Latest Technology News

More sports come to Sling TV

sling-tv

If you're getting your TV service over the internet then Sling is likely on your radar as it offers live TV with a good choice of channels. Want CNN? You got it. Want sports? You have ESPN and ESPN 2 to choose from, and currently an SEC free trial.

But sports is more than just those big name channels. What about the lesser watched ones? Well, now Sling is bringing two more of those to its service.

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Outlook.com gains sharing support for Google Drive and Facebook

Facebook

Microsoft is continuing to add new features and functionality to Outlook.com.

In addition to the integrated OneDrive support, the software giant added Box and Dropbox sharing to its webmail service earlier in the year, and today it makes sharing even more useful with the addition of support for Google Drive and Facebook.

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Microsoft has the most open source contributors on GitHub

Microsoft

GitHub has published The state of the Octoverse 2016, a very interesting report that offers an insight into how its 14 million users leveraged the hugely popular repository this year. Among them is a list of organizations with the most open source contributors, most popular coding languages, most used emoji reactions, new user interactions and much more.

The list of organizations with the most open source contributions is particularly interesting, because it shows Microsoft leading the pack with over 16,000 users. The software giant is followed by Facebook and Docker, with Google only coming in fifth place. For folks who associate Microsoft with closed-source this must come as a pretty big surprise.

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Students need better data security education

students laptop

As students head back to university, a survey by Intel Security reveals that, in the UK at least, half of them are failing to protect their phones, tablets and laptops from online threats.

The survey of more than 1,000 UK-based students carried out in conjunction with The National Student finds that despite a quarter of teenagers reporting that they are 'almost constantly' online, only 50 percent of students ensure they have the necessary security software installed to keep their devices and data safe.

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Millennials prefer to deal with companies by text

SMS texting

Of all the communication channels available for dealing with businesses, 60 percent of millennials prefer two-way text engagement, because it’s convenient, fast, and easy to use. This is one of the findings of a new survey by mobile engagement specialist OpenMarket of 500 US millennials (18 to 34-year-olds) on their use of SMS communications.

While 72 percent of millennials say they text 10 or more times a day, and 31 percent more than 50 times a day, the leading factor in millennials' preferences for texting is its ability for two-way communication with businesses.

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Removing the headphone jack from future MacBooks would be a mistake

Apple MacBook headphone jack speakers

I can understand the logic behind Apple's decision to remove the headphone jack from its latest iPhones. Some folks may not like it, but fact of the matter is that space is at a premium on such small devices. If a manufacturer can add meaningful features that improve the user experience by dropping the headphone jack then it is well worth it -- despite the fact that you can no longer charge your iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus and use the headphones at the same time without buying a dongle.

But Apple is testing the waters to see if it could drop the headphone jack on other devices as well, as it is now asking users of the MacBook Pro with Retina display if they "ever use the headphone port". This is no longer about "courage". It would be change for change's sake.

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Security, disaster recovery are top IT priorities for UK businesses

Priorities

UK businesses’ number one technology priority is security, according to a new survey by EACS. The IT solutions and managed services provider polled CIOs, IT directors and IT managers, and released the results in a whitepaper entitled Business & Technology Priorities 2016 survey.

Among the top priorities for them are better efficiency, operating results, increased productivity and cutting costs. The study also found one interesting thing -- all IT decision makers agree that no company can be 100 percent safe. That is why disaster recovery is in second place on the list of tech priorities.

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How cyber security professionals see insider threats

insider threat

Whilst the popular view of hackers tends to be of outsiders, there's been increasing emphasis in recent years on the threat to enterprise data posed by those inside the organization.

Behavior analytics company RedOwl carried out a survey at last month's Black Hat conference, asking almost 300 security professionals for their views on insider threats, and the results are released today.

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Microsoft Outlook app gets Sunrise features

Microsoft Outlook Sunrise

Sunrise is dead, long live Sunrise! Once considered the best mobile calendar app to ever grace us with its presence, it got acquired by Microsoft and is now officially retired.

But Microsoft has taken its best features and reincarnated them into its Outlook app's calendar, and the general feeling is overall quite positive. The updated Outlook, which is available now, comes with a couple of changes. Interesting Calendars is one of the new features, which allows Outlook to connect with businesses, TV shows and similar.

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PLUG aims to be the world's most powerful battery pack

Plug

Having once had a phone die on me in an important moment while traveling I’ve learned not to go any distance without a battery pack with me, just in case. I also use the ThinCharge case for my iPhone, which I reviewed here.

ChargeTech, which makes that battery case, has produced a new battery pack that essentially lets you take a wall outlet with you. You can charge any device, including laptops, and also power equipment from it.

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Microsoft Azure Service Fabric coming to Linux

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft has announced that it will be bringing Azure Service Fabric, which allows developers to run and manage microservices, to Linux.

Azure's CTO Mark Russinovich is very enthusiastic about microservices, which the company has been using internally for seven years. Russinovich believes that the vast majority of apps even including enterprise apps will soon be built using this technology.

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6 steps for defending against DDoS attacks

DDoS attacks

If your business hasn’t already faced a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, brace yourself: fake traffic is coming.

Your DevOps team and IT service desk need an action plan to handle these threats. This article will take you step-by-step through the process of identifying, stopping, and responding to DDoS attacks.

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Simulate color vision deficiency with Colour Simulations

ColourSimulations.200.175

Get involved in any graphic design project and you’ll probably spend an age choosing the color scheme -- but this shouldn’t just be about personal taste.

Around 5 percent of the population have some form of color vision deficiency, so it’s important to consider how they might see your finished design.

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Microsoft to flip the kill switch on older Windows 10 Insider Preview Builds

angryKidLaptop

You don’t need a valid license to run a Windows 10 Insider Preview Build on your PC. Each build is time-limited, but a new version will be released before the previous one expires.

Provided you keep updating your system to the latest build, you’ll have no problems. However, if you’ve installed a preview build and not updated it -- hey, free Windows! -- Microsoft is about to flip a kill switch that will stop it working entirely.

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LG and Samsung facing class action lawsuit over alleged 'no poaching' agreement

lawsuit_keyboard_button

A civil lawsuit filed in a Northern California federal court has accused Samsung and LG of having a clandestine agreement not to poach each other's employees in the US.

The suit was filed by a former LG sales manager who is accusing Samsung and LG of antitrust violations and believes the two South Korean companies have worked together to drive down employee wages. This case is reminiscent of the one which was filed against Apple, Google and other tech companies last year that resulted in a $415 million settlement.

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