Demonic Close-up Photo of Ant's Face Is Straight Out of a Horror Movie - CNET

And the Nikon Small World Photo Contest didn't even name the image one of its top winners.

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'Love Is Blind': How the Pods Make Talking to a Wall Romantic - CNET

Netflix's Love Is Blind is back for another season. Here's how the pods were designed to help cast members partner up.

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How Do Credit Card Welcome Bonuses Work? - CNET

Welcome bonuses can be a good way to earn extra value, so long as you go about it the right way.

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Latest Tech News

US and European public cloud firms have lost $1.6 trillion from their overall market capitalization over the last 12 months, a new report has warned.

Research by analyst firm Accel looked at the valuation of 100 publicly-traded US and EU businesses that center their business models around cloud storage services.

It concluded that the valuations of these firms have dropped to around pre-pandemic levels, before the sudden switch to digital caused an explosion in the demand for cloud computing.

Cloud firms: in decline?

The total collective value of the cloud firms monitored dropped from an all-time peak of $2.8 trillion in September 2021 to just $1.2 trillion in September 2022, a decline of 57%.

But it’s not just the valuations of publicly traded firms that are faltering. Accel's report also found that the cloud Initial Public Offering (IPO) market is experiencing its "biggest drought" since the 2008 financial crisis.

Outside the stock market, it's not all doom and gloom. Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity remains high, driven in part by funds taking public companies private, and reportedly paying a 33% premium to the stock price on average.

For example, cloud-based SaaS firm Zendesk was purchased for $10.2 billion by two private equity firms in June 2022,  a 34% premium to its stock price.

The private funding drives of cloud firms have been hit nowhere near as much as public valuations. The total capital raised by cloud companies in Europe, Israel, and the US has not drastically changed, with total funding reaching $74 billion in 2022 so far, just 12% lower than in 2021.

READ MORE:

> Our guide to the best cloud management services right now

> IT spending set to stay strong despite global economic worries

> More and more companies are spreading their data over public clouds

With conflicting data, it's hard to say whether the dominance of cloud computing is truly coming to an end. 

However, the benefits of cloud computing, such as hybrid working, remain crucial for enterprises as the pandemic continues. That's especially true if bosses want to minimise the disruption caused by another black swan event in the future.

• Here's our list of the best cloud hosting providers right now

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Best Gaming TV: Low Input Lag and High Picture Quality - CNET

These TVs maximize image quality and minimize delay between your controller and the action.

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Latest Tech News

Starting on October 24, iPhone owners will be able to enjoy a workout from Apple Fitness Plus without the need for an Apple Watch device.

Fitness Plus did exist on iPhones prior to this, but you needed to have an Apple Watch in order to use the service. Moving forward, users will have full access to the entire Fitness Plus library “featuring over 3,000 studio-style workouts and meditations” across all 21 countries where the service is available. This includes Australia, Brazil, Russia, and the United States. Setting up seems pretty easy as you just use an iPhone to sign up. You can also stream workouts to a corresponding iPad or Apple TV. If you don’t have either, Apple states you can use AirPlay to stream “on compatible third-party devices”.

To support the updated service, the Fitness app will fully integrate Fitness Plus which can be found in the middle tab. There, you’ll be greeted with a familiar sight as that’s where the Apple Watch’s Move ring, coaching advice, awards, and activity-sharing features can be found. However, it doesn’t appear that everything from the Apple Watch version of Fitness Plus will be present on iPhones.

To see real-time metrics, you will still need to connect your smartphone to an Apple Watch. Also, certain types of content, like Time to Run, won’t make the jump.

New content

Speaking of content, Apple also announced new workout programs and special deals for people who are interested in trying out Fitness Plus before committing to a subscription.

Coming to the service is a new entry of Artist Spotlight starring Taylor Swift. Every Monday for the following three weeks, there will be a new workout featuring Swift’s music based on different types of activities like cycling or dancing. Fitness Plus is also adding three new additions to Collections, “a curated series of workouts and meditations from the [service’s] library.” One of which is Totally ‘80s Cycling, consisting of eight cardio workouts set to energetic music from the 1980s. 

