Latest Technology News

Would you pay $3.99 a month for an Outlook.com Premium subscription?

Outlook.com offers all the right features that most consumers expect in an email service these days. But, if you are power users, Microsoft believes you may be looking for more, which is why the software giant is now trialling a Premium subscription.

Costing $3.99 a month, this is not the first and only Outlook.com subscription. There already is an Ad-free plan for users who want to get rid of advertisements, that goes for $19.95 a year, however the Premium tier is meant to unlock more extra, pro-level features.

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Open source database targets the big data analytics market

Big data magnifier

Leader in open source databases MariaDB is announcing the release of its new big data analytics engine, MariaDB ColumnStore.

It unifies transactional and massively parallelized analytic workloads on the same platform. This is made possible because of MariaDB's extensible architecture that allows the simultaneous use of purpose built storage engines for maximum performance, simplification, and cost savings. This approach sets it apart from competitors like Oracle, and removes the need to buy and deploy traditional columnar database appliances.

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Reducing costs is a growing priority for IT departments

Reducing costs

IT departments in businesses across Europe are still focused on saving money, and not on adding value to the company, or innovating to support further growth. Those are the results of a new survey by Vanson Bourne on behalf of Claranet.

Polling 900 European IT leaders, it was unveiled that despite growing IT budgets, these departments are still looking to cut costs and save money. Today, 46 percent said reducing cost was the top priority, compared to 34 percent a year before. For 29 percent, new revenue streams were their core activity, and for 25 percent, that was increasing customer loyalty.

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Ashampoo releases Photo Optimizer 2016, Backup 2016

Berlin-based developer Ashampoo has released two free programs: Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 2016, and Ashampoo Backup 2016.

Photo Optimizer 2016 is a stripped down version of the company’s commercial photo fixing tool, Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 6. The program can automatically optimize a folder of photos with a click, or you can use manual tools to crop, resize, rotate, sharpen, blur or straighten an image, tweak brightness, contrast or colors, add watermarks and more.

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Behavior ID strengthens mobile and web security

ID verification

Whether it's down to stolen credentials, weak passwords or bot-based attacks, the threat of an account takeover is one of the major worries for most users.

Mobile identity company TeleSign is launching Behavior ID, a new offering that enables web and mobile applications to measure and analyze a user's behavioral patterns to provide continuous authentication, even after the user has been verified with traditional security measures like passwords.

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iPhone 6s security flaw lets anyone bypass the passcode and access contacts and photos

It might have taken the FBI quite some time to find a way to unlock a shooter's iPhone 5C, but it turns out to be trivially easy to access contacts and photos stored on the company’s newest flagship, the iPhone 6s.

The trick makes use of Siri and Twitter, and as the owner of a 6s I’ve been able to test this method myself, and can confirm not only that it works, but it’s very simple to implement.

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Use of next generation databases hindered by backup technology

Disk backup

Businesses are showing increased interest in developing their infrastructure to support distributed, scale-out databases and cloud databases, but a lack of robust backup and recovery technologies is hindering adoption.

Backup and recovery is cited by 61 percent of enterprise IT and database professionals as preventing adoption. However, 80 percent believe that deployment of next-generation databases will grow by two times or more by 2018.

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Why assessing the value of data is vital to your organization

folder stack

Based on my experience around data and metadata, I strongly believe that in today’s business environment, understanding the value of data should be a top priority for almost any organization.

Although there are certainly other core elements that help to define organizations, I would say the three most important are people, processes and technology. What each of these elements has in common is its reliance on data -- without which, nearly any organization’s productivity would quickly come to a grinding halt. Of course, most organizational leaders would agree that data is valuable, at least in a general sense. But it takes an additional focus, and deliberate processes, to measure the actual value of data within your organization, and then set up systems that allow you to take advantage of it.

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Upgrade to Windows 10 Mobile and you can still roll back to Windows Phone 8.1 -- with caveats

After months of testing, Microsoft has started the process of rolling out Windows 10 Mobile to a selection of Windows Phone 8.1 handsets. Users who have been part of the Insider program will know what to expect, but for others the changes may come as something of a surprise.

