Latest Technology News

Here in the good ol' USA, we take a lot of our blessings for granted. Sure, we aren't perfect-- there is poverty in all places -- but a large part of this country has access to things like clean water and internet access. Sadly, there are plenty of people globally without access to either of those aforementioned things. While water is obviously essential for life, internet access is crucial for knowledge -- especially in regions where access to formal education is limited.

Today, Facebook announces an open source wireless access platform called 'OpenCellular'. The goal of this project is to connect more citizens of the globe to the internet. According to the social network, there are still 4 billion folks that don't have access -- shocking. OpenCellular could contribute to lowering that number.

The notion that cloud computing solutions are being driven primarily by reduced costs, and that they’re causing IT teams to shrink everywhere seems to be significantly in the myths area.

A new report by Six Degrees Group (6DG) points out that there are other, more important reasons, businesses opt for cloud solutions, and that teams are not necessarily shrinking, but reshaping mostly.

For security reasons, out of the box macOS is configured to only allow software from the App Store and identified developers to be installed. However, there are times when users may also want to run apps from other sources, in which case it is possible to enable a no holds barred setting. But, along with the extra freedom, it also exponentially increases the risk of running into malware.

You may be inclined to believe that you can stay safe by sticking to known download websites, but that is not always the case. Bitdefender has uncovered a new Mac malware, called Backdoor.Mac.Eleanor, that poses as a document converter on what the security company calls "reputable sites". When installed, it gives hackers complete access to your Mac.

Facebook is a social network that I use begrudgingly, but it sometimes does have value in my life. For instance, its "Memories" feature periodically shows me photos from the past on their anniversary of being uploaded. Sometimes a now-deceased relative pops up and it feels like a "hello" from heaven. It's a killer feature.

Unfortunately for Mark Zuckerberg and company, rival attention-thief Snapchat seems to be borrowing this feature a bit. Also called "Memories", it too aims to leverage photos -- plus videos -- as memories, but in a more robust way. Will millennial users want such a thing?

Leadership, understanding of business objectives and project management are the three most important skills among businesses, a new report by IT resourcing company Experis says.

In the report, entitled "Tomorrows Tech Teams", it was also said that IT teams will see an influx of people from a non-tech background, further complicating the existing IT skills shortage.

Nowadays, everyone seems to be obsessed with cloud storage. While there is nothing wrong with utilizing the aforementioned storage option, it should never be your only method. In other words, redundancy is key -- a local backup of your files in addition is very wise.

When it comes to local backups, there are many directions to take, such as a mechanical hard drive. Unfortunately, hard drives have moving parts, are audible, and can be fairly large. Solid state drives are a great choice for storage, and today, we are giving away a USB 3.0 variant.

Digital device practices among US employees are exposing their employers to increased security risks according to a new study.

Identity management company OneLogin along with Arlington Research surveyed 1022 respondents in the US and found that 13 percent let their colleagues use a device that can access their employer's network. In addition nine percent allow their partners to access such a device, and one percent even permit their children to use it.

O&O Software GMBH has unveiled O&O DiskImage Professional 11 64-bit, major new version of its disk-imaging tool for Windows PCs. Also available for 32-bit versions of Windows, the new release unveils a major facelift, giving the program a more modern look and feel.

There’s also a new command-line tool, as well as display improvements (including support for 4K displays), and the promise of faster performance.

All Browsers Memory Zip is a free memory optimizer designed to cut your browser’s RAM usage. The program doesn’t just work with Chrome, IE or Firefox -- it recognizes and supports almost 40 browsers, out of the box.

Once installed, All Browsers Memory Zip monitors your running processes, looking out for supported browsers and checking their RAM usage.

Insurance companies have slightly different software needs from other businesses. They need to expand accounts, drive renewals, streamline the new policy acquisition process and manage claims.

Now cloud specialist Vlocity and insurance solution provider Insurity are announcing a partnership that will deliver a cloud solution for insurance businesses.

Here’s another solid proof of what security experts have been buzzing about in the past few years -- that people are the single greatest cyber-security threat to businesses.

This time, proof comes from Transputec and Business Continuity Institute, which have polled 369 business continuity professionals from all over the world into enterprise cyber-security.

Big Data is Big News, a Big Deal, and Big Business, but what is it, really? What does Big Data even mean? To those in the thick of it, Big Data is obvious and I’m stupid for even asking the question. But those in the thick of Big Data find most people stupid, don’t you? So just for a moment I’ll speak to those readers who are, like me, not in the thick of Big Data.

What does it mean? That’s what I am going to explore this week in what I am guessing will be three long columns.

If you’re looking for a free image editor then you’ll probably start with the big names, the latest updates, whatever’s made the headlines recently. But there’s also a whole world of mature software out there which doesn’t make the news, and isn’t updated often, yet could still deliver everything you need.

LightZone started life more than 10 years ago as a commercial RAW and JPEG processor, for example, but since going open source in 2013 the project has very quiet. There is some activity, though -- the last release was at the end of June, more on the way -- and there’s plenty of functionality to explore.

A lie has no legs, the saying goes, but when you’re online, you don’t need legs. You can cruise through the Internet, lying to people free of the little signals which could give you away, such as body language.

This is a topic academics from the Cass Business School tackled, ultimately creating an algorithm that can detect lies in an email. I’m totally serious.

The information age means that things change fast and the ability to make quick decisions is an important factor of business success.

But a new survey of over 1200 project management executives by Changepoint finds that just 10 percent of organizations are confident that they can quickly adapt to change, with 36 percent responding that they can't.