Measure your PC’s gaming performance with Catzilla
Is your PC up to playing the latest games? It’s not always easy to tell, but if you’re looking to find out then the Catzilla benchmark could give you some useful information.
Launch the program and it runs some in-depth OpenGL and DirectX tests, directly assessing your CPU and GPU speeds. That’s not quite as it dull as it sounds, though, because Catzilla does this by rendering real-time battle scenes of giant cats causing havoc across a city. (No, we’re not making this up.)
Microsoft wants your help to find undiscovered prime numbers
You likely haven't made it this far in life without learning about prime numbers, as they are one of the fundamentals of mathematics. They are also a big part of the technology world, being used for encryption. You may not think about them everyday, but there are people out there who do, and now you can be one of them.
Microsoft is introducing the Prime Challenge, a contest to find the undiscovered prime numbers, of which there likely are quite a lot, though nobody can really say how many. "The challenge is open to all; everyone is encouraged to try and find a 'lost prime'. To enter the challenge just go to www.primechallenge.org and follow the instructions online", says Microsoft.
City National Bank adopts Surface Pro
If you missed out on the Black Friday Surface deals, you may still have a chance to get your hands on one, provided to you free of charge. That is, if you happen to be an employee at City National Bank.
City National Bank is a private and business financial institution based in Los Angeles, California. "We looked at multiple options out there, and as soon as we saw the Surface device, we recognized right away that this was a unique device that really fit the bill for what we are looking for", says City National Bank's Senior Vice President of Business and Technology Services Jim Ellaboudy.
Best Windows 8 apps this week
Fifty-eighth in a series. The application growth in Windows Store broke the 2,000 new apps mark this week which happened last in July 2013.
The release of Windows 8.1 has surely revived the store, and while it is too early to tell if the upswing will continue in the coming months, the outlook is quite good right now.
FTC charges Android flashlight developer with leaving users in the dark about data usage
The permissions screen that pops up during the installation of an Android app has become the new EULA. Very few people bother to read through what is on screen before clicking through and going ahead with the installation -- you could be signing your life away for all you know!
Apps will let you know if they make use of your location, have access to your contacts, could send messages on your behalf and numerous other things. But in the case of Brightest Flashlight Free it turned out that the app was not only sharing users' location and device ID information with third party advertisers, but it was doing so secretly.
iolo System Mechanic debuts new responsiveness tuner with CPU optimization tool
iolo has released a major update to its family of System Mechanic tools with the release of iolo System Mechanic 12.5. Also available as a cut-down free version as well as a more fully featured Professional version, System Mechanic 12.5 adds a number of significant new features.
Chief among these is LiveBoost Technology, a real-time responsiveness tuner that utilizes three different tools to ensure the user’s computer is always running smoothly. This feature is restricted to the paid-for versions only.
Android 4.4.1 KitKat now available, here's how to install it
Barely three weeks have passed since KitKat started to roll out, but now Google is updating its compatible Nexus devices to Android 4.4.1. The new version is being pushed over the air for the Nexus 4, Nexus 5 and 4G LTE Nexus 7, and will also be baked in factory images next week.
The biggest change that Android 4.4.1 introduces is focused on improving the Nexus 5 camera quality and performance, which have been pointed out as major downsides when compared to top smartphones available today. As some have noticed already in ads, Google is marketing the new handset as a capable device for photography and with Android 4.4.1 on board it finally seems to deliver in this regard.
Hirejungle aims to boost the sharing economy
One of the most useful things about the internet is its ability to bring people together to trade and exchange. Think eBay, Play and Amazon Marketplace. But all of these are aimed at people with physical products to sell. London-based Hirejungle has come up with a platform that lets businesses and individuals hire out their goods or services.
Peer-to-peer rental, or the sharing economy, is big business according to The Economist. Whether you want to hire a car, rent a room for the night or find someone to carry out a home improvement job, technology makes it much easier to find what you need.
Get more from your Xbox One with tips from Major Nelson
Whether you’re the proud owner of a shiny new (and hopefully problem free) Xbox One, or you’re thinking of getting one soon, Microsoft has plenty of great resources to help you get the most from the console, including this cheat sheet covering voice and gesture commands.
