Politicians panic after law change could leave them open to surveillance
The world of politics is filled with people who many would consider to be out of touch with real life. All too often politicians are treated differently, and this has certainly been the case when it comes to NSA and GCHQ surveillance of phone and internet traffic. In the UK a court has ruled that a ban on intercepting politicians' communication is not valid.
The Wilson Doctrine -- named after former prime minister Harold Wilson -- stated that "there [will] be no tapping of the telephones of Members of Parliament". This has now been ruled to have no legal force, sending politicians into a fit of panic. They are due to hold an emergency debate next week.
Lenovo won't sell Surface because it sees Microsoft as a competitor
Microsoft Surface Pro 3 has proven to be very popular with business users, enough to push Dell and HP to announce that they would officially sell and support the device, alongside their own Windows offerings. Dell and HP are the third and second-largest PC vendors, respectively, so, naturally, market leader Lenovo was expected to also join the Surface Enterprise fold.
That has yet to happen, but it is not due to the lack of customer demand as some folks might be inclined to believe. The reason why Lenovo does not want to sell Surface Pro 3 is because, well, it sees Microsoft as a competitor.
App Store revenue is 80 percent higher than Google Play
App Annie has released its mobile app market report for Q3, and the headline news is that Apple continues to make more money with iOS, whereas Google’s download numbers are increasing with Android.
It is, though, the money made which really counts, and the global indexed revenue from Apple’s App Store is now 80 percent higher than Google Play, according to App Annie’s figures.
American households have a false sense of online security
One in five American households was impacted by a data breach in the last year, yet 40 percent failed to properly secure their wireless routers.
This is one of the findings of a new survey from security company ESET and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA). It reveals that despite the number of breaches 79 percent of Americans still feel safe in their connected homes, with almost half (49 percent) showing a remarkably strong sense of confidence.
Check your PC network security with Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer
Many antivirus tools and security suites now include "vulnerability scanners" which check PCs for security issues.
But despite its age, Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer still does a more thorough job than most, without costing you anything at all.
Best Windows apps this week
One-hundred and fifty in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps and games released for Windows 8.x/10 in the past seven days.
Lots of games this week again and only a few applications. It should not be surprising considering that the games category is by far the most popular in terms of downloads and activity.
Trends and opportunities in enterprise storage [Q&A]
The enterprise storage market has undergone significant change in recent years. In particular it's seen the rise of flash and the consequent decline of disk as a storage medium.
But what effect are these changes having on business? And what trends can we expect to see in the future? We spoke to Arun Agarwal, CEO of storage specialist Infinio, to find out his view of the market.
BBC starts to block VPN users from accessing iPlayer
Streaming video services are frequently tied to specific countries and steps are taken to prevent people in other parts of the world using them. This is nothing new, and there has been something of an on-going battle between service providers and users who try to find a way around any blocks that may be put in place.
Now the BBC is going to war, and it has VPNs in its sights. VPNs are frequently used by those outside of the UK to view programmes on BBC iPlayer -- but they are also used by security-conscious users. But the BBC is not concerned about the security side of things, just that the tools can be used to bypass geo-restrictions. TorrentFreak reports that UK-based VPN servers are now detected and blocked.
Addressing the IT security talent gap [Q&A]
October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month in the US and the Department of Homeland security is calling for more attention to be paid to securing systems.
But whilst cybersecurity is a growing industry we risk a developing skills gap where workers aren't qualified or prepared for jobs in the field. We spoke to Andrew von Ramin Mapp, CEO of Data Analyzers, a cyber security and digital forensic firm, to get his view on how the industry can address this.
How to uninstall antivirus
You don’t need an antivirus package any more? It should be easy: just run the uninstaller and try something else.
Sounds great, until the uninstaller hangs, crashes, or won’t run at all. And you can’t install a new version because it demands you remove the old one first.
Yahoo brings Jimmy Kimmel Live concerts to its platform
Music has always been a part of late night television, regardless if it's the shows own group or a special guest performing live. To catch most of these acts you need to watch live or on demand and obviously need a TV. But now you can catch some of it right on your computer.
Yahoo is announcing the addition of concerts on Jimmy Kimmel Live and it kicks off tonight. If you tune into the site you can watch Duran Duran beginning at 11:35pm CT. The band just released its 14th studio album titled "Paper Gods".
Microsoft sets Guinness World Record for being quiet
Setting a world record is one of the coolest things you can achieve. It means you stand alone with a claim no one else can make. For instance, being the world's strongest, fastest or smartest would be awesome. Other records would not be so cool, however, such as world's fattest or smelliest.
A congratulations is due to Microsoft as it has been awarded a Guinness World Record. However, the record itself is kind of weird. You see, a room on its Redmond campus is now officially the quietest place on Earth.
Microsoft says Start menu app suggestions in Windows 10 are not ads
Earlier today I wrote about my surprise at the sudden appearance of what I referred to as an 'ad' in my Start menu. The comments the article gathered made for interesting reading, and it was clear that there was more than a little confusion and disgust at the prospect of the Start menu being used as advertising space. I mentioned in the article that I had contacted Microsoft for comment, and I've now heard back with some clarification.
First off, Microsoft insists that the promotion of apps in the Start menu is not advertising, merely the App Suggestions feature. The company stresses that no payments are made by software publishers to be highlighted in this way and explains that this personalized suggestion service is now rolling out to Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise users on the Insider program. Microsoft has more to say, but is it enough to allay the concerns of Windows 10 users?
Microsoft has forcibly upgraded some computers to Windows 10
The other day I wrote about problems my father had after an inadvertent upgrade to Windows 10. In the comments there were numerous mocking remarks suggesting that he had been provided with plenty of opportunity to avoid the upgrade -- but it seems that may not have been the case. Microsoft has admitted that the upgrade has been automatically installed on some computers.
This has been described as "a mistake" after the optional update was marked for download and installation by default. Microsoft has already raised the ire of some users who were unhappy to discover that Windows 10 setup files had been downloaded without their permission, but the unwanted installation take things to the next level. So what’s the deal?
Microsoft releases ISOs of Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 10565
Microsoft pushed out Build 10565 to Windows Insiders on the Fast ring three days ago. This preview includes Skype integration, Microsoft Edge improvements, Cortana enhancements, some new icons, and support for nested virtualization. It also introduces a change to the way the activation process works -- you can now activate Windows 10 using a Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 product key.
New Fast ring preview builds can usually only be obtained through Windows Update, but Microsoft has today taken the unusual step of making Build 10565 available to download as an ISO to allow Windows Insiders to try out the new activation paths.
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