Facebook warns about government-sponsored attacks on accounts

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It's one thing to have your Facebook account attacked, it's quite another to have it targeted by government-sponsored attackers. It seems as though attacks of this kind are on the increase, and Facebook has implemented a warning system for anyone whose account comes under such an attack.

But this is about more than just letting you know if someone has tried to log into your account without permission. Facebook believes that the problem is serious enough to suggest that anyone who receives such a warning should consider either formatting their computer, or buying a new one.

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MAINGEAR NOMAD 15 laptop has Skylake Core i7, NVIDIA GTX 980M, G-SYNC, and 4K

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Typically, when consumers want a gaming PC, they will buy or build a desktop. This works well for those people with dedicated gaming areas in their home, but what if you need to move around a lot? What if you want to travel to a friend's house or lan party to game? A gaming laptop is the most convenient option (lugging a desktop around stinks).

If you are a nomadic gamer, always on the go, MAINGEAR has a laptop that could meet your needs. The appropriately named NOMAD 15  now has options for Intel Skylake Core i7, NVIDIA GTX 980M, G-SYNC, and 4K.

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Copyfish: free OCR and translation for Chrome

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Copyfish is a free Chrome extension for extracting and translating text from images, videos, PDFs and more.

The package couldn’t be any easier to use. Click the Copyfish icon on your address bar, click and drag to draw a rectangle around your text, and wait: the OCR result is displayed in a few seconds, along with a translated version.

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How to manage a smooth Windows 10 migration

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New releases of Microsoft’s flagship operating system are typically greeted with a combination of angst, curiosity, confusion, and dread in equal measure. However, I believe that Windows 10 is Microsoft’s next big achievement.

Breaking the cycle of numbered releases and device specific upgrades every few years, Windows 10 is giving modern IT users what they want, where they want it. With the upgrade strategy change, Microsoft is moving away from Windows as a product to Windows as a service. This makes complete sense on paper, but migration becomes a wholly different proposition to what many organizations have experienced before.

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Teradata releases the power of IoT data

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The number of connected devices is increasing rapidly and producing large amounts of data. Extracting value from that data and gaining useful business insights from it though is a complex process.

Big data applications company Teradata is announcing two new software products that empower business users to uncover and operationalize the insights hidden within Internet of Things (IoT) data.

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NirSoft rates antivirus engines for false positives

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If you regularly download small technical Windows tools then you’ll know they’re often incorrectly flagged as malware, even when from very trusted sources.

Which security companies are the worst offenders? Freeware developer NirSoft has released a report scoring Virustotal’s 57 antivirus engines for their response to its utilities.

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Lenovo unveils YOGA 900 convertible laptop and YOGA Home 900 portable All-in-One

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Windows 10 hasn't just ushered in a new era at Microsoft, but it has inspired PC manufacturers too. The Windows OEMs are finally catching onto the fact that consumers are not interested in chintzy low-quality computers. Apple has proven that people want to buy and experience well-designed and well-engineered computers. They are willing to pay the premium. Companies like Dell and HP have released absolutely beautiful hardware as of late.

Today, it is Lenovo's turn to wow the tech world. Quite frankly, I think the company has achieved its goal in building impressive Windows 10 machines with its latest PCs. Its svelte YOGA 900 convertible laptop and YOGA Home 900 portable All-in-One computers are absolutely gorgeous, and feature both Intel Broadwell and Skylake processors. Hell, the YOGA 900 convertible laptop is the thinnest convertible Intel Core "i" laptop ever. Of course, these beautiful computers also carry hefty price tags, so you had better be prepared to pay.

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New feature helps drive sales team performance

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Sales platforms tend to be based on historical data which means that they don't always take account of the effect of transactions that are already in the pipeline.

Activity-based sales specialist LevelEleven is launching a new feature called Pacing, which improves the ability for salespeople and managers to use their sales pipeline data in real time.

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Windows 10 users ignore Microsoft Edge for a reason

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Microsoft should not be surprised to see Windows 10 users ignoring its Edge browser, or other stock programs for that matter. People will do that, especially when there is an alternative that better suits their needs. But, as a new leaked build shows, Microsoft does not want to give up the fight just yet.

