The battery industry currently uses 42 percent of global cobalt production, a critical metal for Lithium-ion cells. The remaining 58 percent is used in diverse industrial and military applications (super alloys, catalysts, magnets, pigments…) that rely exclusively on the material.
Approximately 97 percent of the world’s supply of cobalt comes as a by-product of nickel or copper (mostly out of Africa). Freeport-McMoRan Inc. and Lundin agreed to sell to Chinese players their respective stakes in the Tenke Fungurume mine, one of the largest known cobalt sources, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Tesla has stated that the cobalt it needs will be sourced exclusively in North America, but the math doesn’t seem to add up.
The Tenke Fungurume mine is one of the world’s largest known cobalt resources. The concessions are located in the Katanga province in the southeast region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE: FCX ) holds a 56 percent interest, Lundin Mining (OTCPK: LUNMF ) holds an indirect 24 percent equity interest and Gécamines, the Congolese state mining company, holds a 20 percent carried interest.
In May, 2016, China Molybdenum acquired Freeport’s 56 percent controlling interest in the mine for US$2.65 billion, the largest investment ever in the country. Lundin Mining was left with three options: allow the China Moly deal to proceed, supplant the offer by exercising a right to first offer or sell its own stake to China Moly (or a third party, for that matter).
In November, and after several extensions, Lundin Mining finally announced it was selling its 24 percent stake to an affiliate of Chinese private-equity firm BHR Partners for US$1.14 billion. Freeport’s sale to China Moly was expected to be completed before year’s end, whilst Lundin plans to close its sale in early 2017.
China Moly also acquired this year from Freeport a 100 percent interest in the Kisanfu exploration project located in the DRC and a 56 percent controlling interest in the Kokkola refinery in Finland (about 10 percent of the world’s refined cobalt last year). Needless to say that all that cobalt from the refinery is expected to be shipped to China, South Korea and Japan from now on.
The implications are clear. China is now leveling its game in upstream cobalt and is already a major owner of downstream assets in the DRC, embodied by Huayou Cobalt (CH: 603799 ) and Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt (CH: 603799 ). It will keep on securing cobalt mines and downstream assets for its own needs.
In November, Albert Yuma Mulimbi, head of the state-controlled Gécamines, passed on to the Financial Times his discontent of partnerships with western companies and, in particular, on the Freeport-McMoRan deal. Left with minority investments in most joint ventures (JV), Mr. Yuma believes that existing deals failed to deliver on dividends. The partnership with China Nonferrous Metal Mining. where Gécamines has a 49 percent stake, is the model he wants to generalize. One more headache for western operators.
As I stated in a previous article , we are already witnessing an increased scarcity of cobalt supply. Approximately 97 percent of the world’s supply of cobalt comes as a by-product of nickel or copper. But the price of the two other base metals have been plunging, to say the least, and this year reached six-year lows, making many deposits uneconomic.
New primary cobalt mines may come online should cobalt prices soar; however, exploration, licensing and development take time and require billions of dollars of investments. In addition, 60 percent of the world’s cobalt reserves and resources originate in the DRC, which is riddled with child labor and exploitation.
On the demand front, and according to the Cobalt Development Institute (CDI), 58 percent of global cobalt production is already used in many diverse industrial and military applications (super alloys, catalysts, magnets, pigments…) that rely exclusively on the material. Cobalt represents a negligible part of the costs for these companies and thus they can afford to pay regardless of the price. But that is a dangerous game for battery makers. Material costs account for about 60 percent of LIB total cost and battery makers cannot take away cobalt from companies for whom the metal is an absolute requirement. Think GE and its jet engines.
So where does that leave us with Tesla? Elon Musk ambitiously aims at producing 500,000 electric vehicles a year by 2018, and Tesla has repeatedly stated that the cobalt will be sourced exclusively in North America. Whether this is a realistic assumption is a different story.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) states that cobalt production in 2015 was 124,000 metric tons. Canada and the U. S. together produce roughly 4 percent of the world’s supply, nowhere near Tesla’s needs for just one of its models. Indeed, estimations from InvestorIntel show that half a million units of Tesla’s Model 3 would be equivalent to 7,800 tons of new cobalt demand, or roughly 6 percent of the annual cobalt production worldwide. The math does not seem to add up. Tesla reportedly has difficulties securing off-take agreements from traditional cathode material suppliers and is reaching down to junior miners.
