Latest Technology News

After tweeting that Microsoft tends to avoid releasing new Insider Preview builds on a Friday so the team doesn’t have to work over the weekend dealing with potential issues, Microsoft’s Gabe Aul pushed the button to release a new Windows 10 build on a Friday.

Fast ring releases sometimes have a lot of new features and changes, but can often just deliver a few internal tweaks. Insider Preview Redstone Build 14279 falls into the former camp, with improvements to Cortana, logon, and apps.

Continue reading →

It is snowing once again in New York today -- won't the winter madness ever end? This dreary weather has largely kept me indoors; reading magazines, watching TV, and enjoying the occasional movie. Nothing's better than getting cozy on your couch with a warm blanket and cup of tea to watch a good film.

With that said, this weekend is looking like a good candidate for some movie watching. Unfortunately, picking a movie can be daunting -- there are so many to choose from. Even worse, paying to rent a movie that ends up being bad can make you feel like you've been robbed. If you share my concerns, I have good news -- you can score a Google Play movie rental for 50 percent off. It is a limited offer, however, so you must act fast.

Continue reading →

Google is updating its approach to delisting search results in Europe under the Right To Be Forgotten. At the moment, people are able to request that search results do not link to articles that are "inadequate, irrelevant, no longer relevant or excessive, and not in the public interest" but there have been ways for searchers to bypass these delistings.

While Google may remove a search result from all European Google domains, there's nothing to stop people from using non-European versions of the search engine to access otherwise-hidden data. Starting next week, Google is going to start using geolocation data to crack down on this practice.

Continue reading →

With the UK’s EU referendum less than four months away, the UK’s thriving economy of fast-growth, tech, and digital business are weighing up the pros and cons of leaving the EU and what a Brexit would mean for the sector.

Without doubt, the main fear of the UK tech and digital sector, if the result of 23 June is to leave the EU, is the adverse impact this would have on the ability to recruit and retain tech talent from within the EU.

Continue reading →

A walled-garden approach to apps for operating system is something we've become used to in the mobile world. Apple, in particular, has been incredibly successful in creating a closed-off eco-system that ensures it remains -- broadly speaking -- in control of what hits the App Store. With Windows 10, Microsoft is trying to blur the boundaries between mobile and non-mobile, and developers -- especially game developers -- are not happy.

Windows 10's Universal Windows Platform (UWP) is described by Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney as a "closed platform-within-a-platform". More than this, Sweeney says that it is the "most aggressive move Microsoft has ever made", warning that the company is trying to monopolize app distribution to the detriment of consumers and the entire PC industry. Writing for the Guardian, Sweeney bellows out a call to arms saying that UWP "can, should, must, and will die".

Continue reading →

NooG is a lightweight internet search bar for the Windows desktop.

We watched the installation process closely, because this is just the kind of app to trash your system with a pile of adware, but no -- the entire program is under 2MB in size, nothing intrusive at all.

Continue reading →

Amazon has came out in support of encryption, following Apple's recent legal battles with the US government, saying that it "plays a very, very important role" in protecting customer data.

But you might be surprised to learn that Amazon has also decided to quietly drop support for full disk encryption on its Android-based Kindle Fire tablets. Since it is portraying itself as an encryption and consumer advocate, its decision to go in the opposite direction strikes me as sheer hypocrisy.

Continue reading →

For the past couple of weeks the tech news has circled around Apple versus the FBI, after the iPhone maker refused to comply with a court order to unlock a phone used by one of the terrorists in the San Bernardino shootings. That handset may or may not hold data relevant to the case or perhaps reveal plans for future attacks.

We'll possibly never know, given the agency changed the Apple ID and there are claims that even the iPhone maker cannot now get into it. The FBI, for its part, has acknowledged that it made a mistake in changing that ID.

Continue reading →

To be on the cutting edge of technology you sometimes need to make some hard decisions. If you are a Mac user who is interested in Oculus Rift, you will have to choose between your love of Apple's computers and enjoying the virtual reality headset. That is because the two do not go hand in hand, as Oculus Rift only supports Windows PCs. Ouch!

Your Mac is not held back by Windows per se, because it can be easily installed via Boot Camp or Parallels -- and you get pretty much the same user experience as a PC user. The reason why Mac support is currently out of the question boils down to hardware limitations.

Continue reading →

Update: Despite raising over $1 million in funding, iPhone E-ink case creator popSLATE closes down

At BetaNews we get bombarded with Indiegogo and Kickstarter campaigns on a daily basis, the vast majority of which we never cover. Occasionally though, we see something that really makes us sit up and pay attention. popSLATE 2 is such a project.

Continue reading →

A recent poll into the state of eCommerce has unveiled that half of businesses believe their eCommerce sites help them be as profitable as possible.

The results were released late last week in the 2016 State of the Digital Commerce report, published by Salesforce eCommerce integration company CloudCraze.

Continue reading →

In the digital world it's increasingly APIs that hold everything together, allowing information to be easily shared between applications.

A new study from SmartBear Software gathered responses from over 2,300 software professionals around the world to paint a picture of the current state of the API industry.

Continue reading →

One-hundred and seventy in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps and games released for Windows 8.x and Windows 10 in the past seven days.

Several interesting games and apps were released this week including this week's "app of the week" Tap Tap Legion, and Gears of War: Ultimate Edition (a Windows 10 Store exclusive).

Continue reading →

Tax restructuring at Facebook means the company is due to pay millions of pounds in tax in 2017. The social network famously paid just £4,327 in corporation tax in 2014, but this bill is about to get much larger as advertising revenue is set to be routed through the UK rather than the tax haven of Ireland. A wide-scaled restructuring means advertising sales will now be booked in Britain and subject to UK tax.

Tech companies such as Amazon, eBay and Google have been criticized for their use of tax avoidance schemes, although Google recently agreed to pay back £130 million in tax. Not everyone was happy with Google's 'sweetheart' deal and there has been increased pressure on other companies to pay their fair share.

Continue reading →

You might think Apple or Google have the greenest datacenters, but it’s actually a German startup called Cloud&Heat that takes the crown.

The company said it managed to realize the lowest energy consumption and has "undercut Google’s optimum value by 40 percent".

Continue reading →