Latest Technology News

As someone who often works on the go, I find myself in various coffee shops -- such as Starbucks -- during the week. While I obviously want to use the free Wi-Fi, their caffeinated beverages keep me fueled-up too. Coffee is one of the best productivity boosters, folks.

Inside Starbucks, I am surrounded by other people doing the same. They are using expensive Windows laptops and MacBooks, drinking pricey coffee drinks, and yet there is one area they seem to skimp -- the carry bag. They use ugly bags that seemingly offer little protection. This is crazy to me, as a good bag can not only prevent damage to your devices, but improve the overall appearance too -- it is also fashion. Today, Booq announces its latest such bag, called simply 'Pack Pro'.  It looks to be an excellent choice for professionals that value high-quality laptop backpacks.

Continue reading →

We are coming closer to the point where a cyber-attack will cost every large business more than $1 million. According to a new Kaspersky Lab report, a single cyber-security incident now costs a large business, on average, $861,000.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) pay ten times less, on average -- $86,500. The new report also stresses, once again, how costs go up the longer the threat remains unseen. For an SME, it will have to pay 44 percent more to recover from a week-old attack, compared to the one spotted on the first day. Among large companies, the percentage sits at 27.

Continue reading →

If you're getting your TV service over the internet then Sling is likely on your radar as it offers live TV with a good choice of channels. Want CNN? You got it. Want sports? You have ESPN and ESPN 2 to choose from, and currently an SEC free trial.

But sports is more than just those big name channels. What about the lesser watched ones? Well, now Sling is bringing two more of those to its service.

Continue reading →

Microsoft is continuing to add new features and functionality to Outlook.com.

In addition to the integrated OneDrive support, the software giant added Box and Dropbox sharing to its webmail service earlier in the year, and today it makes sharing even more useful with the addition of support for Google Drive and Facebook.

Continue reading →

GitHub has published The state of the Octoverse 2016, a very interesting report that offers an insight into how its 14 million users leveraged the hugely popular repository this year. Among them is a list of organizations with the most open source contributors, most popular coding languages, most used emoji reactions, new user interactions and much more.

The list of organizations with the most open source contributions is particularly interesting, because it shows Microsoft leading the pack with over 16,000 users. The software giant is followed by Facebook and Docker, with Google only coming in fifth place. For folks who associate Microsoft with closed-source this must come as a pretty big surprise.

Continue reading →

As students head back to university, a survey by Intel Security reveals that, in the UK at least, half of them are failing to protect their phones, tablets and laptops from online threats.

The survey of more than 1,000 UK-based students carried out in conjunction with The National Student finds that despite a quarter of teenagers reporting that they are 'almost constantly' online, only 50 percent of students ensure they have the necessary security software installed to keep their devices and data safe.

Continue reading →

Of all the communication channels available for dealing with businesses, 60 percent of millennials prefer two-way text engagement, because it’s convenient, fast, and easy to use. This is one of the findings of a new survey by mobile engagement specialist OpenMarket of 500 US millennials (18 to 34-year-olds) on their use of SMS communications.

While 72 percent of millennials say they text 10 or more times a day, and 31 percent more than 50 times a day, the leading factor in millennials' preferences for texting is its ability for two-way communication with businesses.

Continue reading →

I can understand the logic behind Apple's decision to remove the headphone jack from its latest iPhones. Some folks may not like it, but fact of the matter is that space is at a premium on such small devices. If a manufacturer can add meaningful features that improve the user experience by dropping the headphone jack then it is well worth it -- despite the fact that you can no longer charge your iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus and use the headphones at the same time without buying a dongle.

But Apple is testing the waters to see if it could drop the headphone jack on other devices as well, as it is now asking users of the MacBook Pro with Retina display if they "ever use the headphone port". This is no longer about "courage". It would be change for change's sake.

Continue reading →

UK businesses’ number one technology priority is security, according to a new survey by EACS. The IT solutions and managed services provider polled CIOs, IT directors and IT managers, and released the results in a whitepaper entitled Business & Technology Priorities 2016 survey.

Among the top priorities for them are better efficiency, operating results, increased productivity and cutting costs. The study also found one interesting thing -- all IT decision makers agree that no company can be 100 percent safe. That is why disaster recovery is in second place on the list of tech priorities.

Continue reading →

Whilst the popular view of hackers tends to be of outsiders, there's been increasing emphasis in recent years on the threat to enterprise data posed by those inside the organization.

Behavior analytics company RedOwl carried out a survey at last month's Black Hat conference, asking almost 300 security professionals for their views on insider threats, and the results are released today.

Continue reading →

Sunrise is dead, long live Sunrise! Once considered the best mobile calendar app to ever grace us with its presence, it got acquired by Microsoft and is now officially retired.

But Microsoft has taken its best features and reincarnated them into its Outlook app's calendar, and the general feeling is overall quite positive. The updated Outlook, which is available now, comes with a couple of changes. Interesting Calendars is one of the new features, which allows Outlook to connect with businesses, TV shows and similar.

Continue reading →

Having once had a phone die on me in an important moment while traveling I’ve learned not to go any distance without a battery pack with me, just in case. I also use the ThinCharge case for my iPhone, which I reviewed here.

ChargeTech, which makes that battery case, has produced a new battery pack that essentially lets you take a wall outlet with you. You can charge any device, including laptops, and also power equipment from it.

Continue reading →

Microsoft has announced that it will be bringing Azure Service Fabric, which allows developers to run and manage microservices, to Linux.

Azure's CTO Mark Russinovich is very enthusiastic about microservices, which the company has been using internally for seven years. Russinovich believes that the vast majority of apps even including enterprise apps will soon be built using this technology.

Continue reading →

If your business hasn’t already faced a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, brace yourself: fake traffic is coming.

Your DevOps team and IT service desk need an action plan to handle these threats. This article will take you step-by-step through the process of identifying, stopping, and responding to DDoS attacks.

Continue reading →

Get involved in any graphic design project and you’ll probably spend an age choosing the color scheme -- but this shouldn’t just be about personal taste.

Around 5 percent of the population have some form of color vision deficiency, so it’s important to consider how they might see your finished design.

Continue reading →