Precisely regarding the juniors’ landscape, eCobalt Solutions Inc. (formerly Formation Metals) (TSX: ECS ) is a Canadian mineral exploration and mine development company primarily owning the Idaho cobalt project , a high-grade and primary cobalt deposit in the U. S.. The highly anticipated project is by far the most advanced one in the region and should go online in a year’s time. Two more years will be needed to run at full capacity. Production is estimated to reach roughly 1,500 tons annually over the course of a 12.5-year lifetime, i.e. about 1 percent of the global market. Compare this to Tesla’s needs for the Model 3 and the new supply of cobalt in North America looks muted at best.
Basic economics would tell us that whenever there is a soaring demand and a market supply moving into deficit, shortages and consequently an impact on prices are inevitable. Tesla looks doomed… ceteris paribus. So, is it really?
Good news for Tesla bulls: There are several reasons why this may not be the case.
Battery mix. For the Model S, Tesla has been using high energy density nickel-cobalt-aluminium-based (NCA) battery cells sourced from Panasonic. Again, we don’t know the exact composition of the Panasonic/Tesla batteries, but typically cobalt represents about 0.22 kg/kWh in NCA batteries believes John Petersen from InvestorIntel. This compares to 0.36 kg/kWh for nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) batteries, which are adopted by most peers (and in which the three components are usually evenly split). Tesla would withstand more pressure versus its peers in the event of soaring prices.
The Chinese BYD, a major player in the EV space, has adopted lower energy density Lithium-Iron-Phosphate LFP chemistry. Reconfiguring manufacturing capabilities and use instead as LFP or Lithium-manganese-oxide (LMO) that don’t need cobalt is always an option. However, this might severely hamper competitiveness and quality.
Substitution. “Ceteris paribus” is key here. A complete shift away from high-energy batteries looks hypothetical at this stage: NMC, NCA and LCO batteries provide the highest energy density as reported by Battery University , and all require cobalt. However, there has been recently efforts to produce other types of battery chemistries that do not require cobalt as stated by the CRU. Tesla has also been trying to remove cobalt from the equation and add nickel instead, according to its CTO JB Straubel.
We may well see a quick turnaround from cobalt-intensive batteries toward a validated and optimized new high-energy battery technology should it go online. And the high costs triggered by a shift away from traditional batteries might prove beneficial when opposed with the prospects a cobalt cliff. So far attempts for substituting cobalt resulted in a loss in product performance. But nothing is set in stone.
However, if it is well-established that the dependence on a primary product is a key supply risk, the opposite is also true. There will be cobalt if there is enough demand for the primary metals. It is unclear what the mix of Panasonic/Tesla’s batteries is, but traditionally an NCA cathode is comprised of roughly 80 percent nickel and 15 percent cobalt. Increased demand for nickel may spur nickel production and, as a consequence, cobalt product. This may overall add some counterweight in the balance.
Identified resources versus reserves. In addition, identified cobalt resources are much larger than existing reserves. According to the CDI, “there seems to be enough known land sources of cobalt to last for at least 100 years and for many, many more years if speculative and hypothetical resources for deep sea, ocean floor resources are taken into account (about 120 million tonnes according to the USGS).”
The CDI thus remains confident that “cobalt is not running out, but its availability will depend upon many factors such as accessibility, price, demand, technological development and global economic growth.” Obviously mining cobalt cheaply in deep water is nothing more than a bad science fiction movie, but should become economically viable (disruptive technologies might start showing their teeth, as we have witnessed in deep water drilling and more recently with fracking).
Recycling. Cobalt (as opposed to oil, for instance) is fully recyclable. Roughly 15 percent of U. S. cobalt consumption is from recycled scrap today. For many applications, the metal is used but not consumed and so can be recycled. Needless to say that recycling can help reduce the need to hunt for new sources of cobalt. In no circumstances is this a magic solution whereby 100 percent can be recycled indefinitely. Existing processes are energy-consuming and can definitely be improved. But that is also an idea to weigh in the balance.
That’s a lot of “ifs,” I grant you that. Tesla is entering an age of supply chain transparency, as Simon Moores from Benchmark Intelligence states, and it wouldn’t hurt to see more communication from Tesla on that front. However, there are many factors that could be part of a complex cobalt equation. I wouldn’t go as far as surrender already and turn into a structural Tesla bear.