Windows 10 users who want to switch away Microsoft Edge (or some of the stock apps) might soon get a prompt, asking them to give the program a chance while listing some of its main features. But, at this point, this feels like a terrible idea, one that will surely annoy users and make them ignore Microsoft's efforts in the future, no matter how good its software might be.

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Listening to the NFL on TuneIn Radio

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This past week, streaming service TuneIn Radio announced it had gained rights to NFL games. You can now listen to the broadcast of your favorite team's game. Granted, it's not video, but it's better than nothing and a lot cheaper than NFL Sunday Ticket.

So how does it work? First you need to sign up for a Premium plan, which will run you $7.99 per month, though you'll get a seven day free trial. This requires all the usual things -- username, password and credit card information.

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New cloud platform streamlines device management and patching

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Keeping devices secure means ensuring that they're up to date with the latest software patches. For IT managers this can present a major logistical problem, especially where different operating systems are in use.

IT management systems specialist Shavlik is launching a new version of its Shavlik Protect patch management solution, as well as Empower, a platform that aggregates data to give IT departments more insight into and control over their systems.

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Privacy and usability problems with the iPhone 6s? You’re using it wrong

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Over the past couple of days I’ve read two interesting iPhone 6s stories from my colleagues. Brian Fagioli says Apple’s Live Photos has a big privacy issue, while Joe Wilcox says the way the Nexus 6P’s fingerprint scanner works is superior to that of the Touch ID scanner on the iPhone 6s.

With respect to both writers, they are wrong. The problems they refer to with the iPhone 6s aren’t problems of Apple’s making, they are user errors, pure and simple.

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Three things to consider before migrating to Windows 10

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As Microsoft announced its first flurry of Windows 10-ready devices at its recent Windows 10 Devices event, businesses everywhere will be beginning to wonder how the new OS is going to affect their carefully organized (yet often fragile) IT policies.

As Microsoft’s marketing campaigns have made clear, through natural ties to OneCloud and Office 365, Windows 10 is designed with flexible working and BYOD at its heart. Unfortunately for businesses however, while Microsoft may be ready for the workplace of tomorrow, a lot of IT departments are still struggling to manage the workplace of today.

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Nexus 6P or iPhone 6s Plus?

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If you asked me two months ago about using a Huawei smartwatch or smartphone, I would have scoffed. Yet, here I am doing just that. Timing on the latter is ironic. On Oct. 15, 2015, I bought a 128GB silver (and white) iPhone 6s Plus using Apple's 24-month finance plan, rather than paying in full up front. Huawei-made, Google-branded 64GB Nexus 6P arrived the next day for review. The following morning (the 17th), I hauled down to Apple Store and returned the iPhone for full refund. That act sums up my reaction to the new Android flagship running "Marshmallow".

I didn't expect to be so wooed by Nexus 6P, but Google got me by delivering superior contextual experience. This device, and Android 6, is all about context, starting with what for me is the killer function I couldn't part with: the fingerprint reader on the back of the phone. Picking up the device and placing my forefinger on the circular indentation wakes and unlocks the 6P. Wow-way is right! The mechanism beats the Hell out of Apple's two-handed jimmy from the Home button.

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Nexus 6P first-impressions review

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Finely balanced and contextually practical are the terms that best describe my first impressions of Google's flagship Android. Nexus 6P preorders are about to ship, and I was fortunate to receive a review model but with short embargo lift: Delivered Oct. 16, 2015 before every blogger and reviewer on the planet blasted out simultaneous reviews and first-reactions on the 19th. I choose the latter, because a scant three days isn't enough time to rightly evaluate the smartphone.

Much of my experience is cast in moving from the previous flagship, Nexus 6, although there was a day between them where iPhone 6s Plus and I fitfully danced. The 6P is in many respects what its predecessor should have been: Smaller. Much as I like the larger Motorola-made phablet, its Huawei-manufactured successor has greater physical and feature balance. Both are superb smart devices, but the newer Nexus is better tuned to practical purposes.

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