Wayne Williams

Epson: Unlocking the potential of augmented reality today [Q&A]

Microsoft’s HoloLens, and the Google-backed Magic Leap might be touted as the future of augmented reality wearables, but electronics giant Epson has beaten both firms to the punch. Its own AR smart glasses are already on the market and finding an appreciative audience among gamers, movie watchers, businesses, and even the registered blind.

I spoke with Valerie Riffaud-Cangelosi. Epson’s New Market Development Manager, about the Japanese firm’s venture into augmented reality, and its plans for the future.

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Windows 10 won't be the operating system I was hoping for

It could be argued that with Windows 10 still a work in progress it’s too early to express disappointment and dissatisfaction with Microsoft’s forthcoming operating system. But with a summer launch announced, the truth is we’re probably not likely to see too many major changes in the coming months. What’s on show in Build 10041 is probably quite close to what we’ll get in the finished thing, albeit with some spit and polish.

When Microsoft announced it would be listening to users and implementing changes based on feedback, I was excited. Sure, a camel is a horse created by a committee, too many cooks spoil the broth and all that, but at least it meant that the sort of blatant usability problems Microsoft managed to somehow miss in Windows 8 wouldn’t occur in Windows 10. However, as time has ticked past I've started to doubt that Microsoft is listening as closely to Windows Insiders as it claims to be.

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Seagate Personal Cloud: Home media storage done right [Review]

The average family has multiple devices capable of taking photos and videos. Seagate Personal Cloud from Ebuyer provides a central repository for all of this media, and can automatically back up content from your computers, smartphones and tablets.

You can access movies, music, photos and files from any supported device on your network, and stream media directly to Chromecast, Roku, Apple TV, and some Smart TVs. You can also access your files remotely over the internet, and sync content with cloud storage services.

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Microsoft releases Windows 10 Build 10041 -- download it NOW!

Microsoft is intending to release Windows 10 this summer -- which doesn’t give the tech giant long to finish and polish up its new operating system.

It’s been a rather long time since we saw a new Technical Preview build -- 9926 was released back in January -- but Microsoft has finally pushed out a new version -- 10041 -- to those Insiders enrolled in the Fast ring and if that includes you, you can grab it now via Windows Update.

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Anonymous wants humanity to go into outer space and 'explore other worlds'

Hacktivist collective Anonymous is mostly famous for launching attacks on the Church of Scientology, ISIS, world governments, child pornography websites and, er, Kanye West. But its latest mission is to unite humanity and get us working together to go into space and colonize new worlds. No, seriously.

I suspect someone at Anonymous may have enjoyed Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar a little too much.

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30 years of dotcom -- what became of the first 100 domains?

Sunday marked the 30th anniversary of the first ever 'dotcom' domain being registered. Symbolics.com (originally a homepage for computer programmers) was the first ever dotcom, followed a month later by Bbn.com (an American high-technology company) and then another month later by Think.com (a supercomputer manufacturer).

There aren’t many big tech names in the top ten (with the exception of Xerox and HP at 7 and 9 respectively) and despite its reputation as being an innovator, Apple didn’t register a domain until February 1997, making it the 64th oldest dotcom. There are now approximately 275,000,000 dotcom domains in existence.

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Anonymous accuses Facebook of siding with Islamic State [Update]

Facebook has just updated -- or rather clarified -- its Community Standards document, which outlines the type of content that are not allowed on the social network. Among the list of banned topics is, as you might expect, terrorism.

Anonymous has been battling terrorism online for a while now, taking down Islamic State related sites and Twitter accounts via its #OpISIS campaign. The aim of this operation is to prevent the terrorist organization from spreading its message online, but now Facebook has taken steps to prevent Anonymous from spreading its own message on the social network.

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Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver still serving up malware

Three weeks ago we reported on how celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s website was serving up malware. The site, www.jamieoliver.com, has around 10 million visitors a month, so the fact it had been hacked to redirect people to an exploit kit was a big deal.

Naturally, Jamie Oliver’s management team acted swiftly to fix things, except according to Malwarebytes, which discovered the original problem, the site is now dishing up digitally signed malware.

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Microsoft's personal assistant Cortana headed to iOS and Android

Microsoft regularly pits its personal assistant Cortana against Apple’s Siri in a series of adverts, with predictable results. Cortana is always much smarter, funnier and more helpful. She’s certainly one of the high points of Windows Phone, and is set to make her debut on the desktop when she arrives as part of Windows 10 later this year.

However, it seems Cortana isn’t just going to be confined to working on Windows devices. According to Reuters, Microsoft is also working on bringing the personal assistant to iOS and Android in the form of a standalone app.

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'Anonymous' targets Kanye West

Anonymous is a very loose collective of hackers. In the video setting the record straight on #OpISIS, it is described as a family that is as "divided and fractional as any more traditional, not so Anonymous family in any city, town, or isolated rural village in the world".

Almost anyone can claim to be in Anonymous, and launch their own attacks or operations, and proving the point, someone claiming to be from the hacktivist collective has released a video targeting Kanye West and his wife Kim Kardashian.

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Anonymous sets the record straight regarding its battle with ISIS

Hacktivist network Anonymous has been taking down ISIS related sites and Twitter accounts in a bid to prevent the terrorist organization from spreading its message online. Anonymous has declared ISIS a virus, and itself the cure.

However, cyber blog Krypt31a has described Anonymous's recent actions as Whack-a-mole without a plan, spurring a representative of the hacktivist group to issue a video reply setting the record straight.

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No sex please, I'm checking my emails (and then updating Facebook)

digital couple

According to a new survey from Durex and Durham University’s Center for Sex, Gender and Sexualities, a large portion of us are more likely to be seduced by the lure of our smartphones than our partners.

40 percent of couples admitted to delaying sex because of smartphones or tablets, while others said they’d raced through the act in order to respond to messages. One third of respondents admitted to interrupting sex in order to answer the phone (because, you never know, it might be the spouse calling to find out where you are).

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BBC Micro Bit is a free Raspberry Pi alternative for kids

It’s no secret that the Raspberry Pi has its roots in the microcomputers of the 1980s. And one device in particular inspired the creation of the massively popular barebones system -- the BBC Micro. Auntie Beeb’s computer was available in two models -- A, and B -- as is the Raspberry Pi.

Interestingly, while the BBC Micro inspired the Raspberry Pi, the Raspberry Pi has now inspired a new BBC Micro -- the Micro Bit.

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SXSW Accelerator continues to discover amazing new startups [Q&A]

The annual SXSW Accelerator competition presented by Oracle is set to take place on Saturday, March 14 and Sunday, March 15 at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival.

I spoke to Chris Valentine, event producer for SXSW Accelerator and Startup Village, about the competition, and what innovations and trends we can expect to see emerging this year.

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I should want an Apple Watch -- but I don't

I’m the target audience for the Apple Watch. I own an iPhone, and iPad, I’ve invested heavily in apps over the years, and I wear a watch so am used to glancing at my wrist when I want to see the time, rather than looking at my phone screen. The price doesn’t scare me off, either. Going into the Spring Forward event I was around 85 percent certain I would be buying an Apple Watch.

But now? Now I really don’t want one at all.

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