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2016: As the hardware world turns Soon, the ball will drop in Times Square, someone will realize you can turn ‘2018’ into a pair of novelty sunglasses, and the forgotten mumbled lyrics of Auld Lang Syne will echo through New Year’s Eve parties. It’s time once again to recount the last 366 days, and what a year it’s been. Arduino got into an argument with Arduino and Arduino won. We got new Raspberry Pis. Video cards are finally getting to the point where VR is practical. The FCC inadvertently killed security in home routers before fixing the problem. All of this is small potatoes and really doesn’t capture the essence of 2016. Hackaday
Battered Toshiba out of easy options to plug nuclear hole Faced with the prospect of a multi-billion-dollar writedown that could wipe out its shareholders’ equity, Japan’s Toshiba is running out of fixes: it is burning cash, cannot issue shares and has few easy assets left to sell. The Tokyo-based conglomerate, which is still recovering from a $1.3 billion accounting scandal in 2015, dismayed investors and lenders again this week by announcing that cost overruns at a U. S. nuclear business bought only last year meant it could now face a crippling charge against profit. Reuters
Deprecated: The Ars 2017 tech company deathwatch Welcome (almost) to 2017. If you’re reading this, the Seventh Seal has not yet been broken, the cybers have not all fallen over, and you apparently have not been consigned to the kids’ table by a disagreement with relatives about which bowl game to watch. Hooray for minor victories. That means it’s time for us to look forward to the year ahead and select the companies and technologies least likely to see its end. Ars Technica
Defending the digital future: 2016 in review The year started with fireworks: John Legere, CEO of T-Mobile, became furious when an explosive EFF investigation revealed that T-Mobile was throttling video content for many of its customers, potentially violating net neutrality rules. Legere released a colorful selfie video demanding to know who EFF was — and our community responded in force, inundating the tech CEO with countless tweets and messages explaining why people worldwide were proud to count themselves as friends of EFF. The EFF
Let’s raise a glass to the many tech pioneers who died in 2016 In technology, you’re always «standing on the shoulders» of those who came before you — and together, each individual’s contribution becomes part of a larger ongoing story. So as this year finally winds to a close, click through to see our list of some of the pioneers who left us in 2016. And feel free to share any memories and reflections of your own in the comments. Slashdot
Postal, the legendarily violent video game by Running With Scissors, is now open source Video game developer Running With Scissors has announced that it is open sourcing the original version of its most popular title-Postal, which was released back in 1997. Even though violence in video games has been a topic of debate for over decades now, Postal has been one of the most criticised games out of the lot. Gadgets 360
Governments shut down the internet more than 50 times in 2016 Governments around the world shut down the internet more than 50 times in 2016 – suppressing elections, slowing economies and limiting free speech. In the worst cases internet shutdowns have been associated with human rights violations, Deji Olukotun, senior global advocacy manager at digital rights organisation Access Now told IPS. The Wire
Machine Learning crash course: part 2 In this post we’ll talk about one of the most fundamental machine learning algorithms: the perceptron algorithm. This algorithm forms the basis for many modern day ML algorithms, most notably neural networks. In addition, we’ll discuss the perceptron algorithm’s cousin, logistic regression. And then we’ll conclude with an introduction to SVMs, or support vector machines, which are perhaps one of the most flexible algorithms used today. Berkeley ( Part 1 , also: A Guide to Deep Learning )
Why Google co-founder Larry Page is pouring millions into flying cars People have dreamed about flying cars for decades, but the technology has always seemed far out of reach. Airplanes have long been too big, expensive, dangerous, loud, and complex for personal aviation to be more than a hobby for rich people. But that might be about to change. “There’s a couple of technologies that are maturing and converging” to make small, affordable airplanes feasible, says Brian German, an aerospace researcher at Georgia Tech. Vox
Lessons from 3,000 technical interviews… The first blog post I published that got any real attention was called “Lessons from a year’s worth of hiring data“. It was my attempt to understand what attributes of someone’s resume actually mattered for getting a software engineering job. Surprisingly, as it turned out, where someone went to school didn’t matter at all, and by far and away, the strongest signal came from the number of typos and grammatical errors on their resume. Interviewing.io
How China built ‘iPhone city’ with billions in perks for Apple’s partner A vast, boxy customs center acts as a busy island of commerce deep in central China. Government officers, in sharply pressed uniforms, race around a maze of wooden pallets piled high with boxes — counting, weighing, scanning and approving shipments. Unmarked trucks stretch for more than a mile awaiting the next load headed for Beijing, New York, London and dozens of other destinations. The NY Times
The top tech books of 2016 (part I) When I first began writing about technology, a modest shelf could actually hold pretty much all the volumes that we now recognized as “tech books” — business-oriented tomes about tech companies, geeky explorations of hardware or software milestones, celebratory or scary projections of what our current products will morph to, and one more biography of Steve Jobs. BackChannel ( Part II )
