Latest Technology News

While the world oohs and ahhs over the latest Apple hardware, the open-source community just keeps on trucking along. Rather than take out a mortgage for the new MacBook running OS X, Linux fans can take solace knowing that their favorite distros remain free and run great on less expensive hardware. In other words, the Linux community doesn't get fancy keynote addresses, but what it does get are solid products in both the kernel and associated operating systems.

My favorite Linux distro is Fedora, because it is free -- both in cost and ideology. The operating system ships without restricted or closed-source software; it is pure, modern and well-supported. Today, Fedora 22 achieves Alpha status, meaning the final version inches ever so closer. Will you give the pre-release operating system a try?

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As a cord-cutter for almost a year now I've learned to live with certain limitations. My TV viewing is sparse, so this wasn't difficult and Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime have done an admirable job of filling the void. Both work great on my Roku 3 and Amazon Fire TV. There's a Google TV here as well, though it's long been disconnected and I haven't got around to purchasing an Android TV, much as the Nexus Player intrigues me.

One set-top box that has failed to get my attention is Apple TV. That's largely because I don't live in the Apple ecosystem. I'm not an iTunes customer and it seems fairly limited compared to what I have. That may soon change.

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Google has announced the release of its Google Calendar app for iPhone, an iOS version of the Android app released late last year.

Both editions are strong on scheduling, taking gmails like flight bookings and hotel reservations and automatically turning them into calendar events.

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While I did graduate from the world-renowned Stony Brook University, it took me longer than usual. Sadly, I was what you would call a "higher education adult learner", meaning I was older than most of the students and only went part-time because I had to work a job. This wasn't a bad thing from a learning perspective, but I did not get to participate in the full college experience. In other words, I was working while the younger students were participating in clubs and watching sporting events. Truth be told, I am a huge basketball fan, and I regret not going to any games while attending.

Luckily, my alma mater is only one win away from going to the big tournament for the first time ever. Yes, if the Stony Brook Seawolves defeat Albany on Sunday, we get to experience the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. Even if they don't make it, I can still enjoy watching the games, but more importantly I can enjoy building my brackets. If you aren't familiar, this means picking the teams that will win and advance in the tournament. For some, picking winners (and gambling) is more fun than the actual sport! This year, Microsoft has partnered with the NCAA to make Bing the official bracket data partner. Will the search-engine pick winners?

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I have been a bit of a wearables skeptic ever since Android Wear was unveiled  at Google I/O last year. Following that, Apple's original announcement of the Apple Watch just added to my list of questions  about the category. Hoping to find some answers, I watched yesterday's Apple Watch keynote with great interest. Curiously, what I found were more questions.

Before jumping in, I have to say that I really enjoyed the recent debate around the Apple Watch (for completely non-analytical reasons). The certainty with which some have predicted the imminent success or failure of the product has been very amusing. Unfortunately, my powers of clairvoyance aren't nearly as evolved, so all I have are questions. That said, it could be worth studying some of the arguments put forward in these debates.

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Motorola introduced Moto Maker as a way to let customers personalize phones with all sorts of adventurous designs from wood to pigskin and all manner of other things. However, the company was also among the first to jump into the Android Wear space, bringing the new smartwatch platform to everyone. Now the two are combining.

Today the company announces that the same sort of customization is arriving for your smartwatch -- providing, of course, that it's Motorola branded. You'll get three cases and nine bands to choose from as you walk through the process. Motorola also points out that you can "complete your design by choosing one of 11 watch faces. Once you get your watch, it’s easy to swap watch faces from our collection or through Google Play".

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When it was announced that Microsoft was making Windows 10 available as a public preview, there were promises of frequent build updates. There have now been a number of builds of Windows 10 Technical Preview, but as it has now been more than a month since the last update, the natives are starting to get restless. We've had to keep our interest piqued with screenshot leaks.

Gabe Aul has taken to the official Windows blog to explain why builds seem to be taking longer to be released. He goes on to reveal that we could see a new build this week or next week. So what's been going on?

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Quite often, when a person buys a desktop from a manufacturer like HP or Dell, it will come with a wired keyboard and mouse. For the most part, the included input devices are passable, but nothing to write home about. Please know, however, that there is a whole world of great keyboards and mice out there -- including wireless options -- ready to make your hands happy.

Today, Microsoft announces a new wireless solution called the Designer Bluetooth Desktop -- a wireless keyboard and mouse. It connects by, you guessed it, Bluetooth, meaning a dongle is not needed if your machine has such a radio. The Designer moniker is quite appropriate, as not only are they both svelte, but stylish too.

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We're all familiar with CAPTCHAs, those images you have to retype as text to prove that you're a real person and not a bot. The bad news for businesses that use CAPTCHA on their sites is that it seems they're pretty effective at deterring humans too.

New research from bot detection specialists Distil Networks suggests that CAPTCHA use is bad for business as it makes surfers more likely to abandon a page.

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What is a "programmer’s editor"? Some developers seem to think it’s essentially a regular text editor with syntax highlighting bolted on, but if you need more, you might want to take a look at the free PSPad for Windows.

The program doesn’t just open local text files, for instance. A built-in FTP client means you can edit files directly on the server. An "Open… from internet" opens any URL, and an integrated hex editor enables you to work on just about anything.

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We all know that web hosting companies receive legal requests ranging from copyright take down notices to search warrants. But how many such requests do they receive and where do they come from?

US hosting company DreamHost has released a first of its kind transparency report detailing all of the requests it's received in the last year. The three most common types are DCMA/Copyright notices, government requests -- such as those related to criminal investigations -- and requests to remove or censor content, usually related to defamation or privacy suits.

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A number of popular projects have come from crowd-funding via Kickstarter. It's a great place to find new and innovative ideas. Many things there fail to reach their goal (although it could be argued that the market for those items made the decision), while others blast past the funding goal and enter the market. Pebble watch is a great example of that success.

There is some peace of mind when donating money -- for one you will get the product. But, if it fails to hit the goal you aren't out anything. Now you'll have one more option for funding that next great product. Kickstarter is announcing it will start to accept Apple Pay.

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Many of the recent, large data breaches such as Target, Anthem, and Sony started with a sophisticated spear phishing attack: an email targeted at specific individuals within a corporation that is engineered to look legitimate and fool even tech-savvy users. The email either has a malware-laced attachment or a malicious link that when opened installs malware in order to attempt to gain system access and steal data.

Unfortunately, since stealing data is lucrative nowadays, these spear phishing attacks are often very sophisticated and hard to spot since they have been composed with considerable effort and target only a small number of individuals. The emails look legitimate so regular spam filters cannot identify them and not all anti-malware engines will always be able to detect the malware in the attachment. So what can companies do to protect themselves against spear phishing attacks?

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As enterprises expand across national and technological boundaries it can be hard to ensure that all the documents they produce reflect the brand image and follow compliance rules.

Issuing guidelines for document production is one thing but ensuring they're obeyed is another. Danish company Templafy has an answer in the form of a cloud-based template system which launches in the US today.

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Apple has finally announced the new lighter-than-Air MacBook we were all waiting for. And, as expected, it's spectacular. It's so attractive that I can't possibly imagine why my colleague Brian Fagioli would claim that Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 is better. We are living on the same planet, aren't we?

Brian is terribly wrong, of course. But I'm not surprised, because he is, after all, a Surface Pro 3 user, and has been from the get-go. So it's easy for him to miss all the things that make the new MacBook so much better. He could only come up with six reasons to make his case. I offer nine reasons -- tangible benefits -- that prove otherwise!

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