Connected devices, or the Internet of Things (IoT), are exploding on the market. Securing their access has become one of the major concerns in recent years. But security is only part of the equation. What good is a secure network if you cannot access it?

 As more and more devices connect together, the availability to connect becomes paramount. If your business is going to depend on an IoT infrastructure, it must be available, accessible, and safe from attack. If you cannot count on your infrastructure, you cannot depend on it. When selecting an IoT platform, these are the sort of issues that should be considered.

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Though you may have not noticed their arrival, autonomous vehicles are already here. While we currently experience automation’s convenience on a smaller scale -- like self-parking and lane-keeping capabilities -- fully-autonomous vehicles are projected to offer so much more. For example, fully-autonomous vehicles offer a potential for a 90 percent decrease in traffic fatalities. When you consider a stat like that, it’s no wonder many vehicle manufacturers and government officials are pushing for fully-driverless capabilities.

But a fully-autonomous future won’t become a reality on the efforts of vehicle development and manufacturing alone. Infrastructure updates, particularly in major U.S. cities, will be needed to accommodate these vehicles. As it stands, only six percent of these cities have a long-term infrastructure plan in place for autonomous vehicles to operate efficiently and safely. To create a safer tomorrow, infrastructure design needs to be addressed today.

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Use of the cloud is now well established in many businesses. But that's not to say that it isn’t still a fast moving sector of the industry.

With greater competition than ever and the pace of innovation showing little sign of slowing down, we’ve put together some expert views on what might be in store for cloud users in 2019

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It’s a fair bet that we’d never have heard of Facebook, Instagram, Google and WhatsApp if the internet hadn’t been invented, but London-based graphic designer Thomas Ollivier has put his skills into re-imagining how some of today’s top tech brands might have looked in the pre-internet days of the 1980s.

The collection of images, which he’s titled Re:Birth, provides a fun glimpse into how technology has changed in the past 30 years. And boy has it changed.

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Oracle has released VirtualBox 6.0, a major new release of its free virtualization tool for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Version 6.0 unveils major improvements to -- and a redesign of -- the user interface, plus beefs up 3D support (including first-time support on Linux and Solaris guests). Hyper-V emulation is now also supported on Windows as a fall-back execution core helping fix problems running 64-bit guests when Windows Security’s sandboxing feature was enabled.

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Microsoft has a new open source project -- Project Mu. This is the company's open-source release of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) core which is currently used by Surface devices and Hyper-V.

With the project, Microsoft hopes to make it easier to build scalable and serviceable firmware, and it embraces the idea of Firmware as a Service (FaaS). This allows for fast and efficient updating of firmware after release, with both security patches and performance-enhancing updates.

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Facebook has been the source of much privacy-related controversy over the years, particularly over the last year or so. The past few days have been no different, with the social networking giant facing questions over the level of access it granted partners to private user data.

Of particular concern to users is the suggestion that Facebook gave the likes of Spotify and Netflix access to users' private messages. Having already gone on the defensive about some of the allegations leveled at it, Facebook is now trying to defend itself about the messaging allegations -- or, as the company puts it "we wanted to provide more facts about our messaging partnerships".

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While it has been possible for some time to give iOS apps to others as a gift, you have not been able to do the same with in-app purchases.

Now, however, if you want to buy in-app content as a Christmas present for friends or family (what greater sign of affection, eh?!) you can do so. Apple has changed its App Store Review Guidelines giving developers the option to enable the gifting of in-app purchases.

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iPhone and iPad have long been subjected to bend tests to see how they hold up to abuse. But what about if your iPad Pro arrived with a bend in the casing? You'd send it back and ask for a replacement or a refund, right? But Apple does not believe that an iPad Pro that arrives bent is defective.

The company has confirmed that a number of 2018 iPad Pro tablets have a "slight bend" in their aluminum casing, blaming the defect on the manufacturing process. Only it's not a defect, remember?

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Microsoft has issued an emergency, out-of-band patch for an Internet Explorer zero-day that was being actively exploited in targeted attacks.

The company says that it learned about the vulnerability through a report from Google. CVE-2018-8653 affects a range of versions of Internet Explorer from 9 to 11, across Windows 7 to 10 and Windows Server.

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It’s nearly Christmas, and Microsoft has rolled out a brand new build of Windows 10 19H1, the last of 2018, with plenty of exciting treats for users to try out.

Build 18305 for Fast ring insiders, introduces a number of improvements and new features, including a simplified Start layout and Windows Sandbox.

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When you are an online gamer, your network connection matters -- the lower the latency the better. Nothing is more heartbreaking than losing a match due to a flaky Wi-Fi connection. True, gamers should try to use a hardwired connection when they can, but for many, this simply isn't possible. Renters, for instance, may not be able to run cable through walls. Instead, these gamers must choose their Wi-Fi gear wisely to get the most of their connection.

Unfortunately, choosing a gaming router can be quite the daunting task. There are so many of them on the market these days -- it is hard to tell what will truly help your gaming sessions versus what is mostly style over performance. In other words, manufacturers may try to entice shoppers with a "gaming" product that is nothing more than a design that is inspired by gaming culture. NVIDIA wants to make this experience easier, especially as its GeForce NOW game-streaming service will live and die by the stability and speed of users' internet connections. That's why today, NVIDIA launches the "GeForce NOW Recommended Routers" program.

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Details have come to light about the deals Facebook struck with the likes of Microsoft, Spotify, Netflix, Apple and Amazon. A report by the New York Times revealed that the social network had given numerous companies access to a plethora of private user data, ranging from the names of friends, to private messages.

Facebook has responded by saying that no access was granted to third parties without user permission, but questions remain about whether users were fully aware of the level of access companies had to their data, or whether they knew they were agreeing to sharing private data.

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Although there are plenty of office suites available, including lots of free choices, Microsoft Office remains the one that most people use. Today, Microsoft rolls out a new app for Windows 10 called, simply, Office, which is designed to replace the existing My Office app.

The app itself is free and can be used with any Office 365 subscription, Office 2019, Office 2016, and Office Online -- the free web-based version of Office for consumers.

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New malware targeting IoT devices grew 72 percent, with total malware growing 203 percent in the last four quarters according to McAfee's third quarter threat report.

This growth has been partly due to devices being harnessed for cryptomining. IoT devices such as cameras or video recorders have not typically been used for this because they lack the CPU power of desktop and laptop computers.

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