Latest Technology News

As you may already be aware, Microsoft has discovered that in certain situations the Surface Pro’s power cable could overheat, making it a potential fire hazard.

This is a problem that affects cables for the Surface Pro, Surface Pro 2, and Surface Pro 3 on devices purchased before March 15 2015 (in the US) or July 15 2015 (in all other territories). Microsoft has issued a voluntary recall, and you can now request a replacement power cord. The process is fairly simple, and this is what you need to do.

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It seems as 2016 will be the year of the SSD (solid-state drive), with more and more IT decision makers saying they’re looking to use the advanced storage technology within their organizations.

This is according to a Spiceworks Voice of IT survey, done by Crucial, which asked 306 IT decision-makers in Europe and North America about their storage plans.

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So many companies get hacked these days that it’s almost easy to be blasé about the news of another data breach. If your password gets compromised, you can change it. If your credit card details leak, you can cancel the card. But what happens when an extramarital affairs website you’re a member of gets hacked, and your personal details fall into the wrong hands?

When Ashley Madison was hacked last year, members had two straight choices -- come clean to their other half, or stay calm and hope it all blew over. Unfortunately, the fallout from the hack continues unabated, and some unfortunate Ashley Madison users have started to receive blackmail letters through the mail. And, for the recipients, the letters are truly terrifying.

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IObit has released a minor, but significant update to its driver update tool, Driver Booster 3.2 FREE. The new release, also available as a performance-enhanced Pro version, adds a new driver fix-it tool.

The update also includes various optimizations to improve user experience, performance and stability, plus widens the tool’s driver database engine to the latest updates.

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I know I promised that my next 2016 prediction would be Apple’s big acquisition, and I will publish that prediction soon as my #10, but right now I just have to say what a perilous position Intel is in. The company truly risks becoming irrelevant, which is an odd thing to say about a huge, rich outfit that would appear from the outside to pretty much dominate its industry -- an industry the company created. Intel won’t go away, I just think there is a very good chance it’ll no longer matter.

We’re approaching the end of the closed, proprietary, single source technology era. ARM processors are freely licensed, more open, and much more cost competitive than similar products from Intel or AMD. If you need 10 million chips for your next product do you buy them from Intel? Or do you get a license from ARM and hire a foundry to make them for you?

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Apple's App Store generated 75 percent more revenue than Google Play in 2015, but the latter is now responsible for 100 percent more downloads, according to a new report on the state of the app ecosystem in 2015 by App Annie. Both numbers are higher compared to the previous year.

App Store has increased its revenue lead to 75 percent from 70 percent in 2014, while Google Play saw its downloads lead rise from 60 percent in the same year. The most important markets were, in Apple's case, China, US and Japan, while for Google the drivers were Brazil, India, Indonesia and Mexico.

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When it comes to storage, saving money is no longer the number one priority for businesses, a new survey by Western Digital Corporation says.

According to the storage maker’s second annual global survey of CIOs and IT decision-makers, businesses have recognized the positive impact data can have on their bottom line.

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Two weeks ago, the Comodo Threat Research Lab discovered a malware campaign aimed at businesses and consumers using the WhatsApp mobile messaging service. That attack used official looking emails masquerading as WhatsApp content.

Now Comodo’s researchers have identified a similar phishing campaign targeting Facebook users, which it believes was created by the same group behind the WhatsApp malware.

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Foolish IT has released the first beta of KillEmAll 5.0, a portable tool designed to close all non-essential applications at the click of a button.

The program could be very useful in emergencies -- maybe to close all open browser windows if you’ve got a malicious popup -- but is also a handy timesaver whenever you need to clear your desktop in a hurry.

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Intel has just announced new processors for office computers. The 6th Generation Intel Core vPro processor family is designed "for the modern workforce" and comes with a few innovations to keep office life tolerable.

Intel says the new processor offers "2.5 times the performance and a 30-times increase in graphics performance over a 5-year-old device", providing users with much more productive and powerful business tools.

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43 percent of UK consumers expect drones to be the most influential technology in 2016, according to IEEE’s annual survey, with smart phones (38 percent) and 3D printing (31 percent) close behind.

The online survey, conducted in November 2015, questioned over two thousand adults to find out what technology they expected to see more/less of. While the list of devices predicted to fall from favor included obvious tech like digital music players, standalone digital cameras (both 15 percent), and ebook readers (9 percent), some 8 percent of respondents declared wearables had had their day.

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Foxit Software has unveiled Foxit Reader 7.3, its free PDF reader and creation tool for Windows PCs. The new release debuts a number of significant features, including Google Drive and OneDrive integration, plus a new word count tool and official support for Office 2016.

OneDrive and Google Drive integration can be found in the program’s File menu under "Add a place", and work in a similar way to later versions of Microsoft Office by allowing users to create shortcuts to cloud-based locations.

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Google may be simplifying the way Android users install apps on their devices. Some users have reportedly been able to install new apps directly from Google search results on their smartphones and tablets.

Typically a user is redirected from the Google Search app to the Google Play store when they are searching for new apps using the search engine. However, after a recent update to the app, an install button appears along with user ratings and information about the app that allows apps to be installed directly from search.

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The big game isn't far off, though we don't yet know which two teams will square off. The field is, however, narrowed down to four contenders. Will the Broncos or Patriots win? Can the Cardinals triumph in Carolina? Those questions will be answered soon and subsequently followed by two weeks of hype.

If you've disconnected your cable or satellite service and are wondering how you will catch the big game then Roku has a solution for you.

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While there is greater interest than ever before in online privacy there are also calls from some quarters for people who use the web to be fully accountable. This is part of the thinking behind Facebook's real names policy, and it's also what's driven Tim Berners-Lee -- no less than the inventor of the web -- to call for the identities of cyberbullies to be exposed.

In the wake of gamergate and countless other examples of women being abused online for little more than being women, bullying of school children by their contemporaries, and endless racist, sexist, and politically motivated attacks online, the suggestion might seem -- on the face of it -- to make sense. But it fails to stand up to scrutiny and is likely -- ultimately, if anyone were insane enough to follow his advice -- to be completely counterproductive.

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