HP now makes an affordable Deskjet printer your grandma will love

Unlike Millennials, who are known for chasing the newest and most feature-rich consumer electronics, empty-nesters and seniors want different things from their tech.

With the American population aged 65 and older expected to double, there’s little doubt that Baby Boomers will be heading into their golden years with their smartphones in hand. But the ways in which this group uses their tech will change significantly as they get older.

It’s one of the reasons why HP designed a new DeskJet printer with wireless connectivity—but scraps a lot of other bells and whistles—to meet their needs for wireless printing from a smartphone or tablet, at an affordable price.

Today the company rolled out the DeskJet 2600 series, the company’s lowest-priced All-in-One printer with wireless and mobile connectivity. It can print, copy and scan and retails for about $50.

“The customer we are targeting doesn’t need 100-sheet inputs trays or really fast speeds, because they don’t do a ton of printing,” said Cari Dorsh, director, home consumer product management at HP. “They need convenience, ease-of-use and reliability in a low-cost device.”

No-compromise connectivity

With fewer cables, wireless printing offers flexibility in where a printer is placed and enables printing from mobile devices and PCs alike. But for consumers who don’t have broadband at home, HP embedded Wi-Fi Direct in the DeskJet 2600 ensures that users—or anyone who walks into the house—can still print from their smartphones or other mobile computing devices.

“We know that the whole market is moving toward wireless and customers want mobile,” Dorsh said. “Wi-Fi Direct enables multiple users to connect their smartphone or tablet directly to the all-in-one and easily print without accessing a network.”

Rethinking design

HP’s engineers were able to keep costs down by removing higher-end features, simplifying the device and making it easy to use out of the box.

There aren’t a lot of features to get confused about, Dorsh said, making it an ideal printer for empty nesters or in multi-generational households where grandparents reside with their school-age grandkids.

“We did a couple of things differently for this customer segment to better meet their needs,” she said. “For this customer, having wireless connectivity and mobile printing is more important than higher-end printer features.”

Those design tweaks included enlarging the control buttons and reducing the feature set on the control panel to make the printer’s capabilities easy to understand.

For people on a limited budget, HP offers a low-cost, subscription-based Instant Ink services that ensures ink is delivered automatically when supplies are running low, for a monthly fee that is as little as $2.99 per month.

Wireless setup was streamlined, too. All of it can be done via the HP All-in-One Remote smartphone app that walks through the process for a smoother user experience.

“We made the setup much easier for people who aren’t necessarily tech-savvy,” Dorsh said. “They get these forward-looking features and something everyone in the house can connect to without a lot of added cost or complexity.”

More specs for the HP DeskJet 2655 AiO can be found here. Global availability will roll out later this year.

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In recent years, display innovation has produced heightened resolution, connectivity, functionality, and ROI. Displays are sleek, stylish, more robust, and thoughtfully aligned with today’s dynamic, agile, and collaborative workspaces. Designed to drive work teams, the latest iterations of this oft-overlooked, but critical technology can boost your performance, productivity, and efficiency.

Displays: Then and now

Given the proliferation of smartphones, tablets, and laptops in our mobile business environment, displays often fade into the background, with users never questioning how they contribute to a more productive workday. However, displays are office necessities that have a powerful, innovative impact on productivity.

Here’s a look at how displays have evolved in the past 10 years:

• More connectors: Once upon a time, a monitor hosted only two connection points: a VGA and DVI. Today’s modern displays include a diverse assortment of ports—VGA, HDMI, DisplayPort, and USB-C. These added connectors help us do more, from supporting our video and audio needs to fast power delivery over USB connections.
• Higher resolution: The increased pixel density in 4k and 5k resolution displays allow us to work with more detail (good for coders), sharper image quality (good for photo editors), and high-definition video (good for streamers), while also reducing eye strain (good for all of us).
• Wider aspect ratio: Displays can be measured several ways, one of which is aspect ratio. The aspect ratio of an image is the ratio of the width of the image to its height. The square 4:3 aspect ratio used to be the desktop display standard; and while the widescreen 16:9 has been the norm for several years, curved 21:9 formats are now on the market. Benefits of wider aspect ratio include a high degree of image detail for graphics editing, and a unique immersive gaming experience, to name two.
• Larger screens: Much like TVs, display screens have seen a growth spurt. Just a few years ago, the 19-inch display was the benchmark. Many flat-panel displays are now 22-inches or larger, while curved displays increase your field of vision and make the most of all available screen space. These larger displays allow you to view multiple windows and documents at once, replacing the need for multiple monitors at one desk. That way, you get more screen real estate and more desk space to boot.
• Improved collaboration: We share with local and global colleagues more than ever before, so staying connected requires evolving how we collaborate. Whether you’re conferencing at your desk or in a huddle room, displays like the Skype for Business-certified HP EliteDisplay E240c and HP EliteDisplay S340c Curved Monitor make meetings more manageable and productive.¹
• More comfortable: If your head and neck aren’t comfortable while working in front of a PC, chances are you’re not doing your best work. New displays are designed with your well-being in mind. Pivot rotation allows you to configure multiple displays to best fit the shape of your workstation. Pro tip: For eye comfort, position your display 18″–28″ away, adjust it to the right height, and take visual breaks.²
• Greater ROI: Though display technology is at an all-time high, its costs are not. Display prices have reduced significantly, below top models available just five years ago that claimed far fewer capabilities. Meanwhile, display hardware is made from 85% post-consumer recycled plastics and holds some of the top energy/sustainability certifications to help reduce environmental impact and make responsible end-of-life return and recycling easier.

