Latest Technology News

It's news that -- on the face of it -- makes very little sense; the Wall Street Journal reports that Google is going to include an ad-blocking feature in its Chrome web browser. For a company that makes so much money from advertising this seems like something of a strange move, but in the light of recent ad controversy, it could be sensible business.

Just last month a large number of big companies started to pull advertising from Google and YouTube after finding that their ads were appearing on sites hosting extremist material. This, coupled with the fact that there is a general backlash against advertising from consumers (hence Adblock Plus pushing its Acceptable Ads program), could explain why Google is keen to be seen to be doing something that will give uses a better ad experience with greater control.

Continue reading →

Deception technology intended to catch out attackers by deploying decoys that mimic business systems is gaining in popularity. The market for deception is expected to exceed $2 billion by 2021.

Threat defense specialist Acalvio Technology is launching a new product called ShadowPlex which offers the scale and depth of a dynamic deception environment, and integrated intelligence built on a cloud-first infrastructure that makes it easy and cost-effective to deploy.

Continue reading →

We live in a dichotomous age in which we are more concerned about privacy than ever, while simultaneously handing over more and more personal information to the likes of Facebook and Google. With its Your Timeline feature, Google Maps provides us with a great way to keep track of the places we've visited, but it also means sharing a lot of very revealing data with Google.

You may well like the idea of being able to check to see which coffee shop you visited a year ago, or check how far you walked last Wednesday, but you may also like the idea of maintaining some grasp of your privacy. Here's how to disable Your Timeline in Google Maps and how to delete any records that have been saved already.

Continue reading →

Demand for IT contractors has strengthened over the past six months despite the uncertainty caused by the vote to leave the European Union. At first glance this seems counterintuitive.

Historically, contractors have been the first into and first out of a period of economic malaise or even just uncertainty. The fear was that the EU referendum result would send the jobs market into a tailspin, and that contractors would be first to feel the pain. They are, after all, a flexible resource and it is much more cost effective for organizations to divest themselves of contractors than employees. In the months leading up to the referendum last June, that is exactly what we saw. Demand for contractors weakened as organizations hesitated over their IT investments until some measure of clarity was achieved.

Continue reading →

As a society, and as businesses, we used to have a good handle on our data. We knew what it was, where it was kept, and we used it in a very formal way, treating it as something very precious. You could argue that a lot of it was always "dark," as it was locked in files and accessed only by those with physical proximity as well as the permission to use it.

Within organizations, data processing used to rely on very structured, defined data sets, but the rise of social data, the Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning and constantly connected devices has introduced a seemingly unlimited supply of unstructured data. It comes streaming in from multiple sources -- cloud data, device-driven data, social data, financial data, and everything in between...

Continue reading →

Almost half of all SMBs in the UK (49 percent) have lost money in the digital tax submission process, signaling that there is still a lot more work to be done before the Make Tax Digital initiative is completed successfully.

This is according to a new report by cloud accountancy software Pandle, which surveyed 1,000 UK SMBs. The report says that SMBs lost money despite feeling well-informed on the recent changes to the system.

Continue reading →

The MacBook Pro is a wonderful laptop, but its lack of ports is a hardship for some. While you can leverage dongles and adapters, that is hardly elegant. Luckily, since Apple's laptop supports Thunderbolt 3, a compatible single-cable dock can transform it into a quality desktop experience.

Today, LaCie announces an absolutely genius such solution, called "2big Dock." This Neil Poulton-designed docking station offers DisplayPort for connecting a monitor (resolutions up to 4K UHD), plus the ability to charge the laptop using the same cable used for connectivity. It also has a USB Type-A port, Type-C port, plus full-sized SD and Compact Flash slots. The real magic is that it also doubles as a storage drive, offering large capacities of 12TB, 16TB or 20TB!

Continue reading →

In addition to rolling out new Windows 10 Insider Preview builds for both PC and Mobile, Microsoft has also launched a new audio podcast.

Explaining the move, Windows Insider chief Dona Sarkar says: "Many of you have been asking for our team to share more about our future plans about the overall Windows Insider community. We want to be inclusive of all consumption styles, so we thought we would experiment with an audio podcast."

