Authentication and Identity management support for access to applications and networked resources.
Multimedia production and support that includes Video Production, Streaming and Design and Illustration. Also inclusive of AV support , Conferencing support and Digital Signage.
Application support for all Administrative applications and databases. Also inclusive of Facilities and operational systems.
Delivering and supporting desktop computers, computer labs, printers and peripherals.
Support for all internet and voice services that include email, internet and network access, and telephone services.
Support for Security related services, including anti-virus software, virtual firewall, and encryption services.
Instructional technology and application support, with services that are inclusive of Learning Management systems (LMS), classroom and evaluation.
Application and server services and support, such as virtual server support, physical server hosting, and web application and site hosting.
Globe and Mail Technology - Tue, 03/17/2015 - 15:30
Globe and Mail Technology - Tue, 03/17/2015 - 15:11
National Post Tech Desk - Tue, 03/17/2015 - 13:28
Facebook Inc said it is adding a new feature to its messaging app that allows friends to send and receive money through it.
Users can tap or click a dollar icon in a new chat window to send money to their friends, after they link a Visa or MasterCard debit card issued by a U.S. bank to their accounts.
The free feature will roll out over the next few months for users in the United States who access Facebook Messenger through desktop computers or Google Inc’s Android and Apple Inc’s iOS operating systems on mobile devices.
Users can create a PIN or enable Touch ID if they have an iPhone to add a level of security to the payments.
Snapchat had launched a similar service last November, called Snapcash.
The mobile messaging company partnered with online payments company Square to allow Snapchat users to link their debit cards to their account and quickly send money to a contact by starting a chat on a smartphone.
© Thomson Reuters 2015
RelatedNational Post Tech Desk - Tue, 03/17/2015 - 10:28
White Night is a cacophony of ideas, simultaneously atypical and ambitious.
It’s a defensive, survival-horror, where your only option is to run, mixed with an exploration and lore based narrative in a single, small setting. Think Silent Hill: Shattered Memories meets Gone Home. It offers generic point-and-click puzzles, but in a striking, black-and-white polygon world — a purposeful extension of its “noir” tone. But, like the drunken amblings of a dispirited pianist, the game often hits the wrong key.
As any noir mystery worth its salt should, White Night begins with many questions. You play in third-person (depicted by cinematic camera angles) as a nameless, 1930’s man who has suffered a mysterious car accident and seeks refuge in an auspiciously eerie house.
In the front yard is a series of graves where you’re presented with the first of surprisingly few light-based puzzles. Inside the house, you’ll find a box of matches which will illuminate the darkness and reveal interactive objects for said puzzles. Without light however, you won’t be able to see your own two feet, and will be swallowed and killed by the horrors in the dark, returning you to the last time you saved in an armchair save station, akin to the phones in Alien Isolation. Also like Alien, White Night’s apparitions mean insta-death, so take your corners slowly.
It’s the concealing nature of horror and the dark — the implications more than the actualities — that White Night handles so well, yet, so seldom. Something that appears as an empty wall may reveal itself in the light to hold a series of grotesque caricatures. Splotches of black resembling blood on the floor may just be clumps of dirt.
When White Night plays with these ideas, it’s at its most engaging. The rest of the time, the puzzles can be as dull as the colour palette — it’s a narrative-driven game, but that’s no excuse for boring gameplay.
Throughout White Night, the player character narrates the story in past-continuous tense — from the future, but as though it’s in the present. The retrospection offers both puzzle and story hints, but is so poorly written that it would have been better left out. Half of the narration feels like someone tapping on your shoulder and asking “are you scared yet,” while the other half feels like a high-school English teacher telling you to interpret the narrative their way.
The narration itself is written in abstract rhetoric and contrived analogies that might have fit well in the noir tone, if they didn’t so jarringly jumped between poetic language and simple diction. Even the game’s ridiculously large catalog of collectible lore suffers from the same inconsistency and voicelessness.
