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Infographic: Talkwaker Black Friday And Cyber Monday

Posted in Commentary on December 5, 2019 by itnerd

1248-Infographic-Black-Friday-&-Cyber-Monday-03.jpg

Source: Talkwalker

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One Week To Go in IronCAP’s Hackathon

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 5, 2019 by itnerd
01 Communique Laboratory Inc.’s $100,000 world-wide challenge to hackers has 1 week remaining! Over 250 hackers are testing IronCAP’s quantum-safe encryption in hope of being the first quantum hacker. As of December 5th, no hacker has cracked the code.

The hackathon once completed will prove to the world that the IronCAP encryption is not only innovative and disruptive, but most important impenetrable! Contestants can still sign up online at www.ironcap.ca before the contest closes on December 12, 2019.

Quantum computers are here and becoming more available every day. Amazon recently announced a new quantum computing service for select customers. All businesses and governments need protection from the quantum threat. IronCAP is the first to market encryption developed specifically to protect from the massive threat posed by hackers using Quantum computing power.

It has taken 01 Communique many years to develop the IronCAP encryption technology which the company has filed for a patent. It is the most secure, commercially available Goppa code-based encryption available today. For more information and advice, visit ironcap.ca or contact the Company at sales@ironcap.ca.

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TekSavvy TV Launches Cloud PVR & Advanced Features

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 5, 2019 by itnerd

TekSavvy Solutions and its affiliate cable company Hastings Cable Vision Ltd., today announced the launch of its Cloud PVR service and other advanced features. TekSavvy TV Cloud PVR works very much like a traditional Personal Video Recorder (PVR) that Canadians have been using for years, only now the customer can store their recorded content securely and privately in the TekSavvy TV Cloud. TekSavvy TV Cloud PVR subscribers can watch, pause and rewind their favourite recorded show whenever they want, across all of their authorized devices.

The TekSavvy TV Cloud PVR starts at $10.00 per month for 50 hours of recording time. Customers who want a bit more recording space can order 100 hours of recording time for $15.00 per month. Customers can add the service to their accounts by visiting teksavvy.com/myaccount.

TekSavvy today also announced two new advanced viewing features for TekSavvy TV customers: Look-Back and Restart. Customers who miss the beginning of their favourite shows or must-watch games can now catch all the action no matter when they tune in with Restart. Look-Back allows customers to go back up to 30 hours in the electronic programming guide and select shows that have previously aired and watch them in their entirety. Look-Back and Restart are available on selected content and channels to which the customer subscribes. Both Look-Back and Restart are available to customers at no additional charge.

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Citrix Deepens Ties to Amazon Web Services

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 4, 2019 by itnerd

Hybrid environments are the reality of computing today. And Citrix Systems is making it easier than ever to manage them. The company today announced that it is deepening its relationship with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide businesses with greater flexibility and choice in deploying Citrix® ADC in hybrid environments and a convenient and easy way to deliver a secure, reliable experience that engages users and allows them to perform at their best. The news came during AWS re:Invent 2019, which is taking place in Las Vegas this week.

A Consistent Experience

The move to the cloud is on. But not everything can go there. From regulatory and compliance requirements to latency issues and local processing needs, some apps need to stay on premises. As a newly validated AWS Outposts solution, Citrix ADC can be used to bring native AWS services, infrastructure, and operating models to on-premises facilities in a simple, cost-effective way and deliver a consistent hybrid experience.

Greater Flexibility and Choice

Companies want the flexibility to control the routing path of their traffic and ability to direct traffic through virtual appliances of their choice. But it hasn’t been easy to achieve. Until now. Leveraging new Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) ingress routing features, companies can redirect traffic flowing in and out of a VPC through Citrix ADC to ensure highly available and reliable performance. Amazon VPC Ingress Routing is a service that helps customers simplify the integration of network and security appliances within their network topology.

Simplified Deployment

Migrating apps to the cloud has never been easier. Created in collaboration with AWS, the AWS Quick Start for Citrix ADC empowers companies to speed and automate configuration and greatly reduce the time, costs and skill level involved.

A Comprehensive Approach

Citrix offers a comprehensive range of solutions that are proven to scale and integrate in the AWS environment and ensure the security, reliability and high performance that application delivery and management today demands. And it continues to extend and expand these offerings.

