Hasta La Gadget!

Kaspersky Labs’ namesake Eugene Kaspersky is worried that widely distributed and potentially state-sponsored malware like Flame and Stuxnet pose dire threats to often lightly protected infrastructure like communication and power plants — whatever your nationality, it’s clearly bad for the civilian population of a given country to suffer even collateral damage from cyberattacks. To minimize future chaos and literally keep the trains running, Kaspersky and his company are expanding their ambitions beyond mere antivirus software to build their own, extra-secure operating system just for large-scale industry. The platform depends on a custom, minimalist core that refuses to run any software that isn’t baked in and has no code outside of its main purposes: there’ll be no water supply shutdowns after the night watch plays Solitaire from an infected drive. Any information shared from one of these systems should be completely trustworthy, Kaspersky says. He doesn’t have details as to when the OS will reach behind-the-scenes hardware, but he stresses that this is definitely not an open-source project: some parts of the OS will always remain confidential to keep ne’er-do-well terrorists (and governments) from undermining the technology we often take for granted.

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Kaspersky Labs preps its own OS to guard vital industry against cyberwarfare originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Oct 2012 13:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Next Web  |  Eugene Kaspersky, Securelist  | Email this | Comments

The last couple of Linux kernel updates have been a bit of a circus, with Android merging in the 3.3 ring and graphics integration on a (noisy) 3.4 center stage. Version 3.6 of the open source kernel has less flashy, more serene features this time, with hybrid standby, a revised file system and other esoteric networking and architectural features befalling the penguin. That sleep mode, which caches the RAM contents to a disk to prevent data loss, has been available for a while now on Windows and Mac machines and will be especially handy on Linux laptops. The so-called Btrfs file system has also been updated (though is still in a developmental mode) and Google’s experimental TCP Fast Open extension has been added, along with additional network drivers, more virtualisation options and additional processor support. Sleepwalk to the source for the complete changelog.

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Linux 3.6 kernel released with ‘hybrid sleep’ capability, Google’s TCP Fast Open extension originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Oct 2012 12:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The H  |  Linus Torvalds  | Email this | Comments

Now that its successor is available, you’re unlikely to hear much excitement for Windows Server 2008 around IT water coolers, but that’s not to suggest it’ll fade into oblivion anytime soon. In fact, Microsoft has extended its mainstream support of the server OS — previously set to expire on July 9th, 2013 — through January 15th, 2015. The company will continue to deliver free security fixes for the operating system beyond this cutoff date, however maintenance updates will require the purchase of extended support from Microsoft. According to the company’s revised product lifecycle, paid updates for Windows Server 2008 will now be available through January 14th, 2020. For those curious, the new dates were largely determined by Microsoft guidelines, which guarantee a minimum five years of support, or in this case, two years of mainstream support beyond the release of the successor product. Naturally, it pains us to imagine firms chugging along with Windows Server 2008 into 2020, but you just know it’ll happen. Now, at least someone in Redmond will be watching out for them.

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Microsoft extends free Windows Server 2008 support through January 15th, 2015 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Sep 2012 22:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Starting tomorrow, iOS users will be prompted to update their devices to the newest iteration of Apple’s mobile operating system. As difficult as it is to believe, we’re already onto the sixth version of the OS, which continues to be updated with new features on a yearly basis. After pushing out so many upgrades critical to plugging a few major feature holes, the vast majority of its 200 advertised enhancements are strictly granular, as Apple continues to polish its popular OS.

That doesn’t mean, though, that this build is coming to the masses without any jarring UI changes: Apple has declared independence from Google by adopting its own Maps, added a few nice features to Mail and iCloud, thrown Facebook integration into the mix and introduced the Passbook for paperless tickets. The question is, how does it stack up against previous refreshes? Read on to find out.

Continue reading iOS 6 review

Filed under: Software, Mobile

iOS 6 review originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Sep 2012 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been two weeks since Microsoft signed off on Windows 8, and shipped the final code to manufacturers prepping shiny new computers. Today, another round of folks are getting their hands on the code: devs, and IT pros with subscriptions to Microsoft’s TechNet program. Of course, you might not be a developer or IT whiz and, if we’re being honest, neither are we! Happily for us, though, Microsoft gave us an early peek at the RTM build — the same software that will ship to consumers October 26th. Granted, Microsoft says it will continue tweaking the built-in apps, with updates coming through the Windows Store. Barring these minor changes, though, what you see here is what you’ll get ten weeks from now. Meet us after the break for a summary of what’s new.

Continue reading Windows 8 RTM: what’s new in the final build of Windows 8?

Filed under: Software

Windows 8 RTM: what’s new in the final build of Windows 8? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Aug 2012 13:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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