The use of open source components in development projects is commonplace, but vulnerabilities in these components can be easily overlooked and leave the resulting applications insecure.

Open source security and license compliance management company WhiteSource is aiming to make it easier for developers to spot problems in components with the launch of a free tool.

Continue reading →

The latest feature update for Windows 10 -- the October 2018 Update, aka Windows 10 1809 -- has resulted in chaos for a lot of users. The list of problems with the OS is very long, and diverse.

One of the issues was to do with Apple iCloud, and caused updating and syncing issues with shared albums, as well as preventing new installations. If that’s a problem you’ve experienced, there’s some good news -- it’s now been fixed.

Continue reading →

An anti-fraud operation led by the FBI has succeeded in disrupting a scam that has seen cybercriminals using botnets to manipulate internet traffic from 1.7 million IP addresses and generate nearly 30 million dollars in fraudulent ad revenue.

The ad fraud ring, known as '3ve' had been operating for a number of years and built two different botnets by spreading Kovter and Boaxxe malware to individuals through spam emails and drive-by downloads.

Continue reading →

When you are a college student in the USA, money is usually very tight -- unless you come from a wealthy family. Sadly, education and housing costs are astronomical these days, often making the stereotype of eating lots of Ramen soup a reality. Finding money for entertainment can be extremely difficult, but hey, at least YouTube is free (thanks to ads)!

Google offers two premium YouTube services -- YouTube Music Premium and YouTube Premium -- which unfortunately cost money. The former costs $9.99, while the latter is $11.99. This puts it out of reach of many university students. Today, however, the search  giant is giving these learners a massive discount on the services.

Continue reading →

Google is taking steps to make it easier to not only pair Bluetooth headphones and speakers to your Android phones, but also to make it easier to user the same Bluetooth hardware with multiple devices.

The Fast Pair feature was announced last year, and now Google has teamed up with numerous audio companies to not only improve support, but also to use Google accounts as a means of simplifying the process of using the same headphones and speakers with multiple phones -- and, as of next year, Chromebooks.

Continue reading →

Microsoft is rolling out new features to the mobile version of OneDrive. The company has also announced that it is introducing a new Block Download feature in "late November" that can be used to stop people from making copies of a file or its contents.

Android and iOS users can look forward to improvement to the MyAnalytics component, but the big OneDrive news is that the Camera Upload feature has now left beta and is available to everyone -- if they are using Android, that is.

Continue reading →

Part 2 of three. For readers who like to criticize and gloat, I have an early Holiday present for you: This story. You can call me an effing idiot, and I couldn't disagree. After Google Store sent me the wrong Pixel phone, I foolishly placed another order, and a similar distribution mishap occurred. Bad is now worse; I also write to caution other potential Google Store shoppers: This could happen to you.

To briefly recap the first instance: In October, I ordered Pixel 3 Clearly White 128GB. On the 17th, the Pixel 3 XL Just Black 128GB arrived instead. Google Store couldn't process a return without conducting an "investigation" because the make, model, and IMEIs didn't match. I agreed to keep the phone. Then, on November 2, I dropped the XL and shattered the screen. But the insurance provider, Assurant, couldn't process repair or replacement because the device covered doesn't match the one I have. The situation is unresolved, weeks later. Current crisis, briefly: I foolishly took advantage of Black Friday discounts and purchased from Google Store another Pixel 3 XL, which arrived on November 26. But the IMEI on the order doesn't match the phone received. That makes the purchased Preferred Care warranty useless, and a device return can't be properly processed for the same reason.

Continue reading →

One of the biggest knocks against solid state drives, is their capacities are typically much lower than those of mechanical hard drives at the same price points. With that said, this really only matters if you truly need a lot of local storage space. For some, performance is the most important aspect, especially thanks to the cloud.

These days, however, solid state drives are becoming more affordable and gaining higher capacities all the time. Today, Samsung unveils an affordable drive that doesn't compromise on speed or capacity. The "860 QVO," as it is called, uses 4-bit multi-level cell (MLC) NAND and starts at 1TB capacity. Yes, the base model is 1TB -- how crazy is that? You can also opt for 2TB or 4TB if you need. Speeds are exactly what you'd expect from a SATA drive -- slower than NVMe, of course, but more than fast enough for most people.