Reliable and Secure Enterprise Connectivity

Citrix also announced today that Citrix SD-WAN now supports AWS Transit Gateway to simplify how Amazon VPCs and on-premises networks are connected to reduce operational costs. Using the Citrix SD- WAN orchestration service, customers can quickly connect their branches and data centers to the AWS Transit Gateway and access resources across any Amazon VPC or other connected network.

These new capabilities make it easy for businesses to:

  • Deliver an optimal application experience for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops as well as other cloud and SaaS applications on AWS.
  • Quickly set up secure, high-availability connections to AWS resources.
  • Scale their networks across hybrid cloud environments and geographically distributed regions.

To learn more about Citrix networking and digital workspace solutions and the value they can deliver at re:Invent, visit booth 3807.

 

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TELUS Health Becomes Largest Canadian-Owned PERS Provider

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 4, 2019 by itnerd

TELUS Health today announced plans for the national expansion of its LivingWell Companion personal emergency response service (PERS) to support more aging Canadians across the country. Through the acquisition of DirectAlert, a Quebec-based, bilingual PERS company with more than 15 years of experience providing emergency response across Canada, TELUS is now the largest Canadian-owned PERS provider, proudly giving freedom to Canadians who want to live independently at home for longer; while offering peace of mind to their family and loved ones with the assurance of safety and security.

DirectAlert will continue providing service under the new DirectAlert by TELUS Health brand into early 2020, ensuring a smooth transition for current customers so they can continue benefiting from the same consistent, uninterrupted local emergency response experience they’re used to. By early next year, all TELUS PERS customers will be backed by the LivingWell Companion brand nationally and will be supported by increased service capabilities including multi-lingual support and proactive alerting to empower aging Canadians to take control of their own health and live happier and healthier lives.

The TELUS LivingWell Companion Home service, with an optional fall detection feature, provides instant access to emergency assistance 24 hours a day, seven days a week and allows users to speak live with a trained operator in the event of an emergency who can assess the situation and contact loved ones and/or alert emergency personnel to dispatch help right away. Active seniors using the LivingWell Companion Go service have the ability to access emergency support on the go with built-in GPS location tracking and automatic fall detection. Users are protected both indoors and outdoors anywhere in Canada where there’s cellular coverage.

To simplify the adoption of wearable health technology for aging Canadians, the TELUS LivingWell Companion service has no upfront equipment costs, no contract, and no installation fees. The service has a 30-day return policy, and is available starting from just $25 per month.

By the Numbers

  • Research conducted by HomeStar and the Canadian Association for Retired Persons (CARP) in 2017 reported that 85 per cent of seniors want to age in their homes.
  • Statistics Canada has reported that falls are the most common cause of injury among older Canadians; about 1 in 3 seniors aged 65 and older fall at least once every year. 
  • Studies have shown a high correlation between cold weather and an increase in falls among older adults; increasing significantly after age 65, and dramatically for seniors 75.
  • According to CIHI, from 2017-2018, 4 out of 5 (81 per cent) injury hospitalizations involving seniors were because of a fall;
    • Falls are also the top reason for injury among seniors seen in the emergency room (ER). Falls accounted for 60 per cent of all reported ER visits among seniors, with an estimated 20 per cent admitted to the hospital.
    • Most of the falls that prompted the reported ER visits occurred at home (28 per cent) while 14 per cent took place in residential institutions such as long-term care facilities.

To learn more about the suite of TELUS LivingWell Companion services please visit: telus.com/livingwell. For more information on DirectAlert by TELUS Health please visit: DirectAlert.ca/telus.

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Apple Needs To Lose The #KeyboardGate So That They Can Learn A Valuable Lesson

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 4, 2019 by itnerd

On Monday it was revealed that Apple would have to face a class action lawsuit in regards to that problematic butterfly keyboard which eventually became known as #KeyboardGate. And if you ask me, Apple needs to lose this lawsuit to teach them a lesson. Why do I say that? Before I describe why I feel that way, a quick history lesson.

The only reason that the butterfly keyboard even existed is that Apple wanted to create a keyboard that was thinner and sleeker than its competitors. Which in turn would allow them to create thinner and sleeker laptops. So they ditched the tried, true, and more importantly reliable scissor switch keyboards with the butterfly keyboard. It first appeared on the entry level MacBook and it was problematic then. It then spread to the entire MacBook and MacBook Pro lineup and the complaints really started to roll in en mass.

