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Intel has used Mobile World Congress 2016 to attempt to position itself as a big player in the push towards 5G and the Internet of Things with a raft of product and partnership announcements. Intel said it will work with Ericsson, Nokia, LG and Verizon in order to speed up development, testing and ultimately deployment of 5G wireless networks in an effort to provide greater connectivity for computers, Internet of Things and mobile devices and even connected cities and driverless vehicles. "5G represents a significant shift for these networks and we think it's essential to get ready ahead of the curve," said corporate vice president and general manager of the Intel communication and services group, Aicha Evans, speaking in the run up to MWC in Barcelona. Intel will work with Ericsson and engage in joint trials surrounding 5G, while it will also work with Nokia to collaborate on 5G radio technologies "to meet the device connectivity requirements for future ...

Microsoft rolled out a new preview build of Windows 10 'Redstone' on February 18 which includes a few new, externally visible features. Among the new features in this build are improvements for searching for music in Cortana; some UI improvements to the Favorites bar in Microsoft Edge; the ability to clear browsing data when exiting Microsoft Edge, plus improved Edge Download prompts; and the ability to attach photos to Skype messages. No, Edge extension support still isn't there in this build, for those wondering. Windows 10 preview Build 14267 , unlike a number of recent Fast Ring Windows 10 test builds, isn't just about under-the-covers Core work and fixes. There are some fixes in this build, too, including ones that allow recovery after reset to work as expected. Microsoft also has made it so users with PCs with Intel RealSense cameras can again use their front-facing cameras. And an incorrect storage capacity issue also is now fixed with Build 14267, acco...

VMware launched a new release of its Virtual SAN platform as it rounds out its software-defined stack for private and public cloud infrastructure. The VMware Virtual SAN is the company's software defined storage play and is primarily aimed at Nutanix. The company said that it has more than 3,000 hyper-converged infrastructure customers since VMware Virtual SAN launched 21 months ago. VMware Virtual SAN 6.2 will be available in the first quarter with a starting price of $2,495 per CPU. Software defined storage is shifting the landscape for vendors. More storage is being consumed, but the traditional system vendors in the market are seeing slowing growth. The cloud is partly to blame, but there's also the hardware end of the equation. Software defined storage means that arrays can be built with commodity x86 servers. As a result, those sales that were once recognized by storage vendors shows up as a server sale. VMware is using the trend to work both the storage and network...

Facebook has once again made changes to its News Feed algorithm as part of its ongoing effort to keep users happy with the kinds of content they see on the site. The social networking giant said the latest changes are based off of qualitative feedback from a sampling of Facebook users who were asked to share their daily experiences with News Feed content. Based on this research, Facebook said it was able to rank which stories users would be interested in seeing near the top of News Feed even if they choose not to actually engage with it.Instead of using engagement actions, Facebook focused on two particular signals: The probability that users want to see a particular story at the top of their feed, and the probability they'll like, share or comment on it. "We saw through our research that people reported having a better News Feed experience when the stories they see at the top are stories they are both likely to rate highly if asked and likely to engage with," s...

The forthcoming Minecraft: Education Edition, written in C++, looks faster and smoother than the old Java version, but won't be compatible with all the old mods. If Microsoft mis-handles the transition, a split could damage the Minecraft community that underpins the game's stunning success.... Microsoft will release a beta of  Minecraft: Education Edition  written in C++ rather than Java, which looks like removing the performance problems associated with running the current version of Minecraft. The Education Edition should run well on the types of Windows laptop commonly found in schools, and in homes. Microsoft announced the Education Edition at the BETT 2016 educational technology exhibition held last week in London. Microsoft also announced that it had  purchased MinecraftEDU , an educational version of Minecraft, from Teacher Gaming LLC. (Microsoft  acquires MinecraftEdu from Teacher Gaming .) MinecraftEDU will not be developed any further, but most ...

Summary: Want a portable Linux-powered web server that will fit into your pocket? Look no further than  Ocean . Ocean may look like a smartphone, but it is in fact a fully functional Linux-powered web server that you can fit into your pocket. Ocean has been designed from the ground up for portability, and features an integrated battery that allows you to run web and Bluetooth applications in places where direct power is limited. The device is approximately the size of an iPhone 6, and can easily fit in your pocket. Because it packs the power of a Linux operating system (the default is Debian, but you can install your own), Ocean can be used for a variety of functions: Building and deploying web applications using frameworks such as Node.js or Ruby-on-Rails Building a custom router IoT hub iBeacon or Eddystone beacon prototyping The device can also act as a portable battery pack for iPhones and Android devices, and holds enough power to recharge an iPhone 6 ...

Summary: The chip giant is preparing a gamer-friendly version of its pint-sized desktop with a quad-core Skylake Core i7 processor and Thunderbolt 3 port to connect to external graphics solutions.   As a result, these pint-sized PCs are perceived to be for a budget buyer, or someone who values their tiny footprint over specs. Intel has been trying to change that perception, having introduced a NUC  with a beefy Core i7 Broadwell CPU  nearly a year ago. Now it's looking to go a step further with a forthcoming model that it hopes will appeal even more to the performance crowd.Intel has made strides in  helping to reinvent the PC  with its Next Unit of Computing (NUC) systems, which are one of a number of tiny Windows computers that are shaped like the Mac Mini. The small size obviously limits the ultimate performance of these mini-PCs, as there's only so much room (and ability to dissipate heat) for components. The new NUC is being called "Skull Canyon"...

In a surprise development, Google has abandoned its own Java standard libraries for those of Oracle. The move might be the first step in settling an ongoing lawsuit, but the implications for the Android community are profound. And it offers a possible opening for Microsoft. For a company that regularly brags about its commitment to open source, Google is remarkably closed about how it develops Android. The result is occasional shock at a sudden change in direction. The latest example emerged last week, when the Android community stumbled across a major change that appeared in the Android code base last November Google confirmed to several sources, including  VentureBeat , where I first saw the story, that it is dropping its own implementation of the standard Java libraries that are at the heart of Java, in favor of Oracle's OpenJDK libraries. That would be ho-hum software-plumbing news, except for the fact that Google and Oracle have been locked in a years-long copyright lawsuit ...

A relatively new Android Trojan family has been bringing grief to users around the world, posing as a Flash Player or  WhatsApp update , stealing online banking credentials, one time passwords (OTPs), and login credentials for popular Android apps. FireEye researchers dubbed the family SlemBunk. They have analyzed over 170 samples of the malware they located in the wild, and found that, over time, the authors of the malware have been adding capabilities for targeting more and more financial institutions.The latest variants are designed to imitate the legitimate apps of 33 financial management institutions and mobile payment service providers in the Asia Pacific region (many Australian banks), North America and Europe. “When the app is launched for the first time, it activates the registered receiver, which subsequently starts the monitoring service in the background,” the researchers explained. “On the surface it pops up a fake UI claiming to be Adobe Flash Player, or oth...

The web giant is the latest firm, behind Google, Facebook, and Twitter, to warn users of state attacks.  Bob Lord, the company's newly appointed chief information security officer, said in a blog post that it will notify users if it suspects suspect that their account may have been targeted by a state-sponsored actor. "We'll provide these specific notifications so that our users can take appropriate measures to protect their accounts and devices in light of these sophisticated attacks," said Lord. Yahoo's security team, dubbed the "Paranoids," will provide notifications to targeted users with "specific actions" so that they can ensure their Yahoo accounts are safe and secure. The numerous safety steps on offer to the user, in part thanks to Lord's predecessor, Alex Stamos, who left earlier this year to work for Facebook, includes two-factor authentication and verifying account recovery information is valid and up-t...