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  • Amazon Upgrades its Virtual Private Cloud Technology with IP Configurability


    Amazon Web Services has extended IP configurability across its virtual private cloud technology hence giving developers more control over how they configure IP addresses for rented virtual machines within the cloud.

    Announced last week on Wednesday, this advance means that admins now have greater IP allocation options in the premier cloud technology. They can choose whether to allocate public IP addresses to rented virtual machines when instances are deployed in their default Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) subnet or not. It also means they are allowed to give instances in non-default subnets public IPs preceding launch.

    Amazon's Management Console supports this public IP feature, so GUI aficionados will be granted access to the features during the instance creation wizard via tickboxes.

    The capabilities of these changes bring with them potential uses in isolation of apps from each other through separate subnet placement, for example, and allocation of a separate public IP to each in order to feed out separately to the Internet.

    With all VM instances functioning within a VPC, developers are getting a more controllable network substrate and – theoretically – an easier-to-handle security model. The changes come as the company is in the process of elevating VPC to the default AWS environment. This makes the default operating environment for every new elastic compute (EC2) instance a private network.

  • Will the Newly Released iPhone 5c Appeal to Emerging Markets?


    According to a report published by USA TODAY, many analysts are skeptical that the iPhone 5c will have huge sales in the emerging markets. Just a day after the release of the high-end iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c (the cheaper one of the two), analysts are still concerned with the iPhone 5c retail prices. Without a contract, the phone is set to sell at $549 and $99 with a two-year contract.

    This Wednesday, Apple shares finished at $467.71, $26.93 down, amidst fears that the tech company might have placed a  very high cost on iPhone 5c, hence failing to capture the emerging markets. Michael Walkley, an analyst at Canaccord says that while the specifications of the 5c and 5s did not fall far from expectations, the price of the 5c was too far from what he expected.

    In recent years, Apple has lost ground to Samsung, Huawel and other android supported handsets that sell at cheaper prices and still offer ideal smartphone features. This concept is ideally true in emerging markets , especially in developing countries where use of smartphones is quickly becoming the norm. It is without a doubt that the iPhone 5c was specifically designed and manufactured to appeal to people in the emerging markets. However, with such a high price, we can only wait and see what fate has in store for the beautiful, features ladened phone.

  • Use WiFi VoIP Through Your Cell Phone with CSipSimple Android App

    It is possible to use your cell phone as a VoIP phone through various apps. CSipSimple is an Android based app that enables cell phones to handle VoIP calls. Whenever a VoIP call is made, an answering screen comes in that is distinguishable from the normal calls. The dialer for VIP calls is also different from the normal calls.

    The setup process is simple and straight forward. It is recommended that you use the basic setup and configure the device to only be available on the WIFI network. This means that the device automatically picks the local network whenever it becomes available. Whenever you are in an area without WIFI, all calls go to voice mail. This ensures that you are not disturbed by office calls while you are at home.

    On an iPhone, you may use Zoiper, which has equally good functionality. The app is also available on android in case you need to standardize the software on different applications. The applications provide you with a convenient and unique opportunity to with workmates within the office network.

  • Everything Apple Announced at Yesterday's iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c Event


    During yesterday's event that took place in Cuperino, Apple has finally unveiled the long-awaited new iPhones: iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c. 

    Apple's CEO Tim Cook kick-started the event, of course in his trademark uniform of a black button-up shirt and dark jeans. Most of the announcements he made seem directed at beating Google's Android platform at having the market share in new markets. The Android platform has been having a fast growth in emerging markets, especially Asia, and Apple now appears to have rededicated its efforts to penetrate these markets and expand its customer base.

    The highlights of the event were:

    • Launch of two new iPhones: iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S
    • iOS 7 release date announcement
    • iWork updates
    • Siri upgrade

    Apple Introduces 2 New iPhones

    Apple reached a new level of its iPhone business with the iPhone 5, and we have been expecting even better ever since. In the past, the release of a new iPhone has been accompanied by lowering of the price of the previous device. However, this year prices for iPhone 5 remain the same as it is replaced with two new designs.

