The standard Windows Ping and Traceroute tools are capable enough, but their console interface is, well, basic, and GUI versions aren’t necessarily much better. All too often you’ll need to wade through tables to find the data you need.

PingPlotter Free makes life easier by taking a graphical view of network performance, giving all the essential core data at a glance.

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We live in an age where people are more concerned about and more aware of privacy issues than ever before. Speaking at EPIC Champions of Freedom event in Washington, DC, Apple CEO Tim Cook criticized the government for seeking to implement backdoors into encryption techniques. He also hit out at Google and Facebook with their ad-dependant business models for infringing upon privacy.

He said that Apple wants to be different, saying: "We believe that people have a fundamental right to privacy. The American people demand it, the constitution demands it, morality demands it". Cook was at pains to stress that Apple should be viewed differently to other companies, assuring people that -- unlike others -- the company "doesn’t want your data".

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Tiny, portable Windows 10 PCs seem to be all the rage at the moment. During a Computex 2015 keynote, Microsoft’s Nick Parker revealed not only the Quanta Compute Plug, a mini-PC in a power adapter, but also FoxConn’s Kangaroo.

This is a petite, battery-powered PC in a box that boasts the latest Intel Cherry Trail processor and connects to your TV or monitor via HDMI.

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Having a website is one thing, but getting it seen is another matter. Ensuring visibility of a site involves lots of factors which in the past may have been beyond the expertise and budget of smaller organizations.

Leading European web host 1&1 Internet is launching its latest MyWebsite 8 tool which includes an Online Success Centre making it easier for businesses to be found online.

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Computex 2015 is well underway, and at a keynote earlier today at the Taipei International Convention Center, Nick Parker, corporate vice president of Microsoft's OEM Division, talked up the benefits of Windows 10, and also introduced various new devices designed specifically with the new operating system in mind.

One of the most interesting was the Quanta Compute Plug. This is a mini-PC housed not in a stick, but inside a power adapter.

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When it comes to squeezing megabytes into a tiny space, SanDisk takes the crown, as it managed to fit 128GB of storage into a dime-sized drive.

Just look at the photo above -- these two items are placed next to each other. However, the SanDisk Ultra Fit is something we’ve seen before, but never capacities this big. We’ve seen 16GB, 32GB and 64GB variants.

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You don't get much for $20 these days, but you can pick up a Nokia 105. This is the latest budget phone offering from Microsoft which sees the company trying to get more people around the world connecting with each other.

Of course, for $20 expectations should not be set too high -- this is an extremely basic phone, but that is very much the point. This is a handset designed as an entry point into phone ownership, and it harks back to the halcyon days of the likes of the Nokia 3310.

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We’ve all heard of apps costing you money -- anyone who’s played Candy Crush Saga is well aware that mobile software can be a major drain on the wallet -- but what about apps that can improve your financial situation?

Although the following apps are unlikely to make you millions, they can provide you with a bit of extra spending money each month, many of which require no more work than simply interacting with your phone.

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Microsoft announced earlier this week that Windows 10 will be available on July 29. In less than two months, those who are using Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 will be able to upgrade for free to the upcoming operating system, in the first year after launch. Some have already reserved their free upgrade.

The upgrade will be delivered through Windows Update. Microsoft is making the whole process so easy that it claims that even a 10 year-old could do it. After it is done, those who may want -- or need, at least at some point -- to make a clean install will be able to do so as well.

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Last week it was discovered that all it takes to crash an iPhone is a text message. Send the string of characters to an iPhone-owning friend (or foe) and boom, instant restart for them.

Skype users are beginning to discover that they’re the victims of a similar bug. As originally reported by VentureBeat, and confirmed by ourselves, sending a certain 8-character message causes Skype to crash, and receiving it results in the app crashing every time you try to sign in.

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When buying a laptop, there are some specific things you should look for, such as RAM, storage and battery life. You should also pick the size and weight that best meets your needs. When choosing a processor, however, you should really do your homework. Not all processors are created equal -- you can have two with identical clock speeds with extremely different performance.

Today, AMD announces its all-new 6th generation A-Series notebook processors (previously referred to as "Carizzo") and you should definitely take notice. Not only are these new notebook processors very powerful, but extremely capable too. Will your next laptop be powered by a 6th gen A-Series processor?

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Besides being a video game console, the PlayStation 4 is also a media machine. Quite frankly, along with the Xbox One, it is one of the best such media players, since it can play Blu-ray and all of the popular streaming services. You can even buy and download films to the internal 500GB hard drive.

Unfortunately, Sony's console does not come with a remote control; the user is expected to control their media with the game controller. True, if a users wants a proper remote, they can buy a third-party Bluetooth variant, but what if they want one remote to handle all of their devices? Today is their lucky day. You see, Logitech Harmony remotes with Hub can now control the console. Unfortunately, there is a big catch.

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Many (OK, most) people use Google to conduct their web searches, and why not? It is a great search engine which I use regularly too.  However, it is important to remember that there are other choices available too. While some talk up the privacy benefits of DuckDuckGo, I find its results to be lacking. For me, besides Google, the only other worthy search engine is Bing. Not only does Microsoft's search engine offer great results, but it is pretty too. While Google's search interface is bare-bones, Bing offers a more visually pleasing experience with beautiful photos.

If you are a Bing fan like me, you would probably like to visit the Bing Headquarters for a tour right? Of course you would; that would be friggin' awesome! Guess what? This can become a reality. Simply enter the Ultimate Bing Experience III sweepstakes and you and a friend might win a trip to Seattle on August 10, 2015.

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Today the US Senate passed the USA Freedom Act without amendments, signalling the start of the significant surveillance reform that has been called for since Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the agency's activities. It had already been determined that the bulk collection of phone metadata was illegal, and the expiry of Section 215 of the Patriot Act at the end of May brought this data collection to an end anyway.

The USA Freedom Act sets in concrete the end of the phone data collection program and is seen as a major victory for privacy advocates. It will come as good news to Snowden himself who will undoubtedly feel a sense of relief that his risk-taking paid off. The bill is still to be signed into law by President Obama, but this is now little more than a formality.

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Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook is more usually associated with social networking, but the company has its fingers in plenty of other pies as well -- including Internet.org. Now the company is expanding its Facebook AI Research (FAIR) program to help with the automatic sorting and analysis of pictures, videos, text, and other data.

Facebook already has research teams looking into artificial intelligence in Menlo Park and New York, and the expansion sees the creation of a new team in Paris. The aim is create system that make it easier to manage the ever-growing quantities of data that are generated day in, day out by Facebook users.

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