ORPALIS PDF Reducer cuts document sizes by up to 80 percent
ORPALIS PDF Reducer is an effective tool for optimizing PDF documents, reducing their size by up to 80 percent.
Unlike some of the competition, the program doesn’t just cut your document DPI: it applies multiple techniques to deliver the best results. This starts by checking individual PDF objects. Any which aren’t used are stripped out of the file, and you can optionally remove other items you may not need: annotations, bookmarks, embedded files and more.
CyberLink PowerDVD 16 debuts TV Mode, media casting
CyberLink has released PowerDVD 16, the latest edition of its do-everything media player.
New media casting support for ChromeCast, Roku and Apple TV enables streaming audio, video and pictures around your home, with PowerDVD automatically converting files to a format each device can understand.
PayPal Credit launches in the UK -- a virtual credit card with an interest-free offer
PayPal is, in many ways, the primary choice for making online payments. The company is keen to build on this and has launched a new product in the UK to widen its appeal. PayPal Credit is a virtual credit card that can be used online, and as an incentive to sign up, there's a four-month interest-free offer.
As this is an online credit card, applying for it takes a matter of moments, and PayPal is quick to point out that there's no hanging around waiting for a card and PIN to arrive. Apply online and you could be approved for a credit extension to your PayPal account.
Dell Venue 8 Pro 5855 is an attractive business tablet [Review]
The first generation of Dell’s Venue 8 tablet hit the market back in 2013. In January of this year the company launched the updated version that we have here, which comes with a faster Intel Atom X5 processor and 64-bit Windows 10 as standard.
So, how does this latest version measure up, and is it a good option for business users?
Microsoft releases open source CentOS-based 'Linux Data Science Virtual Machine' for Azure
Microsoft is both an open source and Linux champion nowadays -- on the surface at least (pun intended). In other words, while it does embrace those things, we may not know the motivation of the Windows-maker regarding them. Regardless, Linux and open source are now important to the Redmond company.
Today, Microsoft announces a CentOS-based VM image for Azure called 'Linux Data Science Virtual Machine'. The VM has pre-installed tools such as Anaconda Python Distribution, Computational Network Toolkit, and Microsoft R Open. It focuses on machine learning and analytics, making it a great choice for data scientists.
Android N Developer Preview 2 available to download now
It's only a few weeks since the first developer preview of Android N was released, but now it's time for the second. Google has announced the availability of Android N Developer Preview 2 packed with bug fixes and a raft of new features.
Among the new tools for developers to play with is Vulkan, a new 3D rendering API which Google says provides a big performance boost for certain apps. Other key additions include support for the more human-looking Emoji Unicode 9, and new launcher shortcuts that can be used to quickly jump to specific actions within an app.
Can Microsoft's online demo persuade you to upgrade to Windows 10?
Microsoft is doing its best to persuade users of Windows 7 and 8.1 to upgrade to Windows 10. Having seen reasonable -- but not outstanding -- upgrade numbers as a result of aggressively ramming the new OS down users’ throats, the software giant is now trying to sell the benefits of Windows 10 to those customers still on the fence.
An online Windows 10 demo covering PC, Tablet and Phone lets users see the new OS in action, and gives them the opportunity to upgrade if they like what's on offer.
Cyber-criminals run things like a business
This cyber-crime thing has gotten to a point where we now really need a digital Batman to fix everything. Security firm Symantec has recently released its Internet Security Threat Report, revealing that cyber-criminals are almost as good as state-sponsored attackers.
They’re highly skilled, well-organized and structured like a business. Here’s what Kevin Haley, director at Symantec Security Response says:
Women and black writers are the biggest victims of abusive online comments
Online abuse is a serious problem. While the likes of Twitter and Facebook are great platforms for trolls to indulge their hobby, it's the good, old-fashioned comments section where you'll find some of the most obvious examples of threats and abuse. The problem is so great that many websites have taken the seemingly drastic step of completely disabling comments on stories, while others do so on an individual basis for articles that could prove controversial.
Clearly this is less than ideal. In many ways it could be viewed as a form of censorship that curtails freedom of speech, and comments can be a valuable way to help a story to evolve. For many sites, comments are a black and white topic; on or off. Moderation -- again, often seen as a type of censorship -- is often employed, but this does little to stop abuse aimed at writers. The Guardian has conducted research into the abuse dealt out via comments on its site, and the findings make for disturbing reading.
ASUS ROG Spatha MMO-focused gaming mouse has 12 programmable buttons, wired or wireless
While a talented gamer can get by with any mouse, a gaming device is often preferred. These game-focused mice sometimes feature additional buttons, adjustable weights, and variable DPI. Plus, of course, they often look futuristic and have LED lights, because, you know, all gamers must have such things (sarcasm).
Today, ASUS announces its newest gaming mouse -- the ROG (Republic of Gamers) Spatha. While it looks really cool and is chock full of features, there is one such feature that I really love -- it can be both wired and wireless. If the battery gets low, or depletes entirely, you can connect a cable and continue to game. When you do need to add some juice, the magnetic charger has you covered. That's really cool.
Meizu Pro 6 is a new flagship Android smartphone with 10-core processor
The Android flagships introduced so far this year feature an octa-core processor, typically a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820. Hardly anyone can argue that eight cores are not enough for whatever apps and games users might want to run. Meizu is an exception as with its latest high-end smartphone it is taking things up a notch.
Meizu's new Pro 6 is among the first, if not the first, smartphone to feature a 10-core processor, namely a Helio X25 chip with four Cortex-A53 cores at 1.4 GHz, four Cortex-A53 cores at 2 GHz and two Cortex-A72 cores at 2.5 GHz. On paper it looks much more impressive than a Samsung Galaxy S7 or HTC 10.
Crowdsourcing platform creates insights from unstructured data
Getting useful information from unstructured data is a notoriously difficult and time consuming task, but the launch of a new intelligent crowdsourcing platform could be about to change that.
The Spare5 platform uses a known community of specialists to accomplish custom micro-tasks that, filtered for quality, allow product owners to train powerful artificial intelligence models, improve their search and browse experiences, augment their directories and more.
Can you hear me now? 36,000 Verizon workers go on strike
Is your phone working? The reason I ask is this morning at 6am EDT 36,000 Verizon workers walked off the job in protest of outsourcing of work to countries such the Philippines, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. The carrier is closing call centers in favor of overseas help. The union also makes accusations of sending workers out of state for extended periods of time.
"Verizon's corporate greed isn't just harming workers' families, it's hurting customers as well," the CWA (Communications Workers of America) says in a statement to CNN.
Hackers love Microsoft's PowerShell
PowerShell, a scripting language inherent to Microsoft operating systems, is largely used to launch cyber-attacks, a new report suggests.
The Unified Threat Research report, released by next-generation endpoint security (NGES) firm Carbon Black, says that 38 percent of incidents reported by Carbon Black partners used PowerShell.
New sales platform combines human and machine intelligence
Much of the sales process is about making effective use of information about existing and potential customers. But often that knowledge isn't easily accessible and therefore not used effectively.
A new platform from sales transformation specialist Altify aims to give B2B sales teams real-time visibility into the process based on stored knowledge and its built-in contextual insight engine.
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