Latest Technology News

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.

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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!

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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."

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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:

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Researchers at threat intelligence specialist Recorded Future have uncovered a new strain of ransomware called Karmen that’s designed for use by people with limited technical expertise.

The ransomware-as-service has been developed by Russian and German hackers and is notable for its user-friendly approach. It comes equipped with a dashboard that allows the tracking of computers infected with the virus, including the status of any ransom that’s been paid.

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ImageDownloader is a portable open-source tool which can batch download images from your favorite subreddit, or Imgur album.

The program arrives as a very compact 396KB download, so it’s no surprise that the interface is basic, just a few tabs and settings for each download task.

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Any organized soul worth their salt has a good to-do service (or two) to support them. This is something that has been strangely lacking from Microsoft, but this is all set to change with Microsoft To-Do.

This reminder app has been in the works for a little while under the codename of Project Cheshire, but Microsoft has just launched a preview version of it. The online service works in conjunction with apps for iOS, Android and Windows, and you can try it out for yourself right now.

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With the launch of AMD's Polaris-based Radeon 400 series of graphics cards, the company did something amazing -- it targeted the average consumer (the "every man"). While NVIDIA often targets the expensive high end, AMD instead opted to cater to realistic budgets. The company's focus paid off, as many budget and mid-range gamers had positive experiences from the cards.

Now, the company is back with the newer Radeon 500 series -- the second generation of Polaris. While the performance increase from 400 to 500 series will be modest, pricing remains virtually identical. In other words, owners of, say, an RX 480, will probably not want to bother upgrading to an RX 580. For owners of older cards, however, these new 500 series cards will offer solid performance at very affordable prices. With these cards, AMD is also introducing a new feature called "Radeon Chill" which allows the user to decrease performance for lower temperatures.

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Much was made of Microsoft's decision to offer Windows 10 as a free upgrade, and then withdrawing the free upgrade. If you've been holding off jumping from Windows 7 or Windows 8.x to Windows 10 because you find the cost off-putting, there's some good news.

If you download yourself a copy of Windows 10 Creators Update from Microsoft, you should find that when you are prompted for a product key the license code from Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 works just fine to activate your copy of the new operating system.

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