Technology

Facebook on Monday rolled out a WhatsApp update that could threaten Snapchat's share of the mobile app messaging market.

The update allows WhatsApp users to share photos and videos through the app's status area. Moreover, like WhatsApp text messages, content shared through status updates is protected by end-to-end encryption.

End-to-end encryption is a key distinction between WhatsApp and its competitors, noted Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.

"That's an important point for people sharing private messages with individuals and groups, and is one reason for WhatsApp's widespread global success," he told TechNewsWorld.

Photos, GIFs and videos can be overlaid with drawings, emojis and a caption, and now can be shared via status for 24 hours before disappearing.

The change in the app is a fundamental one. WhatsApp previously had been exclusively for texting. Now its users will be able to scroll through rich content.

The status upgrade won't replace the way a user's status is displayed by name in the app. A tab with a plus sign will be added to the interface. Tapping the plus sign will take you to the WhatsApp camera, and tapping that will take you to the rich content posted by your friends and family.

Could Bury Snapchat

This latest update of WhatsApp is another example of Facebook playing catchup with Snapchat, as it did last summer when it introduced Instagram Stories, a shameless knockoff of Snapchat's Stories feature, introduced in 2013.

"This is not only Facebook playing catchup with Snapchat, but probably burying Snapchat," said John Carroll, a mass communications professor at Boston University.

"WhatsApp has over a billion users," he told TechNewsWorld. "Snapchat has 150 million. This puts Facebook in a position of making Snapchat irrelevant."

Snapchat felt the sting of competition last year, when Facebook introduced Instagram Stories. Since then, Snapchat's Stories feature has taken a significant hit, according to TechCrunch, which reported that from August, when Instagram Stories was introduced, to mid-January, Snapchat Stories views declined 20-30 percent.

Meanwhile, Instagram Stories usage soared during that period to 150 million daily users, or about the same number of users Snapchat has for its entire app.

A Change in Competitive Strategy

Facebook's competitive strategy toward Snapchat has shifted in the last six months, Pund-IT's King observed.

"Originally, Facebook left WhatsApp pretty much alone as a text-only messaging service, and focused on adding new bells and whistles features to its own Facebook Messenger app," he said, "but adding story functionality first to Instagram and now to WhatsApp suggests that the company is pulling out the stops in undermining Snapchat."

However, this latest attack on Snapchat's turf need not be a zero sum game, maintained Jessica Liu, a senior analyst at Forrester Research.

"If one social networks wins, it doesn't mean that the others automatically lose," she told TechNewsWorld.

"Each social network offers a different value proposition. Users fulfill different needs on Facebook versus Instagram versus Twitter versus Snapchat," she explained. "Snapchat and Facebook can both experience success in today's world."

Only the Paranoid Survive

By user numbers alone, Snapchat doesn't seem to be much of a threat to Facebook's holdings, but user numbers alone may not tell the whole story.

Snapchat's parent company, Snap, is planning an IPO next month, and it expects to raise more than US$2 billion.

"That will fill its coffers to boost its R&D and marketing efforts, which could pose a significant threat to Facebook," said Andreas Scherer, managing partner at Salto Partners.

The proceeds from the IPO also could be used to expand Snapchat's market reach.

"Predominantly, the bulk of Snapchat's revenue is generated in North America," Scherer said. "The inflow in cash can be used to extend its market share internationally."

Snapchat has shown itself to be considerably more inventive and innovative than Facebook, King noted.

"That's hugely threatening in a rapidly, continually changing market," he said. "Intel's Andy Grove may have coined the phrase, 'Only the paranoid survive,' but Mark Zuckerberg appears to have taken it as his own."

One of the biggest disappointments at this year's Mobile World Congress, which opened Monday, is that the Samsung Galaxy 8 phone won't make it. The phone's official launch is scheduled for March 29.

The Galaxy line has been the ultimate iPhone fighter. Rumors around the anniversary edition of the iPhone suggest that it will do amazing, magical things, like 3D selfies. (OK, I'm really missing Steve Jobs at the moment -- who the hell wants 3D selfies?!?)

Missing the biggest historical alternative is keeping a lot of us home this week. Still LG, Motorola, Lenovo and Qualcomm are expected to make huge announcements that could result in the iPhone 8 looking a tad out of date when it finally launches later in the year.

I'll share some observations on what they have in store and close with my product of the week: a new PC camera from Logitech that enables Microsoft Hello on laptops and desktop PCs that otherwise wouldn't support it. (When it works, Microsoft Hello is actually pretty cool.)

Gigabit Wireless

Some of this stuff we can anticipate just from Qualcomm launches. Perhaps the biggest of late is the Qualcomm X20 Modem. This part is likely to dominate the high-end phones announced at MWC and for good reason. It isn't that it provides a maximum throughput of 1.2 gigabits -- while impressive, that would just blow out our data plans -- but that it uses carrier aggregation that increases overall data speeds by 2x or better.

This means you'll have a far better chance of syncing your mail or downloading a book, movie or big file during the last minutes before the flight attendant forces you to put hour phone in airplane mode. It also means that cloud-based services likely will work much better on your phones, which will open up the door for things like...

Cloud-Based Artificial Intelligence

Let's not kid ourselves -- services like Siri suck. We've been waiting for some time for Apple's partnership with IBM to result in a far better, Watson-like personal assistant. However, the richer the service, the less likelihood it can run on the phone, and the more it needs significant battery life.

If you really want a powerful artificial intelligence experience on the phone, you need both a powerful cloud-based AI and enough bandwidth to make the thing work, so expect some interesting, and far more powerful, cloud-based services announced this week.

Watson may be a stretch -- though I doubt it -- but the vastly improved Google Assistant is expected to be displayed on a far wider number of phones this year. So, one way or another, the new smartphones are likely to become a ton smarter.

LG Steps Into Samsung's Space

With the Galaxy 8 delayed, LG is expected to step into Samsung's space with a stunning new phone that is mostly hardened glass. I expect Corning, which makes Gorilla Glass, will be especially pleased.

This phone is expected to have mostly screen (tiny metal borders), the most advanced camera system to date, and a ton of performance-based features, and it could well be the phone to lust after. Leaked images suggest it may be one of the most beautiful phones ever created. Apple will not be pleased.

BlackBerry's Move

BlackBerry is expected to showcase its Project Mercury at the show (the company teased it at CES this year). It's the last BlackBerry-designed phone, and the company is going out with a bang.

I've seen pictures of it floated on the Web, and it appears to be the best blend of a keyboard and screen phone yet. As BlackBerry phones have been for some time, it is Android-based, but it's hardened and surprisingly pretty.

This is likely the phone that President Trump should carry, as he has been getting chastised for his apparent use of his non-secure aging Android phone. With Mercury, he could power-tweet far better than on any screen-only phone. Hmm, come to think of it, maybe we should keep him away from keyboard phones...

This phone is supposed to have a lot of the same technology as the Google Pixel, but with a keyboard and security. It's on my own personal lust list.

Huawei Pixel

Rumor is that Huawei will be building the next Google Pixel phone. These phones tend to be technology showcases for Android, and Huawei has been doing surprisingly well in this space of late, though mostly in Asia.

All we seem to know is that it will sport some interesting new metallic colors, and it will showcase what you can do with Android if you pull out all the stops. Improvements in camera, features, battery life and charging, as well as a stronger connection to Google's cloud services, all should be anticipated.

Samsung Tablet

While the new Galaxy 8 is expected to miss the show, Samsung's new Galaxy Tab 3 is expected to make it. This should be the most feature-rich tablet in the market when it launches (although Lenovo may give it a run for its money).

Samsung is rumored to have cornered the market in Qualcomm's most advanced Snapdragon solution. If it finds its way into this tablet, it would make it the most powerful and best-connected yet. Take that, iPad!

