Peruvians start applying for biometric passports this week

Peru’s Interior Minister Jose Luis Perez Guadalupe announced this week that citizens are now able to initiate the required procedures to obtain the new biometric passport. 

Peru’s Migrations Agency will issue 250 documents per day to start and expects to increase that to 40,000 units per month until they have delivered 1.2 million passports.

“We don’t have to face long queues,” said Guadalupe. “Citizens can register online and set the date and hour, when they will go apply for it.”

It costs about $28.10 USD to apply.

Over the next three years, Peru’s National Superintendent of Migrations will issue 1.2 million and the Foreign Affairs Ministry will issue 400,000 of the electronic documents, including 20,000 diplomatic passports.

Encap Security broadens fingerprint support

Financial institution authentication firm Encap Security has announced a new version of its platform that includes support for Android’s fingerprint API. 

In a statement, Encap said version 3.1 of its Smarter Authentication platform builds on Encap’s support for Apple’s Touch ID and Samsung’s fingerprint sensor.

It noted that with support for Android’s fingerprint API, all devices using this system can be used by financial institutions to provide fingerprint access to their services. The API is part of Android’s Marshmallow update, and is used by Google’s Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P devices, with more to follow.

 “We are dedicated to creating a platform that allows banks the freedom to add authentication methods as they become available - and offer that choice to their customers,” said Thomas Bostrøm Jørgensen, CEO, Encap Security. “Smarter Authentication 3.1 builds on our previous work by future-proofing our fingerprint options and making the app even safer to use – even if the device itself is compromised.”

Windows 10 Upgrade Options for Vista Users

Q. My somewhat ancient Hewlett-Packard laptop is running Windows Vista, and I never see Vista mentioned in articles about upgrading operating systems. Can it be upgraded to Windows 10?

A. Windows Vista is not mentioned in most articles about updating a computer to Windows 10 because Vista is not included in Microsoft’s free upgrade offer for the new operating system. The free Windows 10 upgrade is available only to Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users until July 29. If you are interested in moving from Windows Vista to Windows 10, you can get there by doing a time-consuming clean installation after buying the new operating system software, or by purchasing a new PC.

To go the less expensive route, first make sure your computer meets the Windows 10 system requirements, which are listed on Microsoft’s website. At the very least, the PC must have a one-gigahertz processor and one gigabyte of memory for the 32-bit version of the system (or two gigabytes for the 64-bit edition). The computer also needs 16 to 20 gigabytes of hard-drive space and a DirectX 9-compatible graphics card running the WDDM 1.0 driver software.

If your hardware meets the requirements and you want to proceed, you also have to buy a copy of Windows 10, which costs $120 for the home version. (Some experienced users have wrestled Windows Insider Preview versions onto older computers, but this is not for the technically faint of heart.) Before you install Windows 10 on the old PC, back up your files to an external drive so that you can copy them back to the computer after the upgrade. You will also need to reinstall all your programs that are compatible with Windows 10.

The upgrade process from Windows Vista takes time and money, and if the computer is old and comparatively slow, you may not find it worth the effort. Buying a new PC with up-to-date hardware specifications and Windows 10 already installed (and then using a data-transfer program to move your files to the new computer) obviously costs more, but it provides many more years of Microsoft support and system updates.

You could also just keep using your current system if you are happy with it. However, keep in mind that Windows Vista, which was released in 2006, is approaching the end of its planned life cycle next year. Microsoft’s extended support for the system ends on April 11, 2017.

How to play YouTube audio in background on your iPhone

Play YouTube audio in background on iPhone: Simple trick allows for listening to music after shutting down app,Some earbuds and the official YouTube app are all that you need

Perhaps the most irritating thing about YouTube videos is that there’s no way to listen to them on your phone, rather than just watch. Until now.

Using the YouTube app, iPhone or iPad users can keep listening to music while they get on with something else. And all that’s needed is some headphones with a controller.

To force YouTube audio to keep playing in the background, open up the relevant video and start it playing. Then press the home button so that the app closes, at which point the audio will stop.

But if you then press the play button on your earbuds, the sound will start playing again. You’ll be able to navigate the phone or lock it, and the songs will keep playing as normal.

The video will only play to the end, and it will stop as soon as you unplug your earphones. But the trick works as a simply way of using YouTube as an alternative to Spotify or Soundcloud, free and with access to plenty of songs that aren’t on normal streaming services.

Apple 'working on an iPhone even its engineers can’t hack

Amid a very public battle with the FBI over demands that it open a phone belonging to one of the San Bernadino attackers, a report has said that Apple is already developing  new security measures that would make it impossible for the government to break into a locked iPhone.

The report in the New York Times said that engineers were already attempting to update the security of its phones and that it they are successful the company would create a significant technical challenge for law enforcement agencies, even if the Obama administration wins its fight over access to data stored on an iPhone. The FBI would then have to find another way to defeat Apple security, setting up a new cycle of court fights and, yet again, more technical fixes by Apple.

“We are in for an arms race unless and until Congress decides to clarify who has what obligations in situations like this,” Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told the newspaper.

Companies have always searched for software bugs and patched holes to keep their code secure from hackers. But since the revelations of government surveillance made by Edward Snowden, companies have been retooling their products to protect against intrusion, the newspaper said.

