Latest Technology News

Panic offers high-calorie Coda 2 for Mac, and low-cal Diet Coda for iPad

Oregon developer Panic has released a brand new version of its Mac web-coding tool, Coda 2, plus launched a streamlined iPad version, appropriately titled Diet Coda. Diet Coda is designed as a companion tool to Coda for use on the move.

Coda 2 launches with over 100 new features -- many of which are based on user requests, adds 64-bit compatibility and provides a completely refreshed user interface. It’s billed as a one-stop shop for web developers, incorporating editor, terminal, CSS and files management within a single application.

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Symantec releases free iAntivirus for the Mac

While there are still Mac users who will proclaim that their systems are immune to viruses and malware, recent high-profile virus infections show that this is simply not the case. Even for anyone still convinced that their computer is immune to viruses, if a Mac is on the same network as a PC, it can easily be used to pass a virus to a Windows-based machine. This is just one of the reasons that Mac virus protection is much more important than many people believe, and Symantec’s newly released iAntivirus is a free tool that could help to bolster security.

If you have used any of Symantec’s security software for Windows, taking a look at the antivirus tool that has been released for OS X is going to come as a little bit of a shock. Minimal is a word that best describes not only the app’s interface, but also its feature set. Rather than on-going background protection against viruses and other forms of malware, all that is on offer here is on-demand scanning -- although you do have the choice of performing a scan of your entire system, your Home folder or other locations.

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Rogue Applications Remover finds malware your security software misses

ESET has released Rogue Applications Remover, a stand-alone console tool that tries to remove rogue antivirus and similar unwanted malware which regular security tools might miss.

The program is very basic, with minimal options. There’s no real-time protection here, no options beyond a few command line switches, it’s really just about running on-demand scans and watching as your system is checked for threats.

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HP reports better-than-expected quarter, but cuts 27,000 jobs amid restructuring

HP released better than expected results after the close of the markets Wednesday, and the company overall shows signs of a long-awaited turnaround. But the big story tonight surrounds the 27,000 workers who will lose their jobs as part of a "multi-year" restructuring plan announced by CEO Meg Whitman.

The cuts amount to about eight percent of the workforce and are expected to save HP between $3 and $3.5 billion annually by 2015. It will be phased in gradually though 2014, and involves an early retirement package to be offered by the company. In a conference call with analysts, Whitman described the quarter's results as positive, but added "we have a lot of work to do".

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Create HTML 5 photo galleries with Juicebox

Looking for an impressive way to show off your digital photos? Juicebox may be just what the doctor ordered. This free Adobe AIR app can be used on Macs as well as PCs running Windows or Linux and whatever platform you use to create your gallery, you can be sure that it’ll look great on both desktop and mobile platforms. The app has been designed specifically with online photo galleries in mind, and despite the fact that stunning HTML5 galleries can be created, you do not need to know a single line of coding.

One of the problems that faces anyone looking to create an online gallery is finding a way to ensure that your photo slideshows look good on a number of different devices and platforms, particularly taking into account mobile devices with smaller screens. This is not a problem with Juicebox -- you can simply choose a design and layout that you would like to use and it will be automatically scaled to suit different screen sizes. From an end-user’s point of view, navigation is made wonderfully easy thanks to support for not only mouse and keyboard controls, but also touch screen navigation.

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Geeks rejoice at Google's legal triumph over Oracle

Google couldn't have asked for better in its intellectual property dispute with Oracle. The judge turned out to be a programmer, and his ongoing guidance to the jury tempered deliberations. Then there were a couple of lucky breaks, the biggest perhaps from former Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz, who volunteered on the witness stand the company saw no grounds to sue Google. Wherever the luck, and perhaps a tenable defense, Google won big today with the jury finding that Android doesn't violate Oracle patents acquired from Sun.

The reaction, as measured by Google+ posts, is magnanimous for the search giant -- and, well, as for Oracle it's best not to whack the beaten too much more. I chose to take reaction from Google+ because it's such a techie hangout.

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Jury says Android does not violate Oracle's patents, APIs up next in landmark case


The fight between Oracle and Google over Android's use of Java took a turn in Google's favor, filings from the District Court for the Norther District of California showed on Wednesday. The jury in the patent phase of the case unanimously voted that Oracle did not prove Android had infringed on Oracle's Java patents.

This decision settles only part of the lawsuit, which Groklaw remarked has been the "longest civil trial" they have ever covered. However, it is a big part. Oracle was calling for an injunction on Android plus damages in its suit, and now that the jury has found no patent infringement, the threat of injunction is nullified.

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Free USB Guard leaves no drives behind

It’s easily done. You’ve finished working on a friend’s PC, close it down and walk away, completely forgetting about the USB key you plugged in a little earlier. Or maybe you’re at home, closing down your own PC, even though there’s a CD or DVD in the drive that you’ll need later. And then, once you realize, you’re perhaps forced to restart the system before you can eject it.

