Recommend: 28 1 30 Email 2 Comments Print Antivirus on Windows 8: Looking at Your Options

Windows 8 will come with bundled antivirus software, but will you need to supplement it with other programs? We look at some of your options.

Microsoft will include antivirus in Windows 8 for the first time in the history of Windows. But will this software--the new version of Windows Defender--provide adequate protection against viruses, spyware, and other malware? Let's take a closer look at what Windows Defender provides, and whether its features are enough to keep you safe.

Bear in mind that even though Microsoft will include Windows Defender in Windows 8, PC manufacturers may disable the program on new PCs that carry preinstalled antivirus software from a third-party such as Norton or McAfee. The preinstalled third-party antivirus options are usually limited-time trials, so your initial decision may be whether to keep any preinstalled antivirus; if you decide against keeping it, you'll need to decide whether to enable Windows Defender and use it or to switch to another third-party antivirus program.
The most important thing to consider when choosing antivirus software is its protection strength--how well it detects, disables, and removes viruses, spyware, and other malware. In this article I'll focus on comparing the protection strength of Windows Defender to that of other antivirus programs.

Qualcomm's Quad Snapdragon S4 Pro Tablet Now Available to Developers

NVIDIA may have been first to the quadcore game, but Qualcomm is ready to bring on the competition.
On Tuesday morning in San Francisco, Qualcomm introduced the press to its latest Snapdragon processor running on a developer tablet. The Snapdragon S4 Pro is Qualcomm's direct contender to NVIDIA's quadcore Tegra 3 processor. Built by BSquare, this tablet (also known as a Mobile Development Platform, or MDP) is available today from BSquare's website for $1300.

How to Make Your Own Network Cables

We show you how to clean up the rat's nest of cables behind your PC by making custom-length network cables and wiring your own network jacks.

Although it’s easy to head to the electronics store to buy network cables, making do with cables of predetermined lengths can be a problem. More often than not, premade cables are either too short (and require coupling) or too long (in which case, you have to tie up excess cabling and tuck it away somewhere). The end result is usually a mess of extra network cable, wrapped and bundled up alongside your devices and network switches. It works, but it isn't ideal, and it looks horrible.

The MyEvents247 For iPhone App Provides A New Way To Find Local Events With Deep Facebook Integration

We are all involved in a modern world that is connected through social media and made smaller by gadgets like the iPhone and iPad which allow us all to remain in constant contact with each other. Apple has provided us with the technology to stay connected, but the development community also has a responsibility to provide us with apps that want us to connect to one another and share our interactions.

Windows 8 Store Detailed By Microsoft, Free 7-Day Trials For Paid Apps, Pricing Plans And More

 

With a considerable amount of ground to make up already on the various app hubs available from the likes of Apple, Microsoft needs to deliver the goods with its Windows 8 Store, and the Redmond company has now released details via the MSDN Blog of how its new store will distribute apps.
The Windows 8 Store itself has been on the cards for quite a while, but little has been known with regards to how things will operate. Now though, it has been revealed the minimum cost of paid apps will be at a minimum of $1.49, which is around 50% higher than most other platforms. Having said that, the software maker also plans to include a 7-day trial setup, which will allow consumers to test the waters of an app for one week, before opting out if necessary.

Microsoft's Shift to the Cloud: What It Means for You

With Office 2013 and Windows 8, Microsoft launches into its most ambitious strategic shift since the original release of Internet Explorer. Here's how it will affect you.

Microsoft's announcement of Office 2013 is another linchpin in the company's effort to assume a leadership role as a cloud-computing services provider.
The new version of Office will be tightly coupled to the company’s SkyDrive cloud-storage service. SkyDrive, in turn, is one of the key built-in features of Windows 8.
Microsoft has yet to announce pricing for the new Office. But with Windows 8 Pro upgrades costing just $40 if you upgrade online directly from Microsoft, the software giant has already signaled a willingness to change its upgrade models.

Google Brings Emails to Feature Phones in Africa, No Internet Access Required

 Some of us in the Western hemisphere might already take Internet access and smartphones for granted, but this is not the case all over the world. Bearing that in mind, Google has launched a cool new service called Gmail SMS, which allows Gmail users who own a simple feature phone to send and receive emails using only text messages.