The revelation that Apple’s efforts would make it impossible for the government to break into a locked iPhone using methods similar to those now at the centre of a court fight in California, come as the two sides have engaged in a public relations battle over the issue.

The FBI is seeking the tech company's help to access shooter Syed Rizwan Farook's phone by disabling some of its passcode protections. The company so far has pushed back, arguing that such a move would set a dangerous precedent and threaten customer security.

Reuters said the clash between Apple and the Justice Department had driven straight to the heart of a long-running debate over how much law enforcement and intelligence officials should be able to monitor digital communications.

The Justice Department won an recent order in a California federal court. The director of the FBI also weighed in with a public appeal, saying the nation owed the victims “a thorough and professional investigation under law.”

“We simply want the chance, with a search warrant, to try to guess the terrorist’s passcode without the phone essentially self-destructing and without it taking a decade to guess correctly,” wrote FBI Director James Comey. 

“That’s it. We don’t want to break anyone’s encryption or set a master key loose on the land.”

Apple said the request would set a dangerous legal precedent and expand government surveillance powers.

“Law enforcement agents around the country have already said they have hundreds of iPhones they want Apple to unlock if the FBI wins this case,” it said in a statement.

“In the physical world, it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks.”

Wi-Fi achieved at 10,000 times lower power

The upside of Wi-Fi is that it's everywhere -- invisibly connecting laptops to printers, allowing smartphones to make calls or stream movies without cell service, and letting online gamers battle it out.

The downside is that using Wi-Fi consumes a significant amount of energy, draining the batteries on all those connected devices.

Now, a team of University of Washington computer scientists and electrical engineers has demonstrated that it's possible to generate Wi-Fi transmissions using 10,000 times less power than conventional methods.

The new Passive Wi-Fi system also consumes 1,000 times less power than existing energy-efficient wireless communication platforms, such as Bluetooth Low Energy and Zigbee. A paper describing those results will be presented in March at the 13th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation.

The technology has also been named one of the 10 breakthrough technologies of 2016 by MIT Technology Review.

"We wanted to see if we could achieve Wi-Fi transmissions using almost no power at all," said co-author Shyam Gollakota, a UW assistant professor of computer science and engineering. "That's basically what Passive Wi-Fi delivers. We can get Wi-Fi for 10,000 times less power than the best thing that's out there."

Passive Wi-Fi can for the first time transmit Wi-Fi signals at bit rates of up to 11 megabits per second that can be decoded on any of the billions of devices with Wi-Fi connectivity. These speeds are lower than the maximum Wi-Fi speeds but 11 times higher than Bluetooth.

Aside from saving battery life on today's devices, wireless communication that uses almost no power will help enable an "Internet of Things" reality where household devices and wearable sensors can communicate using Wi-Fi without worrying about power.

To achieve such low-power Wi-Fi transmissions, the team essentially decoupled the digital and analog operations involved in radio transmissions. In the last 20 years, the digital side of that equation has become extremely energy efficient, but the analog components still consume a lot of power.

The Passive Wi-Fi architecture assigns the analog, power-intensive functions -- like producing a signal at a specific frequency -- to a single device in the network that is plugged into the wall.

An array of sensors produces Wi-Fi packets of information using very little power by simply reflecting and absorbing that signal using a digital switch. In real-world conditions on the UW campus, the team found the passive Wi-Fi sensors and a smartphone can communicate even at distances of 100 feet between them.

"All the networking, heavy-lifting and power-consuming pieces are done by the one plugged-in device," said co-author Vamsi Talla, an electrical engineering doctoral student. "The passive devices are only reflecting to generate the Wi-Fi packets, which is a really energy-efficient way to communicate."

Because the sensors are creating actual Wi-Fi packets, they can communicate with any Wi-Fi enabled device right out of the box.

"Our sensors can talk to any router, smartphone, tablet or other electronic device with a Wi-Fi chipset," said co-author and electrical engineering doctoral student Bryce Kellogg. "The cool thing is that all these devices can decode the Wi-Fi packets we created using reflections so you don't need specialized equipment."

The technology could enable entirely new types of communication that haven't been possible because energy demands have outstripped available power supplies. It could also simplify our data-intensive worlds.

For instance, smart home applications that use sensors to track everything from which doors are open to whether kids have gotten home from school have typically used their own communication platforms because Wi-Fi is so power-hungry.

"Even though so many homes already have Wi-Fi, it hasn't been the best choice for that," said co-author Joshua Smith, UW associate professor of computer science and engineering and of electrical engineering. "Now that we can achieve Wi-Fi for tens of microwatts of power and can do much better than both Bluetooth and ZigBee, you could now imagine using Wi-Fi for everything."

Google's Project Shield defends small websites from DDoS bombardment

News and human rights sites get free protection

Google's Project Shield is aiming to protect news reporting and free expression on the web, and has opened itself up to applications for free protection from DDoS attacks.

DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks, as you're likely aware, involve the flooding of the victim with huge amounts of traffic from many sources that overwhelms and takes the site down.

