Latest Technology News

The Internet of Things (IoT) has quickly gained a great deal of momentum and buzz amongst companies in a variety of fields over the past year. Up until now, the idea that all of our devices would be connected to one another and sharing data seemed like a far off idea that would take many years to come to fruition.

However due to new technologies quickly becoming more cost-effective and advances in the amount of environmental data that sensors are able to collect, the potential of IoT will likely come to be realized much sooner than many of us originally expected.

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We are on the cusp of a totally connected world. The Internet of Things is no longer an emerging trend, it has arrived. If you want evidence -- real evidence rather than the speculation of industry analysts -- then take a look at the $1.4 billion Cisco reputedly put on the table at the start of February to acquire IoT platform provider Jasper Technologies.

Jasper, founded in 2004, came about as a result of an epiphany that CEO and founder Jahangir Mohammed had when, after seeing a warning light on his car dashboard, he needed to spend several hours finding a mechanic to diagnose a problem that a connected car could have done in seconds. Just 16 years later, in-car connectivity of some sort is expected as standard in most new cars.

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Happy Tuesday, dear BetaNews readers! While the day prior to Wednesday is usually a drag, today is an exception. Why? There are plenty of primaries today, including the coveted Florida. If you are interested in American politics, today should be very exciting. The outcome of today's voting could cause some candidates to drop from the race.

If you are still undecided on a candidate, don't worry -- it is smart not to rush important decisions. Luckily, in these modern times, there are plenty of resources about the candidates, including the venerable Google Search. Today, that search engine is getting a politics-focused update, delivering campaign funding and trending info for all of the remaining candidates -- Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and John Kasich.

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The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a nonpartisan research and educational institute and policy think tank, today became the latest to come out and urge the US government not to limit the commercial use of encryption.

In its new report, entitled Unlocking Encryption: Information Security and the Rule of Law, co-author Alan McQuinn -- an ITIF research assistant -- argued that restricting encryption for use by law abiding citizens and businesses would reduce overall security and be ineffective at keeping encryption out of the hands of terrorists.

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Razer has announced the new Blade gaming laptop, which features improved specs and a lower price compared to the previous generation. The device will ship in April, with pre-orders starting today at the company's online store.

The new Blade ships with a sixth-generation quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M graphics with 6 GB of VRAM, 16 GB of RAM, 256 GB or 512 GB of PCIe SSD storage, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac, and a 14-inch IGZO touch-display with a resolution of 3,200 by 1,800, as the main highlights.

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HERE just dealt a huge blow to Windows 10, announcing that it will remove all of its apps for the new operating system from Store on March 29. The news comes before the start of the Windows 10 Mobile rollout, which Microsoft has already delayed a couple of times.

HERE is one of the most important Windows developers, providing the best and the most popular navigation apps for smartphones running the tiled OS. Offerings like Drive and Maps have shipped on nearly all Windows Phones, and are used by the vast majority of users.

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Enterprises thrive on being able to set and manage goals. BetterWorks software provides the tools to do this and the company is now expanding its offering by adding performance development and strategic planning modules to its operational suite.

This means it now provides a comprehensive business operating platform combining planning, strategic execution and people development across a single system.

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PdfTrick is a free open-source tool for selectively extracting images from PDF documents.

Yes: selectively. Unlike most of the competition, PdfTrick doesn’t dump hundreds of files in a folder -- it only saves the images you actually need.

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With so much choice available online, if a business doesn't deliver on meeting customer expectations then it's likely to lose out. One of the main challenges in keeping customers happy is delivering effective authentication while maintaining security.

Identity management company Gigya is releasing a new registration-as-a-service (RaaS) offering to enable enterprises to more effectively authenticate consumers with consistent cross-device experiences.

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Opera Software has unveiled Opera 36 FINAL, a major new release of its desktop web browser for Windows, Mac and Linux PCs. The latest build firmly targets users of Windows 10, with Opera claiming that "surfing with this platform [Opera] can be much better than the one offered by its default browser, Microsoft Edge".

To that end, version 36 has redesigned its UI to more closely resemble modern apps found in the Microsoft Store, while Opera is keen to stress it’s better integrated native Windows 10 features than other rival browsers.

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Enabling efficient collaboration on projects is key to success in business and there are many platforms to enable it. But it can sometimes be hard to fully understand what's happening inside a particular task.

One of the leading collaboration platforms, Smartsheet is addressing this by launching Sights, a new product that delivers visibility into the work being done within Smartsheet environments.

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Big data can provide a useful source of insights for business analysis. But providing access to it can mean significant IT effort and the use of expensive, off-the-shelf solutions.

Altiscale the big data as a service specialist is launching a new Insight Cloud self-service analytics solution to provide a bridge between big data and business users.

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One of the greatest concerns surrounding the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) is its security, and it seems that some people's worst fears have just been realized. Security experts at Trend Micro have discovered a vulnerability in Qualcomm Snapdragon-produced SoC (system on a chip) devices.

In fact, it is the same vulnerability that cropped up earlier in the month, affecting Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 6P and Samsung Galaxy Note Edge Android handsets. This in itself is concerning as these are devices that are no longer in line for security updates, but more concerning is the fact that the same chips are used in IoT devices. The vulnerability makes it possible for an attacker to gain root access to the hardware, and this is worrying in a world of inter-connected devices.

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Remember the days when we went everywhere with either a printed map or none at all? That's not the case these days as we almost universally have maps at our fingertips. Leading the way in this market is Google, which powers many mobile devices, though it's far from the only option.

Now the search giant is rolling out an update that it hopes will improve getting around town. This comes in the form of a dedicated tab aimed at commuting in the fastest way possible.

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1Clipboard is a free tool which enables sharing your clipboard contents with other PCs or Macs. The developer says that Android and iOS apps are "coming soon".

The program works by synchronizing your clipboard contents via Google Drive. This keeps 1Clipboard relatively simple and straightforward internally, but does mean you’ll need to sign in with a Google account wherever you want to use it.

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