As smart cars enter the mainstream, carmakers will have to work out a way to properly collaborate with start-ups, which means they have to start thinking like one.

That was the general conclusion of a TechCrunch/TechNode Shanghai panel when Juergen Bauer, who manages the Audi-Tongji Joint Lab in Shanghai, asked a panel of representatives from car companies about how the auto industry can handle the transition.

For technology junkies, electricity is like crack cocaine. During a blackout, it can seem like users go through withdrawals without access to their precious internet and computers. Mobile devices are the best examples of this; when a user's smartphone battery is depleted, it is like the end of the world. They will sit on a filthy Starbucks floor just to charge their phone in an available outlet.

Sadly, more and more phone manufacturers are forgoing the removable battery option, making a battery swap an impossibility. Luckily, portable battery packs solve this issue, allowing users longer portability without needing to seek out an outlet. Today, Microsoft unveils its own such model.

Security firms are supposed to keep us safe from threats like malware and hacker attacks, but occasionally they fall foul of the bad guys too. A year ago Avast was hacked, and some 400,000 user details were stolen. Two years ago, AVG and Avira had their websites taken over by pro-Palestinian hackers.

The latest security firm to be hacked is Russian anti-virus software maker Kaspersky Lab.

The promise of surface computing for businesses seems to have been around for ages, remember all those cool videos of interactive coffee tables and screens from around three years ago? Yet so far there hasn't been a great deal of practical application.

That could be about to change as Microsoft makes its Surface Hub available for businesses to order in 24 markets -- including Australia, North America, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, and the UK -- from July 1.

Capture.NET started life more than ten years ago as a simple screen capture tool. But then the developer began to expand it, with a clock, timer, calendar tools, text notes, program launcher, magnifier, screen ruler, backup tool and more.

That’s not bad, especially as the end result is portable, ultra-lightweight (a single 1.4MB executable) and free for personal use. But can this kind of all-in-one tool really replace more specialist programs? We took a look.

One of the problems with business software is that it tends to exist in compartments when it would make life much easier for users if it all worked together.

Sales document creation specialist PandaDoc is launching a new add-on to integrate its software with the Zendesk customer service platform.

While its competitors were fighting about Weather Channel royalty fees and customer service fiascos, Dish Network was blazing ahead to become an exceedingly relevant TV provider in a 21st century landscape. Its new effort to merge with T-Mobile is just the latest example.

As has been widely reported, Dish and T-Mobile are in discussions to become one entity that would give a huge amount of wireless spectrum to T-Mobile and give Dish a completely unique position in the mobile marketplace.

As the role of Information Technology continues to grow and evolve within business, the potential risks associated with accessing, storing, sharing and protecting information are similarly increasing. In order to better equip themselves to adjust to these kind of threats, businesses need to consider the various risks they might be vulnerable to and implement a reliable strategy to deal with these effectively and efficiently.

Firstly, let’s consider a few threats. In each of the scenarios below, a vulnerability can result in a serious risk to your business:

If you cannot expand the storage capacity on a high-end smartphone, 16 GB of available space just isn't enough. Install all your favorite apps and games, maybe try a couple of new ones, add some music, use the device for a while, and you end up with an alarmingly-low available capacity. As someone who is using a 16 GB iPhone 6 Plus daily, I have to work around this restriction.

And I shouldn't have to, which is why I find Phil Schiller's arguments on why the company he represents as SVP still makes 16 GB iPhones to be disingenuous. Phil, at least be honest: it is all about the money.

Logitech is no stranger to making a keyboard or mouse, nor is the company unfamiliar with the living room. Last year it released a home theater keyboard -- the Harmony Smart Keyboard. Now an updated version of the same concept is being announced, though this time without the Harmony name attached. This one is actually a successor to a previous model.

The Logitech Wireless Touch Keyboard K400 Plus aims to help you control your living room via a computer hooked to the TV, in other words an HTPC. Logitech claims a wireless range of up to 33 feet for this device. There's also no mouse required, as the keyboard has a built-in touchpad. It also comes with batteries that Logitech claim will last 18 months.

If you’re running Windows 7 or 8.x you should by now see a small Windows 10 icon in the system tray. Click this and you can reserve your free Windows 10 upgrade in advance of the operating system’s launch on July 29.

Once you’ve reserved the upgrade, Windows 10 will download as soon as available and you’ll be able to install it at your convenience. However, for some reason this icon isn’t appearing on all systems. It wasn’t on mine for example. If you want to summon the upgrade icon, this is what you’ll need to do.

As with all things Apple, there’s been a lot of talk about its new music streaming service, ingeniously named Apple Music.

After it got officially unveiled and showcased during this year’s annual Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), the initial amazement was quickly replaced by a profound feeling of meh. Onstage the company said it would transform the listening experience for fans, and the creative act for artists, but once the hype died down it became obvious -- it’s not really offering features you can’t find elsewhere in the market. And then it hits you -- the price!

If you’re certain you don’t want to upgrade to Windows 10, or you want to do so at your own pace without being nagged into it, the upgrade notification that appears in Windows 7 and 8.x can be viewed as an unwanted annoyance.

There are plenty of reasons why you might not want to upgrade to Windows 10 as soon as it becomes available -- you might be more than happy with your existing OS, or you may wish to wait until Windows 10 has been out for a while and all of the big issues have been patched. After all, you have a year to upgrade for free. If you want to remove the upgrade notification, there’s a simple tool for the job.

Being linked to the most-popular social network makes Messenger a very convenient messaging option, giving it a huge advantage in the long run. If you are already friends with someone on Facebook, you can quickly start a conversation with them, share photos, initiate a video chat and more. The way it is designed, you simply cannot ignore its existence, like you would any other messaging service.

Messenger is growing in popularity as new folks sign up for a Facebook account and more and more users have access to smartphones, from which, you guessed it, they want to check what their friends are doing. As a result, Messenger just joined a very exclusive club on Google Play.

We reported last month that new security standards for the payment card industry, known as PCI DSS, were coming into force by the end of June.

Security company Rapid7 has produced an infographic looking at PCI compliance, cybersecurity and new related requirements for penetration testing. Based on data from the Verizon 2015 PCI Compliance Report it sets out four things enterprises should know about going into PCI compliance.