They can often be used as a crude form of censorship by those with an axe to grind against a particular website's viewpoint, which is why Google is making Project Shield available to protect news sites and human rights sites (along with election monitoring websites).

At the moment, these are the only websites which can apply for DDoS protection. The idea is to provide a viable option for small sites that can't hope to defend themselves against a larger-scale attack, and Google's system reroutes the malicious traffic through its own infrastructure to absorb it.

Simple setup
If you want to apply, there's an online form to fill in here which asks for the details of your site, and poses a few other questions about security and whether you've been hit by DDoS in the past. Note that you'll need to set up a Google account if you don't already have one.

If your application gets the green light from Google, you'll receive an email with all the details needed to configure Project Shield. It shouldn't take a webmaster any longer than 10 minutes to set everything up, so Google says.

If you run a site such as one of these and have been harassed by online troublemakers in the past, you've not really got anything to lose here.

Your only concern may be the data you're giving Google access to, as Project Shield collects "traffic metadata and cached content for website traffic", but the company asserts that any data is used to improve the performance of the anti-DDoS system and is not used to hone search or target advertising.

How can I play DVDs in Windows 10?

What do I need to do to watch a DVD in Windows 10? It was disabled when I upgraded from Windows 7

Microsoft has usually avoided providing software to play DVDs, because it has to pay a licensing fee to include it in the operating system. PC manufacturers normally add it to the PCs that ship with a DVD or Blu-ray drive, often including Cyberlink, Roxio or similar third-party software.

Microsoft did include a codec (video decoding software) to play DVDs in Vista Home Premium and Windows 7, but dropped it when increasing numbers of Windows laptops (not to mention tablets) shipped without DVD drives. It would have been silly to make everyone pay for it when fewer and fewer people needed it.

Also, Microsoft probably recognised that there was even less point in paying for a DVD player when users either had one already (eg Cyberlink) or could easily download a free one.

Point of confusion
Many versions of Windows included two separate video utilities: Windows Media Player and Windows Media Centre. Unfortunately, most web commenters seemed unable to distinguish between the two. Thus, when Microsoft announced that it was dropping Windows Media Centre from Windows 10, there was mass outrage from people who thought it was dropping Windows Media Player. It wasn’t. But it did remove WMP’s built-in DVD codec.

Briefly, Windows Media Player is a media player that can rip and burn audio CDs, and sync with portable devices. It first appeared in Windows 3 in 1990. Windows Media Centre was media player and digital video recorder with TiVo-like DVR functionality. It also let you watch and pause live TV, and it could play Netflix movies.

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Windows Media Centre was originally developed for Windows XP Media Centre Edition in 2001, and appeared on boxes that could sit under TV sets. It was therefore designed for a 10-foot TV experience rather than a 3-foot PC experience.

Microsoft filled the DVD hole in Windows 10 with the Windows DVD Player app, which you can download from the Windows Store. I don’t recommend this because it’s not particularly good, it only plays optical discs, and it costs £11.59 or $14.99. However, Microsoft made the app available free to people who had had Windows Media Centre uninstalled by Windows 10.

So, if you had a copy of Windows 7 (except the Home Basic and Starter versions) or Windows 8/8.1 Pro with Media Centre, then Windows 10 should have installed the DVD Player app automatically. However, if you did a clean installation of Windows 10, instead of the in-place upgrade, then you lost out, because your copy of Windows Media Centre was not detected and replaced. See the FAQ for more details.

You don’t mention how you did your upgrade, but check Windows 10 to see if you have the Windows DVD Player app installed. If not, go to the Windows Store and see if you are offered a free download.

Alternative players
The simplest way to restore DVD functionality to Windows 10 is to download a free, open source media player that includes the required MPEG-2 codec. The most popular options are the VLC Media Player and Media Player Classic. Both come with multiple codecs to handle all sorts of weird and wonderful video formats.

Which to Choose:
VLC Media Player is a cross-platform system, and it runs on Android, BeOS, BSD Unix, Apple iOS, Linux, Mac OS X, IBM OS/2, QNX, Solaris, Syllable, and Windows. There are two versions for Windows. You need the traditional desktop program, not the app version, ie VLC for Windows Store.

Techie interlude: traditional Windows programs are written to the Win32 applications programming interface (API), and can do dangerous things to your PC. Modern Windows apps are written to a new Windows Runtime API, which means they run in secure sandboxes and can easily be installed and cleanly uninstalled – much like iPhone/iPad and Android apps. It’s safer to use an app if it does all you want, and one is available.

traditional Windows programs are written to the Win32 applications programming interface (API), and can do dangerous things to your PC. Modern Windows apps are written to a new Windows Runtime API, which means they run in secure sandboxes and can easily be installed and cleanly uninstalled – much like iPhone/iPad and Android apps. It’s safer to use an app if it does all you want, and one is available.

Media Player Classic is a Windows-only program modelled after the old but loved Microsoft Windows Media Player 6.4. The latest version is called Media Player Classic - Home Cinema, aka MPC-HC. However, it’s best to install it as part of the K-Lite Codec Pack. Go for the Mega version, because this includes the largest number of codecs, including a LAME MP3 encoder. Also, unlike VLC, all the codecs are available to all the applications you have installed.

