Microsoft Office 2016 is coming to Windows Store

It seems that Microsoft is getting ready to push out a Project Centennial version of the Office 2016 suite on the Windows Store – or at least, a test version is now available, which certainly points to the possibility of this happening before long.

Project Centennial focuses on allowing developers to convert their Win32 desktop apps to ones which are compatible with the Windows Store and optimised for Windows 10.

So, in other words, you'll soon (in theory) be able to download the full desktop apps for Office on the store (as opposed to the touch-focused Office apps), and the process will be simplicity itself, as WinBeta notes.

With one click, the entire suite will be downloaded swiftly, installed and ready to run, no mess and no fuss.

Not functional yet

At the moment, the apps are apparently listed on the store, but they're not functional – this is clearly labelled a test version, and while it will install, when you launch any of the apps, nothing happens. So there's not much point downloading it now, and indeed some folks who have installed this version have reported trouble with uninstalling it.

We'd leave it alone, then, but this is exciting because it shows that hopefully the full implementation of the Office suite on the Windows Store will soon be live. Although there is no guarantee of that, of course. Redmond is only playing at testing right now.

Microsoft is naturally enough pushing the Windows Store (and indeed Windows 10 in general), and earlier this month introduced the 'Built For Windows 10' label which highlights those apps specifically built as universal apps for its newest OS.

• Microsoft Office 2016 vs Office 365 vs Office Online

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Highlights From Mobile World Congress 2016

 This week, we went to Barcelona for Mobile World Congress 2016. We covered a panel about mobile ad blocking, Mark Zuckerberg talked about Free Basics and encryption, Samsung announced the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, we went hands on with the modular LG G5, and oh, by the way, tablets are dead. Here’s everything you need to know from the event. Read More

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You don't have to put up with Windows 10's new lock screen ads

In a move that is unlikely to make the company many friends, Microsoft has started to push adverts on the lock screen for Windows 10.

As ExtremeTech notes, it's not like we didn't know this was coming, but it will certainly be interesting to see the wider reaction now that lock screens are actually being adorned with ads – the first one is for Rise of the Tomb Raider, by the way.

This decision will likely produce more cracks in the ice Microsoft is skating on with Windows 10, which has been getting thinner of late with all the controversy surrounding the amount of data the OS sends back to Redmond HQ (even if you adjust all the settings you can to block this, data is still being sent – at least with the Home version of the operating system).

At any rate, not everyone is seeing the adverts yet, so this "feature" would appear to be still rolling out (it may even be US only at this point).

Flick that switch

If you do find yourself being wound up by said adverts, the good news is it's easy enough to put a stop to them.

Simply hop on over to Settings, Personalisation, Lock Screen. There you'll find a little button for 'Get fun facts, tips, tricks, and more on your lock screen', which will be on. Switch it off and you will no longer be bothered by Lara Croft trying to persuade you to buy her latest adventure.

As well as privacy issues, the other major controversy surrounding Windows 10 is how Microsoft is pushing the upgrade hard at Windows 7/8.1 users, including making it a recommended update earlier this month (meaning that installation could conceivably kick-off automatically without the user taking any action).

• Also check out: Should you upgrade to Windows 10?

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Office 365 gets a load of fresh features across Windows, Mac and mobile

Microsoft has been busy beavering away with Office 365 this month, and has just published a blog post detailing the changes to the online suite in February, with work having been done on the desktop (Windows and Mac) software along with mobile apps.

Let's start with Excel, which has seen the implementation of new functions to make it easier to build common calculations, improvements to Formula AutoComplete and the introduction of a new type of chart – the Funnel chart.

Microsoft's spreadsheet app has also been graced with deeper integration with Power BI, so you can pin the likes of charts and graphs from Excel directly to Power BI dashboards.

Outlook has seen several improvements, including a new Archive feature

that lets you easily archive messages (surprisingly enough), shunting messages from your inbox to another folder with a single click. A new Groups section has also been implemented on the ribbon to give users an easy way to browse and join Office 365 Groups – Suggested Groups will also flag up Groups that you might wish to join.

Mobile matters

On the mobile front, Microsoft has embellished its Office apps, introducing integration with phone and tablet cameras which allows you to take photos with the device's snapper and see them inserted directly into documents on Windows and Android.

Windows mobile devices also now allow you to pin docs (or spreadsheets, etc) to the Start menu, and Microsoft has introduced the ability to use a pen or finger to annotate notes or doodle in Word, Excel and PowerPoint Mobile on Windows slates.

Finally, iOS isn't entirely left out in the cold as Redmond has integrated Box cloud storage with its mobile apps on the iPad and iPhone, with more big cloud players coming before long the company promises.

Office for Mac has also been given some attention with a number of features that were in preview now moving live, including a new transition for PowerPoint, Morph, which allows for the seamless movement of objects across slides. You can now customise commands in the Quick Access Toolbar, too.

• What's ahead on Microsoft's Office 365 roadmap?

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Office 365 users will get Outlook.com Premium with custom domains for free

A new email service from Microsoft, Outlook.com Premium, is apparently incoming, and it will be free for Office 365 users.

WalkingCat, an often active source of tech rumours on Twitter, stumbled across Microsoft's pilot page for the service (as WinBeta spotted), which spills the full details of what Outlook.com Premium will offer.

It will boast a fully ad-free inbox, and the service will give you five personalised email addresses with custom domains which will be provided by GoDaddy (of course, the exact domain you want will be subject to availability). You'll get the domain free for the first year, but will subsequently have to pay a subscription to GoDaddy.

Calendars, documents and contacts will also be automatically shared across these five email addresses, so staying connected is made as easy as possible.

As mentioned, Outlook.com Premium will apparently be free for those who subscribe to Office 365, the online version of Microsoft's productivity suite. As to when the service will actually go live, that's not clear yet – it's still being tested and is invitation-only right now.

