Sunday, August 4, 2019

Apple : Best cloud databases of 2019

Apple : Best cloud databases of 2019

Best cloud databases of 2019

Posted: 04 Aug 2019 08:12 AM PDT

Databases have become an essential part of IT services, as the powerhouse for storing and retrieving data. There are different ways in which data can be recorded though, depending on how the different information you want to use is intended to be cross-referenced.

Traditionally the most common form of database was a relational one, as used in Microsoft Access and it's more powerful big brother, MySQL. In these sort of databases there is a direct relationship between the different points of data, arrange in columns and rows. 

However, these days non-relational databases have become more common, in which data is stored without explicit structure and mechanisms to link it. These have become more in demand for business intelligence, which seeks to connect underlying trends which might be otherwise hidden.

Whichever types of database you need, most providers offer the choice of different database formats to use as required. Here we'll look at the best of them.

  • Want your company or services to be added to this buyer’s guide? Please email your request to desire.athow@futurenet.com with the URL of the buying guide in the subject line. 

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon.com, founded in 2006. It provides on demand cloud computing to individuals and businesses.   

AWS is a cloud-based program for building business solutions using integrated web services. They give users access to a wide range of cloud services such as content delivery and database storage.  

Amazon Relational Database is a Database as a Service (DBaaS). It is suitable for experienced data users, data scientists and database administrators. This is a good choice for developers already familiar with AWS services. Users need to contact a Database Administrator to get setup as the process is technically involved.

Users can build databases specifically geared around their needs. You can create templates or write code. Users can control the type of database, as well as where data is stored. Specific database formats that are supported include Amazon Aurora, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle Database, and SQL Server.

The service offers 750 free hours. There is a price calculator online to help calculate AWS costs but this is tricky to figure out. Users can get assistance from their database administrator.

AWS has three different pricing models; ‘Pay as you Go’, ‘Save when you reserve’ and ‘Pay less using more’.  

However, AWS provides a free tier. This offers users certain services for 12-months. After that, you have to choose to sign up for any of the plans above or to cancel your AWS subscription. You must have an existing AWS subscription to access the Amazon Relational Database Service.

Microsoft Azure was created by Microsoft to build, test, deploy and manage applications and services though their data centres. It was released in 2010.

Microsoft Azure not only offers database as a service but also platform as a service, software as a service and infrastructure as a service. With Azure, clients can use the services purely on the cloud or it can be combined with any existing applications, data centre or infrastructure you may already have in place.

Azure’s SQL database has the familiar look and feel of Microsoft. It has a strong SQL engine compatibility and machine learning. The service offers all SQL tools and applications needed for creating a database. It's easy to use.

Microsoft Azure SQL database has an online portal with access to everything you need. Setup is quick and painless but users need to have a Microsoft account to get started.

Subscribers can use the ‘Connection Libraries’ to choose which operating drivers they want to connect. From here you can also choose your preferred language settings, database name, identify a source and a price tier.

Azure offer users 12 months of free usage. This includes $200 credit and more than 25 ‘Always free’ services. The platform works on a ‘Pay as you go’ subscription so you only pay for what you use.

Online commentators have reported some issues with support.

Oracle Cloud Database is part of Oracle Cloud, which belongs to the Oracle Corporation, founded in 1977.

Oracle Cloud Platform works as a combination of open source technology and Oracle technology. This enable users to more efficiently build, deploy, integrate and manage all of your platform applications.

The solution uses a mixture of machine learning and AI to provide a service that offers self-repairing abilities. It also reduces business start-up costs and offers predictive insights.

Oracle Database as a Service supports any size enterprise. It provides a high level of encryption which spans multiple layers.

The database can be setup in a matter of minutes and is simple to navigate. Users can add ‘on-capacity demand’ so as they grow they can increase in scale.

All of your data and applications can be integrated. The solution enables the user to migrate all processes to the cloud. Everything is managed via a single platform. All data is encrypted by default.

Oracle Cloud Platform claims their solution does everything for you. This saves time on repetitive tasks such as system maintenance, deploying solutions and necessary updates.

