Secure Ports with Lockable CAT5e/6/6A Cables

3 Series are Black Box's best cables ever! Use these high-performance, lockable CAT5e/6/6A patch cables for everday network connections. When you need security, insert the Locking Pin into the patented LockPORT™ boot. Once locked, cables can only be released with the Removal Key.

Google Brings Portable Native Client To Chrome

Developers can now compile native C and C++ code to run in Chrome across different hardware architectures.
 As part of its ongoing effort to make Web apps perform as well as native apps, Google on Tuesday released Portable Native Client (PNaCl), a software framework that allows developers to compile native C and C++ code so that it can be embedded in and run from any website.
Native code can take advantage of CPUs and GPUs in a way that Web applications still cannot to enable computationally demanding applications that involve sophisticated graphics.
Portable Native Client differs from Google's Native Client (NaCl) technology in that it creates architecture-independent output. Where native code compiled with NaCl emerges tuned for a specific instruction set, like x86, ARM or MIPS, programs compiled with PNaCl will run on any hardware platform. In other words, they will work on mobile and desktop devices.

Learn About Cell Phones with Always-on Sensors

Round-the-Clock Sensing.Always-on sensors in a few new mobile phones will likely make them more contextually-aware and bring new capabilities to such applications as pedestrian navigation, health, and fitness tracking. The typical approach to extending mobile device operating time between battery charges focuses on switching off sensors whenever they're not urgently needed. But a few phones turn this strategy on its head, incorporating a highly power-efficient coprocessor that operates and manages all of the sensors, permitting always-on sensing without draining the battery too quickly.

Why Android Updates Take So Long To Get To Your Smartphone

It’s like geek Christmas: The newest version of Android comes out and it's full of exciting new features and designs. You rush to the Android Developer portal to learn about all the new functionality and check your smartphone manufacturer's website to see when your phone will receive the latest and greatest from Android.
Then you wait. And wait. And wait.
So why exactly does it take so long for Android updates to reach your phone? The signal originates at Google, but an update must traverse a complicated series of portals through manufacturers, chipset makers and carriers before it finally reaches your smartphone.

The Samsung Galaxy SIV Is The Best Smartphone For Battery Life

In one of its typically rigorous tests, Which?, the UK consumer association, has found that Samsung's latest flagship handset not only lasts the longest between charges, its battery life is almost double that of the iPhone 5C.
OK, it may not have a 64-bit processor or fingerprint sensor, run the latest version of its platform's operating system or use anything other than plastic in its exterior design, but Samsung Galaxy SIV owners finally have a comeback when teased by their iPhone wielding (or any other brand of smartphone, for that matter) friends.
In simulated tests designed to examine talk time and web use, the SIV has beaten all-comers. In fact, its owners can chat for 1,051 minutes — 280 more than the second-placed HTC One (771 minutes) and 400 minutes more than an iPhone 5S (651 minutes, fourth place). Of the new handsets tested, the Nokia Lumia 1020 came in eighth and final place, managing just 460 minutes of talk time before the battery needed charging. Still, that is only marginally less than the seventh-placed iPhone 5C's 564 minutes.
Although talk time is a good indicator of battery life, the fact is that smartphones are no longer primarily used for voice calls. But, in simulated web use (via wi-fi) tests, the SIV was still top dog albeit with a much smaller margin of victory. It offered 405 minutes of surfing, just beating the SIV Mini's 394 minutes. The HTC One Mini came third in this test with 385 minutes and its bigger brother, the HTC One, fourth (339 minutes). In this test the Nokia also redeemed itself with 306 minutes, putting it in sixth place ahead of the iPhone 5S in seventh place (298 minutes) and the iPhone 5C in last with just 252 minutes.
Of the results, Which? technology researcher Jon Barrow wrote in an accompanying blog post: "Our tests prove that while the batteries in the new iPhones last longer than those in the old iPhone 5, they still can't match the capacity of those in the best Android phones."
However, he also stressed that better battery life came with a trade off. The iPhone is much more portable than the Galaxy SIV and the HTC One: "You'll have to choose what's more important — a compact iPhone that can be slipped into your pocket, and is easy to use one-handed, or a bigger, heavier Android-alternative that'll keep on going long after the iPhone has run out of juice."
The results in full:
Call time
1 Samsung Galaxy SIV: 1051 minutes
2 HTC One: 771 minutes
3 Samsung Galaxy SIV: 746 Mini minutes
4 Apple iPhone 5S: 651 minutes
5 BlackBerry Z10: 600 minutes
6 HTC One Mini: 592 minutes
7 Apple iPhone 5C: 564 minutes
8 Nokia Lumia 1020: 460 minutes
Internet use
1 Samsung Galaxy SIV: 405 minutes
2 Samsung Galaxy SIV Mini: 394 minutes
3 HTC One Mini: 385 minutes
4 HTC One: 339 minutes
5 BlackBerry Z10: 335 minutes
6 Nokia Lumia 1020: 306 minutes
7 Apple iPhone 5S: 298 minutes
8 Apple iPhone 5C: 252 minutes.

Apple considering two iPhones with larger screen sizes and metal casings

Apple's considering larger screens for its next iPhones. Because, yeah, the mobile market's been trending that direction for a while now, so it'd make sense. That doesn't mean it's necessarily true, but with the Wall Street Journal weighing in on it today, the notion is gaining a bit more credibility. This is all, of course, attributed to "people familiar with the situation" that peg Apple's next two phones as having target screen sizes larger than 4.5-inches and 5-inches, respectively. What makes this rumor even juicier is the possibility that Apple might abandon the polycarbonate casing of the iPhone 5c in favor of the tried-and-true metallic approach of its latest generation.
All of this could change, however, as the alleged strategy is still being bandied about internally at Apple, with only the smaller-sized iPhone model being considered for mass production. That means your dreams of a phablet-y iPhone will have to remain just that for now. September is still far, far away and we won't know for sure what Cupertino's cooking up until then. But you can bet there'll be more rumors, more leaks and more fakes from the internet's iFandom to keep us all guessing as to Apple's next (relatively) giant leap. I heard the rumor and want to pass it on

OneDrive To Rule Them All: Microsoft Rebrands SkyDrive Following Trademark Ruling

Microsoft has just announced that it’s set to change the name of its popular SkyDrive cloud storage service to OneDrive.
The rebranding comes as a result of a court ruling in June last year that ordered Microsoft to drop the SkyDrive name as it breached the “Sky” trademark of British TV broadcaster BSkyB.
Fortunately, the new designation of SkyDrive is not without its evident branding merits, as pointed out by Ryan Gavin, General Manager of Consumer Apps and Services at Microsoft, in his announcement post on the service’s newly renamed official blog:

Why OneDrive? We know that increasingly you will have many devices in your life, but you really want only one place for your most important stuff. One place for all of your photos and videos. One place for all of your documents. One place that is seamlessly connected across all the devices you use. You want OneDrive for everything in your life.