Despite its flawed character writing however, White Night tells a thorough and rewarding story in a short span of time — about three hours at its shortest, and six if you take your time. The game’s final scene is a stunning conclusion that crosses every T, and features the game’s only well-written monologue. I was especially impressed with the ending, because things that I believed were initially oversights turned out to be completely intentional. Unfortunately, getting to that ending is an undeniable pain, and I wouldn’t blame anyone for giving up, because, boy, did I ever come close.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykS20fHmCck
Excluding its art, White Night is absolutely plagued with bizarre design decisions. The game is old-school in that there are different “screens” (sometimes multiple) for each area, and each is presented by a different camera angle. This works incredibly well to accentuate the art and lighting effects, but is disrupted by a gaudy HUD. It also makes the game’s many escape and sneak sequences incredibly tough to maneuver, as the camera automatically shifts between wide, worms-eye, Dutch, and other angles.
Even worse is when your matches burn out; you can only hold a maximum of 12, despite deep pockets in the character’s trenchcoat and plenty of room underneath their fedora. The matches can also occasionally “fail” to light, sometimes making a death entirely the fault of the game (and therefore frustrating), despite the fact that lighting those damn matches is virtually the only thing the character does — he’s too incompetent to even pull the cord of a light switch while holding a match, but he can still fit a fire-axe somewhere in his pants.
Also, why are there so many collectibles in the world if exploration is limited by the matches, and why present collectibles as “Boston Daily News” if they have zero semblance to a newspaper. One good thing, I guess, is that even if you die, the collectibles remain in your log, so you didn’t just waste half an hour and lose all your progress.
By the end, White Night has more in common with a noir mystery set in a haunted house than it does with a survival-horror; the ghosts make silly flailing animations as they “kill” you, when all you were trying to do was get the next part of the narrative. It’s a busy game that’s a failure in many ways, but its art direction and story perfect the eerie atmosphere of the genre, and make the experience tolerable, even when the writing and game design let it down. Like the crack of moon through a black-cloud storm, White Night is a game as fragile as the light.
Globe and Mail Technology - Tue, 03/17/2015 - 10:09
National Post Tech Desk - Tue, 03/17/2015 - 05:57
Nintendo Co. ended resistance to letting its characters play on smartphones as the maker of Mario and Zelda teams with DeNA Co. to develop new games for mobile devices made by others.
The Japanese companies also agreed to a capital alliance in which they will buy 22 billion yen (US$181 million) stakes in each other. Nintendo and DeNA will operate new membership services that include game applications based on Nintendo’s lineup of plumbers, gorillas and princesses. Nintendo’s German shares surged to their highest intraday value in almost three years.
President Satoru Iwata’s strategy of selling software only for Nintendo devices has come under pressure as a consumer shift to mobile gaming eats into demand for the Wii U console and 3DS handheld player. The company’s stock has plunged about 80% since 2007, the year Apple Inc.’s iPhone made its debut, and DeNA’s Mobage game network has lost users to smartphones.
“Nintendo and DeNA are both desperate, so it makes sense for them to join forces,” said Mitsushige Akino, Tokyo-based executive officer of Ichiyoshi Asset Management Co. “There is a chance that they can bring new users to their smartphone platform.”
The companies will develop original games optimized for smart devices rather than taking titles from the Wii U and 3DS, according to a statement. Nintendo also makes the Wii mini and portable 2DS.
Separately, Iwata said Nintendo is also working on a successor console code-named NX. He didn’t elaborate.
“There is no reason to be pessimistic about the future of gaming consoles,” Iwata said in Tokyo on Tuesday. “We believe it’s possible to generate synergies by taking advantage of the respective strengths offered by the platforms.”
Iwata has resisted turning to smartphones for years, saying the company’s games are designed for its own machines, where players can use a joystick and physical buttons to move through the virtual world. He has also argued that driving demand for software will push along hardware sales, and vice versa.
The company’s dilemma is having to distinguish its offerings on smartphones while also using iconic characters to drive demand for in-house devices. Even if successful, Nintendo may struggle to generate significant earnings in a market dominated by free-to-play titles.
Cutting Forecast
In January, Nintendo halved its operating earnings forecast for this fiscal year to 20 billion yen and lowered its sales outlook by 7% amid stalling Wii U sales. The company expects to sell 3.6 million Wii U machines this year.