How to Get Started With CSS

Web designers use CSS to turn basic HTML into cutting-edge visual layouts. Our getting-started guide tells you everything you need to know to understand it.

I've already discussed how you can learn to code for free using languages such as Ruby and JavaScript, but this time we'll explore an even more basic language that can help to make your websites pop. Cascading Style Sheets is like HTML's cooler, more artistic sibling: While HTML handles the structure and content of your website, CSS allows you to add cutting-edge design to it. This guide tells you everything you need to know to get started making better-looking websites fast.

A Phone that Knows Where You're Going

An algorithm can better predict your future movements by getting a little help from your friends.
Beyond merely tracking where you've been and where you are, your smartphone might soon actually know where you are going—in part by recording what your friends do.
Researchers in the U.K. have come up with an algorithm that follows your own mobility patterns and adjusts for anomalies by factoring in the patterns of people in your social group (defined as people who are mutual contacts on each other's smartphones).

Information on the Green ICT Hackathon and the 2nd Green ICT Application Challenge

The application “SocialElectricity” has been awarded the winner of the second ITU Green ICT Application Challenge. Designed by Andreas Kamilaris, from Cyprus, “SocialElectricity” is a Facebook application that allows people to compare their electricity footprint with their friends and also their neighborhood/village/town in a country-wide scale. The application aims to help people become aware of their electricity consumption and manage it more rationally.

Microsoft Expected to Unveil Office 15

Microsoft is expected to show off Office 15, the next version of the company's productivity suite, on Monday at an event in San Francisco, according to numerous reports.
Office has been available to a select group of users in a technical preview since January. It's not clear whether a public beta of Office might be available Monday, or whether it will arrive later this summer.
Few details have seeped out about Office 15. Several reports claim Windows XP and Windows Vista won't be able to run Office 15. Microsoft is scheduled to stop supporting XP in 2014 and Vista support is expected to run out in 2017.

How to Undo RAID: Best Practices

Changing from a RAID 0-array boot drive to a single-drive boot should be easy, I thought, but the operation can be more complicated than may you anticipate. Here's what I learned from the experience.

It seemed like a simple, relatively safe task: I needed to undo the RAID array on my PC.
As its primary boot drive, my production system used a RAID 0 array consisting of a pair of Corsair Force GT 240GB drives paired to create a single 480GB volume. All of the valuable data lived on a single 2TB, 7200RPM Western Digital RE drive. The system is based on a Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 motherboard running a Core i7 3930K CPU. Intel's RapidStore storage software manages the array in Windows.
One day, RapidStore presented me with a "SMART event" notice, indicating that the drive had generated an error from the SMART monitor built into the drive controller. SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) constantly monitors the drive for potential failure conditions, and generates an error when it detects such a condition. Unfortunately, SMART rarely provides specifics about the source of the problem; a single SMART event may turn out to be nothing at all, or it may be a crucial harbinger of imminent drive failure.

Tablet Encryption 101

Thinking about encrypting your Apple or Android tablet? The process can be daunting, but here's how to do it.

 Today’s workplace is becoming increasingly agreeable to the BYOD (bring your own device) concept: Employers are finally giving the green light for staffers to use their own equipment for work while they're at the office. For businesses, it's cheaper to let employees bring in their own laptops, smartphones, or tablets, since that cuts down on the need to purchase hardware (though not on the need to support it). Regardless, businesses seem to have little choice in the matter, since many employees are bringing their devices in whether they have permission or not--and some people are knowingly breaking the company’s security policy in doing so.

10 Crazy IT Security Tricks That Actually Work

Network and endpoint security may not strike you as the first place to scratch an experimental itch. After all, protecting the company's systems and data should call into question any action that may introduce risk. But IT security threats constantly evolve, and sometimes you have to think outside the box to keep ahead of the more ingenious evildoers.

