THE LATEST WINDOWS 10 PCS ARE SLIM, POWERFUL AND PRICEY

If you've been in the market for a new Windows 10 PC, the pickings have been rather slim. That's quickly changing, though. Two major third party manufacturers — Acer and Hewlett-Packard — in addition to Microsoft, recently launched new Windows 10 laptops. A third manufacturer plans announce its offerings next week.

Notable Windows 10 hardware enhancements

I had a chance to get my hands on a few of the new PCS, and I checked out the specs of others. In general, I like what I see. The machines have a number of notable features that set them apart from earlier generations, including:

• Intel's latest mobile chip, known as Skylake
• Better battery life
• lighter and thinner
• high-quality cameras, fingerprint readers and software to take advantage of features such as Windows 10's Cortana voice assistant and Windows Hello

These factors and more add up to the first generation of Windows PCs that genuinely give Apple's MacBook Air some real competition — and offer reasons to finally upgrade from the aging Windows 7. (Here are more details on Acer's Windows 10 announcement from this week, and HP's related news from last week.)

These PCs' longer battery lives are due in large part to Intel's newest generation of processors. As always, the latest generation is more powerful than the last, and more importantly, I think, it use less power. Battery technology is also improving, as PC makers develop more energy-efficient designs. Some of the companies' claims of 10- and 12-hour life may be exaggerated, but the new PCs will still run for quite a while on a single charge.

PC manufacturers are also releasing 2-in-1 computers, or "convertibles," which are PCs with detachable screens that double as tablets. They are touch systems and work well with the some of the Windows 8-like features (tiled apps, for example) in Windows 10.

However, if you purchase a convertible you better be careful. It's easy to accidentally drop the screen as you detach it from the keyboard. HP, though, did a good job engineering its convertible Spectre x2, which has a strong magnet to keep the two parts together even if you hold the PC by its screen and let the base dangle.

New Windows 10 hardware doesn't come cheap, lacks ports

Downsides do exist, of course. First and foremost: price. The really thin, eye-catching new devices are expensive. Microsoft's new Surface Book costs $1,500 in it cheapest configuration. In comparison, Apple's 13-inch MacBook Air starts at $999.

Some of the latest laptops don’t have Ethernet or VGA ports to connect to wired Internet or a monitor, respectively. You can, of course, buy dongles to get around the absence of those ports. They generally work well but add a bit of cost to the machine, and they're easy to forget when you're on the road.

Finally, and obviously, these systems all run Windows 10. I've been using Windows 10 on two PCs, and with the exception of the lousy Edge browser, I'm generally pretty happy with it. It's a huge improvement over Windows 8, and as I get used to some of its new ways of doing things, I miss Windows 7 less than I thought I would.

Upgrading an older PC to Windows 10 isn't always a great idea, but if you buy a new machine with the OS, it won't take you long to adjust.

This story, "The latest Windows 10 PCs are slim, powerful and pricey" was originally published by CIO.

Microsoft pitches Edge on Bing to deflect deserters

Microsoft pitches Edge on Bing to deflect deserters

Microsoft has begun promoting its new Edge browser using its Bing search engine, copying a practice already used by rivals.

Just as Google's Chrome and Mozilla's Firefox have been pushed by the Google and Yahoo search engines, Edge now is both being touted as the better browser when users of Windows 10 search for those two competitors on Bing from Edge, and pitched as a replacement for them when the same users search for "chrome" or "firefox" on Bing as they run either of those browsers.

The first part of the promotion appears when Windows 10 users running Edge use Bing to search for "chrome." At the top of the results, Bing places a small black banner that reads, "Microsoft recommends Microsoft Edge for Windows 10," along with a "Learn why" button that directs the user to a marketing page. The same happens when an Edge user searches for "firefox" on Bing. (A search on Bing from Edge for "opera" does not trigger a similar banner.)

Microsoft also uses the banner when Windows 10 users run Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) -- which is bundled with the new OS alongside Edge -- to search Bing for "chrome" or "firefox."

