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Here are your top news stories from eWEEK. Today’s topics include the news that LG’s upcoming G6 smartphone will feature a new FullVision display that will let users simultaneously watch videos while also surfing the web, the hints that Microsoft will soon release several new security-themed products, how Alphabet’s Project Loon balloon borne internet service is moving closer to reality, and a warning that state and local government computer systems are highly vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
LG’s upcoming G6 smartphone will feature a new FullVision display design that will let users watch videos while also perusing content with a web browser at the same time using different sections of its 5.7-inch quad-HD screen.
The new FullVision display will have a 2,880 x 1,440 screen resolution, an 18:9 aspect ratio and an edge-to-edge display that essentially fills the front of the smartphone, according to a Feb. 16 announcement by LG.
The dual-use screen capabilities are aimed at giving users more flexibility to consume mobile content on their devices. The LG G6 smartphone is slated to be announced at Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona on Feb. 26, according to LG.
Just before the RSA Conference kicked off in San Francisco on Feb. 13, Microsoft teased several upcoming security-themed products, including a new Azure SQL Database Threat Detection offering that can sniff out suspicious database activity.
A recent blog post from Ron Matchoro, senior program manager at Microsoft Azure SQL Database, sheds more light on things. “Azure SQL Database Threat Detection provides an additional layer of security intelligence built into the Azure SQL Database service,” wrote Matchoro.
“It helps customers using Azure SQL Database to secure their databases within minutes without needing to be an expert in database security, Matchoro wrote. General availability is scheduled for some time in April, Matchoro added.
Just weeks after Google parent Alphabet disclosed it had killed off a project to deliver Internet connectivity via high-altitude drones, the company is touting the success of another initiative to achieve the same goal using high-flying balloons instead.
In a blog this week, Astro Teller, the head of Alphabet’s X lab, said the company’s Project Loon is now one step closer to becoming a commercial reality courtesy of some important breakthroughs the team has made recently.
The breakthrough involves the algorithms that the Project Loon team uses to control balloon navigation at high altitudes. The improvements now make it possible to reliably send and maintain small clusters of balloons over specific regions anywhere in the world that require Internet connectivity.
A panel of cyber-security experts speaking at the RSA Conference 2017 in San Francisco on Feb. 16 said that state and local government agencies many across the United States have a cyber-security problems.
A key problem is that states have a great deal of data on citizens—often more than the federal government. But protecting that data is a problem. It is not cost-effective to protect everything equally, so states should give priority to services and protecting data, according to Timothy Blute, program director for the homeland security and public safety division of the National Governor’s Association.
While prioritizing cyber-security is one strategy, government agencies also need to find ways to get around resource shortages. Not only is money in short supply, but trained cyber-security technicians are scarce and in high demand as well, the panel noted.