Displays for the office of the future

When we interact with technology for hours each day, we tend to care about its design, appearance, and functionality. Understandably, most of us gravitate toward modern, intuitive technology that helps push productivity and add convenience and capacity to our workday. Today’s displays are meeting these needs by fueling team members’ work in powerful, tangible ways through optimizing performance, streamlining collaboration, and driving the bottom line.

Source by HP

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Is your company’s email providing a tempting route for cyber criminals to attack your business? Hackers continue to target businesses with phishing attacks. Once opened, these malicious email messages can hijack an entire company’s financial information and gain access to funds and personal information. Email is a business essential, but also an easy avenue for hackers to use and abuse. How can you keep your business secure?

The human factor

Businesses of all sizes face vulnerabilities via email. When email accounts are hacked and compromised, cyber criminals can gain access to information including user names, telephone numbers, birthdates, passwords, and unencrypted security questions.

Email is a common entry point for hackers because it’s an easy way to exploit the weak link in cybersecurity policies: humans. Employees rushing through their emails can easily click on a malicious link. No wonder that a recent survey reveals some 90% of cyber attacks initiate with email.¹

Today, hackers are becoming more sophisticated than ever in their approach to email hacking. They’ve expanded from “phishing”—which tricks recipients into opening malicious emails or clicking on bad links—to now “spear phishing.” This new approach relies on emails that appear to be from a trusted sender, such as the company’s CEO, a vendor, or the business’s bank, in order to fool recipients. Companies affected by these attacks lost productivity, money, and intellectual property.

Email do’s and don’ts

Don’t wait for your business to be victimized before you take action. Taking a few simple steps can help shore up any email vulnerabilities your business may have. Here are the do’s and don’ts to follow.

1. Do educate employees in the basics of email security. For example, remind them to pay attention to where an email came from before clicking on attachments or links. Cyber criminals excel at crafting legitimate-looking emails that appear to come from the IRS, banks, or health insurance providers. One clue to fraud is an email address that’s slightly “off” (for instance, the letter “o” is replaced with the numeral “0” or the letter “l” is replaced with the numeral “1”). Grammatical errors, typos, and low-resolution logos are other warning signs. Explain to your team that financial, government, and law enforcement institutions do not request personal information or passwords via email. And teach them it’s better to be safe than sorry: If an email from a familiar source seems strange, contact the sender to double-check its authenticity.
2. Don’t make email your default communication method. Think twice about sharing sensitive data over email or attaching documents with sensitive information. Consider using cloud-based file-sharing services instead. (Make sure the service you choose uses appropriate security measures.) Send a link to the file and limit access only to those who need it.
3. Do require frequent password resets—at least every six months. Instruct employees how to create strong passwords and to keep them safe—not just posted on their computer or keyboard. Remind employees not to share their passwords with others. In case they give in to temptation, create an added layer of security by using PCs equipped with multi-factor authentication. Biometric identification such as fingerprints or facial recognition can provide additional security to reduce the risk of compromised emails.
4. Don’t access your business email over public networks. While using a coffee shop’s Wi-Fi to check your email is common for today’s mobile workforce, it can put your business’s data at risk. Public networks are vulnerable to hackers who can exploit your laptop or mobile device as an “in” to your business network. Set up a virtual private network (VPN) to use when accessing email outside the office, and enable two-factor authentication of your email accounts for times when a public network is your only option.
5. Do provide physical protection. Employees working on laptops in public places can expose email passwords to prying eyes. Shield your business from this risk by equipping notebooks with privacy filters. The HP EliteBook 1040 and HP EliteBook 840 feature HP’s Sure View integrated privacy screen, which darkens at the touch of a button.² The HP WorkWise³smartphone app locks and unlocks your PC if you step away from it, and instantly alerts you if your PC is tampered with.
6. Don’t forget to terminate email access as soon as an employee leaves the company. Even if a worker leaves on good terms, cyber criminals could discover the person’s email password and use it to access your network. Shutting down former employees’ email access protects against potential threats.