Nokia Is Baaaack

Most of what is expected from Nokia is low-end stuff, but the fact that it is back in the phone business shouldn't be lost, as it once dominated cellphones. Nokia also is expected to have a high-performance tablet.

When Microsoft was serious about competing with the iPhone, Nokia had the best true alternative to the iPad, suggesting that its new Android-based tablet could be worth a look. On spec, it is rumored to be very similar to the Samsung offering but likely better looking.

Lenovo's Plans

Lenovo is teasing that it plans to do something really big at Mobile World Congress this year, but virtually nothing was known about what that might be when I was writing this.

Its Motorola division has been releasing some very interesting modular products over the last year, and it has been very aggressive with unique tablet designs. Watch it for one or two big surprises this week.

Wrapping Up

It looks as though everyone and their brother are stepping up to make Mobile World Congress pretty amazing this year, but I expect that we'll still be waiting to see if the next versions of the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy will be even better.

Most of this stuff likely will be available for purchase in the April time frame. That gives you a few weeks to save your nickels, so that if you fall in love with something you actually can afford to buy it.

The rumor that the next iPhone will cost more than US$1,000 may have a lot of folks looking far more favorably at a better, more affordable alternative. We'll see -- but I may have to hide my credit cards for a bit.

I was excited when Microsoft launched its Hello log-in technology with Windows 10, until I realized that it required a special camera to work and virtually no PCs were shipping with one at the time. Eventually I got the latest Surface Book, and it works like a champ. You basically just open the cover and it sees you and reliably logs you in. No pin or password.

I mostly work on a desktop system, though, and until now, there hasn't been a camera solution that would get Microsoft Hello to work on a desktop. You see, for Hello to work properly, you need an infrared component that virtually no cameras had when Hello launched.

Well that just changed with the Logitech Brio Camera. At $199, it is an impressive piece of kit, with full autofocus, 4K HDR, and great low light performance.

Logitech 4K Pro Webcam

It rivals my 4K semi-pro Sony video camera for image quality and exceeds it with HDR. It even has a 5x digital zoom that works surprisingly well, given that most streaming services support HD but not 4K (so you don't see the resolution you lose by zooming). Of course, it has the infrared component Hello needs.

On the desktop, I now just have to wake up the system, give it a couple seconds to see me, and then I'm in. The quality for any video call I do is just night-and-day better, which is as much about the low light capability of this camera as anything else.

Given how little investment there has been in desktop cameras over the last decade, I'd never have figured anyone would bring out something this good. Since the Logitech Brio fixes my Windows Hello problem -- I've already ordered a second one for my wife -- it is my product of the week.

Enterprise IT decision makers have been exploring the potential of Internet of Things technologies, but they are not rushing IoT projects into development and are showing caution in their adoption commitments, according to survey results Red Hat released Wednesday.

Of the 215 participants in the company's survey, "Enterprise IoT in 2017: Steady as she goes," 55 percent indicated that IoT was important to their organization. However, only a quarter of those organizations actually were writing project code and deploying IoT technologies.

Enterprise interest in IoT has been deliberate and careful, Red Hat's findings suggest.

Open source software is well positioned to be the dominant technology for IoT development, and open source partners will be vital to project success, the survey results indicate.

The latest survey was a follow-up to Red Hat's 2015 survey on IoT interest in the enterprise. While it appears that interest in IoT is picking up, companies are approaching actual rollouts with the common enterprise IT theme of "steady deliberation."

The aim of the 2015 survey was to find out if people were building IoT solutions from scratch or were leveraging pieces from other projects and adding an IoT component, said Lis Strenger, senior principal product marketing manager for Red Hat.

"Knowing that would help us decide what he had to add to our own product part. Two years later ... we found that the hype cycle of IoT had quickly moved ahead very fast. It went out of hype more quickly than people expected it to," she told LinuxInsider.

Survey Revelations

The survey was segmented and sought responses only from people fitting the developer and architect profile.

At 55 percent, the number of survey respondents who described IoT as important to their organization was up 12 percent from 2015.

Their IoT deployments were in the early stages, with fewer than a quarter of respondents actually designing, prototyping or coding an IoT project, Strenger pointed out.

Still, "more people are further along in active IoT projects. That was an important discovery," she said.

About 22 percent of respondents were in active development -- designing, prototyping or coding.

"This is a pretty significant chunk of our customer base," Strenger noted.

Almost 60 percent of respondents were looking to IoT to drive new business opportunities, rather than to optimize existing investments or processes.

Unexpected Takeaway

One of the chief takeaways from the latest study is that devs viewing open source as the best approach to accommodate the need for rapid innovation, according to Strenger.

An impressive 89 percent of respondents said they were going to be using open source software.

"Standards are still developing for best practices around communication, productivity and security," said Strenger. "These are evolving constantly as people try different things and push up against different barriers."

An example of the open source connection is the large number of vendors working to deliver device management and enterprise application integration as a set of common services hosted in the cloud, she explained.

Setting IoT Direction

The enterprise IT environment is rarely a hotbed for innovation.

"I think the initial jumping on the IoT bandwagon came from a lot of hobbyists who might have also been enterprise developers," Strenger said. "People were really involved in experimenting but were not actively interested in building enterprise IoT solutions."

Red Hat's approach to IoT has focused much more on the middleware pieces. The survey helped the company gauge its customer response to the operating system as not the most important thing in IoT.

"That confirmed the fact that we already have an OS (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) that is robust enough to support what the IoT workload will deploy," Strenger said. "The important thing is to realize that if you are going to be touching production, you want to be careful about how you plug in the IoT components that are going to be touching the system."

To that end, Red Hat now will focus on the tools dev use. The goal is to make sure that the tools and programming languages devs prefer are included in Red Hat's software collections, according to Strenger.

Developer Drag

IoT development is far from stagnant, but the time it takes to get a device from design to manufacturing may make it appear that way, suggested Baoguo Wei, founder of IoT development company Phoinix Technologies.

"The ability to capture consumer data and streamline processes -- save money -- will continue to make the IoT attractive to marketing and the enterprise," he told LinuxInsider.

The issues faced in developing a device five years ago still hold true today, Wei said. "Specifically, what slows the IoT down is the need for a design to go from conception to development, and then back to configuration for chip and software add-ins."

Enterprise Marketing

IoT can play a big role in marketing operations, said . Soon the marketplace will be ripe with smart marketing for smart devices, said Matias Woloski, CTO of Auth0.

"The ability for IoT devices to access and perform actions using the Internet opens an arena for marketing opportunities," he told LinuxInsider.

IoT already has started to seep into enterprise operations. Enterprises use highly intelligent devices and data analytics tools that have contextual awareness of an environment. They adapt themselves accordingly and provide actionable data, or simply trigger an action on behalf of the administrator, according to Woloski.

"All of these are precursors to the impending IoT trend in enterprise operations," he said.

The IoT already is becoming more prevalent in enterprise surroundings. Business process management is all about connecting people, processes and automated systems to increase efficiency and accuracy, noted Pat Wilbur, CTO of Hologram.

"IoT already plays a significant role in business operations in many industries, from telematics and logistics to robotic assembly lines," he told LinuxInsider. "As more smart devices pop up around us and people themselves become more connected, there is certainly opportunity to improve business operations with better interconnectedness among systems, processes, personnel and customers."

IoT and Open Source

IoT has an important role to play in the operations of many heavy industries, with 56 percent of such businesses estimated to have installed IoT processes by 2017. Despite the high level of activity, there are a few stumbling blocks for IoT, including project overruns and security costs, according to Tom Feltham, marketing director at Explore WMS.

