Latest Technology News

The "new" Microsoft led by folks like Satya Nadella, Dona Sarkar, and Panos Panay is very different than prior regimes. The company in its current form listens intently to users, while being increasingly transparent regarding Windows and other software.

One of the biggest examples of Microsoft's customer-first focus is the Windows Insider program. This allows any user to experience early builds of the operating system, while providing valuable feedback. Windows 10 is truly influenced by its own users. To celebrate the program, Microsoft ran a contest to design an official team t-shirt. Today, Dona Sarkar announces the finalists and opens up voting.

When I bought my first-ever iPhone in September 2015, I was a die-hard Spotify user. Since I was starting fresh by abandoning Android, I decided to give Apple Music a try instead. I loved it. The sound quality is superb, and the human-curated playlists are second to none. While it is not perfect, it is very satisfying and getting better.

Today, Apple makes a seemingly curious purchase to bolster the aforementioned streaming music service -- a TV series. While that may sound odd, it actually makes sense as it is music related. You see, it is based on the wildly popular "Carpool Karaoke" segment from CBS' "The Late Late Show".

If you’re having problems connecting your laptop to a wireless device or network, there are a host of tools to help you view what’s in range and its signal strength. If you’re having trouble with Bluetooth, it’s a different story. The standard Windows applets might list available devices but you’ll see little, if any information about them.

Bennett is a tiny portable tool which displays extra details on your Bluetooth adapter and in-range devices, and might be able to monitor their signal strength.

We’re only a few days away from the global roll out of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, and Microsoft is busy squashing the last few bugs before its prime-time release.

There are lots of changes in the update, including a more usable Start menu, Windows Ink, an updated Windows Defender, and an improved Cortana you can’t turn off. Wait, what?

Over the last decade, enterprise companies have experienced a complete IT evolution. The nature and techniques of companies are transforming to empower new shifts in technology, rapid innovation, and expansion. Culture is at the center of this strategic shift and it’s dramatically changing the way IT organizations operate.

Whether it's the cultural shift in collaboration that’s elevating the rise of DevOps, now predicted by Gartner as a mainstream enterprise strategy for 2016; social communication encouraging shadow IT; or diversity creating more inclusive decision making, culture has truly restructured IT. And, it’s done so for the better. For enterprise organizations who have not reached digital maturity, or lack an integrated digital IT strategy, there are three ways cultural influence can structure a smarter, more innovative IT organization -- hiring, communicating, and establishing purpose.

US-based data analytics company Teradata has acquired UK-founded Big Data Partnership. Maria Wagner, investment director at Beringea hopes the deal will serve as an inspiration to British startups that the global market is still open to them, despite Brexit results.

Founded in 2012 by Mike Merritt-Holmes, Pinal Gandhi and Tim Seears, Big Data Partnership’s goal is to help businesses use the power of complex data. Two years ago, they got £1.2 million in a Series A funding, which was led by Beringea, transatlantic venture and growth investor. In a Series B round, in May 2015, Beringea again led to a total of £3.1m investment.

All operating systems -- including Linux-based variants -- are only as good as its available software. In other words, for a computer to be an effective tool, it must be able to complete your needed tasks.

As much as I love Linux-based operating systems such as Fedora and Ubuntu, if it wasn't for software like LibreOffice (also available for Windows and Mac), using the operating systems would probably not be possible. Speaking of Ubuntu, its owner, Canonical, is joining the The Document Foundation Advisory Board -- overseer of the very important LibreOffice.

Researchers at security firm Bastille warn that many wireless keyboards can be very easily intercepted so hackers can see exactly what is being typed. With a very simple dongle called Keysniffer, it is possible to snoop on usernames, passwords and anything else that is being typed from up to 250 feet away.

In all, Bastille found that eight manufacturers produce keyboards -- meaning there are millions in use -- which use unencrypted radio communication to transmit easily captured clear text. The problem affects non-Bluetooth devices from the likes of Anker, Hewlett-Packard, Kensington and Toshiba.

One of my favorite recent tech purchases is the 4th generation Apple TV. Not only is it a great way to stream movies and listen to Apple Music, but it makes a wonderful game console too. Not to mention, the ability to mirror my iPhone to my TV is totally killer.

Today, the 4th generation Apple TV gets a very unlikely app -- Adobe Lightroom. Before you get excited about editing photos on your television with the Apple TV remote, you should know that there is one huge catch.

There's a famous quote from 19th century British soap magnate Lord Leverhulme which goes, "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, and the problem is I don't know which half".

Despite the array of technology and analytics tools available today, it’s still true that a good deal of advertising spend is simply thrown into the dark. Real-time mobile advertising platform Smaato is aiming to cut waste with the launch of its Smaato Demand Platform (SDX) that allows more accurate targeting of ads.

Just days after it was reported that Facebook has a billion people using Messenger, a similar thing will happen with Apple.

The company has either already, or will very soon, sell its one billionth iPhone. In the last reported quarter (Q1 2016), it was unveiled that the company had sold a total of 987 million iPhones in the seven years since its inception. Some 40 million had been sold in the quarter alone, and according to Financial Times, analysts expect at least another 40m quarter ahead.

The rocky road to finding a replacement to the Safe Harbour data transfer agreement appears to have become a little smoother. The successor to the EU-US arrangement is Privacy Shield, and European regulators have said it will be permitted to run to at least a year without intervention.

Having been deemed unsuitable because of the level of access it gave the US to European data, Safe Harbor's replacement has been a long time coming. The head nod from regulators will be widely welcomed by the tech industry, as well as those disturbed by NSA surveillance revelations.

It used to be that buying an entry-level Windows device meant you had to settle for a big, bulky product with poor specs and a design that didn't try to hide the low price tag. These days, however, things are different. The arrival of Chromebooks has driven PC makers to change their approach and release laptops that are much more appealing to consumers shopping in this segment.

With a thin profile, solid specs and a nice design, the Jumper Ezbook 2 seems to be the perfect example of a new-age entry-level Windows laptop. It is priced well below the magical $200 mark, which, at least on paper, makes it a very attractive option. But just how good is it really?

To help curb the global rise of ransomware, the European police agency Europol has decided to launch a new initiative and website to put victims of an attack in touch with the police.

The initiative will be called "No More Ransom" and will be coordinated by Europol, but will also be receiving help from the Dutch national police, Intel Security and Kaspersky Lab.

According to the findings of a new report, companies in the healthcare industry have the most ransomware present, accounting for 88 percent of all detections in the second quarter of this year.

The report from managed security provider Solutionary shows other affected industries include education (six percent) and finance (four percent), with eight other industries combining for less than two percent of detections.