Half Monk

Computer networking and communications giant Cisco has announced that it would cut up to 6,000 jobs, or 8 percent of its global workforce, as part of a major restructuring. The announcement came after the company announced its fourth quarter results, beating market expectations. The company has already cut around 12,000 jobs between 2011 and 2013, with the last major restructuring happening in 2013. This latest decision to reduce its workforce comes as the San Jose, California-based company continues to struggle in emerging markets as well as in its service provider video business. "The emerging markets lost momentum in Q4", said John Chambers, Cisco's chief executive. "We will exit this year pretty much with the same number of people we started the year with". Cisco's global workforce currently stands at around 74,000. Chambers also said that the decision to cut jobs is aimed at making room for hiring staff in units that are growing. These include the company's data center, software, security, and cloud offerings. Although he didn't directly mention the name of the units that will bear the brunt of cuts, Chambers did mention as an example sales representatives in countries where revenues are shrinking. The company reported a profit of $2.24 billion on sales of $12.36 billion, compared with a $2.27 billion profit and sales of $12.4 billion for the same period a year ago. Analysts had expected an earnings of 53 cents a share on $12.15 billion in revenue. Chambers said the company expects its Q1 revenue to be flat to up 1% from a year ago.

A recent study has come up with some interesting numbers regarding the way black hat hackers think of themselves and thier arguably malicious activities. A password security software company known as Thycotic conducted a survey during this year's Black Hat 2014 that says 86% of hackers do not believe they will ever have to face repercussions for their actions. While many of them believe they are above the law, over 50% of those surveyed said they aren't in it for the money, but rather just for the fun of it. Only 18% said they were motivated by financial gains and 29% claimed to be hacktivists driven by exposing the truth regarding various issues. Just recently a group of hacktivists attacked the St. Louis Police Department and leaked dispatch tapes regarding the Michael Brown case. Thycotic says many of attacks being conducted still make use of tactics that were used 10 years ago or more. Nearly all of the hackers the company interviewed said that basic phishing and spoofing techniques are still effective, but 47% say users are learning to avoid these techniques. Whatever the motivation and tactics may be, according to Thycotic the particular 127 different individuals interviewed do not believe what they are doing is wrong. However, they don't feel invincible either, 88% of these hackers believe their own data and privacy is vulnerable to attacks from fellow hackers.

Motorola's anticipated Moto 360 smartwatch will finally gets its proper introduction and debut at an upcoming launch event. Along with other device appearances, we will finally get our first full look at the Moto 360 on September 4th in Chicago. We have got several teases thus far, including a short appearance at the Google I/O conference in June, but many are still waiting for more info and a release date for the circular-faced smartwatch. As for the other devices that may make an appearance, it sounds as though we could be seeing updated versions of Motorola's current gen smartphones as well. On an invitation/teaser site for the upcoming event, images of a Moto X and G along with some kind of audio accessory are seen, suggesting we could be seeing new models of both the popular smartphones along with what some are suggesting could be a Bluetooth headset. Motorola has confirmed that there will be other devices making an appearance at the launch event. Even though the Moto 360 may have made the biggest impression at Google I/O compared to Samsung and LG options, there are several other launch events expected to take place in this time frame. Both Apple and Samsung, who are expected to be showing off new flagship devices, will be vying for consumer attention in September as well.

Back in 2012, Syria had a nation wide internet black out for two days. Local government officials claimed it was a result of some kind of terrorist attack, but according to Edward Snowden, US agents accidentally took the country's internet out. In a wide ranging report on the former NSA agent, Wired says that Snowden knows the actual truth. Apparently a group of NSA agents were ordered to install malware on a central server in Syria which would allow the agency to keep tabs on just about all the internet traffic in the country. Unfortunately for the NSA, things didn't go as planned. Snowden says that while attempting to inject the malicious tracking software, the hacker unit accidentally shut the entire system down, leaving an entire country with no connection for 48 hours. Snowden says the NSA apparently attempted to reverse its mistake, but were unsuccessful. At the time, the public was lead to believe local rebels ("terrorists") or even the Syrian government was responsible for the take down, but in actual fact it was the mistake of an elite US government hacker unit, according to Snowden. One thing to keep in mind is that Syria has experienced several blackouts like this since 2012, so it is likely that there are other third parties tampering with the country's web access. Even though Snowden's cache of internal data has all been outed at this point, new revelations are continuing to surface. And now, the intelligence community has admitted to a second major insider leaking top secret data.

Android phones running OS 4.4 (KitKat) now represent more than one fifth (20.9%) of all handsets on the market, says Google's latest platform version report. That is a marked improvement over last month month, when KitKat's market share was 17.9%, and a big leap over the 14.9% share it had in June. Released monthly, the report breaks down the various versions of Android to help developers decide how to better spend their resources. While KitKat is steadily increasing its foothold, Jelly Bean is still the king of the market, running on 54.2% of Android devices. The original 4.1.x version remains the most popular variant with 26.5% share, while versions 4.2.x and 4.3 stand at 19.8% and 7.9%, respectively. As for other versions, Ice Cream Sandwich has 10.6% market share, while Froyo is running on only 0.7% of the devices. Interestingly, Gingerbread's market share has shot up 0.1% in last 30 days, and now stands at 13.6%. Devices running older versions are not included in the report as the data is gathered from the new Google Play Store app, which supports Android 2.2 and above. The report also contains breakdowns of screen densities and Open GL version distribution for those interested. The next major version of Google's mobile OS is called Android '

At SIGGRAPH this week, Intel demonstrated the benefits of DirectX 12 for thermally constrained devices, such as tablets. While the low-level graphics API will improve performance across all systems, it's with these thermally constrained devices that DirectX 12 will be especially effective. The reason for this is that tablets have a certain power and thermal budget that constrains both the CPU and GPU. As a game begins to tax both components, it can easily reach the budget without using the maximum raw power of either component. With these types of devices, it's a careful balancing act of giving a fair share of the pie to the CPU and GPU as necessary. However, DirectX 12 reduces CPU utilization through a reduction in API overhead. This means that a greater amount of the thermal and power budget can be given to the GPU, improving overall performance on the device by making better use of the resources available. Intel's demonstration featured a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 tablet, powered by an Intel 'Haswell' CPU, attempting to render a scene with 50,000 unique asteroids. In DirectX 11 mode, the scene renders at a measly 19 FPS, with the thermal budget split roughly equally between the CPU and GPU. Switching to DirectX 12 sees the GPU consume more power at the expense of the CPU, thanks to a reduction in necessary CPU utilization. This sees the demo jump up to 33 FPS, equating to a 74% rise in performance. Essentially, if this were a game, it's gone from being unplayable to playable on a power-constrained tablet. Andrew Lauritzen from Intel explains that power and performance are inseparably linked. "Conventional notions of 'CPU vs. GPU bound' are misleading on modern devices like the Surface Pro 3. An increase in CPU power efficiency can be used for more performance even if an application is not 'CPU bound'." DirectX 12 will have a similar performance-improving effect on smartphones, laptops and even small form factor desktops, all of which are power or thermally constrained. Unfortunately DirectX 12 won't be ready until 2015, so there's a bit of a waiting game to play until we see the benefits first hand.

Today during its Gamescom 2014 press conference, Sony Computer Entertainment's Jim Ryan announced that the company has now sold 10 million PlayStation 4s worldwide. Sony pointed out that this isn't a shipped number, this is the amount of actual units sold to gamers. Sony said that it had sold over 5 million of its next generation consoles to gamers back in February, and now doubling that total in the past 6 months, the new console is showing no signs of slowing. The milestone accounts for figures worldwide as of August 10th and represents the "fastest and strongest" growth in PlayStation hardware ever, according to a Sony press release. Back in May during a corporate meeting, Sony's Kaz Hirai said PlayStation 4 is already profitable for the company. The increase in sales should up the numbers for PlayStation Plus as well, previously Hirai said nearly 50% of PS4 owners dropped the $49.99 for a year of the subscription based service. Having now out sold the Xbox One consistently since releasing around the same time two years ago, even special promotions and a significant price drop with the Kinect-less bundle couldn't push Xbox One ahead of PS4. Microsoft did not disclose sales numbers at its event today. While Microsoft may have landed the new Tomb Raider exclusive, Sony had a fairly strong showing with its content at today's conference as well. Along with a new title called Wild from Rayman creator Michel Ancel, we caught a glimpse of the new Ninja Theory game Hellblade, a new Bloodborne trailer and some footage for The Order: 1886.

Apple's US workforce mainly consists of whites, Asians, and males, according to a diversity report released by the company today. The report comes a month after Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company would detail the demographics of its work force. Overall, 70 percent of the company's employees are men. A further breakdown reveals that 80 percent of its tech employees, 72 percent of its leadership team, as well as 65 percent of its non-tech employees are men. As far as race and ethnicity is concerned, 55 percent of the company's employees are white, 15 percent are Asian, while Hispanics and blacks make up 11 percent and 7 percent of the workforce, respectively. Nine percent of workers did not declare their ethnicity and 2 percent identified themselves as multiracial. Among its leadership ranks, whites make up 64 percent, Asians make up 21 percent, while Hispanics and Blacks make up 6 percent and 3 percent of the company's workforce, respectively. "Apple is committed to transparency, which is why we are publishing statistics about the race and gender makeup of our company. Let me say up front: As CEO, I’m not satisfied with the numbers on this page", said CEO Tim Cook. "We are making progress, and we’re committed to being as innovative in advancing diversity as we are in developing our products". Cook also noted some recent executive team hires, including Angela Ahrendts, Lisa Jackson, and Denise Young-Smith, that have boosted the number of women in the company’s upper management. "Apple's are a bit better than the others but not by much", said longtime civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson, who has led a campaign to get Silicon Valley companies to release their diversity reports. Other tech companies, including Google, Facebook, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Pinterest, eBay, and more, have already released similar reports.

Following a number of leaks, Samsung has officially unveiled the Galaxy Alpha, the first smartphone in their line-up to ditch the signature all-plastic body for a more premium metal finish. It's also the slimmest Galaxy handset to date at just 6.7mm thick, making this a true display of what Samsung's design team is capable of. Going on the product shots provided by Samsung, the Alpha appears to be a mash-up of the iPhone 5s and the Galaxy S II, utilizing a more rectangular body than the Galaxy S5. The removable back cover is still plastic though, featuring a dot-patterned design. Hardware-wise, the Galaxy Alpha will be available in two variants: a Snapdragon 801 powered model for markets such as the US, and an Exynos 5 Octa 5430 powered model for the rest. The Exynos 5430 hasn't been fully detailed by Samsung just yet, but we do know it includes a 1.8 GHz quad-core Cortex-A15 CPU alongside a 1.3 GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU and a Mali-T628MP6 GPU. Other specs include 2 GB of RAM, a 12-megapixel rear camera capable of Ultra HD video recording, 32 GB of internal storage (but no microSD card slot), a 1,860 mAh battery, and a 4.7-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1280 x 720. The included Intel XMM7260 modem gives the international version Category 6 LTE, supporting speeds up to 300 Mbps. The Galaxy Alpha, running Android 4.4.4, will be available at the beginning of September. No pricing has been given, although the premium chassis and mix of mid-range and high-end specs indicates it'll sit just below the Galaxy S5 in the company's smartphone line.

Nvidia has released some new information surrounding their upcoming 64-bit Tegra K1 variant, codenamed 'Project Denver', discussing the architecture of the chip while also making some bold performance claims. From past looks at Project Denver, we already know that the SoC is compatible with the ARMv8 architecture, packing two custom-made 64-bit Denver CPU cores clocked up to 2.5 GHz onto the die. There's also the same 192-core mobile Kepler GPU as the 32-bit Tegra K1, providing extreme graphics performance. Both the 64-bit and 32-bit Tegra K1 SoCs are pin-compatible. Diving deeper into the Denver CPU cores, and Nvidia has revealed some info on the architecture being used. Each Denver core uses a seven-way superscalar microarchitecture that's capable of seven operations per clock cycle at best, leading to high throughput when conditions are ideal. During typical usage patterns it's unlikely you'll achieve seven operations per cycle, but it's impressive nevertheless. Interestingly, Denver also uses binary translation in a software layer below the operating system to convert ARMv8 instructions to native instructions on the fly. Through dynamic code optimization, Nvidia claims it can tune microcode routines to improve performance and efficiency, at the expense of some overhead. These routines can be stored in 128MB of optimization cache for extremely fast re-access in the future. There's also new power saving features, including dynamic clock and voltage scaling, power-gating, and "low latency power-state transitions". This should allow the Denver-based SoC to compete on a performance level with "some mainstream PC-class CPUs" while consuming less power. Interestingly, in Nvidia's performance comparison charts, the 64-bit Tegra K1 is shown outperforming Intel's Celeron 2955U CPU, which is at the lower end of the Haswell line-up. It's also seen to dominate Intel's Bay Trail chip and outstrip Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800. Of course these are Nvidia-produced charts, where there's no mention of final power consumption or thermal output. To see how the Denver-based Tegra K1 stacks up, we'll just have to wait until it's released into the wild, which should happen towards the end of the year.

MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and iMacs could get their own Sir-like personal assistant in the near future, according to a patent application published by the US patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) last week. Titled Intelligent digital assistant in a desktop environment, the 92-page document explains in great detail how a user will interact with the new digital assistant. The virtual assistant application can reside in the dock or run in the background, and can be activated through a special mouse/keyboard gesture, or by speaking a particular activation phrase like the Hey, Siri voice prompt that the Cupertino-based company will use in its upcoming iOS 8 update. In addition to fielding questions and responding to commands, the OS X version of Siri can also do a lot of other work. For example, it can sort and merge files, copy a batch of text, drag and drop files from one application to another, and more. An interesting functionality that the application describes is about how the digital assistant could take multitasking to a new level by acting as a "third hand", allowing user to interact with background applications while simultaneously working on an application in the foreground. For example, a user may ask the digital assistant to download a picture or piece of information from the Web while they are typing in an editor. It isn't clear exactly when the feature will make it to the desktop. That said, it's not present in the OS X Yosemite beta preview, which means that it's most likely not coming this year.

Google has announced that it is investing in a new undersea cable that will connect major West Coast cities in the US to two coastal locations in Japan. Dubbed FASTER, the system will feature the latest high-quality 6-fiber-pair cable and optical transmission technologies, with an initial design capacity of 60Tb/s. The $300 million project will connect the US cities of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Portland to Chikura and Shima in Japan. "At Google we want our products to be fast and reliable, and that requires a great network infrastructure, whether it's for the more than a billion Android users or developers building products on Google Cloud Platform. And sometimes the fastest path requires going through an ocean", said Urs Hölzle, the senior vice president of technical infrastructure at Google. Google is not the only company investing in FASTER. Other investors include China Mobile International, China Telecom Global, Global Transit, KDDI, and SingTel. NEC Corporation will serve as system supplier. The project will start immediately, and is expected to be up and running by the second quarter of 2016. This isn't Google's first investment in the region. Back in 2008, the search giant invested in UNITY, a Trans-Pacific submarine communications cable between Japan and the United States, and in 2011, the company invested in SJC (South-East Asia Japan Cable), a submarine communications cable system connecting Japan, China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Brunei, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia. Hölzle said FASTER along with UNITY and SJC will make the internet faster and more reliable for the company's users in Asia. As reported before, Google is also working on other Internet connectivity ventures like Google Fiber and Project Loon.

Microsoft recently rolled out the very latest version of its mobile OS – Windows Phone 8.1 Update – to early adopters under the Preview for Developers program. This latest release is the next version on from Windows Phone 8.1, which has only recently begun rolling out to devices. On Microsoft’s Nokia handsets, Windows Phone 8.1 is being released to users alongside the latest ‘Cyan’ firmware, designed exclusively for its Lumia devices. The rollout is happening right now, and many carriers and markets around the world have already seen the Cyan update and Windows Phone 8.1 become available. But one market that will have to wait a bit longer is India. Microsoft India published a schedule of its planned rollout of Windows Phone 8.1 with Cyan, indicating that many devices will have to wait as long as September before the update will be available for all users there. So far, the Lumia 1520, 1320, 925 and 625 have all received clearance for rollout, so if you haven’t yet received the update notification in India for one of those devices, it might well be coming pretty soon, so keep checking. The Lumia 520 and the 41-megapixel Lumia 1020 will both be getting Windows Phone 8.1 with Cyan this month, so if you’ve got one of those devices in India, hang in there – it’s coming soon. But it’s bad news for owners of the Lumia 525, 620, 720, 820 and 920 – Microsoft India says that the update won’t be arriving for any of those devices until September. Once all of these updates are finally complete, Microsoft’s going to have to repeat the process again, to roll out the latest Windows Phone 8.1 Update (as Microsoft insists on calling it, but which most people refer to as ‘Update 1’), when it emerges from Preview.

Although things are not going great for HTC, its brand new premium tablet is getting ready to debut soon according to recent leaks. It is still unknown if it will be the (previously leaked) Nexus 8 or another device, but the leaks indicate it will be more of a premium tablet compared to the Nexus 7. Surrounded by a metal chassis, the device will have a 8.9" 2560x1600 pixels display, powered by a 64-bit Tegra processor and 4 GB RAM. The device is also expected to ship with Android L out of the box without the HTC Sense UI, and the RAM will be coming in two 2 GB slots, taking advantage of Android L's 64-bit backend. The tablet will also feature an 8 MP rear camera along with a a 1.6 MP front-facing one. A Qualcomm-made LTE modem will be included for connectivity purposes. However, these great specifications won't come cheap. The tablet will probably be more expensive than the Nexus series, and is expected to be priced around the $350 mark; It will probably be cheaper than the $400 Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4, though. Although it is still unknown if the device will carry the "Nexus" brand, the leaks came as a device code named "0P8210000" passed certification in South Korea. Previous leaks by @evleaks had the same code name on the back of the device, which adds credibility to the claim that the leaks were indeed real and the announcement of the new Nexus is getting imminent. The sources expect the Nexus 8 - believed to be the new premium tablet by HTC in this case - to be unveiled next month, probably to steal some hype from the IFA expo and Apple's new products. Until then, every leak must be taken with a grain of salt.

Flagship handsets are starting to get displays that push beyond the HD and Full HD resolutions that used to rule the roost. While many lower-end devices are still making do with resolutions below HD (1280x720px), most of the range-toppers now on sale feature displays offering Full HD (1920x1080px) resolution. But a new generation of flagships has now arrived, featuring Quad HD (2560x1440px) displays. Such devices are still few in number, and include the LG G3 and Samsung's Galaxy S5 LTE-A. But despite there being so few of these handsets on sale, YouTube is preparing for the future. As Android Central reports, Google has made changes to its YouTube app on Android, which now allows users to watch video at 1440p on handsets that support that resolution. Of course, the video itself will have to be available in that resolution as well, and with most videos on YouTube maxing out at 1080p, don't expect to be able to find too much Quad HD content on there for now. Keep in mind too that the higher resolution of such videos may eat up more of your data plan than you expect while streaming them to your device, so stick to Wi-Fi wherever possible if you're planning to watch a lot of 1440p content.

A couple of months ago the first bits of information leaked out regarding a HTC-made 9-inch Nexus tablet, codenamed 'Volantis', with Nvidia Tegra K1 internals. New details surrounding the upcoming tablet have surfaced, claiming its hardware might be similar to that of Nvidia's recently-released Shield Tablet. The rumors suggest the tablet will come with a 8.9-inch display packing a resolution of 1920 x 1200, or possibly 2560 x 1600. It'll also pack Nvidia's 64-bit variant of their Tegra K1 SoC, with two custom-made Denver CPU cores as well as their mobile Kepler GPU, alongside 4 GB of RAM. Strangely, the leaks suggested the Nvidia SoC will be paired with a Qualcomm MDM9x25 LTE modem in the cellular model. The Shield Tablet uses an Nvidia-made Icera i500 modem, but HTC may choose to ditch what naturally should be a perfect pair for the Nvidia SoC in favor of a Qualcomm chip. Other rumored specifications include an 8-megapixel rear camera using Sony's IMX219 sensor, and a 1.6-megapixel OV970 front-facing unit. There will also allegedly be NFC inside, plus it'll run Android L when it launches later this year. Basically the tablet sounds like an upgraded version of the Shield Tablet, packing bleeding edge components into a high-end 9-inch device. By all accounts the Shield Tablet is already very powerful, so this could be the Android tablet to look out for in the coming months.

Microsoft's Windows Phone Store is now home to more than 300,000 apps according to updated statistics on the company's By The Numbers website. The figures were recently updated to reflect app count as of the end of June 2014 according to a Microsoft spokesperson. The rep further told The Next Web that the Windows and Windows Phone app catalog has grown 94 percent in the past year while the number of active developers has grown by 50 percent during the same period. It's a significant milestone considering the store had just 200,000 apps as of last December but truth be told, Microsoft is still a distant third behind app industry giants Android and iOS. Last month, for example, Apple said their App Store had surpassed the 1.2 million app milestone. As PCWorld points out, however, the Windows Phone Store has some problems that are bigger than its numbers indicate. It's no secret that some of the bigger-name app developers often treat Microsoft's platform as an afterthought. Time and time again, we've seen new features arrive on Android and iOS far sooner than in the Windows Phone Store. And sometimes, updates don't show up at all. Prime examples of this include snap videos in Yelp, listening to full songs in Shazam and using the free version of Spotify - all features that still aren't available to Windows Phone users. It's good to see Microsoft isn't calling it quits but they still have a lot of ground to cover.