Indeed, there's no guarantee it will go live, although it's certainly looking promising from what we see here. Those who want to manage their own custom domains via Outlook.com best keep their fingers crossed that the scheme doesn't get derailed at the last minute.

Image: WalkingCat

• How to be awesome at email

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Tablets Are Dead

 In 2010, tablets were supposed to be the new hot thing. Apple released the first iPad, Samsung was working on the Galaxy Tab and countless others were about to flood the market with Android tablets. Six years later, there weren’t any tablets at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Companies and consumers have moved on. Tablets are dead. Read More

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Google's Project Shield defends small websites from DDoS bombardment

Google's Project Shield is aiming to protect news reporting and free expression on the web, and has opened itself up to applications for free protection from DDoS attacks.

DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks, as you're likely aware, involve the flooding of the victim with huge amounts of traffic from many sources that overwhelms and takes the site down.

They can often be used as a crude form of censorship by those with an axe to grind against a particular website's viewpoint, which is why Google is making Project Shield available to protect news sites and human rights sites (along with election monitoring websites).

At the moment, these are the only websites which can apply for DDoS protection. The idea is to provide a viable option for small sites that can't hope to defend themselves against a larger-scale attack, and Google's system reroutes the malicious traffic through its own infrastructure to absorb it.

Simple setup

If you want to apply, there's an online form to fill in here which asks for the details of your site, and poses a few other questions about security and whether you've been hit by DDoS in the past. Note that you'll need to set up a Google account if you don't already have one.

If your application gets the green light from Google, you'll receive an email with all the details needed to configure Project Shield. It shouldn't take a webmaster any longer than 10 minutes to set everything up, so Google says.

If you run a site such as one of these and have been harassed by online troublemakers in the past, you've not really got anything to lose here.

Your only concern may be the data you're giving Google access to, as Project Shield collects "traffic metadata and cached content for website traffic", but the company asserts that any data is used to improve the performance of the anti-DDoS system and is not used to hone search or target advertising.

Via: The Next Web

• How to minimise the impact of DDoS attacks on your business

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Siri slated to be Mac OS X's killer app in version 10.12

After Cortana made the leap to Windows 10, maybe OS X has been feeling a bit lonely. Not to worry, as Apple is reported to soon introduce Siri to its desktop operating system (OS) to keep it company.

This is according to 9 to 5 Mac, reckoning that Siri will show up in OS X 10.12, the next incarnation of the OS that will follow OS X 10.11 El Capitan and is due to launch this autumn.

It has been a long wait for Siri to come to the Mac, but apparently Apple believes the time is now right, with the user interface being suitably polished.

As for the exact implementation, Siri will reportedly nestle in the Mac's menu bar, with an icon in the top-right to switch it on. After clicking, you'll see a transparent Siri window (with a dark background) pop up in the same area of the screen, asking what you need help with (complete with the same dynamic sound wave graphics to correlate with voice input found on iOS).

Hey, Siri!

There will apparently also be a keyboard shortcut to wake up Siri. And, if your Mac is plugged into an outlet, you'll apparently be able to use simple voice activation to kick Siri into action – as in "Hey, Siri."

Apple is busy working on making Siri smarter across the board. With its acquisition of Vocal IQ late last year, Apple looks to be focused on developing more natural exchanges between you and the digital assistant. That's can only be a good thing.

Siri has already been introduced to the firm's hardware beyond the iPhone, like the Apple Watch, the latest Apple TV, and indeed Apple CarPlay features Siri voice control. So, while this is a classic report citing anonymous sources, the Mac only makes sense as Siri's next home.

• What do we think of the latest MacBook?

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Fitbit Remains The Worldwide Leader In Wearables, But Xiaomi Is Quickly Gaining

 Fitbit has long been the king of wearables and an IDC report released today says James Park and Co. still wear the crown. But Xiaomi is quickly gaining power. A lot of power. Fitbit managed to ship 21 million devices in 2015, up 93.2% over 2014’s amount of 10.9 million units. That said, even by shipping nearly twice as many units, Fitbit still lost marketshare. Over the same time period… Read More

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Every Angle Of The New Samsung Galaxy S7 And S7 Edge

 Samsung aimed to gather the best features of Galaxies past for their S7 line. That included features missing from the S6 like water resistance and a microSD slot, but the company also took the improved design from the S6 line and made it even better. Check out the photos above to see every angle of the sleek new hardware and look here for a run-down of everything that’s new.… Read More

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Amazon Partners With Samsung On A Dash-Powered Ink Replacement Service

 Amazon Dash, the e-commerce giant’s smart supplies replenishment service, already has a number of deals with major appliance and office equipment makers like GE and Brother, for example, allowing for things like washers that automatically re-order detergent or printers that re-order ink. Today, the company is adding another big name to its partner lineup with the addition of… Read More

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What a croc! Uber now banned in the Northern Territory

Joining the giant crocodile movie Rogue on the increasingly-odd list of things that are banned in the Northern Territory is the ride-sharing company Uber, as it was decided today by the Northern Territory government that legislative changes would not be made to allow the service the legal right to operate within the region.

Transport Minister Peter Chandler told the ABC of the decision which was made in a Cabinet meeting prior to discussions regarding the Commercial Passenger Vehicle Industry Review Report.

"This was a Cabinet decision where we would stop Uber at the moment from coming to the NT," said Chandler, despite the service being declared legal in NSW and other areas around Australia.

Uber disappointed

Uber's Brad Kitschke commented on the matter, expressing his disappointment by saying "I think the Territory does risk being left behind," further explaining that this possible outcome is "something Territorians will have to consider if they don't have a government that's willing to look at progressive changes, embrace competition."

That isn't to say that Uber will never make it into the Territory – Chandler also stated that "companies like Uber may operate here one day," further explaining that "if and when they do let's make sure we've the right regulation."

Uber said it will continue its fight to legally operate in the Northern Territory, stating it will not push its way into the market without permission from the government like it has in other parts of the world.

