Technology Mania

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Why the Google Pixel phone won't steal the enterprise crown from the iPhone anytime soon

By Brandon Vigliarolo | October 5, 2016, 12:57 PM PST

Google's brand new flagship Pixel phone is trying to nudge Apple's iPhone 7 off its pedestal. Nevermind the consumer realm: Is Apple's mobile enterprise supremacy really at risk?

Yesterday's Pixel phone announcement by Google has people all over the tech industry talking. Is it an iPhone killer? Will it finally help Google earn a spot in the enterprise? For some it might seem like a competitor, but there are serious limitations that will prevent it from really making a dent in Apple's armor.

To understand why the Pixel isn't the new enterprise golden child we only need to consider what the businesses truly want in a mobile device. Unfortunately for Google it's not all great cameras, bright blues, and headphone jacks.
What the enterprise wants

To be fair, there are some features of the Google Pixel that will make it a good choice for businesses—but those perks aren't enough to take the spotlight off what it lacks. Enterprises need four things in a mobile device: security, ecosystem partners, integration capabilities, and support.
It's all about security

Mobile devices are ubiquitous, and that means they're being used for work. While an increase in mobile use in the workplacecreates a security risk it can be mitigated by making good hardware and security choices.

"Apple is favored by enterprises because of the tight ecosystem control that Apple exerts, over the

By Erik Eckel | October 5, 2016, 1:40 PM PST

Running Windows on a Mac is no longer daunting, though choosing between Boot Camp or a VM still requires careful consideration. Here are tips for selecting the best method.

Running Windows on a Mac was once a process fraught with tribulation, though now it's a common operation that should be painless. With continued Mac performance gains, Boot Camp improvements, and two capable virtual machine (VM) technologies in VMware Fusion and Parallels Desktop for Mac, Apple professionals have multiple options to reliably power Windows installations on Macs. The only trick is knowing which option—Boot Camp or a VM—works best for your intended Windows purposes. Here are recommendations for common scenarios.

SEE: Gallery: 10 screen sharing programs for Windows and Mac that make collaboration and support easy
Single proprietary Windows app

Likely the most common Windows-on-a-Mac need, many Apple professionals also require Windows due to the need to run one critical proprietary, often industry-specific, Windows application. Despite cloud-computing and web-based trends, some applications continue only providing full functionality when run within a dedicated Windows environment.

I possess such first-hand experience; an industry-specific professional services automation application powers my business' daily operations. While possessing mobile and web-based options, the program only provides full functionality—such as

By Cory Bohon | October 5, 2016, 8:18 PM PST

The iOS Calendar app can help keep you organized and on task. See how to customize Calendar to take full advantage of its powerful features.

Apple has iterated the iOS Calendar app since its introduction in iPhone OS 1.0. In iOS 10, the Calendar app is at its most powerful and useful.

There are lots of customization options to tweak the calendar exactly to your liking, whether you want to change the default calendar, the start day of the week, or which calendars are displayed. Here's how to customize the calendar to improve your workflow and make your calendar events easier to read.

Depending on where you live and your calendar preferences, you may want the

By Greg Shultz | October 6, 2016, 1:00 AM PST

The Shell command offers a handy way to view your Applications folder. Here's how it works--and why you might find the trick useful.

In recent articles, I've shown various techniques for making the best of the Windows 10 start menu:
How to customize the Windows 10 Anniversary Update Start menu using the "Pare It Down" technique
How to customize the Windows 10 Start menu with numbered shortcuts

While many readers are using Windows 10 Start menu as is, and others are settling for third-party solutions, a lot of users tell me they like trying alternative ideas. So I keep on the lookout for new tricks—and I recently found another one.

I discovered a way to view the Applications folder in File Explorer by using the Shell command. This special folder includes traditional Desktop Applications as well as Universal Windows Apps. Being able to view all your applications in File Explorer can come in handy in certain circumstances. Let's take a look.
Running the Shell command

To view All Apps in File Explorer, you'll use a Shell command shortcut. Hidden underneath the Windows architecture is a host of special shortcuts known as Shell commands. To use a Shell command, all you need to do is press [Windows]+R to access the Run dialog box. Then, type the word Shell followed by a colon (:) and the Shell folder name, as in:

Shell:foldername

Notice that there are no spaces between the word Shell and the colon and the folder name—it is essentially one word.
SEE: How to tweak the Windows 10 Action Center to make it less annoying
Accessing the Applications folder

Now that you have a general idea of how the Shell command works, you can use it to view the Applications folder in Windows 10. To do so, press [Windows]+R, type shell:AppsFolder in the Open text box (Figure A), and press Enter.
Figure A

You can launch the Shell command from the Run dialog box.