There’s no reason why you can’t install both players.

Replacing Windows Media Centre
If you were genuinely outraged to lose the old Windows Media Centre, there are lots of options (see the second table). As I’ve mentioned previously, Media Portal is one of the closest alternatives, and one of the slickest. It plays DVD and Blu-ray discs, and it lets you listen to the radio and watch and record live TV. You can also control it from an Android or Apple smartphone.

I’ve also recommended XBMC, which is available for Windows, Mac OS X, Apple TV, Linux, the Raspberry Pi and other devices. It first appeared as the XBox Media Centre but has now been renamed Kodi. However, it’s important to download Kodi only from the official website, and to avoid (or report) any unofficial “Kodi boxes”. (See The Piracy Box Sellers and YouTube Promoters Are Killing Kodi.)

Media Portal, Kodi and VLC are free, open source programs, but all three ask for donations. VLC suggests €4 or $5, but £/€/$20 would be more appropriate for Media Portal or Kodi. More is better, but something is better than nothing.

Lenovo Ideapad Y700 review

Gaming laptops are a great introduction to the glorious world of PC gaming. They come pre-built, with factory options, in a portable form-factor. And as time marches on, capable gaming laptops have become less expensive and more powerful. The Lenovo Ideapad Y700 is a good place to start on the path of portable PC gaming, with strong battery life and performance and it won't break the bank either.

While this 15-inch entry-level gaming rig won't run games on their highest settings, the Y700 isn't a slacker when it comes to performance. In fact, for the price, it does well, and it looks nice to boot. In fact it looks the part of a higher-end gaming laptop, especially against the low-risk aesthetics of the HP Pavilion Gaming Notebook or the Dell Inspiron 15 7000.

Where this $1,149 (£1,099, AU$2,999) machine really stands out against its peers is in performance. The Y700 has an Intel Core i7-6700HQ Processor, putting it in front of the Inspiron and on par with the Pavilion. The 16GB of RAM also puts it in the lead compared to the other machines, and the Nvidia GeForce 960M with 4GB VRAM is the same as found inside the Inspiron.

Design
The Y700 looks ready for battle. It has all the hallmarks of a modern gaming laptop: angular exhaust ports reminiscent of a stealth fighter, jet black aluminum casing with red highlights and an aggressive outline. Designed with comfort in mind, the chiclet-style, backlit keyboard and the wrist rests are covered in a hard rubber that's soft and isn't cold when you first put your hands on it to begin typing.

Above the keyboard is a fancy red and black honeycomb accents to again go with the fighter-jet/supercar look modern gaming laptops mostly adhere to. The bezel around the screen is substantial, but it probably has to do with the fact it's a touchscreen. At least the black frame is seamless with the rest of the screen, so it doesn't look chunky or out of place, but the gap between the actual screen and the edge is sizeable.

While the overall design is attractive and feels sturdy, I found it to be oddly balanced. Using the machine sitting on my lap, it felt like I was always one shift in my chair away from sending the laptop toppling backward.

The notebook's center of gravity falls near the hinge, which I never noticed when I use the laptop on a desk or table, but it causes more than a few scares when I prop the Y700 on my lap. It's a dangerous balance point for a machine with touch functionality, because tapping the screen tips the machine even further. I guess the lesson here is "don't use a laptop literally."

The anti-glare touch display looks nice and holds up well in most lighting scenarios. Even in direct sunlight, the screen is still viewable, but just barely. I never once found myself taking advantage of the touch capabilities, and it seems more like a gimmick than a necessary function.

The chiclet-style keyboard is well-spaced, fully backlit and has comfortable keys. The keys have just the right amount of travel to feel satisfying and sturdy. It feels like it will live up to some use. The trackpad also feels nice, and has multi-touch functionality to trigger Windows 10's gesture commands.

What I found most disappointing was the trackpad buttons, which need to really be mashed to register a click. Double clicks need forceful, deliberate finger movement. It's almost as though Lenovo wants you to give up and use the touchscreen or tap the pad itself.

The power cord for the Y700 is similarly shaped to a USB cord. The plug stays in securely, but it's also located right next to one of the USB ports on the notebook's left side. You can probably figure out where I'm going with this.

Nearly every time I went to plug the computer into AC power, I spent several seconds wondering why it wasn't easily fitting into the port. After a brief moment of panic, I realized I had been trying to plug AC power into the directly-adjacent, identically-sized USB port.

Running on empty space
There's plenty of storage in the Y700 by way of its 1TB 5400 RPM hard drive. It also has a 128GB SSD to quickly load games, but unfortunately it's too anemic to be of much use. The operating system takes up the bulk of the precious gigabytes, leaving little space for games to also live on the same drive and and reap the performance boost perks.

To make matters worse, the 5400 RPM hard drive slows loading times, something the HP Pavilion Gaming Laptop also suffers with. With modern games taking up so much space, there's no choice but to install them to the slower hard drive. Personally I would rather have a larger solid-state drive than a touch screen.