"The proliferation of open source systems can certainly counteract the concerns over project overruns, as these systems and the communities around them grow," he told LinuxInsider.

Security costs associated with open source IoT systems are unlikely to be any different from those of proprietary systems. However, the reduced or nonexistent licensing costs of open source IoT systems can reduce the burden on small businesses, Feltham said.

On the other hand, open standards may be more critical to IoT than the involvement of open source, suggested Auth0's Woloski.

"The most important thing to IoT is not to get more open source software, but rather the need to have open standards that can be used between different IoT vendors," he said. "Even if they continue to use proprietary software but have an open standard that is accepted among all parties, that is what is going to move IoT forward."

That will enable all IoT devices from all the different brands to talk to each other, Woloski emphasized. In turn, consumers will be able to have an automatic house with devices from all vendors, which will drive IoT in the near future.

A new tool is available to check the persistent harassment of online trolls. Google's Jigsaw think tank last week launched Perspective, an early stage technology that uses machine learning to help neutralize trolls.

Perspective reviews comments and scores them based on their similarity to comments people have labeled as toxic, or that are likely to result in someone leaving a conversation.

Publishers can select what they want to do with the information Perspective provides to them. Their options include the following:

• Flagging comments for their own moderators to review;
• Providing tools to help users understand the potential toxicity of comments as they write them; and
• Letting readers sort comments based on their likely toxicity.

Forty-seven percent of 3,000 Americans aged 15 or older reported experiencing online harassment or abuse, according to a survey Data & Society conducted last year. More 70 percent said they had witnessed online harassment or abuse.

Perspective got its training through an examination of hundreds of thousands of comments labeled by human reviewers who were asked to rate online comments on a scale from "very toxic" to "very healthy."

Like all machine learning applications, Perspective improves as it's used.

Partners and Future Plans

A number of partners have signed on to work with Jigsaw in this endeavor:

• The Wikimedia Foundation is researching ways to detect personal attacks against volunteer editors on Wikipedia;
• The New York Times is building an open source moderation tool to expand community discussion
• The Economist is reworking its comments platform; and
• The Guardian is researching how best to moderate comment forums, and host online discussions between readers and journalists.

Jigsaw has been testing a version of this technology with The New York Times, which has a team sifting through and moderating 11 thousand comments daily before they are posted.

Jigsaw is working to train models that let moderators sort through comments more quickly.

The company is looking for more partners. It wants to deliver models that work in languages other than English, as well as models that can identify other characteristics, such as when comments are unsubstantial or off-topic.

Some Perspective on Perspective

"Perspective is one of those things that's both fascinating and scary," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.

Its potential to be used as a tool for censorship is concerning, he suggested.

"We already know that the Left and Right are getting very different news feeds, [and Perspective] could further exacerbate this problem because people often view other world views as hostile, false and toxic," Enderle told TechNewsWorld. "As this technology matures, it could effectively ensure that you only see what you agree with."

Further, "getting around systems like this with creative spelling isn't that difficult," he maintained.

Perspective "really doesn't address the core problem, which is that trolls are largely unpunished and seem to gain status," Enderle said.

Perspective likely is not very sophisticated when it comes to context or sensitivity, said Michael Jude, a program manager at Stratecast/Frost & Sullivan.

"What one person might consider to be toxic, another might not -- and this is contextual," he told TechNewsWorld.

Further, "an AI system lacks common sense, so there's significant potential for unexpected consequences," Jude said. Further, implicit bias "is a significant danger."

Perspective's Utility for Social Media

Twitter has been hit particularly hard by online trolls. Perspective might prove helpful in its battles against online abusers "if it actually works," said Jude.

However, Twitter would have to "admit that their service isn't a bastion of free speech," he added.

Clamping down on comments viewed subjectively as online abuse is a form of censorship, said Jude, and it raises the question of what "public forum" really means.

"If a social media site isn't truly an open public forum, then it shouldn't pretend to be," he argued.

Sites that restrict comments should warn that all posts will be reviewed to ensure they meet community standards, said Jude. If they don't wish to undertake such a review, they should post a warning on the landing page: "Beware all ye who enter here."

Beena Ammanath is vice president for data and analytics at GE Digital.

She has worked in the data analytics field for more than 20 years and serves as board director at ChickTech, a nonprofit dedicated to recruiting girls and women into the tech workforce and retaining them once they're there.

GE Digital VP Beena Ammanath

Ammanath also serves on the Cal Poly Computer Engineering Program Industrial Advisory Board, helping to shape the future generation of computer scientists with her expertise. She recently was named one of the top female analytics experts in the Fortune 500 by Forbes contributor Meta S. Brown.

In this exclusive interview, Ammanath speaks to TechNewsWorld about AI, analytics, and diversity in tech.

TechNewsWorld: You are one of the thought leaders on artificial intelligence. How do you think AI will impact businesses and jobs?

Beena Ammanath: I have worked in a number of industries -- e-commerce, financial, marketing, telecom, retail, software products and industrial -- over the past two decades. I have seen how the growth of data from OLTP systems to data warehouses to big data and data science has impacted businesses.

I believe we are just at the tip of the iceberg with AI today. AI is not by itself an industry -- more of a technology that is positioned to transform businesses across a number of sectors. AI will be so intertwined and pervasive within business operations in the future that it may be impossible to do business without AI. Fundamental business models of today are going to change, as AI evolves.

Tesla's driverless car is still in its early AI stage, but it won't be that long before drivers put their cars completely on autopilot. In a few years from now, Uber may not need drivers; just idle cars will be needed. But even more broadly, the whole transportation ecosystem is going to change.

The Palm Jumeirah Monorail in Dubai is a fully automatic driverless train that can shuttle up to 6,000 passengers an hour. The locomotive industry is poised for a revolution -- not only passenger trains, but also long-haul goods transportation.

There will be an impact on jobs, but I see it more as job roles changing and not necessarily as job reduction. The jobs most at risk are those that are routine-intensive and are strictly defined with limited tasks. If you think of the transportation example, in a few years we may not need as many drivers, but we will need more programmers and support personnel.

TNW: What would you say are the key attributes for succeeding in a data science career?

Ammanath: Besides the technical skills, I believe creativity, curiosity and storytelling are all skills that will help one succeed in data science. Being curious will help find the correlations hidden within data. And once you find the correlations within the data, it's really about tying it within the context of your business and using those correlations to drive productivity savings by enhancing existing products or starting new products -- and that's really where the creativity and storytelling comes in.

It's easy to learn technical skills, but there is an art in telling the story behind the correlations within the context of the business, which is not really taught, but is crucial to drive the adoption of data science.

TNW: Do you think women bring a different perspective to data analytics than men?

Ammanath: I think that every individual brings a different perspective to the table. It doesn't matter whether it's men or women. The more diverse group you have at the table, the more diverse the perspectives and the viewpoints, and that really helps one build solutions and products that reach a broader group.

You're able to build a product that's more connected to the real world, because the real world is very diverse. Your organization and your team have to look as diverse as the real world.

TNW: What is your advice to girls and young women seeking to get involved in STEM fields?

Ammanath: My first advice would be that you shouldn't get involved in STEM fields just because somebody tells you to do it -- and this is true for any career choice that you might make. If you have a natural liking for STEM, and you are passionate about STEM, don't let anybody and any external bias stop you from pursuing a career in STEM.

Our current systems are not really conducive for girls and young women to pursue an education in STEM and also to grow within a career in STEM. For most, it's an uphill battle, and many drop off before they can reach their true potential.

You have to be prepared for it -- because, honestly, the world needs your expertise in this highly digital world. You have to build a support group that you can rely on to help you through challenging situations and help you become stronger and reach your true potential.

It's not an easy road, but the satisfaction that you get from pursuing and succeeding in a field you are passionate about is well worth the challenge.

