Month: February 2018

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If you live in the US and want home Internet service at speeds of at least 100Mbps, you will likely find one Internet service provider in your area or none at all.

The latest Internet Access Services report was released by the Federal Communications Commission last week. The report's broadband competition chart finds that 44 percent of developed Census blocks had zero home broadband providers offering download speeds of at least 100Mbps and upload speeds of at least 10Mbps.

Forty-one percent of developed Census blocks had one ISP offering such speeds, for a total of 85 percent with zero or one ISP. The remaining 15 percent had two or three providers at that level, as of the end of 2016. That's up a bit from June 30, 2016, when about 12 percent of Census blocks had at least two providers of 100Mbps services.

(credit: Jerry Raia)

Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP), Microsoft's security software that combines end-point security and data collection with cloud analytics, has hitherto been unique to Windows 10. But no longer; Microsoft announced today that it's bringing the same features to Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.

Coming this summer, the Endpoint Data and Response (EDR) portions of ATP will be available for these older operating systems, allowing their health and status to be managed through the cloud interface. This will be paired with either third-party anti-virus for endpoint protection or Windows Defender/System Center Endpoint Protection.

This move shows the contradictory position Microsoft finds itself in. On the one hand, Microsoft wants enterprises to deploy and use ATP, as it continues to build its cloud-based device management and monitoring software. On the other hand, Redmond wants those same companies to upgrade to Windows 10. This creates a tension: having ATP as a Windows 10 exclusive feature makes Windows 10 more attractive—Microsoft says that security is one of the major reasons enterprises cite for moving to the new operating system—but with many organizations still having Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 systems that they need to support, the inability to monitor those machines makes ATP less attractive.

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After selling over 13 million consoles in less than a year, the Nintendo Switch is undeniably off to a hot start. Looking into the future, though, how long we can expect the Switch era to last before its inevitable successor comes along?

In an investor Q&A posted over the weekend, Nintendo seemed confident it can extend the Switch's relevance longer than the usual cycle for a game console. "Up until now the hardware lifecycle has trended at around five or six years," Nintendo's Co-representative Director and legendary Designer Shigeru Miyamoto said in the Q&A. "But it would be very interesting if we could prolong that life cycle, and I think you should be looking forward to that."

Miyamoto cited the Switch's portability and unique hardware features, as well as a strong pipeline of games and development talent, in explaining that expected longevity. But there's some evidence that the days of a five- or six-year console generation are already past for the entire market, not just the Switch.

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At the end of 2017, Amazon quietly purchased Blink, a smart home security camera company known for its relatively affordable pricing and tiny, always-on camera modules. According to a Reuters report, Amazon didn't just buy Blink for its security cameras—the online retailer reportedly bought the company for about $90 million to glean access to its energy-efficient chip technology that gives Blink cameras years of battery life.

When news of the acquisition broke, most thought that Amazon would use Blink to enhance its own smart camera projects. Amazon launched Key just a few months prior to buying Blink, a system that uses Amazon's own Cloud Cam and a smart lock to let couriers into homes to drop off packages.

The Amazon Cloud Cam needed for Key can also be purchased separately for basic home monitoring for $119, and it uses a microUSB port for power. On the flip side, Blink's cameras are powered by AA batteries, and its embedded, energy-efficient chip allows those batteries to last up to two years at a time. Much like other smart home security cameras, Blink cameras record HD video, monitor motion, and send alerts to users when a disturbance is detected.

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Purdue Pharma LP, the maker of opioid painkiller OxyContin, said that it will stop aggressively promoting opioid painkillers directly to doctors—a practice many blamed for helping to create the epidemic of opioid addiction and overdose that has recently been killing an average of 115 Americans each day.

According to Bloomberg, the company told employees that it will cut its sales staff by more than half, to 200 workers, and send letters to doctors saying that its salespeople will no longer show up at their offices. The remaining sales force will focus on promoting the company’s drug, Symproic, which treats constipation brought on by opioid use.

“We have restructured and significantly reduced our commercial operation and will no longer be promoting opioids to prescribers,” the company said in a statement.