The platform comes with a 30-day free trial which includes $300 credit and up to 3,500 hours. There is a ‘Pay as you Go’ tier or a ‘Monthly Flex’ plan. With the ‘Flex’ plan users commit to a monthly amount in cloud services with a contract ranging from 1-7 years. In order to sign up for either of the above, users will need to contact Oracle directly.

Users have reported some issues with customer support.  

SAP Cloud Platform is a platform as a service developed by SAP SE. It creates new applications in a secure cloud environment. It was founded in 2012.

The platform includes the in-memory SAP HANA database management system. It connects both on-premises and cloud-based systems running SAP or other third-party software.

SAP Cloud Platform is geared towards larger enterprises with huge amounts of data sets. The system is generally straight forward to setup and will guide you through the process step by step.

Use the ‘Data and Storage’ option to choose which database management systems you want to use. You can also choose the type of data migration.

SAP offer users a free trial. There are two commercial pricing plans to choose from. Sap have created a PDF with all their prices clearly explained. 

Online commentators have complained that SAP is not as competitively priced as other providers.

Rackspace Cloud is a set of cloud-computing products from the US company Rackspace. It was founded in 2006. The solution offers web application hosting, platform as a services and cloud services amongst others.

Racksapce allows you to choose a cloud provider with which you can then interact via Rackspace’s platform. The service has partnered with major cloud providers such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services and WMware. The advantage of this system is that you have the scalability of some of the biggest cloud providers around but with the customer support of a smaller company.

Rackspace offers a wide range of cloud services. These include public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud and multi-cloud. When it comes to their IaaS and DBaaS solutions, Rackspace now builds entirely on the open source OpenStack cloud operating system.

Cloud Databases gives users simple, on-demand provisioned and open API’s. Users can deploy MySQL, Persona Server or MariaDB.

Rackspace Cloud databases allow users to add or remove replicas, move between instances sizes up to 64GB RAM and scale storage up to 1TB.

Users can schedule backups and restores. The platform offers container-based isolation for near bare-metal performance.

The platform offers 24/7 support with databases specialists available to assist with any query.  

You can sign up to Rackspace for free which includes a technical account manager, security guidance and free server monitoring and reporting. Rackspace has an in-depth guide into their prices. This way you can pick the package that best suits your needs.

Users have mentioned issues with documentation but this is balanced out by excellent service support.

More cloud database options


Other cloud databases to consider

There's been a profusion in the number of cloud platforms in recent years, offered by a large range of companies. As database-driven software remains the norm, it remains key to ensure whichever cloud platform option you take that it can probably support your database types and size, and properly integrate with other IT infrastructure, not least monitoring for security or errors. Here we'll briefly cover some additional cloud database options worth looking at as well:

IBM Db2 on Cloud is just one of the service offerings from service giant IBM, as part of its comprehensive cloud management platform. IBM's Db2 on Cloud is a fully managed SQL database that runs in the cloud. It's quick and easy to set up and allows for flexible scaling, so you only need to pay for what you actually use in terms of resources. Security patching it automated, and it's easy to retrieve datasets as and when you need to look at them. Db2 on Cloud can also be set up on a private VPN.

Zoho Creator is something a little different - it's not so much a cloud database management platform as much as an easy way to build your own database in the cloud. This is especially useful for smaller companies who might want to build their own apps but would otherwise find a big-name cloud management package overkill. It runs through a simple drag-and-drop interface which allows full customization, and as part of the Zoho suite of apps means it will easily integrate with other Zoho products.

Couchbase is also a little different in that it allows you to build your own databases running N1QL, which allows for far more complex data storage than MySQL normally allows. This means being able to build databases in the cloud which are layered and works better for JSON. Additionally, it has built-in analytics, easy replication, and enterprise-grade security. So if you require a more innovative database platform with the flexibility of NoSQL, Couchbase may be worth looking at.

MongoDB Atlas is an automated cloud service that makes it much easier to manage databases in the cloud, allowing users to focus on application development instead. It offers global support for over 60 cloud regions and comes with distributed fault tolerance along with backup options to ensure business continuity. On-demand scaling, resource optimization, and fully automated structure provisioning means that MongoDB could be particularly attractive for innovative enterprise.