• Get to the chopper: Uber to offer on-demand helicopter service

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Popular Linux distro hit by hacked version on official site over the weekend

When you download an operating system, you certainly don't expect to be installing an altered version with a backdoor in place, but sadly this is what happened to some folks who downloaded a popular version of Linux over the weekend.

To be precise, we are talking about Linux Mint – specifically the 17.3 Cinnamon edition. As the makers of Mint announced in a blog post, what actually happened was a malicious party made a modified version of said OS (containing a backdoor) and hacked the official website to point to this compromised download.

The maliciously modified version was available for a time on Saturday (February 20) before the issue was discovered, so if you downloaded and installed Mint from the official site on that day, then you've got a problem (and if this was a machine with business data on, a potentially even bigger problem).

If you grabbed another version aside from Mint 17.3 Cinnamon edition, then you're fine, and equally if you downloaded from elsewhere other than the official website (say via torrents) then you're also okay.

If you're unsure about whether you're safe or not, as Clement Lefebvre, who is in charge of Linux Mint, advises, you can check the MD5 signature "with the command md5sum yourfile.iso (where yourfile.iso is the name of the ISO)."

The list of valid signatures is provided in Clem's blog post, and further advice is given on what action to take if you did install this backdoor-laden OS (take the PC offline, reinstall the OS or format the partition, and change any passwords you may have used on the machine).

Apparently the compromised ISO was loaded with Tsunami botnet malware.

Forum compromised

At the time the attack was discovered, Lefebvre said that it was traced to Bulgaria, but the motivation wasn't known. However, ZDNet later spoke to a lone hacker from Europe by the handle of 'Peace' who claimed to be responsible, and said they had successfully compromised a few hundred machines running Mint.

The hacker also claimed to have stolen a complete copy of the Mint website's forum on two occasions, containing personal information of users including birthdates, email addresses and passwords (although the latter were encrypted).

However, the passwords are in the process of being cracked by all accounts (simple passwords will be particularly susceptible to being brute-forced), so if you're a forum member, you should take action on that front too and change your password (and other instances of that password if you've used it elsewhere – of course, it goes without saying that's very bad security practice).

The Mint team was quick to respond to this whole incident, and transparent in dealing with it, although the fallout from the compromise is likely to be considerable in the short-term.

• 10 best Linux distros: which one is right for you?

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Wearables Drive The Component Technology Innovation

 For years, many of the key components of wearables have been drafting off the strengths of the smartphone supply chain. During the last two years, the application processors and sensors for wrist and head-worn wearable products have more or less been taken off the parts bin of low and mid-tier smartphones. Read More

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Samsung Reveals The Gear 360 Camera: The Next Step In Its Virtual Realization

 The future will be filmed in 360 degrees. Samsung joins LG and others in announcing at MWC 2016 a new and compact camera that’s capable of filming everything thanks to two lenses. Called the Gear 360, the little sphere is designed to sit on a table or tripod or even hung from a drone and capture 360 degrees of video — you know, content perfect for viewing on your Gear VR. The… Read More

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Samsung Brings Back Expandable Memory, Water Resistance To Galaxy Line With The S7 And S7 Edge

   Samsung showed off the new S7 and S7 edge at its Galaxy Unpacked event today at MWC 2016 in Barcelona. They’re retro. The new Galaxy phones are a tad thicker than the Galaxy S6 line, but that’s because they rock huge batteries. Samsung also went back to its roots and made the S7 line water resistant and included a microSD card slot — things sorely missing from the… Read More

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Live From Samsung’s Galaxy S7 Unpacked Conference

 It’s time to see what Samsung has been cooking up for the past year. After weeks of speculation, Samsung is taking over the CCIB in Barcelona right in time for Mobile World Congress. This year’s Unpacked conference is a big deal. The company wants to make a splash and make Samsung great again. Samsung has plenty of competition when it comes to Android devices with many brands… Read More

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Watch The Samsung Galaxy S7 Unpacked Conference Live Right Here

 Samsung’s unpacked press conference at MWC in Barcelona is about to begin. The conference starts at 7 PM CET (6 PM GMT, 1 PM EST, 10 AM PST). We’ll have a live team on the ground to cover all of Samsung’s announcements. Rumor has it that Samsung is about to announce not one, but two new flagship phones. Like last year, Samsung is going to unveil the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge. Read More

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Facebook Messenger now supports multiple accounts on Android

Whether you've got kids who share your phone or a secret identity you need to keep on top of, you're in luck: Facebook Messenger for Android is rolling out support for using multiple accounts within the same app.

You need the correct password to add a new account for the first time, but after that it can be enabled or disabled - you probably want the latter if your kids are always on your phone or the former if you share a Pixel C with the other people in your house.

"All over the world, hundreds of millions of people share their phones and tablets with members of their family and friends," says the Facebook Messenger team. "At Messenger, we want to make communication simpler, more seamless and secure."

The update is rolling out now for Android devices - to check if it's reached your phone or tablet yet, look for the Accounts option on the Settings page. There's no word yet on when the feature might arrive on iOS, so iPhone and iPad users are out of luck for the time being.

• Remember when Facebook Messenger added video calling support?

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13 TechCrunch Stories You Don’t Want To Miss This Week

 This week, Apple battled with the FBI amid an order to unlock an iPhone belonging to one of the terrorists involved in the San Bernardino shooting, Kanye West made waves in the tech world when his new album launched exclusively on Tidal, the new Samsung Galaxy phones leaked and much more. These are the top tech stories from this week. Read More

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Smartwatch Shipments Have Overtaken Swiss Watches For The First Time

 So it begins: “worldwide smartwatch shipments” have hit 8.1 million units in Q4 2015 compared to 7.9 million for Swiss watch shipments. Strategy Analytics, a research firm, has found that smartwatch shipments “rose a healthy 316 percent from 1.9 million in Q4 2014.” Apple has an estimated 63 percent of the global market followed by Samsung’s 16 percent.… Read More

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Outbreak threat: should we use antivirus software on our phones?