In the lead up to the launch Microsoft also released a string of videos highlighting what’s possible with the Xbox One, including how you can use Bing to search for entertainment, and showing off SkyDrive integration, as well as this great video exploring what it’s like to actually use the Xbox One. Even though the console is out now, Microsoft is continuing to release videos and the latest one offers tips and tricks narrated by Larry Hryb, Xbox LIVE's Major Nelson.
Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit successfully disrupts the ZeroAccess botnet
Three weeks ago Microsoft unveiled its new Cybercrime Center. Housed in a unit on the tech giant’s campus in Redmond, Wash. the center was created to tackle a wide range of internet crimes including malware, botnets, intellectual property theft and online child exploitation.
Working with Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), the FBI, and A10 Networks, Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit has just claimed a major victory, successfully disrupting the Sirefef botnet, also known as ZeroAccess.
BatchPurifier LITE quickly strips JPEG metadata
Take a picture with a digital camera and your JPEG will usually have plenty of metadata attached: camera name, model, date taken, flash mode, ISO speed and more. You might then add a title, author, comments maybe, and this can be a great way to ensure you can find particular photos later.
Share the image later, though, and the metadata goes with it, potentially revealing all kinds of personal data (even your home address, if the picture is geo-tagged). Unless, that is, you use BatchPurifier LITE to remove any tags first.
Microsoft is back on the Chromebook warpath
Just over a week ago, Microsoft lashed out at Google with its latest installment in the Scroogled campaign, hiring Pawn Stars to belittle the Chromebook platform. Reaction ranged from positive to negative, but it can't be argued that it did get attention. Despite those negatives, Microsoft has no intention of backing down, and actually added another video to the archive today.
This time, the company has enlisted the aid of its popular spokesperson Ben Rudolph, "Ben the PC Guy", of "Smoked by Windows Phone" fame. Microsoft sent Rudolph out on the streets of Venice, California with a Chromebook in his hands and a camera crew in tow.
BitTorrent Sync doubles user base in 30 days
BitTorrent Sync has been around since January, when it debuted in private alpha. After moving to beta and going public, the service announced a major update and the achievement of reaching one million users. That was 30 days ago, and what a difference a month makes.
After taking from January until November to hit that first million, the organization has doubled the user base in just one month, today announcing two million users. "The milestone demonstrates the accelerating momentum for BitTorrent Sync. It also signals that in it’s first 8 months BitTorrent Sync has grown more rapidly than Dropbox at the same stage", BitTorrent told BetaNews in a statement.
Xbox One suffering from a worrying controller disconnect issue
I like to consider myself to be pretty reasonable when it comes to my technology choices. Being an enthusiast, I choose my tech based on how much I think it can improve my way of living, not because I'm an Apple fanboy or inherently biased against Microsoft, or vice versa. But everything changes when it comes to the Xbox. I am a true fanboy and I'm not ashamed to admit it.
In case you've been living under a rock, Sony and Microsoft released the latest editions of their popular gaming consoles, the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One. I purchased my day one edition of the Xbox One and was pretty excited to unpack it and get everything setup. Admittedly I was a little nervous after hearing about some of the show stopping issues Sony was having with consoles being dead on arrival and other massive issues plaguing the PlayStation Network. Particularly as the Xbox One hasn't escaped unscathed as users report numerous issues with their consoles, the biggest of which seems to be faulty disc drives. Microsoft has gone on record about this issue and has worked hard to quickly replace these devices. However, the tech giant hasn't said a single word about a host of other issues users are experiencing; one in particular that is gaining momentum on the official Xbox Forum concerns a controller disconnect problem. This is an issue I've personally experienced.
Google gives users the ability to download Gmail and Calendar data
Google deserves some credit for providing its 'Takeout' service that allows customers to easily move their data somewhere else if they decide to make a switch. It's a service many of us became all too familiar with in the summer when Google killed off Reader. Now the search giant is providing another way for customers to take control of their data.
Gmail and Calendar users will now be able to directly download their personal information. "Starting today we're rolling out the ability to export a copy of your Gmail and Google Calendar data, making it easy to back up your data or move to another service", states Google software engineer Nick Piepmeier.
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