Judging a book through its cover MIT researchers and their colleagues are designing an imaging system that can read closed books. In the latest issue of Nature Communications, the researchers describe a prototype of the system, which they tested on a stack of papers, each with one letter printed on it. The system was able to correctly identify the letters on the top nine sheets. MIT
Facebook doesn’t tell users everything it really knows about them Facebook has long let users see all sorts of things the site knows about them, like whether they enjoy soccer, have recently moved, or like Melania Trump. But the tech giant gives users little indication that it buys far more sensitive data about them, including their income, the types of restaurants they frequent and even how many credit cards are in their wallets. ProPublica
Commercial NAS operating systems — exploring value-additions — part I The market for network-attached storage units has expanded significantly over the last few years. The rapid growth in public cloud storage (Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive and the like) has tempered the expansion a bit amongst consumers who are not very tech-savvy. However, the benefits provided by a NAS in the local network are undeniable, particularly when public cloud services can act in a complementary manner. AnandTech
Can you VR on a Laptop? Evaluating the MSI GE62VR A month ago I got to meet MSI at Pax Australia and on the MSI booth I had a nice long chat with Ivy Hsu from MSI who was excited to show me the latest MSI range of VR laptops — some sleek and some desktop replacements. I was curious as to how well a laptop can handle some of the games available on Steam for the HTC Vive. VR Jive Mini-shootout: $900 smartphone vs. $3,000 DSLR, round three The smartphone-vs-DSLR shootout has become something of a tradition here at the Ars Orbiting HQ. We did one in 2014 and another in 2015, relying on my own (small) skills as a photographer to stage and shoot a bunch of different images using both the latest model iPhone and my Canon 5D Mark III DSLR. Ars Technica
Here are the 2016 winners of the first ever Steam Awards After over a month of voting, Valve today revealed the winners of The Steam Awards, or what amounts to a “greatest-hits” victory lap for some of the digital retail platform’s most played games. Kotaku

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Happy New Year! 2016 was certainly an interesting one for Microsoft and Windows 10. The software giant hit more than a few low points during the year, and while the new operating system managed to gain decent market share off the back of an incredibly aggressive push, its growth came shuddering to a stop once the free upgrade period ended.
December should have been a great month for Windows 10, with people buying new PCs for the holidays, but actually it was a pretty lackluster month in which the new OS’s gains were minimal, and way less than those enjoyed by the aging Windows 7.
Microsoft’s own numbers claim Windows 10 leapfrogged Windows 7 to become the most successful operating system in August, but NetMarketShare ’s usage numbers paint a very different picture.
According to the analyst firm, in December Windows 10 went from 23.72 percent to 24.36 percent, a gain of 0.63 percentage points.
In the same month however, Windows 7 went from 47.17 percent to 48.34 percent, a gain of 1.17 percentage points.
In other words, NetMarketShare’s figures show Windows 7 still being twice as popular as Windows 10 globally.
Windows XP also enjoyed a bump in users over the holiday period, gaining 0.44 percentage points, to put it on 9.07 percent. That means it’s back to being more popular than Windows 8.x.
In December, Windows 8.1 lost 1.11 percentage points to put it on 6.90 percent. Windows 8 dropped 0.3 percentage points and now sits on 1.66 percent. Combined, Windows 8.x lost 1.41 percentage points, giving it 8.56 percent of the market.
What does 2017 hold in store for Windows 10? Well, we have the Creators Update to look forward to in spring which promises some welcome new features and improvements — such as the ability to pause system updates — but there’s nothing really there to convince anyone who hasn’t yet upgraded to pull the trigger.
I expect future growth will continue to be quite glacial going forward, and wouldn’t be too surprised to see a month or two like last September, when the new OS actually lost users. If I was Microsoft, I’d consider making OS upgrades free once more for a limited period when the Creators Update rolls out, in order to give it a bit of a boost, but we’ll have to wait and see what the software giant does next.
If you were in charge, what would you do to reignite flagging interest in Windows 10?
Photo credit: Jason Salmon / Shutterstock

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The market for devices that allow you to control your own data is hot right now. Sure, the available-anywhere cloud (aka: Internet) is an extremely convenient place to store your files, but for many people , the idea that a third party has access to your data and is responsible for its security just doesn’t sit well. In other cases, there may be data that you don’t want available on the Internet at all ( just ask Jennifer Lawrence ).
In the past, we’ve looked at various NAS devices that have their own custom-tailored operating systems. While we find these extremely convenient, many people lament the fact that they can’t put a «real» operating system on the device. In addition, because the vendors opt for ease of use, power users are occasionally frustrated because they can’t do everything they want.
