunny-ear TV

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Xbox One can now act like a classic bunny-ear TV

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Office Lens transforms your iPhone, Android phone into a scanner

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Office Lens transforms your iPhone, Android phone into a scanner

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Comcast's new internet service schools Google Fiber

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><div xmlns='http://bit.ly/16Db7GR'><img alt="Comcast's new internet service schools Google Fiber" src="http://ift.tt/1lPyzlJ"/><br/><br /><p><a href="http://ift.tt/10UvuLl">Google Fiber</a>, the search company's lightning-fast internet, has been making headlines for years, but it's also been slow to roll out to customers.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>That may not matter if Comcast has its way. The unpopular internet provider today announced its own fiber service, and it's even faster than Google's.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>The 2GB per second broadband service - twice as fast as Google Fiber - will roll out in Atlanta come May, and Comcast hopes to reach 18 million homes by the end of 2015, reports <a href="http://ift.tt/1CdVi0Q">The Verge</a>.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>The company hasn't divulged a price or a rollout plan beyond Atlanta, but the service won't be <a href="http://ift.tt/1bRGTTc">limited by neighborhood</a> like Google Fiber is.</p><br /><br/><br /><h3>Closer and closer</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>Customers will have to be "within close proximity" of where the network is rolling out, and let Comcast install "professional-grade" equipment, the report says. The site speculates that the service may be an extension of Comcast's fast business internet.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>But Comcast wants to "offer the most comprehensive rollout of multi-gigabit service to the most homes as quickly as possible," said Senior VP of Comcast Cable's South Region Doug Guthrie.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>To that end, the provider will reportedly also roll out a 1GB per second service in 2016 to "almost every customer in our footprint."</p><br /><br/><br /><p>At this point that sounds too good to be true, but a lot might happen between now and next year.</p><br /><br/><br /><ul><br /><li style='list-style: none'><br/> </li><br /><li>Check out TechRadar's top-ranking <a href="http://ift.tt/1r1r8fz">Chromebook</a> reviews</li><br /><li style='list-style: none'><br/> </li><br /></ul><br /><br/><br /><img border="0" height="1" src="http://ift.tt/1BUUsaw" width="1"/><br clear='all'/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><a href="http://ift.tt/1BUUsaB" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" src="http://ift.tt/1BUUrmV"/> </a><br/><br /><br/><br /><a href="http://ift.tt/1BUUsaD" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" src="http://ift.tt/1BUUsqR"/> </a><br/><br /><br/><br /><a href="http://ift.tt/1bRGU9x" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" src="http://ift.tt/1BUUrn0"/> </a><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><a href="http://ift.tt/1bRGWyk"><img border="0" src="http://ift.tt/1BUUsqT"/> </a> <img border="0" height="1" src="http://ift.tt/1bRGU9z" width="1"/><img alt="" height="1" src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/allnews/~4/CuMpSAKlgI8" width="1"/><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/> </div><br /><br/><br /><br/><br />from http://bit.ly/1F6V3qu<br/></div>

Comcast's new internet service schools Google Fiber

Google Fiber , the search company's lightning-fast internet, has been making headlines for years, but it's also been slow to roll ou...

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Review: Mini review: Macphun Noiseless Pro 1.0

