Microsoft makes Visual Studio Code Extension for Arduino open source

open source

Does Microsoft support open source? Absolutely. The company has released many open source projects, and believe it or not, its has the most open source contributors on GitHub. With that said, Microsoft stops short of being a complete open source proponent. After all, the company makes a lot of money from two of its closed source golden geese -- Windows and Office.

Today, Microsoft releases yet another open source tool -- Visual Studio Code Extension for Arduino. This MIT-licensed code should greatly help developers that are leveraging Arduino hardware for Internet of Things-related projects and more.

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Samsung may become the world's largest chip maker

Samsung logo building

Samsung will soon be releasing its quarterly profits for the second quarter of 2017 and the company is expected to surpass Intel as the world's largest semiconductor manufacturer by revenue.

This is the first time that the South Korean electronics giant has been able to outsell Intel as a result of increased memory chip sales from April to June. Demand has soared for smartphones and servers with more powerful chips and, as a result, their sales have gone up.

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EE and Qualcomm demo Europe's first commercial Gigabit LTE network

5G mobile networks have come a step closer to reality following a new announcement from Qualcomm and EE today.

The two companies have teamed up with Sony to show off Europe’s first commercial Gigabit LTE network, offering quicker mobile download speeds than ever before.

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RED Hydrogen One is a super expensive holographic smartphone

It is tough to get excited about a new smartphone these days, but RED's new Hydrogen One might just pique your interest. What makes it so special? It features a novel display that uses nanotechnology to deliver a holographic experience.

In RED's own words, the Hydrogen One's "retina-riveting display features nanotechnology that seamlessly switches between traditional 2D content, holographic multi-view content, 3D content, and interactive games." That headline feature is so important that RED hasn't actually bothered to say much about what other specs the Hydrogen One has. Oh, and, no glasses are needed.

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PlayStation Now finally adds PS4 titles

Sony's subscription-based game streaming service received a massive update today -- not entirely because of the number of new titles available, but because of the fact that the new titles are from the PS4 library. Until now, the service only offered streaming PS3 games.

The addition of PS4 games to the platform has been discussed since it was introduced back in 2014. However, no firm plans to do so were ever confirmed until now. Surely not coincidentally, it just so happens to have arrived just one month after Microsoft launched its competing Xbox Game Pass platform, which offers streaming Xbox One titles.

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What you need to know about 5G

5G mobile

5G networks are the next generation of mobile internet connectivity, offering faster speeds and more reliable connections on smartphones and other devices than ever before.

Combining cutting-edge network technology and the very latest research, 5G should offer connections that are multitudes faster than current connections, with average download speeds of around 1GBps expected to soon be the norm.

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Three's Go Binge tariff lets you stream Netflix and more without using your data allowance

UK mobile operator Three has introduced a new tariff that lets subscribers stream music, TV and movies from a number of services without eating into their data allowance. The Go Binge Tariff allows for all-you-can-eat streaming access to Netflix, TVPlayer, Deezer and SoundCloud.

If this sounds a little familiar, that's because T-Mobile has a similar tariff with an incredibly similar name: Binge On. Of course, there is potentially a slight catch: price.

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OnePlus 5 gets OxygenOS 4.5.5 update -- here's what's new

The OnePlus 5 launched only two weeks ago, and it has already received four software updates -- one of which was released before it was even widely available. The new flagship killer is not without fault, as user reports indicate, but OnePlus has been working to address them as quickly as possible.

The fourth and latest software update for the OnePlus 5, OxygenOS 4.5.5, was just released, and it brings a number of improvements and bug fixes that should enhance the user experience. Here's what's new.

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AlphaBay Market disappears from the dark web as blockchain records show huge Bitcoin withdrawals

Dark web users fear that AlphaBay Market may have disappeared for good after an unexplained period of downtime. The site -- described as a successor to Silk Road -- is a marketplace for a myriad of illegal wares including drugs and guns, and speculation is rife that the admins may have made off with users' money.

While maintenance-related downtime is not unusual, this time around there has been no word from admins, and suspicions have been further raised after Bitcoin worth around $3.8 million was withdrawn from numerous accounts. Some users are worried that admins may have "pulled an exit scam."

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Plugins and social media links leave websites more open to compromise

hacker laptop

Adding extra features like plugins and social media links makes websites more likely to be compromised according to a new report.

The study by website security company SiteLock finds that sites with between one and five plugins have 1.5 times more chance of being compromised than the average site.

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Schools warn that Snapchat's Snap Map could be used to track children

The location-sharing Snap Map feature of SnapChat is leading schools to warn parents about the potential risks of the popular app. The feature allows users to share their location on a map with friends and it's been around for a couple of weeks now.

While many users are happy to be able to see where their friends are, others are concerned about potential privacy issues. Some schools have written to parents warnings that the app could be used to track their children and raises "serious safeguarding concerns." But while there are concerns about the safety of Snap Map, there are numerous mitigating factors to consider. So what's all the fuss about?

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Microsoft says NTFS requirement for OneDrive is nothing new, but forgot to tell users

Yesterday we reported about Microsoft's sudden change to OneDrive that requires the use of NTFS drives. The change not only caught people off-guard when they discovered that they couldn’t access their files, but also caused a great deal of annoyance about the lack of communication.

While FAT32 has largely been replaced by NTFS, cross-compatibility with Linux and macOS is one of various reasons many people choose the format for SD cards and external drives. Despite the fact OneDrive users are now seeing warning messages about the need to format drives using NTFS, Microsoft insists that "nothing has changed" and it merely forgot to display a warning message until now.

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July is 'Anime Month' in Microsoft's Windows Store -- get deals on TV, movies, and games

If you aren't familiar with Anime, please know that it is essentially just Japanese-originated animation. Not only are the videos offered in short form for television, but as full-length films too. If you don't understand Japanese language, do not worry -- they are offered with either English language dubs or subtitles. These cartoons are not just popular with children, but adults too. Heck, some people even dress up as their favorite Anime characters for things like Comic Con.

Today, Microsoft announces that July is "Anime Month" in the Windows Store. Not only is the company offering great deals on movies and TV shows, but video games based on them too. In fact, there are even some free offerings to be had.

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Many IT projects failing in UK

A huge number of IT projects currently being undertaken in the UK are doomed to fail, new research has claimed.

Over three in ten of all IT projects in the country could fall short of expectations, according to a new Axelos report, based on a poll of 182 project managers.

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Should your business embrace Bitcoin?

There’s been a lot of talk in recent months about cryptocurrencies, specifically Bitcoin. While it may not yet be on the verge of toppling the pound, dollar, euro, or yen in your wallet, the digital cryptocurrency is steadily gaining adoption within mainstream society and, with its rise, has brought many questions among regulators, consumers and small business looking to get in on the action.

As consumers slowly grow more comfortable with using digital currencies that use complex algorithms to make secure person-to-person payments, the businesses they serve are also beginning to accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as payment.

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