Latest Technology News

Facebook boosts live video with new interactive options including Live Reactions and group video

Facebook Live may have started life as a celebrity-only feature, but it soon spread to all users, giving them the opportunity to share their own live video streams. Today the social network unveils a number of new features with the aim of making it easier to find and share live broadcasts, as well as personalizing and interacting with video.

Live video is all about bringing together a community of people to share an experience, so it's little surprise that the first of today's announcements sees the arrival of Facebook Live to Facebook Groups and Facebook Events. Building on the Reactions feature that rolled out recently, live video now also benefits from Live Reactions. But the laundry list of new features doesn't end there.

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Is IBM guilty of age discrimination? -- Part two

This is the promised second part of my attempt to decide if IBM’s recent large U.S. layoff involves age discrimination in violation of federal laws. More than a week into this process I still can’t say for sure whether Big Blue is guilty or not, primarily due to the company’s secrecy. But that very secrecy should give us all pause because IBM certainly appears to be flaunting or in outright violation of several federal reporting requirements.

I will now explain this in numbing detail.

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Barclays announces Apple Pay support

Apple Pay is now available to Barclaycard and Barclays customers, the bank has announced. "We are passionate about helping customers access services and carry out their day to day transactions in the way that suits them", said Ashok Vaswani, CEO of Barclays UK.

"As part of this, we have developed a range of digital innovations that allow people to choose how, when and where they bank and make payments. Adding to the existing choice, from today both Barclays debit and Barclaycard credit card customers can use Apple Pay to make payments with their Apple device across the UK".

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Add style to your photos with ON1 Effects Free

ON1 Effects Free 10 is a collection of professional photo filters and effects which can be used stand-alone, and as Photoshop or Lightroom plugins.

Beginners can use the package much like other apps. Open an image, choose a preset -- Cinematic, Color Grading, Haze Reduction, more -- and just click a thumbnail to apply that effect.

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Chinese censors spring into action to erase mentions of Panama Papers from the web

The Panama Papers that leaked following the Mossack Fonseca hack turned the spotlight on the rich and famous seemingly involved in money laundering and tax evasion schemes. High profile names from the world of politics appear in the papers -- including close friends of Russian President Putin and the father of UK Prime Minister David Cameron.

The leaked 11.5 million files, spanning 2.6 TB of data, include references to the relatives of at least eight current or former Chinese officials, says the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Chinese censors have now gone into overdrive, working overtime to eliminate all mentions of this from Chinese websites.

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Vivaldi 1.0 arrives, promises uniquely customizable web browser for power users

Vivaldi Technologies has unveiled Vivaldi 1.0 FINAL, the first stable release of a web browser aimed squarely at those who want full control over their web browsing experience.

Vivaldi has been developed by a team led by Jon S von Tetzchner, co-founder of rival Opera, and is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Vivaldi’s moniker -- "Not for everybody, just for you" -- highlights its different approach to other major web browsers.

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The doctor will lose your data now -- 1 in 5 doctors' mobile devices could be at high risk

Medical data risk

More than 27 million Android devices running medical apps are likely to have high risk malware installed according to a new report.

The Mobile Threat Intelligence report from threat defense company Skycure is focused on healthcare and finds that doctors who use mobile devices to assist their day-to-day practice are exposed to network threats, and that these significantly increase over time.

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Only a third of businesses have proper DDoS protection

Among the biggest cyber-threats to businesses nowadays are phishing, patch exploitation, trojans and DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service), yet new figures show that a quarter of companies don’t have an anti-DDoS protection set up.

Those are the results of a new survey by security firm Kaspersky Lab and B2B International. According to their research, approximately half of businesses surveyed understand the risks cyber-attacks pose, not just to their financials, but also to their reputation. Approximately, the same percentage also thinks being protected from DDoS attacks is an important cybersecurity requirement.

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Google 'Tilt Brush' brings 3D VR painting to HTC Vive

Quality virtual reality content is starting to come fast and furious. Earlier today, I was was watching an amazing video of YouTube sensation, Barnacules, playing VR horror game, Brookhaven Experiment, with the HTC Vive. The immersive experience made me start to salivate for HTC's VR offering.

Today, Google announces another intriguing program that takes advantage of the Vive. Called "Tilt Brush", the software lets the user virtually "paint" in a 3D environment. While it may seem like nothing more than a cool demo, I see it as much more than that -- the potential future of art.

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Swipebuster: $4.99 is all it costs to see if your partner (or anyone you know) is using Tinder

online_dating_app

Its developer -- who wishes to remain anonymous -- says that his website exists to educate people about the importance of privacy. But Swipebuster sells itself as a way for suspicious partners to check upon their other halves if they think they might be making use of Tinder to seek out some 'extracurricular activity'.

Swipebuster taps into the Tinder API to access publicly available data to see if a particular individual appears in the membership database. It’s perfect not only for confirming or denying worst fears, but also a valuable tool for a would-be blackmailer. For just $5, you can conduct three searches to see if people you know are using Tinder.

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Reminders come to Google Calendar on the web, bringing to-do list support

A calendar offering reminders might seem like a fairly obvious feature, but here we're talking about Reminders (note the initial cap). Towards the end of last year, Google Calendar on iOS and Android gained support for Reminders -- and, as a result, to-do lists -- and now the same feature is coming to Google Calendar on the web.

Unlike standard calendar appointments, Reminders stick around until you tick them off. There's no need to keep changing the due date on something you don't get round to doing, as it will automatically roll over to the next day and appear on your calendar until you take the appropriate action.

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Full end-to-end encryption shows WhatsApp is serious about privacy

Encryption has been a hot topic for some time, but the battle between Apple and the FBI really brought it to the fore in recent weeks. In response to the FBI trying -- ultimately successfully -- to crack into the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone, WhatsApp was just one of the companies that promised to increase encryption.

Today the popular chat tool made good on its promise, enabling full end-to-end encryption; this means that calls, messages, photos, videos, files, voice messages, and group chats are all protected with end-to-end encryption. Importantly, this extra layer of security is enabled by default, leading WhatsApp to claim it is "a leader in protecting your private communication".

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HP and Nvidia team up to offer Z Workstations with VR Ready systems

HP and Nvidia are teaming up to offer developers an easier time building virtual-reality content. The joint effort will see HP’s Z Workstations upgraded with Nvidia's VR Ready systems, equipped with Quadro professional GPUs.

The new systems, which can come with up to two NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24GB cards, support the Scalable Link Interface (SLI), GPU Affinity API and VR Synchronization technologies, doubling the rendering power of even the most demanding VR applications and practically eliminating image tearing.

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Twitter now offers an easier way to share public tweets privately

While Twitter is designed to provide an open forum for your thoughts, occasionally you might want to have one-to-one discussions in private, and that’s where the Direct Message option comes in.

Today, as part of its quest to make DM conversations "richer", Twitter introduces a feature to make it much easier to share public tweets privately with friends and followers.

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IT pros have bad security habits

risk jigsaw piece

Double standards, double standards everywhere. Our IT bosses might force us to change our passwords every so often, but they rarely change their own credentials, even though theirs offer administrative privileges.

Those are the results of a new survey conducted by cyber security vendor Lieberman Software. The company had asked 200 IT professionals at RSA Conference 2016 about their password changing habits.

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