It's been two months since I acquired Amazon Echo, the voice controlled device that can do a surprising amount of things. That feature list is always growing as well, with an increasing amount of partnerships and developers writing "skills".

Has the novelty worn off? Well, somewhat, but I still use it every day. It has become a tool that works for me and there are many features that come in handy.

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Finding anomalies in data sets is an effective way of identifying performance issues or indicators of compromise before they impact a business.

Being able to link those anomalies together by identifying common traits among them would be even more effective and that's what a new Anomaly Detective tool from behavioral analytics specialist Prelert does.

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France has rejected an appeal from Google about last year's Right to Be Forgotten ruling. A previous ruling said that when Google received requests from European citizens to remove search results linking to stories deemed "inadequate, irrelevant, or no longer relevant", the removals should be applied worldwide.

Google disagreed, saying that removals should be limited to country-specific Google domains like Google.co.uk and Google.fr, leading to the appeal. But the president of the Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés, Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, said that rather than amounting to censorship, imposing global removals would help to prevent circumventions of the ruling.

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More and more devices now either connect through, or are powered by, USB connections which means you can easily find yourself running out of ports. This is especially true of the latest slimline ultrabook type systems.

Adding a USB hub is an easy way of expanding your number of ports and these latest offerings from Inateck give you a choice of solutions as well as a handy way of accessing wired networks.

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Windows integrity levels are a key element of your PC’s security, often manipulated by malware, and one reason why you sometimes can’t access files, folders or Registry keys. But most users don’t even know they exist, because there’s no standard graphical interface for viewing them.

MicEnum is a free portable tool which makes it easy to browse the integrity levels for files, folders and Registry keys, scan for anomalies, and -- in some situations -- even change them.

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If you frequent Android forums you'll probably have seen references to 'Monkey Test' and 'Time Service' as users report that it's hard to get rid of these apps.

Researchers at Cheetah Mobile's CM Security Research Lab have discovered that the source of these apps is a virus called 'Ghost Push'. This installs unwanted and annoying apps on the device and can't be removed easily even by doing a factory reset or using normal antivirus software.

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Being locked out of your account because you mistyped your password is not only frustrating, it takes up valuable IT staff time as it has to be treated as a genuine security threat and investigated before resetting.

Behavior analytics specialist Exabeam has produced a solution to the account lockout problem that uses machine learning to model lockout behavior and apply that logic and related rules to its latest release.

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Apple has started a clean-up operation of the Chinese version of its App Store after it was flooded with apps infected with XcodeGhost malware. The problem was not detected by Apple, but a number of security firms who discovered various malicious iPhone and iPad apps littering the Store.

The apps made their way past Apple's usually-rigorous vetting process after developers were tricked into using a counterfeit version of the Xcode tool to create them. The attack has been described as "a pretty big deal" although at this stage there are no reported instances of data theft or attacks on victims.

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Windows 10 is a wonderful operating system. Every day, I boot a computer running Microsoft's latest operating system to get work done. On the surface, everything is peachy-keen. Sadly, under the hood, there are some legitimate privacy concerns. There is a bunch of information being sent to Microsoft, and you may not even know it. This has caused programs like the wonderful O&O ShutUp10 to be created.

Luckily, Windows is not the only game in town, folks. Actually, there are many wonderful operating systems available to you at no charge. Unlike Windows 10, where it is only free with a prior licence, most Linux-based operating systems are entirely free. Period. If you want to try one of these open-source operating systems, you may be confused as to where to start. Don't worry, I am here to help. Here are the distributions and software you should use.

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The smartwatch is the latest technology darling these days with Pebble, Android Wear and, most recently, Apple. But technology can fail, sometimes badly. Just this morning my home automation left me sitting in the dark (again). Worse Amazon, who's Echo device controls it, was down making a reset impossible and leaving the only option as switching to manual control and using that old-fashioned switch thing on the wall.

According to the Register, Amazon wasn't the only one out of luck, as it's own AWS service took it down, as well as Netflix, IMDB and others.

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In the world of wearables it is really a battle between the Apple Watch and the various Android smartwatches like the Moto 360. But Microsoft would like you to remember that it also has something to offer. The original Microsoft Band may not have generated a great deal of interest, but the company is not ready to give up.

Leaked images show that Band 2 is shaping up to be better looking than the first generation. Spanish website Microsoft Insider has published renders of the upcoming wearable which currently bears the codename Envoy.

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That a company behind an ad-blocking tool should defend ad-blocking should hardly come as a surprise, but that is precisely what has happened. Ad blockers have been much talked about since Apple opened up support for them in iOS 9. The now infamous Peace shot to the top of the download charts before it was pulled by its creator.

Now AdBlock Plus has come out in support of Marco Arment who developed something of a guilty conscience after his ad blocking creation proved so popular. Ben Williams from AdBlock Plus says "I really applaud this guy", going on to suggest that whitelisting and the Acceptable Ads feature of AdBlock Plus epitomize the "more nuanced, complex approach" Arment called for.

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Browser stability is a big issue, and it's something that can very easily sway choices. A bug has been discovered in Chrome which crashes the browser if a user visits a particular URL -- 16 characters is all it takes to kill Google's web browser.

The problem is reported as affecting Chrome 45 and older, although it also seems to all kill version 47 on the Dev channel. The issue stems from the inclusion of a NULL character in the URL and has already been reported to Google.

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You've probably heard talk recently of Facebook adding a Dislike button or an 'empathize' button. While this is certainly something that has been in the news, it is not yet a reality -- and it has created a great opportunity for scammers to cash in on people's impatience.

We don’t get know exactly what form the Dislike button will take, or when it will appear, but there are now several scams in operation that lure in victims with the promise of instant access to the yet-to-be-released feature. A variety of techniques are employed by scammers to encourage victim to "Download the official DISLIKE button now". It is, of course, a fake, and there are a number of things to look out for.

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On Sept. 16, 2015, Apple released iOS 9, which enables users of iPad and iPhone to disable ads. The company claims the capability improves the overall user experience. As someone covering the tech industry for more than two decades, I perceive it as something else, too: Competitive assault against Google and means of pushing publishers to iOS 9's new News app. There is nothing friendly about Apple's maneuver. It is aggressive and tactical. But does it really matter?

Stated simply: More than 90 percent of Google revenue comes from contextual and search-related advertising. Apple derives about the same figure from selling devices and supporting services. At the same time, mobile is the future of Internet advertising and the battleground where the two meet. The entities' respective mobile platforms, Android and iOS, long ago put the tech titans on a collision course. Conceptually, what Apple can't gain from iPad and iPhone sales, it can take by shaking pillars supporting its rival's business.

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