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Hurricane Harvey has proven to be quite the devastating storm for Texas. The flooding and high winds have damaged property, but even worse, it has caused injuries and fatalities too. Yes, people actually died as a result of Harvey -- heartbreaking. Remember, folks, you can replace belongings, but not your life. Here at BetaNews, our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the deceased.

Thankfully, many people and organizations are donating both money and resources to help those affected by the hurricane. One of those businesses, Google (which has 450 employees in Texas), is stepping up in a big way. The company is donating $250,000 plus matching employee donations up to the same amount. When the company's donations are added to its employee donations, it could potentially be more than $750,000 when all is said and done. Money aside, the search giant is leveraging its technologies to spread information and assist where needed, such as with its SOS Alerts on search results and a specialized "Harvey Crisis Map."

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Google recently extended its Google Lunar X-Prize deadline to March 31, 2018, apparently giving the five remaining teams a little longer to vie for the $20 million top prize. But there’s a mystery here that suggests two vying reasons for the change -- one sincere and the other cynical. The final answer may turn out to be a combination of both.

The Google Lunar X-Prize was announced in 2007, giving teams five years to put their landers on the Moon and drive around, sending back live HD video of the action. Though 30 teams eventually signed-up, none of them made it to the Moon by 2012. Or 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, or so far in 2017.

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When it comes to Bluetooth speakers, there is definitely a correlation between cost and sound quality. That's not to say that you have to spend an arm and a leg for a satisfying experience, but it helps. From my experience, a $20 model will certainly sound like crap, while models costing $100 and more from companies like JBL and Ultimate Ears will reward you with superior wireless sound.

But what about the midrange? Not everyone can spend $100 or more on a Bluetooth speaker. If you have less than a hundred to spend, you aren't out of luck. In fact, I have discovered a solid performer for under $70 on Amazon. Called the "ARCHEER A320," the 25W speaker is currently priced at $69.99. Even better, the company has a secret Amazon discount code for BetaNews readers that will drop the price to $44!

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Several years ago, I received an early-morning phone call at home from one of my security staff. Our security operations center had just contacted us, reporting anomalous data traffic. They believed we had several assets that were infected with malware. As I listened to the incident response team triage the event, I thought to myself, "What can I do as a CISO to better protect my organization?"

I had numerous networks and legacy assets under my purview, and even though I had a solid security program, I didn’t feel we were doing enough to address our risk. What fundamentals could I incorporate to better prepare my teams and my security organization?

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Hurricane Harvey has made landfall in Texas, and the powerful storm is wreaking havoc. With winds hitting 210km/h (130 mph) there is a devastating path of destruction as well as flooding.

For those in the area, and those with loved ones affected by the storm, staying in contact is vital, as is the ability to contact emergency services. With this in mind, Verizon is doing everything it can to keep its network running, and T-Mobile is offering free calls and texts to customers.

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Following the hack of HBO, there has been a string of Game of Thrones leaks -- everything from scripts to complete episodes. Now the Mr Smith group behind the hack has leaked the ending of season 7 of the show.

The leak is part of the "sixth wave" of data dumps and it reveals exactly how the show will end. With HBO seemingly unwilling to pay the ransom demanded by the hackers, the latest leak really comes as little surprise.

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Low-code application development is increasingly on IT’s radar as application development and delivery (AD&D) leaders and product teams, who are under pressure to support their organizations’ digital modernization initiatives, look for ways to get new applications into production faster. But low-code isn’t just about "time-to-market." It’s about the agility and innovation that a low-code development paradigm can deliver.

Low-code application development platforms provide a drag­-and-drop interface to allow programmers -- or even non-programmers with very little training -- to rapidly create applications, saving time during both development and testing. They are mostly offered as cloud native platforms.

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Windows 10 Mobile is dead -- everyone knows it. Well, everyone except a small number of delusional people clutching their precious Lumia devices. Sigh. One day these unfortunate folks will switch to Android or iPhone so they can experience happiness.

For now, Microsoft is still keeping hope alive for these few loyal Windows Phone fans. In fact, today, the company released a new Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview Build, version 15245. More importantly, the company released Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16275 for PC -- yes, yet another such build for the desktop operating system. Don't get too excited, however, as both of these builds are primarily bug fixes.

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Many drivers pay more attention to their smartphone than to others on the road, which is why it's smart to have a dash cam in your car. If you have a close call, or get into an accident, there's footage of what happened that you can share with the police or the insurance company.

Choosing a dash cam can be pretty difficult though, and this is also true for high-end models. In this segment, a dash cam needs to go beyond the basics. Thinkware's new flagship, the F800, is one of the most promising options, packing some cool features and solid image quality. But how good is it in real life? I've tested it to find out.

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The Xbox One X is an expensive upgrade to the existing Xbox One consoles. It features improved specifications, as well as the ability to run games at 4K with HDR. While the Xbox One S can output 4K, that is only for TV and movies -- not games. With all of that said, you would think that Xbox One X wouldn't be terribly popular since its pricey benefits are only beneficial to some.

Well, if you thought Xbox One X was merely a niche product, you would be wrong, apparently. According to Microsoft, pre-orders for the "X" variant of its gaming console are not only selling very well but breaking records too. It claims that Xbox One X pre-orders have sold faster than ones for both the original Xbox One and Xbox One S.

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If you have yet to be granted access to Facebook's trip-down-memory-lane feature, On This Day, now you're in luck. The social network has opened up the feature to all of its two billion users.

At the same time, Facebook is introducing some interesting extras, and taking steps to ensure that more negative memories are not surfaced for you. On top of this, there are new seasonal memories and new ways to celebrate friendships.

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The FBI has admitted that it is actively discouraging businesses to not use security products from Kaspersky Lab.

Rob Joyce, the US government's Cyber Security Coordinator, said that the agency has been actively trying to convince companies in the private sector to no longer use products from the Russian security firm following a number of recent concerns.

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Microsoft has announced a major shake-up in the testing for Windows 10 S.

The software giant has announced that its new OS can now be tried out by all members of the Windows Insiders program.

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Many recent cyber attacks like WannaCry have succeeded by exploiting vulnerabilities that, although known, have gone widely unpatched.

Why do some organizations find it so difficult to keep their systems up to date and what can they do to better protect themselves? We spoke to Wendy Nather, principal security strategist at Duo Security to find out.

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Two-hundred-and-forty-five in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 on the Windows Store in the past seven days.

Microsoft promised this week that it would never again force Windows upgrade downloads on users. Microsoft announced furthermore that it would pull creation support for ReFS from Windows 10 Pro.

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