Seagate Unveils Networked Drives for Small Businesses
By Barry Levine
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|  Seagate is out with five new networked attached storage(NAS) products designed specifically for small businesses. The drives are intended for companies with up to 50 employees, and range in capacity from two to 20 terabytes.The models are from the Seagate NAS and NAS Pro lines. As many small businesses do not have dedicated IT personnel, the storage units employ a new operating system, NAS OS 4, which Seagate described as "intuitive." The company said these drives represent its biggest product launch for small businesses, and that they can be readily set up by such firms.The new OS offers a redesigned Device Manager, so that companies can manage preferences and settings from one location. Seagate said that its new drives can be managed from desktops, laptops, tablets or smartphones, utilize hard disk drive units in capacities up to 5 TB, and are equipped with advanced vibration toleration and management capabilities. 'Easy to Manage' Scott Horn, VP of global marketing, said in a statement that the new solution is "easy to manage and provides 24/7secure access to the information that drives [small businesses]." Shared access to files is provided through the creation of a private cloud that resides on the drive. Using its Sdrive capability, employees can save files as they would to any external drive, and free mobile apps enable access from a smartphone or tablet. The company also points to the support of add-on apps as another key feature of NAS OS 4, with five apps being available at launch. A Seagate antivirus scans against viruses and malware, and a Surveillance Manager -- compatible with a number of IP cameras -- can provide event and schedule-based recording, as well as mobile apps for viewing. With a supplied copy of open-source publishing platform WordPress, businesses can create their own blogs, and an app called Own Cloud offers file access when users are outside the network. Additionally, a copy of BitTorrent Sync enables synching and sharing of unlimited files and folders. Mobile Storage The two NAS models, intended for offices with up to 25 workers, are available in 2- and 4-bay configurations, and each employs a Marvel Dual core 1.2 GHz processor with 512 MB of memory. The three NAS Pro models, for environments with as many as 50 users, are available in two-, four- and six-bay configurations and use the Intel dual-core 1.7 GHz C2000 Series processor and 2 GB of memory. The NAS models range in price from $169 to $699, and the NAS Pro, targeted at creative professionals who need lots of storage, goes from $349 to $2500. The units include a three-year warranty. In other Seagate news, the company has announced a new option in wireless, mobile storage for on-the-go users -- a model that offers one and two terabyte capacities, as well as integration into Dropbox and Google Drive. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wednesday, 16 July 2014
Study: Friends Share Similarities in Their DNA
By Malcolm Ritter
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| You may be more similar to your friends than you think: A study suggests that the DNA code tends to be more alike between friends than between strangers.That's beyond the effect of shared ethnicity, researchers say. And it could be important for theories about human evolution, says James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego. He and Yale researcher Nicholas Christakis present their results in a paper released Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. How much more alike are friends than strangers? Not much. Imagine the small similarity between fourth cousins, people who share a set of great-great-great grandparents. The study included 1,932 participants in a long-running health study in Framingham, Massachusetts. Researchers knew who was close friends with whom from the 1970s to the early 2000s because of information gathered for the study. From this group they identified 1,367 pairs of close friends and about 1.2 million pairs of strangers. Then they examined information about nearly 467,000 locations in the DNA code of each participant. They looked for how similar the friend pairs were, and compared that to how similar the stranger pairs were. The researchers found that genes affecting sense of smell were especially likely to be similar in friends. Why would friends have more DNA similarities than strangers? Fowler said it's not clear. One possibility is that similar genes nudge people toward similar environments, which then gives them a chance to meet. Another possibility is that people who share certain genes also share skills that become more valuable when the people work together, he said. This could have been important over evolutionary time, and so set up a pattern that people still follow, he said. Fowler also said it's not clear whether the finding pertains to groups outside of the Framingham study group, which is overwhelmingly Irish and Italian. In any case, findings of DNA similarities between friends could help explain how behaviors like altruism developed over evolutionary time, he said. Francisco Ayala, who studies evolutionary genetics at the University of California, Irvine, said the study's results surprised him. But "the statistics are there" to back up the conclusions, he said. Ben Domingue, a researcher at the University of Colorado, Boulder, called the results intriguing. "I am fairly convinced that they are onto something," he wrote in an email. | ||||||||||||||||||
Apple iWatch Set To Rock Smart Watch Market
By Jennifer LeClaire