    The two iPhones, iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S, will be available for pre-order on September 20. It is expected that they will be available in China too.

    iPhone 5S: Apple's New Flagship Phone

    The iPhone 5S has been labeled "the most forward-thinking phone ever made” even before it hits the stores. It is similar to the iPhone 5 in size and thickness, and it's available in three colors: gold, gray, and silver. It is made of high-grade aluminum, which Apple’s marketing chief Philip Schiller called "the gold standards in smartphones."

    The most outstanding thing about the iPhone 5S is its speed. With a 64-bit A7 chip – the first phone ever to use this kind of chip – the new iPhone has speeds that are 40 times greater than those of the first iPhone. The graphics power is also impressive; looking at the phone feels like looking on a PC gaming device.

    Battery life has been improved from iPhone 5. With the iPhone 5S, the battery can last 10 hours 3G talk time and its standby life is 250 hours. Monitoring motion will also be possible thanks to the new Apple M7 chip. It bears similarity to the X8 computing system used by Motorola for its Moto X. With this chip, app makers will be able to detect movement of the users throughout the day, like the total number of steps they take. It also saves on battery.

    The camera system has also been improved. It features an f.2.2 aperture for better night photos. It also features a dual-LED rear-camera flash for better photos in low light. This type of flash – dual-LED flash – extends the distance of the camera flash. Other new features are a 10 frames-per-second burst mode and a slow-motion video for 120 frames-per-second recording.

    As rumored, the home button for the screen is a fingerprint scanner Apple calls Touch ID. The security of the iPhone has just become better with Touch ID because you no longer have to worry about forgetting the passcode for the phone or go through the hassle of typing in a series of numbers just to get a weather update. You use Touch ID by clicking on the home button and holding down the finger for a couple seconds. It can read a finger at any angle and you can even teach it to recognize multiple fingers to allow other people access to the phone. In case you are concerned about security, Touch ID can be turned off.

    The iPhone 5S will be available for a two-year contract at a cost of $199 for 16 gigabytes, $299 for 32 gigabytes, and $399 for 64 gigabytes.

    iPhone 5C: Candy-Colored and Cheaper

    The iPhone 5C comes as was predicted, with a plastic body and 5 new bright colors: red, white, green, blue, and yellow. The face of the phone is black and no seams, joints or flat lines are visible even with close inspection. The inside also features a new construction. There is a 4-inch retina display, 8 megapixel camera, and a new FaceTime camera.

    Regarding cell service, Schiller said “It supports more LTE bands than any smartphone in the world.”

    The phone comes with a two-year contract at a cost of $99 for the 16 gigabytes version and $199 for the 32 gigabytes version. The predicted full price by analysts is $55o
    .
    Being the less expensive iPhone, it is expected that the iPhone 5C will be Apple's flag bearer in a number of emerging markets where the majority of customers cannot afford the current Apple products. These markets have hundreds of millions of people buying smartphones every year. They include China, India, and Russia.

    iOS 7 Coming Sept. 18

    The iOS 7, showcased earlier in June at the Worldwide Developers Conference, was unveiled today. It brings over 200 new features among them a design that makes the iPhone screen seem totally new. This design sports stark open white space that will be a welcome sight for users who want a the calming effect of white. With the thin iconography and the flat new design, iOS 7 is a far cry from its 1980s-era skeuomorphic.

    One of the features of iOS 7 is a live streaming music service Apple calls the iTunes Radio. Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president for software engineering, said that there are also several apps being developed around the new interface. A demo of the new Camera app showed that its speed beats that of the app in iOS 6. A slick user interface allows zooming out to a year view, with the user's photos showing in tiny icons. There is also built-in access to live photo filters and new organization capabilities for images by time and location.

    The new operating system is laden with processor-intense features and it offers full multitasking capabilities. This could adversely affect the battery life of iPhone 4S and other older iPhones, but we wait to see. Apple has maintained that this will be the most popular mobile OS.

    According to Federighi, “iOS 7 will be available — unbelievably, for free — on Sept. 18.”