In fact, it's entirely possible that you'll upgrade to Windows 10 Mobile and not like what you see. The good news is that Microsoft will allow you to roll back to Windows Phone 8.1, and there's no time limit on doing so.

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HP ENVY laptops get refresh

If you are looking for a quality laptop without breaking the bank, HP's ENVY line is definitely worth a look. The line combines solid performance with attractive designs -- perfect for home, school, or small business.

Today, HP announces a refresh of its popular ENVY line, featuring three distinct models. There is a 360 degree convertible, a 15-inch workhorse and a surprisingly light 17-inch portable workstation.

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HP Spectre Notebook is world's thinnest laptop

When Apple announced its latest MacBook last year, I was initially in love. After all, who doesn't want a thin laptop with a cutting-edge USB 3.1 Type-C connection? Sadly, that was where the magic ended. The Core M processor was anemic. The USB Type-C connection? The only such port -- making simultaneous charging and use of a USB device impossible without a clunky dongle.

Today, HP announces a laptop that mirrors the beauty of Apple's laptop -- surpassing it, even -- plus destroying it from a performance standpoint by utilizing an Intel Core i5 or i7 processor -- not Core M trash. Called simply the "HP Spectre Notebook", it is as close to portable nirvana as any machine before it. The premium laptop is so special, that it is being used to launch a brand-new HP logo.

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Mossack Fonseca hack exposes shady financial practices of world's rich and famous

cyber criminal

One of the largest data breaches in history has resulted in the leak of eleven million confidential documents -- around 2.6TB of data -- from financial firm Mossack Fonseca, one of the most secretive companies in the world.

According to the BBC, the leaked documents reveal how "Mossack Fonseca has helped clients launder money, dodge sanctions and evade tax". The client list features some of the world’s richest and most influential people -- including 12 current or former heads of state -- and their irrepressible greed has now been laid out for all to see. The data shows how thousands of off-shore shell companies have been created in order to hide money from the tax man and also reveals "a suspected billion-dollar money laundering ring involving close associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin".

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Get your Indian Premier League cricket with an ESPN Pass on Roku

It may not be big in the United States, but cricket equates to baseball in other parts of the world -- a sport with huge crowds and a somewhat similar method of play. The sport is very big in India and the Premier League is what the people want to watch.

Now Roku can bring all of the action to you with ESPN Cricket Pass. The set-top box maker brags that it is the only connected device offering this option for the 2016 season.

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It's lights out as Nest shuts down Revolv

There have been occasional complaints with the IoT. Things don't always work as planned – lights that fail to come on or go off, a door that won't unlock and other minor annoyances. A bigger concern has been security, as these systems continue to display vulnerability. But, what if a device just suddenly stops working, and not through mechanical error, but because the company just chose to reach into your home and kill it?

Well, that's exactly what's about to happen with Revolv, an IoT hub that was purchased by Nest, which in turn is owned by Google. Officially, Revolv is considered a Nest company, though.

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There's something you should know about 12.9-inch iPad Pro [seventh in a series]

April 3, 2016 marks the first day that I truly could use Apple's over-sized tablet to replace my laptop. But I had to spend another $84, before California tax, to do it. Gadget reviewers who say that iPad Pro cannot be your computer are wrong. The apps, performance, and utility are there. Anyone creating content should consider this device as compliment to, or replacement for, an existing PC. The problem with 12.9-inch iPad Pro isn't what it can do but how much it costs to assemble what you need. This kit is far from budget-friendly, which also can be said of Microsoft's competing Surface Pro 4.

I started my iPad Pro sojourn on Groundhog Day, planning to use the device as my primary PC for 30 days. The objective: Apple CEO Tim Cook says the big-ass tablet can replace a personal computer, I want to see if he is right. The experiment isn't my first journey like this. I tried something similar during summer 2011 with one of the first Chromebooks. The path was a dead end. But Spring 2012, when new commercial models released, I started down the path again and never looked back. Google's Chromebook Pixel LS was my main computer before adopting the iPad lifestyle.

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