Latest Technology News

It’s something that many iPhone and iPad owners have asked: just how the hell do I delete the pointless Stocks app? With iOS 10 there's no need to go as far as jailbreaking your beloved device, as Apple is making it possible to delete no fewer than 23 of the built-in apps.

That useless Stocks app? Gone! The News app you never use? History! There are many reasons for wanting to banish these apps. Apart from not using them, you might want to free up screen space by getting rid of unnecessary icons. You might feel you can free up a bunch of storage space -- but Apple insists that "the apps built into iOS are designed to be very space efficient, so all of them together use less than 150MB". Whatever. The point is: you can now delete them!

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With Apple's software announcements today, the focus has been on what is new and exciting. But with (just about) any operating system update, there is a darker side: the older devices that slip into oblivion, never to be updated again.

It's no different with iOS 10 and macOS Sierra. On the mobile front, Apple is giving up on the A5 chip, meaning that a number of iPhones and iPads are not going to support the latest version of iOS. It’s a similar story for Mac and MacBook owners -- older devices simply aren’t going to get the goodies.

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If you are wanting a desktop operating system, you largely have two options -- Windows or OS X. To a lesser extent, consumers can opt for Linux-based operating systems, such as Chrome OS or Ubuntu, but Apple and Microsoft's offerings reign supreme. While OS X is arguably more elegant than Windows, it only comes installed on Apple's expensive hardware. Microsoft's OS is the best option for those on a budget.

One thing that was not elegant about OS X, however, was the name. It was not in line with the company's other operating systems -- iOS, watchOS, and tvOS. Not to mention, the 15 year old "X" branding was getting a bit long in the tooth. Today, Apple renames it to macOS, while also designating a new code name to the upcoming version -- Sierra. It looks to be the best Mac operating system ever.

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It's what Apple is describing as 'the biggest iOS release ever'. Whether everyone else agrees remains to be seen, but today the company took the wraps off iOS 10 -- and there's certainly a lot to take in. Perhaps the most notable change, for developers at least, is the fact that Siri has been opened up so that it can be used by third party apps.

Messaging has become more important than ever in recent years, and this is something that Apple recognizes with iOS 10. Taking design cues from the likes of Facebook and WhatsApp, the Messages app now includes full screen animations, and there's a neat new feature that means you can handwrite messages.

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Continuing to steal Apple's WWDC thunder, Microsoft has been using its E3 press briefing to make some major announcements.

First up, the tech giant unveiled the Xbox One S, a slimmer, much improved Xbox One, but the real excitement is not that games console, but a future device.

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Two-in-one and pro slate devices have earned their vendors higher revenue, managing to stabilize average selling prices, a new report by Strategy Analytics says.

The report, entitled "Global Tablet Vendor & OS, Unit & Value Market Share by Region: Q1 2016", says Microsoft and Apple sold more than a million of their pro slates last quarter.

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I’m an Apple Watch owner, but I’m not really an Apple Watch wearer. Like a lot of people, I’ve found Apple’s first wearable to be useful, but far from essential. I’ll wear it occasionally -- usually when I’m exercising -- but most of the time it just sits on the side, charging.

With watchOS 3, Apple has actually made me excited again for the Apple Watch. So what’s new?

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For the first time ever, the majority of cybersecurity professionals believe cloud-based apps are as secure as on-premise apps. Those are the results of a new survey conducted by Bitglass, among 2,200 cybersecurity experts.

According to the report, entitled The Rise of Purpose-Built Cloud Security, 52 percent of those surveyed said they found cloud-based apps as secure as their on-premise counterparts. The most interesting thing is that this percentage has jumped from 40 percent same time last year.

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Timing is everything, particularly in business marketing tactics. Surely it's no coincidence that hours before Apple's big developer conference, where questions about iPhone's future and product innovation loom large, that Microsoft announces plans to buy social network LinkedIn. Hehe, how do you like them apples?

The merger will split tech news and analysis coverage this fine Monday and spill over to tomorrow, robbing Apple of the attention it needs now to subdue rising negative perceptions about the future. Global smartphone sales are slowing and iPhone accounts for 65 percent of total revenues. Meanwhile, the fruit-logo company hasn't perceptually lifted the innovation meter since before cofounder Steve Jobs died nearly five years ago. Apple needs to deliver wow and have bloggers and reporters giggle with glee all over the InterWebs.

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To quickly and easily access a network drive from your Mac you can configure OS X to automatically mount the volume after booting up. That way, after you turn on or restart your Mac, you will be able to get to your files in no time. But, how can you do that?

While it is very easy to access the network drive, figuring out how to set up OS X to automatically mount it is not. That is because there is no magic button to click on in the volume's settings or an obvious option to enable in System Preferences. So, where does that leave you?

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As organizations move more of their data to the cloud the risk from shadow IT in the form of connected third-party apps grows greater.

New research from CloudLock CyberLab, the security intelligence part of the CloudLock security platform, finds that 27 percent of third-party apps are classified as high risk. This means cyber criminals could gain programmatic access to corporate platforms and impersonate end users.

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Powerful batch image processor ImBatch has reached version 4.90 with the addition of some handy transparency tools. A new Stroke feature outlines your image with transparency, using a customizable width and color.

ImBatch can now replace transparency with a white color when saving to an image which doesn’t support transparency (PNG > JPG, say).

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Ransomware is one of the most important security threats for business to deal with as it has the potential to cause serious damage and financial loss.

User behavior specialist Exabeam is launching its Analytics for Ransomware, a new application designed for early detection across the corporate network. Unlike other security products, Exabeam can detect ransomware movement and activity in the network, servers, workstations, BYOD devices, and cloud services.

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Dell has announced that it has upgraded its 13th generation PowerEdge four-socket server portfolio. The new servers, designed with big-data and real-time analytics in mind, offer more flexibility, scalability and manageability.

This includes four new offerings: the PowerEdge R830 and PowerEdge R930 servers, PowerEdge FC830 -- a full-width, four-socket compute node for the Dell PowerEdge FX architecture -- and PowerEdge M830 blade server.

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In a surprise announcement, Microsoft has said that it is to buy LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in cash. The $196 per share deal is expect to close by the end of this calendar year having been unanimously approved by both companies' Boards of Directors.

Following the acquisition, LinkedIn will retain its current branding and Jeff Weiner will remain on as CEO, reporting to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. LinkedIn will become part of Microsoft’s Productivity and Business Processes segment.

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