Akio Kon/BloombergA statue of Nintendo Co.'s video-game character Mario stands at the Nintendo Game Front showroom in Tokyo, Japan, on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2015.“Nintendo is risking diluting its characters and accelerating defections from its own hardware platform,” said Amir Anvarzadeh, a manager of Japanese equity sales at BGC Partners Inc. in Singapore. “Shares will probably still rise in response, just because the market has waited for some kind of a smart device strategy for so long.”
Nintendo’s stock climbed 1.4% to 14,080 yen before Tuesday’s announcement. DeNA fell 0.9% as the Tokyo-based company struggles to capture a shift to smartphone applications from an earlier generation of devices that relied on its platform to play titles.
Nintendo last year added a new line of interactive figurines called Amiibo to help kick-start the Wii U. Players can use the figurines to enter a Nintendo character into a game through the console’s GamePad tablet.
“I would like to produce several hit titles promptly,” said Iwata, who has been president since 2002. “If many people know Nintendo’s characters and we make a bridge, it would be positive for both game machines and smart devices.”
The Wii U struggled to gain traction after its 2012 debut amid a shortage of new software titles, while Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp. used advanced graphics and hardware to lure serious gamers when they released new machines about a year later.
There are a total of 9.3 million units of the Wii U in the hands of gamers worldwide as of Feb. 28, according to VGChartz.com, which tracks industry sales. That compares with 20.2 million for Sony’s PlayStation 4 and 11.6 million for Microsoft’s Xbox One.
Sony is due to release its PS4 in China this week after Microsoft entered the world’s largest market in 2014 following the lifting of a national ban. Nintendo hasn’t announced plans for China, with Iwata last year saying the company is developing a console for emerging markets.
–With assistance from Grace Huang in Tokyo.
Bloomberg.com
National Post Tech Desk - Tue, 03/17/2015 - 04:55
Apple Inc’s much-hinted-at TV service may soon become a reality as the iPhone maker is in talks with programmers to offer a slimmed-down bundle of TV networks this fall, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The service would have about 25 channels, anchored by broadcasters such as ABC, CBS and Fox, and be available across all devices powered by Apple’s iOS operating system, including iPhones, iPads and Apple TV set-top boxes, the newspaper said.
Apple has been talking to Walt Disney Co, CBS Corp , and Twenty-First Century Fox Inc and other media companies to offer a “skinny” bundle with well-known channels like CBS, ESPN and FX, leaving out the many smaller networks in the standard cable TV package, the Journal said.
Apple, which is aiming to price the new service at about US$30 to US$40 a month, plans to announce the service in June and launch it in September, the newspaper said.
Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said the company does not comment on rumor and speculation. Fox and CBS declined to comment.
RelatedSeveral media companies are considering joining streaming-only services, or launching their own like HBO and CBS, to attract young people who do not subscribe to traditional pay TV packages. But programmers also fear the packages could become so popular that they undercut current, more profitable deals with cable companies.
In January, Dish Network Corp unveiled its long-anticipated video streaming service, named Sling TV, targeted at younger consumers who shun pricey cable and satellite subscriptions.
Dish’s US$20 a month service, the first from a distributor, will be available through Internet-connected devices such as Amazon Fire TV, Roku and Google Nexus Player for TVs, tablets, computers and smartphones and will include TV programming from ABC, ESPN and Maker Studios, Time Warner’s TNT, CNN, TBS, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim, and Food Network, HGTV and Travel Channel.
Others like Sony are also rolling out competing services.
Apple is not in talks with NBCUniversal, owner of the NBC broadcast network and cable channels like USA and Bravo, because of a falling-out between Apple and NBCUniversal parent company Comcast Corp, the Journal said.
Apple and Comcast were in early-stage discussions last year to offer a streaming-television service that would allow Apple set-top boxes to bypass congestion on the web.
© Thomson Reuters 2015
Globe and Mail Technology - Tue, 03/17/2015 - 04:26
Globe and Mail Technology - Tue, 03/17/2015 - 04:00
Globe and Mail Technology - Tue, 03/17/2015 - 03:31
Sophos Naked News - Tue, 03/17/2015 - 02:26
Sophos Naked News - Tue, 03/17/2015 - 02:02
Globe and Mail Technology - Mon, 03/16/2015 - 16:19
National Post Tech Desk - Mon, 03/16/2015 - 14:46
Uber Technologies Inc. said Chief Financial Officer Brent Callinicos is leaving the car-hailing startup.