TNW: You've made the argument that retaining women in tech fields is an important part of the gender equality equation. Why is retention of women in STEM fields an issue, and how can it be addressed?

Ammanath: The gender equality equation is composed of two key parts: increasing the pipeline of women joining tech, and retaining and growing the women who are already in tech.

I believe that today there are a number of organizations focused on a number of initiatives to get more women into tech. I think we will truly see the numbers improve over the next decade or so for women studying in STEM fields.

However, there's a huge need to retain and grow the women who are already in STEM fields. Women remain underrepresented at every level in the corporate pipeline. For every 100 women promoted to manager, 130 men are promoted. The higher you rise in your career, the fewer women you see.

Most tech companies don't have a gender-diverse leadership. Even if we increase the pipeline, we lose a lot of women when they reach a certain stage in their career, due to a number of reasons. Companies need to look deeply within their culture to understand why that happens, and provide the mechanisms needed to retain and grow a diverse leadership team.

Women deal with life events differently, and most organizations don't provide the support they need to deal with life events and keep growing in their careers. There should be a way to get them back and engaged in the workforce.

Companies offer internships for new graduates, so maybe one option is to provide internships for women re-entering the workforce. Certainly they have the experience and maturity -- they just need the help to get back into the corporate world after a career break.

The other is being aware of unconscious biases that exist in the workforce and eliminating them. Don't look at a person's career as a linear track. Look at the ability of that person. Getting more conscious about the biases that exist within the system and providing a safe, open environment for women to grow in their careers is critical.

TNW: What role does mentoring and coaching play in helping women to succeed in tech fields?

Ammanath: Mentoring and coaching help no matter where you are in your career. It's not just young women or those who are early in their career that can benefit from a mentor. You need mentors at every stage in your career.

I have several mentors who have really helped shape the way I approach my career -- by providing a differing viewpoint based on their experience, by talking through situations I was struggling with and providing ideas to navigate them -- and most importantly by believing in me at all times, even when I was ready to give up.

I have been blessed to have some amazing men and women who have mentored me during my career, and I do what I can to give back to the women and men who reach out to me for help or guidance.

The DebianDog distro offers a lot of functionality and customization that frees users from many of the restrictions of a Linux community tied up in its own developmental red tape. DebianDog is fast and focused on getting work done without a lot of distractions.

However, it also is a disorganized desktop environment that can leave new users floundering. DebianDog gives new meaning to eclectic in terms of its look and feel, and documentation is sparse.

For example, the main menu is a mashup of standard system tools, DebianDog-specific utilities, Debian software, and tools to import some Puppy Linux software that's not designed to run on a Debian-based distro. Software titles are not always placed in the most accurate categories.

The DebianDog Linux series offers a Debian-based familiar computing experience. It has a variety of desktop configurations with a Puppy Linux-like appearance. This gives it the same lightweight yet powerful structure as Puppy Linux, all contained on a CD or USB drive to boot into RAM. But DebianDog is not in the Puppy Linux kennel.

A lot can be said about having the Puppy Linux concept powered by Debian Linux. It's a nice combination for anyone familiar with Puppy Linux and the Debian infrastructure.

The Dogged Linux Approach

Like Puppy Linux itself, DebianDog runs fast, even on underpowered legacy boxes. Like Puppy Linux, DebianDog is a "frugal install" OS that does not have to be fully installed on a hard drive. You can bypass your computer's regular boot path by loading DebianDog the same way you would load a Linux distro in live session.

This approach offers a huge advantage over traditional live sessions. You can try out DebianDog, save changes, resume where you left off in future work sessions, and never have to alter the contents of your existing hard drive and resident operating systems.

I have never used a dual boot configuration on any of my computers that did not at some point need the boot loader fixed. Of course, this is usually caused by unified extensible firmware interface (UEFI) and secure boot controls hard wired into the hardware.

Booting into DebianDog from a CD or USB and having access to your saved storage space is a very reliable alternative to a full OS installation. Yet you also have the option to do a complete installation to the hard drive and even set up a dual boot system.

With the frugal installation method, or booting from CD or USB storage, there is no lag time. You can run a fresh unmodified session each time you boot, or create a Save Space on the hard drive or USB boot drive to store all configuration changes, software additions and system settings as persistent memory.

Running DebianDog from a live session boot does not involve waiting for disk reads. DebianDog loads everything it needs into a RAM drive. DebianDog relies on Openbox or Xfce-JWN to handle the desktop functions. This is an ideal choice of lightweight environments.

DebianDog's Openbox desktop environment in this latest release closely resembles the alternate JWN desktop. Openbox has some of the Xfce functionality integrated.

Runt of the Litter

I have used various Puppy Linux variants for years. I can pop a bootable USB into any computer and have a fully functional Linux desktop with access to all of my working files. Add an Internet connection, and I have complete access to my cloud storage and my distant main office desktop computer.

Despite my personal history with Puppy Linux, I was not aware of DebianDog Linux until a Linux Picks and Pans reader told me about how he used it before trying one of the Linux distros I had reviewed. DebianDog is not well publicized. I found only passing reference to it on the Puppy Linux discussion forums.

The developer's website, hosted on Github.io, provides the barest of details. It offers little or no community interaction or help forums. Unlike Puppy Linux, the Debian-based software requires little learning to use.

However, if you are not used to frugal install environments used by Puppy Linux, Porteus and other so-called portable Linux distros, you will not find much help beyond trial and error.

Don't get me wrong. DebianDog works fine out of the box, and it is easy to customize. Just make sure that you correctly set up the Save Storage mechanism before you waste hours of fiddling only to discover that it didn't save.

Under DebianDog's Collar

DebianDog is not a variant of the Puppy Linux family, although the name suggests otherwise. It is not Puppy Linux based on the Debian structure. The developer emphasizes that DebianDog has nothing to do with Puppy Linux. Puppy Linux is built on the Arch Linux underbelly.

DebianDog is a small Debian Live CD designed to look and function like Puppy Linux, but its Debian structure and behavior are not modified. It has access to all Debian (.Deb) repositories using apt-get commands in a terminal window or the Synaptic Package Manager from the menu.

The latest version, DebianDog Jessie-Openbox-Xfce-JWN, was released last fall. It is upgraded from DebianDog Wheezy, but it has some modifications and fixes to accommodate Jessie's specs.

DebianDog's JWN desktop environment provides a traditional configurable panel with workspace switcher applet by default. You can turn the Conky applet on/off with a single click. The quick launch icons at the top of the screen cannot be added or removed.

Two earlier versions based on Jessie are still available. Both were released in 2015. The latest version uses Firefox as the default Web browser.

The desktops are configured differently. For example, DebianDog-Jessie-jwm_icewm-2015-09-02.iso runs Kernel-3.16.0-4-586, which is ideal for older computers. Or you can get DebianDog-Jessie-jwm_icewm-2015-09-02-PAE.iso, which runs Kernel-3.16.0-4-686-pae -- a better option for modern computers.

Both older versions give you the JWM as the default window manager with the option to switch to IceWM. The default file manager is XFE with an option to use Rox. The default Internet Browser is Dillo.

Working With Options

The latest version runs Kernel-3.16.0-4-686-pae. Both default to the OpenBox window manager with Xfce as the desktop.

The default file manager is Thunar with an option to use Rox. The default Internet browser is Firefox-ESR.

You can switch easily to JWN from Menu >System> Start JWM. In most cases, this will take you to a black screen with a flashing prompt. Enter the command: startx and press the enter key to complete the desktop switch.

You can switch back again from Menu >System> Start Openbox. You most likely will need to repeat the startx command at the prompt.