Google Cloud Database Services comes as part of Google's cloud platform services, and is the last of the big name cloud providers we'll mention here. There are a lot of options for users to choose from, not relational vs non-relational ones. The Cloud SQL option provides managed support for PostgreSQL & MySQL, while the BigTable option provides a petabyte-scale, fully managed NoSQL database service for large analytical and operational workloads.

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Best broadband and TV deals to get you prepared for the Premier League season

Posted: 04 Aug 2019 07:56 AM PDT

With the Women's World Cup, Copa America, African Cup of Nations and Gold Cup, football has barely gone away for the summer. And that's before you even get to the high profile pre-season friendlies and Champions League qualifying. But the centrepiece of English football returns in just a few days - the Premier League.

Now if you fall neatly into the Venn diagram of football fan and somebody needing to renew their broadband deal, there are some fantastic offers floating around now that will let you sort out your internet and television subscriptions in one go. You can even add call plans for a home communications hat-trick!

With Sky, Virgin Media, BT and Now all with some silky tricks in the locker to tempt you their way for the new season, the only winner is the consumer (and, let's face it, probably Manchester City).

So keep reading to discover the best broadband and TV deals around to get the most from this season's football action. And we tell you more about who'll give you a better view of the action - Sky Sports or BT Sport...or Amazon Prime.

BT Broadband with FREE BT Sport

Now Broadband Fab Fibre + Sky Sports

Sky Broadband + Sky Sports

Virgin Media fibre + Sky Sports AND BT Sport

2019/20 Football on Sky Sports

Go for a broadband deal that comes with Sky Sports and you'll get exclusive access to more matches than any other broadcaster can come close to offering. And it's not all about the Premier League. Namely:

  • 128 Premier League matches
  • 183 EFL matches (including Championship, League One and League Two)
  • EFL Cup
  • UEFA Nations League
  • 30 Scottish Premiership matches
  • Northern Irish Premiership
  • Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland European Championship qualifiers
  • MLS

2019/20 Football on BT Sport

Sky was the only place you could watch live Premier League football for years. But now BT Sport has a decent share of the action. Go for BT Sport and broadband for exclusive coverage of:

  • 52 Premier League matches
  • 30 FA Cup games
  • Champions League Matches including the final
  • Europa League matches including the final
  • Community Shield
  • National League (one match per week)
  • 30 Scottish Premiership matches, as well as Scottish League Cup
  • German Bundesliga
  • French Ligue 1
  • Italian Coppa Italia cup matches

Amazon

2019/20 Football on Amazon Prime Video

Well this is new! Amazon has managed to bag exclusive coverage of 20 Premier League games this season - all in the crucial December period. Read more about the new arrival in our dedicated news story from when the fixture list was announced.

Watch Sky, Now or BT when abroad

If you're intending to be out of the country a lot over the course of this Premier League season and so aren't sure whether a premium sports TV subscription is worth while, we can put your mind at rest. Grab yourself a VPN and then login to live stream the football online as if you were back in the UK.

Best broadband and TV deals

Haven't quite found the right plan for you above? No worries - head to our broadband and TV deals page and you can have a Claudio Ranieri-like tinker with TechRadar's price comparison table to help you choose the perfect package package.

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This virtual Viking battle was the most immersive VR I've ever seen

Posted: 04 Aug 2019 07:01 AM PDT

There's never been a better time to be a VR enthusiast. With the increased presence of standalone, wireless headsets, plus the advanced motion tracking and screen resolutions to make VR experiences vaguely in sync with our body’s own senses, we’re now reaching a point where VR simulations are starting to feel, if not real, certainly more realistic than they used to be.

We’re still far from the Matrix, however. Developers are still trying to get around basic physical issues like motion sickness and eye strain, while the kinds of human character models generated for VR game engines – or any game engine, for that matter – are anything but lifelike.

With volumetric capture, though, that might start to change.

I made a visit to Dimension, a VR production studio working with the new video capture technology, to find out how a simulation of a Viking battle ship could signal the future of interactive VR experiences. 

What is volumetric capture?

When you're capturing that much detail, you need good lighting (Image Credit: TechRadar)

Volumetric capture is a relatively new video capture technology for recreating people and objects in virtual reality. Patented by Microsoft, with only two studios currently licensing the technology worldwide – Dimension being one of them – it has the potential to change the level of immersion and emotional engagement we get from VR.