Callinicos, who joined Uber in 2013 from Google Inc., had built up financial operations in more than 53 countries during his tenure, Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick wrote in an e-mail to the company Monday. The former CFO said in an e-mail that he’s leaving to spend more time with his wife and daughter.
Uber has become one of the world’s largest private transportation companies with a mobile application for ordering rides. To fuel the expansion, Kalanick has raised an enormous amount of cash totaling more than $5 billion and valuing the company at $40 billion.
Related“The Uber journey has been exciting and entrepreneurial in every dimension,” Kalanick said in the statement. “It is rewarding but is also demanding, taking significant endurance from everyone on the team.”
Callinicos will remain at Uber as an adviser during the transition, while Gautam Gupta will become interim head of finance, Uber said.
National Post Tech Desk - Mon, 03/16/2015 - 14:27
The latest entry in BlackBerry Ltd.’s luxury line of smartphones is the P’9983 Graphite, delivering a device that features what the company is calling “exclusive graphite-metallic coloured elements and the finest, hand-wrapped leather on the back door cover,” at a US$1,950 price point.
“The P’9983 Graphite from BlackBerry was built especially for those who strive for success every day. This professional tool will deliver superior productivity, ultimate security and privacy as well as effective communication and collaboration,” said Ron Louks, president of devices and emerging solutions at BlackBerry, in a statement.
BlackBerryUnfortunately BlackBerry's latest smartphone features outdated hardware.Internally BlackBerry’s new device features the same hardware as the previous P’9983 smartphone, a full QWERTY keyboard, BlackBerry 10 compatibility, and an upgraded keypad Blackberry says comes equipped with “exclusive” glass-like keys, according to a company statement about the device.
The P’9983 Graphite’s internal components are also significantly outdated. It features a 3.1-inch 720 pixel display and an aging Qualcomm 1.5 GHz Snapdragon S4 processor – all hardware that was current when the BlackBerry z10 and Q10 were released in 2013.
In comparison the BlackBerry passport utilizes the more modern Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor.
The device also comes with a premium stereo headset, international charging kit, polishing cloth and a USB cable. The smartphone features a graphite stainless steel colour frame and is set to be available from select retailers, as well as Porsche Design, starting today.
RelatedSophos Naked News - Mon, 03/16/2015 - 14:07
National Post Tech Desk - Mon, 03/16/2015 - 12:01
Amazon.com Inc. is moving into one of Toronto’s newest skyscrapers, taking enough office space for 800 employees, as Canada’s largest city lures big technology firms.
The company will occupy five floors near the top of 120 Bremner Blvd., a 31-story glass tower south of the financial core which opened last year, according to brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. Amazon in September will move to the 127,000-square-foot (11,800-square meter) space from a low-rise office in the city’s west end, where it housed software developers, engineers and programmers, according to the broker who represented Amazon.
“As tech companies mature, their needs change and they need more space, better quality air, better quality power supply,” Eamonn Murphy, an executive vice president at Jones Lang LaSalle, said in an interview on Friday in Toronto. He wouldn’t provide the terms of the lease.
The world’s largest Internet retailer joins Cisco Systems Inc., BCE Inc. and Apple Inc. in migrating to Toronto’s south core, or SoCo, district. The Bremner tower is one of at least four new office buildings opening by 2016 in the area as developers hunt for land south of the traditional financial district.
Craig Berman, a spokesman for Seattle-based Amazon, didn’t respond to e-mails seeking comment on the Toronto lease.
There are about 100 job postings for developers, engineers and salespeople for the greater Toronto area on Amazon’s website. The city houses about a third of Canada’s information-technology firms, according to the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance.
Amazon also operates on Canada’s west coast. The company last year signed a lease for as much as 156,000 square feet in downtown Vancouver, enough space for 1,000 employees, moving from a smaller location.
In the U.S., it’s becoming more difficult for technology companies to add the number of people needed to match business growth because of caps on foreign workers. Canada doesn’t have a limit for the hiring of highly skilled foreign employees.