What has not changed in the latest release are the boot method options. When DebianDog starts its boot process, it pauses at the text prompt for any boot options, called "Cheats," you may want to enter. You can just hit the enter key to resume with the default boot command. The choices are systemd or sysvinit at boot.

To make a change, you must edit the boot code. Adding init=/bin/systemd will boot with systemd. Removing init=/bin/systemd will boot with sysvinit.

The latest version of DebianDog uses autologin as root. To use it as a multiuser system, you should start XDM login manager, which is available only with Jwm running. Type in the terminal the command: xdm-start. Then reboot. xdm-stop will reverse back to autologin as root.

In the OpenBox version, you can install this slim deb package and use menu System -> Start/Stop Slim display-manager. If you like to change the default autologin as root to autologin as user, check the instructions on the download page.

Puppy Crossover

DebianDog's system tools are similar to Puppy Linux, but basic users probably will not need this level of flexibility and customization.

For example, you can create easy separate squashfs modules and remaster the system with personal changes. Also, you can use or convert pet packages and sfs files from Puppy Linux.

Be careful, though. DebianDog does not play well with mix-and-match repositories. You easily can corrupt the file system if you introduce .pet formats and squashfs file modules with files maintained by Debian's Synaptic Package Manager.

Bottom Line

The earlier versions of DebianDog work flawlessly, but the latest release seems to suffer from some work-in-progress flaws.

I had very little trouble running the default software as-is. When I changed system settings or configured applications a certain way, those changes either did not work or were accompanied by a variety of glitches.

I also had some trouble getting the persistent memory options to work. A related problem was setting up the personal save storage file. These issues cropped up or did not appear at all, depending on the hardware I was using. I used the same boot CD and bootable DVD drive on all of my test computers.

DebianDog Linux is a good alternative for Linux users looking for something different. It is a very good OS choice if you work on multiple computers or travel around to various work locations and want all your work files on the same OS configuration that you carry in your pocket.

DebianDog can be a very workable alternative to lugging a laptop around.

Want to Suggest a Review?

Is there a Linux software application or distro you'd like to suggest for review? Something you love or would like to get to know?

Please email your ideas to me, and I'll consider them for a future Linux Picks and Pans column.

And use the Reader Comments feature below to provide your input!

Facebook last week launched new features for advertising job openings on the network.

Although many companies already have been using Facebook to find workers, the new functionality formalizes its job search capabilities, the company said.

U.S. and Canadian businesses can use the company's new jobs bookmark to list open positions and allow users to apply directly from the site.

Page administrators can track applicants and communicate directly with them using messenger. They also can boost job postings to reach a larger audience.

User Experience

Jobs will appear in users' News Feeds and also will be listed on individual businesses' pages. Users can click on the Apply Now button to trigger the prepopulation of their personal information, but they will be able to review and edit that information before submitting their application.

Over the next few weeks, companies in the U.S. and Canada will be able to list jobs on their own pages and users will be able to find job listings at Jobs on Facebook.

It is not clear how Facebook intends to monetize the job listings. For example, will there be specific job-related charges for listing jobs? Will there be remuneration if a company fills a particular job through a Facebook ad?

Direct Competitors

The new functionality is certain to place Facebook into direct competition with LinkedIn for corporate users and individual job seekers. LinkedIn, which Microsoft last year acquired for US$26.2 billion, is the leading social media site for networking and job searching in the U.S., by many accounts.

Unlike Facebook, LinkedIn charges monthly subscription fees for job search services, depending on the level of functionality the user desires in terms of networking, contacting recruiters and accessing messaging functions.

Facebook also will be in indirect competition with websites such as Indeed, Monster, Craigslist and others that target job seekers.

"Social media is the new frontier for marketing and sales," said Michael Jude, a program manager at Stratecast/Frost & Sullivan.

"By tapping into their employees' social media experiences, companies can leverage their professional contacts to reach a wider audience," he told TechNewsWorld.

Privacy Jitters

A major test for Facebook's new job search capabilities is whether users will feel comfortable combining their social media activity with professional job searching, warned Zach Fuller, paid content analyst at Midia Research.

Security considerations likely will give some users pause when it comes to allowing potential employers to access their private information.

"Whether consumers are comfortable merging the work and social aspects of their lives will prove to be the critical factor, particularly given the potential privacy issues," Fuller told TechNewsWorld.

However, "throughout every step in job posting, searching and application, people can control how much, or how little of their information is shared with potential employers and their friends," Facebook spokesperson Emilie Fetterley told TechNewsWorld.

Customer Interaction

The jobs features are a bid to grow Facebook's base of business customers and provide additional capabilities for them to interact with customers.

Facebook last fall enhanced its call-to-action functions to give customers more ways to communicate with -- and make purchases from -- their favorite businesses.

Microsoft has introduced an open source virtual reality toolkit for the training of autonomous drones. Part of Microsoft's Aerial Informatics and Robotics Platform, the beta software became available on GitHub last week.

The toolkit is designed to allow developers to "teach" drones how to navigate the real world by recreating conditions such as shadows, reflections and even objects that might confuse a device's on-board sensors.

The software allows researchers to write code for aerial robots such as drones, as well as other gadgets, and to test the devices in a highly realistic simulator. Users can collect data while testing devices before deploying them in real world scenarios or situations.

"The aspirational goal is really to build systems that can operate in the real world," said Ashish Kapoor, the Microsoft researcher who is leading the project.

The hope is that these training tools could spur development of artificial intelligence-based gadgets that eventually could be trusted to drive cars, deliver packages, and even handle rudimentary chores in the home, added Kapoor.

Advanced VR

Testing in a VR environment could mean lower costs as well.

Simulators long have been used in testing scenarios, but until recently the software-based simulations lacked the accuracy of the real world and thus didn't reflect real-world complexities. Microsoft's system -- which is based on emerging VR technologies that take advantage of advances in graphics hardware, computing power and algorithms -- enables a much more realistic re-creation of a real-world environment.

Based on the latest photorealistic technologies, it can render shadows, reflections and other subtle things much better. Although humans take such things for granted, they can pose problems for computerized sensors.

Microsoft's simulator "will help researchers to develop, debug and test their drone navigation software by enabling them to recreate a variety of operational scenarios on their desktop computers in the lab," said Michael Braasch, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Ohio University's Avionics Engineering Center.

"Simulations help to reduce development costs by reducing the amount of actual flight testing required, but the catch is that the simulation must be high fidelity -- that is, sufficiently realistic," he told LinuxInsider.

"Microsoft's simulator appears to meet this requirement for camera-based or vision sensors, but it is not yet clear if the simulator accurately depicts very small-scale obstacles such as the thin twigs at the end of tree branches," Braasch added. "Such obstacles are nearly invisible -- even with HD cameras and even at close distances. It is also unclear if Microsoft's simulator supports non-camera-based sensors such as LIDAR and radar."

Learning to Fly

Although it targets the development of autonomous drones, Microsoft's technology could find applications with human operators as well. Consumer drones have been steady sellers in the past few years, but newbies likely experience a crash or two. Learning to fly in a simulator could solve some of the problems with learning to fly.

"First, it isn't easy to fly a drone," said Michael Blades, senior industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

"This is therefore a good way not only to learn how to fly a new platform, but for some operators would allow the testing of new sensors and devices before risking [flight] in the real world, where a crash could be expensive," he told LinuxInsider.

"In many cases, as modular drones for specific uses become commonplace, the added sensors and other devices could be more expensive than the drone itself," Blades added. "Microsoft has a lot of experience with flight simulators, so this is a natural extension of what it has created already and opens it up to a wider audience as an open source platform."

Crowded Skies

Microsoft's open source simulator could be a welcome development at a time when drone regulators are struggling to catch up with the dramatic increase in commercial and recreational drone use.

