Latest Technology News

A funny thing happened when I checked my email this morning. I found I had a friend request from Myspace, something I haven’t had for a long time. Even funnier was when I clicked on it Myspace -- or at least Myspace as I knew it -- was gone. In its place was a new sleek, Modern UI meets Spotify, music-based site. A site that doesn't seem to do friend requests anymore either so it's lucky I got that email or I might never have stumbled on it at all (conspiracy theories on a postcard please).

Of course this really shouldn't have come as a surprise, around nine months ago my colleague Wayne Williams reported early news of the update with the headline New Myspace is gorgeous, but who will use it?  Like everyone else though I’d read about a Myspace update and not deemed it worthy of brain space. So suddenly finding myself on the new site -- fresh out of beta -- was a bit of a shock.

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In an effort to beef up the security of its cloud platform, late-yesterday, Microsoft introduced two-step authentication for Windows Azure. The new feature is available through a service called Active Authentication and, according to the software giant, is mostly aimed at enterprises.

"Companies can enable multi-factor authentication for Windows Azure Active Directory identities to help secure access to Office 365, Windows Azure, Windows Intune, Dynamics CRM Online and many other apps that are integrated with Windows Azure AD", says Windows Azure director Sarah Fender. "Developers can also use the Active Authentication SDK to build multi-factor authentication into their custom applications and directories".

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It really doesn’t make any sense for Google to be shutting down such a widely used and cherished feeds subscriber as Google Reader, but the web giant isn’t going to change its mind unfortunately, so we must look towards alternatives that we can adopt.

But with countless options to choose from, where should one even begin looking? An excellent place to start is a website called Readable.cc.

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PlayOn, one of my favorite media apps for my Google TV, today unveils major new updates to its offering. The service is a life-saver for cord-cutters and has somehow managed to avoid lawsuits during its existence, even going so far as to partner with set-top box maker Roku, selling a box with PlayOn pre-installed.

The company first introduces a new service it calls PlayMark. This means, when you are browsing the web on your PC and you come across a cool video that you want to show to your family or friends later on TV, then you can click the PlayMark icon in your browser menu to mark the video. Then continue browsing the web and, later that evening, when you are in front of the TV looking for something to watch and remember that you wanted to show something to your family, you can bring up PlayOn, find the PlayMark folder, click on it and, in a few seconds, you will be watching that same web video you PlayMarked earlier.

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You never know who you are going to get.

Yahoo has announced that starting mid-July, it is going to begin recycling email addresses. All Yahoo email addresses that have been inactive for 12 months or longer, will be made available again. Users will be able to stake claims on desired and expired Yahoo email addresses on a first-come, first serve basis. This sounds like a fun thing for Yahoo users who want a shorter or easier email address.

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The National Security Administration may prefer to blend into the shadows, but that is a position no longer available to it thanks to the recent PRISM story. Yesterday Mozilla made headlines by launching a campaign against what has been termed a threat to citizens' privacy and security. Google also responded, assuring customers it had nothing to hide and asking for permission to publish information requests it receives.

Now the American Civil Liberties Union has taken the next step, filing against both the NSA and Verizon, the wireless carrier at the center of the scandal. The organization announces that it has filed a constitutional challenge to a surveillance program under which the National Security Agency grabs information about every phone call placed within, from, or to the United States.

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Migrating data between two Google accounts is not the easiest of tasks -- there's no simple switch that one can flip. Folks have to use various tools provided by the search giant to move a Google+ profile with circles, backup important emails and Drive content or transfer the Voice number and data. Based on my experience, it takes quite a bit of time too.

This makes it especially problematic for business users who wish to seamlessly migrate data from a standard Google account to Google Apps. Backupify wants to address this issue with the latest update for its Migrator tool, released today, which now introduces support for Google to Google Apps (and vice-versa) migrations.

