Microsoft's Windows Phone 8.1 lockscreen app close to launch
The option to change the Windows Phone 8.1 lockscreen is a new feature Microsoft showcased in early-April, at the unveiling of its new operating system, but that is not yet ready for prime time. As you may recall, Windows Phone head Joe Belfiore has said that it will be available later down the road through a dedicated app.
But, how close are we to its release? Well, Belfiore says that the development of the lockscreen app is in its final stages, with the software giant and prolific Windows Phone developer Rudy Huyn (who also works on the lockscreen app, as announced at Build 2014) now focusing on "loose ends".
Google is working 9 to 5 -- brings Street View to Dollywood
Dolly Parton is a living legend. Even if you do not love country music, you probably love one of her songs. Hell, she wrote one of the most famous, "I Will Always Love You", which the late Whitney Houston popularized. My personal favorites are "Jolene" and of course, "9 to 5".
Well, it seems like Google is working much harder than a 9 to 5 work day lately, especially when it comes to Street View. The search giant is constantly making a brouhaha over the latest place to which Street View has arrived. Today, it is revealed that Dollywood, the Dolly Parton co-owned theme park, is scoring the Google service.
Most Commented Stories
Windows Phone users score Uber app
It's generally never a good idea to hitchhike. Any time a guy sticks out his thumb, or a girl sticks out her leg, it could be the beginning of their troubles. Quite frankly, getting a ride from a stranger seems like the start of a horror movie.
The latest rage in getting a ride, is Uber. If you aren't familiar, it is an app that connects someone with a car and someone who needs a ride -- for a fee. However, the company partners with reputable car services that do background checks on drivers. In other words, as opposed to hitchhiking, it should be a safe experience. Today, Uber announces that the app comes to Windows Phone.
Get an 8 port USB hub with the new PowerFlow Octofire
It seems that we all have way too many USB devices these days -- thumb drives, external hard drives, charging needs for phones and tablets. No computer has enough ports for the needs of a family, and many customers require help via a hub that can support all of those items.
"Most multi-gadget chargers have up to 4 ports that may only do one amp per port which is not optimal charging capacity. That’s why I was blown away when I first saw the Octofire with double the amount of ports and power", says Chris Johnson, Founder of BiteMyApple, the company that produces the product. "This monster charger is perfect for households or businesses that own many devices, and need a single power solution".
Want to launch your own DDoS attacks on a website? $200 will get you everything you need
Cybercriminals don’t have to make their own malware these days, they can simply purchase ready-made kits. They don’t need to take out a bank loan to do so either -- malware is more affordable than you might think.
Trustwave’s security researchers did a little digging and found that depending on the type, malware can cost as little as two hundred dollars on the black market, and the tools on offer are pretty sophisticated too. Got your wallet ready? Here’s a price list of just some of the currently available malware:
I cut cable's cord again and mean it this time
Overnight, AT&T U-verse went dark in the Wilcox household. We're cord cutters once more. A year ago, we let the service go for about two weeks but returned after Cox Internet failed to deliver constant connection. When going back to AT&T for just the Net, the company made an offer I couldn't refuse: Hundreds of channels, HD, DVR, and Internet for $99 a month. Cost would be $69 without the television service.
But with Game of Thrones and Walking Dead behind, and the 12-month contract expired (yesterday), streaming is once again high on the thrifty list. I made several phone calls looking for an AT&T deal that would keep us customers, but no offer matched Cox, which guarantees pricing for a year without locking me into any commitment. We set up service about 10 days ago, hoping the Internet would stop yo-yoing around.
Seagate Central comes to Roku -- pirates rejoice!
In the olden days, people used to collect CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays (some still do). Buying physical media loaded with content was commonplace. However, the spread of legal streaming caused many to abandon their collecting and instead opt for services like Netflix, Hulu and Beats Music to name a few. Devices such as Fire TV and Roku have made the process far easier.