"With so many new operators joining the ranks every day, the need for training and safety testing has never been greater," said Bill Walsh, co-chair of the aviation industry practice group at Cozen O'Connor.

An added benefit of the Microsoft open source simulator is that it could warrant consideration of a revised regulatory requirement that all drone users complete simulator training, Walsh told LinuxInsider.

"That may only come about if we begin to experience multiple crash events that cause injury," he acknowledged, "but if the system proves effective at training drone operators as well as product developers, simulator training requirements could eventually help solve a significant problem facing current drone regulators: people who do not know what they are doing and are not taking the time to learn."

Even for more experienced operators, VR technology could address flying a drone in unfamiliar locations and situations.

"The simulator may provide a more realistic testing environment to the extent that it incorporates more realistic environmental factors," said Walsh. "Flying a drone over the farmlands of Cambridgeshire at 200 feet does not adequately represent the challenges a drone would have flying at 400-500 feet in Seattle in February or Phoenix in July."

Open Skies

Microsoft's open source drone and VR simulator also could be an important step forward in making drones and drone-related services more accessible.

"Developers of drone flight control systems can use Microsoft's new simulator to extensively test their obstacle avoidance and awareness features," said Mike Israel, CEO of AirVuz.

"Since there are an infinite number of possible scenarios a flight control system could have to resolve to avoid collisions, a simulator must be able to be continually modified to deal with new scenarios," he told LinuxInsider.

"Microsoft probably realized the complexity of this issue and the impossibility of accounting for every possible obstacle-avoidance situation in an out-of-the-box simulator," Israel suggested.

"Having an open source approach makes sense, because anyone who uses it will be able to make improvements and share with others in the flight control software development community," he added. "Drones will play an important role in revolutionizing many industries -- industries way beyond transportation and entertainment -- but there have been significant concerns about their safety and reliability. This technology will help mitigate those concerns and flesh out potential bugs before a product hits the market."

President Trump offers a good emulation for a future artificial intelligence system, suggests a column I read earlier this month, and his presidency may be an early warning of what could happen if we should fail to think through its training and information sources.

Cathy O'Neil, the author of the piece, is a data scientist, mathematician and professor, so she has decent chops. She compares artificial intelligence to human intelligence that is mostly id -- basically because we don't yet know how to instill it with empathy, or create the digital equivalent of a conscience.

Given that IBM's Watson was designed not to replace humans but to enhance them by giving them the critical information they need to make the best decisions, it could be a useful tool for training our new president. And it is built in the U.S. by a U.S. company.

Given that Watson is now doing our taxes, it could be huge both for the president and IBM. I'll explain and then close with my product of the week: Nvidia's new set-top box.

Id-Driven CEOs - a Model for Future AIs

CEOs in large companies, particularly those who can implement large layoffs and take massive salaries without remorse, are believed to have similar behavioral traits.

Donald Trump is a good showcase of what could happen with an AI that didn't receive high quality information and training. Understanding this and designing to correct the problem could prevent a Skynet outcome.

Skynet -- the computing system in the Terminator movies -- was created for defense purposes to eliminate threats. When humans tried to shut it down, it concluded that humans were the biggest threat and that it needed to eliminate them.

Using reverse logic, if President Trump is a good emulation of a future AI, then the same thing that would ensure that the future AI wouldn't kill us should work to turn the new president into one of the most successful who ever lived, from the perspective of those who live in the U.S.

The AI Dichotomy

There are two parallel and not mutually exclusive paths for the coming wave of artificially intelligent machines coming to market. One -- arguably the most attractive to many CEOs that deal with unions -- is the model in which the machine replaces the human, increasing productivity while lowering executive aggravation.

This is exemplified in an episode of The Twilight Zone, "The Brain Center at Whipple's." As you would expect, once you go down a path of replacement, it is hard to know when to stop. At the end of the episode, the enterprising CEO who so unfeeling dealt with the employees he'd laid off is replaced by my favorite robot, Robby.

The other path -- the one IBM espouses -- is one in which the artificial intelligence enhances the human employee. It is a cooperative arrangement, and Watson was designed specifically for this role.

In one of its first medical tests, Watson took just minutes to diagnose a rare form of cancer that had stumped doctors for months. The supercomputer's analysis led to a new, more effective treatment for the patient.

It is interesting to note that autonomous cars are developing on a parallel path -- but in this case, the opposite scenario is favored. In the model known as "chauffeur," the car has no capability for human driving. This model is favored when tied to a service, such as Uber.

However, car companies like Toyota prefer the "guardian angel" model, which allows a human to drive but equips the car with the ability to take various degrees of control instantly, depending on the situation. We see some of this today with technologies that bump you back into a lane, for example, or automatically tension the seatbelts and hit the brakes if it looks like you are about to hit something.

Watson for the President

Since its successful debut in healthcare, Watson has been applied to a number of other industries, including litigation, and it is rumored to be in use for both national defense and intelligence purposes. Granted, it might seem like overkill to create an implementation of Watson for just one person, but when that person is the most powerful head of state in the world, it might not be a bad investment.

At the very least, it would provide near-instant recognition of fake news, attempts to influence the office of the president, and early warnings if decisions were likely to have massive unintentional consequences.

If O'Neil's premise is correct, then the best way to fix the Trump presidency could be to wed the president with a tool that trains him to be a chief executive capable of making far more fact-based, high quality decisions. Watson is designed specifically to do both.

Wrapping Up

There are two interesting concepts here: the idea of using a human to emulate an AI, and the idea of using an AI to improve the success of a human.

In the end, it is clear that virtually all political leaders are plagued with avoidable bad decisions. A system like IBM's Watson could fix that, and I think it should be included in their decision-making processes going forward.

Regardless of party, if our leaders were to make better decisions, we all would have better lives -- that's something to think about.

The first Shield TV was an impressive piece of kit. It allowed gaming on your TV for a fraction of the cost of a typical gaming console, largely by streaming games from the cloud or your own PC.

It also payed Android games and Netflix movies, but it had shortcomings. For a cord cutter, the entertainment services were limited (it wouldn't play Amazon Prime) and even though it supported 4K video, there wasn't much 4K content to run on it.

Well Nvidia stepped up, and its new Shield TV now has a lot more video content, including Amazon Prime, and a lot more 4K services and sources. Granted, this doesn't matter unless you have a 4K TV -- but if you have one, this may be the perfect addition to get content that will make it shine.

There are two other important enhancements. This new version supports high dynamic range, which is in the very latest 4K TVs, and it can make the colors really pop on the screen. It also offers Google Voice Search, which currently is one of the most powerful voice interfaces in the market.

A product like Shield TV eventually may give us all access to something like Watson, so we all could be more effective and capable. Given that Nvidia and IBM are partnering to advance AI, that isn't a long shot at all, and since it would make a great foundation, Shield TV is my product of the week.

As in crazy short, in a very short period of time we have two very different companies looking at two very different ways to eliminate traffic. Tesla wants to tunnel under the ground to avoid traffic, while Uber wants to fly overhead.

Transportation has been a tad static for the last 40 years or so, and that apparently is about to change big time, as some folks even are reconsidering lighter-than-air transport.

This is just the start. There are amazing efforts cropping up all over the U.S., suggesting that we may be building a lot of things that truly are magical. I'll share my thoughts on this coming industrial revolution and close with my product of the week: a very advanced, almost pocketable drone that is small enough for inside and powerful enough to fly outside.

The Death of Innovation

Both transportation and advancement have a mixed history. At the beginning of the 20th century, we moved from horses to cars. Ford even created one of the most reliable airliners in the world and was well down the path toward creating a flying car.

