iPhone SE could rejuvenate Apple and encourage growth in new markets
We're living in the age of the smartphone and Apple has managed to carve itself a decent-sized chunk of the pie. But while each new iPhone is greeted with rapturous excitement, growth has declined recently to the point that a drop in sales in expected next quarter. Later today Apple is expected to launch the iPhone SE to counter this decline.
This smaller, cheaper handset would see the company venturing into new territory in a couple of ways. It would not only be the second time Apple has tried to appeal to the cheaper end of the smartphone smart -- the iPhone 5c being the first attempt -- but the iPhone SE could also see the company making in-roads into China as well as India and emerging markets.
20 percent of employees would sell their passwords
According to new research from identity management company SailPoint one in five employees would be willing to sell their work passwords to another organization, up from one in seven last year.
Of those who would sell their passwords, 44 percent would do it for less than $1,000, and some for less than $100. This is made worse by the fact that 65 percent admit to using a single password among applications and 32 percent share passwords with their co-workers.
Security is a major concern for Internet of Things users
A survey by mobile and Internet security firm BullGuard of over 6,000 UK residents has illustrated just how widespread the Internet of Things (IoT) has already become, while also highlighting serious security concerns among consumers.
IoT is growing and will become more pervasive in the near future as consumers, whether knowingly or not connect more smart devices to the internet. Many consumer household items are now smart or internet enabled by default. Additionally over a quarter of consumers in the survey are planning to buy IoT devices in the next 12 months alone.
Happy 10th Birthday, Twitter!
Technology moves at a breakneck pace. The top-of-the-line laptop, or new social network of today, could be old news by tomorrow. New hardware, software and services can meet their demise rather quickly.
Sometimes, however, devices and services can be timeless. One of these tech-related evergreen services is Twitter. While I am old enough to still think of the social network as being new, today, it reaches its 10th birthday. Holy cow -- have we really experienced a decade of Tweets?
Snowden: I couldn’t trust Microsoft so I used free software like Tor, Tails and Debian
At the Free Software Foundation's LibrePlanet 2016 conference, Edward Snowden credited free software with enabling him to blow the whistle about government surveillance. Speaking via video link from Russia, the former NSA contractor said that "what happened in 2013 couldn't have happened without free software".
But as well as indicating his preference for free, open source software, Snowden revealed that he refused to use Microsoft software because he "couldn't be sure" that there weren't backdoors built in.
Make image PDFs searchable with ORPALIS PDF OCR Free
ORPALIS PDF OCR Free is a Windows tool which converts image-based PDFs into fully searchable documents.
There's none of the complexity you can get with full OCR tools. Instead, ORPALIS PDF OCR Free provides a simple front end for its core OCR engine -- the excellent Tesseract -- and manages all the low-level settings itself.
TeslaCrypt 4 ransomware now features unbreakable encryption and is even more dangerous for victims
Apple might be currently talking about its unbreakable encryption and how it's a good thing for privacy, but the FBI ruing it. The privacy arguement certainly stannds up to scrutiny, but strong encryption can also be used as a weapon, as demonstrated by countless examples of ransomware. There are numerous breeds of ransomware out there, but one of the most prolific is TeslaCrypt.
It's just a year since the first version of TeslaCrypt appeared on the scene, and it's gone through various updates and iterations over the ensuing months. Now it's hit version 4 and as well as continuing to threaten victims with sharing their files online, it also boasts what is being referred to as 'unbreakable encryption'.
Microsoft is working on a tool to port Chrome extensions to Edge
Microsoft has been keen to consigne Internet Explorer to the history books, but for a long time there has been a glaring issue with its successor, Microsoft Edge: a lack of extensions. With the release of Windows 10 Redstone build 14291 this finally changed.
While Microsoft Edge may now have extensions, it's still very early days and it's likely you'll find that most of your favorites are yet to make an appearance. But Microsoft has a plan. To make developers' lives as easy as possible, the company is working on a tool that will make it possible to port Chrome extensions to Edge.
Just Google it: Anyone could have 'hacked' and doxxed Trump like Anonymous
Shortly after hacking into Donald Trump's voicemails and leaking messages, Anonymous declared all-out war on the presidential candidate. Earlier this week, the hacktivist group launched #OpWhiteRose and doxxed the republican candidate.
Personal information about Trump -- his cell phone number, social security number and other details -- were released last week, with the group saying they were provided on the understanding that "you alone are responsible for your actions, as always". But rather than being the fruit of an elaborate hacking operation, anyone with the nous to use Google and Wikipedia could have gathered exactly the same information for themselves.
Apple's fight with the FBI is about LGBTQ issues as well as privacy
As the battle between the FBI and Apple rumbles on, the debate about encryption has intensified, bringing with it renewed discussion about privacy. There are few people who would want to give up their right to privacy and allow unrestricted access to their personal communication, but there are some for whom privacy is even more important.
Tim Cook is just one of the voices shouting that a backdoor for the government would be a backdoor for anyone. Most people and companies have sided with Apple saying that rather than backdoor access, what's needed is stronger encryption, greater security, even more robust privacy. It's something that has the support of people from all walks of life, but it's an issue that's very close to the hearts of the LGBTQ community.
Email marketing works
You might be annoyed by the constant marketing you’re getting in your email, but that’s only because research shows that the method works. Not only does it work, but it’s working better than (almost) ever.
Email marketing software provider Sign-Up.to released its new annual Email Marketing Benchmark Report, looking at how successful email marketing campaigns are. It employed some serious numbers into its results -- more than a billion emails across 29 industry sectors, looking at various parameters such as click through rates, open rates and so on.
Google Maps for Android gets pretty stickers
When I was in elementary school, and even early into high school, I would decorate my notebooks and binders with stickers. In the 80s, it was Garbage Pail Kids, and as I got older, rock bands and such. Yeah, I was totally cool.
In the tech world, customization is always popular, including stickers. Think about it -- some people decorate their laptops with stickers, while other folks put case badges on their gaming PCs. Today, Google is bringing virtual stickers to Google Maps on Android.
Want the best customer support? Use Facebook
Facebook is the number one channel for people looking to get answers from retailers’ customer service in the UK, a new study shows.
According to the Eptica Multichannel Customer Experience study, Facebook is the channel through which retail customer service answers most frequently and most accurately, followed by email. Twitter came in third, with pretty poor results.
Chelsea Manning: Insider Threat document shows US government employees are under surveillance
The US government is busy putting thousands of its own employees under 'permanent surveillance' according to a document obtained by Chelsea Manning. In the wake of leaks by the likes of Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks, the government set up the Insider Threat program in an attempt to nip future leaks in the bud.
It's a while since Manning was in the news, the last notable appearance being when the solider formerly known as Bradley Manning joined Twitter from prison. But the latest document released by Manning -- obtained using a freedom of information request -- shows that the government is not afraid to use NSA-style tactics on its own employees.
Communifire makes building an intranet easier for smaller businesses
The use of an intranet helps businesses promote engagement in teams and enable staff to become more productive. But often intranets are seen as the preserve of large corporations.
Software company Axero is launching the latest version of its Communifire intranet platform aimed at small and medium enterprises.
© 1998-2025 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy.