TECHNOLOGY AIM

Watching Brazil's rain forest burn is causing a lot of us to freak out a bit. Referring to it as "the world's lungs" may be an overstatement, but the rain forest is a critical global resource, and its destruction undoubtedly will worsen global warming. Given that the U.S. government has dismantled many environmental protection rules, companies are beginning to step up to work on offsets. One of the firms doing this is HP, which has announced a major initiative to focus the tech industry on renewable resources and to protect old-growth forests. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2mzPdS5

Manjaro Linux 18.1, released on Sept. 12, is one of the most complete Linux OSes you will find. It is a powerhouse distro that offers a better Arch Linux computing platform, and it is the de facto standard for comparing Arch family options. After six months of development, the latest series is a fast, user-friendly, desktop-oriented operating system based on Arch Linux -- but its independent nature makes this distro a hallmark of out-of-the-box computing. Arch Linux itself is renowned for being exceptionally fast, powerful and lightweight. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2V5sZoh

Smartwatches outsold traditional watches in the fourth quarter of 2018. The category saw a 51 percent increase in dollar sales for last year, along with a 61 percent increase in unit sales, according to recent data from NPD Group. One in four Americans aged 18 to 34 now own a smartwatch, and that is likely to increase. Traditional watches did regain the majority of the market in Q1 2019, suggesting that not all consumers are ready to have a mini-computer on their wrists just yet. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2LFgJrG

Facebook has announced three additions to the Portal family: a new Portal, Portal Mini and Portal TV. The devices let users make calls using Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. The Portal has a new design that resembles a picture frame. The Portal Mini is similar but smaller. The Portal TV looks like a set-top box and comes with its own controller. The Portal TV blends the functionality of a set-top box with social media and video conferencing, observed Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2M2XDKY

Early reviews on the new iPhone models are appearing, and for owners of older versions of Apple's flagship mobile, an upgrade may be in order. Reviewers had plenty of praise for Apple's more expensive iPhone models -- the 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max. However, it was the baseline iPhone 11 that came out the clear winner in the kudos game. Although the iPhone 11 is the lowest-priced of the three new models, Apple didn't skimp on the device. Reviewers found the 11's camera to be a solid performer. They also praised the iPhone 11 line's video prowess. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2IabQEQ

While open source enthusiasts still await the year of the Linux desktop, hardware developer Pine64 is advancing the cause of a $25 Linux-powered smartwatch, dubbed "PineTime." The Pine64 community has invited FreeRTOS or ArmMbed developers with an interest in smartwatches to join in its efforts to bring the product to market. Pine64 makes inexpensive Linux-based single board ARM computers that cost $15 to $20. It also makes an $89 Linux laptop called "Pinebook," which runs on the Pine A64 board. A few Linux distributions run on Pine A64. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/304GM3m

The Wi-Fi Alliance has released certification standards for Wi-Fi 6 devices, signaling that the technology is ready for prime time. The certification program assures buyers that products carrying the Wi-Fi Certified 6 label will deliver the best user experience with devices supporting IEEE 802.11ax. Wi-Fi 6 includes innovations to create faster network performance and to decrease the latency that can result from adding devices to a network. "Wi-Fi Certified 6 is ushering in a new era of WiFi," said Wi-Fi Alliance CEO Edgar Figueroa. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2V7AZ8o

Apple held its huge product announcement event last week, and what once had people besides themselves with excitement has become a near pointless program of copied features and missed expectations. It is a shame to watch -- much like it was when Apple fired Steve Jobs. It appears that the firm has forgotten what Steve did to turn Apple into a unique company. As it drifts to becoming just another tech firm, I'd like to revisit what Apple was when people anticipated launches like this as potential life-changing events. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/32I0Xlp

Archman is an Arch Linux-based rolling distribution featuring the Calamares system installer, Pamac package manager, and a selection of preconfigured desktop environments. The distro's name is derived from Arch Linux and Pacman package management. The new version comes with a customized Xfce 4.14 desktop environment. The customization is immediately noticeable in the design of the desktop panel at the bottom of the screen. Combined with a smart hiding feature, the overall visual effect is to make the entire screen real estate available for use. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2ZUsLoV

