Latest Technology News

Google revealed a lot of new features and products during yesterday’s opening two-hour long I/O keynote, including more about Android O, a stripped down OS for cheap phones called Android Go, an improved way to protect users from bad Android apps, and competition for Siri in the form of Google Assistant for iOS.

That’s not the end of things though, as Google has another keynote today.

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If it's one thing that consumers expect in a flagship smartphone, it's a great camera. Getting quality photos and videos is one of the main reasons why so many folks spend their hard earned cash on devices like the HTC U11, Samsung Galaxy S8, Apple iPhone 7 or Google Pixel -- and why those devices cost as much as they do.

OnePlus is well aware of this, so it has teamed up with DxO to "enhance [the] photography experience" with the upcoming OnePlus 5. This is one of the few things that the company has revealed about the next flagship killer, aside from the name and the "summer" release date.

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A new report has revealed that VPN usage in the UK has increased with almost one in six people now using a VPN alongside their internet connection.

According to YouGov's "Incognito Individual" report, 16 percent of British adults have used either a VPN or proxy server. This up-tick in users trying a VPN was often the direct result of trying access region-locked content or websites. Of those surveyed, 48 percent of respondents admitted to using a VPN or a proxy to access content they would otherwise be unable to view.

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Office 365 officially received a project management tool, called Planner, in June 2016, but it is not until today that Microsoft introduces an accompanying mobile app. And the platform of choice for the first Microsoft Planner app is iOS.

When Microsoft publicly launched Planner, the software giant said that there will be apps available for Windows and Android devices too, but there is no announcement regarding the support for the other two platforms. Hopefully, that will happen at some point in the near future.

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Google's own bot filtering catches only a small percentage of the bot traffic that hits most sites, leading to traffic analysis data being skewed.

Bot detection specialist Distil Networks is launching a free tool designed to remove the bad data created by bots.

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Google has showcased a number of major changes coming to Android at its I/O event yesterday, like Google Play Protect. It is designed to keep your smartphone safe using app usage analysis and machine learning, and includes a feature that many Android users are already familiar with.

Part of Google Play Protect is Find My Device, which has been previously known as Android Device Manager. Google decided to change the name, and add new functionality in the process, likely because it is more appropriate, considering what it is mainly used for -- which is to locate Android devices and remotely wipe or ring them.

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Koa11y is a cross-platform tool for detecting accessibility issues in any web page you specify. Problems detected include missing image Alt attributes, color contrast issues, missing titles, lengthy ALTs, poorly designed forms, and anything else that doesn’t play nicely with accessibility software and APIs.

We downloaded a copy of the Windows version. It’s a portable program, no installation required, we just unzipped the download and launched Koa11y.exe.

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VMware has announced two major announcements with Microsoft and Samsung.

The cloud infrastructure and business mobility firm has announced it will now deliver VMware Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure, helping its customers migrate to Windows 10 faster. VMware virtual desktops and applications are now also available to Azure enterprise users.

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None of the political parties in the UK, Germany and Norway, all of whom have upcoming elections, have email authentication or protection against spear phishing in place, according to new research.

The study by secure email company Agari shows that while eight percent have published an email authentication policy, they've left the door wide open by setting their policy to 'none', which will not stop malicious emails from reaching intended victims.

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Increasingly we're surrounded by devices that have microphones. Not just our computers and smartphones, but smart home devices like Alexa and Echo and even our TVs.

The problem is these mics are not just accepting commands, they're listening to what's going on in the background too.

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Facebook recently announced that it wants to do more to cut down on the amount of spam and clickbait that appears in users' News Feeds. Now the social networking company is putting the wheels in motion, working on updates that will help it to identify such content.

In the crosshairs are two different types of clickbait headline: those that exaggerate information, and those that leave out key pieces of information in a bid to get readers to click through. Facebook is also paying more attention to individual posts rather than focusing on the overall output of accounts and pages.

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The European Commission has hit Facebook with a €110 million ($122 million) fine for "providing misleading information about WhatsApp takeover". The Commission previously expressed concern that the social media giant had not correctly communicated planned changes to its privacy policy.

The changes meant that Facebook was able to match data gathered from WhatsApp users to their Facebook account, even though the company said this was not the case. The "proportionate and deterrent fine on Facebook" is designed not only to punish Facebook, but also to send a message to other companies involved in mergers and acquisitions.

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There's no getting away from the fact that Android has something of an issue with dangerous and malicious apps. Google's latest weapon in the fight against such apps is Google Play Protect which uses machine learning and app usage analysis to weed out the bad guys.

The new system sees Google not only checking apps as they are submitted to the Play Store, but monitoring the apps you already have installed. By analyzing app behavior, Google is able to identify suspicious software that may have slipped through the net or has been installed from outside of the Pay Store.

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With Android phones, just as with the iPhone, the focus has long been on the latest and greatest hardware. But this ignores the fact that not everyone in the world has an ultra-powerful handset. This is something that Google recognizes, and its solution is Android Go.

Android Go is an optimized version of Android that’s designed to be used on less-powerful, cheap phones. By this, Google means phones that could have under 1GB of RAM, and the operating system -- which is essentially an offshoot of Android O -- is due to make an appearance in 2018.

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Fire up the Twitter app on your phone or tablet, or visit the Twitter website, and you'll probably be greeted by a message inviting you to check your settings. And you may well want to do so. Twitter is introducing key changes to its privacy policy which will enable it to use more personal data to personalize the user experience. In other words, ads and data sharing.

At the same time, the company is adding new controls which enable you to stop tailoring content to you based on your location, interests and other data. A new Your Twitter Data is a nod to increased transparency which not only shows you what data Twitter is storing about you, but allows you to control how it is used -- to a certain extent.

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