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><div xmlns='http://bit.ly/16Db7GR'><img alt="Review: Mini review: Macphun Noiseless Pro 1.0" src="http://ift.tt/1DAHcMV"/><br/><br /><h3>Introduction</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>Macphun makes a whole bunch of quick and simple desktop apps for Mac users, and Macphun Noiseless is its latest release.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>Like other Macphun apps it's designed to do one job simply. It goes on sale at £17.99 for the Standard version available on the Apple App Store and £49.99 for the Pro version bought directly from Macphun website – you can upgrade the Standard version to Pro later. Both will be available from mid-April.</p><br /><br/><br /><p><img alt="Macphun Noiseless" src="http://ift.tt/1IVi0kj" title="Macphun Noiseless integrates with other Macphun apps Tonality Pro, Intensify Pro, Snapheal Pro and Focus Pro." width="420"/> </p><br /><br/><br /><p>The Pro version adds the ability to open raw files, brings extra detail controls and comes with plug-in versions for Photoshop, Lightroom and Aperture.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>It's not exactly a budget buy, then, but Macphun does do bundle deals and offers on its software so it's worth checking the Macphun website periodically for the latest offers or subscribing to the newsletter.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>Besides, you can try it on a free 'test drive' at the <a href="http://ift.tt/1DAHeEv" rel="nofollow">Macphun Noiseless website</a> and see for yourself ahead of the main launch.</p><br /><br/><br /><h3>How it works</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>Noise reduction can be an extremely time-consuming and complex business. There are many dedicated noise-reduction plug-ins on the market already, as well as the noise reduction tools built into photo editing software. You can end up chasing your own tail as you try to reduce noise while preserving fine detail, juggling a whole bunch of sliders and parameters and sometimes ending up worse off that when you started.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>Noiseless takes a simpler approach. It offers a select of preset noise reduction settings, from 'Lightest' to 'Extreme'. You can start from the Lightest setting and work up until you see the level of noise reduction you want – the lower settings can still leave some 'swirly' patterns behind, while the higher settings can produce an artificially smoothed-over look. You just need to find the 'sweet spot'.</p><br /><br/><br /><p><img alt="Macphun Noiseless" src="http://ift.tt/1IVi2Zo" title="This picture is a good candidate for noise reduction – it was shot handheld on a DSLR at a high ISO. The Medium preset appears to give a good result." width="420"/> </p><br /><br/><br /><p><img alt="Macphun Intensify" src="http://ift.tt/1DAHeUN" title="But you really need to zoom in to 100% or 200% to judge the effect properly. In fact, the Medium preset is too strong. The Moderate preset gives a better result, especially if we wind back the Amount value to re-introduce just a touch of noise." width="420"/> </p><br /><br/><br /><p>You can see the results previewed in the main window. This offers different magnifications, from fit-to-screen through 50%, 100% and 200% – the 100% and 200% views are best for assessing the effect.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>There's a choice of viewing modes too. You can view the corrected image alone, but the real secret to noise reduction is to compare the adjusted image with the original to make sure you've got a useful reduction in noise without any loss of definition. For this you can use a side-by side view or a split-screen view with a 'wipe' bar you can drag across from left to right. It takes the software a couple of seconds to render the reduced-noise image, but once that's done the 'wipe' bar works instantly in real time.</p><br /><br/><br /><p><img alt="Macphun Noiseless" src="http://ift.tt/1DAHeUQ" title="You get a choice of before and after viewing modes. This split-screen mode has a 'wipe' bar you can drag left and right to instantly see the before and after results." width="420"/> </p><br /><br/><br /><p>If you've found the best preset strength but the image still looks a little too smooth, you can reduce the strength of the effect using the 'Amount' slider on the preset button. Generally, high ISO images will look more realistic with just a faint noise pattern. This is because high ISOs tend to bring slightly softened image detail too, and a faint noise pattern helps to make them look just a little bit sharper.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>If you find yourself using the same presets again and again, you can click the Favorites 'star' icon on the right – this adds them to the Favorites panel accessed at the top of the sidebar. Here, you'll also see a Custom panel, and this is where Noiseless gets a whole lot more advanced.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>For many users, the Presets will be enough, but if you want to take full control you can swap to the Adjust mode and change all the noise reduction parameters manually. When you're happy with the results you can click the 'Create' button at the bottom of the Adjust panel to create a Custom noise reduction setting.</p><br /><br/><br /><h3>Standalone vs plug-in versions</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>Noiseless Pro can be used as a standalone program or as a plug-in for Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom and Aperture. If you use it in standalone mode it can open both JPEGs and raw files. The problem with JPEGs is that the camera will already have applied one lot of noise reduction, so you're applying another on top of this using image data that may already have been degraded to some degree. Raw files take a little longer to render but you're working with all the data captured by the sensor and the results will be better.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>If you're using Noiseless as a plug-in, your image-editing program will be carrying out the raw conversion, so you should check the settings to make sure that it's not applying any noise reduction of its own during the conversion process.