At Apple's annual new products and devices event earlier this week, CEO Tim Cook told the crowd gathered at its Cupertino headquarters that the new Apple TV+ streaming service will be available for $4.99 per month. Consumers who buy a new iPad, iPhone or Apple laptop will receive a year of the subscription-based streaming video service for free. It was a shot across the bow at Disney, which recently announced at its D23 event in Anaheim, California, that the Disney+ streaming service will be available for $6.99 per month. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/31krMMf

Apple raised the curtain on its latest iPhone models, introduced a new iPad, refreshed its watch, and announced pricing for its subscription game and premium TV services at an event at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California. The highlight of the presentation was the new iPhone lineup: the iPhone 11, the 11 Pro and the 11 Pro Max. The iPhone 11 comes in six colors -- black, green, yellow, purple, red and white. It has a 1,792 x 828 Retina display and runs on Apple's A13 Bionic chip. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2ZLYTuQ

The new larger version of Google's Nest Hub smart display has been garnering mixed reviews. It has a 10-inch screen, compared to its predecessor's 7-inch display, and it sells for $229, compared to $129 for the Nest Hub introduced at Google's I/O conference in June. "I like the big screen on the Nest Hub Max, since I was able to watch a football game in the kitchen and still see the score," wrote Todd Haselton. One of the best things about the Nest Hub, and now the Nest Hub Max, is viewing pictures from Google Photos, he added. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2LrdTpK

At a briefing by IBM on its joint project with MIT to build a better AI, it struck me that some of the training concepts could improve the quality of political decisions to shift attention more to fixing problems rather than using them as weapons against opponents. I'm not talking about using artificial intelligence systems directly. I'm suggesting that we apply methods similar to those we now are considering for building and training them in order to make decisions that would fix major problems instead of just arguing about them forever. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/31fg7hO

Users of a multi-cloud storage strategy may be twice as likely to face a security breach as those that use hybrid or single clouds, suggests a report from UK-based security specialist Nominet. Fifty-two percent of survey respondents who adopted a multi-cloud approach suffered a data breach over the past 12 months, compared to 24 percent of hybrid cloud users, and 24 percent of single-cloud users, the firm found after polling nearly 300 C-Level executives and IT professionals. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2ZTISiu

Amazon is testing scanners that can identify a human hand to use as a payment method for in-store purchases. The company plans to introduce "Orville" to some Whole Foods stores by the beginning of 2020, and later expand it to all locations in the United States. Employees at Amazon's New York offices are said to be using the technology to buy items such as sodas, chips, granola bars and phone chargers from specially equipped vending machines. The high-tech sensors used in the pilot use computer vision and depth geometry. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2NO7Q06

Apple reportedly has been developing sleep tracking functionality for the Apple Watch. The new "Time in Bed Tracking" feature will let users who wear the Apple Watch to bed track their sleep patterns. Consumers who have multiple Apple Watches can designate one for wearing in bed. he "Burrito" feature will let Apple Watch track a user's quality of sleep, including movement, heart rate and noises, using the device's multiple sensors. Sleep data will be made available in the Health app and a forthcoming new Sleep app. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2MSByS9

As more Web traffic comes from mobile devices -- particularly traffic to e-commerce sites -- it's becoming ever more important for businesses to have content that loads onto small screens easily, quickly and effortlessly. To some degree, native mobile apps until now have filled that need, but they have significant limitations. They must be downloaded, and they don't necessarily have all the functionality of full-fledged websites. It's at this juncture that progressive web applications come in. PWAs exist in a space between apps and websites. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2ZJJD1s

There was an interesting dialog between Elon Musk and Jack Ma last week. Two of the most powerful men in the world, they both have invested heavily in artificial intelligence. Ma, who is the Alibaba Group cofounder and a huge advocate for the 12-hour a day six-day Chinese work week in tech, indicated that he believed AI would reduce the work week from 72 hours, where it now is in China, to 12 hours -- that is, three 4-hour workdays. Both he and Musk then spoke about how future workers will have training pumped into their brains. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2PvFavh