Spec sheet:
Here is the Lenovo Ideapad Y700 configuration given to us for testing:

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700HQ (2.6GHz, up to 3.5GHz, 6MB cache, 4 cores)
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 530 + Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M (4GB DDR3L dedicated)
RAM: 16GB DDR4 2133MHz
Screen: 15.6-inch FHD LED AntiGlare Backlit Multitouch (1,920 x 1,080)
Storage: 1TB 5400 RPM, 128 GB SSD
Ports: 2 x USB 2.0, 2 x USB 3.0, HDMI, Ethernet, headset jack, 1 multi-card reader
Connectivity: Intel wireless AC 8260, Bluetooth 4.0
Weight: 5.72 pounds (2.6 kgs)
Size: 18.9 x 28.3 x 1.7 inches (482 x 720 x 46 mm; W x D x H)

Performance:
The long load times from the slow HDD are too bad, because as far as gaming performance is concerned, the Y700 rises above its peers. Games look good and perform nicely, especially for a it's higher than usual price tag. As far as overall performance, the combination i7, 960M, and the 16GB RAM help put it above its peers.

HP's PCs now come with unlimited free Wi-Fi

HP has announced that it has extended its agreement with iPass, which was first introduced in 2014, refreshing the terms and implementing the deal for free Wi-Fi globally.

It means that wherever you travel, you'll be given a free Wi-Fi pass to access millions of iPass hotspots across the world with certain HP laptops, convertibles, tablets and phablets.

And depending on which device you purchase, you'll now get unlimited free Wi-Fi (unlimited data and usage time) for either one, two or up to three years. That's a lot of free Wi-Fi time, potentially, in the latter case.

Going the extra mile
The only caveat is that you have to activate the offer within a year of buying your qualifying machine, signing up to iPass with a one-time registration process. From then on, you get a single sign-on for hooking up to the iPass network, and Last Mile VPN encryption on the security front.

Having a quick look at the coverage checker, iPass Wi-Fi hotspots seem pretty plentiful across the UK, particularly when it comes to major cities of course.

This is also potentially a major bonus for business travelers who will benefit from the extended global coverage and completely unlimited nature of the deal – and across an entire company, HP devices could save a hell of a lot of cash via this scheme. They might even pay for themselves in the long run…

Facebook's 'Like' button is now joined by several new emotions

Facebook's new reactions, which will accompany the existing Like button, are now rolling out globally.

The social network announced that, starting today, we will all have new ways to interact with people's posts. Not only will you be able to 'Like' something, but you'll have the option to 'Love' it or give it a 'Haha', 'Wow', 'Sad' or 'Angry' emoticon.

When Facebook first announced it was working on the new responses, there was also a 'Yay' emoticon in the mix - but it didn't make the final cut.

"We've been listening to people and know that there should be more ways to easily and quickly express how something you see in News Feed makes you feel," reads a blog post from Facebook.

For a long time, many users have been calling out for a 'Dislike' button, but Facebook believed it would have negative connotations. The 'Sad' and 'Angry' emojis are the compromise it has landed on.

Careful consideration
"For more than a year we have been conducting global research including focus groups and surveys to determine what types of reactions people would want to use most," said Facebook.

"We also looked at how people are already commenting on posts and the top stickers and emoticons as signals for the types of reactions people are already using to determine which reactions to offer."

To use the new feature, hold down the 'Like' button on mobile, or hover over the same button on the desktop browser version until the options pop up.

Facebook says the new feature is rolling out now, but as these things usually go, it might be a short while before you start seeing it.

Which hard disk is best? Here are some pointers

Backblaze has published another report on disk reliability

Backblaze uses a hell of a lot of hard drives for its cloud backup and storage services, and every year (since 2014) the firm produces a report on what it has found to be the most (and least) reliable drives, with the review of 2015 just having been published.

So what brand or disk size should you be looking for to give you the best odds of avoiding a drive failure that could cause a great deal of inconvenience, or even mess with your personal data (though surely not your business data – after all, SMBs out there have a cast-iron backup plan in place, right?).

According to Backblaze's stats, compiled across some 56,224 spinning HDDs, the most reliable brand is HGST with an overall cumulative failure rate (since the company started these surveys) of just 1%. Toshiba and Seagate both came in between 3% and 4%, whereas Western Digital was the clear loser in the reliability stakes with an overall failure rate of 7%.

But what disks were Backblaze buying the most of during last year? Seagate hard drives, not HGST.

Seagate supreme?
Backblaze noted: "Nearly all of the 16,000+ drives purchased in 2015 have been Seagate drives. Of the Seagate drives purchased in 2015, over 85% were 4TB Seagate drives."

4TB is the sweet spot, then, and Seagate drives were at a failure rate of just under 3% for this capacity, although HGST was under 1%.

However, HGST no longer produces these 4TB drives, having switched over to higher priced ones with better performance – and the Seagate 4TB drives are in plentiful stock and very competitively priced, with an "acceptable" failure rate, so these were the ones Backblaze bought in big numbers.}

Seagate's 6TB drives also performed well with a cumulative failure rate of 1.9%, compared to 5.8% for Western Digital.

It's also worth noting that with Seagate, Backblaze found that these hard disks were more likely than other vendors to signal an impending failure via SMART stats, which is good to know. It's obviously useful to have an early indication of disk trouble brewing, particularly for business-critical machines.

