The UE Roll 2 speakers bring rugged Bluetooth audio poolside

 The UE Roll 2 is fun. How do I know it’s fun? Look at all the press images on the side of the box. It’s gone skiing, bike riding, mountain climbing and rolling around in the mud with a bunch of attractive product models. Even more telling, the product ships with its very own miniature inner tube, which is a pretty fun thing to do. Also inside the box is a bright yellow USB cable and… Read More

IoT increases cyber and legal risk, say experts

Organisations embracing the internet of things must be aware of the information security and legal liability risks, experts warn

HPE second quarter results reveal risks in CSC services deal

HPE’s CEO Meg Whitman admits the company’s flagship private cloud will need to run in CSC/ES datacentres

Microsoft confirms job cuts at Nokia smartphone business

Big job losses in Finland as Nadella has a rethink on Windows phones

MasterCard, TfL and British Airways join for travel tech hackathon

The payments provider is running the event alongside BA and the UK local government body responsible for London’s transport system to create new travel services

EC sets out proposals for online platform regulation

The European Commission has outlined a number of proposals to better regulate the operation of online platforms in the Digital Single Market

An overview of cloud customer relationship management

Businesses are confident about buying customer relationship management (CRM) software as a cloud-based service. Computer Weekly looks at the main players

Bet365 gets SwiftStack object storage as NAS pulls up short

Online gaming firm Bet365 is set to replace NAS for data with 0.5PB of more scalable and elastic object storage, built on SwiftStack and commodity SuperMicro hardware

Cortex helps football charity kick off translatable website

Homeless World Cup’s new website will help homeless people around the world improve their lives through football tournaments

UK government details plans for National Cyber Security Centre

The objectives of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre are to address systemic vulnerabilities, reduce risks, respond to serious incidents and nurture national cyber security capability

European cloud buyers unmoved by low prices, suggests 451 Research

451 Research’s latest Cloud Price Index investigates link between low-cost cloud services and provider market share

GDS begins publication of PSN performance data

The government makes public data gleaned from its monitoring of the performance of the Public Services Network to help customers understand their networks

Salesforce to run more of its services from the AWS public cloud

Cloud CRM giant Salesforce names Amazon Web Services as preferred public cloud provider, as it sets out plans to expand use of its infrastructure-as-a-service offerings

BSA warns of malware risk from unlicensed software

While piracy rates are declining, unauthorised software poses a big security risk, says the Business Software Alliance

Healthtech brand Qardio adopts NetSuite OneWorld

Qardio, a brand offering health technology devices, wanted an ERP system to deal with billing, accounting and taxes in different regions of the world

UK challenger bank OakNorth puts its core systems in AWS cloud

UK challenger bank OakNorth is putting core banking systems in the Amazon Web Services cloud

Apple prepping Siri SDK and Echo-like home assistant gadget

 Apple is preparing an SDK that would allow developers much greater access to Siri — and the improved assistant will power a stationary hub device like Amazon’s Echo. A report from The Information tallies with what we’ve heard over the last few weeks; expect an announcement, if not the device itself, at WWDC in June. Read More

Gulülu turns drinking water into a game for kids

 Through the power of smart sensors and the magic of the cloud, parched children is on its way to become a thing of the past — at least, if the Gulülu team have anything to say in the matter. The company’s bottle, launching on Kickstarter today, is the newest, most high-tech weapon in the battle to get their kids to imbibe enough liquids throughout the day. Read More

Google’s ATAP is bringing its Project Soli radar sensor to smartwatches and speakers

 Every year at I/O, Google’s ATAP division, which is responsible for turning some of the company’s crazier ideas into products, organizes its own small keynote. This year, the company offered updates on a number of projects, including Project Soli, its attempt at building a very small radar sensor that can translate hand movements into digital signals for building new user… Read More

Australian police raid opposition offices over leaked broadband documents

Australia’s federal police have raided the offices of a Labor opposition politician in an investigation into leaked National Broadband Network documents

Santander uses blockchain for international payments

Bank is using blockchain to underpin its latest app, which enables customers to make international payments 24 hours a day, which clear the next day

Developers welcome ruling in Google’s battle with Oracle over Java

A San Francisco court has confirmed that copyright laws allow fair use of Java APIs in Oracle’s six-year battle with Google over Android

Councils must bridge digital gap to remain relevant

The general public is not confident councils can make their digital strategies work

CIO interview: Stuart McSkimming, Shelter

Safe and secure handling of sensitive data remains a top priority for the homelessness charity

