Microsoft: Surface just enjoyed its most successful month ever, thanks to the new Apple MacBook Pro
Microsoft likes to compare its Surface range with the MacBook Pro at any given opportunity, even though the two products are very different.
November, according to Microsoft, was the best month ever for consumer Surface sales, and the software giant is gleefully claiming that disappointment with the new MacBook Pro is part of the reason behind the surge. But is it? Really?
QOwnNotes is a versatile notepad and to-do list manager
At first glance, QOwnNotes doesn’t seem like the most interesting of apps. An "open source plain-text file notepad"? Aren’t there enough of those already?
Download and try the program, though, and you might be surprised at how much more it can do.
Fighting ransomware in the cloud
A recent survey of 500 businesses revealed that nearly half were brought to a standstill by a ransomware attack within the last 12 months. Ransomware is malware that installs covertly on a victim's computer, executes a crypto-virology attack that adversely affects it, and demands a ransom payment to decrypt it or to not publish it.
There has been more and more documented evidence that ransomware is on the rise, particularly in the UK. It's being used as a sort of testing ground to the point whereby ransomware has become the number one threat facing British organizations in 2016.
Windows 10 is now more successful than Windows 7, according to Microsoft -- no, really
While it was free, and being forced on to users’ computers, Windows 10 enjoyed predictably solid growth. By the end of August -- the first month in which Windows 10 was no longer free -- NetMarketShare measured the new operating system’s usage share at 22.99 percent globally. Not too shabby, but still quite some distance behind Windows 7, on 47.25 percent.
Microsoft’s own figures -- which represent market share rather than usage share -- paint a very different picture. Three months ago, the software giant caused eyebrows to be raised with its claim that in June the new OS hit 50 percent share in the US (51 percent in the UK, 39 percent globally). Its figures have just been updated again, and yes prepare to have your incredulity stretched even further.
Access Ext2, HFS and other file systems with DiskInternals Linux Reader
DiskInternals Linux Reader is a freeware Windows application for browsing drives using Linux, Apple and other file systems. The program enables reading (but not writing) drives using Ext2/3/4, ReiserFS, Reiser4, HFS, HFS+, FAT, exFAT, NTFS, ReFS and UFS2.
It’s also possible to mount and read raw disk images (*.dsk, *.img) and assorted virtual disk formats (*.vmdk, *.vhd, *.vhdx, *.vdi, *.vds).
Automatically optimise your photos with AutoHDR
Top photo editors will often have "auto-fix" tools to optimize colors, lighting, sharpness and more, all with a single click. But they’re often short on configuration options, and some editors may not have any automatic fixes at all.
AutoHDR is a tiny stand-alone replacement for other image enhancers. Drag and drop a photo, click Process, then Save: it could be as simple as that.
What you need to know about hyperconvergence
As companies grow, their IT systems tend to expand in a way that can lead to them becoming unwieldy and hard to control. Hyperconvergence is about simplifying things by consolidating the IT infrastructure into a virtualized system, this reduces the number of devices, cuts maintenance costs and ensures there are fewer potential points of failure, making systems more resilient.
Essentially it’s a software defined architecture that merges storage, networking and other resources on a single system based on commodity hardware. The benefits of this include being able to manage the whole thing as a single system through a common tool set.
Linux Mint lacks resources to maintain KDE Plasma version -- turns to Kubuntu team for help
There are too many dang Linux distributions and desktop environments nowadays. This is frustrating, as it spreads developer resources too thin. In other words, developers are often working on too many separate projects that further fragments the community. Linux on the desktop could be much further along if teams pooled resources and focused on a narrower field of development.
Today, Clement Lefebvre, Linux Mint leader, concedes that his team simply doesn't have the resources to meet its goals. You see, the team is finding it very difficult to maintain a KDE Plasma version of its operating system, so it has turned to the Kubuntu team instead. The question becomes, why bother? KDE users should simply use Kubuntu and the Linux Mint team should stay focused on Cinnamon and Mate. Am I right?
Windows 10 suddenly killing internet connectivity for some users
Microsoft pushed out a new cumulative update to the Windows 10 release channel yesterday, and a number of users are reporting that it’s causing their internet connection to stop working, although there’s speculation that the update isn’t the cause at all.
The update, KB3201845, is designed to fix various issues with the new operating system and was first issued to Windows Insiders in November but the problem clearly wasn’t flagged up with it then, and some people are saying the problem started for them before the update was rolled out.
The most popular How To guides of 2016
In addition to news and reviews, we also regularly publish 'How to' guides here on BetaNews.
These are often very popular and cover a range of topics, software, and services. Taking a look back, as is the tradition at this time of year, I thought it would be good to revisit the most popular guides published in the past 12 months.
Firewalls give enterprises a false sense of security
The recent US elections served up plenty of drama and even more suspense as the campaign entered its final stretch. Pollsters and forecasters crunched data continuously to accurately predict the paths to victory or defeat for both parties.
One of the most publicized concepts was the supposed "blue firewall", a group of states that had consistently voted for the Democratic party in past elections. If the Democrats could hold onto their lead in these states, they’d all but guarantee victory, or so the polling experts predicted…
The 3 ’esses’ of continuous database processes -- Speed, Scale and Simplicity
The driving force behind the shifts we’ve seen to Agile, DevOps and Automation, are the business needs of the companies we serve. Doing more with less and delivering it sooner than the competition is what differentiates leading companies from the rest of the pack.
Once a competitor delivers relevant features, which are faster and better quality, you WILL lose market share. In the age of Agile Development, enterprises must be capable of moving rapidly to deal with ever changing requirements, while still providing quality results, all while dealing with limited resources.
Why cybersecurity is an essential part of any enterprise’s security plan
Online, hooked up, plugged in and "on the cloud". Whether it is your own personal information such as saved passwords or credit card information or if it is your client's’ personal information, so much of our personal lives can now be easily accessed just with a little Wi-Fi. With our new found accessibility -- everything at the click of a button -- our lives have become all that much more convenient, and our businesses and assets have become all that much more vulnerable. Cybercrime has boomed over the last decade and has become a real problem for businesses, large and small alike.
In the U. S. alone, more than 35,000 computer security incidents happen each day, and that is only the reported attacks. Many more attacks happen but go unreported as businesses aren’t legally required to report some types of attacks. According to PwC’s 2015 US State of Cybercrime Survey, a total of 79 percent of respondents detected a security incident in the past year. The security firm Gemalto estimated that in 2015 alone, more than 700 million data records were compromised, but unfortunately only 37 percent of organizations have implemented a dedicated cyber incident response plan.
6 IoT devices you may not have considered
The Internet of Things, or IoT, seems to be the big headline in tech news lately.
Perhaps you’ve heard of smart remotes, outlets, thermostats or alarm systems, but with all the recent development in this area, there are probably quite a few devices that you haven’t yet considered. Here are six worth adding to your tech radar.
Employees' bad security habits put businesses in danger
Employees have poor security practices and use completely unsecured private devices for work, putting their organizations at huge risk of cyber-attacks, a new report by WinMagic says. After polling workers in the UK, the report says more than four in ten (42 percent) use private devices for work, accessing corporate data and e-mail accounts.
More than half (52 percent) use private accounts, including enterprise file sharing services (EFSS), which they use to either store or access corporate files. Only a third (34 percent) say they had never done so. Laptops, smartphones and USB devices are the top three personal devices used for work, and Hotmail, Gmail and Dropbox are the top three online services used by employees.
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