Better safe than sorry

Set and enforce strict email usage policies, enlist the right technology to protect your network, and you’ll be able to rest assured you’ve done all you can to keep your business safe from email-based attacks.

^{[1] Cloudmark, Survey Reveals Spear Phishing as a Top Security Concern to Enterprises
[2] HP Sure View integrated privacy screen is an optional feature that must be configured at purchase expected to be available Q2 2017.
[3] HP WorkWise smartphone app is available as a free download on the Apple Store and Google Play.}

Source by HP

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The Optane DC P4800X SSD has 375GB of storage and is priced at $1,520

Intel’s first Optane storage modules came out in early January, but were only 32GB. Larger Optane drives with up to 1.5TB of storage capacity are on their way, and we now have a better understanding of how they’re going to perform.

The first large-capacity Optane SSD drive is the DC P4800X, which has 375GB of storage and started shipping on Sunday. The $1,520 SSD is targeted at servers. (Intel didn’t provide regional availability information.)

Intel says an enterprise Optane SSD with 750GB will ship in the second quarter, and that a 1.5TB SSD will ship in the second half of this year.

These SSDs will fit as add-in cards in the PCI-Express/NVMe and U.2 slots. That means they could work in some workstations and servers based on AMD’s 32-core Naples processors.

Optane will also ship in the form of DRAM modules next year. Intel did not share information on when it would ship consumer SSDs.

Optane has been hyped as a new class of superfast memory and storage that could replace today’s SSDs and DRAM. Intel has claimed Optane is up to 10 times faster than conventional SSDs.

The technology underpinning Optane is 3D Xpoint, a form of memory that stores data based on the resistance of cells. Intel developed 3D Xpoint with Micron, which later this year will release an Optane competitor called QuantX, aimed at enterprise SSDs.

For the first time, Intel has shared internal benchmarks on the large-capacity Optane drives compared to conventional flash SSDs. The Optane SSD DC P4800X was pitted against the three-year old SSD DC P3700 flash SSD, which is considered one of Intel’s fastest data-center SSDs in terms of random reads and writes.

The benchmarks indicate that the new Optane drive, in most real-world uses, won’t reach the levels of performance that Intel has been hyping up to now. On top of that, the benchmarks were conducted in complex environments that made the numbers hard to interpret.

In a nutshell, Intel said that if you run sequential tasks, it would be better to use conventional SSDs. Optane lights up when running random reads and writes, which are common in servers and high-end PCs. Optane’s random writes reach up to 10 times faster compared to conventional SSDs, but only when utilization is being pushed to extremes, while reads are around three times faster.

In a standard 4K data block, with 70 percent read and 30 percent write, the P4800X was five to eight times faster than the older P3700. The responsiveness of the drive increased with the data load.

Aside from the unusual benchmarking presentation by Intel, Optane has promise, and it could be the storage technology of the future. However, flash-based SSDs are well-established and Optane won’t unseat them overnight, according to analysts.

Optane is more expensive and still being developed, and joins the ranks of other technologies like MRAM (magnetoresistive RAM) and RRAM (resistive RAM) trying to unseat flash.

Intel took a long time to develop large-capacity Optane SSDs, and there is some concern about the drive’s durability. The P4800X has a five-year warranty, but it remains to be seen how long the drive will last.

Optane SSDs will speed up data movement among servers in data centers, said James Myers, director for NVM Solutions Architecture at Intel’s Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group.

Storage is a big bottleneck, and the Optane SSDs will reduce latency. That will improve the productivity of servers, and will help in applications like analytics, which deal with large data sets. Optane could be used for for caching or long-term or short-term storage.

Optane SSDs could also be used to expand memory capacity in servers by mimicking DRAM with the help of a hypervisor, Myers said. To make this happen, Intel will sell software called Memory Drive for Optane drives. This feature will only work on servers with Intel’s upcoming Xeon chips based on the Skylake architecture, and won’t work with AMD chips.

