Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14931 for PC arrives on the Slow ring
Two weeks ago, Microsoft released Insider Preview Build 14931 to the Fast ring. It wasn’t the most exciting of new builds, as it didn’t offer any new features as such, but focused instead on improvements and fixes.
Today, that build makes its way to the Slow ring. Improvements for PC include:
Why Britain's unicorns don't live up to Silicon Valley hype
The United States may well be starting to lose its dominance on the global stage, but it’s hard to deny that its native Silicon Valley has been the envy of global governments for decades. Even China, which generally looks upon American culture with disdain, has been stealthily building clusters of Silicon somethings, if not valleys.
Here, research and development funding has swelled by an average of 64 percent year on year for the past half-decade – all with the hope of creating the same west-coast sweet spot somewhere to the east. Yet, so far, no country can claim to have replicated the prized unicorn farm of the US.
Is Microsoft planning to resurrect its dreaded Get Windows 10 nagware? [Update: no, it isn't]
Two weeks ago, Microsoft finally removed its scummy Windows 10 nagware from Windows 7 and 8.1 systems. This came as a major relief to everyone who didn’t want to upgrade to the latest operating system, but who had been forced to weather a storm of increasingly sneaky tactics as the software giant pulled every trick possible to get as many users to upgrade before the free period expired.
With the nagware removed, users were no doubt hoping that would be the end of the matter, but it turns out that might not be the case after all.
Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition now available with Ubuntu Linux and Intel Kaby Lake CPU
When you want a laptop running Ubuntu, you can always purchase a Windows machine and replace the operating system. Why bother with that hassle, though? Instead, it is smart to buy a machine pre-loaded with a Linux-based operating from a company like System76.
While System76 sells brilliant Ubuntu-powered laptops and desktops, it is not the only game in town. Actually, believe it or not, Dell has long been a proponent of Linux, even before 'Project Sputnik'. Its Ubuntu-powered XPS 13 Developer Edition laptops have been quite popular, and for good reason -- they are built well and are very beautiful. Today, Dell announces a refresh with 7th-gen Intel Kaby Lake processors. The 13-inch laptop even gets a new color option -- rose gold.
Paper use in the office is declining
Our offices are still not entirely paper-free, but we're slowly getting there. This optimistic prediction has been published in a new report by AIIM, entitled Paper-Free in 2016, Are we there yet?. According to it, the amount of paper going into offices is declining, while digital inbound documents are increasing, for two thirds of business executives.
The report launches as part of the run up to World Paper Free Day (WPFD) 2016, AIIM says, taking place on November 4. "The once elusive concept of paper-free business operations is today a real possibility and real progress has been made over the past 12 months", says Bob Larrivee, chief analyst at AIIM. "It remains unrealistic to think that all business processes and transactions will be paper-free in the near future, but there are definitely certain processes where paper can be removed".
Some UK businesses don't know what ransomware is
More than one in ten (11 percent) of all UK organizations have never even heard of ransomware, Trend Micro claims. Another 20 percent don't know how the malware works. Yet, more than four fifths, or 82 percent to be exact, consider malware a threat.
This general lack of knowledge about ransomware best reflects in how the organizations in question think ransomware originates. A third (33 percent) of them know it comes from malicious email attachments. However, a quarter (24 percent) believe ransomware infections come from clicking a link in an email, and 14 percent think it happens if you simply browse the web.
TalkTalk fined £400,000 for security breach
UK ISP TalkTalk hit the headlines last year for a data breach that resulted in the theft of personal data relating to over 150,000 customers.
Today the Information Commissioner's Office announced that it has issued the company with a record £400,000 (around $510,000) fine for what it called a failure to implement basic security measures.
Everyone now has access to Facebook's Secret Conversations, so take control of your privacy
Facebook has been testing its privacy-focused Secret Conversations feature with a select, and then wider, group of users for a little while now. Today the end-to-end encrypted messaging system rolls out to everyone. If you're concerned about your privacy (firstly, why are you using Facebook?), it's your duty to use it.
Secret Conversations remains an opt-in feature, and once enabled it means that only the sender and recipient are able to see messages -- there is no scope for interception by Facebook or any other third party. There's also an important self-destructing messaging option, but there's one glaring problem.
Google's new Pixel phones spell the end of the Nexus line
Now that Google has its own line of smartphones developed completely in-house, you may be wondering what sort of impact will it have on the beloved Nexus brand? The Pixel and Pixel XL are not direct replacements for the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P, targeting shoppers in the premium segment. Could there be something just around the corner to fill in the gaps?
Traditionally speaking, the Nexus brand has featured at least one affordable smartphone in the line -- last year, it was the Nexus 5X -- so it would make sense for Google to launch something similar. However, if we are to believe Android head Hiroshi Lockheimer, you should not get your hopes up.
Amazon Prime subscribers now have free ebooks, magazines and more with Prime Reading
If you have been looking for one more reason to become an Amazon Prime subscriber, the newly launched Prime Reading feature could just be the clincher.
Prime Reading gives US subscribers access to a library of free Kindle ebooks, magazines, comics and other publications completely free of charge. At the moment Amazon is proclaiming there are "over a thousand popular books", but there is also the promise of exclusive content.
SaaS makes our jobs more difficult say IT pros
There is a perception in the IT business that adopting software-as-a-service models will make life easier for tech teams and end users alike.
But a new study by cloud specialist BetterCloud suggests that in fact SaaS is making IT jobs harder. According to the survey of over 900 IT professionals, 56 percent of Google Apps and 62 percent of Office 365 IT pros believe their jobs are becoming more difficult due to rising SaaS adoption.
How to extract images from just about any file type
Extracting images from documents makes it much easier to reuse them elsewhere, and there’s a lot of freeware around to get the job done. Which is best for you? That depends on the file formats you want to use.
Weeny Free PDF Extractor provides a simple way to extract the contents of one or multiple PDF files. And not just images: it gives you embedded fonts and TXT files of any text content, too.
New study by Kaspersky shows computer risks to those over 55
It's probably no great secret that today's older generation has a flock of followers online that they largely do not want, who are trying to con them out of their money. Trying to take advantage of this generation is nothing new. In the past it was done door to door with scams such as "roofers" and "driveway repairmen".
Security company Kaspersky has done a study of internet users aged 55 and older and the results, while unsurprising, aren't particularly good.
Open Whisper Systems defeats government subpoena of Signal data with encryption
If you think you and your data are safe on the internet, think again. As we increasingly entrust companies with our data and information, many of these entities end up letting us down. For instance, in a bombshell reveal, we recently learned that Yahoo was scanning user email for the US government. Yes, the company violated the trust that users gave it.
Earlier this year, Open Whisper Systems was served with a subpoena from the Eastern District of Virginia asking it to turn over Signal messaging user information for a federal grand jury investigation. While this sounds like the beginning of a sad story for users of the service, it is actually a beautiful tale with a very happy ending. You see, thanks to the company's focus on encryption and smart design, it was unable to turn over any meaningful data. In other words, the service was created in such a way that the desired information couldn't be presented even if the company wanted to. Too bad that Yahoo didn't design its services in the same way, eh?
Intel Security launches new McAfee lineup harnessing the power of the cloud
As we use more devices to access the internet protecting all of them from the latest threats becomes something of a chore.
Intel Security is addressing this with the launch of a new 2017 range of McAfee security products at the heart of which is a next-generation anti-malware engine that offers more efficient and effective threat detection by offloading analysis to the cloud.
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