    Shipping of the operating system will begin next month to iOS device users, making 700 million devices new for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users.

    At Last Siri Receives an Upgrade

    Apple has made this year Siri's year in the spotlight. The company released an upgrade for the popular voice-activated digital assistant so that iPhone users can get an improved Siri experience. The upgrade features a new male voice. There are also a number of new voice commands that include searching on a number of sites on the Web like Wikipedia.

    Over the last couple of years, Apple has been hard at work to improve Siri following negative feedback and reviews after he (Siri) could not understand some of the things customers were saying. The upgrade has also been influenced by the competition between Apple and giant rival Google Android operating system's voice command features.

    Apps on iWork Platform Now Free

    Cook also announced a few welcome updates for iWork. iWork is the productivity software for Apple responsible for the apps on iPhones and iPads. Some of these apps include the Keynote, Numbers, and Pages apps.

    Cook said that iPhoto, iMovie, Keynote, Numbers, and Pages were now available for free. Anyone with a new iPhone or iPad will be able to download these apps free of charge.

    He also said of iWork, “No other platform has any apps like these.”

    The London iTunes Festival

    One of the biggest announcements Mr. Cook made was of the iTunes Festival that is taking place in London from 1-30 September. The festival is an annual event that involves 30 nights of free live music performances. This year it unfolds at the Roundhouse art centre and some of the names Cook threw that will be performing were Lady Gaga, the curtain raiser, and Justin Timberlake. Among the other singers making appearances are Katy Perry, Queens of the Stone, and Kings of Leon.

    According to Cook, the concerts will be streamed live in over 100 countries across the world. After the performances, they will also be available on iTunes for free. Users of Apple TV, iPhones, iPads, iPod touch, and laptops will therefore not miss out on anything even if they don't make it to London. The number that has already applied for tickets to the event is so far 20 million.

    Cook also pointed out to Apple's retail growth by announcing a new Apple store that boasts a museum-like appearance with glass on three sides. Stanford, California is home to the store, which opened last weekend.

  • VMware Embraces Cyborg Cloud by Adding Cloud Foundry to its vCHS


    A while ago VMware made news by tossing out its open source platform as-a-service cloud initiative into a spin-off dubbed Pivotal. This was alongside other tech products like Spring, Greenplum Database, and GemFire.

    In an announcement at VMworld, San Francisco, on Monday, the virtualization company revealed that among the key components it would be tapping into for its upcoming cloud is Pivotal's Cloud Foundry. The company announced that VMware's upcoming vCloud Hybrid Service cloud will come with the platform as-a-service wired atop it.

    For VMware customers, this means they will now be capable of creating their own cyborg clouds whose underlay is the VMware vCloud Hybrid Service (vCHS) and overlay is a Pivotal CF. Pivotal CF is designed to work with both vCHS and vSphere, and it will deliver access for customers to an enterprise support contract.

    Support for Cloud Foundry is set to become available in the fourth quarter of 2013.

  • New Zealand Cloud Storage Node Opened By Mega

    Mega cloud storage service announced via its blog that it has opened a New Zealand storage node. This will serve customers in Australia, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

    This node comes seven months after the launch of Mega by former Megaload founder, Kim Dotcom. The launch saw 500,000 signups within the first 14 hours. 

    The company indicated that the transfer of files to and from an account will originate or terminate in the New Zealand node. However, API requests as well as storage of metadata will still be done from Europe.

    Mega also indicated that its geographical data redundancy policy will still apply to the new node. This means that all the data on the New Zealand cluster will still be mirrored to the European site. This is because New Zealand customers are legally barred from offshore storage of sensitive data.

    Mega has significantly updated its C++ SDK to enable it to work on the broader platform support. This is according to customer feedback.

    Mega however noted that there are security challenges in relation to the use of computers in general and specifically regarding the use of JavaScript-based cryptography.

  • Voip-Pal.com Now Providing Investors with free Level 2 Quotes


    Voip-Pal.com announced earlier in the week that it has subscribed to OTC Intelligence so that its investors can have free access to real-time in-depth market quotes – Level 2 – for Voip-Pal stock.

