Latest Technology News

Big companies like to be seen to be doing their bit, particularly when it comes to the environment, and tech companies are no different. Google -- being one of the biggest companies in the world -- has huge energy requirements, and it's looking to help address the problem of climate change.

The company has already done a lot to increase the energy efficiency of its data centers, but in 2017 it is going further. It says that it will be fully powered by renewable energy from next year, and that includes both data centers and offices.

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With more of us than ever doing our shopping online over the holiday period we want to feel that we can do so safely.

But a new report from security ratings company SecurityScorecard exposes cyber security vulnerabilities across 48 of the biggest US retailers.

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It’s almost 2017 and many organizations are still using tape to archive their data. According to a new report by Kroll Ontrack, that can be challenging, risky and expensive.

After polling 819 IT administrators, more than a quarter (27 percent) don’t have clear insight into which information is being backed up on legacy tapes. It can also be quite costly.

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The switch to as-a-service models for delivering software gives organizations a wide range of providers to choose from, but it can lead to a proliferation of different solutions and a challenge for management.

Cloud management specialist BetterCloud is launching a new unified software-as-a-service (SaaS) management platform to give IT departments powerful automation and governance capabilities.

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The past year has been a pretty eventful one for many reasons, not least in the area of cyber security which has seen attacks gaining in sophistication and persistence.

If you were expecting 2017 to be an improvement you may be in for a disappointment according to the Information Security Forum (ISF) which is today publishing its outlook for the threats businesses will face in the next year.

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Identifying a file type is often very easy. A glance at the icon gives you a general idea -- VLC Media Player tells you it’s a media file, for instance -- and the extension tells you everything else.

Life isn’t always that simple, though. File extensions might be lost, changed, or maybe you’ve just found a mystery file in a folder somewhere and would like to know what it is.

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A third of enterprises, globally, are completely unprepared for the process of digital transformation, a new report by global data, market research and advisory firm Ovum says.

Six in ten (60 percent) of enterprises say that the process of digital transformation is "well advanced" or "in progress". However, just seven percent say the process is "complete". The financial services sector seems to be spearheading the charge, with 60 percent of enterprises saying the process is "well advanced".

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Thanks to technology, remote working is easier and more popular, with both workers and employers, than ever before. But does being able to work remotely lead to a happier workforce?

Time management specialist Time Doctor has produced an infographic based on research by employee engagement company TINYpulse into remote working habits.

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Terrorism is a daily threat to our freedoms. It is unfortunate, as we used to be able to go throughout our days without the thought of violence. Now, it dominates the news. Heck, when I am in Penn Station in NYC, I see soldiers with machine guns. Sigh.

Unfortunately, terrorists thrive on the internet too. Using social media and video platforms like YouTube, these evil-doers look to recruit new members while sharing propaganda. Today, Google announces that it is partnering with some major players -- Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter -- to fight online terrorism with a special database. The partners will look to protect user privacy in the process.

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Windows 10 offers a lot of personalization options. Go to Settings > Personalization and you can change the background, alter the color scheme, pick a different Lock screen background, and apply themes.

If you want Windows 10 to show a splash of color, go to the Colors section and toggle the 'Show color on Start, taskbar and Action Center' setting to On. There’s not an option to only change the taskbar’s color unfortunately, but it is possible to do this.

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A busy Facebook feed could be crammed with all kinds of articles and news headlines, but are they genuine, or propaganda, or hoaxes, or something else entirely?

B.S. Detector is a free extension for Chrome, Opera, Firefox, Safari and Edge which claims it can help.

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One of the largest independent software companies in the world, CA Technologies, has announced it is acquiring enterprise automation company Automic. The parties signed a definitive acquisition agreement last Thursday, for a transaction that’s worth approximately €600 million (roughly £507m).

The deal has been unanimously approved by both boards of directors, and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of CA’s fiscal 2017. Automic is an enterprise automation company selling ONE -- it’s automation platform.

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If a query becomes popular enough on Google, it will show up as an autocomplete suggestion after you type the first words. For instance, if you write "what's my" one of the things that Google will propose is "what's my IP". That's to help you find what you are looking for more quickly. But there's a dark side to it: if left alone, it can expose you to some pretty offensive searches.

Case in point is "are Jews evil", which my colleague Mark Wilson wrote about earlier. Yes, a high enough number of users searched for those exact terms that it showed up as an autocomplete suggestion -- until Google decided to do something about it. Mark strongly believes that's wrong, but his arguments are childish. Why? Well, because if Google does nothing, your young children can also see "how to rape a woman" or "how to murder your mother" as autocomplete suggestions after writing "how to" in Google, just because some people wanted to make those queries popular. Think about it, and I mean really think about it, and let me know if that's something you would like to see happen. Could you live with it if, for instance, your easily influenced six year old stabs someone, as a result? Scary thought, isn't it?

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The MacBook Pro (2016) is quite possibly the most beautiful laptop ever created -- it is a work of art. It has a revolutionary new keyboard and a monstrous touch-pad. So it is perfect, right? Well, not for everyone. You see, it only has USB Type-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports, meaning you may need dongles to get work done. Need to connect an SD card? Dongle. HDMI cable? Dongle. USB Type-A? Dongle.

Obviously, everyone will be searching for one ultimate dongle that can do it all. There are many such adapters on the market, but many fall short of perfection. Over on Kickstarter, however, there is a new such product called "HyperDrive" that aims to be the only dongle you will ever need.

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The announcement that Netflix now allows viewers to download videos for offline viewing caused understandable excitement among subscribers. Of course, the key concern -- particularly with mobile devices -- is storage space. But thanks to a tweaked codec, Netflix has your back.

If you were worried that you might not be able to fit many episodes of your favorite shows on your phone or tablet, fear not. For Android users, Netflix opted to use the super-efficient VP9 codec, but as this isn’t supported by Apple, it had to think outside the box a little and ended up plumping for a custom H.264/AVC High codec for iOS users. The space savings are impressive.

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