Continue reading →

By 2022 more IP traffic will be created on global networks than in the entire 32 year life of the internet to date.

This rather startling prediction comes from network infrastructure specialist Cisco which reckons that by 2022, 60 percent of the global population will be internet users. More than 28 billion devices and connections will be online, and video will make up 82 percent of all IP traffic.

Continue reading →

This time of year in the United States is full of excess and commercialism. It starts with Thanksgiving -- a day that should be about giving thanks and spending time with family, which has morphed into overeating and watching football for many. The following day is Black Friday, where people spend huge amounts of money to buy things they probably don't need -- sometimes even fighting with fellow shoppers. Yesterday was Cyber Monday -- yet another holiday focused on buying things. Sigh.

Thankfully, there is one day that Americans can use to atone for their sins of greed and gluttony -- Giving Tuesday. Yes, the day after Cyber Monday is celebrated by donating to charities and being an overall better person. Today, Amazon announces that people can donate to Toys for Tots using its popular Alexa voice assistant. Not familiar with this charity? Well, the name is quite descriptive -- it is literally donating toys to needy children.

Continue reading →

The Windows 10 October 2018 Update has been one of the most problematic Microsoft releases ever. It seems that every time the company pushes out the update, yet another issue arises.

The Windows 10 October 2018 Update has already caused issues with Apple iCloud, file associations, data loss... the list goes on and on. The latest problem sees the update breaking Windows Media Player.

Continue reading →

It's two years since international forces interfered with the security of the US elections. However, with the US midterm elections behind us and the presidential elections ahead, vulnerabilities in the country’s voting infrastructure still remain.

Simply put, it's not hard to hack into US voting systems. Don't believe it? Just ask the 11-year old who hacked a replica of the Florida election website to change results in under 10 minutes. We might not have seen widespread cyberattacks on the day of the midterms, but as we saw multiple opportunities for hacking and disruption in the run up, the presidential elections are already at risk.

Continue reading →

Facebook's plan for Facebook Watch to be a viable competitor to YouTube seemed a little unlikely -- to say the least -- and it would seem that the pessimists were right. Facebook Watch has proved to be a dud.

A little over a year after launch, the on-demand video service has gained an audience of just 50 million people. This might initially sound like a large number, but YouTube has -- admittedly over a number of years -- amassed over 1.8 billion users. The problem appears to be that younger audiences are simply not interested in Facebook Watch, so Facebook is now switching the focus of the service to an older market.

Continue reading →

In May 2010, I wrote about Apple's market cap passing top-valued Microsoft; it's only fitting to follow up with an analysis about the unbelievable turnabout that, like the first, marks a changing of technological vanguards. Briefly today, the software and services giant nudged past the stock market's fruit-logo darling. A few minutes after 1 p.m. EST, the pair's respective market caps hovered in the $812 billion range, with Microsoft cresting Apple by about $300 million. By the stock market close, a rally for Apple put distance from its rival: $828.64 billion to $817.29 billion, respectively (Bloomberg says $822.9 billion, BTW). Consider this: As recently as October, Apple's valuation touched $1.1 trillion. But since the company announced arguably record fiscal fourth-quarter earnings on November 1st, investors have punished shares, which currently are down about 21 percent.

Apple has long been a perception stock, even when under the tutelage of CEO Tim Cook company fundamentals deserved recognition. But perhaps Wall Street finally realizes the problem of iPhone accounting for too much of total revenues at a time when smartphone saturation saps sales and Apple pushes up selling prices to retain margins. More significantly: Apple has adopted a policy of fiscal corporate secrecy by stepping away from a longstanding accounting metric. I started writing news stories about the fruit-logo company in late 1999. Every earnings report, Apple disclosed number of units shipped for products contributing significantly to the bottom line. No more. Given current market dynamics, everyone should ask: What is Cook and his leadership team trying to hide?

Continue reading →

Forget Black Friday, Cyber Monday is now the biggest shopping day of the year. Amazon is shipping millions of packages per day and many other companies are offering deals, including some you may not expect.

One you may not have thought of concerns your family history. I’m not talking about sending you to cemeteries, archives and historical societies, although I recommend that if you really want to dig into things. We’re just talking the basics here, which is where in the world your family originated from.

Continue reading →