#BetaNews20 Giveaway: Logitech Keys-To-Go portable wireless keyboard

Nowadays, people are quite good at typing on touchscreens. Let's be honest though -- using a bigger physical keyboard will almost always be preferable. With that said, no one is going to walk around with a giant full-sized keyboard from their desk -- that would not be convenient. Thankfully, Logitech created a product that manages to find a nice balance. The Keys-To-Go, as it is called, is a thin and light Bluetooth keyboard that you can throw in a bag and use with your iPhone, iPad, Android, or Windows device. It is even compatible with Apple TV, making it a… [Continue Reading]

aLTEr: Hackers can spy on your 4G browsing sessions thanks to LTE flaws

Vulnerabilities have been discovered in LTE that would make it possible for an attacker to tap into 4G networks for the purposes of spying on and hijacking 4G browsing sessions. Security researchers from Ruhr-Universität, Bochum and New York University, Abu Dhabi show how three different attacks can be launched on the second layer of LTE -- also known as the data link layer. Two passive attacks allow for identity mapping and website fingerprinting, while the active cryptographic aLTEr attack allows for DNS spoofing and network connection redirection. The researchers, David Rupprecht, Katharina Kohls, Thorsten Holz, and Christina Pöpper, are due… [Continue Reading]

Leaked Microsoft documents reveal 'pocketable' folding Surface device

Microsoft's Surface range could one day include a folding, dual-screen device. Codenamed Andromeda, the device has been in the works for a couple of years and appears to neatly straddle the laptop and mobile categories -- seemingly trying to make up for Windows Phone. Leaked internal documents have come to light that reveal Microsoft's plans for "a new pocketable Surface device form factor that brings together innovative new hardware and software experiences to create a truly personal and versatile computing experience". See also: Microsoft pulls the plug on Windows 10's game-changing Sets feature -- for now Microsoft has the patent… [Continue Reading]

Sticker shock: Managing cloud costs for high availability and high performance

Public cloud services can be affordable for many enterprise applications. But achieving the same service levels that the enterprise data center delivers for high availability and high performance for mission-critical applications can be quite costly. The reason is: high availability and high performance, especially for database applications, both consume more resources and that costs more money -- sometimes considerably more. Is there a way to make public cloud services equally, if not more, cost-effective than a high availability, high performance private cloud? Yes, but that requires carefully managing how the public cloud services are utilized by each application. The objective… [Continue Reading]

Opera 54 adds Update and Recovery page, introduces news to Speed Dial

Opera Software has released Opera 54.0, the latest version of its Chromium-based browser for Windows, Mac and Linux. The new release adds two new features: the first allows users to set up customized news feeds on the main Speed Dial page. The second makes it possible to recover the browser and settings more easily thanks to a visible new Update & Recovery menu section. The new Update & Recovery option -- accessible from the main Opera menu -- provides users with two buttons. The first -- Update -- merely apes what’s already accessible via Opera > About Opera. However, the… [Continue Reading]

Adidas data breach may have exposed personal data of American customers

Sportswear company Adidas has warned US customers about a security breach that took place earlier this week. The firm says that on Tuesday it was made aware that "an unauthorized party claims to have acquired limited data associated with certain Adidas consumers". Two days later, the company started to notify its customers that personal data -- including contact information and usernames -- may have been compromised. See also: Gentoo Linux Github Organization hacked and repo code compromised Don't panic! Hackers have not found a way to bypass the iPhone passcode limit Kaspersky: Chinese hackers LuckyMouse hit national data center Adidas… [Continue Reading]

In iOS 12 Apple is completely rebuilding Maps from the ground up

When it comes to navigation apps, there's no denying that Google Maps is king -- but Apple is trying to change that. With the impending release of iOS 12 is also coming a complete redesign of the company's own Maps app. Apple is not only rebuilding the app from the ground up, but it is doing so with a combination of "first-party" data gathered by its own camera cars as well as data from iPhone users. The changes are going to start to appear in the next beta version of iOS 12. See also: Apple releases the first public beta… [Continue Reading]

Linux Mint 19 'Tara' now available for download with Cinnamon, MATE, and Xfce

Things have been quite exciting lately for fans of Linux Mint. The much anticipated MintBox Mini 2 is available for purchase, and we learned Linux Mint Debian Edition 3 should be available next month in Beta. Of course, what fans of Linux Mint have really been looking forward to is the release of Tara -- version 19 of the operating system. It was supposed to be released by the end of June, and today, it just makes it in under the wire. Yes, Linux fans, you can download Linux Mint 19 "Tara" immediately. You can choose between three desktop environments --… [Continue Reading]

Best Windows 10 apps this week

Two-hundred-and-eighty-nine in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 on the Windows Store in the past seven days. Microsoft released a massive new build of the upcoming next version of Windows 10 this week. It includes improvements to Microsoft Edge and Skype, and other new features, but loses Sets. As always, if I've missed an app or game that has been released this week that you believe is particularly good, let me know in the comments below or notify me via email. Discounts this week The following list is a… [Continue Reading]