Of course, some people still download media illegally rather than pay for a subscription or rental. These people fill large hard drives with files from The Pirate Bay and other nefarious sites. Some pirates also like the convenience of streaming to their living room, though. Today, Seagate announces an option that may appease both pirates and honest home users alike -- a channel for Roku.
Amazon unveils massive database expansion for Prime Music service
Just a few weeks ago, Amazon added one more perk to its Prime service, gifting customers with a music streaming service. The launch was a bit clumsy, as many of the songs and artists searched for were not available. However, as I wrote at the time, I expected that to improve.
Today the first leap forward takes place. The retailer is adding hundreds of thousands of new songs to the service, and also promising hundreds of new playlists.
Kingston's new solid state drive almost cracks 1TB barrier
A new 1TB solid state drive [SSD] is on the horizon after Kingston Digital began shipping high-speed flash drives with a capacity that closes in on the significant milestone.
The Kingston SSDNow V310 SSD comes with a 960GB memory size that allows an entire hard drive to be migrated onto a new system at high speed and is capable of 450Mbps read and write speeds.
CyberDuck restores Windows Azure support, adds new SSH/SFTP protocol implementation
Bern-based developer iterate GmbH has released CyberDuck 4.5, a major update to its Windows and Mac FTP and cloud-storage browser tool. This open-source tool provides users with a user-friendly means of browsing FTP/SFTP, WebDAV, Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage and Rackspace Cloud Files servers.
Version 4.5 restores support for Microsoft’s Azure Blob Storage connections, adds a new SSH/SFTP protocol implementation and adds support for updating Windows users via the Taskbar’s Notification area.
Do NOT buy a Blackberry Passport until you read this
BlackBerry’s got a new device, the Passport. It’s sleek, with a polished industrial design that exudes quality. It’s funky, with a non-standard size and shape that challenges the status quo. And it’s cool, with lots of innovative features you won’t find on competing devices.
In fact, BlackBerry’s new Passport is like nothing you’ve ever seen before. Which is why you absolutely, positively should not buy one.
Self-destructing content service ensures shared data stays private
When you send a file to someone else there’s always a risk that it could be copied or forwarded, even if it's intended to remain private -- as many a snapper of naked selfies has found to their cost.
There have been attempts to solve this problem in the past of course with services like Snapchat and Yahoo's Blink, that allow content to be viewed for only a short time, but none of these are aimed at business users.
Internet Explorer vulnerabilities have increased more than 100 percent since 2013
Bromium Labs today issued its "Endpoint Exploitation Trends" report that shows Internet Explorer set a record high for reported vulnerabilities in the first half of 2014, and also leads in publicly reported exploits.
According to Bromium, "Internet Explorer took the cap for historic high number of security patches in over a decade, and that feat was accomplished in the first six months of 2014!" It's not all bad news for users of Internet Explorer though. While the browser was easily the most exploited tool, Microsoft has been reacting much quicker to plug vulnerabilities. The company took more than 90 days to release its first patch for IE9, yet IE11’s first critical patch emerged just five days after the new browser was generally available.
AVG killed LiveKive, but is offering a 'free' data transfer to SpiderOak
AVG got into the cloud storage business with its LiveKive offering. I won't go into the gory details but the service did not work so well. Now the anti-virus maker has elected to kill off the product, and perhaps it was a merciful death.
Users began receiving warning messages in their email before the shutdown took place. Customers could grab their data, though depending on how much was there, the download could have been painful.
Forget.me now handles 'right to be forgotten' requests for Bing as well as Google
Back in May, the EU Court of Justice ruled that people have a "right to be forgotten" from search results. Google fairly quickly set up an online form to allow complainants to put forward their case for censoring their appearance in results. It didn’t take long for Microsoft to follow suit, and Bing users were soon afforded the same option.
Forget.me was one service that offered to take care of Google removal requests for people, and at the time CEO Bertrand Girin promised that "if Bing and Yahoo get their Right to be Forgotten forms in order, we’ll be able to provide you with the possibility of submitting your URL to all three search engines at the same time." For Microsoft, that day has come.