Instead of using a 360-degree camera that snaps real-life footage in all directions, or recreating an entire scene in a computer physics engine, volumetric capture uses a vast array of cameras in a dedicated capture studio – recording from multiple angles to capture an incredible amount of detail, when is then scanned into a CGI environment.

Dimension’s capture stage has 106 individual cameras (53 RGB, 53 infra-red) as well as eight directional microphones to capture audio in real-time, instead of adding in separately in post-production. The full array is able to capture over 10GB of detail per second, at 30 frames per second – or 20GB/s at 60 frames per second.

106 cameras capture the actors from all angles (Image Credit: TechRadar)

Steve Jelly, managing director of Hammerhead (which owns and operates Dimension), ran me through how the process works:

“Half of [the cameras] are shooting visible light, and the other half are shooting infra-red light, which is lit by these lasers here… and that helps our algorithms figure out form as well as color. 

“We take those images, and then we run them through a massive computer farm over the road, which basically computes every position of every single pixel in space, creates a mesh, and wraps the video footage over the top of it.”

The precision of the mapping method, which uses “thousands of tiny dots” to capture 3D objects, means that the cameras can even recreate details as small as the folds in your clothes – far more detail than you’d get with traditional motion capture methods, which rely on recreating gesture and movement within a computer-generated ‘puppet’.

“That’s the problem [with motion capture],” said Jelley. “You can make it look fantastic, if you got a lot of money, and you’re outputting a 2D frame, but you always lose something in translation.”

What do Vikings have to do with anything?

A Viking vessel at sunset (Image Credit: Dimension)

We arrived at Dimension’s studio to try out a preview of Virtual Viking: The Ambush. A collaboration between Ridley Scott’s production studio RSA Films and the interaction entertainment center The Viking Planet in Olso, it’s one of the latest examples of how immersive the VR experiences of tomorrow could be.

The Ambush is a historically-accurate recreation of a Viking battle ship in VR, using expertise from a host of era-appropriate museums – “wherever there are Viking boats”, we were told – and research texts such as Kim Hjardar’s Vikings at War. Produced for The Viking Planet center in Olso, Norway, the demo is set to be part of a wider exhibition of the lives of Norse seafarers, using a number of VR headsets to bring budding historians onto a Viking ship in the heat of battle.

Given the involvement of Microsoft, it’s unsurprising that The Ambush runs on a Windows Mixed Reality headset: the HP Reverb. 

The Reverb does, however, have one of the sharpest displays on the market, with 2,160 x 2,160 resolution per-eye panels, delivering twice the display resolution of the HTC Vive Pro and Samsung Odyssey+. Not to mention six degrees of freedom for fluid movement in 360 degrees.

The HP Reverb features a crisp 2,160 x 2,160 resolution per eye (Image Credit: TechRadar)

We’re told the end experience will have full haptic feedback for the seats you’re in too, recreating the gentle rock of the boat to minimise motion sickness – another recurring obstacle for seamless VR.

Making the virtual feel real

We’ve been to a lot of VR demos – everything from 8K batman helmets to nausea-inducing paragliding – but The Ambush felt incredibly fresh.

Starting out at a dozy campfire and ending up under siege from flaming arrows on an ancient Viking boat, Dimension has pieced together a simple narrative along Norway's west coast, with the historically-accurate recreations of boats, weapons and Vikings to lend the scene some weight.

The closest comparison I can think of is sitting onstage in a theatre, with the actors only a few feet away from you. I could see the Vikings in front of me heaving their chests as they rowed their ship down the river at night, squinting their eyes to see better in the dark, knuckles tensing around their CGI oars, and flinching as projectiles began to rain down on their allies.

A Viking battle scene (Image Credit: Dimension)

While many of the objects – and the ship itself – was generated in Unreal engine, it was the actors that really made the virtual space feel peopled, and made the resulting destruction of the ship’s crew all the more affecting.

It’s those small details, in a look, a tightening grip on an oar, or the twitch of a facial muscle, that make a person feel real – without the ‘uncanny valley’ effect with digital characters that simply aren’t as expressive as a human face.

The challenge with capturing human performances, though, is that you can’t blame the technology for bad acting. Lisa Joseph, producer at RSA Films, started her career in the theatre, and is only too aware of how important this aspect is.