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It’s only a couple of weeks since NirSoft’s last release, but the unstoppable freeware machine has just announced another addition to its lineup. TurnedOnTimesView is a simple tool for reporting when a PC was turned on, restarted, or shut down.

This has some obvious applications for system monitoring. If you’re wondering whether someone’s been using the family PC in the middle of the night, for instance, TurnedOnTimesView may be able to tell you more.

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If all US companies were to move their core systems from in-house servers to the cloud the amount of energy used could be reduced by up to 87 percent a new report claims.

The research carried out by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory finds that if all the email, CRM and productivity software in the US were running in the cloud it would save 326 petajoules of energy. Just in case you were wondering a petajoule is around 278 gigawatt hours or the amount of energy you get from burning 34,121 tonnes of coal.

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Telerik, a company that specializes in development tools and solutions for building cross-platform and mobile applications, today announces the latest evolution of Telerik DevCraft, delivering what it claims is better and faster development of .NET apps for modern devices.

Citing recent research by analyst firm Canalys, Telerik says Microsoft's market share for mobile adoption is forecast to grow from 2.4 percent in 2012 to 12.7 percent in 2017, and its new toolset has been prepared to take advantage of that market growth. The toolset is for both XAML and HTML and is built to provide .NET and HTML5 developers with an array of tools to deliver modern, clean mobile applications, including Calendar, Image and Tile controls.

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Following the smartphone's German launch on Monday, the Lumia 925 arrived in the UK today courtesy of local mobile operator Vodafone. The carrier offers the handset in an exclusive 32 GB storage trim with no upfront cost alongside two-year agreements starting at £34 per month.

In order to get the Lumia 925 for free local Vodafone subscribers have to go with either a Red L or Red XL plan. Both contracts offer unlimited minutes and texts. The former goes for £34 per month and also includes 2 GB of mobile data while the latter runs for £39 per month and adds 4 GB of cellular traffic.

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The gaming market isn’t what it used to be. With smartphones and tablets able to play high quality single and multiplayer titles, the casual gamer really has no need for a dedicated gaming console. Both Sony and Microsoft knew this when dreaming up their next generation consoles and took strategic decisions to keep them in the game (pun intended).

After the Xbox One reveal it was clear that Microsoft’s focus is now on casual and non-gamers. The whole presentation was a pitch for an all-in-one entertainment system rather than a traditional gaming console.

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If you thought the Galaxy S4 lineup could not grow any bigger you would be wrong. South Korean manufacturer Samsung announced, on Wednesday, the fourth member in its upscale smartphone family -- the Galaxy S4 zoom. The handset differentiates itself from the pack by offering a whopping 16 MP back-facing camera with 10x optical zoom. Yes, it's rather large and heavy because of it.

"As communication continues to become increasingly visual in nature, people wish to capture and share their moments in the highest quality possible, but often do not have the space or inclination to carry a dedicated camera for this purpose", says Samsung CEO JK Shin. "The Galaxy S4 zoom changes this forever, combining the industry leading functionality and connectivity of the Galaxy S4 with the high quality photographic experience you’d expect from a compact camera. The result is truly the best of both worlds, without compromise". Surely, the "without compromise" part sounds too good to be true.

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A new survey by Symantec reveals that people are more and more reliant on their smartphones at concerts, events and music festivals. But as usage of phones increases so do the security risks.

According to the research when people are out at live events phones are now more common than lighters (only 7 percent carry those anymore) and cameras (42 percent). This has led to the rise of some new phenomena such as "phone hogging" where audience members hold phones above their heads to take photos and video. Some 51 percent send texts or make calls to brag about the show and 38 percent take to social media to do the same.

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ESET has unveiled the first public betas of its NOD32 Antivirus 7 and Smart Security 7 products.

The Smart Security suite now includes a Vulnerability Shield to better protect your PC from known network issues, while its Anti-Theft service gains the ability to track what’s happening on your stolen hardware via regular screen captures.

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