Latest Technology News

There are few people who like ads. Sure, they can be works of art -- certainly there are some advertisements that are infinitely better than a lot of the dirge pumped out by television networks -- but while advertisements on television can be fairly easily avoided (thank you TiVo -- other PVRs are available!) it is a different matter on a computer or mobile device. "Opting" to watch a mindblowing ad for Apple, Guinness or Honda is one thing, but to have unavoidable -- and usually crappy -- advertisements forced upon you whilst browsing the web or using an application is an entirely different matter.

There are groups of people who are happy to endure these adverts because they fund apps, and make it possible for developers to provide their hard work free of charge -- you may fall into this group and have perhaps been able to configure an automatic ad filter for your eyes. But there are larger legions for whom ads are just plain, damned irritating. In some instances it is possible to pay to avoid them, but this is not always the case. If BlackBerry and Yahoo get their way, advertisements are going to become rather more noticeable.

Continue reading →

GPSoftware has announced the release of Directory Opus 11, the latest edition of its powerful Windows file manager. And perhaps unsurprisingly, with a three year gap since version 10, it’s absolutely packed with new features.

The interface has been revamped in many ways. There are thumbnails in the Details and Power modes; the breadcrumb path has a clickable "ghost" of your previous path; the folder tree is easier to navigate, and remembers which branches are expanded; and a new Jobs Bar helps you see and manage all your current file operations.

Continue reading →

Ellen DeGeneres' Samsung Galaxy Note 3 made waves at the Academy Awards after being used to snap an on-stage selfie and a group shot. Both quickly became hugely popular photos taken at the event, and target practice for the South Korean maker's rivals.

Nokia was first to take a stab at Samsung for the terrible quality of DeGeneres' selfie, implying she should have used one of its smartphones instead. The photo posted by the star even had the #blurry hashtag added on Twitter to make up for what was basically a missed shot. Not to miss this opportunity (to be unoriginal), Lenovo and LG also took to Twitter to convince us that their smartphones would have fared better than Samsung's phablet.

Continue reading →

Opera Software has released Opera 20 FINAL for Windows and Mac. It’s the sixth major update since the browser was rebooted with the Chromium browser engine, and follows previous releases in offering evolutionary changes rather than revolutionary ones.

Many of the new features in version 20 build on features added in January when Opera 19 was released, with improvements to the bookmarks bar and advanced Hardcore mode in addition to a handful of other tweaks.

Continue reading →

When Nokia officially unveiled its X smartphones it was clear the Finnish company intended its new Android lineup to look similar to Lumia Windows Phones. The internals may be on the low-end side, but the hardware design looks just as premium, undoubtedly aided by the funky colors, and the software... well, the homescreen interface resembles the Windows Phone tiles, which is the dead giveaway as far as this writer can tell.

Some may rightfully point out that X smartphones are superior to Lumias in one major area -- apps. Courtesy of the mature Android ecosystem, Nokia's droids are compatible with hundreds of thousands of offerings, which is more than Windows Phone can tout. It would make sense for Nokia to encourage developers to make their apps more like those on Windows Phone to warm repeat customers to the idea of upgrading to one of its higher-end smartphones, which run Microsoft's tiled operating system. But, Nokia has other plans.

Continue reading →

Every day, right after I wake up, I check my email accounts to see who reached out during the night. This morning it was Twitter that grabbed my attention with an email informing me that my password has been reset.

The reason? "Twitter believes that your account may have been compromised by a website or service not associated with Twitter", says the email received from the social network. "We've reset your password to prevent others from accessing your account". This is not something that one wants to hear, is it?

Continue reading →

I'll confess, I'm not a Yahoo user. Well, I do use one of its services -- Fantasy Sports. Yes, I am one of those guys that enjoys pretending I am a coach in the NFL, while sitting on my couch in my underwear, eating snacks.

However, I access Yahoo Fantasy sports with my Google credentials. The reason being, I am not a believer in Yahoo's security. After all, the recycling of email addresses is appalling. Today however, Yahoo informs me that it will no longer be allowing Google or Facebook accounts to be used to access Fantasy Sports. Instead, a Yahoo login is being forced on users.

