IrfanView 4.44 adds lots of new features
The superb freeware image viewer IrfanView has hit version 4.44 with a pile of tweaks and additions. A much-improved histogram is now modeless, and offers curves, RGB and other viewing selections.
The Batch Scan dialog supports scanning multiple pages to PDF files.
Windows 10 Creators Update Build 14986 ISO images available now
If you’re thinking of joining the Windows 10 Insider program, or you just want to do a clean install with the very latest version of Windows 10, the good news is Microsoft has released an up-to-date ISO image.
The image, for Build 14986, is available to all, and you can download it now, although there is a catch.
"Does Alaska have polar bears?" and other popular Google search queries in 2016
Google search's autocomplete function is an interesting feature; as well as helping to save time, it can also be very revealing of the zeitgeist. The feature has been in the headlines recently for reasons that probably didn’t make Google particularly happy, but autocomplete can also be the source of some amusement.
Marketing company WebpageFX has come up with an entertaining lookback at the most popular searches in the US, broken down by state. This fairly simple piece of research shows that people are asking questions such as "does Idaho exist?", "does Florida have zika?", and "does Arizona have pee in it?" (yep... we're lost too...*). Some searches are serious, some silly, some weird. Here's how they break down.
Facebook received 27 percent more government requests for information in 2016
Facebook has released its Global Government Requests Report for H1 2016, and it shows that there has been a significant increase in the number of government requests for account data.
Compared to the first half of 2015, Facebook received 27 percent more requests globally. Most of these 59,229 requests came from the US government, and more than half of them (56 percent) included a gagging order preventing Facebook from notifying the affected users.
How to protect your business against data breaches
According to the Crime Survey for England and Wales published this October by the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS), the official crime rate all but doubled in the year ending June 2016 after the inclusion of online crime figures for the very first time. In fact, card fraud was cited as the most common crime in the UK. John Flatley, head of crime statistics and analysis at the ONS, stated that members of the public are now 20 times more likely to be a victim of fraud than of robbery.
The Numbers Are Soaring!
Garth Brooks' full catalog hits Amazon Music this Saturday
Regardless of whether or not you're a country music fan, you almost certainly know the name Garth Brooks. The famed musician is married to another icon of that genre, Trisha Yearwood. While both still tour and remain popular performers, the latter can also be found cooking on Food Network, sometimes with her husband in the kitchen.
While Brooks retired years ago, it was simply in favor of spending time with his kids, and he's since made a comeback. But getting ahold of his music has proven troublesome.
Nokia sues Apple over alleged patent infringement
Nokia just announced that it is suing Apple in the US and Germany because the iPhone maker is allegedly infringing some of its patents. According to the Finnish company, Apple rejected any licensing offers that would have allowed it to legally take advantage of the infringed patents.
"Through our sustained investment in research and development, Nokia has created or contributed to many of the fundamental technologies used in today's mobile devices, including Apple products. After several years of negotiations trying to reach agreement to cover Apple's use of these patents, we are now taking action to defend our rights", says Nokia's head of Patent Business, Ilkka Rahnasto.
Back up, restore or migrate an Oculus Rift install with AOMEI vrBackupper
Oculus Rift may be a powerful and well-designed VR system, but its file and application management abilities aren’t so smart. Early versions would only install on your system drive, games and apps are always installed to a library in the same location, and if you uninstall Oculus then all your software disappears as well.
AOMEI vrBackupper is a 64-bit Windows 10 program which can back up, restore or migrate your Oculus Rift installation or just your installed games and applications.
Employee engagement is crucial to a modern CEO
The recent proposed Green Paper, and in particular its element on "stakeholder engagement", called for the voices of employees and customers to be heard in the Boardroom. It followed the PM’s U Turn on her commitment to put employees on company boards, but echoed the Chancellor’s sentiments on UK productivity.
As Mr Hammond reminded us in his Autumn Statement, UK productivity lags behind that of the US and Germany by some 30 percentage points. According to research from Qualtrics, British workers think a third of their working day is wasted. Giving employees a "voice", however, dramatically improves outcomes, because low productivity and dysfunctional employee engagement are two sides of the same coin.
Acer offers both Windows 10 and Linux on new Aspire C Series all-in-one desktops
Even though more and more people are choosing laptops and tablets for their computing needs nowadays, there is still a place for desktops. All-in-one machines in particular can be a cost-effective way to get both a PC and monitor. This design will also save space on a desk or table -- a good thing for those without a lot of space.
Today, Acer announces its Aspire C Series all-in-one desktops. The machines come in two screen sizes, both with 1080p resolution -- 21.5-inch (22) and 23.8-inch (24). What is particularly cool, however, is the operating system that they run. Of course, Windows 10 Home is available as default, but if a consumer prefers, they can opt to have a Linux-based OS instead (Linpus Linux). How cool is that?
Hybrid clouds make it easy to deploy new technologies
According to IDC, by 2018 at least half of IT spending will be cloud based, reaching 60 percent of all IT Infrastructures, and 60 to 70 percent of all software, services, and technology spending by 2020.
As cloud has become a standard way of doing business, organizations globally are using it as a tool for innovation and business transformation. Those who successfully use the cloud to achieve growth will have a mature, strategic view of how best to implement and integrate it across their organizations. All approaches to cloud have advantages. From the straightforward simplicity of public cloud services, versus the increased security and control of a private cloud, there is a cloud environment to meet every organization’s needs.
South Carolina government eyes a porn block on new computers
On a day that we expect to see the repeal of North Carolina's controversial passage of House Bill 2, which cost the state millions of dollars in lost revenue thanks to performers cancelling concerts, businesses moving out and the NBA changing the venue for its All-Star game, we have one more state looking for a problem where one doesn't exist.
A representative in the state of South Carolina wishes to place a porn block on all new computers sold within its boundaries.
IObit Advanced SystemCare Ultimate 10 strengthens protection, tweaks optimization tools
IObit has released Advanced SystemCare Ultimate 10, a major new release of its flagship system security and optimization product for Windows. The new release centers around offering a larger anti-virus database through the integration of a new BitDefender antivirus engine.
Elsewhere, the application includes a number of new features already introduced when its little brother, IObit Advanced SystemCare Free, was updated in October. These include a new FaceID feature and component for managing start-up items.
Raspberry Pi's Linux-based PIXEL desktop now available for PC and Mac
If you own a Raspberry Pi, you’re probably familiar with PIXEL. The desktop environment is included in the Raspbian OS.
The Raspberry Pi Foundation describes PIXEL as the "GNU/Linux we would want to use" and understandably so. It offers a smart, clean interface, a decent selection of software, the Chromium web browser with plug-ins, and more -- and from today it’s available for PC and Mac.
Twitter search gets an overhaul to place more emphasis on relevance
Twitter has given its search results a tweak just in time for the New Year. The change sees a move away from displaying tweets in reverse chronological order to showing them in order of relevance instead.
The company recognizes that the site is "live and real-time, so naturally Twitter search must surface recent, yet still relevant, results", so time of posting is still factored in to determine the display order -- it is just no longer the only factor used. With a dash of machine learning thrown in, Twitter thinks it has things sorted.
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