Latest Technology News

Research group IDC has announced the results of a survey of 1,200 business executives which reveals that 61 percent of technology projects are now funded by the business rather than the IT department. It also shows that IT spending driven by functional business areas will continue to outpace IT spending by the IT organization in the future.

"Technology has long been central to improving business processes, enabling greater speed, efficiency, and reliability," says Meredith Whalen, IDC's Senior Vice President. "As businesses embrace the 3rd Platform, built on cloud services, big data analytics, mobile computing, and social networking technologies, they are taking the critical first steps toward business process transformation and, in some cases, business model transformation. With such high stakes, the business is increasingly taking a front seat in technology initiatives."

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Just two weeks after the release of iOS 7 Apple takes the wraps off the OS X 10.9 Mavericks GM. The latest version of the operating system, which is now only available to developers, is likely due for general release later in the month and it is extremely unlikely there will be any further changes -- barring the discovery of any serious problems, what we see now is what we'll get on release day.

The same build was released earlier to Apple employees and members of AppleSeed, and there are also updates to iPhoto and Xcode to enjoy. Within Mavericks, there are a number of changes from Mountain Lion. First off, iBooks is familiar to iPad and iPhone owners and now the ebook management system is brought to Macs -- of course, everything is kept in sync between devices.

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Canadian company Dundas Data Visualization has released a new version of its data dashboard software. Designed to enable rapid deployment of custom, interactive displays, Dundas Dashboard helps businesses to analyze and visualize data from across the enterprise in order to maximize the return on their data investment.

Dundas Dashboard 5.0 adds several improvements including advanced usage tracking so that you can measure the effectiveness of your investment, added support for big data tools like Amazon Redshift, Apache Hive and Microsoft PDW, along with a new HTML5 mobile interface.

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As a company which specialises in reviewing the latest software, we occasionally have access to serial codes which we are offered to allocate to our web users. Problem is, how do we allocate these codes, fairly? This resulted in Downloadcrew Giveaway, which was a site created to serve three purposes: allocate serial codes as part of a full software giveaway, enable users to enter a ballot to win a serial code and to present discounted offers for the latest software.

We're bringing back Downloadcrew Giveaway for a limited period, running from now until the end of 2013, giving you serial codes for the very latest software, from some of the biggest brands. Expect to find codes from Kaspersky, Bitdefender, AVG, CyberLink, O&O Software, Auslogics and many other brands, to be confirmed.

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In early September, Google announced that it would be integrating Google+ sign-in with its authorship program, making it even easier to make sure you get the credit for the content you create. This most recent development is just one in a long line of moves by Google toward integration of its existing products both with one another, and with the new products it continues to release.

If you're not familiar with Google Authorship, it's a markup that authors can use to link the content they create for their blog or website to their Google+ profile, and by extension their online identity. When setup correctly, an author's Google+ profile photo as well as a homepage address (when applicable) will be displayed next to their content's entry on the search engine results page (SERP).

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Windows Phone 8 developers looking to increase their app revenues through the use of ads can now take advantage of Google's AdMob, as the search giant just released the first official build that is compatible with Microsoft's latest smartphone operating system.

The new AdMob SDK (Software Development Kit) arrives close to one year after Microsoft released the OS. It is currently available in beta trim, and allows developers to tap into the search giant's popular mobile advertising network, but without the same perks that Android and iOS developers receive.

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Linux offers much quality software. From Gimp, for photo and image manipulation, to Rhythmbox, for music, a user can easily achieve a positive software experience. However, once a program becomes largely adopted, it can get stale -- developers may rest on their laurels.

When developer Yorba came on the scene in 2009 with the popular Shotwell (photo management) and Geary (email client), it was a breath of fresh air. Not only are the programs functional, they are attractive and receive steady updates. Yesterday, Geary announced updates to both of these programs.

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Adobe Flash is a necessary evil. I say "necessary" because even though HTML5 has made major strides, a full and complete web experience still seems to rely on Adobe Flash. I say "evil" because, from a security standpoint, some of Adobe's products (Flash and Reader particularly) are constant thorns in the sides of users and administrators. It feels like almost every other day there is a new security update for an Adobe product. Steve Jobs infamously banned Flash from iOS and Adobe killed-off the Linux and Android versions voluntarily. Sadly, Adobe today announces a far worse security issue than a Flash or Reader exploit.

Today, Adobe Chief Security Officer, Brad Arkin writes, "very recently, Adobe’s security team discovered sophisticated attacks on our network, involving the illegal access of customer information as well as source code for numerous Adobe products. We believe these attacks may be related".

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Just last week, I wrote an article based on a report by Pfeiffer Consulting which suggested that Windows Phone 8 is, in its current state, the least user-friendly mobile operating system available. The article stirred up some feelings, and there were some quite heated exchanges in the comments.

For this follow-up piece, I spoke with Andreas Pfeiffer, the author of the report, to address some of the points, complaints and concerns you raised.

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Most Wi-Fi-enabled devices will give you some basic information about the networks in your vicinity: name, signal strength, security and so on. But if you need to know more, then NirSoft’s WifiInfoView is a quick and easy way to get started.

The program is large by NirSoft standards (247KB) and doesn’t run on Windows XP, but otherwise it’s all very straightforward: download and run WifiInfoView, the program then scans for wireless networks, and in a few seconds you’ll be presented with a detailed report on its findings.

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iOS comes with its own built-in music solution in the form of iTunes, but sadly for Apple, not every customer wishes to use it, or at least not full-time. But the mobile platform allows other services to compete for your ear and now one which has already established a presence on both the web and Android is making its case to iOS users.

Earbits, an online radio and music marketing platform, is available worldwide, aiming to showcase independent artists, and promising music from more than 12,000 musicians. Much like other similar services, Earbits works on recommendations, with a premise of allowing the customer to discover new music based on current tastes. It does so not only by using what you listen to via the service, but also by examining songs stored on your device.

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Amazon has been busy producing original content to bolster its Prime streaming video service, releasing 14 shows for testing back in April and letting the viewers decide which would stick. Now the Studio arm of the retail giant is announcing three more shows going into pilot production.

Mozart in the Jungle from Roman Coppola, The Outlaws written by Jeremy Garelick and Jon Weinbach, and Transparent from director Solloway are all heading for filming.

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According to a new report by the UK media regulator Ofcom, tablets are becoming the must have device for children, displacing the smartphone for younger age groups.

Around a quarter of children aged 12-15 (26 percent) and 18 percent aged 8-11 now have their own tablet computer, while household ownership of a tablet has more than doubled since 2012 to 51 percent up from 20 percent. Use of a tablet computer at home has tripled among 5-15s since 2012, 42 percent up from 14 percent, whilst a quarter of 3-4s now use a tablet computer at home.

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Google has released Chrome for Android 30 FINAL, a major new update to its mobile web browser. The main highlight in version 30 is updated swiping gestures, but other new features include the ability to search by image, faster searching through the Google Search app and improved password sync.

The chief changes are three updated swiping gestures. Users can now swipe horizontally across the top toolbar to quickly switch back and forth between tabs, or drag vertically down from the toolbar to enter Tab Switcher view.

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At first glance, Hornil’s StyleCapture looks like just another ordinary screen capture tool. Only three capture types (rectangle, window and full screen), no built-in editor, no support for uploading your grab anywhere… There doesn’t seem to be anything exciting here.

But then again, there’s more to software than the length of its feature list. And while StyleCapture may be short on extras, the functions you do get are very well implemented, and more than enough to make it stand out from the crowd.

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