Amazon’s new Toronto location, six floors above Apple’s offices, has access to the Path system, an underground walkway which is the largest subterranean shopping complex in the world and connects to the city’s subway.
— With assistance from Spencer Soper in San Francisco.
National Post Tech Desk - Mon, 03/16/2015 - 12:01
Apple’s upcoming revamped MacBook is set to feature a new kind of USB port, USB Type-C, requiring users to purchase an additional adapter to plug older USB 1.0/2.0/3.0 devices into their shiny new, ultra-thin laptop.
But why? Is Apple once again creating their own proprietary plug format?
Stephen Lam/Getty ImagesUSB-C could soon become the standard USB port.The answer to this question is no – this isn’t a new version of the “Lightning” port. While Apple’s new MacBook is set to be one of the first major devices featuring USB Type-C technology, it definitely won’t be the last. By the end of 2015 USB Type-C is set to gradually become the new standard when it comes to technology for a variety of reasons.
However, reports have surfaced indicating Apple played a significant role in USB Type-C’s development, along with companies such as Lenovo, Dell and HP.
The Universal Serial Bus (USB) took over the connector market in the late 90s, replacing the slew of other adapters and plug types available at the time and eventually becoming the industry’s dominant method of connecting devices.
Almost every device comes equipped with some form of a USB port, especially laptops, desktops, and even smartphones. Printers use a form of the port called USB Type-B, a square-shaped plug that’s slowly being phased out.T here’s also Mini-B USB and Micro-B USB, the two standard types of USB almost every smartphone that isn’t an Apple device utilizes (Apple products use proprietary “Lightning” plugs).
But until USB Type-C, the Universal Serial Bus has been designed with backwards compatibility in mind. This isn’t the case with USB Type-C’s new circular plug, although adapters allowing USB Type-C to be compatible with older USB Type-A 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 technology will be widely available.
RelatedBefore USB Type-C, plugging a USB 2.0 hard drive into a USB. 3.0 port wouldn’t matter – the device would only be able to use USB 2.0 speeds to communicate, but still work. In general USB 1.0, 2.0 and USB 3.0 devices are interchangeable, with only the speed of data transfer being affected depending on what version of the technology is being used.
The lack of out-of-the-box backwards compatibility with USB Type-C is partially because the company behind the technology is hoping USB Type-C will become the standard plug used in all devices: Smartphones, laptops, televisions and almost any device with ports in it.
Stephen Lam/Getty ImagesApple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller introduces the new Macbook.This is because USB Type-C combines the small size of Micro-USB (the kind of plug used on most smartphones) with the technology powering USB Type-A 3.0 – although USB Type-C 3.0 improves the technology’s speed considerably –increasing USB 3.0’s connection’s speed from 5 GB/s to 10 GB/s, a speed rivaling Apple’s Thunderbolt technology.
Stephen Lam/Getty ImagesUSB Type-C connects are circular.USB Type-C is also fully reversible, allowing users to plug-in a connector in either direction since the plug is identical on both sides. The technology’s new wattage (5000mA) will also allow devices to charge more quickly.
It may take a few years and devices will experience significant growing pains – most laptops and computers releasing over the next few years will feature both USB Type-C and USB Type-A ports – but if USB Type-C becomes widely adopted, it will help simplify the confusing world of USB connectors.
Rather than being forced to use a dozen cables to connect different devices, all taking advantage of different forms of USB technology, the plug you use to charge your smartphone will also be compatible with your laptop and desktop computer, if USB Type-C becomes the standard.
Sophos Naked News - Mon, 03/16/2015 - 11:01
National Post Tech Desk - Mon, 03/16/2015 - 10:26
Marc Shewchun’s aim in life was to land that slick corner office in a downtown Toronto skyscraper. Today he works in a red-brick walk-up with quirky plumbing and worn wooden floors.
The multicoloured walls of Wattpad Technology Inc., where the 42-year-old works as head of operations for the story-sharing website, are covered in scribbles and sticky notes from impromptu meetings. A neon orange hammock is tucked into a corner and beanbag chairs dot the loft where employees tap away on laptops on a weekday evening.
