Google joins the FIDO Alliance, supports its two-factor authentication standard

Global Industry Leaders Join the FIDO Alliance, Accelerating the Open Technology to Supplant Passwords With Universal Strong Authentication

FIDO Members Are Multiplying Rapidly Since Launch, as Critical Needs and New Market Opportunities Become Increasingly Compelling

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwired - Apr 23, 2013) - The FIDO Alliance, an industry consortium revolutionizing online authentication with the first standards-based open specifications for overcoming password dependency with universal strong authentication, is progressing rapidly from its initial launch. In the two months since launching, the FIDO Alliance has more than doubled its membership and expanded globally with new representation from Australia, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, and Sweden. Google, NXP and CrucialTec have joined the FIDO Alliance Board of Directors, adding depth and strengthening the ecosystem of the founding board members Lenovo, Nok Nok Labs, PayPal, and Validity. Founding Sponsor member Infineon Technologies has been joined by Entersekt and Fingerprint Cards (FPC). Founding Associate member Agnitio has been joined by five new members -- Allweb Technologies, Check2Protect, Crocus Technology, Diamond Fortress Technologies, and Insyndia Global.

"We are very pleased to count these outstanding global leaders among the ranks of the FIDO Alliance," said Michael Barrett, FIDO Alliance president and PayPal Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). "FIDO is compelling to those who can lead and affect change, because the open FIDO specifications promise to restore trust with stronger security that also simplifies the user experience and ensures privacy. By overcoming the limits of proprietary authentication methods, FIDO opens up a vast marketplace for strong authentication where FIDO enabled devices and services interoperate. We encourage all who require secure user authentication, and those who provide various methodologies to join us on a very fast track to FIDO universal strong authentication."

FIDO visionary, FIDO Alliance VP and founder of Nok Nok Labs, Ramesh Kesanupalli states, "The momentum achieved by the FIDO Alliance since our public launch in February is impressive and speaks to the unanswered need in the marketplace for open, interoperable strong authentication. Google brings insights to implementing strong authentication at scale and illustrates how to bring pioneering research and initiatives into the FIDO Alliance."

"Joining the FIDO Alliance is a great way to increase industry momentum around open standards for strong authentication," says Sam Srinivas, Product Management Director for Information Security at Google and FIDO Alliance Board Member. "We look forward to continuing our current development work on strong, universal second-factor tokens as part of a new FIDO Alliance working group."

The open FIDO specifications will support a full range of authentication technologies, including biometrics such as fingerprint scanners, voice and facial recognition, as well as existing solutions and communications standards, such as Trusted Platform Modules (TPM), USB Security Tokens, Near Field Communication (NFC), One Time Passwords (OTP) and many other existing and future technology options. The open specifications are being designed to be extensible and to accommodate future innovation, as well as protect existing investments. The FIDO specifications allow the interaction of technologies within a single infrastructure, enabling security options to be tailored to the distinct needs of each user and organization.

"The need for universal strong authentication has reached a tipping point," said Sebastien Taveau, FIDO technology working group chair and CTO of Validity Sensors, Inc. "And the support of the many FIDO Alliance members will ensure the rapid global adoption of an interoperable standard that protects the consumer's many online identities."

To welcome new members and advance plans, the FIDO Alliance will have its next Member-only meeting in the San Francisco Bay Area May 13-16. Organizations that want to influence the development of the FIDO specifications and ensure that the open standards address their use cases and requirements should join the FIDO Alliance now. FIDO Alliance members will define the market requirements, contribute to the FIDO specifications and be part of the ecosystem that will address the broad range of use cases and technologies. The FIDO Alliance invites all companies and organizations to join the Alliance and become active members.

Source

By: Unknown On 9:04 PM

Continue Reading

SES demos first Ultra HD transmission in more efficient HEVC standard

SES to pioneer first Ultra HD transmission in new standard at SES Industry Days

19.04.2013

Luxembourg, April 19, 2013 - SES (NYSE Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) announced today that, together with its partners Harmonic, the worldwide leader in video delivery infrastructure, and Broadcom Corporation, a global leader and innovator in semiconductor solutions, it has pioneered the first Ultra HD transmission in the new HEVC standard live from an ASTRA satellite at 19.2 degrees East. The HEVC standard features an up to 50 percent encoding efficiency improvement, compared to previous test broadcasts in MPEG-4 AVC (H.264).

