Latest Technology News

There are lots of messaging apps on the market, which means that you can end up needing several if you have friends and contacts on different services. It would be a major breakthrough to have a universal standard for messaging, but is that ever likely to happen?

Telecom and web convergence company tyntec has carried out a survey among smartphone owners in the US and China to uncover trends in consumer messaging app usage and to evaluate the probability of OTT (over-the-top) messaging apps one day becoming a truly universal service that connects the world's population.

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If you haven't been to the Smithsonian in Washington DC then you're missing out on a great time. The institution operates a number of museums situated along the mall, bracketing such famous sites as the Washington Monument and memorials to war veterans and past presidents.

Take the Smithsonian and roll in a bit of the BBCs famous Planet Earth documentary and you get the Smithsonian Earth channel.

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In order to keep up with today's fast-paced commercial world, planning solutions need to offer complete visibility into activities.

Business performance specialist Changepoint is launching a new version of its Daptiv PPM product that allows users to assess project and portfolio resources from a holistic viewpoint, gaining valuable insight into true resource demand.

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Monitoring your PCs disk space isn’t difficult, at a basic level: just launching Explorer will get you started, and there’s plenty of freeware around to take the process a little further.

That’s probably enough for general home use, but if your system is complex -- more drives, several drive types -- then it might be time for an industrial-strength solution.

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The use of mobile devices for shopping is increasingly becoming the norm. But, as we approach the year's peak shopping season, a new survey reveals that many consumers are worried about shopping with their mobile devices and providing credit card information to mobile apps.

The study from Blancco Technology Group of more than 1,400 consumers in the United States, Canada, UK and Australia, finds that 28 percent of consumers feel completely unsafe shopping from a mobile device, while two out of 10 are hesitant to link credit cards to mobile apps.

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Microsoft has released Skype for Android 6.11, with a focus on helping users share and keep track of what Skype says are "moments that matter".

New features include the ability to save video messages, contact and chat management tools via a long tap, improved search tools and the ability to share photos directly with groups.

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In the past few years mobile has become the preferred communication channel as consumers demand fast, easy access to information.

But how will mobile develop in future? Can we expect to see more apps, a switch towards mobile friendly websites, or even a move back towards SMS as the preferred tool of business-to-consumer (B2C) communication? To find out we spoke to Steve French, VP of Global Product Management and Marketing at mobile messaging provider, OpenMarket, a division of Amdocs.

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At the moment, developers looking to see their apps listed in the all-important Designed for Families category in Google Play have to clearly indicate whether the apps are ad-supported. Following on from the earlier introduction of an 'In-App purchases' warning label, Google is now going further with a mandatory 'ad-supported' label.

Starting 11 January next year, an app that includes ads must show the new label in its store listing. This will make it clear to downloaders what to expect from anything they install, and Google's definition of ads is wide-ranging so a lot of apps will be affected.

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Almost half (49 percent) of companies which participated in a recent survey by Forrester Research say that they plan on upgrading to Windows 10 by 2016.

The news broke out yesterday, adding that 38 percent of workers who use a computer say they want Windows 10 on their next work laptop, with 9 percent already using it on their primary work device.

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It's getting to be that time of year when thoughts turn to holiday giving. Amazon has already launched its Black Friday deal site and we've seen Best Buy's answer to that. Now the Amazon attempts to go one better with a special offer.

The online retailer is announcing its eight day holiday special, beginning this Friday November 20th. The company plans to add new deals as often as every five minutes.

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Desktop users have been rather spoiled when it comes to preview builds of Windows 10, but the same cannot be said for mobile users. After a quiet few weeks, Microsoft today releases Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview Build 10586 to the Fast ring.

The official launch date for Windows 10 Mobile draws ever closer, this will be the final preview build Insider get to see. How do we know? This is the RTM build that comes pre-installed on new Lumia devices and Build 10586 sees Microsoft putting the final finishing touches in place. There are no new features this time around, but bugs have been squashed -- there are just a few things to watch out for.

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Edward Snowden's NSA and GCHQ revelations seem to be unending. One of his more recent disclosures was that UK intelligence agencies had the ability hack and remotely control any smartphone.

A survey by Broadband Genie shows that smartphone owners are more than a little concerned about this, with more than half (55 percent) saying the possibility of remote control worries them. A similar number (53 percent) express concern that these surveillance and control powers are open to abuse, and nearly a quarter (24 percent) feel they are a breach of human rights.

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The concept of mobile retail payments is fundamentally sound. It’s a very natural expectation that a smartphone, that is both very powerful and very personal, should be used to facilitate payments while on the move.

However, whilst all the components to make mobile retail payments a reality have been around for some time, it’s the ecosystem to support the technology that has proved particularly challenging for any player -- including the card schemes -- to put into action. In short, everything worked in principle, but didn’t happen in practice.

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One of the best ways to protect your online accounts is by using two-factor authentication (2FA) wherever possible. With this activated, logging into a site requires the use of both a password, and a code sent to your mobile phone. Since most of us have our smartphones within easy reach 24/7, this isn’t as much of a chore as it could be, and it certainly delivers a useful layer of additional security.

Not all sites offer this feature however, Amazon being a prime example (pun intended). However, from today that all changes, as the retail giant has quietly introduced the option to set up two-factor authentication on your Amazon account. This means that even if your password falls into the wrong hands, no one will be able to get into your account and go shopping at your expense. This is what you need to do:

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Sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, are still a huge issue. Unfortunately, many young people no longer fear HIV because they see people, like Magic Johnson, living normal lives with the disease. While I am happy that Johnson has continued to survive and prosper, not everyone is as lucky. Safe sex is still extremely important. Charlie Sheen is just the latest high-profile victim. Many more non-famous people are getting HIV, herpes and more.

In an effort to drive this issue home, Durex, the condom maker, is calling for safe sex emojis to be created. Before you call it unnecessary or silly, remember -- young people are communicating with emojis more and more nowadays. Maybe there is some value here. What do you think?

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