Surveillance cameras are often times an unfortunate necessity in today's society. The problem with most cameras, however, is that they need a constant power source. This requirement alone often dictates where you can and can't install a camera and is something that many crooks are well aware of. A new product called the GeckoEye looks to shatter conventional boundaries by employing solar power to keep the camera charged without restrictive wires. This gives you the freedom to mount a security camera virtually anywhere around your home or even on the dash of your car. Each GeckoEye camera communicates back to a base station via Wi-Fi which in turn links up with your in-home wireless network. The base station can support up to three cameras and although it does require power from traditional means, its high-capacity battery can run for up to 240 hours on a single charge. Footage is encoded within the base station before being transmitted to the cloud for storage. There's also 128GB of onboard storage should you not want to link up with remote storage servers. Everything is accessible via companion app from anywhere you have Wi-Fi so you can keep an eye on your home while you're on vacation, for example. http://vimeo.com/102641566 The GeckoEye system is currently seeking funding on Indiegogo. Pricing for a single camera set starts at $189 for the black variety and $229 for the slick-looking aluminum set. They still have a long ways to go before reaching their $100,000 goal but with 25 days remaining in the campaign, anything is possible.

There are a number of wireless charging systems for mobile devices on the market, most of which require some sort of base station or charging mat. Start-up uBeam teased us with a new way of doing it some years ago, and is now ready with a working prototype. Using ultrasound, the company's new system can charge a device while it is still in your pocket or being used. A small charging station placed in a room converts power for smartphones into ultrasound. The sound waves are then captured by a receiver on-board near by mobile devices and converted back into usable power. It does have quite an impressive range, but it will not work through walls the way WiFi does, so multiple base stations would be required for complete coverage throughout a home or workplace. However, despite some of its limitations and its somewhat early stage of development, uBeam feels the tech will become as readily available and popular as WiFi. The co-founder of uBeam, Meredith Perry (above), feels the tech could have a profound effect on the way manufacturers design mobile devices moving forward. She suggests a system like uBeam's could allow for much smaller and less powerful batteries considering the ultrasound would be constantly charging devices without the user even needing to pay attention. At this point there is no specifics on when uBeam equipped devices could be made commercially available.

In an effort to "obey the law and uphold the socialist system," Chinese authorities are now requiring users of mobile instant messaging services to register using their real names according to a story from state-run news agency Xinhua via The New York Times. The new restrictions also prohibit the posting or reposting of current affairs and political news without first gaining approval from the government. The publication points out that while the new rules apply to all instant messaging services including those operated by companies, organizations and even celebrities, most believe they are aimed at WeChat. The popular messaging app, like most others, allows users to share text, photos, audio clips and videos either privately or within small groups. The app hit the scene three years ago and has already amassed close to 400 million monthly active users. Social networking apps like this and others have government officials concerned as they allow people to share information and opinions that could damage the image of the Chinese government. It's unclear at this hour how exactly China plans to enforce the new regulations but if last year's crackdown on Twitter-like service Weibo is any indication, some law breakers could end up in a lot of trouble. If you recall, hundreds of Weibo's top commentators were detailed last August and charged with spreading falsehoods. This led to many of Weibo's users jumping ship to WeChat and given the new restrictions, history may very well repeat itself all over again.

Technological advancements in the world of solar power energy are plentiful, and a startup company known as Semprius have quite a practical one in the works. By simply stacking up semiconducting materials on top of each other, the company has already developed solar arrays with much higher efficiency ratings than traditional commercial solutions. The idea is to have a number of layers of semiconducting materials stacked on top of each other, each tuned to capture certain frequencies of light on the way through. At the end of the chain, all of the light is collected and converted to power at once, a process both Semprius and Technology Review claim will allow solar energy to be as cost-effective as natural gas one day. It not as simple as it sounds though. The process requires a number new developments including a special adhesive to ensure the layers maintain optimal functionality as well as a master bus system to sum together the output of the layers. Semprius currently has two different arrays in action using this tech at the moment, both of which are performing well outside of traditional options. One is clocking a near 44% efficiency rating and the other is just over 44%, compared to the 25% or so we see from current commercial installations, that is quite impressive. However, one major issue still remains. It is currently very expensive to put something like this together. While every additional layer raises cost dramatically, some suggest mass production and the sheer efficiency they provide might make the tech more realistic then it initially appears.