“You’re taking real people, and putting them into a computer generated world,” says Joseph. “So they really need to be able to act.”

Dimension had to run “rigorous casting” over several days, to make sure the result was worth the trouble of the new capture method. What made the process easier was by adding NPCs (non-player characters) into the background, only utilizing actual people for those in close proximity to the viewer, where the difference in detail would really count.

Arrows had to be added through CGI after the images were captured, so viewers could see them flying out of the bow (Image Credit: Dimension)

There are certainly big applications in VR games: imagining an open-world Fallout or Skyrim with complex, human expressions instead of rote facial animations could completely transform how engaging our interactions in games can be. 

Those at Dimension won’t be baited on the topic, but their use of Unreal Engine – which powers titles ranging from Fortnite and Gears of War to the Final Fantasy VII remake – gives us hope that it isn’t too long before volumetric capture catches on in the wider industry. We have a lot more VR demos ahead of us, and we want them to feel a lot more like this.

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Liverpool vs Man City live stream: how to watch the 2019 Community Shield from anywhere

Posted: 04 Aug 2019 06:50 AM PDT

The two best football teams in England meet at Wembley today for the 2019/20 curtain raiser - the FA Community Shield. After last season's tightly contested title race between Liverpool and Manchester City, the two sides will face each other again today. It looks set to be an intriguing affair and, with our help, you can get a Liverpool vs Man City Community Shield live stream wherever you are.

The Community Shield traditionally pits the FA Cup winners against the Premier League champions. However, with Man City having pulled off an historic domestic treble, league runners-up Liverpool will step in for this year's early-season showdown at Wembley.

Not resting on their laurels, City have spent almost £75m on three players this summer - with a cool £62.5million of that outlay spent on Spanish midfielder Rodri, who is expected to start in today's game. With Jurgen Klopp having largely resisted dipping into the transfer market during the close season - Dutch teenager Sepp Van Den Berg's £1.7million move from PEC Zwolle to the Reds currently their only signing of note - Liverpool's line-up should have a familiar look to it today,

Come May next year it'll have been 30 years since Liverpool will have won the league. Having come so close last year, Klopp will be keen to get this year's campaign off on the right foot with a win today at Wembley against the team most likely to stand in their way of ending that drought.

So will it be Liverpool or Manchester City that gets to lift the trophy today? Below we're going to talk you through the best ways to watch the Community Shield action with a Liverpool vs Man City live stream no matter where you are in the world.

Live stream Liverpool vs Man City from outside your country

Further down the page we have details of catching the Community Shield in the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. All require some kind of subscription.

But if you've paid for that subscription but are outside the country this weekend, then you'll soon find your access geo-blocked when you try to watch. To stop feeling like you've wasted your money (and assuming it's within the services Ts&Cs), you could use a VPN to watch as if you were back at home.

How to live stream the Community Shield in the UK:

How to watch the Community Shield: live stream in the US

Live stream Liverpool vs Man City in Australia

Live stream Community Shield soccer in Canada 

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Windows 10 wins big as looming support deadline sees Windows 7 users abandon ship

Posted: 04 Aug 2019 06:31 AM PDT

Windows 10 made big gains while Windows 7 experienced a large drop in users last month, as it appears that folks are finally starting to take the impending end of support deadline for the latter OS seriously.

This is according to figures from Net Applications for July, which found Windows 10 increased its share by 3.1% to stand at 48.9% in the overall desktop market (meaning not just Windows installations, but macOS, Linux and Chrome OS too).

The analytics firm reported that Windows 7 dropped 3.6% – down to 31.8% – and it’s a fairly reasonable assumption to make that the majority of this shift consisted of folks upgrading to Windows 10.

Particularly when you consider that Windows 7’s lifespan is rapidly dwindling, with support for the OS officially ending on January 14, 2020 (only five months away).

Indeed, Microsoft has already started actively warning Windows 7 users that their time is running out, so it appears that people are finally listening, and making the move away from the venerable operating system.

Telling decline

What’s also very telling is that Windows 7’s decline of 3.6% in July is the second largest drop that Net Applications has ever observed, and equally, the boost for Windows 10 is the second largest increase – seemingly underlining the shift that is going on here.