As for the deals, Apple is offering a three-month trial of Fitness Plus for people who purchase select devices like the iPhone 14 or the fifth-generation iPad Air. The full list of supported devices can be found at the end of the announcement. Apple is also partnering up with four other companies, including SilverSneakers,  to “offer new ways to sign up for the service…”. Members of SilverSneakers can enjoy a free subscription to Fitness Plus starting next year, plus access to exclusive workouts. 

iOS 16.1

In order to use the new Fitness Plus, you will need an iPhone 8 or later plus download iOS 16.1, which is also set to launch on October 24. There’s a fair amount of hype surrounding this latest iOS release because iPhone owners will be getting some significant new features. One of them is Live Activities, a series of widgets present on the lock screen that “keep track of ongoing events.” 

That date will also see the release of iPadOS 16.1 and the long-awaited macOS Ventura. Be sure to read TechRadar’s coverage of the new operating system and the cool new features that will arrive. Apple is getting rid of passwords in this update; instead going with passkeys for better security. 

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Latest Tech News

IBM has released a new tape library pitched as being specifically designed for the 'new wave' of hyperscalers aggregating massive customer data sets. 

The Diamondback Tape Library debuted at the 2022 Open Compute Project Global Summit, where IBM was keen to emphasise the cybersecurity capacities of the new offering, saying that it "offers critical protection against a variety of threats".

The LTO-formatted offering apparently provides up to 27 petabytes (PB) of capacity in a single rack. The storage creates a physical "air gap", or an isolated backup copy that is not connected to the internet, which can be useful for protecting sensitive endpoints from cyberattacks. 

How does it work?

IBM also touted the cost advantages of the solution, saying it offers approximately one-quarter of the total cost of spinning disk storage and public cloud archival services.

"Driven by an explosion in data volume, ransomware, and increased regulatory and sustainability requirements, hyperscale cloud providers are among the biggest consumers of tape storage, and are predicted to drive tape capacity shipments to new levels in 2023," said Phil Goodwin, research vice president, IDC.

READ MORE:

> IBM claims to have mapped out a route to quantum advantage

> IBM lays off Russian workers as it confirms exit

> Our guide to the best ransomware protection

IBM's new solution is generally available today, and shows that despite the age of tape storage technology dating back to the 1950s, LTO technology is far from dead.

A report from the LTO Program that 148 exabytes of tape were shipped in 2021, a growth rate of 40 percent in 2020.

The report attributed a fourth of the firm's trying to cut cloud storage costs when archiving their unstructured data.

IBM continues to post relatively strong results, with the company posting an revenue of $14.1 billion, up 6% or 15% at constant currency, in its third quarter of 2022.

• Not interested in tape storage? Check out our guide to the best cloud storage on offer

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Latest Tech News

Cybersecurity researchers have spotted yet another fake job campaign distributing deadly malware. 

Mandiant's latest report found that a new version of known malware threat Ursnif (also known as Gozi) has been reported in the wild.

Unlike the previous versions, this one does not carry its usual banking trojan functionalities, prompting researchers to speculate the malware is being modded to distribute ransomware.

Fake job offers on LinkedIn

Mandiant dubbed this version LDR4, after spotting it in late June 2022. To distribute the malware, the threat actors are creating fake LinkedIn accounts, posing to be recruiters for major companies. After reaching out to their targets and engaging in a conversation to establish some legitimacy, they share a link.

The linked website then demands victims solve a CAPTCHA challenge to download an Excel document that claims to offer more details about the position, but actually carries a malicious macro that fetches the malware from a remote location. 

As LDR4 comes in the form of a .DLL file (loader.dll), is packed by portable executable crypters, and is signed with valid certificates, it evades detection from some antivirus solutions, the researchers warned. 

READ MORE

> Here are the best ID theft protection solutions around

> This sneaky Microsoft Excel malware could put your organization at risk of attack

> These fake US government job ads are spreading more malware

Once the .DLL file runs, it collects system service data from the Windows registry and generates a user and system ID. It also connects to the malware's command and control server (C2) to obtain the list of commands it needs to execute. 

Currently, the researchers can't 100% confirm Ursnif’s endgame, but they did note that a threat actor was allegedly observed asking for partners to distribute ransomware and the RM3 version of Ursnif via underground hacking forums. 

The last time we heard of Ursnif was in January 2022, when HP Wolf Security observed it being distributed, via weaponized Excel files, among Italian-speaking users. 

• Check out the best firewalls out there today

Via: BleepingComputer

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Latest Tech News

Microsoft Outlook is planning to make it easier to find meeting-critical documents, such as recordings, transcriptions, and minutes, from within the email client itself, without the need to cross over to other applications.

