Latest Technology News

When IBM announced recently it was summoning workers back to central offices after decades of pioneering a remote work model -- it was a seminal moment for the legacy tech company and a head-scratching moment for future-forward companies everywhere. IBM’s desire to reignite innovation and collaboration and all the other long-touted benefits of manufacturing physical proximity among employees is understandable after 20 straight quarters of declining revenue. But it also feels really counter-culture: not in a cool, old-is-new again kind of way, but in a doesn’t-IBM-know-this-is-a-bad-idea kind of way?

The move will have long-term effects on IBM’s ability to hire the next generation of talent, which in study after study has voiced support for workplace flexibility and work-life balance over all else.

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It’s been a week since the WannaCrypt/WannaCry ransomware cyber attacks began, and the repercussions are still being felt. It became clear quite early on that the ransomware was hitting older Windows systems hard (Windows 10 wasn’t affected), with a lot of talk focusing on the number of at-risk Windows XP systems still in service.

But here’s the interesting thing. Most of the affected systems -- over 98 percent -- were actually running Windows 7.

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Job positions that require skills in so-called "microservices" have seen a huge boost to increase by 133 percent in the last year.

According to a new report by Rackspace, this has made such positions among the most popular IT jobs on the market today.

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A new form of malware is targeting innocent victims in order to mine cryptocurrency for its creators.

Adylkuzz, which targets the Monero cryptocurrency, stays hidden within an infected machine, and does not give visual warnings or interfere with users’ files.

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Netflix is the first big name on Google Play to block Android devices that are rooted or have an unlocked bootloader from downloading its app. And it looks like it may not be the last, as now Google is officially giving all developers the option to do the same.

Developers on Google Play can enforce support exclusions based on a device's SafetyNet status, which is also what Netflix has used to restrict access. Out of the box, rooted devices or devices with an unlocked bootloader are supported, but developers have two options that they can choose to change that.

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When the education-focused Windows 10 S was announced, many people were dubious that it could be a success. Limiting the operating system to apps from the Windows Store seems like a recipe for disaster. That opinion is understandable, as we have sort of been down this road before with Windows RT -- which failed. The concept can confuse users.

I was sort of hopeful for Windows 10 S when Microsoft made a shocking announcement at Build 2017 that it is bringing Linux distributions to the Windows Store. This gave the impression that students using the S variant of the OS would be able to tinker with Linux. Unfortunately, this is not the case as Microsoft will be blocking Linux on the new OS. In other words, not all apps in the store will be available for Windows 10 S.

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The WannaCry ransomware has made a huge mess across the globe, affecting hundreds of thousands of PCs, including critical devices in the healthcare sector. It is so dangerous that Microsoft released a public patch for Windows XP, after it dropped support three years ago.

Of course, the patch did not stop Windows XP users from getting infected, but, thankfully, a decryption tool, called WannaKey, is now available and should help recover your locked files. And the good news is that it works on other operating systems too, including Windows 7 (the x86 version, anyway) and Windows Server 2008!

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The number of digital assistants installed is on track to exceed 7.5 billion by 2012, which is more than the world population.

According to technology research company Ovum, Google Assistant will dominate the voice AI–capable device market with 23.3 percent market share, followed by Samsung's Bixby (14.5 percent), Apple's Siri (13.1 percent), Amazon's Alexa (3.9 percent), and Microsoft's Cortana (2.3 percent).

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PDF Anti-Copy is a free tool which protects PDF content by preventing users selecting or copying its text. There are similar programs available, but they typically work by applying the standard PDF security restrictions. This can easily removed with the right software.

PDF Anti-Copy takes a more unusual approach, using GhostScript and its -dNoOutputFonts switch to essentially replace the text with vector graphics. The page looks the same, but the text selection options stop working because the text has gone.

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Two-hundred-and-thirty-one in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 on the Windows Store in the past seven days.

This week saw several strong releases including the new Microsoft application Send to OneNote, the excellent vector graphics designer Gravit Designer, and the popular game Survival Arena.

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The Facebook Messenger app for iOS and Android is an utter mess of ideas at the moment. The confused interface is all over the place and decidedly user unfriendly. All that is set to change, though, thanks to an update that rolls out this week.

The update brings a slightly updated look which makes navigation a little easier. Tabs help to keep things better organized so you can jump to where you want to be more easily. The changes do not go as far as letting you kill the endlessly irritating Messenger Day/Stories feature, but it does go some way to improving things.

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Last week's WannaCrypt attack infected over 200,000 devices and is estimated to have made its perpetrators $72,000.

Increasingly scammers and criminals are seeing the internet as a means of making financial returns. Cyber crime has become a serious business and no business or information is safe from attack.

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Panos Panay may have said that the Surface Pro 5 does not exist, but that certainly does not mean there's not a Surface Pro 4 successor. Microsoft has an event scheduled for Monday in Shanghai, and Panay himself has already indicated that it is Surface-related.

Ahead of the event, writer and serial leaker Evan Blass has revealed a number of images of the upcoming device which drops the numbering and is to be known simply as the Surface Pro.

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Both augmented and virtual reality show no sign of slowing down -- these are certainly technologies to keep an eye on over the next several years. Microsoft and Google have been very public with their projects, while there are rumors that Apple is secretly working on both AR and VR too.

Google's Tango is one of the most ambitious such projects, bringing augmented reality capabilities to Android devices. Earlier today at Google I/O, ASUS announced that the upcoming ZenFone AR smartphone -- compatible with both Tango and Daydream -- will be a Verizon exclusive.

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While some people may feel that their office job is stressful -- and maybe it is -- there are workers in the world that do physically hard work that is much more strenuous. They may work in dangerous and dirty conditions where not only is their health at risk, but so too is their computer. For instance, they may work in a location with tremendous dust, risk of flooding, and falling debris. For these jobs, an extremely rugged laptop or tablet could be needed.

When it comes to rugged computers, Panasonic's legendary Toughbook laptops are always a wise choice. These computers have a reputation for surviving really rough conditions. Today, the company announces its latest bad-ass notebook -- the Toughbook 33. Not only is it a laptop, but a detachable tablet too.

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