All of which is good news for the overall security picture of Windows PCs, because as of mid-January 2020, Windows 7 will be open to all manner of exploits going forward, seeing as any vulnerabilities that pop up in the OS won’t be patched.

That didn’t stop folks sticking with Windows XP long past its sell-by-date, mind you, and we’re likely to witness the same scenario with a good number of hardcore holdouts staying on Windows 7 as we move further into 2020 and beyond.

What’ll be interesting to see is if Microsoft will step in to save Windows 7 users from a major malware attack post-support deadline, as it did with Windows XP and WannaCry (and indeed further spins on that particularly nasty ransomware). Or if this time around, the software giant will stick to its guns, and say that no patches really means no patches.

Via Computerworld

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YouTube Premium users can now download videos in 1080p quality

Posted: 04 Aug 2019 06:30 AM PDT

Good news if you're paying for a YouTube Premium subscription every month: you can now download videos for offline playback at resolutions of 1080p, up from the previous limit of 720p.

The change was first spotted by Android Police, with the Full HD (1080p) option appearing when YouTube Premium users try and save videos to their phones.

You might not see the option yet though – apparently the feature is being slowly rolled out across the YouTube apps for iOS and Android. Make sure you're running the latest version of the app before attempting a download.

Alongside never having to watch adverts, offline downloads are one of the best perks of YouTube Premium, and you should be able to see the difference on phones with bigger screens and sharper resolutions.

Pixel count

There had been rumors as far back as February that YouTube was planning to upgrade the maximum resolution for downloads – but now it appears its engineers are finally getting around to it.

Higher resolution downloads means more space used up on the phone of course, though it's a trade-off that most people will be happy to make. As yet there's no option to download 4K videos in 4K resolution.

Apparently the new and improved higher quality setting is rolling out in all the markets where YouTube Premium is available, though there's not been any official comment from YouTube or Google as yet.

A YouTube Premium subscription also comes with access to YouTube Music, the Spotify rival that's gradually replacing Google Play Music.

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F1 live stream: how to watch the Hungarian Grand Prix 2019 online from anywhere

Posted: 04 Aug 2019 04:17 AM PDT

Don't speak too soon, but could the absolute Mercedes domination of the 2019 Formula 1 season finally be coming to an end? It feels like anything could happen at today's Hungarian Grand Prix and you can stream F1 live - no matter where on Earth you are - with this very guide. 

The 2019 F1 season has reached Hungary for the Budapest-based track of the Hungaroring. Thanks to a distinct lack of straights, this track is often compared to a go karting circuit, taking the drivers back to what they learned on - only with way, WAY more power. As a result expect to see Monaco levels of downforce applied by the teams with lots of rewards for horsepower.

The 2019 season has seen Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes storming ahead at the top of the drivers' championship. But after the young Max Verstappen's impressive win at Hockenheim, he now has his first ever pole in Budapest. Valtteri Bottas sits second and Hamilton third. It's also Ferrari's chance to gain some points if the powerfully tuned cars can just hold it together this time, with Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel starting from fourth and fifth.

While Mercedes can afford the loss, it will be fighting back in Hungary to gain dominance once again. And you can see all the exciting racing using an F1 live stream from anywhere in the world – here's how.

How to watch the Hungarian Grand Prix from outside your country

To see how you can stream F1 live from the Hungarian Grand Prix in the UK, Australia, the US, Canada and New Zealand, then scroll a little further down this page to see the broadcast options. But if you try and tune in to your native stream from outside your country, you'll quickly discover that it's geo-blocked.

How to live stream Hungarian Grand Prix in the UK

How live stream Hungarian Grand Prix 2019 in Australia

Watch the Hungarian Grand Prix in the US: live stream F1

How to watch a Hungarian GP F1 live stream in the Canada

How to get an F1 live stream in New Zealand

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Data privacy regulators in GCC countries get more muscles to flex

Posted: 04 Aug 2019 03:28 AM PDT

Authorities in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are looking to tighten their data privacy laws and give more teeth to regulators after the introduction of EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Privacy regulations around the world protect the rights of the individual’s data for fair and lawful collection and use of their personal information by organisations.