Applications that will benefit from Optane include MySQL and Memcached, which are popular with cloud providers. Data movement in servers run by companies like Facebook and Google is fast to ensure instant responses to social media or search requests.

Intel’s Myers also saw the storage fitting into hyperconverged environments, in which Optane is closer to the CPU, or in an array. Optane isn’t a particularly good fit for typical networked storage arrays like EMC’s EqualLogic, which are extremely popular, but Myers is pinning hopes on companies moving to hyperconverged infrastructures.

Intel estimated that two servers with P4800X drives could provide 10 times more MySQL transactions than with P3700 SSDs. It would also result in a 91 percent reduction in cost per transaction.

But there’s a heavy cost involved in changing the data-center infrastructure to fit the superfast Optane drives. In the long run, the Optane drives may be beneficial in speeding up database, cloud and machine-learning applications, but switching over to a hyperconverged environment could call for wholesale changes in server hardware, virtualization environment, and organization of storage in data centers.

Also, Optane SSDs don’t play well in in-memory applications like SAP HANA. In theory, the Memory Drive feature could be used so the Optane SSDs mimic DRAM, which can ultimately be used by in-memory applications. Intel is in talks with major in-memory application providers to build usage of Optane SSDs, Myers said.

Companies are increasingly backing Optane, Myers said. Facebook has been trying out Optane for more than a year, but hasn’t reported results. IBM has incorporated Optane storage in its Bluemix cloud service, but hasn’t talked about benchmarks.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is going to offer Optane SSDs as a media option in 3PAR arrays. The current latency for all-flash arrays is about 400 microseconds to 1 millisecond, and with 3D Xpoint/Optane it will come down to 200 microseconds, said HPE’s Eduardo Duarte, 3Par product manager, in a video at the Discover trade show in London in December.

Optane compatibility will also be validated for VMware’s vSAN virtualized storage environments. Alibaba also has committed to using Optane in its database and machine-learning infrastructure, Myers said. Intel is also talking with Microsoft to validate Optane for Windows Server storage environments.

In addition, a range of companies including Lenovo, Nutanix and Dell Technologies have confirmed that they will come out with hardware based on Optane.

By Agam Shah, source by ComputerWorld

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More than half of small and midsize businesses in the U.S. have suffered a cyber attack in the past year—but despite this frightening reality, very few businesses are making IT security a priority this year. That’s a big mistake, because small business owners are at a greater risk than they may think for data security problems and cybercrime.

Your businesses at risk

Businesses are starting to wake up to the risk of cybercrime. In a 2016 survey by the Ponemon Institute, more than half of businesses surveyed believe cyber attacks are becoming more targeted, more sophisticated, and more costly.

Cyber attacks are also targeting small businesses to a greater degree than in the past. Some 55% of respondents in the Ponemon study experienced a cyber attack in the past 12 months, and 50% had a data breach in the past year.

Cyber attacks are costly and disruptive. Companies in the study that suffered an attack spent an average of $879,582 due to damage or theft of IT assets. What’s more, disruption to normal operations cost the affected businesses an average of $955,429.

However, small business owners remain inadequately prepared to defend against cyber attacks. According to Ponemon:

• Just one-third of respondents say the technologies they currently use adequately detect and block most cyber attacks.
• Nearly six in 10 say attacks have gotten past intrusion detection systems.
• 76% say attacks have gotten past their anti-virus solutions.

What are the most common risks?

Here are some of the most common weaknesses that make businesses vulnerable to cyber attacks—and how to get serious about defending yourself.

Cloud-based applications and data storage: Cloud usage is on the rise and expected to grow, which creates more opportunity for cybercriminals. Web-based attacks are the most common type of cybercrime, according to Ponemon, and 41% of respondents have suffered a data breach due to errors by third parties (such as contractors) that have access to cloud applications.

• Solution: Limit access to your cloud-based apps only to those who need it. Choose laptops with built-in encryption of storage drives for extra protection.

Phishing and social engineering: Humans remain a weak link in cybersecurity, which makes phishing and social engineering popular approaches for cybercriminals. Ponemon found 65% of small and midsized businesses that have a password policy do not strictly enforce it.

• Solution: Develop and enforce a cybersecurity policy that includes regular training and requires passwords be changed every six months at minimum. Guard against human error by buying PCs with strong multi-factor authentication mechanisms that combine factors such as PINs and fingerprints or passwords and facial recognition. For extra protection, add a mobile app such as HP WorkWise¹ that lets employees monitor and lock their computers with their smartphones.

Mobile devices: Laptops, tablets, and smartphones used to access business-critical applications and networks create opportunity for cybercriminals. However, many businesses allow employees to use their own personal mobile devices for work.