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| Could an Apple iWatch revolutionize smart watches the way the iPhone revolutionized smartphones? Morgan Stanley is betting the answer is yes.Industry watchers expect the iWatch to make its way to the market later this year and Morgan Stanley analysts are already analyzing its potential success. In a Monday report, the firm boiled down its success to brand loyalty. "In our view, Apple will introduce a device with more sensors, and better form factor and aesthetics than competing devices in the market priced at $100-250," Morgan Stanley writes in its note. Against that backdrop, the firm expects Apple to sell the iWatch for $300, which would equate to at least a 40 percent profit margin. Would You Buy One? Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty made a bold prediction in the research note: Apple will sell between 30 million and 60 million iWatches in the first 12 months. She bases that prediction on “historical penetration of past iDevice[s].” Is this a plausible prediction? Consider a recent survey from Piper Jaffray that asked 10 people about watches and wearables. That survey reveals 14 percent would buy a $350 smart watch from Apple. Piper concluded that a $200 iWatch would be even more appealing. Ultimately, 41 percent of those surveyed said they wouldn’t buy an Apple smart watch no matter how little it costs. More than 30 percent said they would invest in an iWatch if it cost $100 to $200. Morgan Stanley is predicting that the $300 price tag may not bode well for Apple. Then again, Apple has always pushed out premium products and typically sees strong demand. Anything Is Possible We caught up with Roger Entner, principal analyst at Recon Analytics, to get his thoughts on Apple’s chances to sell massive numbers of iWatches at a high price point. He told us if the iWatch is as transformational as the iPhone and iPad, Morgan Stanley’s predictions are realistic. In fact, he said if the iWatch is a truly transformational device, it could blow away all the projections. “We are still waiting for the first wearable device done right. Apple has a very good track record of doing devices right. So we all hope Apple comes up with an iPhone-type device rather than a Rokr type device. The Rokr was the first device that came out with iTunes integration and it stunk,” Entner said. “With Apple everything is possible. They have done magic before. They have a track record of doing truly inspired work that makes you step back and take a breath and saw ‘wow,'" he added. The Bigger Picture Market researcher IDC predicts the worldwide wearable computing devices market will reach a total of 19.2 million units in 2014. Primarily, Fitbit devices, Jawbone's UP bracelet, and the Nike+ FuelBand are driving the market. IDC also estimated the Pebble smart watch, Samsung Galaxy Gear, and the Sony SmartWatch will take a giant step forward. According to IDC, the runway for smart wearables is long, and it will not be until 2016 that we begin to see millions of units shipping. "Wearable computing is still at the launchpad. The market has certainly warmed up to the notion of wearables, but the spectrum of devices is so large, ranging from very simple, single-purpose devices to full-fledged computers that different categories will be able to gain salience sooner than others,” said Ramon Llamas, research manager with IDC's mobile phones team. “This will either allow vendors to hone their products and services or jump in sooner and establish critical ties with suppliers, distributors, and other players in the ecosystem," he said. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
tudy: Friends Share Similarities in Their DNA
By Malcolm Ritter
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Latest News
| You may be more similar to your friends than you think: A study suggests that the DNA code tends to be more alike between friends than between strangers.That's beyond the effect of shared ethnicity, researchers say. And it could be important for theories about human evolution, says James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego. He and Yale researcher Nicholas Christakis present their results in a paper released Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. How much more alike are friends than strangers? Not much. Imagine the small similarity between fourth cousins, people who share a set of great-great-great grandparents. The study included 1,932 participants in a long-running health study in Framingham, Massachusetts. Researchers knew who was close friends with whom from the 1970s to the early 2000s because of information gathered for the study. From this group they identified 1,367 pairs of close friends and about 1.2 million pairs of strangers. Then they examined information about nearly 467,000 locations in the DNA code of each participant. They looked for how similar the friend pairs were, and compared that to how similar the stranger pairs were. The researchers found that genes affecting sense of smell were especially likely to be similar in friends. Why would friends have more DNA similarities than strangers? Fowler said it's not clear. One possibility is that similar genes nudge people toward similar environments, which then gives them a chance to meet. Another possibility is that people who share certain genes also share skills that become more valuable when the people work together, he said. This could have been important over evolutionary time, and so set up a pattern that people still follow, he said. Fowler also said it's not clear whether the finding pertains to groups outside of the Framingham study group, which is overwhelmingly Irish and Italian. In any case, findings of DNA similarities between friends could help explain how behaviors like altruism developed over evolutionary time, he said. Francisco Ayala, who studies evolutionary genetics at the University of California, Irvine, said the study's results surprised him. But "the statistics are there" to back up the conclusions, he said. Ben Domingue, a researcher at the University of Colorado, Boulder, called the results intriguing. "I am fairly convinced that they are onto something," he wrote in an email. | ||||||||||||||||||
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