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Even though smartphone manufacturers rigorously test new devices before releasing them into the market, defects sometimes do make it into production. In the best-case scenario, you can live with them. Sometimes though, you get one so serious that the manufacturer has to recall the smartphone -- take the Galaxy Note7 for example, which had the bad habit of catching fire spontaneously.

Apple seems to have a potentially major problem of its own with the iPhone 8 Plus. A number of users are claiming that their new smartphone has split open while charging, effectively turning it into a very expensive brick.

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The modern IT landscape means that information can be stored across a number of platforms and locations. It's perhaps not surprising then that only 47 percent of organizations know where their data is stored at all times according to a new study.

The survey by McAfee of 800 business decision makers looks at how enterprises are looking after their data in the light of legislation including GDPR.

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Bitcoin has been in the news for some time now as its value climbs and drops, but most recently interest turned to mining code embedded in websites. The Pirate Bay was one of the first sites to be seen using Coinhive code to secretly mine using visitors' CPU time, and then we saw similar activity from the SafeBrowse extension for Chrome.

The discovery of the code was a little distressing for visitors to the affected sites, and internet security and content delivery network (CDN) firm Cloudflare is taking action to clamp down on what it is describing as malware.

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Apple's launch of the iPhone 8 and Apple Watch Series 3 has certainly not been without its problems. Buyers of the latest addition to the iPhone range have complained about crackling audio, while owners of the new smartwatch have been less than impressed by problematic LTE and battery life.

Now Apple has pushed out a couple of updates that should help with the issues -- watchOS 4.0.1, and iOS 11.0.2.

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Hackers and criminal syndicates are attacking enterprises with increasingly stealthy and sophisticated techniques. In response, companies are deploying a new generation of firewalls, IDS appliances, and Security Information and Event Monitoring (SIEM) servers to detect suspicious activity as quickly as possible.

Two problems are undermining these recent investments in IT security.

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Mozilla has revealed that support for its Firefox web browser on Windows XP and Vista is coming to an end.

The organization had previously announced that anyone using these old versions of Microsoft's operating system would be moved to the Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR). This meant that support would be offered until "at least" September this year. Now the final kill date has been revealed -- and it's later than expected.

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There were numerous exciting releases announced by Google yesterday, but perhaps the most exciting -- certainly the most impressive -- was the Pixel Buds. Forget Apple's AirPods, Google's earphones have a mind-blowing trick up their sleeve.

Designed (ideally) for use with the Pixel 2, the Google Pixel Buds can translate spoken words on the fly. Real-time translations -- the Babel fish made real and implanted in your ear -- is now a reality, allowing for conversations between two people speaking different languages.

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Consumers don't care about privacy anymore, right? Wrong -- some actually do. True, we are systematically being conditioned to surrender our private information and rights nowadays, but some people are still fighting the good fight. In many ways, both the Linux and open source communities can be seen as the foundations of internet privacy.

The most popular mobile operating system on the planet, Android, is already based on Linux, but with Google in charge of it, many consumers cannot depend on it for privacy. With that said, Purism is planning to fight the impossible fight against Android and iOS with the "Librem 5" smartphone. This is a device that will run a privacy-focused Linux-based OS called "Pure OS," but the hardware is wide open for any OS, really. Purism is trying to raise $1.5 million through crowdfunding, and earlier today, it reached a significant milestone --  $1 million! Maybe the fight isn't impossible after all...

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During the Oracle OpenWorld event, Oracle announced its entry into the world of blockchain with a new enterprise-oriented service. It is fully-managed, and built on the open-source Hyperledger Fabric project.

Prior to announcing the project, Oracle joined forces with IBM in building a blockchain service.

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Fact -- Chromebooks are much better than Windows 10 PCs. Well, for some people, at least. I'll concede that some consumers will be better served by Windows or macOS, but nowadays, most home users can get by with Chrome OS. After all, many folks live in the web browser, doing things like watching YouTube and checking Facebook. While Windows 10 can arguably do more, it is also less secure. If you can get by with a Chromebook, you should! By the way, Chrome OS is not a glorified web browser, but instead, a well-designed Linux-based operating system.

Today, Google unveils the "Pixelbook," which is a high-end Chromebook with a 12.3-inch touch screen and stylus support. It can even convert into a tablet. It weighs a mere 1.1 kilograms and is just 10.3mm thick. Since it can run Android apps, there isn't much you can't do with it. True, it isn't a solution for, say, professional photo or video editing, but most people don't need that. And so, the Pixelbook is here to offer an elegant Chrome OS experience, reminiscent of the excellent Chromebook Pixel.

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I would like to thank Google for saving me thousands of dollars in needless spending. Near the end of today's gangbuster hardware event, I was ready to order two new Chromebooks and smartphones, one each for me and my wife. But "error 500" pages on the company's store website and long-lead new product availability dates prompted me to cancel the one order successfully made and to delete the others in process from my shopping cart.

For a company whose product managers droned on this morning about all the reasons why artificial intelligence is so right, Big G got the store selling experience all wrong. I have waited through most of 2017 for a new Google-branded Chrome OS laptop. While hardly a fresh hardware design concept, Pixelbook is nevertheless tempting enough to bring me back to the AI and voice-assistant contextual future from the Apple rotting on the overly-obsessed touch-UI tree. I was willing and ready but instead walked away angry.

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The head of the Ofcom watchdog has called for co-operation from the UK's main telecoms networks in order to facilitate the spread of 5G networks.

In a letter to the Financial Times published today, Ofcom chief executive Sharon White said that commercial interests must not affect the "golden opportunity" 5G offers to the country.

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The total number of people affected by the recent Equifax breach has risen after more details came to light.

According to new reports, the number of affected customers has now hit 148 million -- meaning that an additional 2.5 million people have been impacted.

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Google just announced the second-generation Pixel smartphones. The new Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, which come with Android 8.0 Oreo, feature a best-in-class camera, improved display with always-on functionality, faster internals and more storage than before.

The main differences between the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL are in the display and battery departments. The Pixel 2 features a 5-inch AMOLED screen with a resolution of 1,920 by 1,080 and 16:9 aspect ratio whereas the XL version comes with a 6-inch pOLED panel with a resolution of 2,880 by 1,440 and 18:9 aspect ratio. The Pixel 2 XL has the most-impressive display of the two, hands down.

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Following the introduction of "adaptive intelligence" earlier this year, designed to improve customer experience (CX), Oracle has now introduced a new offering that builds on that idea.

During the Oracle OpenWorld event, the company announced that it will be adding its AI-powered capabilities to the bulk of its cloud applications, including Enterprise Resource Planning Cloud, Human Capital Management Cloud, Supply Chain Management Cloud, as well as the Oracle Customer Experience Cloud applications.

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