The end-to-end demonstration which was presented at the SES Industry Days in Luxembourg used Harmonic's ProMedia Xpress and a HEVC decoder reference-design system based on Broadcom's BCM7445 device for receiving HEVC encoded Ultra-HD television transmission. The signal was broadcast in DVB-S2 using a data rate of 20 Mbit/s.

The live demonstration for the first time broadcasts a full 3840x2160 pixel Ultra HD picture in HEVC, while previous demonstrations were either broadcast in H.264 or using 4 HD pictures in parallel. SES first live-broadcast a full 3840x2160 pixel Ultra HD picture using the MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) standard at IBC 2012.
Thomas Wrede, VP Reception Systems, SES, said: "We are very proud to present the first Ultra HD demo in the HEVC standard on satellite. SES has once again taken a leadership role in the industry by broadcasting the first real Ultra HD picture in a commercially realistic bandwidth. We are convinced that the HEVC standard will become the option of choice for TV operators broadcasting Ultra HD content and expect the industry to develop prototype Ultra HD receivers in the coming months. With this initiative SES will be significantly driving the Ultra HD ecosystem forward and provide a 24/7 test channel to its industry partners."

Ian Trow, Senior Director of Emerging Technology and Strategy, Harmonic, said: "SES has achieved an important industry first with Harmonic and Broadcom. This DVB-S2 transmission clearly demonstrates the benefit of HEVC encoding using the Harmonic ProMedia in a live to air Satellite application. A significant compression improvement has been achieved using HEVC when compared to previous Ultra HD deployments using MPEG-4 AVC (H.264)."

"Broadcom is working to advance the adoption of HEVC technologies - and ultimately the distribution of UltraHD content - with SES," said Joseph Del Rio, Broadcom's Associate Product Line Director, Broadband Communications Group. "HEVC is the catalyst that will drive UltraHD television with its telepresence-like resolution to consumers."

About SES
SES is a world-leading satellite operator with a fleet of 52 geostationary satellites. The company provides satellite communications services to broadcasters, content and internet service providers, mobile and fixed network operators and business and governmental organisations worldwide.
SES stands for long-lasting business relationships, high-quality service and excellence in the broadcasting industry. The culturally diverse regional teams of SES are located around the globe and work closely with customers to meet their specific satellite bandwidth and service requirements.
SES (NYSE Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) holds participations in Ciel in Canada and QuetzSat in Mexico, as well as a strategic participation in satellite infrastructure start-up O3b Networks. Further information under: www.ses.com.

Source

By: Unknown On 11:03 PM

Continue Reading

VESA outs latest DisplayPort Dual-Mode 1.1 standard with 4K HDMI support

VESA Introduces Updated Dual-Mode Standard for Higher Resolution Interoperability with HDMI Displays

Standard Enables Creation of New DisplayPort-to-HDMI Adaptors to Support Latest Generation of HDMI 1.4 Displays

Newark, Calif., January 31, 2013 – The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA®) today announced the latest release of the DisplayPort Dual-Mode Standard. This release supports the next generation of Dual-Mode DisplayPort enabled personal computers and Dual-Mode DisplayPort cable adaptors, expected to be available to consumers later this year. Among several refinements to improve interoperability, the updated standard enables a higher data rate for DisplayPort-to-HDMI cable adaptors, providing support for HDMI 1.4 display resolutions such as 1080p 3D at 60Hz, and Ultra HD (4K x 2K) up to 30Hz frame rate, as well as 1080p with deep color.

"The first Ultra HD displays were introduced in 2012, but today's Dual-Mode DisplayPort-to-HDMI cable adaptors limit display resolution to 1080p," said Craig Wiley, senior director of marketing at Parade Technologies, and VESA Board of Directors chairman. "For a personal computer to fully support HDMI 1.4 or deep color, today a separate HDMI output is needed. This updated DisplayPort Dual-Mode Standard version 1.1 enables full support of HDMI 1.4 video modes, and 1080p deep color, using a simple cable adaptor plugged into the system's DisplayPort output. This helps to reduce the number of interface ports needed on a Personal Computer, which is desirable as form factors shrink."

