Latest Technology News

This is the question Facebook poses and (sort-of-but-not-really) answers in the latest addition to its Hard Questions series. It's the social network's latest attempt to claw back some respect and trust from its users in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal, and it sees the company insisting that "you are not the product".

Whether this is believed or not is neither here nor there. That the company is now having to go to such extraordinary lengths to appear transparent, to try to prove that nothing untoward is going on, is simply indicative of the massive level of suspicion leveled at Facebook.

Chrome OS is a fairly flexible operating system, and its support for Android apps via the Google Play Store opens up a world of software. It has been thought -- and hoped -- for some time that Linux support might be on its way, and this is looking increasingly likely.

A Terminal app has appeared in the Chrome OS dev channel, strongly suggesting that support for Linux applications could well be on the horizon -- something which will give Chromebooks a new appeal.

Microsoft developers working on Windows 8 created a puzzle and embedded it in the wallpapers used for internal builds of the operating system.

The team knew that the images would leak out to the public -- and probably the internal builds of Windows -- so they decided to have some fun with it. Over the course of numerous builds, the puzzle was developed -- but only one person ever solved it!

The percentage of critical vulnerabilities in online banking systems is falling, but two thirds still contain at least one critical vulnerability according to a new report.

Enterprise security specialist Positive Technologies has released its Financial Application Vulnerabilities Report, drawn from audits performed by the company.

The cloud is the best place to run analytics according to 83 percent of the world’s biggest companies.

A new survey for Teradata conducted by Vanson Bourne shows that by 2023, most organizations want to run all of their analytics in the cloud. But an overwhelming 91 percent say that analytics should be moving to the public cloud at a faster rate.

Let me clear the air right off the bat: most SMB owners are making more than one major mistake in their hunt for an Internet Service Provider (ISP). The big players in the ISP space love preying on the SMB market because it's so easy to oversell bandwidth, obfuscate the facts, and generally make the process a "smoke and mirrors" game which serves to their advantage.

I'll be the first to admit that broadband shopping is a tricky affair. Service areas for ISPs and their various offerings are as arbitrarily drawn as gerrymandered political districts in the US. Their sales reps are generally trained on how to guilt trip SMB owners into too much bandwidth by relying on keywords like 'productivity' and 'downtime'. And most decision makers have no idea how to shop for broadband based on actual usage needs and instead let ISP reps make this judgement call for them. All of these factors contribute to ISPs having an unfair advantage in negotiations, upselling services and pipelines that merely line sales rep quotas.

We reported just over a week ago that fake ads promoting cryptocurrency scams were using the names of leading UK business figures.

Now one of those whose names has been featured, consumer advice expert Martin Lewis, is suing Facebook for defamation over the use of his face and name.

I began writing the print version of this rag in September, 1987. Ronald Reagan was President, almost nobody carried a mobile phone, Bill Gates was worth $1.25 billion, and there was no Internet in the sense we know it today because Al Gore had yet to "invent" it. My point here is that a lot can change in 30+ years and one such change that is my main topic is that, thanks to the GDPR, the Internet is no longer American. We’ve lost control. It’s permanent and probably for the best.

Before readers start attacking, let’s first deal with the issue of Al Gore and the Internet. What Gore actually said to Wolf Blitzer on CNN in March, 1999 was "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." And he did. In 1986-1991 Gore sponsored various bills to both expand and speed-up what had been the ARPAnet and allow commercial activity on the network.

For 2018, I decided to take stock in my finances to see exactly where my money is going each month. I found many ways to cut costs, such as making my own lunch instead of buying something from a deli each day. In New York, a sandwich, bag of chips, and a Snapple can easily run you $13! Food aside, there was one thing in particular that was really destroying my budget -- cable.

When I say cable, I am referring to the traditional "triple play" service, where you get television, internet, and phone. For this, I was paying over $200 a month! This was without any premium channels -- no HBO, Starz, or Showtime. The most ridiculous part? I was being charged monthly rental fees for the cable boxes and modem. Well, enough was enough. Thanks to YouTube TV, I "cut the cord" and I couldn't be happier.

Windows 10 Spring Creators Update will probably actually be released with a different name: Windows 10 April Update. Users who have installed build 17134 -- believed to be the RTM build -- have spotted a reference to the new name in Microsoft Edge post installation.

This is not the first time this name has been suggested. Less than a week ago a Microsoft video emerged that made reference to Windows 10 April 2018 Update, and the new discovery in Edge would only seem to offer further proof.

The cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has closed the account of the WikiLeaks Shop -- the official source of WikiLeaks merchandise -- citing violations of its terms of services.

WikiLeaks is not happy about this and is calling for a "global blockade" of Coinbase in protest, saying the exchange is an "unfit member of the crypto community". The WikiLeaks Shop has itself not been closed, and it is still able to accept Bitcoin payments -- just not via Coinbase.

Many people like the idea of learning to code, but -- like learning a foreign language -- it can be hard to know where to start. With free and paid-for options to choose from, and a wide range of techniques, what's the best way to get started?

If you've been thinking about learning JavaScript, Google may have the answer for you. The company has launched Grasshopper, a free coding app for iPhone and Android that teach through a series of puzzle games.

If you have a 13-inch MacBook Pro without a Touch Bar, you could be eligible for a free battery replacement. Apple has discovered that a "limited number" of laptops have a problem that causes the battery to expand.

The company has launched a free battery replacement program, and anyone who bought their MacBook Pro between October 2016 and October 2017 is invited to submit their machine's serial number to see if they qualify.

Its software is already banned from US government computers, and now Kaspersky Lab's advertisements have been banned from Twitter. The Russian security firm has been hit with an ad ban for "using a business model that inherently conflicts with acceptable Twitter Ads business practices".

Eugene Kaspersky has responded angrily in an open letter in which the company CEO says that even if Twitter reverses its decision, his company will not advertise on the platform, opting instead to donate the money to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to fund the fight against online censorship.

Photo-sharing site SmugMug -- used by consumers and professionals alike -- has agreed to acquire Flickr from Yahoo-owner Oath. The deal will see Flickr continuing to operate as a separate entity.

The aim is to create what's described as "the world's best home for photography", building on Flickr's existing 100 million-strong userbase. But what does the acquisition mean for Flickr users, and what does it mean for SmugMug's customers?