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Please, smartphone makers, don't copy the iPhone X

Face palm table coffee Apple MacBook

The iPhone X is the best iPhone that you can get right now, but it's most certainly not the best looking. You can probably tell where I'm going with this: the notch. It may set it apart from other smartphones, but it's a pain to look at on a $1,000 device.

Apple probably had its reasons when it decided to go with that design and, I believe, this will be improved upon in future iterations. Trouble is, other manufacturers think it's something worth copying, not avoiding like the plague. The New ZenFone 5 comes with a notch and it is not the only one. By the looks of it, the upcoming Huawei P20 will follow suit.

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Warning: Hackers can use Cortana to access a locked Windows 10 PC

Hey Cortana

Locking your PC is fundamental to preventing others from accessing it when you leave it unattended. But now security researchers have shown that it is possible to use none other than Windows 10's Cortana to bypass a password-protected lock screen.

A pair of Israeli researchers found that it is possible to use voice commands to access a locked computer and install malware.

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Facebook Onavo VPN app gathers user data even when it is disabled

Facebook icon on iPhone 8

It is a number of years since Facebook acquired mobile data compression firm Onavo, but in recent weeks concern mounted about how the social network's Onavo VPN tool collects user data.

The collection of user data while an app or service is being used is one thing, but a security researcher noticed that Onavo seemed to gather certain snippets of user data even when switched off.

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Businesses under pressure to 'consumerize' logins

password

Almost two-thirds (64 percent) of IT leaders say their security teams are considering implementing consumer-grade access to cloud services for employees.

According to the 2018 Identity and Access Management Index from digital security company Gemalto 54 percent of respondents believe that the authentication methods they implement in their businesses are not as good compared to those found on popular sites including Amazon and Facebook.

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Facebook adds video chats to Messenger Lite

Facebook Messenger Lite video chat

After initially launching in countries with slower internet connections, Facebook Messenger Lite ultimately spread to other parts of the world. The cut-down version of the app gave access to a subset of its big brother's features, and now Facebook has added support for video chat.

The app has proved popular even in countries with easy access to decent internet and mobile connections, as users eschew super-sized apps in favor of more diminutive versions. The addition of this important and popular feature is only going to increase its appeal.

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Enterprises turn to multi-cloud environments despite extra complexity

Cloud maze complexity

Businesses have been adopting the cloud for many reasons, the results of a new study show that large enterprises are increasingly turning to multiple different clouds despite the complexity this creates.

The report from hybrid cloud management company Scalr shows several reasons for this approach. Half of enterprises rank disaster recovery as the top reason for implementing multiple clouds, with having a secondary platform for test/dev coming in as a close second at 46 percent.

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On the dark web your identity could cost less than the price of an iPhone X

identity theft

What's your identity worth? Not very much according to research by VPN comparison service Top10VPN.com.

The site has released its first Dark Web Market Price Index which reveals that an entire personal identity can be bought for just $1,200.

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McAfee delivers added security for Microsoft Azure

Data cloud lock

Azure is a popular cloud platform for business, but firms need to ensure their applications, underlying cloud infrastructure and data are protected.

McAfee is addressing this by extending its Cloud Security Platform to consistently protect Azure, delivering an extensive solution to secure Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

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HyperX launches Cloud Revolver gaming headset in beautiful Gunmetal color

HyperX makes lots of great products -- including top-notch RAM -- but many gamers have gone gaga over its headsets. This is for good reason, as the company's Cloud Revolver gaming headset, for instance, is one of the best.

Today, HyperX launches the Cloud Revolver gaming headset in a beautiful Gunmetal color -- this is in addition to black. This is apparently the first time that color is available for the standard Revolver -- it was previously only available for the more expensive Revolver "S" package. If you haven't yet picked up a Cloud Revolver, and you are in need of a gaming headset, you should definitely take a look. Hell, PC Gamer named it headset of the year for 2017. True, Gunmetal is merely a new color, but oh my goodness, it is gorgeous!

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Google Home brings free mobile and landline calls to UK users

If you live in the UK and have been looking for another reason to invest in a Google Home smart speaker, Google just gave you one. The company is going to give UK users the ability to place free calls to mobile and landline numbers.

An update rolling out this week will add the new feature to Google Home speakers around the country. The feature was announced last year, and it brings the UK in line with the US -- and, importantly, it does not require tethering to a mobile phone, thereby trumping Apple HomePod.

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Perception of cloud security challenges differs across industries

Secure cloud

The cloud brings many benefits to businesses, but it also brings with it risks, the biggest of which concerns the security of information.

A new survey from cloud governance specialist Netwrix looks at how different sectors and geographies deal with cloud security.

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Chrome for Windows drops Microsoft compiler in favor of Clang

Google Chrome logo

The Windows version of Google Chrome is ditching Microsoft's C++ Compiler and switching to Clang. The change brings Chrome for Windows in line with versions of the browser for macOS, Android and Linux.

The move not only makes complete sense for Google -- why not use the same compiler on all platforms, after all? -- it makes Chrome the first high-profile Windows app to make use of the open source compiler Clang.

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Microsoft confirms Windows 10 S will become a 'mode' of Windows 10 next year

Windows 10 S logo

It was reported last month that Microsoft was planning to transition its education-focused Windows 10 S from a separate operating system into a "mode" in existing versions of Windows 10.

It was a move that surprised no one. Windows 10 S is a locked down version of Windows 10 that can only run UWP apps from the Microsoft Store, and while that makes it more secure, it also significantly limits what can be done with the OS.

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BlackBerry sues Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram in messaging patent spat

Blackberry logo

BlackBerry -- yep, them -- has filed a lawsuit against Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, claiming that the companies infringed on patents relating to BlackBerry Messenger.

This is not the first time the company has sued other tech firms, drawing on its back catalog of over 40,000 patents in a bid to pull in money through licensing fees. BlackBerry insists, however, that litigation is "not central to [its] strategy."

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As Debian comes to Windows 10, should we worry Microsoft will 'embrace, extend, and extinguish' Linux?

Personally, I am not a fan of running Linux distributions on Windows 10 -- WSL, virtual machine, or otherwise. While I appreciate Microsoft's focus on Linux lately, I am of the opinion that if you want to run an operating system based on that open source kernel, then you should just do so natively -- not on top of Windows. While there is no proof that anything nefarious is afoot, it does feel like maybe the Windows-maker is hijacking the Linux movement a bit by serving distros in its store. I pray there is no "embrace, extend, and extinguish" shenanigans going on.

Just yesterday, we reported that Kali Linux was in the Microsoft Store for Windows 10. That was big news, but it was not particularly significant in the grand scheme, as Kali is not very well known. Today, there is some undeniably huge news -- Debian is joining SUSE, Ubuntu, and Kali in the Microsoft Store. Should the Linux community be worried?

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