All your applications will appear in one scrollable window, as shown in

THE FASTEST RISE TIME IN THE WEST: MAKING A TRULY QUICK PULSE EDGE

by: Jenny List

When we are taught about oscillators as newbie engineers, we are shown a variety of waveforms on an oscilloscope or in a textbook. This is a sine wave, they say, this is a sawtooth, this is a square wave, and so on. We’re taught to look at the lines on the screen as idealised, a square wave is truly square, and the transition from low to high voltage and back again is instantaneous.

In most cases this assumption is harmless. If we look into the subject a little deeper we learn that what seemed an instantaneous cliff-face is in fact a very steep slope, but when a circuit does its business in milliseconds there is usually no harm in ignoring a transition time measured in nanoseconds. The glue logic for your Arduino project can take its time.

Sometimes though, the rise time of a logic transition is important. The application that prompted this article was the measurement of oscilloscope bandwidth by looking at how quickly the ‘scope catches up with a pulse that exceeds its bandwidth, for example. When the instrument can happily measure the transition times of all your usual pulse generators, something out of the ordinary is called for. So it’s worth taking a look at the rise times you’d expect from everyday circuitry, examining a few techniques for generating rise times that are much faster.

THAT WAS CONSIDERED FAST, BACK IN MY DAY

Switching characteristics of a 2N3904, taken from the ON Semiconductor 2N3904 data sheet.

If you look at the data sheet for a typical transistor, you will find a section devoted to switching characteristics. Taking as an example the 2N3094popular general purpose transistor, you’ll find it has a quoted maximum rise time of 35nS. Thus if you applied a perfect square transition to its base, the corresponding change at its collector would finish happening a maximum of 35 nS later. This might sound rather quick, but it corresponds to the rise time of a sine wave just over 7.14 MHz. Of course the 2N3904 is capable of working at much higher frequencies in small-signal mode, but if it has to traverse the entirety of its range you’re stuck at 7.14 MHz.

A 4.6 nS rise time from a mercury-wetted relay

When it comes to faster transition times, you might expect our path to lead directly to components designed for square wave transitions, such as logic gates. But before we

By Rob Thubron on October 4, 2016, 9:30 AM

Respected KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has a history of making accurate predictions regarding Apple products, but the iPhone maker will likely be hoping his latest estimates prove wrong. Kuo believes the company will sell fewer Apple Watches this year than it did in 2015.

Kuo had predicted that Apple would ship between 10 million to 10.5 million Apple Watches in 2016. The figures includes both the original Series 1 model and the recently released Series 2.

But in a note to investors obtained by Business Insider, Kuo revised his estimates. He now believes that 8.5 million to 9 million Apple Watches will ship by the end of the year – a drop of 15 to 25 percent from his original prediction. He has, however, raised shipping estimates for the Apple Watch Series 2 by 10 percent, though this isn’t enough to stop the overall sales figure from decreasing.

Apple hasn’t revealed how many of its original wearables have sold since they launched in April last year, so estimates tend to vary wildly. Kuo believes 10.4 million units shipped during the eight months the Apple watch was available in 2015, meaning fewer units are predicted to sell in 2016 - despite the longer selling time.

So why the pessimistic outlook from Kuo? He identifies four main reasons why the smartwatches aren't selling as well as Apple hoped. Like similar devices, the lack of a “killer” app and a poor battery life are major issues for many consumers. Kuo also identifies a reliance on

By Bob O'Donnell on October 4, 2016, 10:45 AM

If you ever want to enliven a cocktail party filled with executives from the telco or cable industry, just start talking about dumb pipes. As in, “your service doesn’t offer anything more than a simple connection from my devices to the internet content I want—it’s a dumb pipe.”

Of course, most of you will never have to worry about going through such an awkward social encounter, but if you do—that zinger is bound to get things going.

All kidding aside, the notion that carriers and other service providers offer little more than basic connectivity has been an industry hot button for some time. Even now, despite a number of efforts to spice things up, most telcos and cable service providers are seen as companies that provide a very indistinct connectivity service that people only reluctantly pay for.

The primary differentiators for competitive players in this space are price, price and, oh yeah, price, with maybe a bit of coverage or service quality thrown in for good measure. It’s little wonder that many consumers hold these companies in such low esteem—they just don’t see the value in the services beyond basic connectivity. It’s also not surprising that so many people are looking at cord-cutting, cord replacement, or other options.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

The amount of data that telco and cable service providers have access to should allow them to generate some very interesting, useful and valuable services that consumers should be happy to pay for. Now, admittedly, there are some serious privacy and regulatory concerns that have to be taken into consideration, but with appropriate anonymizing techniques, there are