Latest Technology News

Windows 10’s Start menu offers live tiles that update every few seconds or so to display information like the latest news headlines and weather, and also a changing slideshow of photos.

Live tiles are viewed by many as a bit odd, because unless you switch to tablet mode, you only ever see them when you open the Start menu, and the menu has to stay open so you can watch the tiles update. Fortunately, if have no need for such things, this feature is easily disabled.

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Leveraging on possible opportunities on identity systems, Microsoft is looking into building a blockchain-based identity system and it has recently sealed a partnership to further this goal.

The tech giant has made an open source collaboration with companies Blockstack Labs and ConsenSys for their current Bitcoin and Ethereum-based identity solutions, together with various developers globally.

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

This week has seen the release of several exciting new applications and games for the Windows platform, as well as updates for existing apps such as Viber, Forza Motosport 6 and Dailymotion.

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A more and more mobile workforce is leaving US businesses vulnerable to increased risk of data breaches and theft of information.

This is highlighted in a survey of executives and small business owners by secure data destruction company Shred-It.

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If you’ve ever tried creating animated GIFs, you’ll have noticed that they can get very large, especially when using complex sources like TV footage. That’s no great surprise -- the format was designed for simple animations, not full color video -- but GIF Optimizer Free may help you shrink your file sizes.

Setup is easy, because there’s no installation required -- just unzip the download and run gifoptimizer.exe.

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Gartner has released new figures about the state of server shipments worldwide, and even though growth has been recorded, that’s not real a success story yet.

According to its figures, global servers shipment increased 1.7 percent year-on-year, but revenue declined 2.3 percent. The research company says this means that servers which were being sold same time last year were more expensive than the ones being sold now.

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The "wearable" product segment is a bit curious. Quite often, it feels like smartwatches, bands, and more are merely solutions in search of a problem. For many consumers, they can end up being nothing more than money spent to get notifications on their wrists.

The one clear usage for wearables, however, is fitness. Whether you are an active exercise aficionado, or someone just wanting to shed some pounds, a fitness tracker or other activity-based wearable can be a godsend. Today, Samsung announces two such products -- the Gear Fit2 wrist wearable and the Gear IconX wireless earbuds..

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A free update released today for The Sims 4 introduces a swathe of new options relating to creation of Sims. Significantly, gender-specific options no longer exist. Players can access the full range of clothing, hairstyles, physiques and voices regardless of the gender selected.

Electronic Arts says that in all, some 700 options that were previously tied to male or female Sims are now gender neutral. The move, part of a general trend in the technology industry to diversity, has been warmly welcomed by players.

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Google is a company that's well-known for its beta products -- there is a long-running joke about so many of its services being in permanent beta. Beta testing on Android has tended to be limited to a select few, but with the Google Maps app the beta programme is being opened up to everyone.

After signing up to take part, you will be able to download a newer version of Google Maps than is currently available in the Play Store. At the moment there is a fairly insignificant version number difference, and no notable changes, but this should all change as beta testing progresses.

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If you are into technology and computers, but unsure about a career path, open source and Linux are both wise focuses. While the job market cannot be predicted with absolute certainty, it is undeniable that both of those things are increasingly important. The Linux-based Android is the most popular mobile operating system, while major companies like Microsoft, Google, and Apple embrace open source.

The problem with education nowadays is the high cost. Many people can't afford to pay for classes out of pocket, and if they take out student loans, they can end up in debt for many years. Luckily, scholarships can help alleviate the stress of education costs. Today, The Linux Foundation announces the 2016 LiFT Scholarship Program, offering a free course and certification exam for chosen applicants. If you want to experience formal learning of Linux, you should definitely apply.

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Many of Apple's online services are currently out of action, with the App Store and Apple TV being just two that people are struggling with. Some users are reporting that Apple Music is out of action, but the most common complaint is that App Store purchases cannot be complete.

Apple says that it is aware of the problems and is investigating, but at the moment has given no hint at what the cause might be. The company's System Status page highlights numerous issues, with a fluctuating number of listings tagged "Service may be unavailable for some users". Apple Support's recently launched Twitter account is going into meltdown responding to an endless stream of complaints from users.

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With the size of apps and games spiralling upwards faster than the amount of storage increases in phones, it's very easy to run low on space. To help overcome the problem of not having enough room to install a new app, Google is starting to suggest rarely used apps that could be installed.

The feature has not appeared completely out of the blue, with references having been spotted to it in APK teardowns some months ago. But now Google Play's intelligent uninstall manager has been spotted in action.

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Before we reach 2021, there will be more internet-connected devices (IoT) than smartphones, Ericsson said in its latest Mobility Report.

Projected growth of these devices is 400 percent in the next five years, with a total of 16 billion devices expected by that time.

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There are lots of services that help you find your lost smartphone, but nothing beats the convenience of a built-in tool like Android Device Manager or Find My iPhone. However, Google might have something that's even better.

Google believes that locating a smartphone should be as simple as a Google search, so the company has introduced a new feature in My Account that lets you do just that. And it works no matter if you have an Android smartphone or iPhone.

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In late 2013, news of a massive data breach at Target surfaced. Hackers stole personal and credit card information of nearly 70 million shoppers, and the breach ended up costing Target $162 million and the resignation of the CEO and CIO. While this was one of the largest and most widely publicized data breaches, it’s by no means one of few.

Just recently, LinkedIn came clean about its 2012 data breach – a few days after it was discovered some of the information was being sold online. While LinkedIn originally reported the email and passwords for 6.5 million people were compromised, it just admitted the real number is as high as 117 million accounts. Though LinkedIn advised people to change their passwords when the attack was first made public, it wasn’t until four years later that the company decided to cancel passwords that were affected.

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