Latest Technology News

If your office technologies are not up to today’s standards, millennials are going to dump you. Seriously, almost half (42 percent) of people in that age group are willing to quit their job for this reason. The revelation is made in the Future Workforce Study, released by Dell and Intel.

In it, it says that employees don’t really consider today’s workplaces "smart", even though they believe offices should definitely move in that direction.

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Transparency reports from the big tech companies always make for interesting reading, and the latest update from Google is no different. Its most recent transparency report covers the period July-August 2015, and shows that the company received a record number of government data requests.

The report shows the number of times governments around the world contacted Google with requests for access to user data. For anyone with an interest in either privacy or security, the marked increase in the number of requests is interesting.

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Part of the reason for the success of online retailers is the ability to gather information on customers so that they can be targeted with appropriate offers.

Retail analytics and engagement specialist Euclid Analytics is launching a new platform that aims to give brick and mortar retailers some of the same advantages.

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Seagate today announces a new range of high-end hard drives designed for PC, NAS and surveillance applications. Called Guardian Series, it targets consumers and small businesses alike, with each of the three tailored options boasting a massive 10TB capacity.

BarraCuda Pro, IronWolf and SkyHawk, as they are called, may have the large size as a common selling point, but, according to Seagate, they come with different feature sets depending on the type of device they are optimized for.

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Endpoint security company Carbon Black already offers application control, incident response, and threat-hunting products. Today it's announced the acquisition of next generation antivirus supplier Confer allowing it to offer a complete endpoint protection platform.

The new platform, called Cb Endpoint Security, provides organizations with the flexibility they need to cope with growing and evolving security needs. Confer's cloud-based analytics engine will become part of a 'Cb Collective Defense Cloud,' adding depth to the platform.

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Over the years, the BBC has created a huge number of apps and websites to showcase the various services it offers. If you're interested in a range of BBC content, you've probably found that you have to jump from app to app and website to website. BBC+ aims to change all that.

BBC+ is a new app from the corporation that’s available for iOS and Android. This is one of the first apps built using the newly-developed Mobile Application Framework (MAF) and it gives BBC fans the opportunity to create a personalized collection of the content most relevant and interesting to them -- news, weather, TV and more.

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SoftBank is buying ARM Holdings for $32 billion. Why would a company not presently in the semiconductor business spend 32 times sales to enter a new industry? By traditional measures it makes little sense. But for SoftBank it makes perfect sense, because here’s a company that has spent more than 30 years making high-risk bets on entering new businesses by apparently over-paying for assets. It’s the way they’ve always done it and it has nearly always worked. In this case SoftBank is paying a 43 percent premium over the recent ARM share price because that’s how much money it took to overcome the resistance of ARM management. And it’s just a guess on my part, but I’d say those very ARM managers are, for the most part, doomed. SoftBank isn’t buying ARM because Masayoshi Son is so impressed with ARM’s success: SoftBank is buying ARM because of what it can become.

The only way SoftBank can justify paying such a high price for ARM is if Mr. Son is about to change ARM’s business model.

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Many graphics tools offer some sort of mosaic effect, but it’s often very basic, "let’s pixelate the image a bit and hope for the best". Pattaizer is more imaginative, and can transform your pictures using a host of mosaic-related and more abstract effects.

Some of these appear to be based on fairly standard mosaic effects, for example replacing blocks of pixels with hexagons or lego bricks. But a "Deform control" adds a random variation to every individual component of the image, ensuring you get far more interesting results.

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Qualcomm is facing a $900 million fine in South Korea after its Fair Trade Commission found that the California-based chipset company had charged smartphone manufacturers unfairly for its mobile processors.

The company was found guilty of breaching fair trade rules at the conclusion of the agency’s 17-month investigation. Qualcomm charged Samsung, LG and other South Korean smartphone manufacturers higher licensing fees than it should have for its mobile processors. The company used the wholesale price of a smartphone to calculate the fees as opposed to the actual cost of the chips.

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Windows 10 Insider builds really are coming thick and fast now. Build 14390 came out just three days ago, and now we have Build 14393 following it on to the Fast ring.

This pattern will continue for a while yet as Microsoft squashes as many bugs as possible as it enters the home stretch for the big Anniversary Update out on August 2.

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Inexpensive Android smartphones are nothing new. Getting premium quality phones at a low price is fairly new, however. While some folks hail these respectable wallet-friendly devices as a win for consumers, others -- such as yours truly -- view it as a race to the bottom which could ultimately harm the Android market overall.

Today, ZTE announces the ZMAX PRO Android smartphone. This device is chock full of premium features, such as an octa-core Snapdragon 617 processor, 2GB of RAM, expandable storage, and a fingerprint reader. The truly amazing aspect, however, is the price -- a shockingly low $99.

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While USB-C is not yet a must-have, it is certainly a great feature to have on any computer. The reversible standard can act as a single port for expansion, making extremely thin laptop and tablet designs possible. In other words, having big integrated legacy ports like Ethernet or USB Type-A aren't really needed, thanks to useful dongles.

Today, SMK-Link Electronics announces a beautiful such expansion dongle that acts as a docking station for Windows 10 and macOS. A single Type-C port on your computer (such as on the Apple MacBook or Huawei MateBook) can be transformed into something much more.

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Microsoft has been shouting about Edge a lot as of late. Not happy with claiming that it is the most battery-friendly of the main web browsers, the company has also made much of Edge's 1080p support for Netflix.

In the latest twist, Microsoft switches tack, instead using pop up messages in Windows 10 to badmouth Chrome and promote Edge. The pop up rams home the idea that Chrome is a battery hog and suggests switching to Microsoft Edge to increase longevity.

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It may only be a few weeks since Google revealed that Android 7.0 will be called Nougat, but there have already been several developer previews of the Marshmallow successor. Today Google launches the fifth and final preview before the official launch.

As this is the final preview, build NPD90G of Nougat can be considered near-final code; this is, near as damn it, what you'll be installing on your Android handset in the not-too-distant future when Android 7.0 is officially launched. At the moment, the preview build can only be installed on Nexus 6, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus 9, and Pixel C devices, as well as General Mobile 4G (Android One) devices, but more will be added further down the line.

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Roku has become one of the most popular streaming media platforms, leading more people to get rid of cable and satellite services. It's a mixed bag because it requires some work and a bit of paying for services, though cheaper than the alternative.

Now the manufacturer is bringing its desktop app to Windows 10 in two more countries. Both Canada and the United Kingdom will be receiving the new app for Windows 10.

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