Latest Technology News

Norwegian browser developer Opera Software has launched Opera VPN 1.0, a free VPN service for iPhone and iPad users. The app provides users with the ability to encrypt their connection to the web for additional security, plus spoof one of five countries to bypass regional or network-specific restrictions. Other features include the blocking of both ads and tracking cookies.

VPNs -- or Virtual Private Networks -- were developed primarily to provide users with a secure network connection even through inherently insecure networks, such as open Wi-Fi hotspots. This encrypted connection can also be configured to provide the user with the means of providing a false location.

Avira Phantom VPN is a fast virtual private network for Windows and Android. Once running, the program encrypts all your internet traffic, keeping you safe even when using insecure wireless hotspots.

Avira Phantom VPN can also help you bypass geographical restrictions on websites by assigning you an IP address from another country. Options include Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Netherland, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, USA.

Hotels represent rich pickings for cyber criminals. There's the potential to steal information from large numbers of customers with consequent financial gains.

Researchers at Panda Security have issued a report showing the major attacks targeted against hotel chains in 2015.

Phrozen Software has released Winja, a one-stop VirusTotal uploader and system investigator. A simple opening menu allows scanning of individual files, downloads or running processes with VirusTotal.

The "malware" score ("5/58") appears in a separate notification, and you can view a breakdown of verdicts by antivirus engine with a click. Winja also provides four extra system security tools of its own.

Open source talent is in high demand when it comes to recruiting new technology experts, and this trend is only going to grow, new reports say.

According to the latest 2016 Open Source Jobs Report, 59 percent of hiring managers will increase the number of open source talent in their organization within the next six months.

Carpooling is apparently good for the environment, as less fossil fuels are used by having multiple people take one car. While I love the environment, I also love the freedom of having my own car while at work; being able to come and go as I want. Sorry, Mother Earth, but for the most part, ridesharing just isn't for me.

Where I don't mind sharing a ride, however, is for less frequent occasions, such as going to the airport or taking a taxi. Today, Uber announces a $5 uberPOOL ridesharing program in NYC. Regardless of your feelings for the environment, you can't deny the greatness of saving some money, right? Well, as long as the other riders don't smell bad.

The iPhone 6S and 6S Plus are arguably the best smartphones on the market, although I am sure many Android and Windows Phone users will disagree with me. Yes, they are expensive, but when it comes to Apple, you often get what you pay for. In other words, you aren't just paying for the sum of the parts, but the overall positive experience.

With that said, you should always protect your investment. Replacing a broken iPhone -- especially if you didn't splurge on Apple Care -- is quite the costly affair. The best way to do this is with a good case. X-Doria's Defense Lux cases for iPhone 6S were pretty rugged, although a bit slippery. A lack of "grip" on the back made the iPhone something fairly easy to drop. Now, the company adds the Defense Lux Impression Cases for iPhone 6 and 6S. With rear dimples, it should alleviate the "slippery" concern of the non-Impression model.

Extensions, or the lack thereof, have been stumbling block for many would-be Microsoft Edge users. Support for add-ons has finally arrived, bringing with it the potential for something people have been asking for since Edge first appeared -- the ability to block ads.

It had previously been thought that Edge might feature native ad blocking, but this turned out to be a matter of poor communication from Microsoft. We've already shown you a slightly bodged-together way of blocking ads in Edge, but now Adblock Plus and AdBlock extensions have been officially released to the Windows Store.

The free ride is coming to an end. Windows 10 was always going to be free for the first year after release, and this year is up on 29 July. There are, of course, still ways to get your hands on Windows 10 for free beyond this date.

One way is to buy a new PC with Windows 10 installed, although not many people would regard this as a free upgrade. But Microsoft has also confirmed that people with accessibility needs will still be able to upgrade to Windows 10 for free after the deadline.

While most of the UK enjoys fast (or superfast if you want to swallow the rhetoric) broadband, there are still numerous pockets plagued with dial-up speeds. Talks had been underway between the government and broadband providers about whether the aim of providing broadband access to 95 percent of the country by the end of 2017 was ambitious enough.

But it is the remaining 5 percent that’s concerning. 95 percent coverage might sound impressive, but 5 percent of the population is still a huge number of people. The government has now decided that broadband is not a right to which households are entitled. Rather than forcing providers to install connections for everyone, the Universal Service Obligation (USO) will require homes and business to submit requests for connection; and, despite the name, there is no obligation for these requests to be honored.

ConsoleZ is a feature-packed enhancement for the Windows command line, an updated and extended fork of the open-source Console 2.

There’s no installation, and ConsoleZ won’t interfere with your existing command line. Just run Console.exe and it opens its own window.

When it comes to sports teams, marketing is everything. You have to sell tickets, merchandise and get the deals for TV coverage, though the latter is usually covered by a deal with the league. Now the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers is teaming up with Microsoft in an effort to obtain the data it needs to increase its revenue.

To accomplish that goal the team is turning big data and the power of the Cortana Intelligence Suite, Microsoft's digital assistant.

Soon enough, you can expect Google’s AI to start sending you love letters. And judging by the information you are just about to read, those might be some of the best love letters ever written, in the history of robotkind. Or humankind. Or both, I guess.

Here’s what’s going on. Google says its AI engine’s answers to human questions are too factual. Imagine the answers as being purely robotic. Subject, predicate, adverbial clause. Google, on the other hand, wants those answers to be more human -- it wants the robot to be able to answer the same question in different words, to change the tone and personality from time to time.

Over the past two years, the Internet has seen some of the biggest, most devastating data breaches in history. With each attack, millions of personal identifiable information records are stolen, leading to the possibility of identity theft, banking fraud, and in some of the most notable cases, that's right -- divorce.

From an internet security standpoint, what’s most interesting about these data breaches isn’t the various celebrities naive enough to sign up for Ashley Madison with their real names but rather that these breaches often come from some of the most common methods hackers have for accessing data. Shouldn’t these common methods be the most widely protected against? That’s what a large portion of the internet security community believes, and that’s where the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) comes in. OWASP is an open-source security community that publishes the most common attacks to help developers keep their software from being the source of a critical (and possibly humiliating) breach. Keep reading to find out what OWASP’s Top 10 Project is as well as what those Top 10 actually are.

The good news -- you’ve found a software development team that you’re comfortable with and work well alongside. They fit so well into your company’s culture, you even begin to view them as you would any internal employee. While this is all well and good, it’s not to say that you won’t run into challenges along the way -- from day-to-day communication gaps to even uncertainties in tracking of overall progress. Certainly no relationship is perfect, but it falls within your job description as the project manager or product owner to ensure outsourced projects stay on track and more importantly -- within budget.

The following list of management tips and tricks of the trade should be put in place to help keep risks down to a minimum and your outsourced relationships performing at their best.