Then there’s the case where the NAS vendor is great at hardware but just can’t seem to make the custom OS easy to use. That was definitely the case when I looked at the Thecus N7710-G , a device with 10Gb/sec speed, but a terrible user interface. So what did Thecus do to help remedy the situation? They released the W2810PRO, a product that uses Microsoft’s Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Essentials (just rolls off the tongue) as the OS.
For those who may not have heard, Essentials is the replacement for Windows Home Server, and is basically a slightly scaled-down version of Windows Server made specifically for OEMs to use on NAS devices. It’s clear from the box that Thecus is hyping up the Microsoft relation, highlighting the features of the OS and the ease of connecting to Office 365 and Microsoft Azure. The color scheme even seems like something Microsoft would release.
So how does it stack up? Let’s take a look.
The Thecus W2810PRO sports some pretty good specs at a reasonable price. It’s powered by the quad-core Intel Celeron N3160 processor and has 4GB of DDR3 RAM. While technically not upgradable, there’s nothing stopping you from opening the box and putting in an 8GB memory stick. Unfortunately, there is only one slot in the device so you won’t be able to obtain dual channel memory performance.
On the back of the device are two Gigabit Ethernet ports, two USB3 ports, the power connector, and a Kensington lock. What’s a little more unique are the video options: You can connect the W2810PRO up to a display via either HDMI or DisplayPort. There’s also an SPDIF connection if you want to connect the device up to an audio receiver to use as part of a media center.
The front of the device has a power button, a «quick copy» button, and a single USB3 port. There are two hot-swappable SATA drive bays that can be locked.
What’s unique among NAS devices is that the W2810PRO has an embedded 60GB SSD drive that holds the operating system. This lets you replace all of your drives at once without having to worry about reinstalling the base OS and reconfiguring the device. It also means the NAS device boots up extremely quickly. The base install of Storage Server 2012 R2 Essentials takes up about half of the space, leaving you plenty of extra disk capacity.
2 x Gigabit Ethernet
Without SATA drives, the W2810PRO costs roughly $400, including the Windows license.
While most NAS devices have a straight-forward installation process, using Windows Storage Server as the base OS complicates the installation slightly. The setup requires you to connect the Thecus W2810PRO to a video display using either HDMI or DP, then connect a keyboard and a mouse to the USB ports. After that, simply plug in an Ethernet cable and the power, and you’re ready to go.
One of the biggest improvements from previous Thecus devices I’ve reviewed is that the drive bays are now completely tool-less. Simply put the drive in the sled, click the plastic sides into place, and slide it into the bay. There are holes on the bottom for screws if you want some extra protection, but I didn’t find they were necessary.
Because the W2810PRO has an embedded SSD, you don’t have to connect hard drives to the system beforehand and I actually recommend leaving them out during the initial install as I had some issues when I plugged the SATA drives in first. While I’m not 100% sure, I think it was due to the fact that they were formatted with data from another NAS device, and that may have been confusing the Windows installer.
As noted above, initial setup of the Thecus W2810PRO requires not only a video display but also a keyboard and mouse. Previous Thecus devices, as well as those offered by Synology and QNAP, allow a headless configuration, which makes things much easier for users. This is one of the tradeoffs you have to accept when using Windows Storage Server as opposed to a custom-built OS.
Luckily, the initial setup literally consists of setting the date, time, and timezone, picking a complex administrator password, and waiting for roughly 20 minutes while Windows does its thing.
Having the base operating system installed is only the first part of the battle. Unlike other NAS devices that walk you through not only the initial setup but also setting up volumes to share on your network, the W2810PRO simply drops you at the familiar Windows Server login page. Even after logging in, you’re greeted with Server Manager, the standard desktop, and no direction of what to do.
Luckily, Microsoft has made it pretty easy to create a network share, even if you do have to go through four separate wizards. Luckily, the first three are linked together, making the process a little confusing for a new user, but not impossible.
I won’t go through the entire process here, as going into the details would be worthy of an article of its own, but will cover some of the more notable pieces. Starting the process is as easy as 1-2-3, as shown in the image above: Go to the «File and Storage Services» menu on the left, then click on «Storage Pools,» followed by clicking the «New Virtual Disk Wizard. »
After starting the Virtual Disk Wizard, you’ll be notified that you can’t do that until you have a Storage Pool and will be given a link to the new Wizard. Creating a pool is as simple as giving it a name (NeowinPublicPool in our case) and selecting the physical disks that make up the pool.