Using a wireless mouse or keyboard? Then you need to know about this

MouseJack is a dangerous exploit that could leave your machine wide open

In a worrying development for those who use a wireless mouse or keyboard (or indeed both), these peripherals can be hacked from a distance, and then used by an attacker to carry out malicious actions, such as installing malware, on the connected laptop or PC.

This issue was discovered by Mark Newlin, a researcher for security firm Bastille, with the exploit being christened MouseJack. The vulnerability is in the way the cordless peripheral communicates with the wireless dongle plugged into a USB port on the PC – because this connection isn't encrypted, an attacker can hack in and inject keystrokes onto the machine.

The attacker needs a computer equipped with its own wireless dongle to send the keystrokes, although implementing the attack was hardly a trivial process – PC World reports that it took Newlin "between days and weeks" to reverse engineer the wireless protocols to be able to inject said keystrokes.

From a distance

This can happen from a distance of up to a hundred yards away, apparently – as long as the attacker has line of sight on the victim's machine – and it affects a large range of peripherals from the likes of Dell, HP, Lenovo, Logitech and Microsoft to name some.

As well as line of sight, the other caveat is that the victim has to be away from their machine, or at least not looking temporarily, as otherwise they'll see the keystrokes and actions happening and could potentially prevent whatever the attacker is trying to do (note that an attack could potentially be carried out quite swiftly, though).

13 things you forgot your Mac could do

1. Dictate offline
OS X Yosemite and El Capitan support offline dictation (Mountain Lion and earlier require an internet connection). You'll have to download an additional batch of data though, which for English-language users

totals around 440MB. Press the Function (Fn) key on your keyboard twice to start dictation and then select the option to enable Enhanced Dictation and press OK to start the download.

2. Type special characters easily
You'll already know that holding Option, Ctrl or Shift with certain keys lets you type special symbols, but a lot of fonts include characters that aren't directly accessible this way. To make finding them easier, add the Character Viewer to the menu bar by opening the Keyboard pane in System Preferences, clicking its Keyboard tab, and then checking the box beside 'Show Keyboard, Emoji & Symbol Viewers in menu bar'.

Click the new menu bar icon and pick 'Show Emoji and Symbols' to call up the viewer, find the character you want to use and drag it into your document or double-click it to enter it at the insertion point's location.

3. Share work with your iOS device
If you're using an iOS 8 or iOS 9 app that has an OS X Yosemite or El Capitan equivalent (or vice versa) you can hand off tasks between devices, as long as they're signed in to the same iCloud account. On the Mac, an app's icon appears to the left of the Dock, ready to be clicked, while on iOS you'll find a prompt at the bottom of the app switcher, waiting to be tapped.

Handoff needs a Mac and a listed iOS device, and to be enabled in System Preferences' General pane and on iOS in Settings > General > Handoff & Suggested Apps.

4. Reverse scroll direction
OS X Lion introduced 'natural scrolling', which scrolls contents so that it tracks the direction of your finger movement. It's logical, but if you switch between OS X and Windows or Linux you might want to reverse it so that all of your computers match.

Click Mouse or Trackpad in System Preferences and uncheck 'Scroll direction: natural'.

5. Reinstate Dashboard
Dashboard has fallen out of favour of late (we're still hoping to see it reincarnated as a place for running iOS apps).

If you still want to use it and it's not showing up in Yosemite or El Capitan, reinstate it by opening the Mission Control pane in System Preferences and turning on the Dashboard option.

6. Open hidden menus
You'll already know that clicking the status icons on the right of the menu bar lets you pull down menus for changing the volume and switching Wi-Fi networks, but did you know that doing the same while pressing Option on the keyboard opens up a world of extra options and hidden info?

Option-click Bluetooth, for instance, and you can see the MAC addresses of your devices and create a diagnostics report to help investigate problems; on the volume icon, this lets you redirect the output to alternative speakers; Option-clicking the Wi-Fi icon shows a raft of information about connection speed, channel and so on, all of which helps when you're trying to select the best connection among competing networks. Option-clicking Notification Centre's icon toggles Do Not Disturb off or on.

7. Tap your trackpad
Apple's preference is for physically clicking a trackpad (as such, it's the only way you can select a user account at the login window).

However, we prefer gentle, quiet tapping. If you're like us, open the Trackpad pane in System Preferences and check the box beside Tap to click in the Point & Click tab.

8. Detach the Dock
If you're running Google Hangouts, or anything else that pops up notifications from the bottom of the screen, you run the risk of unintentionally dropping something – perhaps a file destined for the Trash – into your Hangouts stream.

To relocate the Dock, Ctrl-click its divider and select Left or Right from the Position on Screen submenu.

9. Change your default applications
Don't like Safari? Then don't use it. Changing your default web browser is easy: open System Preferences, click General and pick one from the list of browsers installed on your Mac. If you want to use something other than Mail for handling email, launch Mail (yes, we know!), open its preferences, switch to the General tab and pick an option from the pop-up list of installed apps labelled 'Default email reader'.

You can't specify a webmail service, so if you routinely use Gmail outside of an app, consider installing something like Go for Gmail (free, Mac App Store).