    Through the new arrangement, an investor with Level 2 Quotes will get transparency and full access to valuable real-time market data. Otherwise called depth of book, Level 2 data usually displays information beyond the regular price details by providing every individual market participant quote for securities.

    Every investor should go directly to the OTC Markets or the company's website in order to access the Level 2 quotes for Voip-Pal stock.

    Voip-Pal's primary product is VoIP patent application technology. The company boasts a portfolio of VoIP Patent Applications. It is also a provider of local and long-distance VoIP telephone services for next generation devices like cell phones, smartphones, and tablets through its retail website.

  • Nokia Lumia 925 Goes Live at AT&T Starting September 13th for $99.99, Pre-Orders Now Open

    Nokia Lumia 925 made its appearance at T-Mobile last month and now it is set to land at AT&T on September 13th. This is the first Lumia smartphone that features a metal design detail and it will be available for a monthly cost of $21 on AT$T Next plan or for $99.99 in a two-year agreement.

    AT&T Next is a new program that the company launched to allow its customers get a new device every year. Available only to upgrade eligible AT&T customers, AT&T Next lets you purchase a smartphone or tablet devoid of down payments, upgrade fees, and activation fees, and after paying 12 monthly installments you are allowed to trade it in and get a new device.

    Lumia 925, a Windows Phone that is slim, lightweight, and dominated by a 4.5-inch PureMotion HD + Gorilla Glass display, runs on AT&T's 4G LTE network. It sports an 8.7 megapixel camera that packs the usual high-performance optics and camera features Nokia is known for. At launch, the exclusive black version of the Lumia will be available to only AT$T customers.

    A couple of days obviously stand between the 4.5-inch aluminum-clad smartphone and its lovers but pre-orders already began.

  • Google's Chromecast makes Smart TVs out of Dumb TVs for only $35


    LG, Sony, Samsung, Panasonic and others have tried but none has managed to make TVs really smart. Google has found a way of maximizing on the hundreds of millions of standard TVs that pack HDMI ports. Using its new Chromecast device, the company is offering a way of giving the dumb TVs some brains by providing access to web-based content.

    The company has developed a Wi-Fi attached HDMI stick that is capable of catching any Chrome browser stream from any device running a Chrome instance. This means if you connect the Chromecast dongle to your TV you can flick video content from YouTube, Google Play Movies and Music or Netflix directly on the TV, or even mirror any content in any open Chrome tab by use of a tab casting feature.  You can also run another tab with Facebook, Instagram, your homework, diary, texts or anything you can think of which is never seen on TV.

    According to Google, Chromecast works across all platforms as long as they have a Chrome browser. These include Android smartphones and tablets, iPads, iPhones, Chrome for Windows, and Chrome for Mac.

    The Chromecast HDMI stick is available on Google Play, BestBuy.com, and Amazon for $35. You also get three months of free Netflix.

  • Siemens Forges Partnership with NextPlane to offer Extended Federation Services


    According to an announcement made last week, Siemens Enterprise Communications and NextPlane UC Exchange Service will partner in providing extended federation services for Siemens' OpenScape UC platform through the NextPlace UC Exchange service.

    With Siemens being the world's leading unified communications provider and NextPlace being the market leader in provision of federation services that are cloud-based for UC, anyone who joins the NextPlace UC Exchange and is a Siemens customer will now enjoy a seamless connection and collaboration with lots of other partner on UC platforms. These include Google, IBM, Cisco, Microsoft, Open-Fire, eJabberd, eZuce, and Isode.

    Other than this ability to federate with their business partners, Siemens customers will also get to enjoy UC-to-social media federation like Yahoo! and Skype, public social media networks like Twitter, and enterprise social media networks like Microsoft Yammer and Salesforce Chatter.

    This is a partnership aimed at underscoring the commitment of Siemens Enterprise Communications to openness and support for the evolving communications business needs of their customers. The company announced that there will be instant message sharing of its customers with the business partners of their colleagues, third-party suppliers, supply chain vendors, and clients as if everyone is on a single platform.