Netflix improves experience for blind and visually impaired customers

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Everyone loves a good movie or TV show. Not only are they entertaining, but an opportunity for you to forget about your troubles too. My favorite thing about TV shows and movies, however, is the ability to be transported into a different world. By watching the film "Gravity", I can travel to space. "Game of Thrones" allows me to travel to the fictional Westeros. You get the idea.

While these are very much a visual affair, the audio isalso important. Besides dialogue and natural noise, the soundtrack plays a huge role too. Star Wars for instance offers a beautiful score. Unfortunately, not everyone has the ability to see; some people are blind or visually impaired. For these people, the audio is even more important. Today, Netflix recognizes this important group of people with a new Audio Description feature, starting with the all-new "Marvel's Daredevil".

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Nokia could boomerang back into the mobile market with Alcatel-Lucent purchase

Nokia could boomerang back into the mobile market with Alcatel-Lucent purchase

At the beginning of the week rumors started to creep out that Nokia was interested in buying Alcatel-Lucent. The story started with a report on Bloomberg and -- rather surprisingly for such rumors -- Nokia decided to not only comment on the rumor, but confirm that it is true.

Details are still rather thin on the ground and there's no hint at a possible timescale for a buyout of the French telecoms firm. What the statement does do, however, is open up the interesting possibility that Nokia could be on the verge of re-entering the smartphone market after offloading the handset side of its business to Microsoft.

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StarTech.com releases 6-Bay Hard Drive Duplicator Dock with eSATA and USB 3.0

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If you work in IT, you know how laborious it can be to get new computers up and running. The best way to do it is with a single image, so you do not need to manually; one by one. In other words, you install a disk image to multiple machines; the image not only has Windows, but other software and settings too

While this can be done in many ways, including over network or using optical media, a hard drive duplicator is probably the fastest. StarTech.com announces a new product that not only serves as a duplicator, but as 6-drive dock too. Offering USB 3.0 and eSata connectivity, it is sure to meet the needs of many businesses and some home users too.

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Salesforce integration helps PandaDoc deliver better sales content

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Producing documents has in the past been the slowest part of the sales process. Collecting information and putting it into quotes and proposals can take up a lot of sales staff time that could be better used in other tasks.

California-based PandaDoc is announcing its software's integration with Salesforce to make sales proposal and quote generation faster and more personalized.

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Skype for Business is now ready for prime time

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Microsoft has announced the official availability of the new Skype for Business client and Skype for Business Online, only a month after releasing the first product as a technical preview. Rolling out now, Skype for Business is set to quickly replace Lync, with all customers expected to be upgraded by the end of May 2015.

The client is rolling out as part of the April monthly upgrade for Office 2013, while its Online counterpart just started to make its way to Office 365 customers across the globe. However, customers who need "a little more time" to migrate over to Skype for Business Online are given the option to switch between it and Lync.

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Batch print documents, photos, PDFs with 2Printer

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2Printer is a free (for personal use) Windows tool for batch printing PDFs, Office documents, photos, drawings and a whole lot more.

If you only print the occasional document then this isn’t the program for you. But if you run a business and need to print a folder of documents at the end of the month, say, it could save you some time.

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Opera debuts all-new Opera Mini for Android browser

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Opera Software ASA has unveiled Opera Mini for Android 8.0 a major new -- and long overdue -- version of its mobile-friendly browser for Android devices.

Despite appearing to be a simple upgrade from the previous release -- 7.6 -- Opera Mini 8.0 has been released to the Google Play store as a completely new, and separate, app, which means existing users will need to download and install it afresh, where it will subsequently appear and run in isolation alongside the original version.

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Attackers switch tactics to gain access to corporate networks

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In the current information security climate it seems that falling victim to some form of cyber attack is just a matter of time. If you haven't been hit yet chances are you will be soon.

The latest Internet Security Threat Report from Symantec shows that five out of six large companies were targeted in 2014, a 40 percent increase over the previous year, and that attackers are shifting their tactics when targeting corporations.

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Kaspersky releases CoinVault Decryptor

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Kaspersky Labs has released CoinVault Decryptor, is a free tool which may help victims of the CoinVault ransomware to decrypt their files.

The program works by using a set of decryption keys recovered by the Danish police. Unfortunately it isn’t a full set, and so the Decryptor won’t work for everyone.

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It's your own fault phishing scams are successful

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There is no need for cybercriminals to launch sophisticated attacks, or exploit vulnerabilities, to gain access to valuable information; a simple phishing email is all that's needed to convince a worrying number of people to hand over their login credentials. This is just one of the findings of a new security report due to be published by Verizon.

The telco reports that more than two thirds of security breaches involving phishing tactics. The number of people who fall for this type of scam means that phishing remains successful and popular as a means of extracting data from people. In this age of technological enlightenment, it might come as a surprise that more than one in 10 people who receive a phishing email open attachments or click the links they contain.

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Chat with animated GIFs in Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Gmail

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They're old, horribly inefficient, seriously dumb, but let’s be realistic: there are times in every online conversation when only an animated GIF will do.

If you already have a big collection of face palms and laughing dogs then that’s not a problem, but if you’re more of an occasional GIFer then you might need a little help.

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Online leaks like Game of Thrones have become the norm

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Last month, it was Kanye West and now it’s HBO’s award-winning medieval drama Game of Thrones that must suffer the dreaded online leak. However, these are just two examples from countless others -- it seems as though in the digital world online leaks have become the norm.

The Internet, which has vastly improved global communication by enabling ideas to be shared and projects to be collaborated on, has also led to information being leaked with increasing regularity.

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Huh? Pay beaucoup bucks for .sucks?

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As someone whose name also is his brand (welcome to 21st-century journalism), I watch with interest the new .sucks top-level domain, which is available for select preregistration through May 29—the only time to surely secure your.sucks. Today, I looked to a reputable registrar to see what joewilcox.sucks would cost me. Cough, cough: $3,797.99 now, during the so-called Priority Access (e.g., Sunrise) period, or $407.98 when general pre-reg starts in June.

The new TLD is just one among hundreds of available or forthcoming domain extensions sanctioned by governing body ICANN. "I think the motivation behind the release of all these new domains is money", says Roger Kay, who describes the sellers as shady land speculators. "The .sucks domain is particularly nasty", the president of consultancy Endpoint Technologies Associates emphasizes. "It's pretty close to blackmail". But is it really? This analysis means to help you decide.

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OnePlus One gets Cyanogen 12 software update, Yu Yureka to receive it soon

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The OnePlus One smartphone has finally started to receive the Cyanogen software update. On a blogpost, the software maker announces that the OnePlus One handset is the first smartphone to snag the Cyanogen update. The Yu Yureka smartphone will be receiving the update soon, the company notes.

Cyanogen 12 is built on top of Android 5.0 Lollipop with some exclusive software features -- such as App Themer that lets you change style system-wide -- and many software tweaks. The build also brings with it the company’s new email app. The update is rolling out over the air.

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Toshiba focuses on small business market with Ultraportable Portégé R30 laptop

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When it comes to computing, small businesses can have unique needs. Unfortunately, many manufacturers ignore this segment, thinking that between Enterprise and consumer offerings, the small businesses can find a solution. To be honest, this isn't quite off base -- small business owners may find a decent machine at Best Buy or online somewhere that meets their needs. Still, how nice would it be if manufacturers actually focused on this market?

Don't worry, Toshiba has you covered. Today, the manufacturer announces the Portégé R30 laptop. This 13.3-inch offering may be perfect for both small and medium-sized businesses, as it is very compact for travel, while offering solid performance using Intel's dependable Haswell processors.

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