Latest Technology News

Ever wanted, or needed, to record a voice or video conversation in Skype? There are plenty of tools out there that will do that for you, but there’s usually a catch. They either cost money or, if they are free, there’s often a limit to what you can record.

Thankfully, there’s a free app just launched for Windows users that allows you to easily record voice and video calls from Skype completely for free, with no limits or catches. It’s ridiculously simple to use, and it’s called, rather aptly, Free Video Call Recorder for Skype 1.0.2.115.

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Google today announced big changes to their AdWords money making machine in a bid to dramatically increase mobile advertising adoption and the Cost-Per-Click (CPC) of mobile search ads -- by making their advanced mobile search advertising features work by default, rather than requiring tons of extra effort on the part of the advertiser to make them work, and also by changing the way mobile CPCs are set.

The changes announced today, known as “Enhanced Campaigns”, will become available to customers by the end of February and will be applied automatically to all advertisers by mid-year. In this article, I’ll explain how the coming changes will impact Google’s bottom line.

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Today's buzz among Chromebook aficionados and wannabes is a leaked video for a model supposedly being developed by Google with high resolution, touchscreen display -- that's 2560 x 1700, baby. The vid went up on YouTube, then mysteriously came down, but went back up virally, adding to the intrigue that maybe, just maybe, the touchy-feely Chromebook is real. In your dreams.

Who doesn't love a good mystery, particularly gadget freaks desperate for something more and bloggers clawing over one another for greater pageviews. Conspiracy is an Internet meme that never grows old. But there's something oh-so wrong with the Chromebook Pixel shown in the video. Doesn't the computer look a whole lot like Apple MacBook Pro? Similarities are striking, which makes me wonder whether Google imitates art or this video isn't for a real product. Perhaps it's just pitch for one.

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Earlier today a story popped up on the popular gaming website Edge Magazine that cites "sources with first-hand experience of Microsoft’s next generation console". That, of course, immediately raises red flags, but it has not stopped many news sites and blogs from running with the information contained in the "leak". There is a lot of information in the post, but one particular piece caught big attention and is viral.

That is a claim that "Microsoft’s next console will require an Internet connection in order to function, ruling out a second-hand game market for the platform". If true, that would be a disaster for customers and cause the company a public relations nightmare on a massive scale.

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While Betanews isn't usually a place for political discourse, I'm going against the grain on this one. It's because I strongly believe the real answer to solving our serious gun crime problem in America rests in something most readers on this site tend to embrace: technology. More specifically, what we refer to as Big Data. I fully believe we have a data problem, not a gun problem. While the debate at large focuses on reaching the same end goal, the fingers point at the wrong solution.

Big Data, in my opinion, does have a spot in this debate. While Robert Cringely one month ago wrote why he believed just the opposite, I think we have more than enough examples of where Big Data has been helping more than hurting. If you listened solely to the press conferences politicians hold in Washington, you'd almost come to the conclusion that all the guns used in recent crimes pulled their own triggers. There seems to be a steady forgetfulness that nearly every recent mass tragedy was actually perpetrated by individuals with some form of mental illness. But this doesn't stir the headlines the same way gun debates do, so the topic gets swept to the wayside.

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Thanks to the internet, the cloud, smartphones and services like Skype, a business no longer needs employees in-house or even in similar locations. BetaNews itself employs writers located in various places around the world who can easily communicate and share with one another.

Now team collaboration company BusyFlow, already a web app, has launched its services for both Android and iOS, further pushing the boundaries for cloud sharing and communications.

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First in a series. February, 2013 -- We stand today near the beginning of the post-PC era. Tablets and smart phones are replacing desktops and notebooks. Clouds are replacing clusters. We’re more dependent than ever on big computer rooms only this time we not only don’t own them, we don’t even know where they are.  Three years from now we’ll barely recognize the computing landscape that was built on personal computers. So if we’re going to keep an accurate chronicle of that era, we’d better get to work right now, before we forget how it really happened.

Oddly enough, I predicted all of this almost 25 years ago as you’ll see if you choose to share this journey and read on. But it almost didn’t happen. In fact I wish it had never happened at all…

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In with the new and out with the old. Well, almost. Jelly Bean and Ice Cream Sandwich are slowly taking Gingerbread's crown, running on 42.6 percent of all Android devices. The two-year old operating system only has a slight edge, of 3 percentage points, against the two newest sweets in the family, based on the number of devices accessing Google Play during the 14 days ending February 4.