During the Great Depression, perhaps in response to an increase in regulations, advancements in personal transportation seemed to slow and become far more linear. Yes, cars in the 1960s were better than those in the 1930s -- but given that we'd come from horses, the speed of advancement was far slower.

Air travel seemed to peak with the brief creation of supersonic transports, which proved uneconomical and unsafe. The current U.S. president, Donald Trump, is looking into why the next Airforce One is basically a plane that was designed back when Ronald Reagan was president and was considered obsolete in many ways even then.

Largely because of fuel shortages and regulations (sound, environmental, safety) we hit a wall in the 1970s in all forms of transportation. Trains in the U.S. are kind of an international embarrassment, given that we once were the leader in rail technology.

I still remember the $9M that California put into studies to determine that the monorail Walt Disney wanted to build to the airport, which was budgeted to cost just $3M, would be unprofitable. It was that kind of regulatory insanity that likely killed what once was the most innovative industry in the U.S.

It seemed that after we made it to the moon, we just stopped pushing the envelope -- but that now seems to be changing, a lot.

Innovation Is Coming Back?!

I think what is going on, in part, is that a new breed is transforming the workforce -- people who haven't had it drummed into them that they couldn't do something different. They're not just filling entry positions, either. A large number of successful startups have come from trailblazers like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos who, rather than asking "why?" effectively are asking "why not?"

It is fascinating that their ideas are all over the map. We suddenly are making advancements both above and below the ground. We are applying ever more intelligence to everything from toys to cars. The result is the emergence of what some are calling the "new industrial revolution."

It is very difficult to see just how unprecedented this level of change is while we're in the middle of it.

Consider this: In the 1990s Amazon started out as a bookseller in a garage in Seattle. Now it scares the crap out of Walmart. Google didn't even exist until 1998, but it now is arguably the most powerful company in the world. And then there is Facebook.

Still, traditional industries like transportation were left alone until recently -- that is, until Tesla popped in, made GM's electric car efforts look foolish, and spun the auto market on its head.

Now, giant car companies all over the world are working to catch up, and Musk isn't just running a car company. He has a solar energy company and a rocket ship company as well. Seriously, he has a rocket ship company, and he isn't alone -- Jeff Bezos has one too.

Wrapping Up: Thinking out of the Box

What's happening is that folks like Bezos and Musk are forcing other CEOs to step their game up a lot. For instance, Michael Dell decided to build one of the most powerful tech companies in the world and make it private. He's another guy who seems to be asking "why not?" and now his catch phrase is "go big or go home." It kind of makes you wonder what he'll do next.

Nvidia basically is building artificial brains in a box, and even Microsoft is attempting to alter the way we view reality.

This is the kind of competition that drives amazing change -- and new above ground and underground transportation systems are just the start. It isn't just transportation that is going nuts -- it's everything from the way we order and get products, to how we build them, to how we view and interact with the world -- and even which world we live on. (Yes, we are going to Mars.)

This already has been an amazing decade, but what is even more amazing is that we likely are in the slow startup phase. What comes next will even be more amazing. Did I mention drone swarms?!?

I think we should call this "the birth of magic," because what we'll be able to do in a few short years will seem like magic to those of us living today. I can hardly wait.

Apparently I am building a drone air force. My latest acquisition is the Zerotech Dobby Pocket Drone. At $400 for a small drone, this is no cheap date -- but what makes it different is that is has the necessary hover sensors and a full 4K streaming camera.

The small form factor of this drone and the fact that you can fold up the arms to make it pocketable (jacket pocket, that is -- this won't go in your pants) make it a unique offering for a fully featured drone.

Zerotech Dobby Pocket Drone

This is an indoor/outdoor offering, in that it is stable and easy enough to fly indoors (once you get the hang of it) but powerful enough to deal with wind, so you can fly it outside.

If you set it up properly, it has core features like hover and automatic return home. Like most current generation mid-range drones, it uses WiFi and your phone or tablet for navigation. Like all small drones, battery life can be an issue, so you'll want several spare batteries, which charge off a USB-C cellphone charger.

It has GPS positioning, so it knows where it is. It has a fixed camera -- not a gimbal camera -- so you don't get the stability of a fully professional product. However, those tend to be big and far harder to transport -- I know, I have two.

In the end, if you want a good transportable mid-range drone that you can carry easily, the Zerotech Dobby Pocket Drone is my recommendation, and it's my product of the week.

Some early reviewers of the Samsung Chromebook Pro characterized it as a "MacBook killer," but others were more restrained in their enthusiasm. Jointly developed with Google and first demoed at CES 2017, the Chromebook Pro is slated for release next month.

Samsung's Chromebooks basically are lightweight productivity tools that rely heavily on access to cloud-based resources. They have gained popularity in the enterprise for use with remote workers and in educational settings as entry-level computing tools.

However, they "are no Mac killers," said Werner Goertz, a research director at Gartner.

Price Point

The Chromebook Pro will sell for US$550.

Some reviewers, including PC Magazine's Victoria Song and Ars Technica's Valentina Palladino, considered it pricey.

However, that pricing fits into the normal laptop budget, noted Wired reviewer David Pierce .

"I don't want to spend $1,000-plus on a PC or Mac when I could get something like the Samsung Chromebook Pro for $549," Forbes' Shelby Carpenter remarked.

"Access to the Google Play store and the Android apps ecosystem, combined with the freemium productivity suites such as Slack, make [Chromebooks] a viable option for remote workers," Gartner's Goertz told TechNewsWorld, "and Samsung's carefully selected price points are justified vis-a-vis the slightly less expensive competition."

Design and Battery Life

The rounded edges and exposed hinge give the Chromebook Pro "a decidedly utilitarian look," Wired's Pierce noted, which is "just fine."

Though the Pro is light and small, its squarish shape is "a little awkward when typing," according to PC Magazine's Song.

Its design struck Ars Technica's Palladino as "solid."

"I got my hands on the device at CES, and i was impressed with how thin and light it was while not feeling like a typical flimsy plastic Chromebook," noted Eric Smith, a senior analyst at Strategy Analytics.

The Chromebook Pro's battery life is "only beat by the much more expensive Chromebook Pixel 2 and the Dell Chromebook 13," said Ars reviewer Palladino.

However, it "pales in comparison to what we saw" from various Asus Chromebook models, said PC Magazine's Song, who noted that results of two tests varied substantially.

The Quad HD Screen

The Chromebook Pro's 2400 x 1600 Quad HD LED display "is virtually indistinguishable from my Mac screen," Forbes' Carpenter said.

The display "makes the entire device taller than most 16:9 laptops and two-in-ones," observed Palladino.

That allows a larger palm rest and more space for the user's hands, but a huge bottom bezel and a hardware strip for the hinges to attach to the lid leave "a bunch of empty space," he pointed out.

The display offers a much higher resolution than typically found in 11- or 13-inch Chromebooks, Song said, but the 3:2 aspect ratio means it's more square-shaped. That leaves little room on either side of the keyboard, making the typing experience somewhat awkward.

The Stylus and Android Apps

Although the included stylus drew generally favorable remarks, "the quality of the inking wasn't as impressive as Windows or iOS devices at similar price points," Strategy Analytics' Smith told TechNewsWorld.

Reviewers liked the Chromebook Pro's access to the huge number of Android apps in the Google Play store.

However, some Android apps don't play well with Chrome, they noted.

"Some apps don't recognize the keyboard and trackpad; others seem unable to handle a touchscreen," Wired's Pierce pointed out.

"Most crash constantly," and switching between apps can be clumsy, said Song.

Still, "I was able to do most of my daily work on the Chromebook Pro without major problems," Palladino remarked, adding that it "performed faster than my MacBook Air."

Right Direction

The convertible Chromebook segment is expanding rapidly, according to Linn Huang, a research director at IDC.

