Mihăiță Bamburic

Java established itself as one of the leading programming languages shortly after its debut, over two decades ago. According to the TIOBE Index for January 2018, it is actually the programming language that most people are interested in. For newcomers, it is among the top picks, no doubt due to the sheer number of jobs available.

The TIOBE Index, which provides a glimpse into our interest in programming languages based on searches on Google, Bing, Wikipedia and YouTube, among other major resources, puts Java at the top of the pack with a 14.21 percent rating. It holds a comfortable lead over its main rivals, though at least one of them is starting to gain ground again -- C.

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With CES 2018 just around the corner, tech companies are starting to announce the products that they will showcase at the popular trade show later this month. Lenovo is among the first to do so, as today it takes the wraps off the 2018 ThinkPad lineup.

The new ThinkPad lineup is powered by 8th-generation Intel Core processors and brings more modern designs to the market. Lenovo says that its new products are thinner, lighter and have support for features like facial recognition for Windows Hello, USB Type-C power adapters, physical covers for the webcam, and more.

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While Windows 10 is gaining some serious ground in the PC market, the same cannot be said about Microsoft Edge. Looking at the usage share of the major browsers on Windows 10, it is pretty much in the same place as it was a year ago -- a distant second to Google Chrome.

While it may be easy to dismiss Edge, Microsoft has rolled out major improvements since it debuted in mid-2015. And it's touting the benefits every chance it gets. Two new ads released by Microsoft promote better battery life and increased security over its main rival.

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The OnePlus 5T is slated to receive Android Oreo early this year, but, until the update is deemed ready for prime time, users who want to sample the major changes can now give the first open beta a try.

The OxygenOS build targets more experienced users, as it's meant to be installed manually on the OnePlus 5T, and comes with a significant number of improvements for the launcher and system.

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After officially treating OnePlus 5 users to Android 8.0 Oreo last week, OnePlus is now rolling out another update. This time around it is for its latest flagship killer, the mighty OnePlus 5T.

OxygenOS 4.7.6, as it's called, comes with some pretty useful changes for the camera and system that improve performance and usability. The most useful addition -- at least for me -- is the new assistive lighting feature for face unlock.

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While other markets have long moved beyond 1080p, the dash cam space continues to churn out devices that top out at this resolution. So, drivers looking to try 1440p or 4K do not have a whole lot of options to choose from.

The Azdome DAB211 is among the more interesting exceptions, as it comes with 1440p video recording and a solid design at a very affordable price. But just how well does it perform? I've tested it to find out.

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The cryptocurrency market has been on a tear this year, shattering record after record. Fueled by majors like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and Bitcoin Cash, it reached an incredible valuation on December 21: $654 billion. However, after the peak comes the fall, and here the crashes tend to be swift and massive.

Case in point: the cryptocurrency market is now down by more than $230 billion from yesterday's high. And, yes, you are reading that right. Its capitalization is currently hovering around the $422 billion mark. All the majors (top 10) are down by double digits in the past 24 hours, with Bitcoin suffering the smallest loss at 27.05 percent, as are nearly all the other coins in the top.

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Following reports of BIOS corruption on a number of Acer, Lenovo and Toshiba laptops, Canonical is now discouraging users from downloading Ubuntu 17.10 "Artful Aardvark" from its website.

The bug, which is labeled "critical" by the team behind Ubuntu, can cripple the BIOS on over 20 devices, as acknowledged in this report. This issue also affects other versions of the popular Linux-based distribution, including the older Ubuntu 16.04 "Xenial Xerus" -- in the "OEM" and "HWE-EDGE" packages.

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Coinbase is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, so when it adds a new coin to its portfolio investors take notice. It is not uncommon for the price to see a big jump as a result: Litecoin, for instance, gained over 50 percent following the listing on Coinbase.

Something similar happened yesterday when Coinbase finally added Bitcoin Cash to the platform. At opening, the coin was trading for $2,200. The announcement saw the price rising to $2,805 at closing. However, on GDAX (Coinbase's trading platform), it simply exploded, which has lead Coinbase to consider the possibility of insider trading.

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With many fellow drivers focusing more on answering messages or social media updates, it's a good idea to install a dash cam in your car. In case of a near miss or, worse, an accident, you will have footage of what happened to show to the authorities. Or, if you just want to show what it's like to drive on a nice road, you will be able to share your experience on YouTube.

If you do not have a dash cam, now is your chance to get one for free. We have teamed up with Azdome to give away a brand new DAB211 to a lucky reader. Here is what you need to know.

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Litecoin is one of the strongest performers in the cryptocurrency market in 2017. In the past three months its price has increased from $51 to $361, gaining over 500 percent. However, the gains are even higher since January 1 -- 8,200 percent at peak value just a few days ago. Trading opened at $4.33 on the first day of the year.

The stellar performance has attracted an interesting response from Litecoin founder Charlie Lee, who, against the norm in the crypto scene, advised people to "invest responsibly" and warned of a consolidation. That has yet to happen, at least to the extent of a deep correction like we have seen this year, but it looks like Lee will not be financially involved in LTC then, as he's sold (and "donated") all of his LTC coins.

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Google is notorious for its abysmal support of Windows 10's app store. A quick search reveals that there are only two apps available from the company, both of which are called Google. One is for PCs and the other targets mobile devices. Neither is of any real value to Google users on Windows 10 though.

If you want Gmail, Google Calendar, YouTube or Google Maps you will have to use the browser. However, there is a different story with Google Chrome. The browser just landed on Microsoft Store (Windows 10's app store), making it easier than ever to download it on a Windows 10 machine.

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Microsoft has become one of the most relevant mobile developers by offering its best products and services to (virtually) everyone who owns a smartphone and tablet -- for free. Major apps like Word, Skype and Outlook are among the most popular titles in their respective categories on the two biggest platforms: Android and iOS.

Microsoft did not stop there though, as it also created new apps specifically tailored to attract new users on a platform. Microsoft Launcher is one of them, being designed as an alternative launcher for Android devices that ties in with the company's other products. And, believe it or not, users have responded really well to it.

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It's fair to say that, in its current state, Bitcoin does not work as a means of payment for basic things. The average transaction fee is over $20, which makes common purchases, like a cup of coffee, virtually impossible to justify. However, as I noted in my What can you buy with Bitcoin? piece, things are different when we are looking at very expensive purchases.

One such scenario where using Bitcoin makes a whole lot of sense is buying a home. The transaction fee is negligible, as the cost is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, if we are looking at the median price of a US home.

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Synology has been slowly refreshing its NAS lineup in the past couple months, and now it is adding two more models to the range. The star of the show is the FlashStation FS1018, a high-end NAS that, as its name suggests, is designed with all-flash storage in mind. The DiskStation DS218, meanwhile, is the new two bay, mid-range NAS for consumers.

The FS1018 is an impressive piece of kit. It can house up to 12 SSDs (SATA), has 8GB of ECC (error-correcting code) RAM as standard, a dual-core, 64-bit Intel processor, a 10Gb wired connection and support for the Btrfs file system, just to name some of the highlights.

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