They’re both common problems, but easy to address with a little help from Free USB Guard. Just launch the program, and if you log off or shut down later then it checks for leftover discs or forgotten external drives, stops the shutdown process if any are found, and displays a suitable warning message to let you know.

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Who will buy Samsung Galaxy S III?

Samsung starts selling its third-generation S Series smartphone next week -- May 29, although some locales are expected to get it a day earlier (if not sooner). Our BetaNews poll, "Will you buy Samsung Galaxy S III", has enough responses -- 2,361, as I write -- to report results. Cut to the point: 36.59 percent of you won't buy the S3. At least among our tech community, there is huge interest in the smartphone, which is now available for preorders here, including Amazon.

Some of you have preordered, or will do so: 15.37 percent. Another 32.57 percent plan to order within 3 months and 9.45 percent within 6 months. Those willing to wait are likely to pay less, as national cellular carriers offer Galaxy S 3, albeit locked. The pricier, unlocked models are carrier and contract free. The poll results corroborate last week's report of 9 million preorders. In the United Kingdom, Carphone Warehouse reports strong preorder demand for the S3.

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Seagate begins its next big takeover: LaCie

American storage company Seagate announced on Wednesday its intention to become majority owner of French storage company LaCie by buying 64.5% of the company's shares from chairman and CEO Phillippe Spruch. Pending government approval of this transaction, Seagate will then buy up the rest of the outstanding stock in cash or commence a squeeze out maneuver of any minority stakeholders.

After he sells his stake, Spruch will become the head of Seagate's consumer storage products organization, above Patrick Connolly, who is currently Seagate's vice president and general manager of retail. Deputy general manager of LaCie Pierre van der Elst will also join the Seagate team. The financial terms of the new position for LaCie's CEO have not yet been determined.

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Do you use Gmail and want to know more about your contacts? Try Rapportive

We all now communicate with people through so many channels that it is often difficult to put names to faces. You may know someone on Twitter and Facebook but when you receive an email from them you do not necessary make a connection between the two. This is where Rapportive can help, by providing you with extended information about the contacts you receive emails from in your Gmail inbox.

Rapportive is available as a browser extension for ChromeFirefox and Safari and appears as a right-hand side panel whenever you look at individual emails. The extension pulls in information from social networks such as Twitter, LinkedIn and more to provide you with a more detailed profile of your contacts, and by connecting the service with your social networking accounts you can build up even more detailed information.

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Secure your data with US military-developed Encryption Wizard

When you need to carry sensitive data on a USB key then it’s easy to find an encryption tool which will help to keep it safe. But life gets a little more complicated when you need to transfer your files from a PC to a Mac, or maybe a Linux system: now you’ll need a cross-platform solution, and we have the perfect candidate in mind.

Encryption Wizard is an easy-to-use, yet surprisingly powerful Java-based encryption tool. Developed by the US military (a plus point or a problem, depending on your point of view) but available for all, the program provides a straightforward way to protect confidential files on USB keys (or anywhere else, really).

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Oracle gains stake in social CRM with $300 million Vitrue buy

A day after competitor SAP acquired Ariba to bolster its cloud portfolio, Oracle announced a significant buy of its own, acquiring cloud-based social, marketing company Vitrue on Wednesday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, although TechCrunch reports it was worth some $300 million.

Oracle's purchase of Vitrue gives the Redwood Shores, Calif. company a foothold in the social CRM segment, an initiative Gartner says companies will spend some $2.1 billion on this year alone. With the rise of social networks, companies need methods to quantify the results of their social marketing. Virtue's platform allows customers to "centrally create, publish, moderate, manage, measure and report on their social marketing campaigns and activities", Oracle says.

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System Security Guard warns but doesn't protect

When you’re manually hunting for malware on a PC then you might start by launching Task Manager, Process ExplorerProcess Hacker or a similar tool to see exactly what’s running. But these programs generally won’t directly tell you which processes are safe, and which might be dubious: you’ll have to look at what they’re doing and try to figure this out for yourself.

If this seems a little too much like hard work, though (or you’d just like some pointers to tell you where to look first), then you might be interested in System Security Guard, a very simple tool which can check your running processes for known threats.

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SAP acquires Ariba for $4.3 billion in bid to challenge Oracle in the cloud

SAP made a major play for the cloud Tuesday as its American arm announced acquisition of Ariba, a German cloud computing applications maker. The transaction is worth some $4.3 billion, and is expected to close this summer.

Ariba is the world's second largest-cloud vendor by revenue, SAP says. With the addition of the German company, SAP now looks to challenge rival Oracle, which also has made a play for the cloud segment as of late.

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