Wattpad’s digs, which housed a cigar and whiskey shop in the 1800s, are just the kind of “authentic” workplace hundreds of tech and media startups spend months hunting for. Driving the trend are millennials demanding downtown spaces that look more like upscale fraternity houses than the soul-destroying cubicle farms where their parents work.
“It’s about the startup world not being a part of the corporate world,” said Shewchun, sitting behind a reclaimed wood table in the office pantry, which provides gluten-free snacks, fair-trade coffee, and a popcorn maker. “The space encourages openness and a lack of hierarchy. You can make it into whatever you want. It’s much more important than properly working plumbing and even floors.”
Kevin Van Paassen/BloombergThe exterior of Wattpad's office in Toronto.Historic Space
Rents for brick-and-beam real estate in the city’s east end, where Wattpad is based, rose 26% to C$20.62 a square foot from 2007 and were up 49% in the west end, according to data compiled by CBRE Group Inc. The cost to lease space in the best quality towers in the financial core rose 6.4% to $32.21 over the same period, the brokerage said.
Availability of historic office space is also at a record low in some neighbourhoods, according to CBRE. Vacancy in the downtown west end dropped to 2.4% in December from 6.5% in 2007. That compares with a vacancy rate of 4.9% in December for offices in the financial core, which is approaching a decade high amid a wave of new supply.
“The type of companies located in those markets are more trendy and don’t necessarily want to be in a sterile office building,” Masha Dudelzak, Toronto-area research manager for the brokerage, said by phone. “They have young employees so that’s a big draw.”
Kevin Van Paassen/BloombergDistillery District
The technology industry is leading office demand in the city, with 17% of available space at the end of last year snapped up by software and Internet companies, the highest allocation to any single sector, according to brokerage Colliers International.
The supply crunch for older buildings is similar to the trend in major U.S. technology hubs. Before firms including Foursquare Labs Inc. moved there, the South of Market district in San Francisco was an industrial seaport of warehouses and seedy housing. Boston’s Seaport neighbourhood, where dozens of startups are now scattered along the waterfront, was a raw material shipping area in the early 20th century.
In Toronto, the in-demand buildings are just east and west of Bay Street, the financial core where the gleaming towers of the five largest banks stand. Wattpad, which is among firms that drew US$1 billion in venture-capital funding in 2013, occupies three floors close to the cobblestone streets of the Distillery District. Ottawa-based Shopify Inc. is among tech firms that took up residence in the Fashion District in the city’s west end.
RelatedCollege Dorm
“It’s a reflection of the changing demographics of the workforce,” said Satish Kanwar, product director at Shopify, an shopping software developer. “There’s an apprehension to be in a place that looks purely like it’s oriented towards work. Everyone can remember their first creaky college dorm or apartment and can still associate such great memories with experiences there.”
Shopify’s space has its own bar with beer on tap, a wall of organic snacks, a game room with couch and video game system and the building’s original warehouse doors. The company currently rents 36,000 square feet, is adding a rooftop this summer and is looking to acquire more space in the building as it seeks to eventually house more than 250 employees. Walls are lined with neon signs and decals of cats, the Internet’s most beloved celebrities.
“There’s not a lot of pretending going on here,” Kanwar said. “It’s real, authentic.”
Kevin Van Paassen/BloombergGraffiti on a wall at Wattpad's office in Toronto.Commoditized Cubicles
Since there’s a limited quantity of the properties available, developers are building new space on top of brick- and-beam. Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust, the largest owner of historic office space in the city, is adding about a dozen floor-to-ceiling glass stories on top of a brick building near Queen Street West, which Vogue Magazine crowned the second-coolest neighbourhood in the world, after Tokyo’s Shimokitazawa district. The site, at 350,000 square feet, is opening later this year.
Allied bought a heritage building last year at one of Toronto’s busiest corners. The space, which was built as a hotel in 1875, will reopen as retail and office this year. About 30% of the firm’s tenants across Canada are technology companies.
“The millennial generation has really elected en masse to live downtown and to work downtown,” said Michael Emory, chief executive officer of the Toronto-based REIT. “A lot of people would prefer not to be sitting in some commoditized cubicle in some commoditized building that rises to 80 stories.”