The new feature, revealed on the Microsoft 365 roadmap, will likely collate the AI-powered “intelligent recaps” delivered by Microsoft Teams Premium, the company’s upcoming paid addon for its collaboration platform software. 

That’s because those recaps, announced at the company’s Ignite event in October 2022, share a provisional December 2022 rollout date.

Microsoft 365's productivity competition

Microsoft’s latest announcement for Outlook is part of the company’s ongoing push to make Microsoft 365 a more convenient, consolidated experience

It also announced at Ignite that that the existing Microsoft 365 apps across web, desktop are being retired in favor of one single application, with the complete switchover scheduled for January 2023.

We first caught wind of the “intelligent recap” features, which may well soon be announced as integrating with other applications within Microsoft 365, through Microsoft Places, an application Microsoft sees as bridging the gap between remote working solutions and the physical workplace, without replacing either of them.

Microsoft claims Places will do this by helping employees plan meetings by offering, amongst other things working location labels and a “modernized” booking system.

All of these updates taken together could seem exciting for companies within Microsoft’s enterprise ecosystem, and those adopting a hybrid work environment, but it’s only the AI recaps that can be said to both innovate and make our lives easier.

With regards to working locations, Google Workspace has long beaten Microsoft to the punch, and has recently announced that it’s giving IT admins the option to require that employees use the feature within Google Calendar.

Google itself, however, is also playing catch up when it comes to making sure that users never need more than one application environment.

READ MORE

> Check out our list of the best office software right now

> Microsoft 365 apps will now update themselves as if by magic

> Google Workspace update will help supercharge your slide decks 

With both Google and Microsoft scheduling major keynotes for the same week, and offering marginally similar feature sets as part of either company's collaboration tools, it’s not easy to say right now which one offers, or will offer, the most convenience for enterprises.

•  Here’s our list of the best productivity tools right now 

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Latest Tech News

When it comes to cybersecurity in the workplace, younger employees don’t really seem to care that much, which is putting their organizations in serious harm’s way, new research has claimed.

Surveying approximately 1,000 workers using devices issued by their employers, professional services firm EY found Gen Z enterprise employees were more apathetic about cybersecurity than their Boomer counterparts in adhering to their employer's safety policies.

This is despite the fact that four in five (83%) of all those surveyed claimed to understand their employer’s security protocol.

Recycling passwords

When it comes to implementing mandatory IT updates, for example, 58% of Gen Z’ers and 42% of millennials would disregard them for as long as possible. Less than a third (31%) of Gen X’ers, and just 15% of baby boomers said they do the same. 

Apathy in the young extends to password reuse between private and business accounts. A third of Gen Z and millennial workers surveyed admitted to this, compared to less than a quarter of all Gen X’ers and baby boomers. 

Almost half of Gen Z and millennials were "likely to accept web browser cookies on their work-issued devices all the time or often," compared to 31% of Gen X workers, and 18% of baby boomers. 

Read more

> Here's our pick of the best ransomware protection tools available right now

> Generational differences in collaboration at work

> Securing remote workers in the age of uncertainty

"There is an immediate need for organizations to restructure their security strategy with human behavior at the core," said EY America's Consulting Cybersecurity Leader Tapan Shah. 

Some say the apathy of young people towards technology is down to their over-familiarity with technology, and never having been without it.

Being too comfortable with tech undoubtedly makes an enterprise's younger employees a major target for cybercriminals looking to exploit any hole in security.  

If an organization's cybersecurity practices aren't upheld strongly, threat actors can compromise huge networks with simple social engineering attacks.

As demonstrated by recent attacks on Uber and Rockstar Games, a good social engineer doesn't have to be technically minded to leak sensitive company and customer data, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars of damages in mitigations and fines.

• These are the best privacy tools right now

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Latest Gadgets News

Meta Platforms' independent oversight board said on Thursday that starting this month, it can decide on applying warning screens, marking content as "disturbing" or "sensitive". The board, which already has the ability to review user appeals to remove content, said it would be able to make binding decisions to apply a warning screen when "leaving up or restoring quali...

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I Give McDonald's Halloween Boo Buckets a Solid B+ - CNET

Allow me to walk you through the three different varieties, the oddball "lid" and the enclosed sticker sheet.

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Latest Tech News

Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $4.6 trillion in 2023, an increase of 5.1% from 2022, according to the latest forecast by Gartner.

The analyst house expects enterprises to "push forward with digital business initiatives”, despite economists worldwide predicting a potential recession on the horizon.

