Latest Technology News

I read a comment from a user who was talking about Windows 10 Mobile. He referred to it as Microsoft's stillborn baby. As dark and as gruesome an image as this may be, it feels very fitting, and it got me wondering how best to think of the desktop version of Windows 10. Clearly this is not a stillborn -- there's plenty of life in this kicking and screaming beast, and there is no sign of an abortion on the horizon.

But it is the black sheep of the family, the -- brace yourselves, politically correct gentlefolk -- deformed and underdeveloped spawn of Microsoft's loins. If it was an animal, it probably would have been destroyed in utero. As it is -- to view it in more human terms -- it's more like the Elephant Man: a lumbering, lurching curiosity that many would like to see dead, but which at the same time retains its right to existence.

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The kindest thing that can be said about Microsoft Edge is Windows 10's new browser has potential. It’s far from awful, it’s just rather unfinished. There’s little there to tempt users of Firefox or Chrome into switching.

Microsoft is working to change that though, and make the browser more appealing. Today it reveals a little more about its future plans, including how it will be handling extensions. It doesn’t announce exactly when the browser will receive this much-requested feature, but it does touch on how add-ons will be made available, and how you’ll be able to try out some early examples for yourself.

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Jaguar Land Rover wants to make autonomous vehicles behave more like humans, and less like robots.

The company is looking into how humans behave in specific situations, like slow-moving traffic, roadworks and busy junctions.

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Watching the Super Bowl is easy. Sit down, turn on your TV, and you are good to go. With that said, properly experiencing the big game is something else. For maximum fun, it is a good idea to watch it with other people while eating delicious snacks.

If you are an Android user and not sure where to watch Super Bowl 50, Google has you covered. Its Maps service will help you discover some awesome places to watch the game. If you don't have any friends to call upon, don't worry -- you can use this as an opportunity to make some.

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You perhaps have not heard of the tiny island nestled between England and Ireland, but the Isle of Man has a long and rich history, including its now dying language of Manx. Its most prominent export these days is cyclist Mark Cavendish, a multi-stage winning sprinter in the Tour de France.

Now you just may be hearing much more about it as the island lobbies to be the test bed for driverless cars, a product that Google has made famous, but that many more manufacturers are attempting to produce as the future seems to dictate it.

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With its well-known habit of uncompromising surveillance, the NSA has earned itself something of a poor reputation among internet users. But while the spying side of the agency is what it is most famous for, it is actually made up of two different divisions: offensive and defensive.

Later this week the NSA is expected to announce an internal restructuring that will see the two divisions merging. This presents the agency with an interesting predicament: does it continue to work to fight the efforts of hackers, or does it adopt hacker-like techniques to help gather data? Experts says that the merger is a mistake, largely because the aim and modus operandi of the two departments are diametrically opposed.

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OnePlus may not be a name that springs instantly to mind when you think of smartphones, but it really should be. It is a Chinese company that is fast developing a reputation for turning out quality handsets at something of a bargain price.

The company's latest OnePlus X model starts at around £200 which is only about £40 below the price of its flagship, the better specified OnePlus 2 model, so does it live up to the company’s claims that this is an affordable phone with premium features?

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Now that Microsoft is forcibly downloading Windows 10 onto unsuspecting Windows 7 and 8.1 users’ PCs there’s going to be a lot of unhappy customers faced with a new OS they never asked for nor wanted.

You can prevent this from happening by making sure the "Recommended Update" setting is unchecked on your PC, but if you fail to do this and accidentally allow the installation to go ahead (or maybe you tried Windows 10 and didn’t like it), the good news is it’s easy to roll things back to your original operating system.

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When it comes to reading books, things have changed quite a bit since school days, well, depending on your age. Now many people read books on electronic devices and, while tablets are fine, the Amazon Kindle leads the way.

Amazon is planning to roll out a big update to its handheld devices. You're likely wondering, correctly so, "how much can a book be improved?". Well, there are enhancements, but don't expect your trusty Kindle to change massively.

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Accurately modeling consumer behavior and the events that drive and inhibit sales is a tricky problem for retailers.

Specialist in IT operation and security analytics Prelert, has turned its expertise on the problem and is launching a new Retail Order Analytics solution. It's aimed at helping online and multichannel retailers to identify technical and operational issues as they're happening in order to stem losses and protect revenue streams.

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There is a resurgence of interest in computing courses, the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) claims. According to the agency’s latest report, there has been an increase of 5 percent in the number of students starting an undergraduate computing course in 2014/15.

A total of 24,900 students signed up. The computing courses significantly outperform undergraduate enrollments as a whole, the agency continues, saying that in the same period, it rose by only 2 percent.

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While consumers love smartphones and tablets, there is one aspect of the mobile business that is sometimes overlooked -- accessories. There are countless companies producing things like cases, cables, keyboards, and more for our precious devices. Quite frankly, that is part of the fun -- customizing the experience.

Two of the more popular such accessory manufacturers, ZAGG and mophie, are merging. Technically, the former is acquiring the latter. Is this a smart move?

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There are now a pile of Microsoft telemetry and Windows 10 update-blockers around, all claiming to protect your privacy and get rid of annoying "upgrade to Windows 10" alerts.

Unfortunately most give very few details of what they’re doing. You have to click the "Disable evil stuff" button and hope the developer has got it right.

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Since November 2014, Microsoft has purchased a number of major apps and games to bolster its mobile portfolio on Android, iOS and, of course, Windows and Windows Phone. It has added Minecraft, Acompli, Sunrise and Wunderlist under its belt, titles which have been very popular and highly regarded by smartphone and tablet users. These acquisitions have turned the software giant into one of the strongest developers on the aforementioned platforms.

But Microsoft is not stopping there, as it just announced the purchase of SwiftKey, one of the most popular third-party keyboards available for Android and iOS. And, just like that, four of my favorite apps are now owned by the software giant.

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Large swathes of the internet have taken it upon themselves to try to stem the flow of ISIS propaganda and other terrorist content. People working under the Anonymous banner are perhaps the most obvious, but now Google is getting involved as well.

In an overtly political move a senior Google executive, Dr Anthony House, has revealed measures that are being trialled to try to combat extremism. As well as making it easier to discover who is looking for extremist content online, the company is also piloting a scheme that uses its AdWords system to display anti-ISIS messages.

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