Qatar launched its Privacy and Protection of Personal Data Law in 2016 while Bahrain implemented its data privacy law on August 1 this year. The UAE is expected to implement the law this year and Saudi Arabia by next year. The only countries left are Oman and Kuwait.

Phil Mennie, director for digital trust at consultancy firm PwC, said that the demand for privacy expertise exploded after the introduction of GDPR.

 “We are seeing a lot of changes across the GCC region and a lot of privacy laws are coming in,” he said.

“Large organisations are impacted by the GDPR but we observed, unlike in Europe where privacy has been a topic for a very long time, in the Middle East there is a lower understanding of how privacy impacts organisations,” he said.

However, he said that organisations are finding efficient and economical ways to run their businesses, which involve transferring data outside of their jurisdictions and are using data analytics to create new revenue streams.

Cyberattacks...Fastest growing crime

According to a survey conducted by the consulting firm, 89% of the customers avoid doing business with companies that do not protect their privacy while 87% of CEOs consider lack of privacy over personal data either an issue or risk in their organisation.

According to research firm Cybersecurity Ventures, cyberattacks are the fastest growing crime and are increasing in size, sophistication and cost. Cybercrimes are expected to cost the world $6 trillion annually by 2021, up from $3 trillion in 2015, while the cybersecurity market is expected to experience a 12-15% year-over-year growth through 2021.

Industry experts welcome the move by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of the UAE (TRA) to set up a Data Privacy Law, as they expect certain controls over privacy and the data shared with agencies.

Work in progress

Talal Wazani, Head of Strategic Security Consulting at Help AG, said it is a work in progress and the Law will look similar to GDPR for entities that deal with the private information of customers and govern how they use this information after they get the consent from the customers.

“As far as we know, two initiatives are going on. One is at the Dubai level and the other at the Federal level. One of Smart Dubai’s initiatives is the Dubai Data Law, also known as Bayanat Dubai, but we don’t have any clarity on how it is going to be or what is the structure. On the Federal level, TRA is working on the foundation for the UAE Data Privacy Law,” he said.

Initially, Wazani said that the UAE Data Privacy Law will be some sort of a framework that would be passed on to the lawmakers to refine it further and publish it as the law.

He said that both Dubai and the UAE have some catching up to do but Mennie said that it is a good move from the UAE authorities but will not say it is late as the whole world is catching up now.

“Only in the last few years, privacy has become such an important topic after the recent scandals, data breaches and the fines coming out of Europe. It is the right thing to introduce to protect the personal data of individuals,” Mennie said.

UAE gets tough on IoT and health care data  

This year, the TRA has also published a new policy regulating services and devices associated with the Internet of Things (IoT Policy) in March while the UAE Federal Law on health care came into effect in May that directly addresses data protection principles.

Mohammad Al Zarooni, Director of Policies and Programs Department at TRA, had told TechRadar Middle East recently that data privacy is crucial to the cyber and the UAE is regulating and drafting a data protection law.

“We will look at the best performing practices performed worldwide; GDPR will be one of the inputs to it. We want to make sure that whatever regulations are put, are easy to be implemented across different sectors,” he said.

Richard Chudzynski, senior manager at PwC Legal, said that Bahrain does not have fines as compared to GDPR but have criminal sanctions.

GDPR has a ceiling of 4% of global annual revenues of up to 20,000 euros while Bahrain has a ceiling of BD 20,000 with a potential sentence of a maximum imprisonment of one year.

A breach, under GDPR, needs to be disclosed within 72 hours but this law is not included in Bahrain Personal Data Protection Law and can be submitted monthly to the regulator.

Tough to accomplish

When asked about the possibilities of implementation of a GCC-wide data privacy law, Wazani said it would be amazing if a GCC- or Arab-wide law can be accomplished but it is tough to accomplish.

“For GDPR, EU is the governing body and in the Middle East, there is no governing body. How long is it taking for the GCC-wide VAT to be implemented? The difficulty is in aligning together all the local privacy laws in the Middle East, apart from the jurisdiction laws as well,” he said. 

However, Mennie said that a GCC-wide law is sensible to him but he does not know how the legal resume works across the GCC and don’t know whether there is any mechanism in place to enforce the law across the GCC.

“If there was, that would make a lot of sense,” he said.            