We all know we're supposed to have some form of antivirus software on our computers, but even with (hopefully) most people running some form of protection, malware is still rampant.

Panda Security reports that in 2015 32.13% of the computers it scanned were infected in some way and over 84 million new malware samples were detected.

Of those infections, not all fall under the label of viruses. The majority of infections were found to be malicious programs, known as Trojans. A virus, on the other hand, is something which attaches itself to an existing program to cause harm.

Other malware includes worms, adware and PUPs (potentially unwanted programs), the latter being unwanted software which installs at the same time as something you actually do want - more annoying than dangerous.

Yet despite smartphones basically being pocket computers, and therefore surely at risk of infection, antivirus software seems to be more seen as optional than essential.

So should we be worried about viruses and other malware on our phones? Or are there enough built in protections already?

The risks are real, but avoidable

We asked Tony Anscombe, Senior Security Evangelist at AVG Technologies whether phones really are at risk. He told techradar that: "Ultimately, all devices are at risk from malicious viruses, but as we become increasingly dependent on our smartphones for all aspects our daily lives they become a much more attractive target for hackers.

"Think about the amount of information stored on your phone: personal ID, bank and credit card details, browsing history, app data, medical notes – and that's just scratching the surface. Today, smartphones hold everything a hacker needs to steal money and, at worst, your identity."

Of course the answer here could simply be to change how you use your phone, so that there won't be all that personal information for thieves to find.

It's also perhaps unsurprising that an antivirus company would present viruses as a significant risk, yet the evidence so far seems to be that on smartphones they're not as much of a worry as you'd expect.

There aren't yet close to the same number of viruses on smartphones as on desktops, with a recent report from Motive Security Labs finding less than 1% of mobile devices infected with malware. Compared to PCs that's a tiny proportion and while they still present a risk it's a pretty tiny, and largely avoidable, one.

The way our phones pick up malware also differs from how we're most likely to get it on a PC. Gert-Jan Schenk, VP of Lookout EMEA, told us:

"One thing to pay particular attention to is phishing. Mobile devices' small form means we interact with them pretty differently than desktop computers," he said.

"In fact, studies have shown that users are three times more likely to click on a malicious link from their smartphone than a PC, which makes phishing emails or messages a serious issue on mobile."

Text messages are another vulnerable area. Anscombe explained that: "One of the most vulnerable aspects for smartphone users is text messaging – simply because we're not conditioned to recognise malicious content in the same way when we get a text message."

So it seems the risks could be lower still once people wise up to them. In general, if you get a link in a text message from a number that's not in your phone it's probably sketchy, even (or especially) if it claims to come from a reputable institution, like your bank.

Similarly, some messages will ask you to call a number, warning of - for example - suspicious activity on your account. To be on the safe side always use a number that you can identify as official, such as one that's come directly from the institution's website. It can take longer to hunt out, but it keeps you safer.

No OS is totally safe

The risks vary depending on which operating system you use too. Android is the highest risk, both because it has the biggest market share, making it an appealing target, and because of its open source nature.

Anscombe warned that: "Vulnerabilities found in the Android OS, such as Stagefright in 2015, highlight the issues associated with open source operating systems like Android, as opposed to the closed environment that iOS presents.

"As a result, there is always going to be a potentially greater risk that a vulnerability exists or could be introduced by a third party developer for Android smart devices, than those run on other operating systems."

Stagefright was one of the single biggest arguments for smartphone antivirus, as it opened millions of devices up to an attack which could monitor your activity and steal your information, yet there's no evidence that hackers were actually exploiting it.

While Stagefright only affected Android, being on iOS or Windows Phone doesn't mean you're completely safe, with an issue arising in 2015 when developers downloaded infected software from less reputable sources to code for iOS.

Schenk pointed out that: "Historically, iOS was certainly perceived as more secure than Android. However, that all changed this year when we saw a number of threats to iOS.

"With XcodeGhost for example, app developers unwittingly added malicious code to their applications after using a repackaged version of Apple's development environment Xcode. The impact: for the millions of people who've downloaded apps with the malicious code, that code can steal sensitive data."

That said, it's not clear how many people actually downloaded the affected apps, how many affected apps there were or what (or how much) data was actually stolen.

Keep it official

So should we stop downloading apps if they're such a big risk? If you stick to the official app stores the answer seems to be no. Google and Apple review applications before allowing them on their respective platforms, so the risk is typically minimal.

Apps on both iOS and Android are also run in a 'sandbox', which limits their ability to interact with other programs on the phone.

On top of that, on Android you can see which permissions an app requires and make a judgement call on whether you therefore want to download it. If you're downloading an app to perform one task and it requires access to a completely different part of the phone, make a call on whether it's legitimate. Reading reviews can help - but remember, if it's a small number these could be faked, so stick with those that have many pieces of feedback.

The risk certainly goes up once you start using third-party stores on Android, as these often don't have the same level of security as Google Play.

That's less a problem on iOS, but if you jailbreak your device you're increasing the risk of letting malware in, particularly if you download software from unofficial sources.

Schenk pointed out that: "Apps on a jailbroken device can run with escalated privileges and access sensitive data belonging to other apps. For example, the recent KeyRaider malware impacted jailbroken iOS devices and stole 225k Apple accounts."

Stay sensible to stay safe

So with all that in mind is it worth having antivirus on your phone? Apple would seemingly say no, as it's culled just about all antivirus software from the app store.

On Android you at least have the option and many antivirus apps come free of charge and from trusted names, but with them running and scanning in the background they can inevitably have a small but real impact on performance and battery life.

Lookout for example claims that in general its service should use less than 2% of your battery each day, but with smartphone battery life often so low to begin with that's still a consideration. If just 10 apps on your phone are doing that in the background you're down 20% each day before even getting to your general phone-related tasks.

If you're generally careful and don't use third-party app stores then the risk of infection is tiny, with or without an antivirus. But the key is to be careful and sensible online, even when using a phone.