Developed by VESA's nearly 200 leading industry member companies, the DisplayPort Dual Mode Standard defines the requirements for Dual-Mode DisplayPort source devices and Dual-Mode DisplayPort cable adaptors. DisplayPort was developed to provide a single video interface that both provides advanced features as well as interoperability with legacy displays including VGA and DVI, and HDMI. The new Dual-Mode Standard is in line with this objective by enabling the support of the latest HDMI standard, HDMI 1.4. In addition to releasing the DisplayPort Dual-Mode Standard Version 1.1, VESA is also releasing an updated DisplayPort Dual-Mode Cable Adaptor Compliance Test Specification, version 1.1. Conformance to the updated Compliance Test Specification, or CTS, is required for using the DisplayPort logo with a Dual-Mode Cable Adaptor.

A Dual-Mode DisplayPort source is a device, such as personal computer, that can logically output either DisplayPort or TMDS (Transitional-Minimized Differential Signaling) from the DisplayPort output connector, enabling the support of DisplayPort, DVI, and HDMI monitors. An additional device, specifically a Dual-Mode DisplayPort cable adaptor, is required to convert the mechanical connector, as well as the electrical aspects of the signal, to output that is compatible with a DVI or HDMI cable and display. A Dual-Mode DisplayPort source automatically detects the presence of a plugged-in Dual-Mode DisplayPort cable adaptor and provides the DVI or HDMI signal, as required, to support the connected DVI or HDMI monitor.

Prior to the updated Dual-Mode Standard release, Dual-Mode cable adaptors were limited to a TMDS clock rate of 165MHz providing support for display resolutions up to 1080p with 60Hz and 24 bits color. In this latest specification, a new Dual-Mode cable adaptor configuration is defined that enables a TMDS clock rate of up to 300MHz. While the DVI standard limits TMDS clock rates up to 165MHz, the HDMI 1.4 specification allows TMDS clock rates up to 297MHz, enabling the support of 1080p 3D at 60Hz, or Ultra HD (4K x 2K) up to 30Hz frame rate.

With the release of this new VESA specification, existing adaptors will now be referred to as "Type 1" adaptors, and the new adaptors as "Type 2." A Type 2 adaptor will be backward compatible with an existing Dual-Mode DisplayPort source device, but it will only support up to a 165MHz TMDS clock rate unless it is used with a "Type 2 enabled" Dual-Mode DisplayPort source device. Some existing systems will be software updatable to support Type 2 adaptors. A Type-2 enabled Dual-Mode DisplayPort Source devices, together with a Type 2 Dual-Mode DisplayPort-to-HDMI adaptor, will enable support for HDMI 1.4 display modes such 1080p 3D at 60Hz, or Ultra HD (4K x 2K) up to 30Hz frame rate, as well as 1080p with deep color. Type 2 adaptor prototypes are currently available from multiple suppliers.

For more information about the DisplayPort Dual-Mode Standard, please visit http://www.displayport.org. For more information about VESA, please visit http://www.vesa.org/ or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Sourse

By: Dilusha On 8:47 PM

Continue Reading

Review: Aller Standard is a quirky, charming sans serif font

OpenType (TrueType flavored) Aller was created by Dalton Maag Ltd. for the Danish School of Media and Journalism. Aller Standard Edition is available for free (for up to 25 users within each organization) in three different versions: Aller and Aller Light, which include italic faces; and Aller Display.

A modern sans serif typeface family, all versions of Aller Standard include some interesting variations: in the regular form, the tail of the uppercase Q floats just below the baseline and ordinarily joined angles just barely touch in lowercase letters k, x, and y, giving the typeface a very airy appearance. Aller Display is a heavier weight, and includes complementary quirks: The lowercase letters in Aller Display are a combination of bubbly uppercase and lowercase glyphs, which give Aller Display somewhat of a dated look (reminiscent of a font created in the 1970s to try to look futuristic).

Aller Standard retains quirkiness without sacrificing legibility.

All versions are legible at text sizes, and also work well at display sizes; plus they include upper and lowercase letters, numbers, punctuation, mathematical symbols, some diacritics, and special characters.

These variations of Aller Standard are free for personal and commercial use for up to 25 users within an organization. For additional users, please contact Dalton Maag. Preview and print embedding is allowed. Typographic versions are available for a fee.

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.

View the original article here

By: Dilusha On 8:41 PM

Continue Reading