To switch your default instant messaging app, open Messages' General preferences, and make a choice from the list labelled 'Default IM application'.

10. Capture shots of the screen
Take a screenshot by pressing Command+Shift+3. Capture an area of the screen by pressing Command+Shift+4 and then dragging the crosshairs through that area.

The image will be snapped as soon as you release the mouse or trackpad button. To capture a window, press Command+Shift+4 followed by the Spacebar and then click on what you want to grab.

11. Force Quit
If an app freezes, open the Force Quit window by pressing Option+Command+Esc. Select the unresponsive app and then click Force Quit. If you're certain which app is the problem, hold Option+Command and click its Dock icon, then choose Force Quit.

12. Switch Spaces
You can move apps from one (work)space to another by pressing the Mission Control key (F3) to shrink their windows and then dragging them to another space to the row at the top of the screen.

If you only want to move them one space left or right of where they already are, it's easier to drag from a window's title bar all the way to the left or right edge of the desktop, avoiding Mission Control entirely.

13. Volume variations
If you've unchecked the option 'Play feedback when volume is changed' in your Mac's Sound preferences, holding Shift while pressing the volume keys temporarily re-enables the preview sound until you release the key.

Holding Shift+Option lets you make smaller changes, moving up or down the scale by a quarter-step rather than the usual full step you'll jump with the volume keys alone.

How easy is it to hack a home network?

My home is under attack.
Right now, skilled adversaries are probing its defences seeking a way in. They are swift, relentless and smart. No weakness will escape their notice.

But I am not without defences. I've tried to harden the most vulnerable devices to stop them being compromised and I've set up warning systems that should alert me if the attackers get inside.

In the end, all that effort was for nothing because the attackers found so many ways to get at me and my home network. And, they said, even if the technology had defeated them, the weakest link of all - me - would probably have let them in.

Swiss cheese
I found out just how severely compromised my home network was in a very creepy fashion. I was on the phone when the web-connected camera sitting on the window sill next to me started moving. The lens crept round until it pointed right at me. I knew that the attackers were on the other end watching what I was doing, and potentially, listening to the conversation.

It is a gadget my children and I have used to see if any wildlife passes through our garden and one which many people have for home security or as an alternative baby monitor.

I was lucky that I knew my attackers who, at that moment, were sitting in my living room waiting to show me how straightforward it was to subvert these domestic devices. The picture they took of me via the camera was evidence enough.

The attackers were Dan Turner and Kyprianos Vasilopoulos from security firm Trustwave who test network defences for a living.

There were several different devices on my network that looked hackable, said Mr Turner. My router had known, unpatched security issues and the USB-connected back-up drive was also tempting but for him the web-capable camera was "the big red flag".

A few hours' work uncovered a previously unknown bug in the camera's core software that Mr Turner was able to exploit.

"It meant we were able to do things with it that we really should not be able to do," he said. "At that point it was pretty much game over."

The attack the pair developed revealed the internal passwords for the network the camera sat on. Knowing that allowed attackers to join the network with the same privileges as all the members of my family. Maybe that's why my network security system did not spot the intrusion.

It's a vulnerability that exposes more than me to potential trouble. The Shodan search engine that logs net devices lists about 1.5 million that use the same core software. That's not to say that all are vulnerable but a good percentage are probably unwitting gateways to the networks they sit on.

Calling out
It's these often unregarded devices that are a big security issue, said Greg Day, European security chief at Palo Alto Networks.

Most people overlook them because they seem so mundane, he said. Even though most will be, in effect, a small computer running a cut-down version of the Linux operating system.
"You should look at the pings going out from your home network," he said. "There might be a lot more outgoing traffic than you think."

Using a network sniffing tool, I had a look and I was amazed at how much data was flowing across my home network. Desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones were all checking in online, many constantly, to get updates or to feed ads and other content to apps.

I also found two mystery devices - one of which was revealed to be a printer and the other a digital radio I had forgotten I had hooked up to the wi-fi when I got it years ago.

Increasingly, said Mr Day, it will be the smaller, supposedly smarter devices that will expose people to security risks.

There are industry efforts to find and fix bugs in gadgets that make up the Internet of Things but not all manufacturers are reacting to reports of problems. The maker of the web-capable camera I use has been informed about the bug but it has no plans to close the loophole.

Home network security tips
Use anti-virus software and a firewall. Keep both updated.

Update the firmware on your router. Change the default admin names and passwords. Log out when you have finished configuring it. Turn off WPS.

Make sure the operating systems on PCs, laptops, phones and tablets are kept up to date.
Be suspicious of emails bearing attachments, even from people you know.

Check the security of net-connected devices such as IP cameras, network drives and other "smart" devices. If possible, turn off their web interfaces.

Thankfully, said Mr Vasilopoulos from Trustwave, attacks on those home networks are relatively rare. Instead, cyber-thieves tended to rely on spear phishing campaigns.

"Everything starts with email," he said. "That's always the easy route."

These campaigns use carefully targeted emails that look like they have been sent by people a target knows or is likely to respond to. Names for these emails are often grabbed from social media sites such as Facebook or LinkedIn.