If you're worried about viruses and can live with the performance impact there's no major downside to using an antivirus, but don't become too reliant on it. Anscombe pointed out that: "Believing that any one security measure is going to completely protect you is generally incorrect and might lead you to more risky behaviour."

You'll never be completely safe from malware, but do all of the above and the risks are minimal. One day we might see malware become a real problem on phones, but the reality seems to be that for now, if you're sensible, it's not.

Whether or not you use an antivirus you should be wary of what you install and which stores you use. You should also keep your software updated and use two-factor authentication for your accounts to keep track of when and where people are trying to access your account - hopefully, it's always you.

• People don't trust smartphone security.

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Global Smartphone Sales Growth Slows To 2008 Levels, Says Gartner

 Global smartphones sales in Q4 2015 experienced their slowest growth rate since 2008, according to Gartner’s latest market report. The quarter saw sales of Apple’s iPhone decline for the first time, with the analyst charting a 4.4 per cent decline on the year before quarter for Cupertino. Read More

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NextVR Announces Multi-Year Partnership With Fox Sports

 No matter which type of sportsball they’ve been streaming, NextVR has managed to make their live sporting event VR broadcasts some of the most engaging virtual reality experiences available on the Samsung Gear VR platform. For those who’ve enjoyed seeing the company’s live boxing matches, basketball games, soccer matches etc., there’s more where that came from.… Read More

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JB Hi-Fi Now to soon be a thing of the past

It’s hard out there for a music streaming service, which is why JB Hi-Fi has announced that its own Spotify competitor, JB Hi-Fi NOW, will be closing down on March 17, 2016.

In an message posted on the JB-Hi-Fi NOW website, the service explained that subscriptions “will remain active up until 17th March following which you will no longer be able to stream music.”

This marks the second digital service that the retailer has shuttered in less than a year, with its JB Hi-Fi NOW Books service shutting down in September last year.

The day the music died

Though it’s offering refunds for paid days beyond the upcoming cutoff period, the service “will no longer be taking any direct payments, new subscriptions or renewals from 17th February 2016.”

The retailer has also assured customers with JB Hi-Fi NOW gift cards that they can either obtain refunds, or trade them in for in-store credit.

As for JB Hi-Fi NOW users’ prized playlists, the retailer vows not to leave its customers in the dark – the service will be providing users with a list of their “favourites, mixes and queue lists to make the transition to a new streaming service easier.”

• Need a new music service? check out Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal and the rest

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How 3D visualisation will change the shape of e-commerce

Shopping online can be a disappointing experience. Sure, it's convenient, but often the best result we can hope for is some reasonably accurate images of the product combined with a few words on why you should buy it.

But things are looking to improve. The onset of visualisation technology – across multiple user interfaces – is set to drive a revolution in how we transact online. Let's peer into the nascent world of 3D e-commerce.

From web to wearables

Introducing 3D, or "visual" e-commerce is more than simply including a 3D image of a product on a website.

The potential for 3D e-commerce is huge. Everything from interactive 3D web content to augmented and virtual reality using wearable computers can be seen as potential channels for sellers to reach buyers.

Ann Nolan, co-founder of Australian visualisation start up Snobal.io says there is no standard, or agreed, definition of 3D e-commerce because the area is still emerging and terms like "vCommerce" (virtual commerce), virtual stores and 3D e-commerce are used interchangeably.

There is also a difference between 360-degree immersion using VR headsets and enabling a customer to experience a virtual 3D environment delivered via a computing device, much like how today's virtual reality games are experienced.

"We are at an early stage of the VR industry's development so while awareness is growing of VR and e-commerce and how they may interact, retailers thinking of how VR will impact their business is slower than it probably should be given the potential impact it will have," Nolan says.

"The VR and AR industry is projected to be huge so if you're in retail [or] any business, for example, workplace training, you need to be collaborating VR companies to test and explore how VR is going to impact your business or how you can leverage it to gain competitive advantage and connect with customers."

At Data61's Quantitative Imaging unit, senior experimental scientist and research engineer, Matt Adcock says in the longer term, 3D e-commerce will start to refer to many more facets of online business.

"3D technologies will help in customer assistance, community support forums, product search engines, review websites, and even online services such as home design and maintenance advice," he says.

2D e-commerce ready for shake up

Even though e-commerce is a fast-growing industry, the main user interface of 2D webpages hasn't changed much in 20 years, according to Nolan.

"Online shopping is still very much a flat click and order 'push content' experience with very little interaction or product visualisation and zero social interaction or storytelling capability," she says. "It has been developed from legacy print media knowledge and requirements."

"Comprehending 2D graphical context is something that has to be taught whereas we're 'hardwired' to comprehend 3D environments from birth. It's only recently that technology has caught up with our expectations of computer generated, real time 3D experiences – now we can generate amazing immersive environments which can be shared globally on standard computing hardware."

With 3D virtual e-commerce, a retailer isn't limited by real world constraints, including the costs of running a bricks-and-mortar store.

"A retailer can have a virtual 3D e-commerce environment created that provides a graphical 3D representation or experience of the story that the retailer wants to create to illustrate the product or brand," Nolan says.

Data61's Adcock says with web browsers no longer needing plugins to view 3D content we are starting to see more and more companies put full 3D scans of their products online, resulting in a better experience for the shopper.

"When you buy something online you often end up searching and sifting through many options on many different websites, and each of those websites will probably have taken a set of photos showing a small number of perspectives," Adcock says. "With a 3D model, you get to choose what part of the object you'd like to see. This interactive experience means you can much more easily compare between the items on your shortlist."

3D visuals all style at Shoes of Prey

In addition to offering a more visual shopping experience, 3D technology can be applied to allow more product choice for customers.

At Shoes of Prey, shoppers are greeted with a design-your-own shoe platform that uses 3D design technology that allows people to create the exact shoe they want.

Customers can choose from trillions of combinations of styles, colours and fabrics, and design a unique pair of shoes that meets their style and comfort preferences.

