Latest Technology News

One of the most important things any human can do is learn. Keeping your mind sharp and active is very healthy. While formal education, such as college, is a great investment in yourself, it is understandably too expensive for many. While I cherish my degree, I don't love my monthly student loan payment.

Luckily for current learners, massive open online courses are becoming increasingly popular. While these MOOCs may not carry the same panache as a university diploma, they can enable you to learn new things for free. Today, the Linux Foundation announces the totally free 'Intro to Cloud Infrastructure Technologies' course. This will be offered through the reputable edX.org.

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If you're thinking about buying Pixel C, Google gives two good reasons to do so now: Android N beta program and developer discount on the hardware. The tablet normally sells for $499 (32GB) or $599 (64GB) but you could instead pay $375 or $449, respectively. Keyboard is another $149. The discount and beta OS are meant for developers, but anyone can get them.

Pixel C is the best Android tablet I have ever tested, but that's acknowledging prejudice against Samsung tabs, which are worthy contenders, but I dislike TouchWiz UI. Sammy's hardware hums, particularly the stunning screens. But only Google serves up a Marshmallow feast in Android 6.0, and the hardware design and construction are preemo to the max. For less than $400, Pixel C might as well be free, there is so much value here.

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You'll quite often hear talk of how technology can disrupt business. A survey carried out at Microsoft's 2015 Global CIO Summit in October suggests that CIOs believe 47 percent of their company's revenues will be under threat from digital disruption in the next five years.

But what does this disruption really mean? Microsoft has produced an infographic looking at the five major technologies that are doing most to disrupt the business world.

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Besides being the super poplar search engine, email provider, work and collaboration services provider, Google is also used, by a number of different services, as an identity provider.

It allows people to register and log into different online services using their Google account. Now, the company announced it’s expanding the feature to add a number of new services, some of which are direct competitors.

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When the Apple Watch was announced, I was a bit dubious. While I was sold on the smartwatch concept, and liked the devices that beat Apple to market, I wasn't sure that consumers would want luxury -- and premium prices -- mixed with their tech. The first Android Wear watches were not stylish, but as time marched on, manufacturers started to follow Apple's wise luxury-focused lead. Watches based on Google's platform can look nice!

Today, Fossil announces two new Android Wear smartwatches -- the Q Marshal and Q Wander -- and they are both luxurious and attractive. Should Apple watch out? Pun intended.

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The Internet of Things (IoT) has quickly gained a great deal of momentum and buzz amongst companies in a variety of fields over the past year. Up until now, the idea that all of our devices would be connected to one another and sharing data seemed like a far off idea that would take many years to come to fruition.

However due to new technologies quickly becoming more cost-effective and advances in the amount of environmental data that sensors are able to collect, the potential of IoT will likely come to be realized much sooner than many of us originally expected.

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We are on the cusp of a totally connected world. The Internet of Things is no longer an emerging trend, it has arrived. If you want evidence -- real evidence rather than the speculation of industry analysts -- then take a look at the $1.4 billion Cisco reputedly put on the table at the start of February to acquire IoT platform provider Jasper Technologies.

Jasper, founded in 2004, came about as a result of an epiphany that CEO and founder Jahangir Mohammed had when, after seeing a warning light on his car dashboard, he needed to spend several hours finding a mechanic to diagnose a problem that a connected car could have done in seconds. Just 16 years later, in-car connectivity of some sort is expected as standard in most new cars.

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Happy Tuesday, dear BetaNews readers! While the day prior to Wednesday is usually a drag, today is an exception. Why? There are plenty of primaries today, including the coveted Florida. If you are interested in American politics, today should be very exciting. The outcome of today's voting could cause some candidates to drop from the race.

If you are still undecided on a candidate, don't worry -- it is smart not to rush important decisions. Luckily, in these modern times, there are plenty of resources about the candidates, including the venerable Google Search. Today, that search engine is getting a politics-focused update, delivering campaign funding and trending info for all of the remaining candidates -- Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and John Kasich.

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The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a nonpartisan research and educational institute and policy think tank, today became the latest to come out and urge the US government not to limit the commercial use of encryption.

In its new report, entitled Unlocking Encryption: Information Security and the Rule of Law, co-author Alan McQuinn -- an ITIF research assistant -- argued that restricting encryption for use by law abiding citizens and businesses would reduce overall security and be ineffective at keeping encryption out of the hands of terrorists.

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Razer has announced the new Blade gaming laptop, which features improved specs and a lower price compared to the previous generation. The device will ship in April, with pre-orders starting today at the company's online store.

The new Blade ships with a sixth-generation quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M graphics with 6 GB of VRAM, 16 GB of RAM, 256 GB or 512 GB of PCIe SSD storage, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac, and a 14-inch IGZO touch-display with a resolution of 3,200 by 1,800, as the main highlights.

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HERE just dealt a huge blow to Windows 10, announcing that it will remove all of its apps for the new operating system from Store on March 29. The news comes before the start of the Windows 10 Mobile rollout, which Microsoft has already delayed a couple of times.

HERE is one of the most important Windows developers, providing the best and the most popular navigation apps for smartphones running the tiled OS. Offerings like Drive and Maps have shipped on nearly all Windows Phones, and are used by the vast majority of users.

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Enterprises thrive on being able to set and manage goals. BetterWorks software provides the tools to do this and the company is now expanding its offering by adding performance development and strategic planning modules to its operational suite.

This means it now provides a comprehensive business operating platform combining planning, strategic execution and people development across a single system.

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PdfTrick is a free open-source tool for selectively extracting images from PDF documents.

Yes: selectively. Unlike most of the competition, PdfTrick doesn’t dump hundreds of files in a folder -- it only saves the images you actually need.

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With so much choice available online, if a business doesn't deliver on meeting customer expectations then it's likely to lose out. One of the main challenges in keeping customers happy is delivering effective authentication while maintaining security.

Identity management company Gigya is releasing a new registration-as-a-service (RaaS) offering to enable enterprises to more effectively authenticate consumers with consistent cross-device experiences.

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Opera Software has unveiled Opera 36 FINAL, a major new release of its desktop web browser for Windows, Mac and Linux PCs. The latest build firmly targets users of Windows 10, with Opera claiming that "surfing with this platform [Opera] can be much better than the one offered by its default browser, Microsoft Edge".

To that end, version 36 has redesigned its UI to more closely resemble modern apps found in the Microsoft Store, while Opera is keen to stress it’s better integrated native Windows 10 features than other rival browsers.

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