• Solution: Provide employees with company-issued mobile devices so you can set up device management solutions. Require employees to use a password or biometric authentication to secure their mobile devices.

Networked peripherals: When printers, scanners, copiers, and fax machines are connected to your business network, they can provide easy entry points for cybercriminals.

• Solution: Choose printers with built-in security features that can detect and stop threats the moment they start. Establish and implement a security policy for printer use and restrict access to printers only to those who need them.

Remote work: Employees working in public settings or during business travel are at risk of having their notebooks or mobile devices stolen or compromised. Prying eyes may spy passwords or critical business data on a laptop screen.

• Solution: Prevent data theft and loss by choosing notebooks with a full stack of endpoint security features, including an integrated privacy screen that darkens to prevent visual hacking.

Stay proactive
Business owners must take cybersecurity seriously. Developing smart policies and employing the proper technology can help you protect your small business from these very real risks.

[VIDEO] Watch how to get comprehensive security coverage for your device, identity, and data

^{[1] HP WorkWise smartphone app is available as a free download on the Apple Store and Google Play.}

Source by HP

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It’s easy to poke fun at “12345” passwords and phish-y emails, but PC security is tough for the average user to manage. And if you’re a network admin, it’s even tougher to deal with security slipups that infect the whole network.

That’s where the new Windows Defender Security Center will come in handy. Debuting spring 2017 as part of the Creators Update, it’s an efficient suite of security features that’ll help users avoid hacking, malware, and other threats. You can view and control your security protections—the applications running in the background that most users don’t often think about—all in one place.

It’s simple, really: The Defender Security Center is a dashboard where users can get a full security overview of their system. And if a problem is discovered, the security center makes it easy to solve it. The Center is also a place to customize security across what Microsoft has deemed “the five pillars of protection”:

Virus and threat protection allows you to view your anti-malware app, whether you’ve chosen to use the Windows Defender Antivirus app that comes with Windows 10 or a third-party app. If you’ve chosen the Windows Defender Antivirus app for your network, you can scan results directly on the screen. (A third party app will just appear on your screen and you can launch it from there.)

Device performance and health displays your latest Windows updates, battery life, storage capacity, and drivers. This is also where you can access the “Refresh Windows” feature, which helps you do a clean install while saving your files and settings.

Firewall and network protection gives you information on network connections and firewall settings, helping you find network issues and troubleshoot them.

App and browser control lets you adjust your SmartScreen settings and tips you off to possible malicious sites and downloads, as well as unrecognized internet apps and files.

Family options is a consumer feature. According to Microsoft, you can also view the health and safety of your personal devices from this centralized location,¹ which helps make all your PCs running Windows 10 more secure and manageable.

How can Defender Security Center help your business?

It’s a security tool that can be especially handy for remote workers who have to troubleshoot their devices without hands-on support. And by making it easier for the average user to secure their devices on a day-to-day basis, you’re saving your IT staff time and money—not to mention catching small problems before they become big ones.

Excited about checking out the Defender Security Center (and the entire Creators Update)? This spring you can give it a try on the HP EliteBook x360, the world’s thinnest and most secure business convertible², and the HP Elite x3, the world’s first built for business 3-in-1 device.³The HP Elite series—enhanced with HP Sure Start Gen3⁴ and HP WorkWise⁵ protection—also supports other Windows 10 security features, such as Windows Hello and the monthly Windows Update, that work together to make sure your device security is up-to-date.

Learn more ways to stay one step ahead of hackers, thieves, and unauthorized users

^{[1] Windows, Introducing Windows Defender Security Center
[2] Most secure based on HP’s unique and comprehensive security capabilities at no additional cost among vendors with >1M annual sales as of December 1, 2016 on HP Elite PCs with Intel 7th Gen Intel® Core processors, Intel® integrated graphics, and Intel® WLAN. Thinnest Based on competitors with >1m units annually of convertible, non-detachables having a Windows Pro OS and 6th or 7th generation U series Intel® Core vPro processors.
[3] Based on HP’s internal analysis as of May 11, 2016 of mobile devices delivering phablet, laptop, and desktop business productivity, preinstalled with Windows 10 Mobile, MIL-STD 810G and IP67 testing, the ability to run virtualized corporate apps on a big screen using an optional dock, and a biometric solution for security.
[4] Available on HP Elite products equipped with Intel® 7th generation processors.
[5] HP WorkWise smartphone app is available as a free download on the Apple Store and Google Play.}

Source by HP

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