Once the order is placed, the shoes are made in a dedicated factory and delivered to the customer's door.

Jodie Fox, co-founder of Shoes of Prey, told techradar the 3D technology used for the online shoe design tool allows the customer to visualise their creation in the most realistic way possible, before they commit to ordering.

"Shoppers are becoming more sustainably minded and as a result, I think we're going to see 3D technology become more mainstream in the e-commerce industry for consumers, designers and manufacturers," Fox says.

"Customers often prefer something unique over the mass-produced designs stocked in high-end stores, and as a result we're seeing customisation become more popular in both Australia and the US in particular."

For people not confident creating and placing an order online Shoes of Prey has created a combined online-offline business model with physical "design studios" using the 3D technology in five stores across the US.

Another shoe company, TOMS, recently launched at 3D VR experience in Australia with its launch into MYER. Customers can experience a TOMS Giving Trip in Peru, which shows how their purchase of TOMS shoes will aid the life of a child with the gift of a new pair of shoes.

Wearables to bring 3D e-commerce to life

With wearable technology and computers becoming more pervasive, there is an emerging platform for buying something online facilitated by visualising and interacting with it first.

"Using AR glasses, or even a smartphone, you can overlay selected virtual 3D objects from within your own home to see how they might look when placed in different positions," according to Matt Adcock.

Adcock says 2016 will see the release of consumer VR headsets with "App Stores" from which people can download immersive experiences and online retailers will be able to let potential customers choose and experience products before they purchase.

Nolan sees a future where wearables will be as common as mobile phones, powering a range of 3D e-commerce applications.

"The infrastructure to provide content will mature in due course and we'll see people with the tools to easily, cost effectively and quickly generate their own VR content without the need for expert technical knowledge," she says.

"I also imagine there will be an adoption of larger, interactive digital displays – digital wallpaper if you like – and the uptake of CAVEs (computer automatic virtual environments) for both domestic and retail use."

"There is a lot of focus on the moment on VR hardware, but to truly leverage the potential of the market VR needs to also get on top of content creation."

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Apple May Ditch Samsung For Next iPhone Chip

 Apple and Samsung have been asymmetric competitors for years, fighting to grab smartphone market share and partnering when it comes to chips. According to a recent report from The Electronic Times, TSMC (the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) will be the only company manufacturing the A10 for the next iPhone. Samsung won’t be working with Apple for the next iPhone. Read More

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Samsung Touts Fitness, Privacy Smarts For Incoming Galaxy S7 Flagships

 Not to be outdone on the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge leaks that were all over the Internets yesterday, Samsung has published an official launch website for its forthcoming pair of flagships — which includes a new promo video for the S7 Edge with some heavy hints about features… Read More

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Windows Store now tells you which apps are built for Windows 10

Want to know which apps in the Windows Store are specifically built for Microsoft's newest operating system?

Well, now it's possible to tell as with the latest tweaking of the store, Windows Central reports that Redmond has added a new 'Built For Windows 10' label which highlights those apps specifically made as universal apps for Windows 10.

You'll find this underneath the app's name (actually underneath the 'Share' icon under the name, to be precise), and it indicates that the program won't have any issues running on a Windows 10 device.

That's definitely good to know for those who have made the move to the new OS which Microsoft is busy pushing very hard indeed.

This change is thought to have landed with the latest update to the Windows Store, although it wasn't clear at the time, as the update didn't provide any changelog to let us know what was new. Various bug fixes were, of course, a given, as ever…

Windows 10 has now racked up in excess of 200 million installs, and at the end of last week, Microsoft introduced a new 'Ring' for those who like to test preview builds of the OS – although in this case, the new Release Preview Ring doesn't actually offer whole builds, rather just driver and software updates to try out before they hit consumer PCs.

• How to use Windows 10

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Aussies double down on Telstra's free data offer

Telstra felt really bad for the network outages that plagued its mobile customers last week, so it decided to give all its customers unmetered data for a day. Now that day is done, and Telstra has given us an insight into just how much data was pushed through its tubes. Spoiler: It's a lot.

In a post on its Exchange blog, Telstra's group managing director of Networks, Mike Wright, explained that from the moment the clock struck midnight on Sunday, Telstra's services were hit by increased demand. By 8am, it had hit peak weekday levels, and continued to climb from there.

Over the course of the day, over 1,841 terabytes of data was downloaded across Telstra's mobile customer base, which included pre-and-post-paid customers, business customers, mobile internet and Boost retail customers.

Downloading concerns

That figure apparently represents double the normal Sunday traffic experienced on the Telstra network. The unmetered data initiative survived the load, which is almost definitely what Telstra wanted to show customers.

Given that Telstra charges a premium for its network, it needed to come out swinging following the outage last week. What better way to do that than by showing that even when your entire customer base is downloading whatever they want for free, your network handles the load without issue?

With little effect on overall speed around the country, Telstra will no doubt be considering this exercise a resounding success.

• Who's got the best 4G network?

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In Depth: Android in 2020: how much could Google's OS change?

What New Mobile Hardware To Expect At MWC 2016

 Mobile World Congress, the biggest tradeshow specifically focused on mobile, kicks off in just over a week’s time in Barcelona so here’s a quick rundown of some of the big hardware-focused announcements we’re expecting to land during the best part of a week of fully mobile-focused news… Read More

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Updated: Install Linux on your x86 tablet: 5 distros to choose from

Introduction

Note: Our install Linux on your x86 tablet feature has been fully updated. This article was first published in July 2013.

These days, one of the few growth markets for PC devices is the Windows-powered tablet. While they're superficially designed as touch-friendly tablets, they can be converted into 2-in-1 devices with the addition of a plugin keyboard, which allows you to effectively use the tablet as a touch-friendly laptop instead.

Most modern hybrids are powered by Intel's Bay Trail Atom chips – they use the x86 chipset, but are seriously underpowered compared to the high-powered Intel Core i7, i5 and even i3 chips. Nevertheless, they're perfectly serviceable for low-end Windows work, and come with Windows 10 preinstalled.