</p><br /><br/><br /><h3>Performance and verdict</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>Noiseless does deliver good results quickly, though as with any noise reduction application you need to test out different settings to find the one that gives the best results – there is no single fix for image noise, since the noise characteristics of images can vary widely. Some noise reduction tools carry out a noise analysis first, but Noiseless skips that step and goes straight to its Preset adjustments. To purists, that might sound like an oversimplified approach, but the results are good and, more to the point, easily controllable.</p><br /><br/><br /><p><img alt="Macphun Noiseless" src="http://ift.tt/1DAHd3h" title="Noiseless isn't just designed for high-end cameras. Its powerful noise reduction presets can also smooth out high-ISO phone images like this one taken on an iPhone 5. Be aware, though, that underneath all that noise there may not actually be that much detail." width="420"/> </p><br /><br/><br /><p><img alt="Macphun Noiseless" src="http://ift.tt/1DAHeUV" title="Here's another iPhone image that's gone through the Noiseless treatment. This time we've used the manual Adjust tab to optimise the detail rendition. You can save custom noise reduction parameters as one-click settings." width="420"/> </p><br /><br/><br /><p>The lack of any obvious noise profiling is not necessarily an omission, but there's also no way to apply selective noise adjustments to specific areas of the image – though you can adjust the strength separately for Highlights, Midtones, Shadows and Details. Noiseless is not designed for in-depth tinkerers, we suspect, but for users who simply want good results fast.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>We ran some quick tests with Noiseless against Lightroom's inbuilt noise reduction tools, DxO Optics Pro's default noise reduction process, which is one of the best there is right now, and Dfine 2 (Google Nik Collection). DxO Optics Pro does offer an even more effective PRIME denoising option, but this takes a couple of minutes to run for each image, whereas Noiseless is designed primarily for quick and simple fixes.</p><br /><br/><br /><p><img alt="Macphun Noiseless" src="http://ift.tt/1IVi0kn" title="The viewing controls are on the top toolbar. They include the zoom buttons, the Navigator window button and a quick 'before' preview button (the 'eye'). Below these are buttons for single image display, split-screen view and before and after views." width="420"/> </p><br /><br/><br /><p><img alt="Macphun Noiseless" src="http://ift.tt/1IVi0kp" title="When you're zoomed in you can use the Navigator window to scroll around to different parts of the picture. Each time you pan around the image, the software takes a couple of seconds to render the preview." width="420"/> </p><br /><br/><br /><p>All three yielded much better results than the original JPEG but, to be honest, once some sensible trade-offs had been made with noise reduction versus detail loss in each program, the results were virtually indistinguishable, not least because high ISO shots don't just bring extra noise – more on this in a moment. It really comes down to user preference, and Noiseless is certainly quick to use and very user-friendly, while the others take a more technical approach.</p><br /><br/><br /><h3>Keep it simple</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>Not everyone has high-end software tools like DxO Optics Pro, Lightroom or the Google Nik Collection, of course. If you don't, then Noiseless could be a very good buy. It's perfect for users who want to take away image noise without having to learn how it's done or get sucked into a vortex of sliders and checkboxes.</p><br /><br/><br /><p>It's important to make another point here. Simply reducing noise in a high-ISO shot won't make it look as sharp and as crisp as a low ISO one. Why? Because (a) sensors resolve less detail at high ISOs, (b) you're generally shooting at or near the lens's maximum aperture where its performance is reduced and depth of field is shallow (many objects in the scene may be slightly out of focus) and (c) you're often shooting at marginal shutter speeds too, so many high-ISO shots will show signs of camera shake.</p><br /><br/><br /><p><img alt="Macphun Noiseless" src="http://ift.tt/1DAHd3n" title="Noiseless is little different to other noise reduction tools in that you have to trade off noise reduction against detail loss – but it does let you find the best balance quickly and simply." width="420"/> </p><br /><br/><br /><p>That's the reality. Macphun Noiseless can produce quite remarkable transformations on images where noise is the only issue and the underlying detail is good – but that's often not the case with high ISO shots. For many high-ISO shots, while they have noise they can look sharp, sort of, but if you take the noise away completely you quickly see that they're not very sharp at all. The trick then is knowing how much noise to leave in.</p><br /><br/><br /><h3>Verdict</h3><br /><br/><br /><p>Noiseless didn't prove conclusively better than other noise reduction tools in our tests, but ease of use and simplicity are important too, and this is where it shines. As with any noise reduction tool, you have to tread a tightrope between noise reduction and detail preservation, but here it's as simple as clicking a preset, dragging a slider and checking the before-and-after preview.</p><br /><br/><br /><img border="0" height="1" src="http://ift.tt/1bRGTSZ" width="1"/><br clear='all'/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><a href="http://ift.tt/1BUUr6q" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" src="http://ift.tt/1bRGTT1"/> </a><br/><br /><br/><br /><a href="http://ift.tt/1BUUsan" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" src="http://ift.tt/1bRGWhO"/> </a><br/><br /><br/><br /><a href="http://ift.tt/1BUUr6u" rel="nofollow"><img border="0" src="http://ift.tt/1bRGWhQ"/> </a><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/><br /><a href="http://ift.tt/1BUUsap"><img border="0" src="http://ift.tt/1bRGTT5"/> </a> <img border="0" height="1" src="http://ift.tt/1BUUsar" width="1"/><img alt="" height="1" src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/allnews/~4/iuUGDOr_IiA" width="1"/><br/><br /><br/><br /><br/> </div><br /><br/><br /><br/><br />from http://bit.ly/1F6V0ei<br/></div>

Review: Mini review: Macphun Noiseless Pro 1.0

Introduction Macphun makes a whole bunch of quick and simple desktop apps for Mac users, and Macphun Noiseless is its latest release. Like o...

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