Google News benefits from a major redesign and fact-checking

It may be a while since you took a look at Google News, but there's never been a better time to revisit the site. Google has just launched a major overhaul of the site, focusing on not just changing the look, but also improving navigation and giving more balanced coverage to stories.

The news aggregation site has been due something of an overhaul for some time, and the update cleans out the clutter, introduces a card layout, and places increased importance on balanced portrayal of topics and fact-checking.

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What new skills should IT pros learn?

Young workers

Artificial intelligence, robotics and cloud computing are a catch-22. On one side of the equation, these technologies make our lives so much easier by automating tasks and simplifying work. They can be used to perfect a development or mechanical process too, as a machine will never tire or feel exhaustion like a human. They deliver even, consistent results almost endlessly.

They also have the potential to disrupt many industries by saving brands and organizations a considerable amount of money. And therein lies the problem. The rise of modern technologies like these could replace a huge number of jobs, especially among the middle-class.

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Email scam is a growing problem for enterprises

Email phishing scams continue to strike a huge number of businesses, in spite of much more improved cyber-security policies, new research has revealed.

The latest Email Security Risk Assessment from Mimecast discovered that ambitious hackers are also increasingly targeting C-level executives and impersonating those in senior leadership positions in order to trick employees into transferring money or valuable IP data. The report found that there had been a 400 percent rise in so-called impersonation attacks in just the last three months of the year.

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What Microsoft can improve in Outlook

email icon

Outlook is one of the most used pieces of software in the corporate world. For a reason, of course -- while its main use is as an email client, it usually ends up being a lot more.

It offers several other features that help organize your daily work, such as syncing your emails with your calendar. This makes setting up and keeping track of meetings and obligations much easier.

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Get 'Modern JavaScript' ebook ($19 value) FREE for a limited time

It’s not uncommon these days to see people complaining about how complex JavaScript development seems to have become. If you’re learning JS, it won’t take long for you to be exposed to the enormity of the ecosystem and the sheer number of moving pieces you need to understand (at least conceptually) to build a modern web application.

Package management, linting, transpilation, module bundling, minification, source maps, frameworks, unit testing, hot reloading… it can’t be denied that this is a lot more complex than just including a couple of script tags in your page and FTPing it up to the server.

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Facebook celebrates 2 billion users by thanking people when they do something nice

Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg announced earlier today that the social network now has 2 billion users.

In celebration of that milestone, Facebook also shared some other interesting snippets of information, such as that over 800 million people Like something on Facebook every day, and 175 million people share a Love reaction. In addition, more than 1 billion people use Groups every month.

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Europe guts Google, and that's just wrong

Today the European Union gave Apple a great gift to celebrate iPhone's 10th anniversary (on June 29th): The ridiculous, record $2.7 billion fine, and associated sanctions, against Google that once again demonstrates the EU's small-minded oversight that wrongly regulates evolving technologies in a big world. The adverse antitrust ruling finds that the online titan favored its own online shopping services (and paying customers) over rivals.

In February 2010, with the EU Competition Commission's preliminary investigation starting, I rightly called "Google a dangerous monopoly". Seven years later, the competitive landscape has dramatically changed, and rapidly evolves. The Commission's action is too much, too late, and in the short-term can only benefit rivals like Apple that will dominate online activities and commerce as what we knew as traditional web search becomes something else.

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European carriers worry new EU data rules could harm innovation

The European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association -- ETNO -- and the GSM association have warned that upcoming EU rules governing how businesses use data could slow down innovation and growth in the industry.

The proposed updates to ePrivacy rules could also mean businesses such as telecom operators in the EU might no longer be able to use data to improve customer experiences.

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Bitcoin is stronger than Ethereum -- the flippening will have to wait

Bitcoin Ethereum BTC ETH

When the price of Ethereum broke the $400 mark earlier this month, the flippening looked like a sure thing. Pundits were expecting it to soon surpass Bitcoin and become the most valuable cryptocurrency in the process. However, fast forward to today, Ethereum is crashing hard while its rival is still holding well.

The price of Ethereum has dropped to around $235, bringing its market cap down to around $21.9 billion. Meanwhile, Bitcoin is trading for around $2330, and its market cap is around $38.8 billion. From a difference of less than $8 billion in market cap, Bitcoin's lead has more than doubled in just a couple of weeks.

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Major ransomware attack spreads rapidly across Europe

Ransomware skull

Companies, government departments and airports in the Ukraine have been hit by ransomware this afternoon and the attack now appears to be spreading across Europe.

In Ukraine, government departments, the central bank, a state-run aircraft manufacturer, Kiev airport and the metro network have all been hit. In the UK, the advertising company WPP says its systems have also been taken down, and Danish transport company Maersk reports sites and business units shut down by the attack.

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How to get regular free security updates for Windows XP and Vista

Two months ago, in an effort to fightback against the WannaCry ransomware, Microsoft took the 'highly unusual' step of releasing a patch for Windows XP, the ancient operating system it stopped supporting back in 2014 (even though, as it turned out, it was really Windows 7, not XP, that was to blame for the spread of the devastating malware).

Then just two weeks ago, Microsoft included Windows XP and Vista -- another operating system it no longer supports -- in June's Patch Tuesday updates. Despite these recent actions, neither XP nor Vista are going to receive regular security updates from Microsoft, meaning users still running either OS remain at serious risk. However, the good news is there are a couple of tricks you can use to continue receiving security updates for both XP and Vista.

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Amazon adds more Android 'Prime Exclusive Phones' from Nokia, Motorola, and Alcatel

Some people don't like advertisements, but I do. They are a great way to learn about new products while also helping to pay for "free" content. People think I am crazy when I say this, but many times I don't bother fast-forwarding commercials when watching my DVR. Heck, in 2017, there is so much great content that is subsidized by ads, such as news articles, YouTube videos, and of course, both television and radio. If it weren't for advertisements, you would probably be "nickle-and-dimed" at every turn.

A great example of advertisements helping consumers is Amazon's 'Prime Exclusive Phones' program. The consumer gets a discount on the smartphone by agreeing to see ads on the device's lock screen. It is not forced on the buyer -- they get to choose if it is worth it to them. It actually empowers the consumer. Today, Amazon is introducing five more handsets into the scheme from Motorola, Alcatel, and for the first time, Nokia.

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New platform takes the hard work out of acquiring mobile users

Mobile apps

Companies are keen to make use of mobile apps to reach their customers. But the volume of apps available makes it hard to acquire those users. This in turn leads to businesses having to split their efforts across different channels all of which require time consuming management.

Mobile marketing specialist AppScotch wants to make the process easier with the launch of Acquired.io, a centralized platform to manage user acquisition across multiple channels like Snapchat, AdColony, Chartboost and more.

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Save Gmail emails to PDF or ZIP with a click

Save emails to PDF is a Chrome extension which enables saving any Gmail email to PDF in a couple of clicks.

Download options include saving individual emails to separate PDFs, merging all selected PDFs into one PDF, or saving conversations to CSV or Excel, apparently (the Excel option just saved to PDF for us).

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Xiaomi Mi R3P AC2600 Wi-Fi router review

Xiaomi may be best known for making smartphones, but that is not the only market the company focuses on. You can also find a Xiaomi VR headset, drone, action cameras, TVs, wearables, power banks, headphones and, last but not least, Wi-Fi routers.

Routers are a good fit in the Xiaomi ecosystem. In its lineup, the Mi R3P is the fastest router that you can get, sporting AC2600 transfer speeds, and just like you would expect, it is also priced competitively. But is it worth your attention? I've tested the Mi R3P to find out.

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