Almost three months after Google released Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, the latest treat in the candy jar reached a 1.4 percent distribution level. Compared to the previous data set released by Google in early-January, the number is merely 0.2 percentage points higher, which translates into a 16.66 percent increase.

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You’ve read all the press about the new BlackBerry 10 smartphones, and you’re intrigued enough to want to know more. Well, a clever new marketing campaign lets you transform your existing iOS or Android device into a BlackBerry Z10 using augmented reality. Well sort of.

Unlike the Playboy interactive cover which uses Layar, you’ll need to have the free Blippar app installed on your phone. Once done, scan the special BB Take Over Me webpage (or just scan the image here, if you prefer) and your phone will be instantly transformed into an interactive Z10. Or at least that’s the theory.

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Windows disc-burning tool BurnAware 6.0 Free has been released. This major update, also available with additional features as BurnAware 6.0 Premium (rebadged from Home Edition) and BurnAware 6.0 Professional, comes with an updated burning engine and a number of new features, including a new tool for checking discs for read errors.

BurnAware 6.0 also ships with a number of improvements, including the grouping of all burning elements at the bottom of the main form, and a number of notable bug fixes.

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Two days ago Vodafone UK teased subscribers and potential customers by announcing that, starting February 6, Windows Phone 8 smartphones would be available for purchase. There was no mention of price at the time, but today the missing piece of the puzzle is finally revealed.

The most expensive Windows Phone 8 device to be had with no upfront costs is the Nokia Lumia 920. For the Finnish manufacturer's flagship Vodafone UK customers have to shell out GBP42 per month during a two-year agreement, and in return they receive 2GB of cellular data as well as unlimited calls and texts.

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Great news for Canadian BlackBerry fans! The newly unveiled BlackBerry Z10 smartphone is now available for purchase at major carriers across the North American country.

In its home land the BlackBerry Z10 is priced rather boldly against popular smartphones from Apple and Samsung. On a three-year agreement at Bell, the device goes for CAD139.95, while the Samsung-made Galaxy Note II and Galaxy S III run for CAD149.95 and CAD49.95, respectively. By comparison the Apple-made iPhone 5 is available from CAD179.95 for the 16GB variant, with the price increasing by CAD100 and CAD200 for the 32GB and 64GB variants, respectively.

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The Calligra team has announced the release of version 2.6 of the Calligra Suite, Calligra Active and the Calligra Office Engine, a versatile Linux-based productivity suite.

The big news in this suite is the addition of Calligra Author, a specialized tool which aims to help authors through the process of creating eBooks, including the ability to add interactive content (animations, embedded web content, scripting, and more).

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Coming from Android or iOS, Windows Phone 8 is an eye-opening smartphone operating system. It sets the bar pretty high when it comes to looks and performance -- the design is simply beautiful and refreshing, and the software responsive and fluid -- but it never really manages to outshine its main rivals. After living with the HTC Windows Phone 8X for a while, I can't help but notice glaring oversights in an otherwise solid proposition. The package is not complete.

You see, being pretty and going fast does not cut it among the fierce world of Android and iOS. Microsoft needs to take a good look around and take charge by solving the shortcomings of Windows Phone 8. Fact is, it's easy to pick faults with the immature app selection, like many journalists do, but that's more of a chicken and egg problem. What the software giant has to do is build on the current platform by offering better basic functionality, functionality that's necessary for a greater user experience.

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When you’re creating a presentation, a demonstration, a software tutorial, or just trying to show someone else what’s happening on your desktop, then you could just take and save screen grabs at the appropriate moments. But while that sounds simple enough, it’s not exactly convenient. You’ll have plenty of work to do later in converting your grabs into something meaningful. And even then, the finished results may not be that professional.

Fortunately ActivePresenter Free offers a more capable alternative. It’s a powerful screen recorder which can track everything you’re doing, and automatically add some useful annotations. You can then quickly customize the results with an excellent editor, before saving your project as images (JPEG, PNG) or video (WMV, AVI, MPEG4, WebM).

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