Continue reading →

My first-ever Chromebook was a Samsung. The 11.6-inch laptop was inexpensive and revolutionary. Heck, it looked like a plasticy Macbook Air -- very sexy. However, all that glitters is not gold. While my relationship with the laptop started strong, the dual-core ARM processor and paltry 2GB of ram proved underpowered. Pages would load slowly, and the lag could be extremely frustrating.

While many people think of Chrome OS as being just a web browser, remember, it is actually a Linux distribution running a web browser. The more RAM the better, with 4GB being the bare minimum for an enjoyable experience. Today, Samsung announces two new ARM-based Chromebooks to serve as a follow-up to the original. Not only is the RAM increased, but the CPU is supercharged too.

Continue reading →

The leadership at Microsoft, which has moved from Steve Ballmer to Satya Nadella, has had a chance to sink in. Now it is time to see what the new CEO has up his sleeve. Rumors of an executive musical chairs surfaced over the weekend, but nothing was confirmed until an official announcement posted today.

Indeed the widespread news is true, and both Tami Reller and Tony Bates will be leaving the company, while other executives make moves to new positions.

Continue reading →

FastStone Software has released FastStone Image Viewer 5.0 and FastStone Image Viewer Portable 5.0 for Windows PCs. The free-for-personal-use tool provides image browsing, converting and editing capabilities.

Version 5.0 adds a number of minor new features, tweaks some existing settings and comes with various minor bug fixes and improvements.

Continue reading →

Crowdfunding is a relatively new phenomenon. If you aren't familiar, it is essentially begging on the internet. However, the beggars are not unmotivated slackers -- quite the contrary. No, these people are begging for money to fund their dreams -- electronics, books, movies, etc. When someone chooses to pledge money, they often get perks, like early access to the product being funded.

There are many companies that facilitate crowdfunding, but the most popular is still Kickstarter. While pledges on the site can be very small, like $5, they can also reach into the thousands of dollars. Today, Kickstarter reaches a milestone -- one billion dollars in pledges. In other words, crowdfunding is legit and here to stay.

Continue reading →

Travel and expenses management is an obvious candidate for cloud applications since, by its very nature, it deals with people who are out of the office.

With the latest update to its Cloud for Travel and Expense solution, ERP specialist SAP adds new capabilities that improve and simplify the user experience. The system covers everything from online booking through receipt capture to expense reimbursements.

Continue reading →

It's a new month and so once again NetMarketShare reports desktop share for all of the major operating systems. What's interesting this month is all versions of Windows showed fairly minor changes. Whether dropping or gaining, the differences in share were minimal.

However, one inescapable truth is clear from the figures. While Windows 8.x might finally have shifted 200 million licenses, use of the OS has pretty much plateaued. In February, Windows 8's share declined from 6.62 percent to 6.38 percent, a drop of -0.24. Windows 8.1 increased shared from 3.94 percent to 4.30 percent, rising by 0.36. Combined, Windows 8.1 grew by just 0.12 percent.

Continue reading →

Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 was the tech star of this year's Academy Awards, as the phablet was used by both Bradley Cooper and Ellen DeGeneres to snap two of the most popular pics at the event. Ironically, both photos are blurry (and, might I add, appear to be part of heavily staged acts).

Quick to take advantage of the free publicity, arch rival Nokia has subtly taken a stab at Samsung for the terrible quality of one of the photos, namely DeGeneres' selfie on the stage.

Continue reading →

The tablet market is showing strong, continuous growth year-over-year. Research firm Gartner today announces that slate sales in 2013 increased by 68 percent compared to the year before. Android takes the market share crown after more than doubling its sales, iOS came second and Windows follows in third place.

Of the three, iOS was the only platform that did not post tremendous year-over-year growth. Android increased its sales, and lead over Apple's iPads, to 120.96 million units in 2013, up from the 53.34 million units sold in 2012. Meanwhile, Windows grew to 4 million units, which is, again, considerably higher than in the previous year when sales topped 1.16 million units. In contrast, iPad sales came in at 70.4 million units, marginally more than the 61.45 million units sold in the year before.

Continue reading →