Latest Technology News

In a shocking series of tests just before Christmas, Consumer Reports put the new MacBook Pro through its paces and came to the conclusion that battery life was so poor and so variable that it was the first MacBook Pro it could not recommend.

Apple was rather taken aback by the result and, after further investigation, blamed a hidden setting activated by Consumer Reports. This in itself exposed a bug in Safari. With this patched, the tests were re-run and the MacBook Pro is now the proud recipient of Consumer Reports' coveted 'recommended' award.

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With Donald Trump about to take over the reins from Barack Obama, privacy groups have expressed concern about what the incoming president will do with surveillance laws. But before that happens, President Obama is still a cause for concern. In the final days of his leadership, his administration has granted permission for the NSA to share the data it intercepts with no fewer than 16 other intelligence agencies.

While this will alarm many, what is particularly troubling is the fact that privacy protections are not applied until after this data has been shared between agencies. The changes in rules amount to a major relaxation of restrictions on NSA activities, meaning that a far greater number of officials will have access to unfiltered, uncensored data about innocent people around the world.

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Ransomware was the number one way hackers attacked businesses in 2016, a new report by Radware confirms. Entitled Global Application and Network Security Report 2016-2017, it says 49 percent of European businesses confirmed cyber-ransom as the biggest motivator last year.

That basically represents a 100 percent increase compared to a year before, when it stood at 25 percent.

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The long wait for a new games console from Nintendo is over. Well, almost. The Japanese company -- buoyed by the success of Super Mario Run -- has revealed that the Nintendo Switch will launch on March 3 with a $299.99 price tag.

If you happen to be in the NYC Nintendo World Store, there will be a limited number of consoles available for pre-order from 9:00 ET. As well as finally revealing the launch date and price, Nintendo Switch Online Service was also announced, letting "Nintendo Switch owners enjoy online multiplayer gaming as well as a dedicated smartphone app that connects to your Nintendo Switch system and helps you connect with friends for online play sessions".

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A few days ago, Microsoft rolled out Build 15002 (for PC) to Insiders on the Fast ring. It introduced a wealth of new features for Edge, Windows Ink, and Cortana, as well as the ability to pause updates, a new Share experience, and much more.

You might expect Build 15007 to just be a bunch of fixes to shore things up and improve stability, but actually it also adds a selection of new features and improvements. Here's what's new.

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Gartner has tweaked its IT spending predictions for 2017, and now says the three percent increase in spending is not exactly realistic. It's going to be less -- 2.7 percent to be exact, which is still a positive prognosis, keeping in mind we're talking about growth.

The reduced spending is mostly to blame on the "wait-and-see" approach many companies are taking, caused by political and economic uncertainty.

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For many mobile laptop users, tethering from their smartphone to get Wi-Fi is a fact of life. While this is convenient, there are some downsides. The data used by the laptop will count against the mobile data allowance, meaning potential data overages. Another pain point is that it can drain your phone's battery.

A good alternative to smartphone tethering is using a separate mobile hotspot. Today, Verizon announces the latest such device for its network -- the MiFi 7730L Jetpack by Novatel Wireless. This product is quite impressive, as it features a color display, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and USB-C storage support. It can even be used as a battery bank to charge your smartphone. Yeah, this thing looks incredible.

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Profits made by YouTube creators can vary wildly. One way these people earn money is from views -- every time a viewer watches a video with an advertisement, the person gets a very small sum. On there own, each view is worth less than a penny. This can ad up, however, and some creators -- such as PewDiePie -- can earn millions of dollars each year.

Today, Google is introducing Super Chat, which is a new way for YouTube content creators to generate money. When a creator is hosting a live stream with chat, they can sell a "Super Chat" to viewers. It is essentially a highlighted chat message, allowing the viewer to stand out from the non-paid users. In theory, this will help the viewer get noticed by the streamer, so that they can get a shout-out, or more easily get a question answered.

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Anyone who has worked in the technology industry for a long time will develop a healthy cynicism towards industry buzzwords. They may also come to realize that the majority of technology "paradigms" are adaptations of concepts that have been done before. Digital disruption is not the automatic result of the arrival of new types of tech. Disruption, transformation, innovation -- call it what you will -- comes about as a result of human ingenuity, good fortune, and hard work -- in addition to technology.

Take Pokémon Go as an example. Plenty of analysis has been done on why it was so successful. Nothing about it was particularly radical; the smartphone, mapping, GPS, AR and, of course, the Pokémon themselves are not new. However the combination of these things tapped into a desire for nostalgia, collectables, and the need to complete and compete. Originally developed as an April Fool’s joke, it was, by all accounts, a highly successful mistake.

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With titles like "cyber terrorist" floating around, hackers have been associated with all things criminal, malicious, and in some cases, just plain psychotic. A fair argument, considering how many cases of identity theft, loss of income, slander, and more have come from a data breach thanks to a keyboard and a few hours.

So why should you be thanking hackers?

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Analysis of data from billions of mobile ad impressions served during the third quarter of 2016 shows that for the first time Android has passed iOS in terms of revenue generated.

The report from real-time advertising platform Smaato shows that based on eCPM (effective cost per thousand impressions) in the third quarter of 2016, Android accounts for 55 percent of global mobile ad revenue generated by publishers compared to 41 percent for iOS, the share of which is eroding.

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Owning a MacBook Pro (2016) has been a very fun experience. While some people are unhappy not having USB Type-A ports, I am happily embracing the Type-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports. Sure, I have needed a dongle a few times when connecting some devices, but it hasn't been too bad. I've even embraced a USB-C dock (with power delivery) to create a Mac desktop experience in my home -- mouse, keyboard, and monitor.

So far, however, I haven't been very satisfied with USB-C docks. I sometimes face issues where USB ports don't work while delivering power. On a few occasions, my connected USB hard drives have disconnected when the Mac goes to sleep, leading to macOS warning messages. The market will soon be saturated with true Thunderbolt 3 docks that should provide a much better experience. Today, StarTech announces a new line of Thunderbolt 3 devices, including docks and display adapters.

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A week from tomorrow, on Friday 20 January, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 45th President of the United States and you can watch the whole event on the billionaire's favorite social platform -- Twitter.

The social site is teaming up with PBS NewsHour to provide six hours of coverage of Trump's inauguration starting at 11:00 ET. It's an event that millions of people all around the world will be keen to watch -- particularly in light of this week's Russian dossier revelations -- and Twitter is setting up a dedicated page for that very purpose.

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SetACL Studio is an industrial-strength free tool for managing all your Windows security permissions: files, folders, registry keys, printers, drives, network shares, services and more.

The program is aimed at sysadmins and other Windows experts, but you don’t have to know about DACLs to find it useful: there’s something here for everyone.

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In the online world, where data aggregates, compounds and grows at a tremendous pace, your business probably has multiple tools for collecting data. But how many tools does it have for making sense of that data?

Are you able to merge or fuse sets of data together to fully understand your users? Do you have a single source of data in order to understand the complete user journey? Are you able to use the data to answer complex business questions? If you answered "yes" to the above questions, you’re a step ahead of many others. According to , online companies are continuously investing more in analytics. At the same time, however, their satisfaction continues to decline. How can online businesses become more confident about their analytics tools?

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