Latest Technology News

Facebook has teamed up with charity the Samaritans to bring its Suicide Prevention tool to the UK. It's the same tool that was launched in the US a little over a year ago, and it gives users the opportunity to report content they feel might be indicative of someone struggling with suicidal thoughts.

While Facebook itself is not involved in seeking out suicide-related posts, it has a team in place ready to handle any content that is reported. The team is able to analyze and prioritize cases, and reach out to individuals to see what sort of support can be offered -- this might be as simple as having a chat, or it could involve a referral to specialist organizations.

Continue reading →

Whilst businesses can call on expert resources to secure their systems, for many home users protecting a home network and the devices attached to it can be something of a dark art.

Finnish security company F-Secure is aiming to make securing systems simple even for the non-technical with its forthcoming SENSE product. We spoke to Mika Majapuro, F-Secure's director of product management, to find about more.

Continue reading →

Platform-as-a-service provider Mendix and Microsoft today announced a partnership which will bring Mendix services on the Azure cloud platform.

Mendix says the new partnership will allow Azure customers to seamlessly access Mendix’s rapid application development capabilities, adding that two versions are available -- free and commercial.

Continue reading →

Banking trojans, like ransomware, have become big business today. And the people behind all of these malicious products are always moving forward, innovating with the times in an effort to keep up with technology and victims.

There is a virtual smorgasbord of malware out there just looking for ripe pickings. One is the Gozi Banking Trojan, which injects its code into the operating system via the browser. With Windows 10 being offered (pushed) for free, malware makers are scrambling to cover the adoption rate by updating their products.

Continue reading →

Making its products accessible to as many people as possible is clearly in Microsoft's best interests. Today the company outlined how it plans to improve accessibility in Windows 10 and Office 365, setting out a roadmap built on three key principles.

Transparency, accountability and being inclusive will be the company's cornerstones for 2016. Microsoft wants to "to think about all of our customers and all of the ways we can empower them with technology". But what does this actually mean.

Continue reading →

Apple has a lot of support at the moment for its stance on encryption and refusing the FBI access to an iPhone's contents, but it's only a couple of weeks since the company was seen in a less favorable light. There was quite a backlash when users found that installing an update to iOS resulted in Error 53 and a bricked iPhone.

Apple initially said that Error 53 was caused 'for security reasons' following speculation that it was a bid to stop people from using third party repair shops. iFixit suggested that the problem was a result of a failure of parts to correctly sync, and Apple has been rounding criticized for failing to come up with a fix. Today the company has issued an apology, along with an update that ensures Error 53 won't happen again. But there's more good news.

Continue reading →

You shouldn’t fear immigrants taking your job, you should fear robots. A new study by jobs search engine Adzuna suggests that more than 100,000 of current job vacancies will be fully automated within the next 20 years.

The results are based on the study of Oxford University researchers, looking at which jobs would basically be given to robots before 2035.

Continue reading →

Modern smartwatches are hardly must-have devices. Most are simply extensions of smartphones, serving as nothing more than expensive accessories. In other words, many smartwatches aren't very useful on their own.

Some of these watches, however, have cellular radios, making them useful as a standalone experience. Heck, they could even replace smartphones for those with limited needs. Today, Samsung announces that it is bringing its standalone-ready Gear S2 classic 3G/4G smartwatch to Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile.

Continue reading →

Sixty-five percent of IT professionals don’t feel equipped to defend against email-based cyber attacks, according to the findings of a report carried out by email security and archiving company Mimecast.

The global study of 600 IT security professionals -- Mimecast Business Email Threat Report 2016, Email Security Uncovered -- also found that 64 percent of respondents regard email as a major security threat and one third believe email is more vulnerable today than it was five years ago.

Continue reading →

After a flurry of new builds, Insiders on the Fast ring have had to wait a whole two weeks for the latest Windows 10 update to arrive.

Unlike previous Fast ring releases, which focused on updates to OneCore (the core that Windows 10 shares across devices) and preparing the ground work for future additions, like extensions, Build 14267 actually has some improvements worthy of note, including several usability enhancements to Microsoft Edge.

Continue reading →

Increased use of big data in IT management and other areas means that companies are on the look out for new tools to give them better insights from their information.

Behavioral analytics company Prelert is making it easier for Elasticsearch users to automate the analysis of large data sets with the launch of Behavioral Analytics for the Elastic Stack.

Continue reading →

IBM is looking to move blockchain technology beyond Bitcoin and money transfer as it announced Blockchain-as-a-service on Tuesday.

Blockchain-as-a-service allows developers to "create digital assets and accompanying business logic to more securely and privately transfer assets among members of a permissioned blockchain test network".

Continue reading →

CRM systems have become essential tools for sales and marketing teams, giving them the ability to organize and automate the processes that build good customer relationships.

But off-the-shelf solutions don't always meet the needs of specialist industries. Insurance technology specialist Vertafore is launching its new Agency SalesTrack solution, built on Microsoft Dynamics CRM to cater specifically for the insurance sector.

Continue reading →

Apple has launched a new program called Trade Up With Installments which makes it possible to upgrade to the latest iPhone in a more affordable way. As the name suggests, this is more than a straight trade-in program -- upgraders can use the trade-in value of their old handset to reduce on-going monthly costs.

This is something that will appeal not only to people with older iPhones who are looking to get their hands on a newer model, but also ex-Android fans -- Apple is opening up the program so Android handsets can be traded in and their value offset against the cost of a new iPhone. Windows Phone handsets are also eligible.

Continue reading →

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is to launch an investigation into whether cloud storage users are paying the right amount for their data storage service amidst concerns that cloud providers are hiking prices and are locking customers into pricey contracts.

The issue has arisen at a time when cloud storage is becoming ever more popular with consumers and businesses. The Office for National Statistics has estimated that 40 percent of UK adults now use cloud storage. Consumers often chose to store their photos and music on the cloud whilst businesses frequently depend on cloud application services, including as Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS).

Continue reading →