6 highest-paid executives at Apple

Tim Cook, CEO

Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook made $9,222,638 in 2014, 

more than double what he pulled in the year before. None of Cook's stock vested this year, but in 2011 he was awarded about $376 million in restricted stock units that will turn into shares he can sell over the next decade.

 

Luca Maestri, SVP and CFO

Luca Maestri joined Apple in 2013 and was promoted to CFO last year. He made over $14 million in 2014. 

His pay from 2012 and 2013 is omitted because he 

wasn't an executive officer then.

 

Peter Oppenheimer, former CFO

Peter Oppenheimer was Apple's CFO before announcing he would retire last March. Luca Maestri assumed Oppenheimer's role last year. Oppenheimer made $4.5 million last year, a paltry sum compared to the nearly $68.6 million he pulled in in 2012.

 Angela Ahrendts, SVP of retail and online stores

Angela Ahrendts made $73.3 million in 2014, most of it in Apple stock. Apple said Ahrendts' stock package was based on her high salary and unvested equity at Burberry, where she was CEO before coming to Apple last May. 

Her pay from 2012 and 2013 is omitted because she wasn't working for Apple then.

Eddy Cue, SVP of Internet Software and Services

Eddy Cue pulled in a neat $24.4 million in 2014, most of it from a $20 million stock award. Cue didn't have any stock awards in 

2013 but was given $50 million in Apple shares in 2012.

Jeff Williams, SVP of Operations

Jeff Williams is Tim Cook's right-hand man at Apple. Williams also received a $20 million stock award last year, bringing his total pay to around $24.4 million.

The Best Free Antivirus Software for Windows

If you have a Windows computer, you need anti-virus software. There always will be those who will insist that every virus attack is caused due to "user error" or because the person using the computer wasn't careful enough.
Many computer dealers will ask you to buy a licence for an anti-virus suite along with the PC, but free anti-virus software along with an anti-malware programme form a line of defence that's good enough for most people.
Avast 2015 Free Antivirus
Avast is easy to understand, uses simple language to explain any problems, and has a great user interface that anyone can follow. It simplifies things like updating to the latest version and keeping the virus list up to date. Use silent mode to avoid the excessive announcements.
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Panda Free Antivirus 2015
Like Avast, Panda scored top marks for virus protection in AV-Test's report. Its interface is pretty but not as user friendly as that of Avast. It also has a nice feature called USB Vaccine - this prevents virus attacks that occur when you plug in an infected USB drive.
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BitDefender Antivirus Free Edition
BitDefender's best feature is that it runs quietly in the background by default. It won't bother you until it spots an infection, unlike most other anti-virus software, which need a fair bit of tweaking to get them to stop popping up all the time.
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The software mentioned above are great if you install them before your PC is infected. Once there's a virus attack

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is a very effective tool for getting rid of a virus that's already made its way into your system. It's not useful for protecting your PC from virus attacks as it doesn't offer realtime threat protection, but is excellent at cleaning up the mess.
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Comodo Cleaning Essentials 6
Malwarebytes was, in our experience, the best tool for malware removal, but it still requires you to install it on your infected PC. Installing software may not be possible in some heavily infected machines. In such cases, Comodo Cleaning Essentials 6 will be useful. You just need to unzip the file to use this set of virus cleanup tools. Comodo Cleaning Essentials 6 is portable software that runs without installation, making it useful in worst case scenarios.
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Anti-virus software, along with a malware cleanup tool should be good enough for most users. 

Google is making human skin

Google has more than 100 doctors and researchers working on its health projects, which it started three years ago.

Late last year, Google revealed that it's in the early stages of creating tiny, magnetic nanoparticles that will be able to search the human body for cancer and other diseases.

The company's vision is that people will be able to swallow a pill filled with these nanoparticles, which will attach themselves to specific cells, proteins, and other molecules inside the body, depending on what they're "decorated" with. For example, Google could coat its nanoparticles with a specific antibody that would recognize and attach to a protein on the surface of a tumor cell.

When they come in contact with cancer cells, the nanoparticles will "light up." The pills will pair with a wristband, which will be able to detect any lighted nanoparticles in someone's blood.

To develop the pills and wristband - which are still a long way from becoming a reality - Google needs to measure how light passes through different types of skin. So, for its research, Google is making human skin in its Life Sciences facility.

 

Google has more than 100 doctors and researchers working on its health projects, which it started three years ago.

"The central thesis of what we're trying to do at Google Life Sciences is change medicine from being episodic and reactive (like, I go to the doctor when my arm hurts), to proactive and preventative," Conrad says.

The nanoparticles Google is working on will be so small that 2,000 could fit inside one red blood cell:  


The idea is that the nanoparticles would travel through the blood, then get collected by a magnet on the wristband:



The wrist band would then be able to report on whether there were any lit up nanoparticles: 

To create its synthetic skin, Google worked with real human skin. Here are some model arms made with materials that mimic the exact behaviors and characteristics of real skin.Google has to create lots of different skin types, so it can test how light passes through skin of different colors and thicknesses.