With the banner, Microsoft appears to making a last-ditch effort to stop Windows 10 users from switching to Chrome or Firefox. While the immediate impact of the plea may be questionable -- presumably those searching for for an alternative had already made the decision to download and install another browser -- Microsoft may simply be planting doubt in the minds of potential switchers, and thus hope to regain Edge users if they're dissatisfied with their new choice.

A second promotion appears when Windows 10 users running either Chrome or Firefox search for one of those two browsers on Bing. In those instances, a message reading, "Try the browser for Bing & Windows 10. Microsoft Edge is here. Go now," displays above the summary snapshot at the right of the Bing results.

Again, the impact of this try-Edge message is questionable, since both Chrome and Firefox default to non-Bing search providers -- Google in the case of Chrome, Yahoo for Firefox in the U.S. -- and so are unlikely to be searching on Bing in the first place.

Interestingly, Microsoft does not further promote Edge with a banner or message when Chrome or Firefox users search Bing using the string "Edge browser."

None of these promotional efforts is out of the ordinary for a search provider with an interest in pushing a particular browser. 

Read CW's new July digital magazine!

Special Report: Computerworld's 100 Best Places to Work in IT for 2015

Our 22nd annual report highlights top organizations across the country that offer technology pros challenging projects, robust salaries and flexible work/life options. We identify which employers offer high salaries, superior benefits, and unsurpassed access to training and career advancement opportunities. We also reveal what more than 23,000 IT workers think of their benefits, training, office morale, workplace stress levels and more.

Here are the top organizations for 2015:

No. 1 Large Employer: Quicken Loans

Abundant perks aside, IT team members are drawn in by a culture that values innovation, an entrepreneurial spirit, and the use of technology to drive business goals. 

No. 1 Midsize Employer: Credit Acceptance

Ambitious IT pros are rewarded by this auto financing company with frequent pay raises, substantial bonuses and generous tuition reimbursement. 

No. 1 Small Employer: Noah Consulting

Team-building takes priority at this all-virtual company, which hires top technologists and keeps them happy with compelling assignments and rapid career advancement.

Have the Computerworld Digital Magazine delivered to your inbox each month.

News Analysis

At a crossroads in the automotive technology market, Microsoft is likely to start losing its foothold in the in-vehicle infotainment business, but it may have a future in providing cloud-based services to carmakers.

Shark Tank

Read the latest exploits of hapless bosses and clueless users.

Download the Computerworld Digital Magazine.

After clicking the link above, find the download button that's specific to the browser you're using, click it, then check the folder you have designated for downloads. Please note that this extra-large issue, jam-packed with information on Computerworld’s 100 Best Places to Work in IT, might take slightly longer than usual to download.

Read CW's new July digital magazine!

Special Report: Computerworld's 100 Best Places to Work in IT for 2015

Our 22nd annual report highlights top organizations across the country that offer technology pros challenging projects, robust salaries and flexible work/life options. We identify which employers offer high salaries, superior benefits, and unsurpassed access to training and career advancement opportunities. We also reveal what more than 23,000 IT workers think of their benefits, training, office morale, workplace stress levels and more.

Here are the top organizations for 2015:

No. 1 Large Employer: Quicken Loans

Abundant perks aside, IT team members are drawn in by a culture that values innovation, an entrepreneurial spirit, and the use of technology to drive business goals. 

No. 1 Midsize Employer: Credit Acceptance

Ambitious IT pros are rewarded by this auto financing company with frequent pay raises, substantial bonuses and generous tuition reimbursement. 

No. 1 Small Employer: Noah Consulting

Team-building takes priority at this all-virtual company, which hires top technologists and keeps them happy with compelling assignments and rapid career advancement.

Have the Computerworld Digital Magazine delivered to your inbox each month.

News Analysis

At a crossroads in the automotive technology market, Microsoft is likely to start losing its foothold in the in-vehicle infotainment business, but it may have a future in providing cloud-based services to carmakers.

Shark Tank

Read the latest exploits of hapless bosses and clueless users.

Download the Computerworld Digital Magazine.

After clicking the link above, find the download button that's specific to the browser you're using, click it, then check the folder you have designated for downloads. Please note that this extra-large issue, jam-packed with information on Computerworld’s 100 Best Places to Work in IT, might take slightly longer than usual to download.

