Wayne Williams

It’s been a whole four months since the Kodi Foundation last released a new version of its hugely popular home theater software.

After spending some time in the pre-release section, Kodi 18.6 is now finally ready for all.

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There are lots of apps you can use to communicate with friends, family and colleagues. These include WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Skype, and Facebook Messenger. Messenger was first spun off into its own app in 2011, and since then the social network has added more and more features to it, to the point where it has become bloated, and harder to use.

Realizing this, Facebook has gone back to basics, and redesigned Messenger to make it faster, smaller, and simpler.

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Windows 10 has a lock screen mode called Windows Spotlight that pulls attractive, high resolution images from the web on a daily basis. In most instances, you’ll only see these when you log on, or lock your PC.

If you see an image that you’d like to use as Windows wallpaper, you can’t simply right-click and save it, but there is a way to easily use Windows Spotlight images as your desktop background.

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Windows 7 introduced a useful hidden God Mode that displays all of the admin tools and control options on a single screen. Because Microsoft has yet to phase out Control Panel entirely, this feature works just fine in Windows 10.

It’s very easy to action God Mode -- you just need to create a folder and give it a special name -- and there’s actually quite a few alternative God Modes available. Here’s what you need to do.

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When browsing the web, it can be frustrating to encounter a 404 error. You know the page isn’t there, but you don’t always know why. Has it been removed on purpose, by accident, or was it never there in the first place?

Well, Brave -- the browser from Brendan Eich, a former CEO of Mozilla -- is about to make 404 frustration a thing of the past, by giving you the chance to view the actual web page after it’s been removed.

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Last June, as its WWDC in San Jose, California, Apple took the wraps off iOS 13, revealing many of the new features we were expecting see, as well as plenty of new additions we weren't. The standouts included a system-wide dark mode, better multitasking, advanced Photo and Camera features, the ability to securely sign into apps using Sign In with Apple, and an all-new Maps experience.

It will be a few months yet until we see what Apple has planned for iOS 14, but if you want a glimpse what the OS should look like we’ve got this stunning video to wow you. It takes everything we like about iOS 13, but improves on it significantly.

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Today, Microsoft rolls out the latest Windows 10 Preview build to Insiders on the Fast ring.

Build 19569 delivers the usual round of improvements and fixes, but Windows Insiders will from today also begin to start seeing new icons for built-in Windows 10 apps like Mail and Calendar.

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Protect the web by learning the tools and the tricks of the web application attacker.

Becoming the Hacker will teach you how to approach web penetration testing with an attacker's mindset. While testing web applications for performance is common, the ever-changing threat landscape makes security testing much more difficult for the defender. There are many web application tools that claim to provide a complete survey and defense against potential threats, but they must be analyzed in line with the security needs of each web application or service. We must understand how an attacker approaches a web application and the implications of breaching its defenses.

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Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is rapidly replacing applications that were once hosted on-premises. There are compelling reasons for switching to SaaS. Costs are lower, there’s no in-house equipment or software to deal with, and no updates or patches to manage. Organizations are obviously aware of the advantages. Experts at Gartner estimate that SaaS global revenue will exceed $94 billion in 2019, up 18.5 percent over 2018. The outlook for future growth is even more promising, with projections that revenue will soar to $143.7 billion by 2022.

But the as-a-service model raises a critical issue facing organizations: compliance with GDPR, HIPAA, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), Sarbanes-Oxley and other regulatory schemas that govern company data. Who owns the data and is responsible for compliance? What should customers expect from SaaS vendors?

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In a move that probably won’t come as a big surprise to many people, this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC) -- the world’s largest mobile phone showcase -- has been canceled due to coronavirus concerns.

MWC was due to be held in Barcelona on February 24-27, but over the past couple of weeks or so, many of the world's major tech firms have pulled out of the event, including BT, Cisco, Facebook, Amazon, Deutsche Telekom, Intel, LG, Sprint, and Vodafone.

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Today, Microsoft rolls out the latest Windows 10 Preview build to Insiders on the Fast ring.

Build 19564 includes some graphics settings improvements and updates the Windows Calendar app. In addition, when you install Build 19564.1000, you’ll be offered Build 19564.1005 (KB4541095) as a Cumulative Update via Windows Update. This is designed to help Microsoft test its servicing pipeline.

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The Windows 10 Start menu gives you easy access to all of your programs and important settings, and -- for now at least -- optional Live Tiles. The search box makes it easy to find what you’re looking for too... when it works.

But if you hanker for the days when Start menus were simpler, you might want to consider adding a Windows XP style menu to Windows 10.

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It’s fair to say that Avast has been engaging in some rather sketchy behavior over the past couple of years. These include a privacy controversy with CCleaner back in 2018, and then a couple of weeks ago it was revealed that Avast Free Antivirus was sending browser history to marketers.

After attempting to defend its data gathering and sharing practices, Avast finally apologized and shut down its marketing analytics subsidiary Jumpshot with immediate effect. But it seems that isn’t the end of the matter as far as the Czech authorities are concerned.

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If you were hoping that Samsung would be taking the wraps off its Galaxy S11 today, then you’re in for a surprise as the company has gone straight to the S20.

Its new flagship smartphone is available in three versions -- the Galaxy S20, S20+ and S20 Ultra -- and as you’d expect they don’t come cheap, but you do get a lot for your money. As was the case with Apple’s new iPhones announced last year, Samsung’s new devices focus on the imaging side of things with an entirely new camera system, powered by AI and with Samsung’s biggest sensor yet.

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There are lots of tools available that let you customize Windows in a number of ways. See this Windows 98 themed version of Windows 10 for just one example of what’s possible.

Stardock produces some excellent, very affordable customization applications and today the company announces the next-generation version of its Windows sound scheme manager, SoundPackager 10.

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