Now that you have your pool, you are dropped back into the virtual disk wizard. This is where the underlying architecture of your storage is created, including your storage layout (simple, mirroring, or parity), and how you want storage provisioned (fixed or thin provisioning). For a two-bay NAS, you’ll select «Mirror» if you want to protect against a failed drive or simple if you want more storage space. Parity is, in essence, RAID-5, and not applicable with only two disks. For provisioning, it probably doesn’t make sense to use thin provisioning but the option is there if you want.
Next, you’re taken to the New Volume wizard. Here’s where you select the size of the volume, assign a drive letter or folder, and setup some file system information. However, the option that’s extremely useful and that isn’t generally provided with other NAS solutions is data deduplication. By setting up deduplication, the operating system examines files and ensures that it only keeps one copy of a file. For an individual user, this isn’t too big of a deal, but if you’re in a small workgroup, it saves space if ten people each download the same install file, for example. In addition, there’s an option to optimize the deduplication for a VDI infrastructure versus a basic file server. If you want more detail, Microsoft has made an easy-to-understand document available on their site.
You may think you’re done now, but you’re not. The final piece of the puzzle is to create one or more network shares. You can make multiple folders so that only certain users can access certain data, for example. Keep in mind that all shares on a volume share the same space so if you want to segregate it so that one person can’t hog all of the storage, make separate volumes.
There isn’t much to talk about when it comes to configuration. If you can do it on Windows Server, you can do it on the Thecus W2810PRO. That’s great when it comes to flexibility as you’re not locked into whatever configurations that the operating system provides you like you are with the competition. On the other hand, those who want a plug-and-play-and-forget experience might not appreciate the fact that the device literally offers no hand-holding.
That said, Microsoft does include a Dashboard, and the icon is on the desktop. It helps run you through some basic server functions like adding users and setting up remote access, as well as connecting your server to Azure Backup, Intune, or Azure Active Directory.
A key differentiator between the Thecus W2810PRO and a typical appliance NAS is that, because it’s running Windows, it can be used to backup your Windows and Mac clients using the «Set up Client Restore Service» feature. If your laptop hard drive were to fail, for example, you’d be able to purchase a new one (equal or greater in size) and restore the system back to where it was at the time of the last backup. Microsoft explains the procedure as well as the requirements on their website.
Also, because it’s Windows running on an Intel processor, anything you can install on a Windows server can be installed and used here. The W2810PRO is more like a mini-server than it is a dedicated NAS device, but that makes it an interesting product in this space.
So far, as long as you know how to run Windows Server, there’s a lot to like with the Thecus W2810PRO. So how does the device stack up from a performance perspective? Sadly, the results were a mixed bag.
Following my normal testing methodology, I created a 4GB RAM disk using OSFMount in order to eliminate my desktop’s performance a bottleneck. I then used Robocopy to copy files to the W2810PRO and then back again.
When copying a single 3.5GB file, to the W2810PRO, performance was acceptable although slightly below what I saw from the DS716+ , another 2-bay NAS that I recently reviewed. Results were even worse when copying from the NAS, hitting only 61MB/sec, or 33% slower than the DS716+.
Next, I copied 326 MP3 files that totaled 2.87GB to see how the device handled hundreds of small files being copied, something that’s always slower than a sustained large file copy. Here, the Thecus W2810PRO was 75% faster than the DS716+ when copying files to the device. However, the W2810PRO was 120% slower when copying the same files from the NAS to the RAM disk.
At first, I chalked this up to the deduplication that was enabled on the W2810PRO volume, so I turned the feature off and ran the tests again, but the performance was the same. After reading the TechNet site that describes how Microsoft has implemented the feature , I realized that deduplication is handled as a scheduled batch job instead of real time, which explains why there’s no performance impact in real-time. While the performance was lower than I was expecting, it’s nice to see that you can safely enable deduplication without any performance hit.
Unlike traditional NAS devices that have an app store with one-click installation, the Thecus W2810PRO is a different beast, allowing you to install any applications that you would normally install on a Windows server. This means if you want to run a webserver, database, or even BitTorrent, you can, but you have to do it all manually. The SSD OS drive has over 30GB free after the installation is complete, which gives you a lot of flexibility, and you can always install on a share as well.
It’s also important to note that there are no native mobile apps that can be used to consume data from the Thecus W2810PRO. You’ll be limited to whatever applications can be used to natively access SMB or NFS shares on a network. This can be considered a positive or a negative, depending on how you like to consume your data. As an example, if you want to use the W2810PRO as a DLNA server, you’ll need to head over to Microsoft’s site and download the » Media Pack » before you can stream to your Xbox One.
The W2810PRO does allow you to use RDP to access the server for remote management, so once the initial setup is complete, you can potentially remove the keyboard/monitor/mouse setup.
