Latest Technology News

Huawei has revealed a new tie-up with Microsoft as it looks to improve the world of public cloud.

At the Huawei Connect 2017 event in Shanghai today, the Chinese giant has confirmed it will expanding its partnership with Microsoft to allow the latter's enterprise apps to come to Huawei Cloud.

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Thanks to the MacBook Pro, the popularity of Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C docks and dongles has exploded. If you have accessories that use USB Type-A, for instance, they simply won't work with Apple's latest laptop without the use of an adapter. Heck, the machine does not even feature a standard video-out port, so an HDMI, VGA, or DisplayPort dongle must be utilized.

If you use your MacBook Pro as a makeshift desktop with a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, investing in a dock or docking station would be a wise move. Today, a new such product from a company called "LandingZone" caught my attention. While I am not familiar with the company, the docking station is quite intriguing. It is one of the most complete MacBook Pro dock solutions I have seen, featuring many useful connection options and the ability to charge the laptop, of course. It is designed as a traditional docking station too, where Apple's laptop actually locks into the product as opposed to being more of a hub.

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Frequent flyers will soon be able to stay online whenever they fly after Virgin Atlantic revealed details of a new in-flight Wi-Fi connectivity plan.

The airline has confirmed its entire fleet will now be able to get Wi-Fi during flights around the world, with all 39 aircraft now connected, even on transatlantic flights and those carried out by Virgin's US partner network Delta Air Lines.

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In an ideal world, if you were the sole provider of any service through app and the users had unlimited resources on their devices, there would be no question of optimization and terms like agility and even user experience would be redundant. But as you might know, the current state of app industry is anything but ideal. There are dozens of apps competing for even the simplest of services and no matter how premium device a user has, there is always a limit to the number of apps it can operate smoothly.

The worst part, however, is scenario where after spending considerable amount of time, money and resources into developing and marketing an app, the users perceive it to be bulky and either never install it or uninstall after they find the memory it consumes is disproportionate to the value it brings.

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The United States has been heavily under attack from Mother Nature lately. Hurricane Harvey caused horrific devastation in Texas, and now Irma is headed for Florida. During these disasters, it is not uncommon to lose electricity. This can be a huge pain point, as people need devices such as cell phones to call for help -- a device with a depleted battery is pretty much useless. Not to mention, some folks have medication that requires refrigeration, so a loss of power could actually lead to death or sickness.

Thankfully, companies sell generators to keep the power flowing during an electricity outage. For prolonged outages, there are even models with solar charging capabilities. Today, a company called Renogy unveils a heavy-duty battery backup generator that can be charged using the sun. Impressively, the company claims it can keep a refrigerator running for about 8 hours! It is even on wheels so it can be easily transported. The fact that it has so many connection types, including USB Type-A , should make it indispensable during a hurricane or simply on a family camping trip.

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There are many cloud-based synchronization services, including Dropbox, Google Drive, SugarSync and others. These services all use the same method of synchronizing your files. Choose the data you want across your computers and the content is uploaded to the cloud and then made available across your other devices.

The issue here can be if you don't have fast broadband, making uploading huge files problematic. The answer is a peer-to-peer service where your data remains on one device whilst it’s synchronized to others, whether you own these devices or they are authorized users.

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T-Mobile may not be the best cell carrier from a coverage perspective, but it provides its users with a lot of value. The company and its foul-mouthed CEO, John Legere, often use outside-the-box thinking to disrupt the mobile phone industry. For instance, the company once gave free Domino's pizza to its customers through its "T-Mobile Tuesdays" scheme. Even without the added bonuses, its unlimited service is quite affordable compared to, say, Verizon.

Today, T-Mobile is once again giving away something for free, but it is much better than some cheap chain-restaurant pizza. You see, subscribers to its T-Mobile ONE family plans will now get free Netflix! This is well-timed, as the hit series "Stranger Things" returns to the streaming video site next month with season two. Of course, Netflix has much more content than that -- a solid library of original programming and a less-impressive collection of ho-hum films. The complimentary "Netflix On Us" subscription is not automatic, however -- users must activate it.

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Researchers at Symantec have warned that a "sophisticated attack group" is targeting the energy sector in Europe and North America, and has been doing so for some time. A group known as Dragonfly has been detected carrying out attacks since 2011, and the campaign of attacks was recently stepped up a gear.

Dubbed the Dragonfly 2.0 campaign, the attacks included disruption to the Ukrainian power system in 2015 and 2016. After a quiet period, the group's activities have started up again, with targets hit in US, Turkey and Switzerland. On the hit list are energy facilities -- something that could have devastating consequences.

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London's law enforcement forces are about to get a significant storage upgrade thanks to a new partnership with Box.

The online storage giant has announced that it will now be working with the London Metropolitan Police to provide 50,000 staff with better cloud provision.

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According to a new survey of attendees to this year’s Black Hat USA conference, concerns around emerging threats like ransomware and polymorphic malware have sparked a significant increase in collaboration by the cybersecurity industry.

The study by security management specialist AlienVault spoke to over 600 participants at the conference and found that for 43 percent, ransomware is their biggest security concern.

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Facebook ad metrics are facing scrutiny after it transpired the social network is overestimating the potential audience advertisers can expect to reach. A senior analyst from Pivotal Research Group points out that Facebook's Adverts Manager tool suggests demographic figures that exceed official numbers.

For example, advertisers are told that they could hit up to 41 million 18- to 24-year-olds in the US, but according to recent census data only 31 million 18- to 24-year-olds live in the US. The discrepancy is not isolated, as there are similar instances of inflated potential reach suggestions for various age groups in the US, UK and Canada.

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The need for penetration testers has grown well over what the IT industry ever anticipated. Running just a vulnerability scanner is no longer an effective method to determine whether a business is truly secure.

Penetration Testing -- A Survival Guide from Packt Publishing usually retails for $55, but BetaNews readers can get it entirely free for a limited time.

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An apparent bug with Android Oreo has been discovered which means Google's mobile operating system could be munching its way through your data allowance, even if you're connected to a wireless network.

A thread on Reddit highlighted the issue, with many people pointing out that it could prove expensive for anyone not using an unlimited data plan. Google is apparently aware of the problem and is working on a patch, but in the meantime Oreo users are being warned to consider disabling mobile data when they are at home or using a wireless connection elsewhere.

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Following Avast's acquisition of rival firm AVG last year the two companies' products have largely continued side by side.

Today sees the launch of one of the first fruits of the union in the form of Avast Business, combining technology from AVG and Avast, and aimed at smaller businesses and managed service providers.

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While some people view the trackball as a product from yesteryear, they would sort of be incorrect. Sure, the number of users still leveraging this type of a pointing device is quite small comparatively, but the ones that do can be very passionate. Believe it or not, there are some people that hoard them because they can sometimes be hard to find. Not to mention, some folks with handicaps depend on them too -- since you move the pointer with your thumb, it can be great for someone with limited wrist mobility. Heck, they are great for HTPC use too.

Today, Logitech intends to delight these passionate trackball fans with an all-new new model. Called "MX ERGO," it brings the trackball to modern times with extreme comfort and functionality. Not only does the product feature Bluetooth connectivity, but it can also pair with Logitech's unifying USB dongle. The scroll wheel features horizontal tilt scroll which is great for working in large Excel spreadsheets. When you need to be as accurate as possible, there is even a special "precision mode" that you can enable for the ball.

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