To demonstrate how this worked the Trustwave team faked a message to me from an attractive young woman who works at the BBC. My middle-aged vanity was all too likely to make me open the message, click on the attachment and fall victim.

If I had opened it, I would have seen an error message that asked me to OK a macro to help display the contents of the attachment. If I had, that would also have meant game over. Anti-virus software would not have spotted the dodgy macro, said Mr Vasilopoulos. Once running it searches for saleable data and steals it.

"We created a script that can get as much information automatically as it can," he said.

Lock down
Suitably chastened by both these experiences, I looked into ways to harden my home network. First off was to turn off the web access to the camera. Then I unhooked the digital radio from the wi-fi.

I could go further, said Craig Young from security firm Tripwire, who has spent a lot of time studying the security shortcomings of home routers. About 80% of the top-selling routers on Amazon have security bugs, he has found.

His advice was to update the core software or firmware on a router to the latest version. Alternatively, he said, people could replace the firmware with an open source version. Digital rights group the EFF runs the Open Wireless project that creates such software.

"You should also disable WPS," he said. WPS, or Wi-fi Protected Setup, was supposed to be an easy way to get devices connected to a router. But the push-a-button-to-connect system came with flaws.
"It's a technology where the complexity of the wi-fi pass phrase gets reduced to an eight-digit pin," he said. In some cases, he added, the size of the pin is reduced further and some routers use the same default digits.

"It's a disaster," he said.

He also advised changing the default admin password and disabling the web interface for the router to make it harder to get at and take over.

"Most of the attacks on routers that we see target that HTTP service," he said.

And it did not end there. After I had followed that advice I made sure I updated all the family PCs, laptops, tablets and phones. I used the security software I had installed to scan as many machines as I could. I regularly check online accounts to make sure I'm the only one logging in. Now I'm not sure if I am more secure, or just more paranoid.

This device can tell doctors just how conscious you are

How conscious are you? It seems like an unanswerable question. But new research from the University of Cambridge claims to be able to measure exactly how aware you are of your own existence. 

The technique, developed by neuroscientist Srivas Chennu, combines classic EEGs with graph theory, a form of maths. With two simple pieces of equipment -- a cap covered in electrodes and a box that measures patterns of electrical activity, Chennu can measure the brain's "signature", which represents the ways in which neurons, and neural networks, are firing. 

Being conscious is about more than simply being awake -- it's also made up of "noticing and experiencing", Chennu says. "When someone is conscious, there are patterns of synchronised neural activity racing across the brain, that can be detected using EEG and quantified using our software."

The technology is portable, and Chennu hopes that it could be used as a "bedside device" for doctors treating patients in vegetative states, or who have brain traumas caused by injuries or strokes. It could be used to help provide patients with better care, or even offer insights to help wake a patient from prolonged states of partial arousal.

Patients who show signs of consciousness, for example, may be kept on a life support machine for longer than a patient who does not. In trials of the device, the team observed two patients -- one who showed high levels of consciousness, depicted in images as a huge, colourful mohican, and one who did not. The first patient eventually woke up -- the second didn't. 

Chennu and his team will now undertake a three year long experiment, observing and treating 50 patients with brain damage. 

"Medical advances mean that we are identifying subtypes of brain injury and moving away from 'one size fits all' to more-targeted treatment specific for an individual's needs," said Chennu in a statement. "The question that fascinates us is what type of consciousness do patients have?"

"Moreover, we think that the measurement of brain networks will provide clinically useful information that could help with therapeutics for a larger majority of patients, irrespective of whether they are able to demonstrate hidden consciousness." 

Keezel's hotspot purifies your public Wi-Fi network

Keezel isn't your typical hotspot. Instead of creating a personal network for you, it encrypts existing, unsecured Wi-Fi to protect you from lurking hackers (don't scoff, it happens).

Open Wi-Fi at cafes, bars and airports is alluring, but dangerous. Anyone on an unsecured, password-free network can hack you, and, extreme as it sounds, the network owner could monitor your goings-on. Peeping Toms might not be able to see the things you actually type and your mouse's movements, but they could track the apps you open and the websites you visit.

The one-button device turns on easily and intuitively. From there, your laptop, phone or tablet latches on to the secure network you've named. Remember that the Keezel doesn't generate its own Wi-Fi; it gloms on to an open network and encrypts your session.

In the end, restaurant Wi-Fi and the pre-production Keezel didn't play well together, so I wasn't able to connect my laptop to the Keezel. Its Dutch founder, Aike Muller, who has a background in IT security, walked me through the app, and how to turn on one of its better tricks: convincing websites your IP address originates from another country. This lets you access content you might not be able to normally get in your country, say Netflix streaming, as one (alleged) example.

The device itself is huge and heavy, owing to the 7,000mAh battery that can keep it charged for marathon streaming. It can also top up your other devices.

What you need to know about Keezel

• 7,000mAh battery power
• Estimated battery life: Up to 10 hours Wi-Fi use
• Encryption: AES 256-bit (some partners use 512)
• Non-removable battery
• 1 USB port, 1 Micro-USB port
• Charging from a drained battery could take up to 7 hours
• Network speeds could slow down slightly with Keezel
• Speeds also depend on local network strength