Every time I write a NAS review, there’s invariably a few people who make the comment that they’d rather have a full fledged server and run their own operating system while others prefer the simplicity of a dedicated NAS appliance. If you’re in the latter group, then stay away from the Thecus W2810PRO because it requires more management than a typical Synology , QNAP , or even the different Thecus models.
On the other hand, if you’re a Windows admin (or want to learn more about Windows Server), and want the flexibility of being able to run whatever Windows applications you want on your server without the limitations of an appliance, the Thecus W2810PRO is a worthy contender for your attention. The performance is a bit below other two-bay NAS solutions, but the extra features such as deduplication can help make up for that. At under $400 with an included Windows Storage Server license, the price is extremely reasonable. In addition, the ability to backup laptops and desktops on your network automatically can be a great time saver.
Ultimately, it’s a mixed bag, as the Thecus W2810PRO is unlike any other NAS device we have reviewed. It’s obviously not for everyone, but if you’re looking to manage a Windows server in your environment, I can safely say that the W2810PRO delivers.

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Back in September, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 is installed on over 400 million devices. And while the company hasn’t updated that figure yet, it appears that its latest OS is getting installed on more and more devices every day. The latest report from NetMarketShare indicates that the OS is now used on almost 25% of all devices.
According to the report, Microsoft’s latest OS is now being utilized by 24.36% of machines. This is a marked increase from the 23.72% market share reported in November, and 23% back in July. Given that the OS is over a year old, this is a very impressive feat. And the trend seems to be positive for Microsoft , with Windows 10 continuing to gain market share, even with users having to pay for the OS.
Meanwhile, Windows 7 remained the most-used operating system, with a market share of 48.34%. This is a notable increase of 1.17% compared to November 2016. Surprisingly, Microsoft’s ancient Windows XP operating system increased in market share as well, climbing up to a respectable 9.07%.
All other operating systems showed a decline in market share. Windows 8.1 fell to 6.90% compared to 8.01% reported in November 2016. Linux usage decreased by 0.1%, however, this is within the margin of error. Operating systems included in the «other» section also fell just over one percent to 9.12% compared to 10.16% reported in the previous period.
While Microsoft may have abandoned its «one billion Windows 10 devices by 2018» goal , it’s certainly encouraging for the company to see its latest operating system being installed on more machines every day. That said, the report’s data is derived by aggregating the traffic across NetMarketShare’s network of websites that use its service, it may not be an entirely accurate depiction of each OS’ market share.
Source: NetMarketShare

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Happy New Year! 2016 was … well, we will not soon forget it. Brexit; Trump; the Grim Reaper’s celebrity killing spree; and, on the upside, a lot of magnificent tech achievements and breakthroughs. But The Jons are not about that. The Jons, an annual award named (in an awe-inspiring fit of humility) after myself, go to tech’s more dubious achievers. And hoo boy were there a lot of those this year.
And so, with no further ado: the second annual Jon Awards For Dubious Technical Achievement!
THE YES THERE IS SUCH A THING AS BAD PUBLICITY AWARD FOR SPONTANEOUS BRAND COMBUSTION
To Samsung, whose Galaxy Note 7 phablet was called out by name before every single flight I took for months, for fear that one would explode and kill us all. You’d think you couldn’t even pay for such publicity. Turns out you can, but it’ll cost you nearly $20 billion.
THE GRINCH WHO STOLE CHRISTMAS AWARD FOR REALITY DISTORTION FIELD DISRUPTION
To that nasty John Carreyrou, who just wouldn’t stop picking on poor victimized Theranos, which, as a direct result, is now basically dead. Doesn’t he know that truth doesn’t matter any more in our post-factual world? They believed their technology worked. Or, I mean, at least they hoped it did. Or would. One day. Shouldn’t that be all that matters? It’s only blood tests, after all.
THE MINISTRY OF PEACE AWARD FOR IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
To Julian Assange, for his transition from a self-proclaimed “we open governments” anti-authoritarian crusader to the (figure)head of an organization that literally reposts Russian press releases. O Julian, wherefore art thou, Julian?
THE YOU DON’T KNOW JACK AWARD FOR PREMATURE FORCED OBSOLESCENCE
To Apple, of course, for eliminating the headphone jack from the iPhone; killing MagSafe in favor of USB-C on new MacBooks; and then refusing to supply any other ports on those MacBooks, meaning that, remarkably, that if you go to an Apple Store and buy a new iPhone and a new MacBook, you cannot plug the former directly into the latter.