Google search rankings are a crucial metric for any business that wants to be seen online. Now, after a stream of security breaches over the past few years, the company is using that incredible influence it wields on the web to make it a bit safer for all, tying its search rankings to sites’ use of HTTPS encryption. According to a blog post from Google webmaster trends analysts Zineb Ait Bahajji and Gary Illyes, they’ve been been running trials over the past few months to test the use of secure, encrypted connections as a signal in search ranking algorithms, and Google is already rewarding sites that use HTTPS with a slightly higher ranking in searches. But while this is currently only a very lightweight signal, carrying less weight than other signals such as high-quality content, Google may decide to strengthen it over time. Although the post notes websites will have time to switch to HTTPS, there was no indication of a timeline for the move. Notably, most ad servers still don’t use HTTPS and even AdSense only uses it partially, which leaves publishers and other ad-supported business at a crossroads for the time being. Google says in the coming weeks it will publish detailed best practices to make TLS adoption easier and avoid common mistakes. In the meantime, the company listed seven basic tips to get webmaster started: Decide the kind of certificate you need: single, multi-domain, or wildcard certificate Use 2048-bit key certificates Use relative URLs for resources that reside on the same secure domain Use protocol relative URLs for all other domains Check out our Site move article for more guidelines on how to change your website’s address Don’t block your HTTPS site from crawling using robots.txt Allow indexing of your pages by search engines where possible. Avoid the noindex robots meta tag

Most of us enjoy a quality sci-fi flick from time to time and hey, what's not to like about 8-bit gaming? Put the two together as YouTuber Phillip Raupach did in the clip above and you get something that's immensely entertaining (perhaps even more so than the original movie?). https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NMpZrta2Cwc The idea came about as part of a project for his audio production class. The task was to strip the audio from a short video and replace it with different music or ambience and sound effects of his choosing. Job well done, I'd say! Now here comes the fun part: how many of the old sounds can you identify? Let us know in the comments section below!

After being responsible for one of the most notable top-secret government data leaks in recent memory, Edward Snowden was criminally charged and is currently considered a fugitive by the US government. The former, self-proclaimed secret government agent sought refuge in Russia, but now that his one year free pass is up, Snowden has obtained an extension. In a statement this morning, the former NSA contractor's lawyer announced that Snowden will be allowed to stay in Russia for another 3 years before a permanent decision must be made. Snowden's legal representation noted that this may give him a little bit more freedom and may even allow him to travel outside of Russia. However, the permit is just temporary and Snowden will eventually have to make a decision as to whether he will return to the US a fugitive or apply for citizenship in Russia. As some have suggested, even though there may be other options on the table for him, staying in Russia might be the safest. The chances of him returning to the US are likely fairly slim considering the criminal charges laid against him and he might want to be careful with the international traveling. The US has already been reported to have been asking for help from other countries to help with capture and extradition. For now, Snowden appears to be safe in Russia for another 3 years, but the US has another leaker on its hands. US officials confirmed the existence of another insider leaking top secret terrorist watch info yesterday.

Earlier this year at CES, Philips announced a couple of new monitors, one being a 28-inch 4K LED backlit display. It seemed respectable enough on paper but its $1,200 MSRP certainly kept it from being a bang-for-your-buck buy. Fast-forward to present day and that's all changed. Philips issued a press release letting us know that the 288P6LJEB is now available for purchase. Best yet, it's being offered over on Amazon at a "special" price of just $599 with free shipping. Now you've got our attention. The monitor's specifications claim it provides a resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 @ 60hz with a 1ms response time. Furthermore, it offers 1.07 billion colors, a 300 cd/m² brightness rating and a 1000:1 contrast ratio. Connectivity options include two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, VGA, Dual Link DVI, DisplayPort 1.2 and MHL-HDMI. Philips is also quick to point out its MultiView technology which allows you to connect two computers to the display and use them both simultaneously side-by-side. I can certainly envision scenarios in which this functionality would come in handy. Amazon's product page actually shows the display was first available on May 30 so it would seem that Philips is a bit late with their press release. With only four customer reviews of the screen posted to Amazon thus far, it's tough to get an idea of whether or not this is a solid buy. Two reviewers gave it a five star rating while the other two issued a one star rating, citing issues with DisplayPort 1.2.