4 news apps that will change everything

I'm a huge fan of newspapers. I've been subscribing to the print edition of The New York Times since I was in college.

Newspapers always had an edge over alternative sources for news, which is that they're run by editors. That's why I also use the individual news apps from the Times, as well as The Wall Street Journal and others.

Software is great, but computers are decades away from being able to even approximate a human editor's ability to combine reason, experience, intuition, taste, judgment and other qualities in developing and presenting stories for human readers.

But I'm also a fan of socially or algorithmically curated sources of news. These have an advantage over newspapers because they can cherry pick the best stories from thousands of sources, including newspapers, magazines, blogs and social networks.

One recent example of a good socially curated news app is Kite, which is currently for iOS only. It's been called the "Instagram of News" because you follow people and get your news based on what they share. Plus you can share to other social networks, including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Another interesting advancement is Facebook's Instant Articles, which (like all content on Facebook) uses a combination of socially and algorithmically curated news stories.

Facebook's Instant Articles enable select publications (only nine at present) to build their stories directly into Facebook's iOS app. An Android version is expected this summer.

Anything Facebook does with news is, well, big news because, according to a recent Pew Research study, some 61 percent of "millennials" get their political news from Facebook.

When you tap on a news story that uses Facebook Instant Articles, the fully formatted story -- pictures, videos and all -- load instantly in the app. The reason is that they are actually pre-loaded, and also because they're not a link that switches to a browser app. In other words, you don't have to wait for the content to load or the app to switch.

Best of all for publishers, the formatting tools enable each publication's signature look, including typefaces, logos, colors and other design elements. Another benefit for publishers is that they can sell ads that will be delivered through the app, and Facebook isn't demanding a cut.

While Kite and Facebook's Instant Articles are improvements over what existed before, they still aren't likely to transform how the wider public gets their news.

No technological replacement exists for bulk data collection

No software-based technique can fully replace the bulk collection of signals intelligence, but methods can be developed to more effectively conduct targeted collection and to control the usage of collected data, says a new report from the National Research Council. Automated systems for isolating collected data, restricting queries that can be made against those data, and auditing usage of the data can help to enforce privacy protections and allay some civil liberty concerns, the unclassified report says.

The study was a result of an activity called for in Presidential Policy Directive 28, issued by President Obama in January 2014, to evaluate U.S. signals intelligence practices. The directive instructed the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to produce a report within one year "assessing the feasibility of creating software that would allow the intelligence community more easily to conduct targeted information acquisition rather than bulk collection." ODNI asked the Research Council -- the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering -- to conduct a study, which began in June 2014, to assist in preparing a response to the President. Over the ensuing months, a committee of experts appointed by the Research Council produced the report.
"From a technological standpoint, curtailing bulk data collection means analysts will be deprived of some information," said committee chairman Robert F. Sproull, former director of Oracle's Sun Labs. "It does not necessarily mean that current bulk collection must continue. A reduction in bulk collection can be partially mitigated by improving targeted collection, and technologies can improve oversight and transparency and help reduce the conflict between collection and privacy."
The report defines "collection" as the process of extracting data from a source, filtering it according to some criteria, and storing the results. If a significant portion of the collected data is not associated with current targets or subjects of interest in an investigation, it is considered bulk; otherwise, it is targeted.
A key value of bulk collection is its record of past signals intelligence that may be relevant to subsequent investigations, the report notes. The committee was not asked to and did not consider whether the loss of effectiveness from reducing bulk collection would be too great, or whether the potential gain in privacy from adopting an alternative collection method is worth the potential loss of intelligence information. It did observe that other sources of information -- for example, data held by third parties such as communications providers -- might provide a partial substitute for bulk collection in some circumstances.
Improving the relevance of collected information to future investigations could also be achieved with new approaches to targeting, the report says. Rapidly updating filtering criteria to include new targets as they are discovered will help collect data that would otherwise be lost, and if done quickly enough and well enough, bulk information about past events may not be needed. However, targeted collection cannot substitute for bulk collection if past events were unique or if the delay in collecting the new information is too long.
As an alternative to controlling the collection of data, automated controls on the use of collected data can help to protect the privacy of people who are not subjects of investigation, the committee found. The report describes three key technical elements required to control and automate usage: isolating bulk data so that it can be accessed only in specific ways; restricting the types of queries that can be made against stored data; and auditing the queries that have been done. The way these controls work can be made public without revealing sensitive data, so that outside inspectors can verify that the intelligence community has and abides by adequate procedures to protect privacy.
While some of the necessary technologies to enhance targeted collection or improve automated usage controls require further research and development, some of the techniques are already in use in the intelligence community or in private companies, some have been demonstrated in research laboratories, and many are feasible to deploy within the next five years, the report says, although it does not recommend adoption of any specific technology. Automating usage controls will be easier if the rules governing collection and use are technology-neutral and based on a consistent set of definitions.
Ultimately, the decision to deploy any given technology is a policy question that requires determining whether increased effectiveness and apparent transparency are worth the cost in equipment, labor, and potential interference with the intelligence mission. Such discussions were beyond the scope of this report.

