Latest Technology News

Apple's macOS Sierra is a solid operating system. It is very mature and beautiful, not to mention, it is chock-full of user-focused features. Quite frankly, from a user experience perspective, it is probably the best OS by far. Still, there are other quality operating systems too, including Microsoft's excellent and always-improving Windows 10.

As great as macOS Sierra is, it is not perfect, meaning Apple is constantly looking to make it better. Today, the company releases the newest such version, 10.12.5. While not a revolutionary update by any means, it offers some important bug fixes and enhancements. The most interesting aspect of macOS Sierra 10.12.5 is improved Windows 10 Creators Update support for Boot Camp.

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As enterprise technology advances and more companies turn toward non-traditional, work-from-anywhere solutions, cloud software is rapidly becoming the management platform of choice for enterprise mobility efforts. This digital migration to the cloud is accelerating so quickly that, by 2019, 90 percent of all mobile data traffic is predicted to be generated by cloud software.

Since businesses are heavily leveraging cloud technology to manage their enterprise mobility programs, software developers are evolving to meet this growing contemporary demand. As a result, almost all of today’s cloud solutions are being developed with a mobile-first mindset -- and these solutions are bringing big returns to the organizations that adopt and embrace them.

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Samsung unveiled two Chromebooks capable of running Android apps at CES 2017. The first to be available was the less expensive -- and less powerful -- Chromebook Plus, which arrived in February, while the more costly -- and more powerful -- Chromebook Pro was said to arrive sometime this spring.

And it looks like it will, indeed, be in customers' hands by the end of this month, as the Chromebook Pro is now available to pre-order on Amazon, with an estimated release date of May 28. Hey, that still technically counts as spring.

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With Russia being blamed for having a hand in fixing both the US and French elections, Russian President Vladimir Putin must be feeling at least a little smug that the WannaCrypt ransomware currently wreaking havoc around the world has nothing to do with his country.

Asked about the threat while at an international summit in Beijing, Putin said it was "worrisome" but that the United States, not Russia, was to blame.

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While rooting Android does not make it necessarily less secure, some software makers would rather you keep your device stock. Why? Well, because when you gain elevated privileges, which is what rooting enables, you might cause some issues or do some things that run afoul of their rules.

Netflix now seems to have a problem with Android devices that have been rooted and/or have an unlocked bootloader, as it just dropped support for those devices on Google Play.

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If the WannaCrypt ransomware attack of the last few days has taught us anything it should be the importance of patching systems to guard against attack.

Yet a study released today suggests the message isn't getting through. The latest US country report from Flexera Software reveals the percentage of US PC users with unpatched Windows operating systems was 9.8 percent in Q1, 2017, up from 7.5 percent last quarter and 6.5 percent in Q1, 2016.

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It is already common knowledge that many traditional product companies are converting the delivery of their offerings to the as-a-service model. We are now approaching the final frontier of that model: Value as a Service (VaaS). As we shift to VaaS, customers will focus less on the delivery model and more on the value delivered.

Effectively delivering VaaS requires a new kind of relationship between vendors and customers, one that is outcome-based, rather than a negotiated, transactional exchange of goods and services for money. It’s more of a partnership in which both parties are empowered to support each other as well as hold each other accountable for achieving measurable results they’ve both agreed upon.

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What seemed to have begun as just another ransomware attack hit the headlines last Friday (May 12th) when it began to attack hospitals and healthcare services in the UK.  It became clear pretty quickly that this was in fact something much bigger however, with problems reported at businesses and government bodies around the world.

Infections by the malware known as WannaCrypt or WannaCry, began in Spain with the Telefonica telecommunications giant one of the first to be hit. It then quickly spread to the United Kingdom, Russia, Japan, Taiwan, the United States, and many others. In total, over 150 countries have been affected by the ransomware since Friday, according to Europol.

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Events happen so quickly in the wacky whirlwind world of Donald Trump that it’s hard to react in anything close to real time, but there was an interesting story in the Guardian last weekend that I think deserves some technical context.

The Great British Brexit Robbery: How our Democracy was Hijacked is a breathless but well sourced story about how a U.S. billionaire harnessed Big Data to split up the European Union and steal a U.S. Presidential election. It’s an interesting read, but the point I want to make here is that the tale was entirely predictable and if one side hadn’t done it, the other would have. Next time they’ll all do it.

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I’ve certainly been highly critical of Microsoft in the past, particularly last year when the company began forcing Windows 10 on to users.

But in the past couple of days I have to admit that I’ve been impressed by the software giant’s response to the global WannaCrypt/WannaCry crisis, and not just in patching Windows XP.

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LanguageTool is an open-source spelling and grammar checker for Chrome, Firefox, the desktop (via Java) and more.

The browser extensions enable checking the text you’re entering a web text box, or any other selectable text on a web page. The system works much like other spell checks. Enter text, click the LanguageTool icon and it instantly displays a report listing any issues. Browse the list, click any corrections you’d like to accept and it’s updated in the source text.

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We don't have to wait any longer to see the effects of Brexit on the tech job market in the country -- Hired.co.uk already has some data for us. And it's exactly as you might have imagined it.

According to the hiring site's report, the number of foreign tech workers in the UK is now down 50 percent. The rate at which foreign workers are now accepting UK-based roles has also dropped by a fifth (20 percent). But it’s not just the employees that are declining offers, businesses are also sending out less.

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ASCII art is one of the oldest computer graphics techniques, and can create surprisingly realistic pictures from the 95 printable ASCII characters (letters, numbers and symbols).

The idea was originally used in the 1960s to produce images on the line printers of the day, but the stark and high-contrast results can still deliver interesting designs today.

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The "WannaCrypt" ransomware has proven to be a disaster globally. This malware will encrypt a user's files and then demand some Bitcoin ransom to decrypt them. While the amount being demanded is relatively low at $300 or $600, the scam can be modified for even larger amounts. Heck, even after the ransom is paid, there is no guarantee that the bad guys will follow through with the decryption, making it quite the gamble. As the ransomware has disrupted government agencies, medical services, and other critical computers, the ransom is being paid by some, as it can literally be the the difference between life and death -- surgeries and other procedures have been delayed.

While there are many directions in which you can point the finger of blame, Microsoft should absolutely not shoulder any of the responsibility. After all, the vulnerability that led to the disaster was patched back in March. It never even affected the most recent version of the operating system, Windows 10. The company has even since patched the archaic Windows XP! So who is to blame? Users and administrators that failed to keep their systems up to date are partially at fault. The biggest blame belongs to an unlikely party -- the US Government! You see, an agency of our own government -- the NSA -- knew about the exploit, and rather than alert Microsoft, it chose to stockpile it for intelligence purposes. Sadly, the exploit itself got leaked, and as a result, it landed into the hands of evildoers.

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During the camera film era, Fujifilm battled kingpin Kodak with brighter, more vibrant colors that either photographers loved or hated—perhaps both. That was last century. In the 21st, Kodak is a shadow cast against aged Kodachrome, while its rival has successfully transitioned from print to digital—and with amazing bravado. Fuji's transformation started six years ago with the cleverly-engineered, retro-designed X100, which I reviewed in May 2011.

The compact digital camera's success led Fuji to develop a series of additional bodies and lenses; all are designed with professional shooters in mind. The X series family features compact, mirrorless designs that incorporate digital SLR-size sensors and manual controls—meaning dials and buttons to directly manipulate settings rather than rely on software menus. The X100 line—from the original to the S, T, and now F—remains the most distinctive for how well features and benefits balance set against truly innovative design concepts.

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