But where are the Linux-powered tablets? We think there's a massive gap in the market, and while we wait for it to be filled we thought to ourselves: why not get hold of a Bay Trail tablet and install Linux on it? After all, if it's x86-based then we can install pretty much anything on it, right?

Erm, not quite. It turns out you can't just install any old Linux distro on a Bay Trail tablet. Nevertheless, with some insider knowledge and a healthy dose of trial and error, it is possible to get a Linux-powered tablet. Of sorts. Read on to find out how.

• 10 of the best Linux distros for privacy fiends and security buffs
• 5 of the most popular Linux gaming distros
• 10 best Linux distros: which one is right for you?
• What's the best Linux distro for beginners?
• How to choose the best Linux distro for laptops

How we tested

We splashed out £140 (around $200, AU$290) on a Linx 1010 Windows 10 tablet with add-on keyboard – it's powered by a quad-core Atom Z3735F processor, 2GB RAM, and has a 1280 x 800 10.1-inch WXGA capacitive screen, seventh-generation Intel HD graphics and 32GB eMMC internal storage.

It includes Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, dual cameras, two full-size USB 2.0 ports and a microSD slot – so it's a complete piece of kit. In addition there's an accelerometer that – among other things – allows the display to be rotated when turned on its side.

Our aim was to find an all-out distro that could emulate all our tablet's core features: graphics, sound, Wi-Fi, power management and touchscreen. Sadly, things are complicated by the fact that this particular generation of tablets pair a 64-bit processor with 32-bit EFI, leaving you stuck between a rock and a hard place: no 32-bit distro supports EFI, while most 64-bit distros are currently only engineered to work with 64-bit EFIs.

We quickly found a solution to that particular problem in the form of a handy bootia32.efi file from John Wells. The long and short of it is that if this is copied to the EFI/BOOT folder on supported bootable Linux USB drives, you should at least get as far as the Grub menu, and often much further too.

Two distros we tried didn't need this workaround, and they proved to be the two we had most success with, going beyond the basic USB live boot to a full-blown install on the tablet's internal storage. Note, before doing this you should back up your tablet using a tool like Macrium Reflect Free, otherwise you won't be able to go back to Windows 10.

Ubuntu 14.04.3

We found the LTS release of Ubuntu impossible to get anywhere with until we discovered Ian Morrison'scustomised build for Z3735F-based desktops. We downloaded the ISO and copied to a USB flash drive using Unetbootin in Ubuntu, then popped it in one of the Linx's USB ports, launched to the boot menu and were successfully able to boot it as a live USB.

We first had to head into Settings > Display to turn the display 90 degrees clockwise to put it in landscape mode so it would work with our keyboard. There was no sound or touch support, but the Wi-Fi worked.

When it came to installing Ubuntu, we had to tread carefully – manually partitioning the drive to ensure the original EFI boot partition was left intact, and then setting that partition (Windows Boot Loader) for the boot loader installation.

Once installation was complete, we then had to install a 32-bit version of Grub following Ian Morrison's handy script and tutorial before successfully rebooting direct into Ubuntu. Others have used this patch with other distros too, including Linux Mint 17.2.

We then updated Linux, installed Ian's dsdt patch and found ourselves with a functional Ubuntu environment, albeit one without sound or touch. Neither was the AC power detected, with Ubuntu convinced we were running on battery only – a problem common to all distros in this test. We also had no control over the device's brightness, but at least we had a distro we could use.

We pushed the boat further by upgrading the kernel to 4.3.3 with mixed results: we gained a usable touchscreen, but at the expense of stability and the internal Wi-Fi adapter (the stability issue was fixed with a Grub setting, while we retained internet connectivity by plugging in a USB Wi-Fi adapter). We're hopeful that in time we may be able to get the internal adapter working again, plus start work on getting other hardware recognised too.

Rating: 8/10

Debian 8.3 (Jessie)

There's no live CD support for Bay Trail tablets, but both 32-bit and 64-bit installer images work out of the box with 32-bit EFI, so we simply had to create the installer USB drive with the stock image. There's no touch support in the installer – you'll need access to your plug-in keyboard – and it demanded the non-free rt2860.bin file before it would work with our Raspberry Pi-friendly Wi-Fi adapter.

We had to quit the installer, pop the USB flash drive into a PC and download firmware-ralink_0.43_all.deb to the drive.

We then restarted the installer, which now detected the Wi-Fi adapter automatically, allowing us to connect to the network. From here, the rest of the install process was extremely straightforward. We chose to manually partition the drive to preserve the original EFI and Windows rescue partitions at the front of the drive, and everything proceeded smoothly.

We picked the default Gnome desktop and were able to glide through the potentially tricky part of setting up Grub without having to get our hands dirty at all. The installer finished, we rebooted and there Debian was, ready to go.

We first used Display settings to rotate the screen by 90 degrees. Sadly hardware support was minimal – no touchscreen, internal Wi-Fi, sound or power management. Upgrading to kernel 4.2 had no effect on anything, although it appeared the internal Wi-Fi adapter was at least now recognised (if not working).

Rating: 7/10

Fedora

All paths for running Fedora point to the Fedlet remix. We struggled to get it to boot beyond the splash screen, a "timed out" error blocking our every attempt at progress. We subsequently discovered the problem was with Unetbootin, so created the bootable drive using Rufus in Windows – it gave us a choice of using ISO or 'dd' mode, and picking the latter resulted in an image we could use.

Results were similar to those we had with Debian – basic functionality was there, and we did at least have rudimentary touchscreen support in that tapping the screen would move the cursor and select options. But there was no sound, power management or control over the display brightness, and we could only get internet access through our trusty USB Wi-Fi adapter.

Fedlet uses the Gnome shell, and this had a noticeable effect on performance, with the distro much less responsive than Debian or Ubuntu – indeed, it slowed down to a crawl after a relatively short amount of time, making it next to unusable.

