Latest Technology News

Let's get one thing out of the way: I hate earphones. I always have. This is not an irrational hatred, I've always liked the idea of in-ear buds -- I've just never been able to use them. The problem, it seems, lies with my right ear. To my knowledge it is a perfectly normally-formed ear, but it is singularly incompatible with earphones -- while the left will grip the bud nicely, the right vomits it out in next to no time.

So, I have long shied away from earphones, opting instead for either fully enclosed headphones, or the clip-on variety. At least that was the case until I tried the AUKEY EP-B40 Latitude Wireless Earbuds. While certainly not from a big name in the world of audio technology, they get off to a great start by featuring ear hooks that succeed in keeping the damned things in my ears -- win!

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When Apple added support for third-party keyboards on iOS, many users were excited. To be honest, I was not, however. While I appreciate having the choice, I much prefer privacy. You see, when you add a third-party keyboard, the developer can potentially intercept your keystrokes. If you are OK with that, more power to you. Me? I'll stick to the stock variant, thank you very much.

But OK, let's say you don't like Apple's keyboard and trust Google with your entries. If that is the case, the search giant's Gboard is a very impressive offering. It is more than just a keyboard, as it adds the ability to easily insert things like gifs, plus do Google searches. It even offers swipe-style typing, meaning you can glide from letter to letter rather than peck. Today, Gboard gets even better thanks to new Maps and YouTube functionality. Google has also added support for drawing, plus three additional languages -- Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew.

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Flagships like the Apple iPhone 7 Plus, Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy S8 all have such great cameras that it can be really hard to definitively say which one is the best option for mobile photographers. Reviews, comparisons and blind tests all point to different winners, but, more often that not, you will usually find an Android smartphone at the top.

Vic Gundotra, who lead Google's mobile efforts for a couple of years, helped create Google+ and is an avid photographer, has a rather different opinion, claiming that Android is actually "a few years behind" the iPhone for mobile photography, and that, if you really care about photography, you should get an iPhone 7 Plus.

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The IoT can represent a cultural shift for hardware makers as they move from just selling hardware to providing a connected digital experience.

But supplying applications and supporting an ecosystem of third-party devices, apps and services has a cost which either needs to be absorbed or factored into the price of the product. Samsung is addressing this problem with the launch of its ARTIK Cloud Monetization, a new service to monetize the data shared by IoT devices and enable an IoT data economy.

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There are many reasons to be a fan of AMD nowadays. For instance, many of the underdog's products offer solid performance at a great price (budget-friendly), plus its fan community is really engaged too. If you need support, not only can you reach out to AMD, but countless friendly fellow owners as well. Heck, AMD Windows drivers have really improved over the years too, making it a treat to upgrade when a new version is released.

AMD doesn't only want to be about the budget-friendly market, however. It is prepared to go after the high-end too. Going against the giant that is Intel won't be easy, but with processors such as the upcoming drool-worthy Threadripper line, AMD is making an impressive effort. Today, the company is also targeting NVIDIA on the GPU front, finally launching its much-anticipated Radeon RX Vega. AMD is hoping to capture the wallets of enthusiast gamers with Vega, and with the low starting price, it may succeed.

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Organizations using extract, transfer and load (ETL) and Changed Data Capture (CDC) technologies are struggling to keep up with today's demand for real-time data analysis, with negative effects on their business opportunities and efficiency.

This is one of the findings of a new study by IDC, sponsored by software company InterSystems which highlights a growing need for reliable real-time data analytics in today's enterprise.

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The Internet of Things (IoT) is more than just the latest buzzword -- although it arguably started off life as such. Just as with any developing technology or trend, it is eyed with suspicion and eagerness in equal measure, but many businesses simply don't know where to start.

Ubuntu-maker Canonical has conducted research with IoT professionals, and it reveals the challenges and opportunities offered by the IoT. It highlights what needs to be considered in the areas of monetization, skills and security, and signals a way forward for businesses looking to make headway in this relatively new arena.

