How to lock down Windows 10 Home/Pro like Windows 10 S
Microsoft this week introduced a new version of Windows 10 aimed primarily at users in education, and designed as an alternative to Google’s Chrome OS.
The main difference between Windows 10 S, and Windows 10 Home/Pro is it only runs apps from the Windows Store. You can’t install programs from elsewhere, and this includes Chrome. This mean users can only install Microsoft-verified software which, the software giant says, will result in better security and superior performance. You don’t need to buy or install Windows 10 S to get this feature though, you can simply lock down an existing version of Windows 10.
Is a Google-made Chrome ad-blocker the answer to intrusive advertising?
In case you missed it, rumors are rife that Google will soon introduce an ad blocker in Chrome. Understandably, there's concern about the power that would give Google over the advertising industry and its competition. As a member of said competition, I am equal parts concerned and supportive of an ad blocker in Chrome.
It’s certainly an interesting story. On first thought it’s a little ironic, in that a company which makes a large proportion of its money through advertising revenue is not only giving users of its browser the ability to block ads from appearing, but turning it on by default too. If the rumor is true, the addition of an ad blocker in Chrome could limit the reach of ads to over half of the world’s internet users overnight. That’s a big change, and in many instances it’s needed.
Newton email app now available for Windows, Alexa support arrives
Of all the email apps I have used in recent years, Newton (formerly known as CloudMagic) is my favorite. It is really easy to use, works with all the major email providers, has some pretty cool features, and, most importantly, is available on Android, iOS and macOS. So it nearly covers all the major platforms, except Windows.
CloudMagic, the company behind the app, has been working to change this since December, however, and now we get the first beta version of Newton for Windows. It is rough around the edges at this stage, as you might expect, but it will get the "core emailing" job done.
More than half of people believe using spyware to snoop on family members is legal
A new study shows that almost 5o percent of people believe it's legal to install a program on a family member's phone to snoop on their activity.
The survey of more than 2,000 people in the US and UK by software comparison service Comparitech.com also finds 57 percent would consider spying on their children's phone conversations and messages.
Best Windows 10 apps this week
Two-hundred-and-twenty-nine in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 on the Windows Store in the past seven days.
Microsoft revealed the new Windows 10 S edition officially this week, and along with it a new Surface laptop that runs it.
One in four banks struggle to identify customers online
Around a quarter of banks are struggling to identify their customers when delivering digital and online banking services, according to Kaspersky Lab.
The latest findings from its Financial Institutions Security Risks survey show that 38 percent of financial institutions surveyed confirm that balancing prevention techniques and customer convenience is one of their specific concerns.
MediaPortal adds automatic media-scraping, Windows Media Center-inspired skin
Team MediaPortal has released a major update of its open-source media server and center for Windows. MediaPortal 2.1 opens with completely reworked media management tools, with a wide array of content now automatically scraped for metadata and artwork.
Users gain better visual indicators of watched series and individual movies, plus a number of new skins make their debut, including one aimed squarely at Windows Media Center users.
'Fatboy' ransomware uses a location-based charging model
A new ransomware-as-a-service product named 'Fatboy' has been advertised on Russian language forums. What makes it different is the way it uses a sliding scale to charge its victims.
Threat intelligence company Recorded Future has revealed that Fatboy uses the Economist's Big Mac Index -- designed to explain exchange rates -- to ensure victims in areas with a higher cost of living will be charged more to decrypt their data.
Microsoft to make big Surface announcement in Shanghai on May 23
Earlier this week, Microsoft made huge news by announcing both a new operating system (Windows 10 S) and computer (Surface Laptop) for education. Next week, the company will hold its annual Build 2017 developer conference. Surely the company will relax a bit for the rest of the month, right?
Nope. Today, Microsoft shocks the technology community by unveiling yet another event for the month of May. Not only is the timing a surprise, but so too is the location. You see, the company will be making a big Surface announcement in Shanghai! Microsoft says it will "show the world what's next."
Google Photos gets 'Mother's Day Movies' feature
We are finally in the month of May, meaning the holiday of Mother's Day is almost here. If your mom is still living, you should take the opportunity to spend time with her on that day. If traveling to her is not possible, picking up the phone is a good option too. Whatever you can do to make her feel loved and appreciated is a positive thing.
If your mom -- or any mother in your life -- is tech-savvy and uses a computer, Google Photos has a new feature that could really make her day. Called "Mother's Day Movies," it prompts you to select multiple photos of the mom and her children from your Google Photos library. The service then creates a "movie" using the images, which you can share with her.
Sunvell T95X TV box: a web-focused, cloud-based client for those on a budget [Review]
Businesses often envision the modern desktop computer as being a boring piece of kit, one that not only costs a lot of money but also doesn’t offer much in terms of innovation.
The reality is slightly different; between dongle PCs, mini and micro PCs as well as all-in-ones, there’s plenty of innovation around if you know where to look.
Watching users fail is key to building a good product
Just 40 hours of engineering work to go live with a state-of-the-art smartphone application? It’s only possible if you have the right framework and if you forget perfectionism in favor of real user feedback. At Spreadshirt, we want it to be easy for our users to buy, sell, create and share ideas on over 200 products on our ecommerce platform. Whether they use a desktop, tablet or smartphone, we want our users to have a great experience.
Back in 2014 we had created a t-shirt designer for tablets, to reflect the rise of the touch screen. It worked on smartphones, but that was a rare use case back then. This web app has been perfected through many iterations. But the mobile times changed. And exactly as we had already envisioned in 2016 smartphone traffic was up 22 percent and tablet traffic was down at less than 10 percent. We needed a new design tool to focus on the experience for our visitors from smartphones and find out what their specific needs and issues were. Watching users fail holds the greatest learnings when you develop complex applications, such as our smartphone t-shirt designer.
How to scale a microservices-based app
The promise of microservices is that you can divide and conquer the problem of a large application by breaking it down into its constituent services and what each one actually accomplishes. Each can be supported by an independent team. You get to the point where you can break the limits on productivity that Fred Brooks described in his book, The Mythical Man-month.
Aside from being able to throw more people at the problem and -- unlike what Brooks observed -- actually become more efficient once you get a microservices-based application into production, you can quickly start thinking about how to scale it. Think resiliency and high-availability. And you can easily determine what services don’t need scaling, or high availability.
The future of self-driving cars relies on big data
Autonomous cars depend on information. They’re equipped with technology to gather and communicate a vehicle’s position, speed, direction, and braking status. They also recognize traffic signals, proximity to pedestrians, and hazardous objects on the road. With voluminous data being computed in near real-time, self-driving cars can respond to dangers afoot or notify the car owner of imminent mechanical issues, in which case it might automatically set up an appointment with the nearest auto body shop.
In addition, self-driving vehicles aren’t disposed to human-prone errors resulting from distracted driving, tired driving, or driving while inebriated. They’re constantly alert, vigilant, and have a panoramic view of the road. All of this demonstrates how big data is becoming the cornerstone to the driverless car’s future. What’s more, it’s already making great strides toward self-driving capabilities, driver safety, and enhanced customer experience.
Microsoft releases Windows 10 Insider Build 16188 to the Fast ring, with lots of new features
While many users are still waiting to upgrade Windows 10 to the Creators Update, Microsoft is forging ahead with the next big update, codenamed Redstone 3.
We’re back to the regular weekly update schedule, and new features are beginning to appear in the preview builds. In Build 16184 we saw the introduction of the new My People app, and in the latest release, Build 16188, there are even more new features to try out.
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