Google Cloud acquires Bitium

Google Cloud announced today that it has acquired Bitium, a company that focused on offering enterprise-grade identity management and access tools, such as single-sign on, for cloud-based applications. This will basically help Google better manage enterprise cloud customer implementation across an organization, including doing things like setting security levels and access policies for applications working across their Cloud and G Suite offerings.

Bitium was founded in 2012, and targets both mid market and larger enterprise customers,. It’s been offering a single-stop solution for managing Google Apps, Office 365, social network, CRM, collaboration and marketing tools, while ensuring organizations remain compliant with security standards.

The goal of Bitium is to simplify the process of administrating and using popular cloud-based applications so that users aren’t tempted to enter the nefarious realm of “shadow IT,” where they fall back to their own personal accounts across these services because the enterprise alternative is sub-standard or difficult to access.

It sounds like Google wants to continue the work that Bitium was doing on its own, and extend it to additional application partners, while also keeping the platform open to other third-party identity management providers that integrate with enterprise customers on the one side, and Google Cloud and G Suite on the other.

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WPS Office 2016 Personal Edition – The MS Office Alternative

Previously known as Kingsoft Office, WPS is a lightweight yet very practical and powerful office suite, which includes full word-processing, spreadsheet and presentation functionality.

There are ads that can become annoying, but it’s a small price to pay when you consider the fact you’re not paying anything for the product.

And don’t let that fool you into thinking that WPS Office 2016 isn’t fully formed or that it’s some half functional basic suite. There’s some real depth behind the interface and it works.

It comes bundled with three applications:

WPS Writer (more than capable word processor)
WPS Spreadsheets (a very good spreadsheet feature)
WPS Presentations (which is pretty much PowerPoint)
All three work very well, and if you’ve used any recent version of MS Office, or indeed any other Office suite, you should find yourself instantly at home. All three of the above also use the same style of interface as MS Office and all the usual tools and options are placed in a similar fashion and have intuitive positioning.

Works with MS Office files
Compatibility with MS Office document formats comes as standard, and WPS does a good job opening and converting them without formatting errors such as suddenly finding paragraphs with five lines between them or spreadsheet calculations with formulas that have stopped working.

Each program opens and saves all Microsoft Office document formats (doc, docx, xls, xlsx etc), as well as HTML, RTF, XML, even PDF.

Language support
WPS Office 2016 Personal Edition currently supports English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Polish, and has all the standard features you could hope and want for from your office suite, including spell check and word-count feature.

Fuel efficient
WPS is also incredibly easy on systems and its low requirements mean it can be installed on even old PCs running Windows.


WPS also comes with 1 GB of free cloud storage. It isn’t huge admittedly, but it’s there, it’s free, and it’s designed to store your documents and spreadsheets rather than 10 years’ worth of photos and videos.

There are also iOS and Android versions of the software available which is a really nice touch. As well as this, there’s also a Linux version available.

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Is Blue Whale ‘Suicide Game’ A Hoax?

The truth behind the headline-grabbing app?

An app that’s making news headlines around the world for allegedly targeting children and young people has left quite a few parents shaking in fear, while authorities are still trying to connect even the slightest of dots. Blue Whale, created by Russian programmer Philipp Budeikin, supposedly lures young victims into self-harm and suicide, with a variety of humiliating, painful, and even violent steps along the way.

Fact or fiction? :
It reads like something straight out of a Hollywood cyberthriller, and it’s easy to see why some might dismiss it as nothing more than urban legend. At the same time, it’s exactly the kind of generational rumor that can strike fear in the public: much like the long-told stories of Halloween candy filled with razor blades, although there has never been a single reported instance of the event.

Parents warned :
Schools across the US are warning parents about the app nonetheless, and Russian authorities are taking it very seriously – they’ve arrested Budeikin for his supposed role in multiple suicides, although the exact number is still being investigated – and different websites tell different stories on the numbers of young people who’ve already been Blue Whale’s victim. Some numbers have been speculated to be in the hundreds, while other sites insist there hasn’t been a single suicide linked to the game.

Tasks become dark :
Blue Whale reportedly assigns the “players” different tasks depending on the level they reach in the game. Some of the early tasks have included nothing more than filming themselves singing a silly song, while later on as the “game” becomes darker and darker, tasks have included committing and filming acts of violence against animals, cutting themselves, and ultimately, committing suicide.

Key takeaways :
There are a number of key takeaways for parents where this app and others like it are concerned. First, whether or not all of the rumors surrounding Blue Whale are accurate, there is no question that the creator has been charged. Also, there are valid concerns of copycat behaviors based on the headlines about this app. Finally, one of the functions of the app was reportedly to root around in the player’s phone and steal incriminating photos or messages, then extort the desired behaviors out of the victim. There have been a number of widely reported and verified incidents in which young people have been victimized by this type of tactic, and the definition of “sextortion” usually involves this kind of approach. Blue Whale may be more rumor than truth, but there are genuinely hundreds of methods a predator can use to contact a young victim and lead to sextortion.

