Latest Technology News

Git is a widely used version control system, but it's one that does not cope well with scaling up. As projects and codebases grow, performance can suffer massively, with common tasks taking hours to perform. Today, Microsoft comes up with an answer: GVFS.

Git Virtual File System has come into being partly because of the problems Microsoft itself has encountered with Git. The sheer size of the Windows codebase means that a simple operation such as checkout can take three or more hours. As the V in GVFS, the solution is a virtualization system that works at file system level to make it appear as though all of the files in a repo are present, saving lots of downloading.

Outlook mobile is, believe it or not, two years old. Microsoft is not fighting the terrible twos, but instead celebrating by bringing add-ins to the iOS Outlook app.

While it is iOS users who are treated to the first look at add-ins, there are plans to bring them to Android as well. In addition to add-ins direct from Microsoft, there are also offerings from the likes of Evernote, GIPHY, Nimble, Trello and Smartsheet which will "help you accomplish awesome things you simply couldn't do before from email."

Computers located in Tampa, Orlando, and St. Louis are more likely than those in other US cities to be infected with malware.

This is according to a new report from ESG, the company behind the SpyHunter anti-spyware program. It compiled its results from SpyHunter detection data across the 100 largest cities in the United States in 2016.

Earlier this month there was widespread reporting in both the tech and mainstream media of the discovery of a potential security vulnerability in Facebook's WhatsApp messaging service. Coverage of the likely flaw, which was reportedly discovered by researchers at Berkeley University in California, was a blow to Facebook given that WhatsApp places privacy and security at the heart of its service by providing end-to-end encryption of user's messages and photos, preventing third parties including its own staff from accessing them.

In a nutshell the potential security flaw would theoretically allow WhatsApp to intercept some users' messages, which would appear to them to be encrypted. This has resulted in considerable speculation that government agencies could exploit this vulnerability as a means of covert surveillance, by targeting specific individuals' messages or on a bulk extraction basis.

There are so many different programs, devices and peripherals on the market, that when Microsoft makes, or updates a new operating system, there’s a good chance something will break.

It’s obviously a challenge to make Windows compatible with as many third-party products as possible, but Microsoft says Windows 10 is its most compatible OS to date, and shares some facts to back this up.

Two-hundred-and-seventeen in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 on Windows Store in the past seven days.

Microsoft released two new Insider Builds this week. You can check out Wayne's coverage of Build 15019 and Build 15025 with a click on the build numbers.

The threat landscape facing businesses is more complex than ever and it's rapidly changing. No surprise then that traditional approaches to security are struggling to cope.

This has led some security companies to turn to a more dynamic approach of seeking out threats rather than simply responding to attacks.

Consumers are quite confident banks and insurers can keep their data safe, but these organizations aren’t that sure. A new report by Capgemini has shown that financial institutions lack a significant amount of confidence when it comes to data protection.

Just one in five (21 percent) of financial service organizations admitted they’re "highly confident" they could detect a data breach. On the other hand, 83 percent of consumers trust banks and insurers with their data.

When I want to stream locally stored media to my television, I turn to Plex. The popular service has apps for many devices such as Xbox One and Apple TV -- both of which I own. Heck, even my Samsung 4K TV has Plex support built in. Ultimately, the value of the service is found in both its ease of use and cross-platform support.

Never known to stand on its laurels, Plex is constantly improving, and today, it gets a really exciting new feature. Users of the service that are also owners of Amazon Echo or other compatible devices can now leverage the Alexa voice assistant to interact with Plex.

In today’s digital age, many entrepreneurs spend a lot of their time thinking about how they can develop a startup that becomes the next great tech innovation story. If the measure of success is to be mentioned in the same breath as Netflix, Uber and Dropbox, it’s important to take a closer look at the things these companies have done right over the years.

While Reed Hastings, Travis Kalanick and Drew Houston have made a lot of correct choices over the course of their journey to reach the pinnacle of startup success, many of these strategic decisions have centered around their company’s mobile app.

According to an often quoted stat from the analyst group Informa, approximately 80 percent of mobile phone calls are now made from inside a building. As the UK increasingly moves towards being a nation of urban dwellers, this figure is perhaps not surprising -- and indeed, factoring in the continuous increase in the use of mobile devices in the workplace -- research from Aruba HPE found that 60 percent of employees link mobile technology with the ability to be productive at work -- it could well be set to go even higher.

In the face of such statistics the assumption might be that the UK would boast strong indoor coverage, however a report by communications regulator Ofcom last year found quite the opposite. In-fact, according to Ofcom over half of the UK population had reported issues with voice and data services when making calls indoors.

This Sunday, many people around the world will tune into Super Bowl LI. The annual NFL championship has become something of a holiday in the USA, as people have parties and cook special foods. In fact, some people are more interested in the eating aspect (and commercials), as opposed to the actual football game. While I personally enjoy watching the big game (Jets fan rooting for Falcons), I'd be lying if I said I wasn't also excited for chicken wings and taco dip.

If you will be cooking or preparing snacks for the Super Bowl, Google has a new way for you to interact with online recipe searches. When using the company's search app for food recipes, you will be treated to an all-new carousel interface.

In 2014, Apple introduced the first big iPhone, the iPhone 6 Plus. Since then, the company has offered a phablet version for each new incarnation of its hugely successful device. While Apple doesn't say how many buyers prefer it over the standard model, reports show that it accounts for a significant portion of sales.

In US, the Plus models have gained considerable traction, with Consumer Intelligence Research Partners saying that they made up 35 percent of the iPhone installed base as of 31 December 2016. And their popularity is growing, as a year prior that figure stood at 25 percent.

The biggest fear for organizations is long-term damage to brand and reputation, yet despite this three quarters lack a comprehensive risk management strategy.

This is one of the findings of a survey for risk intelligence company RiskVision carried out by the Ponemon Institute, it reveals that 63 percent of organizations are worried about reputation and brand damage. This is followed by security breaches (51 percent), business disruption (51 percent) and intellectual property loss (37 percent).

Valve, the company behind games distribution platform Steam, is being investigated by EU antitrust regulators. Agreements in place between Valve and five game publishers that implement geo-blocking in titles could breach European competition rules.

Valve, alongside Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media and ZeniMax, is under investigation to determine whether the practice of restricting access to games and prices based on location is legal. At the same time the European Commission is launching an investigation into ASUS, Denon & Marantz, Philips and Pioneer for price manipulation.