Economists from the IMF, to take just one example, have predicted an “increasingly gloomy and uncertain outlook”, with baseline international economic growth forecast to slow from 6.1% in 2021, to 3.2%  in 2022, and just 2.9% in 2023.

Where will spending rise most?

Gartner warns that not all sectors are set for equal growth, spending on devices is likely to be the worst performer of all the IT segments looked at. 

The analyst house predicted that spending on devices will drop -0.6 to $735,394m in 2023, a stark decline from the 15.8% growth recorded in 2021.

The software market looks set to be the strongest performing IT segment, growing 11.3% in 2023 to $879,625m, which the firm attributed to the “shift to cloud options”.

The software segment's impressive performance could relate to the continued demand for tools enabling video conferencing and remote collaboration post-pandemic. 

IT services are set to be the 2nd best-performing segment, growing 7.9% in 2023 to $1,357,914 millio in 2022.

Data center systems and communications services are also primed for solid growth if Gartner’s statistics are to be believed, with 3.4% and 2.4% growth predicted respectively in those areas.

READ MORE:

> Gartner: Forget the metaverse, it's all about the intraverse

> Why your tech stack should survive cost cuts, according to the experts

> Our guide to the best video conferencing tools 

“Enterprise IT spending is recession-proof as CEOs and CFOs, rather than cutting IT budgets, are increasing spending on digital business initiatives,” said John-David Lovelock, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner. “Economic turbulence will change the context for technology investments, increasing spending in some areas and accelerating declines in others, but it is not projected to materially impact the overall level of enterprise technology spending."

“However, inflation has cut into consumer purchasing power in almost every country around the world. Consumer purchasing power has been reduced to the point that many consumers are now deferring 2022 device purchases until 2023, driving spending on devices down 8.4% in 2022 and 0.6% in 2023.”

• Interested in cutting down your own IT spending? Check out if our list of the best cloud storage can provide any suitable options.

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Latest Tech News

Google is giving its Family Link app a makeover to be more user friendly while also adding more parental control features.

Family Link first launched five years ago as a way for parents to manage how children use their Android devices – setting a screen time limit, for example. Since then, the app really hasn’t gotten a lot of attention from Google, which makes this new wave of updates all the more welcome. The company states that developers took feedback from parents for the redesign, resulting in three new tabs – Controls, Location, and Highlights – to better organize the app’s features. 

A new look

The Controls tab holds Family Link’s legacy features like the ability to set limits on screen time for devices or apps, restrict certain types of content, and “manage [app] permissions.” There will be one new addition, Today Only, which overrides the base screen time tool. For example, if a child reaches the limit on the first tool, you can extend the time with the second tool, but just for that one day. You will have to set it again every day after that. 

Location, as the name suggests, will inform a parent of their child's location by zeroing in on a device and showing it on the tab’s map. It will also inform users of the device’s battery life plus notify them when a child has reached or left their destination, similar to Google Maps. Speaking of information, the Highlights tab gives parents an overview of a child’s behavior on their device. It will tell you what apps they use, for how long they've used them, and if they’ve tried to access restricted content. Google states there are plans to expand the Highlights tab to include “more helpful insights” but didn’t give any details.

We reached out to Google and asked for more information about the future of Family Link. A company spokesperson told us it has nothing more to share at the moment.

The updates to the Family Link app will be available on both iOS and Android devices as it rolls out in waves, so be sure to keep an eye out for when it arrives on your phone. We should also mention that Google launched a desktop version of Family Link that shares all the same features. All you have to do is log in to set up your account.

Google TV changes

Alongside Family Link, Google TV will get its share of kid-friendly changes including AI-generated recommendations and “parent-managed watchlists.” The latter allows parents to add or remove content their children can watch on the service from within the parents' own profile. Google TV will also sport a “supervised experience on YouTube” as a way to introduce kids to the platform. Of course, the YouTube experience will have its own set of parental controls. 

The Google TV updates launch today to the app and will reach other supporting devices like Chromecast with Google TV in the coming weeks. We’re sure parents will appreciate the new Family Link app, but it can’t oversee everything. If you’re interested in stepping up your game, be sure to check out TechRadar’s list of the best free parental control apps of the year. 

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Now's Your Chance to Get The Sims 4 for Free on All Platforms. Here's How - CNET

No need to buy The Sims 4: The life simulator is now permanently free.

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