Google invites you to place your vote for the best app and best game of 2018

Google Play User's Choice Awards 2018

We're approaching the end of 2018, so it's only natural that companies take a look back over the year and reflect on what was great about it. Not one to miss out on such things, Google is launching its first-ever User's Choice Awards and is asking for your votes.

Google users are invited to cast their vote for what they believe is the best app of 2018, and what is the best game of 2018. Want your voice to be heard? Now is the time to cast your vote.

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Amazon discloses names and addresses -- but doesn't disclose details

Amazon page

If you're an Amazon customer you may have received a rather strange email this morning. It states that the company has, "...inadvertently disclosed your name and email address due to a technical error."

It then goes on to say, "The issue has been fixed. This is not a result of anything you have done, and there is no need for you to change your password or take any other action."

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How Windows 10 adoption and automation can protect your enterprise

Windows 10 - Do great things

With cyberattacks becoming more prevalent, Microsoft introduced a number of new or vastly improved security features in Windows 10, which officially hit the market in July 2015. The enterprise gave a collective nod of approval, and the Windows 10 migration was underway -- but at more of a crawl than a sprint. Although businesses wanted to take advantage of the Windows 10 benefits, the realities of deployment (associated time, cost, resource drain, and general complexity, to name a few) resulted in a slower-than-anticipated adoption process.

Now, three years in, Windows 10 has reached critical mass and continues to gain momentum. According to Adaptiva’s third annual Enterprise Endpoint Security Survey, the majority of respondents for the first time reported that their companies are running Windows 10 on most machines. In fact, more computers are running Windows 10 than all other versions combined.

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You can watch The LEGO Movie for free on YouTube this Black Friday

The LEGO Movie 2

YouTube only very recently gave people the option to watch big-name movies free of charge -- the only price to pay is enduring a few ads. Now, to celebrate Black Friday and to promote the upcoming release of The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, you'll have the chance to watch the first film (The LEGO Movie) for free.

While the previously-announced free option means you have to watch ads, in this instance The LEGO Movie is itself an ad.

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Google unveils holiday season savings on games, apps, books and movies

Google Thanksgiving discounts 2018

It can't have escaped your attention that -- in the US at least -- holiday season is just around the corner. With Thanksgiving comes Black Friday and other sales, and Google is getting in on the action with a series of discounts in the Play Store.

There are great savings to be made on games and apps, ebooks and audiobooks for cyberweek, and if you're in the mood for a movie on Thanksgiving itself, you can rent any title for just $0.99.

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Your Time On Facebook rolls out, revealing how much time you waste in the social network's mobile apps

Your time on Facebook

It is a little while -- over three months, in fact -- since Facebook said that it was planning to launch a tool that would give users some insight into the amount of time they spent using the social network. This tool is now rolling out.

Unimaginatively called Your Time On Facebook, the tool offers a dashboard that gives a very basic overview of how long you spend using Facebook each day. But going beyond this, it can also be used to set daily reminders to help you to cut down your usage. Trying to kick your Facebook habit? Maybe this could help.

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Change.org may alter next year's Super Bowl halftime show

If you haven’t been marooned on a desert island for the past couple of years, you’ll be aware of the Colin Kaepernick saga. As a refresher, the quarterback was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers. He started for them as a rookie and had a good season, though he dropped off slightly in the following seasons. When his contract expired it was not renewed.

You can have your own views of why he is no longer in the NFL. It could be his play, though he’s more than qualified to, at least, get a second string job on many teams. However, most think it was his protests that did him in. When he chose to stay on the bench during the National Anthem it caused an outcry. People claimed he hated the country, hated the military and all sorts of more bizarre things. The fact was, he was protesting violence and, after talking to a military officer, he learned to get up from the bench and take a knee.

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European DDoS attack volumes more than double

DDoS attacks

In Europe DDoS attack volumes have increased sharply during the third quarter 2018 according to a new report.

