Latest Technology News

If you give an inch, people can take a mile. This old adage can be good advice when it comes to privacy. Some people may decry a privacy advocate's efforts with the cliche "if you have nothing to hide" argument, but that is poor logic. Look, even if you are following the law, your privacy should be looked at as sacred. Fight for it, y'all.

Today, Uber announces that it is tracking its drivers' smartphone data. At first glance, you might be up in arms. With that said, the company is claiming it is for the benefit of its customers. So, is it right, or wrong?

Continue reading →

The final quarter of last year saw Turkey suffer an onslaught of denial of service attacks, the number growing ten-fold to more than 30,000 events per day, according to security company Nexusguard.

The company's Q4 2015 Threat Report shows that 81 percent of the top 10 attack destinations were Turkish-based IP addresses. It's thought that the spike in attacks could be related to rising tensions between Russia and Turkey.

Continue reading →

Roku is always adding new channels, the store is jam-packed now. You can even watch the upcoming Super Bowl using the new CBS Sports app the device recently added. All of these options leave it more difficult for users to find the content they want.

Now the set-top box maker is trying to fix that problem, at least to some degree. To ease the pain Roku is expanding its search capability to encompass more channels.

Continue reading →

Back in August last year we reported on IBM's bid to take a slice of the enterprise Linux market with the launch of a range of dedicated mainframes.

Today the company is announcing an expansion of its Linux ecosystem along with new hybrid cloud capabilities to allow organizations to develop, deploy and manage applications for the cloud more easily and with robust security.

Continue reading →

Microsoft has decided to let Mac users participate in its Office Insider program. It gives users running the popular suite on an Apple computer the opportunity to test new features earlier than the general public.

Windows and Android users have been able to be a part of the Office Insider program for some time now, and Mac users are finally getting their chance to try it out.

Continue reading →

Regardless of your politics, watching the debates of both the Republicans and Democrats can be informative and entertaining. Of course, even if you do not like the man or his beliefs, Donald Trump in particular is entertaining. His unfiltered mouth has created quite the stir on social media. Sometimes it feels like people only watch the GOP debates so that they may comment about him.

The next such Republican presidential primary debate will be a FOX News-only affair. If you are a cord-cutter or don't get that channel, I have some good news -- FOX will be live-streaming it Thursday, January 28th, at no charge. Yup, you can watch Trump, Cruz and the rest for free.

Continue reading →

We've heard endless talk about our phones being tracked by the government and law enforcement, all done without a warrant. In other words, it's a massive gathering of data "just in case it's needed". That's a very broad swath, and likely most of it is never used for any reason, though there may be scans for certain keywords -- bomb, would be a good example.

The rules for this data gathering have been challenged in court and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is at the forefront of this battle.

Continue reading →

The Alibaba Group is launching a "big data" cloud platform which it plans will make data asset technology widely available throughout China.

Alibaba Cloud Computing (AliCloud), said on Thursday that the cloud "Big Data Platform" would offer an initial 20 products or solutions and services, which would cover all aspects of the so-called data development chain. This includes data services and visualization products that assist with data processing and analysis, but also provide a compute engine with capabilities for machine learning.

Continue reading →

Late last week, Google agreed to pay £130 million in back tax in the UK. Despite being heralded as a 'major success' by the Tory chancellor George Osbourne, the feeling among politicians is that Google should still pay much more tax. The deal struck between the search giant and HMRC has also been dismissed as "only a start", "breathtakingly complacent", and in need of further explanation.

MP John McDonnell was granted a Commons urgent question on the tax deal, leading to an impassioned debate. MPs said that it appeared the government was giving Google preferential treatment, and that had smaller businesses failed to pay taxes in the same way, they would have found themselves in court rather than at the center of a headline-making deal.

Continue reading →

For many of us, a web browser is our window to the world. It is how we get news, send emails and access social media to stay in touch with friends and family. Modern browsers, such as Chrome, Firefox and Safari, are very mature and stable, lending to a positive overall web-surfing experience.

Unfortunately, today, a malicious website has been going viral. If you visit this website by either typing in the URL or clicking a link, the browser will crash by consuming huge amounts of RAM.

Continue reading →

Softland has shipped FBackup 6.0, a major update of its freeware file backup tool for Windows.

The new release finally brings support for cloud backups, with an option to save your data to Google Drive.

Continue reading →

We might look at augmented reality (AR) as another means of entertainment, but it is its business applications that will fuel growth for the next five years, a new report suggests.

Beecham Research's Augmented Reality and Wearable Technology -- an operational tool for the enterprise report suggests that different markets such as manufacturing, healthcare and retail, areas where AR offers a new way for people to interact with information without the use of hands, is where this technology is expected to shine in the next five years.

Continue reading →

We live in a world where we increasingly expect everything to interface with everything else. New cars come with Bluetooth and wireless connections for example to access information from your phone, and audio systems are able to stream music around your home.

But what if you have an older car, or if you want to link a smartphone to your non-smart home Hi-Fi? Inateck has an answer in the form of the BR1002, a neat little gadget that can turn your older devices into Bluetooth enabled ones.

Continue reading →

Samsung announced a premium version of its Gear S2 smartwatch at CES 2016. Called Gear S2 Classic New Edition, the wearable uses high-end materials like gold and leather, making it a more attractive competitor to Apple Watch than its older brother. If you have been waiting for its arrival, Samsung has just announced the start of its global rollout.

Samsung says that Gear S2 Classic New Edition is available first in China, with the rollout to continue in markets across the globe "early this year". Here is what you should know about it.

Continue reading →

Brace yourselves: I'm about to stick up for Microsoft. While I'm happy to criticize the company for its failings (and maybe kick it when it's down from time to time), complaints that cropped up over the weekend seem completely unjustified. I'm talking about this weekend's NFL playoffs.

I'm far from being a football (or indeed sport of any description) fan, but my news timeline has been filled with headlines about how Microsoft suffered embarrassment when its Surface tablets (now famously used on the sidelines and mistakenly referred to as iPads) failed during the Broncos-Patriots game. Except the problems that led to an information blackout was absolutely not the fault of Microsoft, or its Surfaces.

Continue reading →