Now Apple didn’t help themselves on several fronts from that point forward. First they didn’t help themselves by saying that the problems with these keyboards were not widespread, when in fact it was common knowledge that these keyboards were problematic. And they redesigned these keyboards a number of times to try and address these problems that they claimed weren’t widespread. But that didn’t work. So Apple then created a repair program which covered users who had keyboard issues beyond the normal warranty period. The idea being that they would have your back in case your keyboard had an issue. That would have been a good thing if the keyboards that they were using as replacements weren’t just as problematic as the defective ones. I for example know people who had as many as four keyboards replaced. And it didn’t help from an optics perspective that brand new models that Apple announced got covered by this repair program from day one.

That’s hardly a ringing endorsement in terms of the quality of their products.

They only way Apple truly could put an end to this was to bring back the tried, true, and more importantly reliable scissor switch keyboard in the 16″ MacBook Pro. And you can fully expect a version of that keyboard to appear in every MacBook or MacBook Pro that Apple releases going forward.

But the damage is done and here were are talking about it.

The thing is that this class action lawsuit is about Apple’s failure to provide a remedy to this problem. And based on the above, they haven’t. Sure they tried to redesign the keyboards a bunch of times, and sure they have a repair program to try and address #KeyboardGate issues. But neither of those actions actually fixes the issue. Which is the keyboards are flawed. So that combined with their absolutely shambolic response to this issue is why Apple deserves to lose this lawsuit. Apple has to learn how to deal with problems outside the “reality distortion field” which means that instead of dismissing issues by saying that issues aren’t widespread, or they just affect a few people, they need to own up to them at the earliest opportunity. And then they come up with a fix for those issues in a way that they stay fixed. If they can’t figure out how to execute those things on their own, the then legal system will  have to “encourage” them to do the right thing. Which is to provide a remedy for #KeyboardGate that is actually a remedy.

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Gryphon Online Safety Releases The Lowest Cost Mesh WiFi Security Router

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 3, 2019 by itnerd

Gryphon Online Safety, Inc. today announced the commercial launch of its new product the Gryphon Guardian, the lowest known entry cost in the market at $119 for an all-in-one mesh WiFi security router and parental control system, making online security and digital parenting accessible to all. Gryphon Guardian is mesh compatible with the original Gryphon. The company is offering an early bird 30% off special through December 31, 2019 direct from Gryphon Online Safety: https://gryphonconnect.com/gryphon-guardian/

Gryphon Online Safety wants to help families protect all of their homes’ devices from hacker intrusions, malware threats, to prevent kids from being exposed to inappropriate content, and to equip parents with tools to promote healthy screen time for their children. The company’s purpose is to help each person reach their full potential by creating an online environment that is safe, reliable, and enjoyable.

Gryphon Guardian weighs 6.5 ounces and can fit in the palm of your hand at 4″ x 4″ x 1.5″.  It is a smaller, more affordable version of the original Gryphon with all of its features. Its estimated Internet coverage reaches over 1800 square feet, using advanced gigabit WiFi AC1200 dual band (2.4Ghz and 5Ghz) technology with 2×2 MU-MIMO. Gryphon Guardian comes with WPA3 security and six months of Gryphon’s Advanced Internet protection. The product also allows consumers who own the original Gryphon to expand their Gryphon WiFi network with daisy chain mesh support. The original Gryphon is not required to operate the Gryphon Guardian or vice versa.

Gryphon is co-founded by John Wu, a key inventor of MiFi intelligent mobile hotspot, and Arup Bhattacharya who led the MiFi software team and was also head of engineering at PortalPlayer (sold to NVIDIA) where they developed the media chips that powered the iconic Apple iPods. As parents, they were fed up with the traditional parental controls available, and sought out to build the best possible parental control system. It turned out that the best place to control the internet is the one box in the home where the Internet is distributed—the WiFi router.

Gryphon Online Safety develops the only online safety system on the market that provides: parental control; malware and ransomware filtering for all internet-connected home devices; intrusion security for all IoT devices; and fast internet via an all-in-one mesh WiFi router. Gryphon’s intelligent WiFi security and parental control internet platform includes service add-ons:

  • Gryphon HomeBound™ – mobile service/utility app that allows up to five smartphones to be virtually protected and managed on the Gryphon network even if switched to cellular data or using a different WiFi network in or outside the home; and
  • Advanced InternetProtection, including patent-pending AI Intrusion Detection System and malware filtering powered by ESET Technology.

For more information on Gryphon, visit: https://gryphonconnect.com

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