The report from DDoS protection specialist Link11 shows the average attack volume more than doubled in July, August and September, to 4.6 Gbps (up from 2.2 Gbps in Q2).

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The best Wellbots Black Friday deals of 2018

Black Friday has turned from a single day in which you can pick up bargains in stores and online, into an extended sales extravaganza that runs for weeks. If you know what you want to buy, then you can make some serious savings at this time of year.

Wellbots has just launched its Black Friday sales, and there are some fantastic offers to take advantage of, including some special deals for BetaNews readers. Whether you're after a robot cleaner, and electric unicycle, a waterproof drone, or a mobile battery station, Wellbots has you covered. Here are our top picks.

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G.SKILL Trident Z Royal Series DDR4 RGB gaming RAM is worthy of a king or queen

Sticks of RAM on their own are fairly boring aesthetically. These days, however, manufacturers are dressing them up to look fancy thanks to colorful heatspreaders and RGB lighting. There's nothing wrong with that -- it is nice to have an attractive PC build.

Today, popular memory maker G.SKILL takes things to an entirely new level. Its new Trident Z Royal Series DDR4 RGB memory kits feature gold or silver heatspreaders with transparent "crystalline" for the RGB lighting to shine through. Some may call it tacky, and maybe it is, but I find the gold in particular to be drop-dead gorgeous. As the "Royal" in the name implies, these are RAM kits fit for a king (or queen)! Even the font used on the sticks looks wonderfully pretentious.

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Et tu, Office? After pulling Windows 10 update, Microsoft does the same for Office

Microsoft glass building logo

Microsoft's update procedure for Windows 10 has been a little, er, wobbly of late. The Windows 10 October 2018 Update proved so problematic that it had to pulled, and even the re-released version is far from perfect.

Now it seems the cancer is spreading to Office. Having released a series of updates for Office 2010, 2013 and 2016 as part of this month's Patch Tuesday, Microsoft has now pulled two of them and advised sysadmins to uninstall the updates if they have already been installed.

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Google is killing off SMS notifications for Calendar

Google Calendar on mobile

In early January 2019, you will no longer be able to receive SMS notifications about Google Calendar events. The change will affect Android and iOS users.

While Google does not give an explicit reason for killing off SMS notifications -- other than seemingly not wanting to offer too many means of receiving notifications -- the company says that users should not notice any difference because of in-app notifications.

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Singapore's newest security officer is a robot

From November 11-15, 2018, Singapore hosted the 33rd annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) conference. While there, people mingled with the 20 world leaders who attended and may have even seen a security robot on patrol.

Singapore's security robot is a four-wheeled device that moves independently along a pre-defined route. It has flashing red and blue lights that increase visibility, but the bot also features onboard obstacle-avoidance technology. Perhaps the most noticeable feature of the security robot is one of its main cameras, attached to a long, thin component attachment that moves up and down and lets the camera swivel around.

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Razer launches compact and silent BlackWidow Lite mechanical gaming keyboard

If you are a fan of mechanical keyboards, you are probably in heaven these days. After all, there are many manufacturers producing quality products. Unfortunately, many of these models are designed for gaming, meaning they are ostentatious, with RGB lighting and funky teen-friendly style. They often have noisy keys, too -- great for the user, but annoying to those around them. If you want a more conservative mechanical keyboard, your options are a bit limited.

Today, Razer launches a very beautiful mechanical gaming keyboard that looks very sophisticated rather than childish. The "BlackWidow Lite," as it is called, has regular white back-lighting and forgoes a number pad, making it very compact. Best of all, Razer's own orange switches are silent, meaning you won't bother family or coworkers when gaming or typing. It is reasonably priced too.

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Almost a quarter of reported vulnerabilities have no known solution

data threat

The number of reported vulnerabilities in 2018 is seven percent down on the same period last year, according to a new report from Risk Based Security.

It's not all good news though, as 24.9 percent of 2018's reported vulnerabilities currently have no known solution which is a reminder that, while patching is very important, it can't be relied on exclusively as a remedy.

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