Latest Technology News

Would you like a faster PC? One standard tip is to run a memory optimizer, which supposedly cleans, tunes and defragments your RAM, fixes memory leaks and more. Most of these claims are utter garbage, but the technology may help a little in a few situations, and Reduce Memory offers a quick and easy way to try this out for yourself.

The program is very simple. There’s no installation, no adware, no interface, no extra startup or system tray program -- it’s just a tiny executable which you run as necessary.

Open-source password-management tool KeePass 2.34 has been released for Windows. The new release’s headline feature is a digitally signed version information file, which is used to check for updates.

The feature was unveiled after a potential vulnerability was discovered whereby hackers could dupe KeePass users into downloading malware through the online update check.

Bill Gates is a blogger, did you know that? His blog is called Gates Notes and generally covers areas of interest not only to Bill but also to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which means there’s more coverage of malaria than Microsoft. His latest post that a reader pointed out to me today is about raising chickens, which Bill says he’d do if he was a poor woman in Africa.

I’ll wait while you follow the link to read the post, just don’t forget to come back. And while you are there be sure to watch the video…

AudioShell is a Windows Explorer extension which enables viewing and editing of ID3 and other tags. You may be able to do some of this already, depending on your Windows version and other software you might have installed, but AudioShell takes the idea further in several ways.

The first benefit is additional support for many more formats, covering both audio and some video formats.

Following prolonged talks with the Bangladesh government, Facebook, Google and Microsoft have all agreed to do more to remove 'inappropriate content' from the internet. State Minister for Telecoms, Tarana Halim, said: "After intense discussion with Facebook, Google and Microsoft, it has been agreed that they will respond to requests within 48 hours".

Agreeing to the Bangladesh government's demands comes just weeks after major tech companies agreed to a new code of conduct to combat online hate speech. In this instance, however, it has not been made entirely clear what constitutes inappropriate content, and the announcement will raise questions about the tech trio bowing to governmental demands.

When a data breach is just as likely to originate from inside the organization as outside, protecting an enterprise can be a difficult task.

Californian company Preempt is launching a new proactive approach that allows organizations to spot threats in real-time without engaging already overwhelmed security teams.

Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference kicks off today, Monday 13 June, in San Francisco, with the big keynote speech scheduled for 10am PDT/1pm EST/6pm BST. As always it will be streamed live so you can tune in at home or (maybe) work.

As WWDC is for software developers, Apple doesn’t usually reveal major new hardware -- typically it’s just updated versions of existing products. We're expecting to see makeovers for iTunes and Apple Music, a massively improved Siri, and iOS 10 and macOS 12 (Apple is rumored to be dropping the X from the OS name). There are likely to be some interesting surprises too.

"If you’re using open source, chances are you are likely including vulnerabilities known to the world at large". This is a quote taken from the latest open source security report released by software company Black Duck.

The company analyzed more than 200 applications that are based on, or partially use, open source material, over a six-month period. The results are that 67 percent of them have vulnerabilities, and every application has at least five vulnerable components.

While E3 2016 doesn't officially begin until June 14th, gaming news is starting to come fast and furiously. For example, the new Xbox One S console has leaked prematurely; I am sure Microsoft is not happy about this.

Electronic Arts and Respawn on the other hand, have chosen to intentionally release information early regarding one of its fan-favorite franchises. Titanfall 2, the sequel to the wildly popular shooter, will be coming to Xbox One and PC this year. The title will also come to PlayStation 4; this is significant, as the original did not come to Sony's console. Curious of the release date? Read on for more info!

Rumors have been circulating for some time about the arrival of a new Xbox One console, and now an image of the new model has leaked out. Known as the Xbox One S, the updated console is not just slimmer than the current Xbox One, but also boasts additional features.

Widely expected to be announced at the E3 expo which kicks off on Tuesday, Microsoft describes the Xbox One S as 'sleeker, slimmer, sharper'. At the moment no details of pricing or launch date are known, but the leak does gives up interesting titbits.

In a move that could boost Donald Trump's election campaign, WikiLeaks is on the verge of releasing more of Hillary Clinton's emails from her stint as US secretary of state. Clinton's use of a homebrew email server and a private email address for sending classified information has dogged her presidential campaign -- and Julian Assange is happy for that to continue.

The WikiLeaks founder, currently in exile in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, has made no secret of his loathing for Clinton. She is the subject of a federal investigation, and Assange is happy to add fuel to the fire by publicly releasing another batch of emails.

Following a massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, Facebook has been prompted to activate its Safety Check feature in the US for the first time. 50 people lost their lives in the attack on the LGBT nightclub.

Previously used following natural disasters around the world as well as a man-made tragedy, Safety Check gives people in a trouble spot to let friends and family know that they're OK. The deadliest mass shooting in American history ended up being the trigger for the first activation of the feature on US soil.

Documents leaked by Edward Snowden reveal that Scottish authorities have been engaged in gathering data about phone and internet usage in much the same way as the NSA and GCHQ. The Scottish Recording Centre (SRC) accessed information gathered as part of a bulk data collection program called MILKWHITE.

Scottish newspaper The National, in conjunction with the website CommonSpace, have exposed Scotland's role in the UK's mass surveillance programs. Police and tax authorities in Scotland -- devolved from UK forces -- were given accessed to what the Intercept describes as 'huge troves of metadata' gathered by spy agencies.

New laws have been proposed for England and Wales that would criminalize not only the circulation of revenge porn, but also threatening to circulate it. The definition of what constitutes revenge porn could also be expanded.

This level of criminalization is already in force in Scotland, and Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael believes that the rest of Britain should follow suit. If adopted, the proposed change would see revenge porn threats seen in much the same light as other forms of blackmail.

Due to be announced next week on June 16, Bluetooth 5 has a great deal to offer. Ahead of the announcement, Bluetooth Special Interest Group executive director Mark Powell has revealed a little about what we can expect.

The headline-grabbing specifications for the latest version of the wireless standard are a quadrupling of the current range, and a doubling of the current speed. Slightly less exciting is the change in naming convention which is a move to simplify the communication of major changes, but another key feature of Bluetooth 5 is support for location-aware services.