Alan Buckingham

Microsoft, like many companies, ships some of its products with disk encryption and that's a good thing given the state of today's world. The vast majority of customers have nothing to hide, but they also don't wish to be watched by the prying eyes of governments and others.

However, it is being reported that the Windows maker is storing encryption keys in the cloud. While that doesn't necessarily mean a problem, it's also a bit scary because of the potential for what can go wrong -- a Murphy's Law scenario. This issue was first reported by The Intercept, which notes that your keys "may" be stored in the cloud -- not everyone's are.

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Earlier in this NFL season TuneIn landed a deal with the league to bring listeners radio broadcasts of all the games, which likely beefed up its subscriber numbers. Other sports were already participating in the broadcasts and now you can add one more to that list.

The National Hockey League is arriving on the streaming network, bringing radio broadcasts of the games for your favorite NHL teams from the US and Canada.

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'Twas the night before Christmas and....the Beatles came to streaming services everywhere, making the rounds quicker than old Saint Nick. Spotify, Amazon Prime Music, Google Play Music and several others were the lucky recipients of this amazing catalog of tunes.

Now Spotify is revealing just how successful this launch has been, and the numbers revealed prove the band is still relevant 45 years after the members parted ways.

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Electronics have become a major distraction in modern society and there's no shortage of stories about accidents caused by cell phones and many people have a story of, at the very least, a near miss. We've likely all been there with distracted drivers.

No question modern devices can be hazardous to one's health and worse, the health of others who have loved ones at home waiting for them.

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It's been a long and winding road to get the Beatles on your devices and streaming services, but you've finally reached your destination and the iconic band has given in to demand. Sadly two members of the Fab Four won't be around to experience this blockbuster event, but you can still enjoy the magical mystery tour of the group's catalog of hits and more obscure songs.

At 12:01am local time on December 24th the Beatles music officially launches on streaming services Spotify, Apple Music, Slacker, Tidal, Groove, Rhapsody, Deezer, Google Play and Amazon Prime.

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While everyone is currently concerned with the holidays, companies have their own concerns with the big Consumer Electronics Show coming on the heels of New Year's. This year's event is back at its normal venue in Las Vegas and will run from January 6th through the 9th. Prepare to be amazed, or appalled, by gadgets you may or may not ever see on the market.

One thing you will see at CES 2016 comes from GreenPeak and it aims to make your home smarter. Yes, the Internet of Things is still around and growing by leaps and bounds.

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Set-top boxes have become increasingly popular, with Amazon, Apple and Roku all on the market and doing well. One of the great things about these devices is the ability to easily search for whatever content you want, so what did people look for in 2015?

Well, the big one is, of course, movies and Back to the Future manages to edge The Hunger Games: Mockingjay part one. Others that made the cut into the top ten include Frozen, Jurassic Park and Gone Girl.

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2016 is shaping up to be the year of 4K. Some is already available and much more is on the way, and there is a growing number of TVs that can handle it. For those purchasing a new set in the near future it is a prudent move to future-proof and be ready for what is coming.

Now UltraFlix is announcing its plans to provide a lot more content in the way of movies, TV shows and concerts, all using this new technology. The company boasts more than 1,000 Hollywood pictures as well as IMAX documentaries.

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Recently streaming music service Rdio was purchased by Pandora which plans to merge it into its own offering. That process is about to become complete in the next few days, but there is good news for Rdio users, or at least as much as they can expect.

The streaming service will cease operations on December 22nd. The good news, if there is any in this, is that users will be able to save their music.

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Outlook has been a popular desktop app for what seems like ages and now it's online aiming to compete with services like Gmail and Yahoo. In order to differentiate itself from rivals Microsoft needs extras that attract customers to its offering.

Now the company is announcing a couple of updates including improvements to the address book and flight notifications for busy travelers.

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The connected home, or The Internet of Things, as it's frequently called, is a growing market. New products seemingly come along on an almost daily basis and new businesses spring up around it. We recently told you about Mivetek, but it's far from the only player on the field in this game.

SmartThings, the home automation solution from Samsung, is announcing a new line of products that are compatible with its hub. Four are lights, three are locks, and one aims to help you with your gardening.

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Yesterday we told you that Netflix for Windows 10 had received an update, but that's not all that's coming to Windows. Firefox also has plans to up the ante with HTML5 Video for Windows. This is the much-utilized format on the internet today.

Netflix is announcing that Firefox now comes with the latest HTML5 premium video extensions, such as Media Source Extensions (MSE), which the streaming service utilizes in an effort to adapt its streaming to the bandwidth of each viewer, and Encrypted Media Extensions (EME), that allows for the viewing of encrypted content.

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Amazon continues to expand its footprint in the set-top box market, a place that has really become a three horse race. Both Amazon, Roku and Apple are all in it to win, but choice really comes down to the customer.

Now the retailer is launching a bunch of new channels to satisfy customer viewing needs. And this update isn't just video, it's also games.

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Netflix remains near the top of the video streaming ecosystem and its original programming has begun to win some big awards. However, the goal with any company is to get its product to as many customers as possible and, more importantly, to hold onto them. To do so a service needs to be available in as many places as it can be.

With this aim in mind, Netflix is updating its Windows 10 app for customers, bringing many changes to it. This includes an all-new Browse experience that provides better scrolling, both vertically for categories and horizontally for items within each category.

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There will no doubt be many new games and consoles under trees this holiday season. That means a lot of people joining the online gaming community and trying to get started with their new toys. The networks need to be ready for the vast influx of users. Now a hacker group is vowing to prevent all of this.

This isn't a new thing, as last Christmas Lizard Squad knocked both Xbox Live and PlayStation Network offline. This time around it's Phantom Group planning to do exactly the same thing. The group announced its intent on Twitter with such threats as "We are going to shut down Xbox live and PSN this year on Christmas. And we are going to keep them down for one-week straight #DramaAlert".

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