The way that many enterprises use data places heavy demands on storage, both in terms of capacity and performance. Whilst SSDs can solve the performance issue they don’t always offer the capacity required.

California-based BiTMICRO is a pioneer of SSDs having been involved with them since 1999. With the launch of its new MAXio E-Series PCIe drives it's aiming to deliver capacity, performance and reliability for companies that need to support high volume application workloads.

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In the (nearly) two years since launch, Microsoft has made sweeping changes to its tiled OS. The road from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 Update, has been an interesting, not to mention bumpy one. I was never a great fan of Windows 8, but I love the operating system it’s become.

However, poor market share, and negative word of mouth has meant that Microsoft has to move on and away from 8.x as quickly as possible and, as a result, any future changes and additions -- including the reintroduction of the Start button -- will be rolled into Windows 9 instead of appearing in the next 8.x Update, as had originally been rumored.

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As many as 9 percent of Android apps are fully or partially malware, according to a new piece of research, although the majority of the blame (as ever) lies with dodgy third-party app stores particularly in Asia.

The figure comes from Cheetah Mobile's latest security report for the first half of 2014, which collected 24.4 million sample files during those six months, and found that 2.2 million were viruses.

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Users of wearable technology can have their information tracked with just $70 worth of hardware, according to a new study.

Research carried out by security firm Symantec used a simple set-up combining a Raspberry Pi computer and a Bluetooth radio module, to scan for signals. The technology was taken to parks and sporting events where it was able to record data being broadcast from gadgets close by.

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Do you really need separate applications to cover your design needs, whether photo editing, digital art or simple design tasks like producing flyers and scrapbooks? For those who want everything in one package, Xara has the answer.

Xara Photo & Graphic Designer can’t compete with the very best specialist tools like Photoshop, but it’s certainly a match for most. And that’s even after you realize that it’s effectively bundling two or three design packages in one for a very price. And for most people that will be enough.

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Flappy Bird quickly hit the level of phenomena, then just as quickly vanished as the developer pulled it from both the iTunes and Google Play stores. He apparently buckled under the weight of customers becoming addicted and sending complaints directly to him. Hard to say anyone would blame him for that.

Now the simple, but also incredibly hard, game is making a come-back, though under the name "Flappy Birds Family". Those who had already installed it on a phone or tablet never lost it, but the folks who found out too late are now in luck. That is, providing they have an Amazon Fire TV box sitting around.

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Yesterday, I received an automated call from Barclays Bank warning about suspicious purchases. The number: 877-935-2427. The message asked for the card number to proceed. This morning, my wife received a call from 800-888-8804 indicating our AT&T account had been breached and asking to provide the last four digits of her social security number. We don't have accounts with either company.

Both calls phished for personal information -- something I'm used to by email but not to our cell phones. The proximity -- less than a day apart -- and the first of them ever disturbs me. I don't recall receiving these kinds of bogus calls before. To be clear: You should never give out personal information to automated systems. When there is a legitimate security breach, the service provider will ask for verification information already on file, not request account numbers or any portion of a social security number.

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Recently my colleague Joe Wilcox wrote about how he'd cut the cord and was not turning back. I can sympathize, and have made the same move, though I can't promise I'll never go back. Football season is coming, after all, and Sunday Ticket, while costing a fortune, will still tempt me.

I have been a DirecTV subscriber for more than ten years. I truly loved the service, and I paid for that love affair. Perhaps not to the extent of other cable and satellite customers -- I settled for the middle package and didn't bother with premium channels like HBO or Showtime. I did briefly flirt with the sports package, but found it to not be worth the extra hit to my bank account.

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Downloading files is easy -- click a link, click “Save”, usually -- and if you need more features then most browsers have a range of free add-ons which can help.

But for real power there's no substitute for a stand-alone download manager like the new Download Ninja.

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XBMC has gone through many iterations over the 12 years of its existence. The program, which now powers a number of home theater computers, began life as Xbox Media Player, then morphed into Xbox Media Center, before finally settling on the shorter abbreviation of XBMC.

But the platform has moved so far off from its original Xbox beginnings that it has announced it will get away from the old name as well.

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Very rarely in the technology world, do we get to experience a truly game-changing product. Sure enough though, the world was treated to just that in 2014 with the Surface Pro 3. Don't get me wrong, the previous iterations of the Surface Pro were good and fundamentally the same, but the 3rd finally achieved the original vision. You see, the iPad was revolutionary, but forced the user to think of devices as home computing vs. mobile. In other words, the user had to compromise and give up productivity for portability and convenience. The Surface Pro 3 literally rewires one's brain to no longer think of computing as dichotomy -- you can have your cake (tablet) and eat it too (laptop).

Recently, I wanted to achieve root access on an Android tablet. Of course, the process required Windows. So what did I do? I connected the Android tablet to the Surface Pro 3 with USB and accomplished my goal. I came away from that experience feeling like the Android tablet was a toy. To use a car analogy, with the USB cable between them, it was like the Surface Pro 3 was a Ford F150 and it was jump starting a Fiat. Well today, the F150 -- I mean, Surface Pro 3, gains two more models in addition to the existing Core i5. Yes, the less expensive i3 and more powerful i7 have arrived!

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AOMEI Technology has shipped AOMEI OneKey Recovery, a brand new tool that allows Windows users to create a custom recovery partition on their PC. The tool is primarily designed for use on a system whose on recovery partition has been lost, but should work with any PC.

The app creates the recovery partition from the user’s current setup, which means all existing programs and settings will be preserved.

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Tonido lets you transform a PC (spare, or otherwise) into a web server so you can securely access your files from anywhere, share content with friends, and stream music over the internet. You can expand the software’s functionality by installing plug-ins and there are free apps available for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone.

The company has also just introduced Tonido Personal Cloud Server for Raspberry Pi, so you can now turn your credit card sized device into a personal cloud, and remotely access all the files held on any storage connected to it.

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Microsoft has unveiled Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit 5.0 (EMET), a free security tool which uses a variety of techniques to block common software exploits.

The update adds a new mitigation, Attack Surface Reduction (ASR), which prevents an application from running specific modules or plug-ins.

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Creative is a company that is very hit or miss. Over the years, I have enjoyed many of its products -- mostly sound cards. However, while much of the company's hardware is solid, software and drivers have been dreadful. In fact, driver support and performance in Windows Vista and 7 were so bad, that many users decided to boycott the company altogether. If a card actually worked, it was often subject to random cracks, pops and screeches -- painful for ears. I spent many nights in Creative's forums witnessing the atrocities of both its drivers and poor customer support.

With all of that said, I am not one to hold grudges and never want to see a company falter. Yes, I am willing to start looking at Creative products again after a long hiatus since my X-Fi Elite Pro woes from years ago. Today, the company announces some inexpensive speakers that appear to be a good value -- the T3250 Wireless Bluetooth 2.1 Speakers.

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