Al Zarooni said that there are some talks about a unified GCC law but “I believe that most of the regulations worldwide will be more or less the same, some will be more stringent and some will be relaxed. One unified GCC law might be good but it will be challenging to come up with”.

 

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MotoGP live stream: how to watch the 2019 Czech motorcycle Grand Prix online from anywhere

Posted: 04 Aug 2019 02:44 AM PDT

The 2019 MotoGP season is well underway with the tenth race set to take place at the Automotodrom Brno in the Czech Republic. The racing has been tight so far with battles between big riders like Marc Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso so expect this the Czech Grand Prix to be dramatic. You can get a MotoGP live stream using this guide so you don't miss any of the tyre-burning brilliance. 

The current championship has the Honda-riding Spaniard Marc Marquez sitting at the top with 185 points followed a bit farther behind by Italian Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso at 127 points and his fellow Ducati riding Italian rider Danilo Petrucci just behind with 121 points. 

But it's not all Honda and Ducati as the Yamaha duo of Vinales and Rossi who want to make a big impression on their first weekend back after their summer holidays. 

The 3.3 miles track with a peak length straight of 636 metres should offer plenty of excitement with big battles across the six left and eight right turns across the 15 metre width track. The average speed on this track is 165 km/h with top speeds of up to 316 km/h - yup, exciting stuff.

To keep up with every knee-scraping turn you can watch all the action using a live stream with this guide. Read on to live stream MotoGP 2019 from anywhere you happen to be in the world.

How to live stream MotoGP from outside your country

To see how you can live stream the MotoGP action in the UK, Australia, the US, Canada and New Zealand, read on further down this page to see the broadcast options. But if you want to stream the riding from outside your country, you may find that it's geo-blocked.

That's where a VPN can come in really handy. It's a piece of software readily available to download and install that allows you to simulate the IP address on your laptop (or mobile phone, tablet, streaming device, console, etc) so that it appears to be in a completely different country. Ideal, assuming that it doesn't breach any Ts&Cs from the broadcaster you're trying to tune in to.

That might sound complicated, by VPNs - or Virtual Private Networks - are actually surprisingly easy to operate. Simply select one of our top three best VPN picks below (or opt straight for our number one favorite ExpressVPN), open it up and pick out your country of choice from the 'choose location' menu, and then start watching as if you were sat back at home. Easy!

The other thing that makes Express worth knowing about is the fact that it works with loads of mobile devices (Including Android and iOS) and TV streaming gizmos (so games consoles, Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, etc), comes with 30-day money back guarantee and 3 months FREE when you sign up for an annual plan. Click here to sign up to ExpressVPN.

How to stream MotoGP live from Czech Republic in the UK

How to watch the Czech MotoGP in the US

How live stream the Czech MotoGP in Australia

How to watch a Czech MotoGP live stream in the Canada

How to get a Czech MotoGP live stream in New Zealand

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Tesla brings back free, unlimited supercharging for Model S and Model X cars

Posted: 04 Aug 2019 02:30 AM PDT

Free and unlimited supercharging is back for owners of Model S and Model X cars, Tesla has announced – which means drivers can access the Supercharger network and juice up their vehicles at no extra cost.

It's a perk that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has previously described as "unsustainable", though this latest decision suggests it makes business sense for the more expensive models in the company's range.

Sales of the Model S and Model X have slowed down recently, so the unlimited charging deal is perhaps one way that Tesla can get new customers to go for these premium models rather than the Model 3.

According to a memo seen by Electrek, the perk lasts for as long as the driver owns the car but is linked to the owner, so it can't be transferred to anyone else.

Keep on charging

Free and unlimited access to Supercharger stations was one of the traditional perks of owning a Model S or Model X until January 2017 – at that point a 400 kWh limit for the year was introduced, after which drivers had to pay for their electricity.

It makes sense that Tesla would need to scale back the offer as more and more cars hit the road, costing the company more and more in terms of Supercharger power.

However, it looks like the sums do work out after all, if it means more people are buying Model S and Model X cars. Prices for the base configuration of both models were recently raised too.

In the meantime, Tesla's on-board software continues to get plenty of upgrades: support for better games and in-car karaoke have been rolled out in recent months.

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