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Tell me if this sounds familiar. You finally broke down and shelled out a bunch of money on the latest 4K HDR TV, or laptop, or computer monitor -- or all three. You eagerly sign into your favorite streaming service, navigate to the 4K Ultra HD section, and break out the popcorn.

And then...buffering...dropped connections...and that streaming provider so very conveniently bumping you down to a lower resolution so you can have a "better" and interruption-less experience.

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Microsoft sent shockwaves around the technology world back in 2013 when it released the first edition of its Surface Pro. As its first computing release, the device was a bold change by a company best known for its software, but the success of this initial model, and the three successive releases, have proved it to be a shrewd idea.

Released last month, the latest edition of the Surface Pro has dropped the model number seen in previous generations, meaning this product goes back to basics when it comes to naming, however when it comes to what's inside, the device has received a welcome upgrade.

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VPNs and proxies are now illegal in Russia after Vladimir Putin signed a new law which prohibits technology that can be used to access websites that are banned in the country. The law also prevents people from using tools to stay anonymous online, and a second law requires users of messaging tools to be identifiable through their phone numbers.

As Russia hardens it implementation of government-imposed censorship, Apple has explained the sudden disappearance of around 60 VPN tools from the Chinese version of its App Store. The actions of both countries are seen as attempts to further thwart freedom of speech.

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While the UK enjoys a fairly decent level of broadband coverage, there are still plenty of people struggling with relatively slow connections. It's a problem that's particularly common in rural areas, and BT has offered to stump up £600 million to ensure that more rural homes have decent connections by 2020.

The UK government had already indicated that it wants every home in the country to have access to an internet connection of at least 10Mbps and plans to introduce rules that will permit customers to "demand" such speeds. BT's investment -- through its Openreach subsidiary -- would bring 10Mbps+ connections to a further 1.4 million rural homes, and would eliminate the need for new rules from the government.

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It's hard -- for me at least -- to get too excited about hard drives. They get bigger, they get faster, and that's about it. But the iStorage diskAshur2 is a little different. This is a 1TB USB 3.1 external hard drive with a twist.

It offers hardware-level AES-XTS 256-bit encryption -- so no software is needed -- secured with PIN authentication. As you can see from the photo, there's a PIN pad built into the drive for easy locking and unlocking, and it's compatible with Windows, macOS and Linux ("it will work on any device with a USB port!"). We've already look at the diskAshur Pro 2, but this diskAshur2 drive is nearly 20 percent cheaper.

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The Android version of Cortana has been getting some attention from Microsoft recently, and today the company has released another update to its virtual assistant. With Cortana 2.9, Microsoft not only introduces something of an interface makeover, but also adds new features.

While the redesign is nothing major, it is a move for the better, with Settings now easier to access and the interface is reduced to two tabs rather than three -- and they are now labelled too! But it doesn’t end there.

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It is now two years since Google launched its open source compression algorithm, Brotli. Microsoft has already shown some interest in the technology, adding support to Edge late last year to speed up the loading of web pages. Having conducted rigorous tests with Brotli compression, Microsoft is now ready to bring it to .NET.

Microsoft's tests show that Brotli is at least as good as Deflate and gzip, in terms of compression levels and the amount of time it takes to compress and decompress. It is because of these results that Microsoft is happy to launch .NET support for Brotli compression "as an alpha-quality preview."

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It's been a little while since we heard anything about Free Basics by Facebook -- the successor to its Internet.org project which aims to provide access to a number of online services, free of charge, in developing countries (63 in total) -- but a new report slams the service.

On the face of it, this is a good thing, but Free Basics from Facebook has certainly not been without its controversies: the service was banned in India and Egypt, for example. Now a report from Global Voices -- a "global anti-censorship network of bloggers and activists dedicated to protecting freedom of expression online" -- has published a damning report about the service.

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