Hard Disk Sentinel 5.0 adds more test and repair tools
Veteran drive monitor Hard Disk Sentinel has just been updated to version 5.0, the first major release in more than a year.
The Professional build gets a new "Repair disk drive" method which scans for weak sectors and forces the hard drive to stabilize problems, or reallocate sectors if necessary.
Pyle launches Bluetooth Vertical Turntable
As a fan of Hip-Hop music, I spent a lot of my time as a young man digging through crates and collecting vinyl records. Many of my weekends were spent searching for gems in NYC at record stores such as Fat Beats and Beat Street -- it was a lot of fun. Today, I have probably over a thousand records -- many of which cannot be found on digital music services, meaning owning a record player is still a must.
Believe it or not, there are many modern turntables on the market nowadays, as the medium still has a big following. Today, Pyle releases an unusual model that plays the records vertically. While not the first player to do so, it is still out of the ordinary. In addition, it has a USB port for transferring the analog records to digital, plus Bluetooth for playing modern devices using the turntable's integrated speakers.
Microsoft reissues its infamous snooping patches for Windows 7 and 8.1
It’s good to keep Windows up to date, as it ensures you’re safe from the latest security threats, and you might benefit from other improvements. However, you shouldn’t always blindly install every patch that comes along.
Case in point are the infamous snooping patches KB2952664 (for Windows 7) and KB2976978 (for Windows 8.1), which today get yet another outing.
Consumer Reports to factor privacy and security into its technology reviews
There is much to consider when buying a piece of technology, but price and suitability tend to be at the top of most people's lists. In recent years, however, there has been an increased interest in privacy and security, and this is something that renown reviewer Consumer Reports is going to start taking into consideration.
Consumer Reports most recently hit the headlines for deciding not to recommend the new MacBook Pro (although it later changed its mind), and now the non-profit has teamed up with a number of privacy, security, and consumer rights organizations with a view to creating a new digital standard for products to live up to. The aim is to put data security and privacy first, just as many consumers are starting to do.
Check Point adds advanced security to the Google Cloud Platform
Businesses often have security concerns surrounding moving their data to the cloud. For users of the popular Google Cloud Platform, Check Point is offering additional security with the launch of a new product.
The release of vSEC for Google Cloud Platform delivers advanced security that is built for agile and scalable cloud environments.
WebCatalog runs your favorite web apps natively
WebCatalog is an open-source cross-platform tool which runs your favorite websites and services as native desktop applications.
A huge list of supported services includes Amazon, Basecamp, BBC iPlayer, Bing, Dropbox, Evernote, Facebook Messenger, Gmail (and just about every other Google app), iCloud, iCQ, OneDrive, Netflix, Outlook.com, Skype, Spotify, Twitter, WhatsApp, Wikipedia and more.
Generation Z finds products online but prefers to shop in-store
The Gen Z population -- those born between the late 1990s and the mid-2000s -- still value the in-store experience even though they're likely to search for products online.
This is among the findings of a study into shopping habits by retail analytics specialist Euclid Analytics. It reveals that this age group like to see, hold and try on products before buying and 28 percent of Gen Z shoppers want to engage with store associates while shopping, the most of any generation.
Microsoft shuts down So.cl social network
The So.cl experiment will soon be over, as Microsoft's Fuse Labs just announced that it will shut down the social network this month. Launched nearly five years ago, So.cl was meant to appeal to users wanting to share search queries and results.
So.cl seemed to be eyeing a very limited audience from the start, a belief confirmed over the years by the lack of any official figures from Microsoft about its userbase. Alexa puts So.cl's global ranking at just over 466,000 -- to put things into perspective, MySpace is currently in the 3,075th place.
Over 60 percent of organizations hit by ransomware in 2016
Ransomware continues to be a major problem, a new report reveals that more than 60 percent of organizations suffered some form of ransomware attack in 2016.
The good news is that 54 percent successfully retrieved their data without resorting to paying the ransom. These are among the findings of the fourth-annual Cyberthreat Defense Report from security research firm CyberEdge Group.
IBM Q is the first initiative to build commercial quantum computing systems
Your business will finally get the chance to use a quantum computer to do... well, whatever a business could use a quantum computer for. IBM has just announced IBM Q -- "an industry-first initiative to build commercially available universal quantum computing systems."
Its systems and services will be delivered via the IBM Cloud platform, and IBM believes it could be used to "deliver solutions to important problems where patterns cannot be seen because the data doesn’t exist and the possibilities that you need to explore to get to the answer are too enormous to ever be processed by classical computers."
How to disable ads in File Explorer in Windows 10
Microsoft has used Windows 10 as a vehicle for advertising in a variety of ways over the months since its launch. We've seen ads in the Start menu, via taskbar popups and on the Lock screen; now you can find them in File Explorer.
Users have reported the appearance of advertisements for Microsoft's own OneDrive service as they browse the contents of their hard drive(s). You may well think that this is unacceptable, so we'll show you how to disable ads in File Explorer. Even if they haven’t shown up for you yet, there's no harm in taking preventative measures.
IT executives believe service management is key to digital transformation
A new survey reveals that a majority of IT executives believe investment in IT service management (ITSM) is important to gain the agility needed to compete in an era of global, cross-industry disruption and digital transformation.
The study of more than 250 IT executives for enterprise management specialist BMC conducted with Forbes Insights reveals that 88 percent of respondents say ITSM is important to their digital transformation efforts.
wtrace is a process monitor for Windows
wtrace is an open-source console-based process monitor for Windows. It’s essentially a stripped-down version of Sysinternals Process Monitor which you can run at the command line.
The program is entirely portable, with no drivers or Windows services involved. Just unzip the single executable and run it from an elevated command line.
Microsoft and Samsung react to Vault 7 CIA leaks -- Google, Linux Foundation and others remain silent
The Vault 7 document and code cache released yesterday by WikiLeaks revealed that many big software companies were being actively exploited by the CIA. Apple, Microsoft, Google, Samsung, and even Linux were all named as having vulnerabilities that could be used for surveillance.
Apple was one of the first of the companies mentioned in the documents to speak out and address concerns and security. But while the iPhone manufacturer has quickly indicated that it has fixed "many" of the vulnerabilities, Microsoft and Samsung have merely said they are looking into the issues raised. Other companies and groups mentioned have made no comment at all.
Kaspersky discovers StoneDrill wiper malware
Security researchers from Kaspersky Lab have found a very powerful malware, one which is capable of completely wiping the contents of a disk. Announcing the finding, the security company says the malware, which it dubbed StoneDrill, was found on just two machines so far, one in the Middle East, and one in Europe.
The researchers claim StoneDrill is both similar and "very different and more sophisticated" than another wiper malware -- Shamoon 2.0. They actually stumbled upon StoneDrill while investigating Shamoon 2.0.
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