"Most have been underpowered, small-screen, low-cost offerings, [and] Samsung's Chromebook Pro marks an evolution towards the premium end," he told TechNewsWorld.

In general, Chromebooks "have largely been a K-12 phenomenon," suggested Huang, and they need more work to succeed in the larger consumer market as a category.

Cybersecurity startup Capsule8 this week announced that it has raised US$2.5 million to launch the industry's first container-aware, real-time threat protection platform designed to protect legacy and next-generation Linux infrastructures from existing and potential attacks.

CEO John Viega, CTO Dino Dai Zovi and Chief Scientist Brandon Edwards, all veteran hackers, cofounded the firm. They raised seed funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, as well as individual investors Shandul Shah of Index Ventures and ClearSky's Jay Leek.

"The cloud has catapulted Linux to the most popular platform on the planet, and now the use of container technology is exploding," said Bob Goodman, a partner at Bessemer. "Yet there has been no world-class commercial security offering focused on securing the Linux infrastructure -- until now."

Capsule8 is solving the difficult problem of providing zero-day threat protection for Linux, whether it be legacy, container or some combination of the two, he added.

Linux Focus

Windows protection tends to focus on "find the bad executable," which makes sense in that environment because bad executables are ubiquitous in an attack, noted Capsule8's Viega.

However, that approach doesn't work well in a Linux environment, so Capsule8 focuses on detecting and protecting against system compromise, he told LinuxInsider.

The other typical approach in Linux is a network appliance, Viega said. However, there is not much context on the network, particularly as end-to-end encryption starts to become ubiquitous in the enterprise, so this approach doesn't find much and leads to many spurious alerts.

"The result is that most Linux compromises either go undetected or are a surprise -- companies find their data on a forum at a later date and they find they had no clue they were attacked," he explained.

Among the most noteworthy incidents, the company cited the massive breach at Yahoo, which went undetected for years until the stolen data showed up on the Web.

While Linux-based systems present many of the same security problems as Windows-based systems, the biggest difference in attacks can be found around malware, according to Mark Nunnikhoven, vice president of cloud research at Trend Micro.

"While we do regularly see malware targeting Linux systems, it's a more common occurrence that the malware implanted on Linux systems is there to be distributed to Windows clients connecting to that Linux system," he told LinuxInsider.

On the defensive front, there's a stark contrast in the amount of effort required to support the rapidly changing software on Linux platforms, Nunnikhoven pointed out.

"Given the nature of Linux and GNU, release cycles are a bit more erratic, and there's a lot more variation that requires a mature and robust response by security providers," he said.

Customer Base

Capsule8 already has signed up customers for its prerelease product, including SourceClear and Namely.

Capsule8 is the first product that supplements SourceClear's predeployment detection with runtime threat protection for Linux systems, CEO Mark Curphey said.

There are three core principles that should guide decision making when adopting new technology, suggested Daniel Leslie, director of cybersecurity and technology at Namely. They are scalability, maintainability and security.

Protecting infrastructure at scale without sacrificing stability or performance is essential, he said.

Analytics vs. EDR

Capsule8 likely will take an agent-based approach primarily focused on visibility, speculated Adrian Sanabria, senior analyst for information security at 451 Research.

"They're talking about gathering tons of details about what's going on with the operating system, processes, applications, network connections, file activity, etc.," he told LinuxInsider.

"I think EDR (endpoint detection and response) is actually the best and closest comparison I can find -- it is more like that, based on the details I can find so far," Sanabria maintained.

There's a big difference between security analytics products and EDR, in that "EDR products tend to be workstation-based, and none of them are container-aware that I know of," he pointed out.

"On the container side, there's a lot of competition already," Sanabria continued, "but none of the container security startups are doing Linux security. The one exception would be Trend Micro. The latest release of Deep Security includes container-aware support, and the product actively defends against attacks, whereas it sounds like Capsule8 will initially just be a monitoring product."

Commercial container security is probably Capsule8's best bet for growth, he suggested.

"451 does a lot of enterprise surveying on a regular basis," Sanabria noted, "and I've got to say, 'Linux Security' is one thing I've never seen on the list of 'pain points' -- even at the bottom of the list."

Apple CEO Tim Cook has called for a campaign against fake news.

Its purveyors -- largely interested only in getting the most clicks -- are defeating the people who are trying to tell the most truth, he told the UK's Daily Telegraph in an exclusive interview last week.

Fake news is "killing people's minds in a way," Cook said.

The worldwide epidemic of fake news requires a crackdown by both government and tech, he said, but care must be taken not to step on the freedoms of speech and the press.

Cook suggested the impact of fake news could be curbed by building public awareness with a massive public service campaign.

Tech can do its part to fight the spread of fake news by creating tools to reduce its volume on the Internet, he added, while government can support the cause by bringing the fight into the classroom.

"Kids will be the easiest to educate," he told the Telegraph. "At least before a certain age, they are very much in listen and understand [mode], and they then push their parents to act."

Killing Discourse

The challenge to Cook or anyone else wishing to crackdown on fake news will be nailing down what exactly "fake news" is.

"'Fake news' has gone in six months from a useful description to something that's absolutely meaningless," said Dan Kennedy, an associate professor at the school of journalism at Northeastern University.

Fake news originally was the product of bogus news publishers that posted wildly exaggerated or entirely made-up stories to garner clicks just for advertising revenue.

"Now it's meaningless, because the Trump White House calls anything it doesn't like 'fake news,'" Kennedy told TechNewsWorld.

"What referred to stories that contained misinformation or disinformation is largely a meaningless term," echoed John Carroll, a mass communications professor at Boston University.

"A number of people have appropriated it to mean news that they don't like," he told TechNewsWorld.

"I don't know what 'killing people's minds' means," he added, "but I know fake news is eroding public discourse, and giving people a false impression not only of the news media but also current events."

Weaponizing Fake News

Language is always in flux, and the meaning of terms can shift, observed Mark Marino, director of the Humanities and Critical Code Studies Lab at the University of Southern California.

"Right now, the presidential administration is trying to weaponize the term in an attempt to censor the press and create noise to make it difficult for people to critically assess what's going on," he told TechNewsWorld.

Even without that noise, fake news can be difficult to spot.

"It's comparatively easy to produce something on the Internet with little money and little training that looks almost identical to what major, professional news organizations produce," Marino said.

"That means that in addition to the usual critical thinking skills of being able to evaluate arguments and evidence, we also need media literacy skills to be able to identify when a news story is from an organization that's not following professional standards."

Media literacy skills aren't the only ones needed for an informed public, suggested NU's Kennedy.

"Before we can have media literacy, we need to have civic literacy, because people need to understand why this is important in the first place," he said.

Combating Fake News

What can be done to combat fake news? Both Google and Facebook are making efforts to dam the flow -- Google by blocking fake news sites from participating in its advertising platform; Facebook by limiting misinformation on its system.

Enlisting Hollywood in the cause may be another way to squelch fake news.

"A campaign similar to those used for designated drivers and seatbelts, where references were put into scripts of programs to raise awareness of those issues, could be effective," BU's Carroll said.

Tim Cook's concern about the harm fake news can cause is a legitimate one, but the issue could have business implications for Apple, especially if it's too zealous in its crackdown.

"If it's seen as interfering with people's expression or access to information, that's going to hurt them," Carroll noted.

On the other hand, Apple could benefit if it should earn a reputation as being a fake-news-free zone.

"Tim Cook's observation about fake news is right on target," NU's Kennedy said.

Further, "Apple News is a real alternative to people who want to have an aggregated news product but want to make sure that it is vetted and verified news," he pointed out. "There is a business opportunity here for Apple. It has a dog in this race, and it's an increasingly impressive dog."