Continue reading →

It’s only been five days since Microsoft rolled out a new Windows 10 Insider Preview build to the Fast ring, but hot on the heels of Build 16176 comes Build 16179, the third release for the new Redstone 3 branch.

That’s not the only new build however, as there’s also a new one for Window 10 Mobile, Build 15205.

Continue reading →

Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle, summed up on the concept of cloud computing very succinctly. "All it is, is a computer attached to a network." Ellison and Oracle have gone on to embrace both open source and cloud technologies including OpenStack, but the basic premise that it starts with a physical server and a network still holds true.

The server industry is going through massive change, driven in the main part by advances in open source software, networking and automation. The days of monolithic on-site server rooms filled with rack-space, and blinking lights and buzzing air-con, are gone. However, the alluring simplicity of this concept is not quite how it works in the real world.

Continue reading →

We all know someone who’s been in a difficult position following a security breach. They are rushing to assess the damage, while simultaneously repairing website functionality to limit the compromise. It’s a stressful situation, especially if you’ve had to deal with a compromise more than once. Unfortunately for some website owners this is a reality -- shortly after the initial security breach, the website becomes compromised again. It leaves the website owner asking why their website is being targeted and how the website re-infection is happening.

The short answer is that it’s most likely due to unresolved vulnerabilities. While it may seem like you’ve been singled out and targeted by some menacing hackers, most of the time that isn’t the case. The majority of website compromises are preceded by automated campaigns that locate websites vulnerable to a particular exploit the hacker wishes to employ. The bottom line is, you aren’t the target that the hacker is singling-out, it’s the software on your website. There are a couple main culprits for this scenario.

Continue reading →

Few trends have received more hype and attention in the past couple of years, than this broad-based phenomenon termed as "digitalization." If one were to do a simple cause-and-effect analysis, then it would be easy to arrive at a definition which would attribute digitalization to digital technologies such as mobile, social, cloud and IoT. Further, advances from robotics to cognitive intelligence to augmented reality, have catapulted the idea of "digitalization" into businesses across industries.

In today’s world, if a business hasn’t digitally transformed it won’t be around for much longer. But a technology-centric definition would be a radical over-simplification of this "business model necessity." While digital transformation -- much like the "Fourth Industrial Revolution" -- might be technology led, the change itself is much deeper, and has the potential to disrupt entire societies. To succeed in an already present change, organizations must look beyond the current changes and towards the future at four key themes:

Continue reading →

Technology is ever the equalizer, and this is increasingly true in the realm of home security. For most people, home security means a few good deadbolts and possibly some bars on the window. Whole-home, monitored, wired security systems that cost upwards of $50 a month (not to mention long-term contracts and multiple up-charges for installation and additional features) are an expensive option if all you want to know is if someone is in your backyard or trying to open your front door.

Today, thanks to wireless technology, there are multiple lower-priced options for home monitoring systems, including complete DIY systems that you can install and monitor yourself. However, these still start at around $200. What if you just want some basic, high-tech security that won’t break the bank? Here is a round-up of nine low-cost, high-tech ways you can protect your home, based on your specific security needs, all for under $100.

Continue reading →

New flagships have to be truly special to stand out from the crowd when you have high-end smartphones like the Apple iPhone 7 and Samsung Galaxy S8 at the top of the pack. Xiaomi knows this, which is why the new Mi 6 features cutting edge hardware, a great price, and a pretty cool camera setup on the back.

The Mi 6 features two 12MP cameras on the back, one with a wide-angle lens for casual snaps and the other with a telephoto lens for when you need to zoom in. Xiaomi says that the second camera lets you enjoy 2x zoom without a loss in quality.

Continue reading →

Fujitsu has announced six new enterprise devices on six different product series, offering faster machines and more security. There's the new 10.1-inch Arrows Tab Q507/P-SP tablet, a new Notebook Lifebook, two ESPRIMO models, a 17.3-inch Celsius H970 mobile workstation, and the Futro MU937 mobile notebook device (which Fujitsu claims is the world's lightest).

What's particularly interesting about the Arrows device is that, for the first time, it comes with Fujitsu's Biometric Authentication Slide Passport functionality. This biometric authentication service allows users to log in using the palm of their hand.

Continue reading →