We attempted to try the LXDE spin of Fedora 23, but thanks to the way Rufus wrote the disc (as a hidden partition) we were unable to add the EFI folder from Fedlet to it. We tried injecting the folder directly into the ISO image using Free WinISO Maker, but that didn't work either. Not that it should stop you – others have reported success with their own non-Fedlet projects.

Rating: 6/10

Arch Linux

Our experiment with Arch Linux involved a specialised version that supported SDIO Wi-Fi and 32-bit UEFI from WatchMySys. The drive worked, but left us hanging at the Grub menu – there were instructions for getting beyond here, although the Linx's keyboard insisted on acting in Function Lock mode, which meant holding down the [Fn] key to get the right syntax. From here we booted into a command line, where thankfully the [Fn] key was functioning correctly, simplifying the process of following the rest of the guide.

We were pleased to see our built-in Wi-Fi adapter was recognised by this version of Arch, but were left hanging with, "Now you should be able to SSH to your tablet from another computer, and complete the installation."

It's at this point you realise just how complicated Arch Linux is for newcomers – we'd strongly recommend you only go further if you're comfortable following the command line. For an idea of what's involved, check out the Arch Linux Wiki.

Rating: 5/10

Porteus

We ran through a number of other distros without success before finally striking gold again. Porteus is a slim-line Linux installation designed to run from removable media such as a USB flash drive, making it – on paper – a good choice for those who want to run Linux on their tablet without affecting the underlying Windows installation.

We visited the Porteus build page where we specified a 64-bit, UEFI-based version with GUI. We opted for the lightweight LXQt desktop interface, and added a browser and word processor to the list of apps. Our downloaded ISO image was then written to a 500MB USB flash drive, and we subsequently copied the bootia32.efi file to the EFI\BOOT directory as with so many other distros.

This allowed us to boot as far as the Grub command line, whereupon we used our experience from other distros (and a handy forum post) to get Porteus up and running with the following four commands:

$ set root=hd0,msdos1

$ linux /boot/syslinux/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda1

$initrd /boot/syslinux/initrd.xz

$boot

This took us to the Porteus desktop in no time at all, but as with the other distros we had to rotate the screen 90 degrees clockwise to make things more comfortable. Sadly there's no option in the Settings pane, so we used the following Terminal command:

$ xrandr --output UNKNOWN1 --rotate right

Unfortunately, very little worked – there was no touch support to go with the by now almost mandatory lack of sound and built-in Wi-Fi, although we were able to get online after rebooting with our failsafe USB Wi-Fi adapter plugged in.

The biggest problem with Porteus is the lack of persistence in the live USB environment. This means we'll need to install it to the USB to see if we can get it to run, but it's a job for someone with more patience and time than we have, sadly.

Rating: 5/10

Conclusion

Support for cheap Windows 10 tablets is extremely flaky at present, but the situation is improving. The problem remains that relatively few techies are using these tablets, so developing support for them is poor.

We tried many distros with varying degrees of success – some won't support the 32-bit UEFI come what may, while others will at least get you as far as the Grub menu, allowing you to pick your way through the live environment.

Complicating matters is installation – in our roundup, only Debian and the specially constructed build of Ubuntu were successfully installed, and even then the lack of hardware support is crippling these tablets in terms of practical usage.

That said, we have high hopes for Ubuntu – and we've picked this distro as our overall winner. We'll be striving over the next few months to see if we're able to get more hardware working with it, but for now it is at least a functional touchscreen tablet, albeit a rather basic one!

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London Ambulance Service is using an app for Cardiac Arrest first-responders

For the last five months, The London Ambulance Service has been using an app to help people respond to cardiac arrests, it has been revealed.

Every second counts when it comes to responding, so the idea is that if you encounter someone experiencing a cardiac arrest, head into the app and hit the panic button. Not only will it alert paramedics, but it will also send alerts to three nearby trained responders. Ambulance crews can also use the app to call for extra help.

According to New Scientist, the app has been used between 20 and 30 times a day, and is used by some of the 7500 trained first responders in the UK.

Most recently, the developers have added video streaming functionality, so that paramedics are able to see the patient before they arrive on the scene.

False Alarms

Creator Mark Wilson also thinks that the app could help prevent misdiagnosis by untrained bystanders, as they would be able to communicate with paramedics. It could even help save ambulance resources for real emergencies, as he suggests that if the medical condition isn't urgent, a taxi could be summoned instead of an ambulance.

The app isn't necessarily the first of its kind. For example, last year we reported on a similar app that had been developed in a plan. But this use by the London Ambulance Service certainly sounds like one of the most advanced trials of the technology so far.

• The Uber for cardiac arrests may one day save your life

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New image algorithm could lead to better fingerprint readers and self-driving cars

Engineers from the University of California, Los Angeles have published a new image processing algorithm, which they say enables computers to pick out even more detail than ever before. This could lead to improvements in fingerprint and facial recognition, and even self-driving cars.

The way the so-called Phase Stretch Transform algorithm works is that it identifies the edges of objects, then detects and extracts individual features. It can even "see" parts of images that the human eye cannot - such as the extra stars hidden in the image above, or the internal structure of the lamp below, which would otherwise be drowned out by bright lights.

Blood-shot

Interestingly, it was developed by scientists initially for ultra-fast image processing that can detect cancer in blood but now the scientists, who are led by electrical engineering Professor Bahram Jalali, have released it for wider use.

The speculation is that it could mean fingerprint locks are more secure, as secure systems will be able to extract more data from our prints. And it could even be used to help autonomous vehicles stay safe, as more details could conceivably be quickly extracted from a car's field of vision.

The code behind it has been posted on both Github and Matlab File Exchange - so don't be surprised if we start seeing it used behind the scenes in all sorts of popular apps.

By making it open source, the hope is also that developers will help further improve the algorithm.

• Here's another cool image algorithm for decluttering photos.

(Via Gizmodo.)

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