THE DIE DAMN YOU WHY WON’T YOU DIE FREDDY JASON TERMINATOR AWARD FOR PIGHEADEDLY CONTINUING TO EXIST
To Bitcoin, which has been pronounced dead more times than Michael Myers, and yet somehow still keeps lumbering along, slowly, crudely, and seemingly unstoppably .
THE BROGAN BAMBROGAN AWARD FOR BEING BROGAN BAMBROGAN IN THE BROGAN BAMBROGAN SCANDAL
This story had all the allegations : a hangman’s noose! A VC tripling the salary of a PR rep after starting to date her! The sacrifice of great technology on the altars of marketing and self-promotion! Counter-allegations of toxic misconduct and abusive behavior! Alas, the lawsuits were settled without trial. But still. Brogan BamBrogan!
THE PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN BEHIND THE BLOCKCHAIN! AWARD FOR CONNING THE TECHNICALLY INEPT
To Craig Wright, for briefly half-convincing people who should have known better that he is “Satoshi Nakamoti,” Bitcoin’s creator ( he isn’t ) and provoking this incredibly long, incredibly credulous, incredibly cringeworthy London Review Of Books piece by someone who’s clearly never written a line of code in his life. Don’t read it: read Sarah Jeong’s hilariously barbed Twitter takedown of it.
THE BUT REALLY, WHAT IS TRUTH ANYWAYS AWARD FOR RESPONDING TO FAKE NEWS WITH ONTOLOGICAL DEFIANCE
To Facebook’s PR team, who, desperate to disavow any responsibility for widespread American belief in so much ludicrous bullshit , literally asked a journalist that:
https://mobile.twitter.com/nelliebowles/status/798655906904870912
THE YOU SOUNDED LIKE AN IDIOT EVEN BEFORE YOU ADDED THE WORD CYBER AWARD FOR BELIEF IN CYBER BOOGEYMEN UNDER THE CYBER BED
To the San Bernardino District Attorney’s office, for claiming that the infamous iPhone 5c used by mass murderer Syed Farook had to be unlocked for fear that it contained a “ lying-dormant cyber pathogen ” that might attack American infrastructure.
THE ONLY NINETY MORE MAGIKARP TO GO BEFORE I CAN EVOLVE A GYARADOS AWARD FOR BRIEFLY DIVORCING WHAT FELT LIKE HALF THE PLANET FROM REALITY IN FAVOR OF VIRTUAL JACKBOOTED EXPLOITATION
To Pokémon Go, of course, the release of which prompted many millions to stampede through cities seeking to ambush and brutally imprison helpless, innocent virtual creatures who, after being forced to savagely fight one another in vicious Thunderdome-like arenas, are ultimately transferred to a mysterious “professor” who will doubtless perform unspeakable experiments on them. All of which is clearly laying the cultural groundwork for the autocracies to come. Fight the fascism! (And kindly overlook the fact that I’m midway through level 24 myself, and have evolved at least one Gyarados.)
THE IF YOU KEEP WIPING AT LEAST SOME OF THAT EGG MIGHT COME OFF YOUR FACE AWARD FOR PRIDE GOING BEFORE A VERY HUMPTY-DUMPTY-LIKE FALL
To the creators and investors in “The DAO,” who put $150 million into a “distributed autonomous organization” built atop Ethereum’s blockchain, amid much fanfare and claims of inviolable, unstoppable software. After the DAO was ( as I warned ) hacked and its money siphoned out, though, it was remarkable how fast the very same people who until then had trumpeted “irrefutable computer code … not influenced by outside forces … not controlled by its creators” switched to calling for the intervention of creators and outside forces to repair the damage caused by the code. So much for the courage of one’s convictions!
THE SECURITY BY NOT LETTING THE LEFT HAND KNOW WHAT THE RIGHT HAND IS DOING AWARD FOR KEEPING YOUR USERS MAXIMALLY UNSAFE
To Yahoo!, who didn’t just discover this year that they’d suffered two separate userinfo hacks , one for half a billion users and one for a whole cool B; they also installed a not-unlike-a-rootkit tool to scan incoming emails at the NSA’s behest — which would be bad enough — but best of all, they apparently did this without telling their security team. Wow.
Congratulations, of a sort, to the winners of the Jons! All recipients shall receive a bobblehead of myself made up as a Blue Man, as per the image on this post, 1 which will doubtless become coveted and increasingly valuable collectibles. And, of course, all winners shall be remembered by posterity forevermore.
1 Bobbleheads shall only be distributed if and when available and convenient. The eventual existence of said bobbleheads is not guaranteed or indeed even particularly likely. Not valid on days named after Norse or Roman gods.

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