Author: ictdigital

Heartcore Capital, one of the few VCs to focus on consumer technology, has raised a $200 million early-stage fund for those kinds of startups across Europe. Heartcore IV, the firm’s flagship investment vehicle, will be supported by Heartcore Progression Beta, a $50 million “opportunity fund” for follow-on rounds in consumer tech. The firm said both vehicles were oversubscribed. Investors in the funds include Hermann Haraldsson (Boozt), Andrew Stalbow (Seriously), Phillip Chambers and Kasper Hulthin (Peakon), Paul Crusius and Marco Vietor (Audibene), Morten Strunge (Podimo, Mofibo) and Max-Josef Meier (Finn). Most European VCs tend to be B2B/SaaS focused, but Heartcore has…

Twelve years after the EU started complaining about the variety of chargers used by mobile phone manufacturers, the Commission has finally got tired of waiting for voluntary standardisation. A legislative proposal has been tabled which, if passed, will force makers of the most common battery-powered electronics to use USB-C connectors and the USB power delivery standard for the charging process itself. This is (arguably) good. The Commission is clear that USB-C is just the latest technology today and that it expects the organisation that co-ordinates USB standards to continue to drive technological development. In a few years’ time, USB-C may…

Most people who are in the market for a new graphics card have one primary question in mind: Which card will give me the most bang for my buck? Obviously, the answer will vary depending on your budget. Beyond that, there are a number of factors to  consider: Raw performance is important, but so are things like noise, the driver experience, and supplemental software. And do you want to pay a premium to get in on the bleeding edge of real-time ray tracing? Let us make it easy for you. We’ve tested nearly every major GPU that’s hit the streets over the past…

Not everyone loves the idea of having a smart speaker or smart display at home. But there’s no question that a voice assistant is very helpful when it comes to controlling smart home devices. Today only, you can get a helpful voice assistant—and another tablet for the home—for under $100. Amazon is selling the 2019 Fire HD 10 tablet with 64 GB of storage for $96.That’s the lowest price yet on this model of the HD 10, and nearly 50 percent off the usual price of $190. The deal ends just before midnight on Tuesday evening Pacific time.There is a…

GAME INFOAWAY: The Survival SeriesSeptember 28, 2021Platform PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5Publisher Breaking WallsDeveloper Breaking Walls There aren’t many things in this increasingly divided world that everyone can still agree on, but Planet Earth is one of them (the BBC series, not the actual planet – that’s as divisive as ever). Who doesn’t enjoy watching animals doing weird things in HD while David Attenborough gently narrates? But what if you could actually control an episode of Planet Earth? To personally eat or be eaten, instead of just watching it play out? That’s the elevator pitch for AWAY: The Survival Series…

Interpreting stealth as a power fantasy, Aragami 2 deploys the shadows as a literal weapon, not merely as somewhere to hide. One ability discharges tendrils of black mist from your fingertips to grab a nearby enemy and fling them headfirst into your fist, knocking them unconscious. Such powerful abilities emphasize a proactive approach to stealth that’s less about waiting for a window of opportunity to open and more about knocking a hole in the wall. With a lean, stylish aesthetic complementing minimalist mission design, Aragami 2 succeeds in making you feel like a daring and deadly shadow warrior, even if…

Do you know what I hate? I hate someone always watching me when I’m at work. I’m betting you do, too. In fact, I know of no one who likes having a boss spying on their work.So, why in the world would you think this is a good idea? (Apparently, many of you do. As The Guardian recently reported, in April 2020 Google queries for “remote monitoring” were up 212% year on year; by April 2021, that had surged by another 243%.)It wasn’t just that paranoid middle managers want to know how to check up on employees to justify their…

Mobile app use continues to climb in enterprises worldwide, and it won’t be long before almost all employee/contractor communications take place over mobile devices. That’s why it’s such a threat to security and compliance that mobile apps have extensive access to everything on a device — and few limitations on what those apps can share.Apple argues that it’s already doing something about this in iOS with its app tracking transparency push. But a report in The Washington Post last week undermines the company’s promises. Why? Because Apple has been trusting app vendors to actually do what they agree to do. (No one…

The past several years have seen a large-scale shift from traditional MPLS-based customer edge routers to SD-WAN technology, according to Gartner’s 2021 Magic Quadrant for WAN Edge Infrastructure.  Overall spending on WAN edge will grow by 2.6% per year through 2025, according to the report. The increased sales of WAN edge technology in general is driven by SD-WAN equipment designed to support work-from-home and in-office environments are slightly dampened by the fact that sales of traditional branch office routers are sharply down as a consequence, Gartner says. As the world shifts from working from home to working from anywhere, companies have…

The recent T-Mobile data breach, reportedly facilitated by attackers gaining access to an unprotected router and from there into the network, could have been prevented through the use of network automation.IDS, IPS, SASE, and other newer technologies get a lot more attention, but automation is critical to modern network security. Here’s a look at how automation should be used to enhance network security.Sound network-device security practicesEffective network operations depend on the triad of people, process, and technology. You need the right people with the right skills and the ability to do effective work, good policies and processes, and the right…