Bristol Water outsources IT as business model transforms

Bristol Water outsources IT to Wipro to support it through a period of transformation to its operating model

IT Priorities 2016: Server virtualisation is top datacentre infrastructure investment area for CIOs

The 2016 Computer Weekly/TechTarget IT Priorities poll suggests server virtualisation remains the key datacentre investment area for CIOs

Government competition chiefs demand fairer use terms for cloud storage customers

LiveDrive, JustCloud and Dixons Carphone commit to fairer usage terms for cloud customers, but Microsoft and Google are conspicuous by their absence

IT Priorities 2016: Mobile support and SDN top the network agenda

Computer Weekly’s annual IT Priorities research reveals that UK buyers are responding well to network and mobile tech that supports remote working strategies

European Commission endorses UK broadband plans through 2020

The European Commission gives the thumbs up to the UK’s National Broadband Scheme, designed to extend next-generation broadband access as far as possible by 2020

Cyber attacks on at least three Asian banks share malware links

Cyber attacks on banks in Bangladesh, Vietnam and the Philippines used the same malware, which has links to other attacks on banks in the region, reports Symantec

Exploding IoT attack surface not an immediate threat to business

Companies should take care of the security vulnerablities in their IT infrastructure, cloud back-ends and mobile applications in preparation for the challenges of IoT, says Adrzej Kawalec

How to build your own IoT with Azure

Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform has gone well beyond mere virtual machines and orchestrated workflows. It can now also power internet of things applications

ForcePhone adds pressure sensitivity to any phone using ultrasonics

 Force touch may be a feature exclusive to the latest iPhones, but something like it is now possible on pretty much any phone out there, thanks to research from engineers at the University of Michigan. Read More

This algorithm could make DNA origami as simple as 3D printing

 If you want to print something a few inches tall, extruded plastic is a good medium. But when you need something at the nanometer scale, DNA is a better bet — but who has the time to design and assemble it base by base? New research lets would-be DNA origami masters design the shape — while an algorithm determines where to put our friends A, T, G, and C. Read More

Google quietly discontinues the Nexus Player

 The Nexus Player may have been the best TV media player no one ever bought. Google and Asus introduced the Nexus Player back in November 2014. It was one of the first Android TV devices, and a more-than-capable device. And yet, despite Google’s weight behind this device, it hasn’t been a mainstream success, especially when you compare it with the Chromecast. Read More

Heavy Internet use leads to school burnout in teens

 As if you didn’t need more proof that your darn kids need to get off the computer and into the back yard, researchers at the University of Helsinki and Department of Psychology have found that excessive Internet use — essentially bordering on addiction — leads to school burnout in teens. There isn’t much detail on the definition of excessive use (you’ll know it… Read More

Terrapattern is reverse image search for maps, powered by a neural network

 Terrapattern is a visual search engine that, from the moment you first use it, you wonder: Why didn’t Google come up with this 10 years ago? Click on a feature on the map — a baseball diamond, a marina, a roundabout — and it immediately highlights everything its algorithm thinks looks like it. It’s remarkably fast, simple to use and potentially very powerful. Read More

Nuheara’s IQbuds are somewhere between wireless headphones and a hearing aid

 I went into the Nuheara demo not knowing what to expect. Not in the sense of, “How good will these be?” so much as, “I’m not exactly sure what these things do.” Like, are they headphones? Are they hearing aids? The answer, interestingly enough, is a little bit of both. The IQbuds are, ostensibly, Bluetooth earbuds. That they’re completely wireless is enough… Read More

Dish ships the HopperGo, a tiny little cloud player for TV on the run

 Originally announced at CES in January, the minuscule HopperGo is a 64GB USB drive with a built in wireless access point. The little device connects to your Dish Hopper 3 or Hopper 2 – essentially Dish’s DVR – and sucks down up to 100 hours of TV. You can then unplug the little bugger and watch for four hours on one charge through the Dish Anywhere app. When I first pulled… Read More

Netatmo launches new platform to make smart objects talk to each other

 French startup Netatmo just introduced a new developer platform called Netatmo Connect so that developers can build software and hardware integrations with Netatmo products. Netatmo sells weather stations, thermostats, indoor and outdoor cameras. The startup raised $32 million in November 2015. It's interesting Read More

How ready is the Internet for IoT?

 We’re currently witnessing rapidly expanding product launches and sky-high elevated expectations from the emerging deployment of the Internet of Things in both personal and commercial domains. Stakeholders — ranging from hardware manufacturers and service providers to cloud platforms — are vigorously weighing in to position their offerings in anticipation of windfall rewards… Read More