And sometimes you have to get a little crazy.
Charles Babbage, the father of the modern computer, once said, "Propose to a man any principle, or an instrument, however admirable, and you will observe the whole effort is directed to find a difficulty, a defect, or an impossibility in it. If you speak to him of a machine for peeling a potato, he will pronounce it impossible: If you peel a potato with it before his eyes, he will declare it useless, because it will not slice a pineapple."
The world of network security is no different. Offer a new means for IT defense, and expect to meet resistance. Yet, sometimes going against the wave of traditional thinking is the surest path to success.

No Web for Hundreds of Thousands on Monday

Starting that day, computers still infected with the notorious DNSChanger malware will be unable to connect to websites.

Trouble spots: This map is a visualization of DNSChanger infection density by location, as of June 12.
Team Cymru

Hundreds of thousands of people are likely to be confused on Monday when they fire up their home or office computers and can't connect to the Internet. Their network connections will be fine, but attempts to visit their favorite domains will be fruitless.

A Butane Recharger for Your Cellphone

A USB-based fuel cell system will recharge your portable electronics for pennie.

Steven Cherry: Hi, this is Steven Cherry for IEEE Spectrum’s “Techwise Conversations.”
We live in a miraculous age in which we can carry computers around in our backpacks, pockets, and pocketbooks. But portable devices are only as good as the power within them, and as they get more powerful, they need more and more power.
Battery technologies keep getting better but still aren’t better enough for 14-hour flights over the Pacific or watching the Olympics all day on a cellphone.
For decades, we’ve dickered with fuel cells, mostly based around portable proton exchange membranes [PEMs]. But even the military, which has been more interested in portability than anyone, doesn’t use them much.

Apple Preps for Smaller Tablet

Apple Inc.'s component suppliers in Asia are preparing for mass production in September of a tablet computer with a smaller screen than the iPad, people familiar with the situation said, suggesting a launch for the device is near.

Two of the people said that the tablet's screen will likely be smaller than eight inches. The iPad's screen measures 9.7 inches, unchanged since the first model was released in 2010.
Officials at the component suppliers, who declined to be named, said this week that Apple has told them to prepare for mass production of the smaller tablet. The Wall Street Journal reported in February that Apple was testing such a device but hadn't yet decided whether to proceed with production.

When Will Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) Get to Your Smartphone?

Although the next version of Google's mobile operating system, Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), is expected to go live later this month, there will be a lag, as usual, between release time and when you might see the OS on your Android device.
That's because the handset makers, not Google, determine when to allow upgrades to their smartphones. The arrangement is supposed to foster innovation, but it also fosters frustration among users who can't get the latest version of Android in a timely manner--or in some cases, at all. It has also fostered a fragmented ecosystem that's vulnerable to attacks by hackers.

PC Building Best Practices: Software

In the second part of our PC building best practices series, we outline a number of issues that can arise when you're configuring and installing software on a newly built PC.

Building a PC is a protracted, multistep process. First you must pick a platform and choose a case to best suit your needs. Then you have to do some research and acquire the individual components. Finally, once you've chosen all of the components, you can begin the actual assembly. See the first installment in this two-part series, "PC Building Best Practices: Hardware," for our complete guide.

Power-Saving Clock Scheme in New PCs

Tick Tock: Cyclos Semiconductor tested its clock-energy recycling technology on an ARM processor.

A long-studied strategy for recycling the energy used to clock computer processors is now starting to make its way into commercial chips. The approach—dubbed resonant clocking—has been integrated into Advanced Micro Devices’ new AMD A10-4600M processor. The chip, known by the code name Trinity, debuted in May and is now shipping in desktop and laptop computers. 


Apple Siri Versus Google Jelly Bean: Voice Search Showdown

Which one listens to you and delivers information better: Google's Jelly Bean on the Galaxy Nexus or Apple's iOS Siri voice search? We put them to the test.

Top Ten Factors for Choosing a Gaming PC

When you're shopping for a gaming system, consider our ten rules of thumb before you pull out your wallet.

 PC gaming is big again. According to market research firm NPD, the release of Diablo III drove PC game sales up 230 percent in May. That was in a month where overall sales of games dropped by 28 percent. The Gods and Kings expansion to Sid Meier’s Civilization V did well in its recent release, too. Even smaller companies, such as Ironclad Games, with its Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, are shipping PC games that garner great reviews and attract new players.

FIFA 13 vs PES 2013 Comparison

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