Debian-based Raspbian Linux distribution for Raspberry Pi gets major update

Computer hardware is useless without software. As cool as the diminutive Raspberry Pi computers are, for instance, they are just paperweights until you install an operating system. The little computers can run many OSes -- including an IoT variant of Windows 10 -- but really, Linux makes it shine. One of the most popular Linux-based operating systems for Raspberry Pi is the Debian-based Raspbian. This is the "official" distribution for the Pi hardware, and today, it gets a major update. The Chromium web browser gets bumped up to version 65, while a new and faster PDF viewer, called qpdfView, replaces… [Continue Reading]

Over 90 percent of endpoint security incidents involve legitimate binaries

Cybercriminals use a variety of tactics to cloak their activity and that includes using trusted tools, like PowerShell, to retrieve and execute malicious code from remote sources. A new report from eSentire reveals that 91 percent of endpoint incidents detected in Q1 2018 involved known, legitimate binaries. "eSentire Threat Intelligence data shows heavy use of legitimate Microsoft binaries, such as PowerShell and mshta.exe, popular tools for downloading and executing malicious code in the initial stages of a malware infection," says Eldon Sprickerhoff, founder and chief security strategist, eSentire. "PowerShell can also be leveraged by adversaries to reduce their on-disk footprint… [Continue Reading]

Gentoo Linux Github Organization hacked and repo code compromised

A hacker managed to take control of the Github account for Gentoo Linux, going as far as inserting malicious code into the distros. The malware was designed to delete user data. Although the situation is now under control, an investigation is underway to determine what happened. Anyone who has downloaded a Gentoo distro or other files recently, is warned to "refrain from using code from the Gentoo Github Organization" for the time being. See also: Microsoft officially announces agreement to acquire GitHub in $7.5 billion deal Google releases open source 'GIF for CLI' terminal tool on GitHub Linux Mint Debian… [Continue Reading]

Win a 2TB diskAshur PRO2 hardware encrypted hard drive #BetaNews20

Throughout June, to celebrate BetaNews’ 20th birthday, we have been giving away some incredible prizes and while the month is drawing to a close now, we still have more giveaways for you enter. The diskAshur Pro 2 range of portable USB hard drives from iStorage makes it easy to keep your personal files and folders private thanks to the integrated PIN authenticated XTS-AES 256-bit hardware encryption. Unlocking the drive is just a matter of tapping your PIN into the keypad and pressing the unlock button. To secure it again, just press the lock button, or eject the drive. SEE ALSO:… [Continue Reading]

OnePlus is looking to come to the US as it promises two years of software updates and a 5G phone

At Mobile World Congress Shanghai, OnePlus CEO and founder Pete Lau said that his company is determined to make a proper entry into the North American market and is working with US carriers to make it happen. OnePlus has also said that it is looking to produce a 5G phone in 2019, and it will take advantage of its relationship with Qualcomm to make this happen. For current and future OnePlus owners, the company also made commitments about software and security updates. See also: Fix on the way for OnePlus 6 bootloader security flaw OnePlus unveils the OnePlus 6 smartphone,… [Continue Reading]

Amazon's new Show Mode turns a Fire tablet into a slimmed-down Echo Show -- for free

Amazon is always looking for new ways to get its Alexa digital assistant into more homes. It’s rolled out a variety of Echo products over the years, most recently the Fire TV Cube, and Echo Dot Kids Edition. A year ago, the company introduced the Echo Show, an Alexa powered device with a built-in 7-inch touchscreen. Today, the retail giant announces a free software update to turn an existing Fire tablet into a slimmed down Show, and there’s a new charging dock to complete the experience too. Show Mode is available for Fire HD 8 and Fire HD 10 tablets… [Continue Reading]

Shift to DevOps leads to more time spent troubleshooting

A new report from log management platform Scalyr reveals that as organizations shift from more traditional architectures to microservices, they release software more frequently, but spend more time troubleshooting issues. The State of DevOps Observability Report, based on a survey of 155 software development practitioners, finds that organizations are shifting away from traditional, monolithic architectures, with three-quarters of survey respondents delivering at least some of their applications and more than one-third delivering most of their applications as microservices. However, this shift has put pressure on DevOps observability. Despite having multiple visibility tools, respondents who deliver software in this modern way… [Continue Reading]

Amazon introduces its largest and fastest tablet for kids

Amazon’s Fire tablets have been a big success for the company, with the Kids Editions proving very popular with parents. As well as offering age-appropriate content, they come with a kid proof case which makes them much harder to break than regular tablets. Today the retail giant introduces a new model to the range. The Fire HD 10 Kids Edition is its largest kid friendly device to date, and for a price that’s very reasonable. The Fire HD 10 Kids Edition offers a 10.1-inch 1080p Full HD display, an ultra-fast quad-core processor, 32 GB of storage with up to 256… [Continue Reading]