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IObit Uninstaller Saves Windows 10 Users

The rollout of Windows 10 was interesting, to say the least. While a lot of Microsoft devotees eagerly anticipated the new operating system before its launch, the reality of it left a lot of tech users reaching for their torches and pitchforks. They felt arm-twisted into accepting automatic updates and upgrades, while mourning the loss of some of even the most basic features, like good old-fashioned Solitaire.

 Uninstaller 6 helps rid your Windows machine of those additional features that slow things down or chew up space.

But here’s the problem: uninstalling built-in programs can leave your system operating at less-than-ideal functionality if you don’t know what you’re doing. That’s why IObit gives you a complete list of programs to remove before you check them off, meaning you’re less likely to delete something critical and end up ruining your operating system.

What else is new in version 6?

Besides the ability to target Microsoft Edge plug-ins and extensions for removal, this version contains a larger database of known malicious and ad-based plug-ins so you can wipe those out, too.

 The uninstaller keeps a close watch for program features that you might not want, then alerts you to their presence so you can take action

IObit Unisntaller can download here

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Google Changes How AdWords Works

Google has made the announcement that its AdWords is getting a makeover, and has been rebuilt from the ground up, in order to fully accommodate the fact that for most of us, mobile devices are the way we access the World Wide Web.

Essentially, they’ve decided to make a bunch of updates that will make its ad tools more suitable for mobile technology.

The major, or most prominent change, is to see a much greater emphasis on location related mobile searches. The new changes were announced at the Google Performance Summit in San Francisco and followed the news that of the trillions of Google searches every year, over half are now made from mobile devices.

Google has claimed that searches made from mobile devices are currently growing 50% faster than in any other area, so this new direction makes sense.

Significantly, the move will separate desktop and mobile devices in the way AdWords operates for each type of device.

Advertisers will be given the option to make mobile the primary focus of their campaigns, and also allow them to set different bids for desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.

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eSim and its Affects

What is an eSIM?
When the eSIM becomes available, it’s going to be an electronic SIM card that is not going to depend on the old method of introducing it to a device to work; it will already come built into the device. It’s a new standard from the GSMA, and the information it has is going to be rewritable or submissive by all operators.

Advantages of the eSIM
The advantages that the eSIM is going to offer users is that it is going to make things a lot easier when we want to switch carriers or data plans within our current carrier. You will also save a lot of time if you ever wish to change your carrier since it can be done with a simple phone call.

Upgrading devices is also going to be a lot easier. For example, let’s say that your current device uses micro SIM, but the device you want to get uses nano SIM. In this situation switching devices and info can be a real fuss. With eSIM all you have to do is register the new device, and you’re done!

Telco Profiles in the eSIM
The eSIM is going to hold the profiles of all of the associated companies, but only the ones you are using will be activated. Each profile will be a different company, just like every traditional SIM has its own carrier. It’s these profiles that are going to allow you to also have lines from a different carrier, just like you would in a device with two or even three SIM cards in the same device. For now, you can only have one profile activated, but the idea is to have multiple profiles running simultaneously.

The End of Roaming
You can also say goodbye to roaming because once you land in a foreign country, you can easily get a local line while still having the line you’ve always had back home.

The eSIM craze is going to have two parts. The first part is going to affect the wearables, tablets, and other devices, while the second part is going to be exclusively for the smartphones. Thanks to the eSIM, you are going to be able to connect multiple devices to a single plan with the carrier you have chosen. We still have to wait and see when the second part starts, but some say that it will start in June while others say that it will begin by the end of 2017.


Conclusion
Everything seems to indicate that the eSIM is something that is going to benefit us all, but only time will tell if there is something to fear about it. Do you think that the eSIM is something that will make things easier, or do you think it’s all part of an evil plan to keep us under control? Let us know in the comments.

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Apple Trade-in Program Will Replace Broken iPhones with New Ones

iPhones are delicate and it’s no big secret. But if you are an iPhone user, you are not alone in worrying about the safety of your device. Clearly Apple has been giving it some thought and seems to have come up with a solution. According to reports, Apple is about to launch a program that would allow customers to exchange their broken iPhones in return for credit to but a new one.

The models to be made part of this scheme include iPhone 5s, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, as of now. Older models won’t be able to get their devices exchanged. The company would offer $50 against 5s and about $200 and $250. This trade-in program includes broken screens, buttons and cameras.

The trade-in program would be rolled out in the US soon, but no news on when it would be made available in India. We can expect it here in the next couple of months though, before the end of 2016.

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