Geographic clusters of underimmunization identified in Northern California

Researchers used spatial analysis software and electronic medical records to identify clusters of underimmunization and vaccine refusal among Kaiser Permanente members in Northern California, according to a study published today in the journal Pediatrics.

Children are considered to be underimmunized when they miss one or more recommended vaccine doses before age three, while vaccine refusal means not allowing a child to receive any vaccines.
The study reviewed the immunization records of more than 154,000 Kaiser Permanente Northern California members between birth and 3 years old. All the children were born between 2000 and 2011 and were covered continuously by Kaiser Permanente, which provides health care for about 40 percent of the insured population in 13 Northern California counties. To identify the clusters of underimmunization and vaccine refusal, researchers used sophisticated spatial analysis software, which allowed them to examine health factors in relation to geography.
The Centers for Disease Control's immunization schedule recommends a minimum of 17 separate injections during a child's first two years of life, including for hepatitis A and B, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, influenza, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, and pneumococcal virus. Underimmunization is associated with elevated risk of vaccine-preventable disease, while nonmedical immunization exemption and refusal have been associated with increased community risk of measles and pertussis.
"This research confirms anecdotal reports of underimmunization clusters," said Tracy A. Lieu, MD, MPH, the study's lead author, a Kaiser Permanente pediatrician, and director of the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research. "In addition, we found clusters in places we hadn't anticipated."
Dr. Lieu noted that this study will be useful for targeting outreach efforts in particular areas, although it was not designed to figure out why children in some areas are less likely to be fully immunized.
"Everyone in the Kaiser Permanente health care system has access to vaccines, and since childhood vaccination is covered by insurance, financial barriers are not an issue," Dr. Lieu said. "Our findings raise awareness that there may be communities where parents have more vaccine hesitancy and may be interested in more information or more in-depth conversations with their children's doctors."
Underimmunization ranged from 18 percent to 23 percent within clusters, compared with 11 percent outside clusters. Between 2010 and 2012, geographic clusters of underimmunization were found in:

• the East Bay (Richmond to San Leandro);
• Sonoma and Napa counties;
• a small area of east Sacramento;
• northern San Francisco and southern Marin counties; and
• a small area of Vallejo.

"Shot limiting," in which parents limit the number of injections or antigens that children receive during a pediatric visit to two or fewer, was found to cluster in similar areas.
Vaccine refusal ranged from 5.5 percent to 13.5 percent within clusters, compared with 2.6 percent outside clusters. Between 2010 and 2012, geographic clusters of vaccine refusal were found in:

• the East Bay (El Cerrito to Alameda);
• Marin and southwest Sonoma counties;
• northeastern San Francisco;
• northeastern Sacramento County and Roseville; and
• a small area south of Sacramento

"Kaiser Permanente's electronic medical record system is among the richest in the world," Dr. Lieu said. "This is the first time that spatial analysis techniques have been applied to real-time vaccine data."

---

Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Kaiser Permanente. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

---